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Recap / Fresh Off The Boat S 6 E 8 TMI Too Much Integrity

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Still considering new professions, and being advised by Jessica to act as a business consultant after she pointed out his habit of starting up good ideas but then delegating them to others, Louis offers to help Honey turn her popular blog into a career, but she becomes outraged when he accepts a sponsorship deal without consulting her. After a piazza is added to their cul-de-sac as a median and the Huang boys decide to spend all their time there associating with neighbors, Jessica schemes to get it removed.


  • Brick Joke: Midway through the episode, as Jessica schemes to demolish the piazza while watching Honey's "Good Morning Orlando" interview on television, she decides to write an anonymous op-ed in the paper calling the piazza a front for mob activity. In The Tag, it's this op-ed that leads to the discovery that the piazza was constructed without a permit.
  • Call-Back:
    • When Jessica states that a piazza is useless because everyone in their cul-de-sac is a good driver, the boys point out the family's history of car mishaps over the years, with clips to previous episodes such as the Halloween where a bunch of eggs fell out of an open van door.
    • The woman that Jessica nicknamed "Meatball" was in charge of collecting bets for the bocce ball games held on the piazza, and Marvin refers to her as such when Jessica's interference leads to demands for refunds.
  • Fun with Acronyms: "TMI" is used in various contexts throughout the episode: Honey apologizing for "Too Much Information" when she admits Louis that she sometimes turns her baby monitor off when her kids refuse to nap, Honey's "True Mommy Insights" blog, and Jessica making a Title Drop right before saying that the boys have "Too Many Interests".
  • Hopeless with Tech: Louis has absolutely no idea how pop-up internet advertisements work, and is shown calling tech support at least twice over them freezing his computer.
  • Incredibly Lame Fun: One of the main reasons the boys decide to hang out at the piazza instead of spending family time with Jessica is that Jessica's "fun" ideas includes her observing them doing chores.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Before accepting a sponsorship deal, Louis first tries to promote Honey's blog with an appearance on the talk show "Good Morning Orlando". At one point, Louis tells her to "flash the goods" for the camera, but he was referring to her teeth instead of her breasts.
  • It's All About Me: Jessica wants her boys all to herself, and schemes to destroy the piazza just because her boys would rather spend time there than with her. Later, she decides to set up a lawn chair right in the middle of the bocce ball playing area, and has to be told by Louis that it might be better to connect with their interests rather than forcing the boys to follow her plans. In The Tag, when the piazza is ordered to be demolished right after the bocce ball finals, Jessica says that they can still play in her backyard...but then immediately clarifies to the neighbors that she meant just her family can play, causing everyone else to leave in disappointment.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: When Jessica's boys would rather spend time at the piazza then with her, she starts scheming to have the piazza removed entirely so the boys have no choice but to spend time with her, in a version of this trope where a Companion Cube is the Hypotenuse.
  • My Secret Pregnancy: One of the "Good Morning Orlando" hosts is genuinely fascinated by Honey's blog while interviewing her, and mentions her own struggle as a mother, but her male co-host wasn't aware she even has a child. As he asks more questions, he learns that the child was conceived after they slept together during a cruise, and she had kept the fact that he's a father a secret for the past nearly-thirteen years, with him now aghast and wanting to know more about his son's life.
  • The Scapegoat: In The Tag, rather than admit guilt for writing the op-ed that led to the piazza being demolished, Jessica publicly announces that she suspects Carol-Joan, the HOA member that had suggested installing the piazza at the episode's beginning.
  • Sell-Out: A rift forms between Louis and Honey when Louis accepts an offer to promote a specific baby food brand on Honey's blog, hoping it'll make Honey's blog famous, when Honey is against the idea because she values integrity. Louis eventually makes amends with Honey by posting about her "55-Second Rule", which isn't good for her image but is her genuine opinion.
  • Shout-Out: When Honey has to turn down a baby monitor to avoid dealing with her kids (which she admits is a "TMI"), Louis relates a story about how he and Jessica used to turn their television up to avoid listening to their kids when they were infants and ended up hooked on Mork & Mindy as a result.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: When Grandma suggests that Jessica should just spend time with her boys at the piazza, Jessica is so against involving anyone else in her "family time" that she starts scheming to destroy the piazza entirely. Louis ends up having to re-state the simple solution and point out that she can't force genuine family bonding to occur.
  • Status Quo Is God: In The Tag, the piazza/median ends up being bulldozed, because Jessica's earlier attempts to get rid of it led to the police learning that it was constructed without a permit.
  • Title Drop: When Louis and Jessica decide to talk to each other about their current problems, Jessica states how Honey has "TMI: Too Much Integrity", before using the acronym again for how the boys have Too Many Interests instead of just wanting to spend time with her.

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