The Middle

What's up?

- I got it. - What?

They offered me the Denver job.

It's mine if I want it.

What job?

Uh... there's this sporting goods company out in Denver,

and, uh, they offered me a job.

What do you mean, they offered you a job?

I thought you liked the job you had.

Yeah, I do like my job.

This kind of came out of the blue.

I literally just got the offer.

Okay, wait, I'm confused. What is happening?

You're taking a job in Denver?

No. I mean, well, maybe.

I... I don't know.

You're getting ahead of yourself.

Really? 'Cause I don't feel ahead.

I actually feel way behind.

So, Denver just called you up and offered you a job?

Actually, they reached out to me a couple weeks ago.

So, I drove out to Denver for the day,

did the interview, and came back.

Dad said not to tell you

'cause he didn't want you to freak out.

Oh, did he?

Is that what he did?

Well, this is a disaster.

The webbing on my chair's starting to unravel.

I can see by your faces you share my dismay.

So, that Royal Wedding was fun, huh?

Sign me up for the next one.

Hey, uh, I thought I'd go out and grab us some donuts.

You want anything?

Hmm, let me think. What do I want?

I want my son back, that's what I want.

Come on, Frankie, I knew you'd be upset

so I was just trying to shield you from all that.

Oh, thank you so much.

I just love it when men shield me from things.

You are so not trying to protect me.

You are trying to protect yourself from all of this.

Can you blame me?

Look, I knew if I told you two weeks ago

when he went on the interview, you'd be worrying

this whole time, so I did you a favor

and saved you from two whole weeks of worry.

You did not do me a favor.

If you had told me two weeks ago,

I would be done with my worrying and I would be fine now.

So, you'll be fine in two weeks?

No, I will not be fine in two weeks.

I will never be fine.

I cannot belive you aided and abetted him in this.

We didn't plan a bank heist, Frankie.

And besides, you're the one who pushed him to go to Europe.

Don't you dare throw my good mothering in my face.

That trip was to get traveling out of his system.

Now our son is actually moving to another city

for his whole life.

This is like taking our seed

and flinging it all the way to Denver.

Flinging our seed?

What the hell are you talking about?

Look, Frankie, this job that he might be taking

is in Denver, not Antarctica.

It might as well be... It's a 15-hour trip.

We don't have the money to fly, and our cars are all crappy.

We leave parts on the road every time we go above 50.

So he'll come visit us.

No, he won't.

It's very clear that we like him more than he likes us.

At least if we're in the same town,

we'll run into him once and a while.

I just think you're making way too big a deal out of this.

Of course you do.

You want to kick him out of the nest because you're a man.

You want him to fly off to wherever he wants

so you can live vicariously through him

'cause you know you're trapped here with me.

I don't know what I want him to do, Frankie.

I just want what's best for him.

Well, I am a mother,

and I love my child enough to squash his dreams.

And if you are not mom enough to do that,

then get out of my way.

And, yes, I do want donuts!

So, while Axl was ripping my heart out,

thinking about leaving home,

Sue'd bet on staying home all summer

in the hopes that with Sean just across the street,

he'd finally come over and sweep her off her feet.

But with Sean now going to Ghana,

sadly, that was not the case.

Or was it?

Hey! I just came over to borrow a duffel bag for my trip.

Oh.

Yeah, my mom said you guys might have some luggage

that you wouldn't mind losing.

Oh, yeah, we do.

We definitely do.

Oh, yep.

This must be it.

I would do a spider check if I were you.

Will do. Thanks.

So, are you excited?

Oh, yeah. I just found out I'm gonna be sharing a bunk house

with a couple doctors from the medical school in Kumasi,

so I'm psyched.

Should be cool... probably learn a lot.

Oh, wow. That is so great.

Well, you know what they say, "Live, love, learn."

Was there a laugh in there, too? I can't remember.

Anyway...

W... Uh, how 'bout you?

Got any big plans for the summer?

Oh, yeah, big plans... big, big plans.

Let's see... I may have a gig

shadowing housekeeping at Orson Cozy Suites.

- Oh. - What else?

We got a new summer lite potato at Spudsy's...

half the sour cream and only two pumps of cheese,

'cause, ya know, swimsuits.

Well, sounds like a really busy summer, very cool.

Yeah.

Well, um, I probably should get moving.

Nobody's "Ghana" pack these bags for me.

"Ghana." I see what you did there.

Well...

Oh.

Well, bye, Suzy Q.

Yep. Bye.

Ooh, this is nice!

Oh, check out that polyester weaving

and brushed aluminum finish...

sturdy and attractive, yet lightweight.

How are you not leaping off the couch in excitement right now?

What are you even doing, Brick?

You didn't hear?

The fabric on my chair frayed, and so I thought,

"Oh no, is this the beginning of the end for my chair?"

So I got another one as a backup.

The whole family's talking about it.

Hold the phone!

Maybe this will get you off the couch.

A bonus chair!

Two for one, baby!

You have two, but I will forever be one.

This is incredible.

This morning I had one frayed chair,

and now I have a backup to my backup.

All my problems are solved.

Chair-mageddon has been avoided.

The chair recognizes Brick.

I'm breathing rarefied chair.

We need your daughter to chair up. Ha!

Sue, get up.

I'm never getting up!

We got to figure out this Axl thing.

Come on, we're not gonna solve anything

by laying around and being depressed.

We got to come up with a plan.

Strategize.

Look, I don't want Axl to go, either,

but you can't expect him to just ride up on a white horse

and tell you he's staying.

It just doesn't work like that.

I was gonna do whatever it took to keep Axl here,

including making his favorite dinner.

I made dinner!

Sue, let's go!

Hey, Mike, can you get Sue up off the couch?

Okay.

There he is!

Yeah.

What's with the chairs?

Oh, when I was on the computer, a message popped up

saying I might be interested in these other chairs,

and you know what? They were right.

Well, I may be interested in the actual chairs that I bought.

Where'd those go?

Dad, I feel like you're not embracing

the whole chair movement that's going on right now.

If you don't sit down and take notice, it's gonna pass you by.

Pbht.

Let's just get this over with.

Get it over with?

You mean have a great family dinner?

Okay, Mike.

So, what do you think?

You notice how different parts of your butt

squish through the webbing?

You like it, but you're not sure why?

It's not bad. And you're closer to the food.

Axl likes the chairs. We're keeping the chairs.

So, Axl, they give you any kind of a time frame?

When do you have to let 'em know?

Well, I talked to them this morning.

I mean, they said I could take a week to think about it.

They know it's a big decision for me