It's Valentine's Day, and Barry is depressed because he'll "never love again," though the JTP is able to cheer him up. Adam gets a candy-gram from Beverly at school, which is just the start of Beverly interrupting his Valentine's celebrating with Jackie. The Ericas' band is struggling without Lainey, and Geoff offers to help them find a new member. It doesn't go well at first, but they eventually find someone, the Kremps' nephew Evan. Barry tells Geoff that Evan is moving in on Erica, and Geoff starts getting jealous. Adam tells Beverly that they need to spend Valentine's Day apart. Beverly decides to spend it with Murray, and Murray isn't fond of this idea. Murray sabotages Adam by making Beverly think that Adam wrote a beautiful poem for her, which makes Beverly want to have dinner with him on Valentine's Day instead of Murray.
Adam and Murray keep lying about the other giving Beverly various nice Valentine's gifts, so much so that Beverly doesn't even know who she's going to dinner with now. After getting advice from Barry, Geoff yells at Evan, which causes Evan to leave. This angers Erica, who tells Barry not to get in Geoff's head. He responds by telling her that he just didn't want Geoff to get ditched like he did. Beverly stops by the Kremps' flower shop, and Virginia tells her that, despite Murray's name being on the card, Adam was the one who bought the flowers. She also gives her theory about why this happened, saying that Murray and Adam are trying to pass her off on one another. A hurt Beverly heads home and confronts Murray about this. Murray apologizes and tells Beverly that he loves her, which makes her forgive him. Erica and the JTP track Barry down and help make his Valentine's Day special.
Wrap-Up:
I really enjoyed this episode, and felt that it was one of the show's most original episodes that they've aired this season. Obviously both plots had familiar elements, but they both felt fresh and new, and were really fun. I'm glad that the show is actually showing Barry's heartbreak over Lainey, and aren't just having him move on quickly. One of the biggest problems I've had with the Goldbergs is the fact that there's no real character development in these recent seasons, but this is a step in the right direction towards developing Barry's character more and making him more mature. The ending of the plot with Barry and Erica was very heartwarming, and the entire plot was really enjoyable to watch, even if it wasn't as funny as the other plot. Adam and Murray dueling over who will be stuck with Beverly was one of the funniest things I've seen on this show in a very long time, even though I felt terrible for Beverly when she finally realized what was happening. All in all, this is one of the stronger Goldbergs episodes plot-wise in a really long time, and it's probably my second-favorite episode of the season overall, behind the midseason premiere.
Score: 9/10
Grade: A-