The Hecks face obstacles as they prepare to drop off Sue and Axl at college. Axl has an extra week before his classes begin and doesn't want to go with the family, but Sue insists because they all went with Axl two years ago. Frankie can't bring herself to cry like she did when Axl was leaving, while Mike shows his love for Sue by trying to teach her life lessons. Meanwhile, Brick starts eighth grade and is worried when Cindy says they should take their relationship to the "next level", as he has no idea what that is. Frankie finally realizes that she's not upset about Sue leaving; she feels more confident about Sue doing well on her own away from home than she did about Axl being on his own.

Brick learns he has a protector at school, but gets a little creeped out when the boy starts following him around; and Axl and Hutch deal with a rash of ants in their apartment.

Mike and Frankie have dinner with the Norwoods, and Mike wears a Hawaiian shirt instead of one of his favored plaids. This causes surprise and shows new sides of Mike's personality, as he also buys a motorcycle. With Axl now in college, Brick realizes he's the only one who must do chores. He thus tries to clean the bathroom following instructions in a YouTube video, but ends up destroying the wall on one side of the bath. Devin and Axl reconcile after a very brief breakup and agree that while in college they should just hang out and have fun.

Mike helps his brother Rusty with his new business idea: printed "rivalry" disposable diapers, but Frankie fears it will be a failure. Axl is back home and determined to convince his parents that he should be trusted to ride the new motorcycle. He starts doing 'dangerous' things to prove he knows how to be safe. Brick is glad Axl is home so he can help him with chores and asks for his help with his new desire -- being allowed to walk home alone from the library at night.

Mike is mopey and upset but doesn't say why, so Frankie calls Reverend TimTom hoping he'll find out what is worrying Mike. It turns out Mike can't cope with Frankie turning 50, taking it as a sign they are both getting close to death. Meanwhile, Axl and Hutch try to complain to their landlord about the conditions at the rental house, they discover that they've been paying rent to a fake landlord. The real one evicts them, so Axl, Hutch, and Kenny temporarily move into the Hecks' home.

Scared when someone dressed as Death knocks on the door and keeps standing in the garden staring at the house, Axl and his friends eventually pack up and flee. Brick goes to the Orson Heights part of town with Mike to get better candy and learns that there is a woman named Cindy, married to a man who loves books, looks like Brick, and whose surname is Heck. All these strange coincidences make him think he is a time traveler. "Death" ends up being Cindy in costume, who was waiting in the yard for Brick to get home.

Frankie worries that her visiting mom will embarrass her at the tailgate party. Meanwhile, Mike loses his partner in the homecoming cornhole tournament when Axl gets sick, but he soon discovers that Brick is better at the game than his brother...as long as he's not playing in front of a crowd.

Frankie learns that her dentist office has been taken over by a chain and that it will be closed through the end of the year for renovations. She decides to get holiday work at her old standby, the Heritage Village, where she gets called out by co-worker Sheila (Faith Ford) for not taking her role seriously enough. Axl meets Sean and some old high-school friends at a bar, where he laments his current situation at college and shocks everyone by crying. At home, a power outage ruins Mike's day of football-watching so he decides to teach Brick how to play poker. One by one, they are joined in the game by Axl and Frankie as they return home from their tough days.

Frankie is upset when Dr. Goodwin's office goes through the change of being taken over by a dental conglomerate. She is then forced to go to a convention in Des Moines, Iowa and ropes Mike into going with her, given that the trip's expenses are covered. While there, the two are excited to find that the hotel room has more bells and whistles than their house. They begin raiding the room's mini bar, ordering room service, and renting movies...then later learn that "extras" aren't covered in the convention expenses. Grandpa Big Mike is asked to babysit Brick while his parents are out of town, but Brick soon finds their roles reversed.

Christmas Eve starts off well as the Hecks decide to skip church and relax while watching a service on TV as Frankie doesn't want to go through sitting in the church overflow room.

Frankie feels useless when she learns Brick went shopping by himself and bought a new pair of pants. Axl starts interviewing for internships and helps Mike learn how to use social media for his diaper business.

Axl's first day as an intern at Little Betty isn't exactly what he thought: he gets assigned the "grunt" work. Frankie is no happier as she returns to work at Smile Sensations and doesn't like the changes. Mike later tells her that both she and Axl are natural-born complainers. Meanwhile, Cindy tells Mike that she kissed another boy and insists that Mike tell Brick.

Mike asks Axl and Brick to help him organize a belated party for Frankie's 50th birthday, but Brick is detained by Coach Tink who is convinced that she can turn him into an athlete. There's a further hitch in the plan when the party-goers realize Mike never gave Frankie a time to arrive, leaving the guests anxious and hungry for the party to begin.

Axl learns a secret from his boss at Little Betty (Alan Ruck) that affects the regular staff, causing him to stress out. At home, Brick must create a short video for a school project and gives Cindy and Troy the lead roles, then turns tyrannical and replaces them with Frankie and Brad. When Frankie steps on a mysterious piece of plastic, she and Mike try to figure out which household appliance it belongs to.

The Hecks give Brick his first movie-theater experience, but the book-lover becomes outraged during the preview for an upcoming film based on the Planet Nowhere series. Meanwhile, Frankie becomes irritated at Mike after he "shushes" her when she interrupts Bill Norwood's story multiple times. In the theatre, Axl and Sean reminisce about their first kisses and the photos that were accidentally deleted from the computer on Christmas Eve return, giving everyone some perspective.

- Axl and Hutch move into a motor home they bought at a police auction, but discover few places they may legally park it. Meanwhile, Brick returns from a friend's bar mitzvah and asks Mike about their Protestant family's own rites of passage into manhood.

Mike tries to derail Rusty's ex-wife Marlene from pursuing a lawsuit after Rusty claims that she came up with the idea for their diaper business.

After making a big sale in the diaper business, Mike treats the family to a vacation at Mammoth Cave and Frankie insists that the Donahues come along. Frankie gets a big head when both Nancy and Sean Donahue tell her she's a good mother. Later, the youngest Donahue daughter overhears Frankie calling Nancy "smothering" in a conversation with Mike and uses it to blackmail Frankie. Elsewhere, Axl uses Brick in a game of "jerk/no jerk" to pick up women.

Frankie, Mike, and Brick go out to dinner with Cindy to meet her parents, who end up asking the Hecks for a substantial loan to save their home.

Learning that Axl wants to quit football, Mike tries his best to dissuade him. Meanwhile, Brick labors over his answers to a customer-satisfaction survey regarding graph paper he bought online.

Frankie is excited when Mike's co-workers build her a lanai, but finds she can't relax on it because new neighbor Dierdre (Emily Rutherfurd) has three noisy, rambunctious children. Brick asks Mike if his "friends" can build him a new bookshelf after they finish the lanai. Mike says that's not fair to his friends, but Brick makes him realize that his co-workers only do nice things for him because he's their boss. Axl and Hutch start a business selling Kenny's grilled cheese sandwiches out of their RV on campus.

After a man behind her in line pays for her groceries, Frankie vows to pay the good deed forward. Having previously canceled Mother's Day, Frankie makes each member of the family do something nice for another by drawing names from a hat. Naturally, chaos ensues as the Hecks and visiting Pat (Marsha Mason) try to fulfill their promises.

As middle-school graduation nears, Brick desperately tries to discover who he's up against for class valedictorian.

After almost forgetting that Brick's middle-school graduation is only days away, Frankie goes on a mission to right a wrong when Brick discovers that the song he was supposed to sing at the ceremony has been cut. Axl takes a job as a country-club day-camp counselor and finds himself being mocked by a 10-year-old carbon copy of himself.