'Outmatched' Episode 3: The grandparents are in town with driving lessons and spray tans
This article contains spoilers for 'Outmatched' Season 1 Episode 3
If you've watched the first two episodes, you know that parents Cay (Maggie Lawson) and Mike (Jason Biggs) have a lot to handle when it comes to their four kids - three of whom are little Einsteins. In this episode appropriately titled 'Grandparents', Mike's parents Jay and Sylvia visit from sunny Florida. Mike's insecurities go on high gear when his dad challenges his parenting tactics and Cay's jealous streak makes an appearance when she realizes grandma is becoming her daughter Nicole's (Ashley Boettcher) favorite.
Having your parents judge your parenting style can be a little nerve-wracking and Jay wastes no time in criticizing his son. From denying Mike's proposal to eat lunch meat for dinner to making sure his grandson Brian (Connor Kalopsis) learns how to drive because men have to drive, the list just goes on.
Mike prepares to teach Brian how to drive using a video game to avoid expected damage but then Jay takes over. While in the car with Brian, Jay fakes a heart attack hoping that would scare Brian into driving his grandfather to the hospital. What Jay didn't bank on is the kid's genius tendencies - Brian ends up "diagnosing" his grandfather with a pulmonary embolism and attempts surgery with a pen.
A furious Mike then confronts Jay telling him that Brian is his son to parent and that's when they realize that Brian has taken off in the car. Jay admits he was out of line and the father and son bonding session lasts until they find Brian on the side of the road. This whole experience apparently had opened Brian's eyes and he states he is ready to embrace the open road, but on a bike - so the dads, well, did an okay job of convincing him.
Meanwhile, on the girl side of things, Cay can't seem to bond with Sylvia because all Mike's mother does is interrogate Cay about Mike. Frustrated, she also realizes that her daughter Nicole was bonding with her grandmother - from nail appointments to spray tans in the parking lot of a funeral home. Cay gets jealous that she's not involved because her mother-in-law or her daughter have never given her that type of attention.
When she confronts Sylvia, Cay finds out that Mike's mother only asks about him because he doesn't share anything with her. This resonates with Cay because Nicole doesn't tell her anything either. The two mothers end up bonding over parenting and the Jersey Juice concoction of red wine, white wine and vodka.
The episode uses comedy to bring to light to fact that parenting has changed over the years but teenagers will always be the same secret-keeping sneaky buggers. It's a sweet episode and the expected mother-in-law vs. daughter-in-law tiff along with the father and son's disagreements made for a hilarious episode.
'Outmatched' airs every Thursday at 7.30 pm CST on Fox.
