The Goldbergs season 6, episode 2 recap: You Got Zuko’d

This week on The Goldbergs, Adam’s girlfriend returns to school with a new look so Adam decides to make changes to his own appearance. Beverly isn’t too pleased with her future daughter-in-law’s domestic skills.

It was 1980-something and punk rock was all the rage. After spending the summer away, Adam’s girlfriend Jackie returns and looks almost unrecognizable. To match her new style and interests, Adam follows suit to keep up with her. The changes bring up some deeper issues that the duo need to deal with.

The episode of The Goldbergs, titled “You Got Zuko’d,” also centers on Lainey’s thoughts pertaining to how she plans to take care of Barry after they get married. Beverly views her son as a king and thinks he should be treated that way but Lainey has other ideas. Barry comes up with a plan that will hopefully make both sides happy.

The recipe box

Beverly finds Barry and Lainey eating frozen dinners in the living room. She believes food like that is unacceptable and her kids, especially her “boy king” Barry, deserve home cooked meals. Beverly tells Lainey she has the responsibility as Barry’s future wife so she gives her the cherished recipe box. This is the key to Barry’s happiness but Lainey admits she can’t imagine herself cooking. Through reluctance, Lainey takes the box.

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Barry claims that he doesn’t mind that Lainey won’t cook for him like his mom but deep down he’s pretty bummed. Geoff actually wants the box so he can cook for Erica. The two come up with a plan that will persuade Lainey to ask Beverly for help in learning the recipes. Barry hopes that as the two women bond, he will also benefit from the cooking.

Poser Adam

Jackie returns from her NYU summer program and she looks like she had a punk rock makeover. She is now friends with the resident bully Carla and has the new nickname “Jack-Attack.” Adam is having trouble processing how different she seems but he tries to act like his normal self around her. He even buys them tickets to the upcoming carnival but Jackie confesses that she already has plans with Carla to go to the upcoming drag race. Adam’s friend Dave Kim realizes that this resembles the Danny Zuko situation in Grease.

Adam goes to Pops for advice on how to handle the situation involving Jackie. Murray intervenes and tells Adam he needs to change to keep the girl who is out of his league. Young Adam takes the advice a little too seriously by going to a store to change his look. After too much sun-in, he winds up at school looking like a wannabe Billy Idol. He tells Carla that he will be at the drag race and even agrees to face off against Johnny for pink slips. Adam also has no idea that pink slips mean cars are up for grabs.

Slowest drag race in history

Adam takes the car keys to the station wagon but Murray tells him to take Pops along. He must also first load the paving stones in the garage into the car so they can be returned. While loading them, Adam hilariously rips his already ripped jeans. When he arrives at the race, his pants are cut into shorts and his sun-in hair has turned orange. To make matters worse, the car is being weighed down from the paving stones so the car is actually dragging on the ground.

When the race starts, Johnny finds out he ran out of gas from revving up the engine for the crowd. He gets out and pushes while Adam is driving at a snail’s pace. It turns out to be the slowest drag race in history but Adam still wins. Johnny refuses to give Adam the care but more importantly, Jackie doesn’t like who Adam has become. He feels the same way towards Jackie so he ends their relationship.

Adam goes to the carnival alone where he runs into Jackie. She apologizes and tells him that she might look different but she hasn’t changed in the way she feels about him. The duo patches things up in time to still enjoy the carnival together.

Caught in a lie

Lainey thinks that someone stole the recipe box even though Barry was the one who took it from her. Barry comes up with a solution and the two come clean to Beverly. She claims that she knows all of the recipes by heart so she agrees to teach Lainey from memory. As Beverly is teaching her recipes, she begins to forget some of the ingredients and measurements. As the plan begins to backfire, Barry runs to get a recipe card from Geoff to put the plan back on track.

When Barry comes back, Beverly finds the recipe card and Lainey realizes he was the one who stole the box. She also figures out that Barry lied and he does want her to be just like his mom. Beverly later tells Barry that marriage needs to be about “give and take” and that not everything can live up to expectation. Compromises and equality are important so Barry gets an idea. He decides that he wants the recipe box so that he can cook for Lainey so he asks Beverly for pointers. After cooking up a delicious meal, he brings it to Lainey and tells her it will be the first of thousands of meals he plans to cook for her.

New episodes of The Goldbergs air Wednesday nights on ABC at 8/7c.