Heartwarming / Last Man Standing (2011)

• The ending of "Mike's Pole". After Ryan allows Boyd to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, Boyd tells the family he still won't say it in school - because there's another boy who isn't allowed to recite it and has to wait in the hallway, and Boyd doesn't want him to be lonely.
• After Kyle and Kristin break up, Kyle tells Mike the worst part of it is that he won't be able to hang out with the Baxter family anymore. Mike tells him that just because they broke up doesn't mean Kyle can't still spend time with the family and invites him to dinner that night.
• Mandy's college application essay about the person she admires most: Kristin.
• In "Rediscover America", Ed cancels Mike's vlog after he begins to feel that Mike gets all the credit for Outdoor Man's success. Mike proceeds to change his vlog idea so that he can stress to the viewers that Ed is just as much as part of Outdoor Man as Mike is.
• In "Changing Light Bulbs", Eve screws up Mandy's plan to move out not because she's a jerk, but because she didn't want Mandy to leave.
• In "Three Sundays", Kyle wants to take Sundays off so that he can go to church again, but Ed doesn't want to let him and punishes him for it. When he realizes that Mr. Elzate wants him to work Sundays with him because he thinks of him like a son (and had been angry because his girlfriend had recently miscarried what would have been his first son), Kyle gives up his Sunday service to spend time with him, calling it "God's work".
• In "Helen Potts", Eve wants to interview Ed for a project about the Vietnam War. However, she becomes disillusioned when she finds out he was a desk jockey and never saw combat, making her feel that he wasn't a real hero. Later in the episode, Chuck brings her to the VFW Hall and he shows her that Ed spends every Wednesday there helping the other vets get their VA forms in order so they can receive their benefits. Upon seeing this, Eve realizes that he's a hero after all and interviews him again.
  • Just as good: when Eve complains to her dad that Ed's service was boring and not heroic, Mike sends her to the VFW that night with Chuck. He obviously knows what Ed does and wants to show it to Eve. Chuck wholeheartedly agrees, complaining about the VA bureaucracy and is clearly grateful to Ed for the services he performs.
• The episode "Kyle's Friend" serves as a reminder of just how much Mike and Vanessa love their daughters. Mandy meets a homeless woman named Morgan, who got pregnant at 17 just like Kristin. However, her parents kicked her out of the house, leaving her to fend for herself, rather than supporting her like Mike and Vanessa did with Kristin. Hearing this causes Mandy to realize how great their parents are and what an ungrateful brat she was being at the beginning of the episode.
• In "Mandy's Party", Kristin begins to have cold feet about getting married after Ed tells her about his failed marriages. Ed calms her down by telling her that she will be a better partner than he was and gives her his wedding present: a hotel suite booked for ten years after her wedding date.
  Ed: Like I said, I only invest in things I know will succeed.
• The end of "Restaurant Opening" where Eve tells Cammy that no matter whether the latter likes "guys or girls or whatever", she wants to be her friend no matter what.
• Mike helping Ryan and Victor fix their relationship in "Daddy Dearest"
• In "Ping-Pong", Mike and Mandy spend the episode trying to find something they have in common. After they fail, Mike finds out that Mandy is still upset about how bad her fashion internship went in New York. He then tells her that storming into Donna Karan's office took a lot of courage to do and getting kicked out has made her more determined to succeed than ever. That's what the two of them have in common: they take chances and they don't quit.
• In "Educating Boyd", Vanessa is stressed out by teaching inner city students and considers quitting. Mike proceeds to play a voicemail that Vanessa left him after her first day of teaching that reminds her why she started doing it in the first place and she regains her purpose.
• In "The Gratitude List", Eve breaks Vanessa's heart when she asks them not to do the titular tradition. Later on, she confesses that the reason she didn't want to do it was because the only thing she wanted to add to it was her family and she didn't want to think about everything she was going to miss about them next year while she's at college.
• In "Gift of the Wise", Boyd can easily tell that "Santa" at Outdoor Man is Chuck so Mike and Chuck tell him that Chuck works for him. To prove that he really does work for Santa, Boyd asks Chuck for a gift that he doesn't tell anyone else about. Later on Christmas, Chuck arrives at the Baxters' and delivers the gift Boyd wanted ...for Mike. It's a box of old-fashioned lawn darts, his favorite toy from when he was a kid - he had told Boyd about them earlier in the episode.
• After everyone mistakenly thinks Kyle was going to propose to Mandy in "The Ring", Kyle admits to Mike that he actually does want to propose to her, but he doesn't feel like being a clerk at a sporting goods store is good enough for her and he won't ask until he's the man she deserves. Mike tells him that, in his opinion, Kyle already is the man that his daughter deserves to marry. Then when Kyle actually does propose to Mandy, he stops in the middle so he can ask Mike for permission first. Mike tells him to keep going. He already has his permission.
• In "Outdoor Woman", Mandy gets mad when she discovers Kristin is selling a teddy bear at her yard sale and becomes even more upset when Kristin reveals she doesn't understand why she's mad. It turns out Mandy bought the bear and gave it, along with a note, to Kristin after the latter found out she was pregnant. Kristin tells Mandy that while she forgot about the bear, she does remember what the note said ^note  "This isn't the end of your life. It is the beginning of a great new one." . She then pulls the note out of her wallet, having kept it in there ever since Mandy gave it to her.
• Vanessa gets upset when the girls turn down her idea to get tattoos together after Boyd tells they were talking about it. After Vanessa gets one by herself to prove how cool she is to them, the girls reveal why they turned down her suggestion: they got Vanessa's initials tattooed on their ankles for her Mother's Day gift and didn't want her to find out beforehand.
• "Trick or Treat": While dressed as Eve for the party, Mandy makes fun of her for not getting into West Point the previous year. Later, she admits that while she acted like she didn't care about it, she actually felt so bad for her that she cried.
• In "A New Place for One of Our People," Mike's attempt to teach Eve not to get used to living in the bubble that is their home results in Eve deciding to move out and rent Kristin's basement. After Mike tries to point out how this ignores the lesson and Eve points out the ways that it doesn't, Mike drops all pretenses and flat out tells her he doesn't want her to move out.
• "Bridezilla vs. The Baxters" has Mandy being, well, a Bridezilla, and she freaks out when Kyle decides to wear white high top sneakers with his tuxedo. But then Kyle tells her why he wants to wear them. When he had his job interview at Outdoor Man, Kyle didn't have a suit so he borrowed a friend's, but forgot to ask for shoes. He had no choice but to wear his white high top sneakers, which Ed thought was original, and he got the job.
  Kyle: Because of those shoes, he gave me the job at Outdoor Man. And because of that, I met Mr. B., and because of Mr. B., I met the love of my life.
  • Mandy apologizes to Mike as they walk down the aisle.
  Mandy: I'm sorry I was such a pain in the ass.
  Mike: Then why is it hard for me to give you away?
• In "My Father the Car," Eve has her boyfriend stay overnight. Kristen and Ryan are "uncomfortable" with this, even though Ryan acknowledges that she is an adult. When he starts to ask about the boy, Eve says that he is starting to sound like her father. While pacifist Ryan says that while he's sure that he is a good kid,
  Ryan: But, if he ever hurts you, I will hang him from a deer gutting rack, and eviscerate him. Now that sounds like your dad.
• "The Force": When Eve reveals to Mike that she was accepted into the Air Force Academy she is bursting with joy and Mike gives her a big hug, happy that Eve gets to live out her military dream after all.
  • Later, Eve gives Vanessa her reason for making her choice and why she has always been on set on it:
  Eve: It just seems to me that a lot of the people who join the military and protect us are the ones that this country hasn't done all that much for. Well, this country has done a lot for me and for my family. I would consider it an honor to be able to give something back.
• "Man vs. Myth": While discussing Bud a few months after his death, Kristin reveals that he was actually the first person she told about her pregnancy, after he confronted her about her sullen attitude while getting pizza together. After Kristin admitted she was afraid Mike would be ashamed of her for it, Bud told her that he knows his son and there was no way he'd ever not love her.

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