It's Christmas, and all Greg wants is for Kathryn to leave. Instead, he gets a visit from Katie's dad Marty. Katie's parents don't get along, so this should be an interesting Christmas. Their arguing gets out of hand, so Katie and Greg have to do their best to keep them away from each other. Anna-Kat hates Pierce because he wouldn't play with her, so she asks Trip to try and win Taylor back by giving her a Christmas present. Back at the Otto house, Greg and Katie discover Kathryn and Marty in bed together. Oh boy.
Marty and Kathryn announce that they're going to move in together, but Katie isn't happy about it, even though that means Kathryn would leave her house. Doris tells Katie to remind her parents why their relationship didn't work. She decides to use Christmas as a weapon against their relationship. Taylor opens her present from Trip, but Pierce tells her that it's from him before Trip can take credit for it. Anna-Kat won't let Trip tell Taylor the truth, because she won't believe him. She tells him to give Taylor a romantic gift that Taylor will know is from him, and he decides on a bowling shirt with the name Lois Lane on it, a reference to their first date. Katie puts her plan into action, but it fails and she has a breakdown and destroys their tree, and Oliver's mask for his production of the Nutcracker.
Anna-Kat's plan fails thanks to meddling from Pierce. Katie tells Marty that he can't fix Kathryn and that their relationship won't work out, so he tells Kathryn he doesn't want her to move in with him anymore. Kathryn confronts Katie about this and they get in an argument. Kathryn tells Katie that because of living with her and Greg, she has learned what marriage is and she has changed. Katie gives them her blessing, and everyone's Christmas is saved.
Wrap-Up:
I loved this episode so very much. This is the show at its finest, when it's firing on absolutely all cylinders and giving every character something great to do. Despite the main focus being on Katie, Marty and Kathryn, Anna-Kat, Taylor, Oliver, Greg, Doris and Angela all had some funny lines and memorable moments in this episode. Anna-Kat's small storyline with Trip was really fun, though the ending was so upsetting because I really like that lovable idiot and want to see him get back together with Taylor. It was nice to see Katie's parents get back together, and great to see Kathryn change her ways, but I really hope we still get to see a lot of her, because she's just hilarious and Wendie Malick is dynamite in the role. She's grown so much on me this year and has been my favorite part of the season. This episode is definitely my favorite of the season, and probably one of my favorite of the series as a whole.
I can't wait for the show to return in February, and I'll really be missing the Ottos in my Wednesday night TV lineup until then. I'll be following the show with it s move to Tuesday, so join me then for continued reviews of the show.
Score: 9.5/10
Grade: A
