Kevin is reading The Worcester Chronicle, angry that his status as Worcester’s biggest local celebrity has been supplanted by a horse. Kevin interacts with Pete’s girlfriend Lorraine, who removes her hearing aid before hopping in the bath with Pete. After she departs the kitchen, Kevin drops the hearing aid into the additional coffee mug next to him, which Allison is unlucky enough to catch. Kevin vents about his article in the paper, noting that the writer dedicated a whole paragraph to Allison’s time on the swim team. Later, Allison calls and leaves a voicemail for Sam’s contact at City Hall who can help her obtain Gertrude Fronch’s death certificate.
Patty stops by Tammy’s place for a chat. Tammy hasn’t spoken to her in a few days, which worries Patty. Tammy unexpectedly asks Patty to move in with her. Patty, flustered, departs before providing an answer.
While Diane and Neil continue to become closer as they day drink together, Allison visits Sam to check in after their conversation on the night of Patty’s birthday. Sam left abruptly after Allison revealed her plan to fake her death to him. Sam promises he didn’t and won’t tell another soul. However, the discussion turns into an argument, with Sam blurting out that doing favors for Allison would still be worth it if he thought they would be together. It’s then that the lights shut off in the diner, the liquor store, and in everyone’s homes. A city-wide power outage has ensued.
After lighting up some candles and calming down, Sam tries to persuade Allison not to go through with her plan, but her mind is made up. Kevin then comes in with Pete, Neil, Diane, and Lorraine into the diner with gear, having tracked Allison at Bev’s through her phone. Patty arrives shortly after. The gang plans to wait things out at the diner with Kevin’s generator. However, they don’t have fuel to power it. Allison suggests she and Patty go out to grab the fuel to cover up that they’re actually going to Sam’s connect and then to City Hall to get the death certificate.
While Allison and Patty stop by the salon to grab some extra cash for Sam’s connect (running into and receiving a free ride from the cops as a favor for Tammy because she’s Patty’s girlfriend), Kevin discovers that Sam has been living out of the back of Bev’s while he and Jenn are separated. Kevin takes it upon himself to impart marriage advice to Sam, who finds his patience and limits of frustration tested as the night goes on. When they exit the storage room, Kevin finds that the generator has gone missing and gets to interrogating everyone to pinpoint the thief.
Allison and Patty arrive at the house of Sam’s connect, a disgruntled former City Hall employee who knows the lay of the building inside and out. She hands them the keys to the building, directions to the records room, and a pair of flashlights before sending them on their way. They sneak into City Hall and successfully find the death certificate.
Meanwhile, Kevin’s crude investigation leads him to conclude Neil stole the generator, much to Neil’s anger. Kevin insults Neil and Neil storms out of the diner. Diane follows Neil outside to comfort him and they kiss. Sam calls Kevin out on his behavior and says he should apologize, as Kevin is responsible for the city-wide power outage, holding them hostage, destroying Lorraine’s hearing aid, falsely accusing his best friend of theft, and slamming his father’s hand in a door. Kevin refuses to even acknowledge their pain and makes excuses for himself.
The power comes back on in Worcester. Neil asks Diane out on a date while Patty tells Allison about Tammy asking her to move in. Patty plans to say “yes”. Before parting for the night, Allison claims she’s happy for Patty, but once Patty closes the door, a wave of sadness washes over Allison’s face as she realizes what she’ll be leaving behind if she goes through with her plans to fake her death.
Later, Allison stops by the diner to chat with Sam. He vents to her about how horrible his night was with Kevin. Despite Kevin’s awful advice, Sam wonders whether he’s much better and offers Allison her job back, apologizing for his previous actions, and vows to help her. Allison kisses him, and he pulls her close, clearly still in love with her. Allison withdraws, apologizing profusely for moving in on him like that. She starts sobbing, and Sam embraces her.
Tropes
- Big Blackout: Worcester undergoes a blackout, which Allison takes advantage of to break into City Hall after hours and nab Gertrude's death certificate.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between Neil and Diane, the culmination of a couple of episodes' worth of Ship Tease and bonding.
- The Cameo: Rachel Dratch plays a disgruntled former City Hall employee here.
- Didn't Think This Through: Allison realizes that she'd be leaving the new connections she's made over the last few months behind if she goes through with her plan.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Kevin, in the eyes of everyone in his social circle, really crosses a line in some way. Pete is particularly notable in that he usually enabled Kevin's antics, but here, he's horrified and demands that Kevin apologize.
- Everyone Has Standards: Pete points out to Kevin that intentionally destroying Lorraine’s hearing aid and lying about it is not funny, but in fact extremely cruel. And this is before everyone finds out about his role in the citywide blackout.
- Face Palm: Sam does this a lot while having to deal with Kevin for the night.
- I Ate WHAT?!: When Allison drinks her coffee, she also gets a taste of Lorraine's hearing aid, which Kevin threw in.
- Kick the Dog: In this episode alone, Kevin destroys Lorraine's hearing aid simply out of petty spite and amusement, shuts a car door into his father's hand, baselessly accuses Neil of stealing the generator and calls him an idiot to his face, and caused a city-wide blackout. And of course, Kevin, being Kevin, refuses to apologize for any of it.
- This Explains So Much: Dealing with Kevin for a whole night leaves Sam exhausted and aggravated. Seeing what Allison's had to deal with every day for the last ten years instantly causes him to realize how much worse things are for her compared to him.
- Was Too Hard on Him: A mere taste of what dealing with Kevin is like makes Sam realize he was being harsh with Allison before and didn't understand just how deeply bad her situation is.
