The Harper family go out for a fancy dinner, and discuss an incident from Alan's childhood where he was caught shoplifting silly putty from a toy store. Charlie is the only one who knows the truth, that he stole the silly putty and planted it on Alan, and becomes wracked with guilt when he realizes that the event had a massive effect on Alan's mental state and personality that has continued on to present day.
Tropes
- Awful Truth: Charlie planted the silly putty in Alan's pocket, and Alan turning himself into a neurotic people-pleaser in an attempt to suppress the hidden evil side he believed he had was an unnecessary waste.
- Bad Liar: No one is buying Alan's story about the security guard planting the silly putty on him so he could make a bust (although Charlie doesn't buy it because he knows the truth), and in the middle of the episode Alan even admits that if his own son got caught shoplifting and tried that story he wouldn't believe him, as well as admitting that he's always known it wasn't the security guard.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Charlie explains to Rose that he's feeling bad because he put silly putty in Alan's pocket twenty-five years ago. She doesn't yet understand the context, and comforts him by telling him that as long as the silly putty is still in the egg, it should still be fine.
- Alan gets Charlie to tell Jake the truth about the silly putty incident, wanting to establish that he's a moral individual who's never stolen anything to his son. Jake, however, is fascinated by the brilliance of Charlie's plan, and now sees his father as the sucker that Charlie took advantage of.
- Charlie visits Evelyn after confessing to Alan, and admits it to her as well, hoping to get some advice on how to get Alan to forgive him. Evelyn is disgusted by what Charlie did, but then immediately goes into a rant about the effect his frameup had on her, and is completely indifferent to the effect it had on Alan. When Charlie gets up to leave, Evelyn forgives him for the silly putty incident, as if she's the one Charlie was seeking forgiveness from.
- Didn't Think This Through: Between Evelyn's self-centered rant about how the whole incident affected her and the complete lack of useful advice, Charlie admits he's not sure what he thought he would get out of going to her house in the first place.
- Easily Forgiven: Zig-zagged. At first, when Charlie confesses to planting the silly putty on Alan, it seems like this is going to be the thing that ruins their relationship for good, as Alan won't forgive Charlie and also implies he now blames all his life failures on Charlie. After a few days, Evelyn offers to let Alan and Jake move in with her so Alan can get away from Charlie. Alan immediately decides he'd rather forgive Charlie than live with Evelyn, and does so.
- For Want Of A Nail: Alan believes his entire life has been defined by an incident where he was caught attempting to shoplift silly putty from a toy store as a child, but couldn't remember doing it. He came to believe he had a hidden, evil side to his personality that was capable of acting independently of his 'good' side, with him having no memory of the actions that this 'bad Alan' would take. This turned into into the neurotic people-pleaser that he's been most of his life, in an attempt to keep this side of him suppressed. The truth is that Charlie stole the silly putty and planted it on Alan, and when Alan finds out, he wonders how much of a better life he would have had if he hadn't spent so much of it trying to suppress the evil side he falsely believed he had.
- Frame-Up: Young Charlie wanted to steal some silly putty from a toy store, but didn't want to be the one to get into trouble if he was caught, so he planted it in Alan's pocket. Alan ends up getting caught by the security guard and has to deal with the stigma of being a child thief, as well as being forced to attend countless hours of kleptomania therapy by his mother.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Charlie goes to Evelyn for advice on how to get Alan to forgive him for the silly putty incident. But all he gets from her is a self-centered, conceited rant about what she went through thanks to his actions, and an insistence that she was a wonderful mother. When leaving, he comments that he didn't need a reason to drink, but now he has one anyway.
- It's All About Me: When Charlie confesses to framing Alan for the silly putty theft to Evelyn, she chastises him for it, but immediately starts ranting about the effect it had on her. The negative effect it had on Alan becomes a footnote to her having to deal with the embarrassment and having to pay for all the kleptomania therapy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jake finds the story of Alan's attempted shoplifting fascinating, which annoys Alan tremendously as it disarms his attempts to instill morals onto Jake. He's quite eager to clear his name with his son when Charlie admits to planting the stolen item in Alan's pocket, but when Jake hears it he just thinks that Charlie is a genius for pulling off 'the perfect crime' and that his dad is now the sucker that Charlie used.
- Oh, Crap!: When Evelyn invites him to move in, Alan stares like this for a moment before declaring that he and Charlie are good.
- Repressed Memories: Alan believes that his mind blocked out the memory of him stealing the silly putty as a way to mentally cope with doing something bad, and this is why he can't remember doing it.
- Verbal Backspace: Refusing to forgive him, Alan says this is the worst thing that Charlie has ever done to him. Charlie says in a dismissive tone that it's not, only to get uneasy when Alan asks what he means by that. He insists it was just a way of making conversation, while slowly backing out of the kitchen.
