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| USA Today |
S2E11 "Year of the Rat"
At the start of the episode, Louis is telling his workers that they will all have to work over the weekend as he goes to DC for the weekend for Chinese New Year. At home, Jessica is cleaning the house. Honey shows up, and the two compare their New Year's traditions, which is really funny. Eddie wants more money, so he offers to give Emory and Evan a toy castle in exchange for three of their red envelopes. Jessica wakes the family up at 5:00 in the morning in a hurry for their 2:00 in the afternoon flight, which is hilarious. The family arrives at the airport, and the woman working there asks if they are bringing any hazardous materials, and this results in a hilarious exchange. They discover that they missed the flight, because Louis got the date wrong.
At home, Jessica is talking to family members on the phone, and every time they ask why they aren't going to be there, she hands the phone to Louis to explain, which is really funny. The kids realize that the only good red envelopes they may get are from their grandmother, but she is too upset, even when Evan does a stand-up comedy routine for her, which is really funny. Jessica and Louis go through the phonebook trying to find another Asian in Orlando, but they don't find any. They do find, however, an Asian American Association of Orlando. The family goes to their Chinese New Year celebration, and it is really funny because it is completely unauthentic and they are the only Chinese people.
Jessica is upset that she is not with the family, and the rest of the family is upset as well, though Louis tries to make the day good. He decides to have a dinner at Cattleman's Ranch. The dinner is an authentic Chinese New Year, and Jessica is amazed. The others ask her questions about Chinese New Year to better understand the traditions. She eventually gets tired of all these questions, and she also concludes that they really like wealth and good fortune. Grandma Huang eventually gives money to her grandkids, and Eddie tries to take Emory's, to which she says "May the strongest of you win," which is really funny.
This was a great episode that also was very informative about Chinese New Year, without being too over-the-top.
What did you think of "Year of the Rat"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!