‘The Middle’ Recap: Moms usually Find their Children Annoying

The Middle, “Major Changes” – Original Air Date: October 5, 2011

This was another enjoyable episode of The Middle where Frankie eats Axel’s toe nails, freaks out, and runs away. The kids blame each other and Mike saves the day.

“You just ate Axel’s toe nails!”

This might have been one of the best scenes ever to take place on The Middle. Frankie comes home, desperately wanting to watch “The Wheel,” and eat some food. She finds an almost-gone Dorito bag and hastily eats the crumbs when Sue comes in and screams that Axel clipped his toe nails into the mostly empty bag. One by one each family member comes in and Sue repeats what happened as Frankie continually washes her mouth. Eventually, Frankie is fed up and decides to leave. There was a quick but hilarious shot of Frankie driving and dramatically singing “All By Myself” while rinsing her mouth with mouthwash.

Brick Really Wants to Order Food from Chicago

So when Brick gets interested in something, he really gets interested. He finds a catalogue from Chicago saying they will deliver food anywhere except Nevada—“I wonder what they have against Nevada”—and throughout the episode he pops up asking if someone would rather have “caramel” on the popcorn or “peppercorn chiles,” and how a “deluxe blueberry cheesecake” would be perfect for the family’s frustrations. At the end he finds a catalogue featuring hamburgers… uh oh.

The Moral Continues…

Even Frankie’s Mom is annoyed by her child (Frankie) when Frankie decides to stay with her while she avoids her family. Her mom tells her how she ran away from the house too, when Frankie was growing up. Even now that Frankie is visiting, the audience is aware her mom has a deal-with-it attitude, thinks Frankie is being ridiculous, and wants time to herself.

New Way of Cleaning: Throw Everything in the Backyard

Mike drives to retrieve Frankie, and the kids realize the house is a mess. In order to clean it before she arrives, they scamper to throw all the dishes, clothes and garbage in the backyard. What a new, innovative way of cleaning! Frankie is happy and then Mike notices the pile, so he sneakily shuts the blinds. Sucks for whoever has to clean the backyard.

This article was originally published on AllMediaNY.com