I'm Cooler than You Think - Recap

Sydney is off somewhere, trying to find one of her toys. Joel tells her
where it is, while asking himself aloud why he knows this. Julia tells
him it’s because he’s the greatest, and they exchange a very passionate
kiss. Julia is ready to talk about having a baby, and Joel says they’ll
talk about it tonight. He asks Julia to keep it just between them, and
she agrees.

Adam and Kristina are having morning chat time with the kids as
everybody gets ready to start their day. Haddie mumbles into the fridge
that she’s going to be running for student council, which her parents
are happy to hear. Adam says it’s a Braverman family tradition; he was
treasurer. The campaign is next week, and Kristina is all set to take it
over. Adam offers to take Max to school today, but he refuses because
Mom takes him. Kristina says that’s part of a pattern. Adam accepts that
gracefully and touches Max on the shoulder as he tells him to have a
good day. Max snaps at him that he messed up his drawing, and Adam heads
for work.

Jabbar and Crosby are enjoying the game together until his grandmother
announces that she’s told him three times now, and Jabbar needs to go
brush his teeth. Crosby says Jabbar can grab his toothbrush and brush
his teeth while they watch the game together. Grandma says no, it’s
late; he needs to say goodnight to his father and go to bed. She won’t
let Crosby finish the last few seconds of the game, she firmly says
goodnight.

Sarah arrives home and makes a big production of Amber being there,
since she’s usually at her best friend’s house. She says Amber should
invite her here, and Amber retorts “Not if you’re going to act like
this”. She goes to her room because Sarah is stressing her out. Sarah
tells her mom this can’t be normal, Amber spending so much time at
somebody else’s house. Her mom reminds her that she spent the better
part of her sophomore year at Polly Morgan’s home. Camille reassures
Sarah that the time will come when the girls spend time at this house,
as well.

Crosby and Jabbar are online with Jasmine, talking about going to the
game. Jabbar happily announces that dad said he could have as many
hotdogs as he wanted. Dad counters that he said they’d be eating
spinach salad, Jabbar says no and Crosby asks where his recording is; he
has no proof! Jabbar tells Jasmine that Grandma made dad go home last
night. Dad says no, it got late and he just went home. When she presses
for more info, he reiterates that Grandma is great, and there are no
problems. He and Jabbar then do an interpretive dance routine for Jasmine.

Adam’s on the phone, trying to get a shipment delivered that they paid
half in advance for. As he is telling Jake that that’s the same excuse
he made last month, Sarah has a little accident in the warehouse area.
He says he will send Jake the email he received from him last month, and
ends the call.

Sarah is trying to find some old shoe models for the design team. Adam
tells the forklift driver, Mike, to help her look in the right place,
and goes back to work. Mike mimics Adam’s walk, which he says radiates
tension - “like he has a stick up his butt”. Sarah doesn’t tell Mike
Adam is her brother. She instead joins him in mocking Adam. They banter
a bit.

Kristina is helping Haddie with campaign slogans. They’re supposed to be
catchy, but they’re all pretty lame. Kristina asks who all is running,
and reacts in a mildly negative fashion when she hears Michaela is
running. She asks what Haddie’s platform is, and Haddie says she doesn’t
have one. Or a mission statement. She’s just putting up some posters.
Kristina commences micro-managing the color of the posters.

The Bravermans are watching the baseball game. Kristina interrupts to
announce that Haddie is running for Junior Class President. Everybody
gives her positive feedback, most of which is comprised of them
announcing what position they held.

Crosby goes to take Jabbar home during the sixth inning. Zeek says they
are his grandparents as well and they should have some say in it. Crosby
says I’m his dad and I don’t have any say in it. Zeek retorts that he
should go, and his balls will still be there when he gets back.

Joel and Sydney are coloring while everybody else is watching the game,
and he tells her all about how he makes furniture. Adam sees how well
they communicate, and then he looks at Max, locked in his own little
world with a hand-held video game.

Julia shows up at Adam’s office for lunch. She asks him how he feels
about the age difference between Haddie and Max, because if she gets
pregnant, the baby and Sydney will have the same age difference. She
tells Adam they are trying. He says they’ll be fine; Kristina is awesome
and Joel is amazing.

Mike finds Sarah in the break room, trying to find a band to take Amber
and her friend too. He says that most teenagers pick their own bands.
She says yes, but; Amber’s new friend is very wealthy and cultured and
she feels like she just sort of lost her to this new, cool family. He
tells her that there’s a new band that the lead singer of Def Leppard
formed. Before they go out on tour, they’ll be performing at the Echo,
9:00 p.m. Thursday. She says you’re that guy, and Mike agrees. The guy
who knows stuff, that’s him. He walks away saying “you’re welcome”.

Adam gets home and wants to show Max the new collection, but he is
focused on interacting with Gaby, his therapist. He asks if he can earn
an extra sticker, and she asks if he can look at her when he asks that -
and he does so. When Max leaves, Adam asks Gaby if he will ever be able
to have a conversation with Max. She says he’s making great progress,
daily. But Adam feels he should be able to at least listen and respond.
Gaby says he will, but he’s not there yet. Adam is very frustrated. He
just wants to interact with his son.

When Sarah gets home, Amber and Kelsey are there. She tells them about
the band, and Kelsey is very excited to go. Amber is dragging her feet
but Kelsey is insistent.

Crosby shows up to pick up Jabbar for the game, but he’s wearing a suit
and tie as they are headed for church. Jabbar invites him to join them,
and he says he will, but he’s going to run home and change first.

Adam goes to Joel’s to pick up some campaign material, and congratulates
him for trying on a second kid. Joel’s eyes widen in shock, since he and
Julia agreed they wouldn’t tell anybody until the discussed it further.
Joel went along with the conversation, and he started laughing when Adam
said he was the coolest mom in the neighborhoood, what with the tool belt.

While Zeek is lusting over Kelsey’s mom’s car, Sarah arrives and the
moms apologize for taking so long to meet. Sarah asks if it’s okay to
take the girls to the concert on Thursday, and Kelsey’s mom is fine with
it. She says that they all absolutely love Amber. As they pull away,
Zeek says “That’s picking your friends, kiddo.”

Kristina and Adam discuss Haddie’s campaign. Adam says it doesn’t matter
if she wins, and Kristina agrees. They both then agree that they want
her to win.

Adam says he wants Gabi to focus more on social skills with Max, instead
of helping him with his homework. Kristina explains that helping him
with his homework does help his social skills. He’s learning to maintain
eye contact and use the right language. Adam feels there is too little
progress being made, and it’s taking too long. He wants to have dinner
with just Max, once a week. Kristina says fine but she’s worried he will
expect too much. She doesn’t want him to get his hopes up.

Joel confronts Julia about telling Adam. She said that because he said
it sounded great, she thought it was worked out. Also, he’s her big
brother and she needs to be able to discuss things with him. Joel
resents that her big brother congratulated him on something he wasn’t
even supposed to know about. Joel says “if we do this” and goes on to
share how drastically having another child will affect his life, but
she’ll get to go back to the job she loves, surrounded by adults, while
he has to deal with preschool politics. All Julia heard and responded to
was “if”. She asks if he wants to postpone or is he saying never, and he
yells that he does not know, and storms out.

Kristina leaves a book on Haddie’s bed about the art of the speech.
Haddie finds it post-shower and is holding it when Kristina barges into
her room without knocking, to ask if she found the book. She tells
Haddie she highlighted the whole thing. When she leaves, Haddie throws
the book at the chair so hard that Kristina hears her from the hall.

Sarah and Amber are getting ready for the concert. Amber is nervous
about there being no tickets.

Crosby finally confronts Renee about how he constantly feels he’s
auditioning for her. She has a major chip on her shoulder because her
husband was just like Crosby, all happy-go-lucky and he loved a good
time. But he left when Jasmine was four. Crosby tells her it’s not fair
that she judge him based on something that happened over 20 years ago,
and she is going to have to get used to him being there; he’s not going
anywhere.

There is a huge crowd waiting for the ‘secret show’. Amber says it looks
like all of Berkeley is waiting in line. Sarah tries to talk her way in,
unsuccessfully. They continue waiting in line.

Adam, Max and Kristina are building a jigsaw puzzle. Haddie is starting
to come off sideways about Kristina. Adam says watch the tone, she’s
just trying to help. Haddie disagrees, as “controlling” is not helpful.
After Haddie yells Kristina into tears, she leaves the room and Max asks
if she’s going to get a consequence? Because she was really, really
yelling and he thinks that deserves a consequence.

Mike shows up and gets the girls into the concert just as they’d given
up all hope of being admitted. He takes Sarah’s hand and leads her into
the concert.

Julia tells Joel the piece he’s working on is beautiful. He says thanks.
She turns and goes back in.

Amber tells Sarah she’s tired but it was worth it. That was fun. Sarah
grins hugely. They clink their cups.

Joel watches Julia sleep. She awakens and asks if he’s still mad at her.
He says no, but he tells her that she can’t make all the plans while
he’s the ‘yes man’. She understands and agrees. He asks her if she
wants to have another baby, and Julia says yes. Joel says “me too”.

Crosby, Jabbar and Renee watch a game together.

Max and Adam are in the car, listening to classical music. Max says he
doesn’t like this song and tells Adam to turn it off. When Adam doesn’t
turn it off, Max turns it off himself. Adam asks him to explain the
strategy of the game. Max says he can’t do that and play. Adam starts
singing the music that was just turned off, and Max starts to escalate.
Adam says he’s singing because Max won’t talk to him. He wants to know
Max, and he wants Max to know him. He tells Max it hurts his feelings
when he won’t talk to him. He apologizes.

After a few seconds, Max says he heard Adam tell Haddie he was
treasurer, and asks him if he got treasure for being treasurer. Adam
explains the concept of treasurer, and Max runs with it. He asks if
there were any pirates trying to get treasure, and if he ever had to
fend off pirates at the treasurer’s house with only a basketball to
defend him.

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