Ed challenges his three car restoring partners to each try to find the best car for their next project, promising the "winner" will get his face on a 50-foot billboard. Since Mike is seen in all sorts of advertising for the store, this "reward" doesn't really interest him, he goes into it just for the competition.
Mike enlists Ryan's help, via the delivery drivers for the pot business, who somehow are supposed to have time to be on the lookout for rare old autos that need restoring. I would think in driving trucks to various stores, they wouldn't have the time or much opportunity to see if there are these rare autos along their routes. Most of them surely are stored in garages and barns, neither of which is where these drivers go on their routes.
But Joe has found a good possibility, and thanks to Chuck helping Mike get into Joe's email, Mike goes over to the house where this car is-just as Joe is there. They learn from the old woman who owns the car that earlier this day she saw someone sneaking around her yard and thought he was suspicious and phoned the police to report this.
The focus of this episode is that she mentioned the man earlier was black. We learn it was Chuck. We learn that he somehow drove to the woman's house without his driver's license, so when he couldn't satisfy the police about who he was, they took him to the station just long enough to learn his identity, then released him.
Sounds like the police did exactly what they should have done. But the bulk of this episode was based on the supposition that their actions were somehow racist and everyone seemed quite sad to think about what a bad thing happened here. If the police had found Mike or Joe snooping around this woman's house and they had no ID, I would expect them to be treated the same way.
Whatever you thought about this major part of the story, I challenge you to find anything funny in what I've described.
The secondary plot was about Jen video chatting with some guy, Mark, on the Internet, who she hasn't met. Kyle and Mandy insist she meet him, so she tells them she has set up a real date. She comes home telling them how her relationship with Mark is over because he has terrible body odor. Wanting to help, Kyle and Mandy use Jen's computer to contact Mark, who is stunned when they start talking about his "problem." Jen comes in and winds up confessing that she made up the whole thing because she didn't want to actually meet the guy, who is offended and hangs up.
Now Vanessa wants to help so she video-phones Mark to say he should give Jen a second chance. Mark instead hits on her, ignoring the fact that she's at least twice his age and obviously married.
I was not amused by Kyle and Mandy's too-involved attempts to control Jen. Jen is now supposed to be an early-20s woman, not a teen. They could have asked her if she plans to meet Mark, but pressuring her was wrong, and certainly not like the Kyle we know.
Jen's fake date and lying excuse did not endear her to us viewers. Normally, she would have been smart enough to tell them to butt out and let her do as she wants. The phony story about body odor seems more like Jen is 14 years old.
I also didn't care for Mike getting into Joe's email account, nor Chuck helping him do so. Frankly, the whole bit about the trio trying to find the best car to restore turned into all three going after the same car-led by Joe's email that they hacked. Mike would normally be above this.
My conclusion is that every element of this episode presented characters exhibiting improper behavior or just seriously discussing a real issue. Never before have I laughed so little at an episode in this, overall, wonderful series. I cannot give it more than a 2.
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