After having a nightmare of Nick showing up at her front door, Allison goes to the hospital to make sure he’s still comatose. While there, she learns that Patty’s birthday is tomorrow. She tells Kevin that she needs his help to throw a surprise birthday party for Patty though he believes it’s a bad idea. Allison is then introduced to Pete’s new girlfriend, Lorraine. Kevin can’t stand her, mainly because her laugh sounds annoying.
Tammy talks with Patty about her birthday. Patty says she just wants a quiet day to herself. While Allison is preparing the party (with another hallucination of Nick breaking into her home), Tammy comes by the McRoberts house and she agrees to help Allison with setting up the party.
While helping with the decorations around the house, Kevin goofs around putting scotch tape all around Neil’s face. Diane enters with alcohol for Patty’s surprise party, having come back from North Carolina after trying to escape Chuck and now staying at a local motel. Kevin gets an idea to “Parent Trap” Pete and Diane together and get Lorraine out of the picture. He orders Neil to distract Patty as part of his plan, so Neil takes Patty to the ice-skating rink.
Allison and Tammy endure an awkward car ride together, making attempts at small talk. Allison tells Tammy to pull into a sketchy alley, where she meets with a man to buy Menthol cigarettes, which have been made illegal recently and Allison is tired of watching Patty suck on a mint before she smokes. Tammy reminds Allison that she’s a cop but goes along with it regardless. Patty calls during the Menthols exchange, revealing that, according to Billy, Allison will need Gertrude Fronch’s death certificate from City Hall before it’s put into the system by the end of the month.
Then, Allison and Tammy make a pit stop at Sam’s restaurant. Allison asks for yet another favor, much to Sam’s irritation. She needs his help getting into City Hall and a cake for Patty. After Tammy and Allison depart, Tammy reveals she knows about Allison’s affair with Sam. She doesn’t blame her, however, agreeing that Kevin is a terrible husband and recounts her own experiences with her personal “Kevin”.
Patty scolds Neil for getting drunk and violent with the other patrons at the rink. He smashes a bottle on the ice, and the day ends with them being banned from the rink for life. Meanwhile, Tammy and Allison arrive back at the house to find Kevin hard at work preparing for the party. Allison learns Tammy invited Patty’s long-time clients from her client book, and realizes quickly that they were Patty’s oxycodone clients. Patty yells at Neil for his earlier actions while Neil brusquely tells her he needs assistance with something at Kevin’s house. As Patty enters, everyone jumps out to surprise her.
Kevin asks Neil to help talk up Diane to Pete as a potential replacement for Lorraine. Instead, the plan goes wrong when Kevin and Pete wind up insulting Diane the whole time, and she snipes back at them in turn. At the same time, Allison and Patty rush to escort some of Patty’s former drug clients out of the house. Afterward, Allison asks Tammy to help her light the candles on Patty’s cake. Allison believes they’re finally getting along, but Tammy shoots it down and tells Allison to stop spending so much time with Patty. Tammy takes out the cake and everyone sings.
Later, Patty finds Allison sitting on the porch. Allison apologizes for throwing a party even though Patty hates surprises. Patty admits she appreciates the thought. Neil joins Diane outside and the pair drink together, bonding in their loneliness.
Allison sees Nick standing in the street before Sam pulls up in his car. He gives Allison contact information for a City Hall employee he knows who got him his liquor license. Allison admits to him she needs the death certificate to fake her death to escape Kevin.
Meanwhile, Tammy lies in bed with Patty, who’s asleep. Tammy receives a call from a coworker and security footage from a gas station in Vermont regarding the oxy pill bottle she recovered from Nick. Tammy spots Patty in the footage entering the gas station.
Tropes
- Annoying Laugh: Pete's new girlfriend Lorraine has a rather unique cackle. Diane describes it as sounding like the pained cries of a dying animal and Allison, upon hearing it for the first time, asks if a demon just achieved its final form in the kitchen.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Sam and Allison. It's so blatant that Tammy easily picks up on it and accurately figures out that Allison is having an affair.
- Birthday Hater: Patty doesn't really care for her birthday and doesn't make a big deal of throwing herself a party.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Zigzagged and just barely averted - Allison and Patty have to rush to get rid of some of the guests since some of them were Patty's oxy clients and others are police officers and get them out with little trouble. But even before then, Patty had to deal with going to the ice rink, where she struggles to deal with Neil as he gets drunk and violent throughout the day before his actions get them banned from the rink for life. And then there's Kevin, who stirs up trouble in his own way.
- The Ghost: There are multiple scenes when Kevin and Pete leave Lorraine alone with the other characters and the sitcom filter disappears, but somehow Lorraine is never seen or heard whenever this happens. This is probably because she's too obviously a "sitcom" character to work in the "real world" scenes, but unlike Kevin or Pete or Donna, she isn't selfish or unpleasant enough to generate a sitcom filter under her own power. The only way to square this circle is to not show her at all in the "real world".
- Kids Play Match Breaker: Kevin tries to break up Pete and Lorraine by setting Pete up with Diane.
- Old People Are Non Sexual: Averted for Pete and Lorraine, who are quite active and boastful of their sex life.
- Parent with New Paramour: A December–December Romance example - Pete has a new girlfriend named Lorraine. He met her at a dancing class that Kevin signed him up for. Kevin can't stand her, mainly because she annoys him, and attempts Relationship Sabotage.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Pete is not shy to talk about how he's getting action with Lorraine. Kevin is disgusted throughout.
- Shout-Out: Kevin calls his attempt at matchmaking his father and Diane together "doing a Parent Trap".
- Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: Played with and deconstructed with regards to Tammy and Allison. While she can sympathize with Allison's situation and doesn't blame her in the least for cheating on Kevin, whom she acknowledges is an annoying and insufferable moron, Tammy vocally admits she just plain doesn't like Allison and even gently tells Allison that it's alright that they don't like each other, fitting the sitcom trope. However, much of her dislike is also very clearly due to her own jealousy of Allison's close friendship with Patty.
- Too Much Information: When Pete and Lorraine boast about her having both of her original hips, Kevin is especially squicked out.
