A Plot: After seeing how Dave Kim stocked his huge cassette tape collection by getting "12 tapes for a penny" from the Columbia House music service, ordering several times under phony names, Adam tries to do the same. He tries to rope in Erica on the fraud scheme, but she backs out, not wanting to get in trouble, while also telling Adam that Columbia House will lock him into a contract to buy many more tapes at full price. Beverly finds out when a delivery man keeps bringing boxes to the door addressed to strange names, but she blames Erica.
B Plot: Barry is trying to win over Bill Lewis and fails to do so. Murray says all dads despise their daughter's boyfriends (though Bill is shown to be on great terms with one of Lainey's exes) and tries to help Barry win over Bill.
- Cassandra Truth: Beverly blames Erica for getting Adam involved in a scheme, and treats Adam well for trying to protect his sister, even though both Erica and Adam tell her the truth. It takes Pops trying to copy Adam's scheme and revealing where he learned it from, having to insist at least three times that it was Adam, for Beverly to realize she was wrong.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Invoked by Murray as he explains to Barry that all fathers hate their daughter's boyfriends.
- Logo Joke: Instead of the normal Adam F. Goldberg Productions logo, this episode was produced by "Doug Fell Productions", to keep with the episode's gag of using fake names.
- One True Love: Bill eventually confides that the reason he's treated Lainey's past boyfriends so well is because he could tell they were just one-off flings, whereas the bond she has with Barry is something truly special.
- Rejected Apology: After being blamed for both the cassette tape mail fraud and for shoplifting, neither of which she did, Erica is hesitant to accept her mother's words of forgiveness. She relents later when Beverly sings an apology song from one of the tapes Adam got.
- The Scapegoat: Erica has gotten in trouble before, but is sick of her mother seeing her as a "bad seed" and starting to just assume she's guilty of things even when she clearly isn't.
- Shout-Out: A poster for Fanboys (which Adam F. Goldberg co-wrote) appears in this episode.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Erica gets overly anxious when her friend convinces her to try shoplifting, loudly stating in the store that it is definitely something they are not about to do.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After Adam scams Columbia House to get loads of music tapes on the cheap, Beverly blames Erica, even after Adam confesses to it. Erica then decides that if her mom is going to blame her for everything, she's going to show how bad she can be. However, she ends up backing out, and only ends up in police custody because the officer that caught her friend thought she would be a good influence and help get a confession.
- Work Off the Debt: Dave Kim is forced to do this at the end of the episode, once his scheme backfires and he ends up owing Columbia House a lot of money.
