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Recap / Fresh Off The Boat S 5 E 20 Nerd Watching

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Evan invites Eddie to spend time with him and his birdwatching club before Eddie's student exchange trip to Taiwan, only to become jealous when the club starts idolizing Eddie. When it looks like Grandma Jenny has been scammed, Jessica refuses to help because she believes Louis' side of the family is Super Gullible and should pay for their mistakes, so Louis and Emery conspire against her.


  • Con Artist: It's suspected that Grandma is being suckered by one, but not only does "Oswaldo the alpaca farmer" who needed money to repair his fences turn out to be real, Louis and Jessica learn in the end that Grandma scammed him, having already resold the alpaca-fur clothing he gave her in return for three times the amount she paid.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: Louis' idea to have Emery pretend to give his own money to Grandma out of a desire to be charitable in order to get Jessica to intervene not only upsets her when the truth is revealed, it also leads to one of her greatest fears coming true...Emery enjoying playing a role and deciding to become an actor.
  • Imagine Spot: A reoccurring gag in the episode is Evan envisioning himself in a music video in order to understand Eddie's mindset better (though not perfectly; Evan thinks that Waterfalls is about self-acceptance and has to be informed by Eddie that it was about HIV). In The Tag, he tries to get their parents to do the same.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong: In the end, it turns out that Grandma was scamming the person that they thought was trying to scam her, and Louis boasts how none of the Huangs are easily fooled, before proving himself to be Super Gullible.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Louis has this reaction when, immediately after scaring "Oswaldo" away with Jessica's help, Honey (who helped translate Grandma's emails to Oswaldo) stops by the house with proof that he was completely genuine.
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: It turns out the reason Eddie agreed to spend time with Evan and his birdwatching club was to avoid this, wanting to leave his brother with positive memories of him before leaving for Taiwan (or heading off to college at some point afterwards).
  • Rage Breaking Point: Evan hits this when, after already winning his friends over at the mall shopping for birdwatching gear, Eddie joins Evan's friends for the event and Eddie makes a "nerd watching" joke that the other birdwatchers laugh at, accusing him of trying to steal his friends.
  • Super Gullible: Right after boasting about how none of the Huangs are actually gullible, it turns out that Louis recently bought a stretchy waistband to help with digestion that is blatantly a scam.
  • What's a Henway?: When Evan's friends ask Eddie where he learned how to be cool, he says he learned it from Supdog, and when they ask what's Supdog, he gets to finish the joke.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Evan admits to being jealous after all of his birdwatching friends think Eddie is cool, Eddie admits that he thinks Evan is already incredibly cool, if not more cool than him, for being able to convince his peers to participate in a boring activity such as birdwatching.

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