Mike invites the Lorenzos and Lionel to the Bunkers' house to play a board game called "Group Therapy," in which players are given cards with penetrating questions encouraging them to be open and honest about their feelings. Archie skedaddles to Kelsey's bar, thinking the game sounds "left-wing."
At first the game seems to be going smoothly enough, with Edith and Frank being given fun but frivolous questions, and answering accordingly. After that, however, things start going downhill, as the people's answers devolve into criticisms of Mike, which he becomes increasingly agitated about. Lionel is asked to tell someone in the group why he finds it hard to be direct with that person, and he uses the occasion to express his frustration at Mike's racially patronizing attitude toward him. Gloria's card asks her to give advice to the person in the group closest to her, and Mike starts to throw a fit when she chooses her mother over him. Mike is given a card asking him why he's mature, and he answers it's because he's tolerant of other people's opinions; both the question and his answer lead Gloria to laugh at him, implying she thinks he's both immature and intolerant. Things come to a head on Edith's next turn when her card leads her to tell Mike she thinks he's been "stuck-up lately" in the way he makes fun of Archie, and that "If you was really smarter than Archie, you'd be smart enough not to let him see that you're smarter than him." Believing Edith to be essentially calling him stupid, Mike flips over the board and storms out of the room.
Gloria argues with him in their room for a few minutes, and he finally rejoins the group, telling them he's ready to apologize. But it soon becomes apparent he barely thinks he did anything wrong and blames the others for doing a pile-on against him. The others are willing to let it go, too tired to argue with him anymore, but he insists on trying to get them to see his point of view. He asks Lionel to tell someone in the group something he's never said before. Lionel tells Edith how scared he was when his family first moved in, being the first black people in the neighborhood, and how much he appreciates how warm and welcoming she's always been toward them. Outraged that Lionel didn't direct any criticisms at her like he had at him, Mike begins losing his temper again, and it soon comes out that he's taking out his frustrations on them because of his ongoing conflict with Archie, including his being indebted to a man he views as his intellectual inferior who's always been cold and unfriendly toward him. In despair, he runs off into the kitchen.
This time it's Edith who goes to pacify him. She tells him the reason Archie is always rude to him is because Archie is jealous of him, seeing a young man going to college with his life ahead of him, whereas Archie had to quit school to support his family and is now permanently stuck in a menial job. She leaves Mike to think over what she said. At that moment Archie returns, and Archie is baffled when Mike immediately hugs him.
This episode includes the following tropes:
- Backhanded Apology: Mike gives what at first sounds like a full and sincere apology, but after a few moments it becomes clear he sees himself as having been completely in the right.Mike: I admit it, I overreacted. But the point is, anybody would have done the same thing if they had been hit as hard as I was.
- Berserk Button: While Mike's anger simmers for several minutes as his friends and family keep pointing out his faults, what finally causes him to explode in a tantrum is Edith's comment "If you was really smarter than Archie, you'd be smart enough not to let him see that you're smarter than him," followed by Gloria's response "Can't you believe the fact that she is right?" Edith's criticism is that Mike arrogantly flaunts his intellect in order to put Archie down (she's using the word smart ironically, to suggest Mike is showing poor judgment and character when he behaves this way, not that he's unintelligent per se), but Mike misconstrues her comment as suggesting he's dumber than Archie and therefore an idiot.
- Can't Take Criticism: What Mike reveals about himself in this episode, in spades.Gloria: You know what your problem is? You can’t take criticism. You can dish it out, but you can’t take it.
- Charm Point: Frank is given a card asking him to describe the part of his body he’s most proud of. He insists it’s his nose; his wife Irene claims it’s his skin. In both cases, everyone else is a bit baffled by the homely Frank’s pride in his looks.Mike: He loves that body?!
- Comically Missing the Point: Hoping to shift the game back in his favor, Mike creates a hypothetical and asks Gloria whom she would save if he and her mother (Mike and Edith, respectively) were drowning and she could only save one. The following exchange occurs:Gloria: That is not a fair question!Mike: Why not?Gloria: Because I can't swim!
- Condescending Compassion: During the game, Lionel admits to Mike that he finds Mike's attitude towards him patronizing and he feels like Mike just sees him as a representative of black people he can talk to about racial politics. Mike tries to defend himself by pointing out how much of a bigot Archie is. Lionel then explains that Archie's attitude is a result of him being an ignorant boob who doesn't know any better. Mike, on the other hand, is smart enough to know but he still treats Lionel less like an individual person than Archie does.
- Humiliation Conga: Mike's pride deflates like a balloon throughout the episode as, one by one, each of his friends and neighbors tells him what they really think of him.
- Hypocrite: Mike is super eager for everyone to start being honest. When they start being honest about him however, he quickly regrets it.
- Manchild: Mike's behavior during the episode, especially when he flips the board over and spills the pieces everywhere. Lampshaded by Gloria when she starts tittering after Mike is given a card asking him to explain why he's mature. (In fairness, this episode shows Mike at his absolute worst. In other episodes, while Mike is often arrogant and hot-tempered, he usually feels like a grownup.)
- Rage Quit: When the game doesn't go Mike's way, he storms out of the room and throws a temper tantrum.
- Sexless Marriage: Averted with Frank and Irene. Unable to believe that the Lorenzos have nothing to be honest about, Mike asks if Frank has anything to Irene about their sex life. He does:Frank: Irene? Thank you!
- Sizable Semitic Nose: When the Italian-American Frank is asked what body part of his he’s proudest of, he says it’s his (large, crooked) nose. The others find his answer endearing but baffling.Frank: Don't laugh! They don't make noses like this anymore.Irene: They don't make Edsels anymore either. You don't hear Ford bragging about it.
- Women Are Wiser: When Mike goes on a rant about Archie, so much to the point that he's not making sense, Edith quiets him, then tells him that although she doesn't always approve of or agree with her husband, she also doesn't appreciate Mike's looking down on him, calling him names and the things he says about him sometimes. She says that Archie is jealous and envious of Mike's success and that he's better educated, and when Mike tries to get a word in edgewise, Edith tells him, "If you was really smarter than Archie, you'd be smart enough not to let him see that you're smarter than him." Mike doesn't get it at first, but it finally sinks in at the end of the episode.
