Payments delayed until 2009 come due just as the dryer breaks, Sue needs glasses and Frankie comes within a jelly bean of losing her job. Sue tries out for the swim team with disastrous consequences but a tornado brings good fortune.

Mike gives daughter Sue questionable advice on handling a crush. Mirroring Newton's laws, growing Independence by Axl and Brick are balanced by codependency by Frankie's aunts. Assured the world won't stop without her, Frankie takes a fifteen minute break, and the world falls apart.

Socially indifferent Brick didn't bother to protest when classmate Olivia declared him her boyfriend, but soon tires of her 'romantic' demands to the point of despair. Alas, Axl's advise doesn't cut it and Mike is no match for the possessive, selectively deaf mini-bitch either, but Brick's brain ultimately finds a way out. Eager to see Sue succeed at something, both parents invest ludicrous effort in helping her win a place on a cheap bus trip to nearby Indiana by selling $3,000 food for the school. When her name is absent from the winners list, teacher in charge Perez is not allowed to 'get away with his error', nor with vague promises until it's too late anyhow. Only once Sue is aboard, non-assertive bad example Frankie discovers the real error, with twisted consequences.

Frankie is caught in the middle when Axl accidentally breaks down the front door, and Mike insists that he fix it - which could leave the Heck house wide open for days. Meanwhile, Frankie must sell a car within a week or be forced to wear a dog suit outside the lot, and it's school picture time for Sue, who has never had a flattering photo taken of her.

An accident leads to a visit from a social worker; Bob tries to help Mr. Ehlert shoot a commercial.

The Hecks' Thanksgiving plans are thrown into a loop when Mr. Ehlert makes her work a shift at the car dealership on Thanksgiving Day.

Mike is forced to look for a job when the quarry temporarily shuts down, and Frankie is forced to do all the work as Brick runs for class historian.