A Plot: Inspired by the music video for Lionel Richie's "Hello", Barry tries to sculpt a clay bust of Lainey's head for Valentine's Day, but he has no artistic talent and all of his creations just look creepy.
B Plot: Adam and his friends want to see the R-rated movie Porky's at the new Multiplex, but he needs Beverly's permission and she strictly forbids it. They decide to buy a ticket to watch Annie (1982), which is playing at the same multiplex, with plans to sneak in and see the sexually graphic film instead. But like his mom says, Adam is a "good boy" and he wusses out. When Murray learns that Adam could have snuck in to see Porky's but didn't, he is disappointed and feels like he's raised a wimp.
C Plot: Geoff Schwartz schemes to get into the friend zone with Erica, thinking she will eventually succumb to his charms and want to be his girlfriend.
- Anachronism Stew: The references to Annie and Porky's and Lionel Ritchie's "Hello" put it around 1981-82, but late eighties movies like Weekend at Bernie's, The Lost Boys and Field of Dreams are also mentioned.
- Dare to Be Badass: Murray encourages Adam to be more daring, wanting his son to be unafraid to take risks and go out on a limb, even if it means disappointing his parents. It doesn't quite work, with Adam first having to be forced into taking a risk, and then thinking he's making his father proud when he does something actually dangerous.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Not only is airport security in the 80's incredibly lax compared to the modern era, Adam tells his parents that the passengers offered him vodka and cigarettes to calm his nerves when he chickened out.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Murray forcing Adam into a Morton's Fork leads to Beverly revoking Adam's phone privileges right before Valentine's Day, when he had promised to call Dana, and Murray is "too proud" of Adam rebelling to give them back. This leads to Adam trying to fly cross-country to visit Dana, which Murray considers going too far.
- Hands-Off Parenting: Murray admits that he's not "in the trenches" like Beverly or Pops when it comes to raising Adam, but he's still upset that they've raised him to be afraid to take risks...especially when Adam can't tell the difference between a "safe" risk like seeing an R-rated movie and a "dangerous" one like flying cross-country.
- Just Friends: Erica tells Geoff that his romantic hopes will never be fulfilled, and that they're better off as friends. Geoff accepts, but only in the hope that she'll change her mind when she realizes she'll miss his affection...which doesn't occur as immediately as he hoped.
- Morton's Fork: Murray tries to get Adam to sneak into the theater and watch Porky's by threatening to ground him for not breaking the rules. When Adam complies, Beverly's "mom sense" causes her to show up before the movie even starts, and she grounds him.
- So Proud of You: Played with, in that Murray says he's proud of Adam for getting grounded by Beverly, but Adam is just confused and upset because he was forced into it by Murray. At the end of the episode, when Adam sneaks into the treehouse to call Dana, both Beverly and Murray notice, but are genuinely proud and don't immediately bust him.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The reveal of each of Barry's terrible busts of Lainey is punctuated by a snippet of "Hello" to make it twice as funny.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Adam demonstrates how different airport security was in the 80's compared to modern day by how easy it was to get an unsupervised plane ticket to Seattle (to visit Dana on Valentine's after his mom grounded him and took away phone privileges).
- Terrible Artist: Barry's sculptures are eye-peelingly awful.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: After Erica has firmly made her non-affection with Geoff clear, she hears Lainey compliment Barry for trying so hard to do something from the heart (even though he failed), and then can't help but give Geoff a look that a passing-by Evelyn notes seems rather romantic (which Erica denies).
- Valentine's Day Episode: Barry's storyline has him trying to sculpt a bust of Lainey as a Valentines Day gift, a part of Adam's involves the lengths he'll go to make contact with Dana, and the moment that has Erica tell Geoff she'd prefer if they were Just Friends involves a school event where students can buy and gift flowers.
- What You Are in the Dark: At the start of the episode, Adam could have gone with his friends to see Porky's, but he wusses out. And towards the end, he almost goes on a cross-country plane trip by himself (both to see Dana after Beverly revokes his phone privileges after catching him in the theater Murray forced him in, and to get Murray off his back about being a wimp), but he gets cold feet when he hears about the potential turbulence and abandons that plan too. In the end, the worst that Adam willingly does is call Dana while his phone privileges are still revoked, which both Murray and Beverly respect.
