Fresh Off the Boat 4×04: “It’s a Plastic Pumpkin, Louis Huang”

This Halloween was a dud. There was pretty much nothing new or exciting about this episode. In fact, the most surprising thing came from the least likely character.

The thing that was worth the attention was that the Grandmother was learning English. She has always spoken her native tongue, but now she’s trying to gain another language to better connect with her family. Additionally, she wants to know what they’re saying in case they’re talking about her. It’s good to see her character embracing another culture in order to get closer to the ones she loves. Not to mention she has a love interest with none other than George Takei.

The Emery and Jessica side story fell flat because it wasn’t about them. Emery can’t really do much ever since his bad luck started, so he only served to propel the grandmother’s story forward. Jessica’s story seemed interesting as she tried to get inspiration for her novel, but she gave up when she found out the cult wasn’t real and that it was also a love story. It would’ve been better if she used that material in order to propel her own novel forward.

Eddie and his friends’ plan to get in the party was a poor idea. Goes to show how much teenagers worry about popularity and social events. The last man standing game would’ve been better if it wasn’t so easy for everyone to drop out. It didn’t take much for one of them to go leave and do something else. The thing that made that whole experience worth it was when Trent started talking crazy. It seemed like a ploy to get Eddie to leave, but then again this was the kid last season that kept saying that they should do a blood pact. It turned out it was a strategic move and he ended up getting into the party. We’ll have to wait and see if this changes anything for his character.

A majority of the episode was about Louis and Evan not connecting for Halloween. Evan is growing up pretty fast and he’d rather go to a adult party rather than hand out candy to other kids. All Louis wants to do is hand out candy with his son. A nice touch to the whole experience is how Louis isn’t up to date with the pop culture so he doesn’t know most of the kids’ costumes, which is also why he wants Evan there. I couldn’t understand why he just didn’t give out the candy without complimenting the costume, but it was funny. He called that mom and her son a pimp and a whore. Oh, Louis. The issue with the tension between the two characters is that we’ve been down this road before. Evan likes to do his own thing and Louis is still trying to hold on to the kid he used to be. I understand it’s a part of parenting, but I don’t think the show should mess with that idea too much, especially since there are three kids. In the end, Louis did realize that his son needs him when Evan said it was too dark to walk back. If I’m not mistaken, it seems like Louis is the only one that truly likes Halloween, so he should figure out something he wants to do for next year.

Side note: Why did they let the kid bartend at the party? Yes, the drinks were non-alcoholic, but why not have someone really bartend?

Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.

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