A Plot: Adam and his incoming freshman friends worry about Freshman Fear Week, the last week of school where the seniors haze the incoming high schoolers. However, while his friends get hazed, Adam is approached by Barry and bodyslams his brother, gaining the respect of the seniors and leaving Barry humiliated.
B Plot: Beverly realizes that Adam is growing up too fast, and grows overly attached to his baby blanket...which Erica uses to wrap up her contribution to the school's time capsule. After coercing Erica to help her dig it up, she gets both Erica and Geoff (who tried to stop them from uncovering a tape dedicated to Erica) suspended for a day, as a water pipe broke in the process. Murray convinces her that she may need to reevaluate who she is, if she's no longer needed as a mother, so she decides to get a teaching license.
C Plot: Geoff Schwartz slowly realizes his schemes to get Erica to be his girlfriend are all doomed to failure. She keeps refusing, while the girl in charge of the time capsule project, Evelyn, shows attraction to him.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Barry reveals that he tried to prank Adam because only the cool kids get hazed. And Adam does end up being treated as cool...at the expense of humiliating Barry in the process.
- Book Ends: The C Plot begins with Erica writing just "Have a Summer" in Geoff's yearbook, not wanting to lead him on by using any positivity. At its end, she's realized her true feelings and tries to wish him a great summer, but Geoff is distracted by Evelyn and just replies "Have a Summer".
- Call-Back:
- Like in "Edward "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards", Adam and Barry argue over how to properly make a sound. In this case, it's a "shhh" that represents running water (like the showers Barry plans to throw Adam into), which at first gets mistaken for a "be quiet" shush.
- During the "Eureka!" Moment below, a quick montage of Erica and Geoff interacting in various past episodes plays.
- The Dog Bites Back: Adam has had enough of Barry's abuse and hits back, leaving Barry humiliated in front of the whole school.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After listening to Geoff's tape made with love and care, and Lainey stating it's obvious she likes him, Erica flashes back to various scenes together from past episodes and realizes she does like him.
- Flowery Insults: The Tag is Adam asking Barry and Erica to get all their insults over his puberty voice out of the way, which leads to a string of very elaborate similes for what he sounds like.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Getting slammed by Adam leads to Barry being afraid to confront him again, and deciding to part ways with all of his "cool" stuff, which lasts until Pops convinces Adam to rebuild his confidence.
- Initiation Ceremony: All the 8th graders are thrown by older students into the showers as part of Freshman Week. Adam gets out of it by bodyslamming Barry in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy, which humiliates Barry in front of the whole school. Barry later reveals that only the cool kids get thrown in the shower, and he never got hazed when it was his time.
- It's All Junk: Murray eventually convinces Bev to give up her Security Blanket, not just because the broken water pipe washed away the Adam smell, but also because she needs to move on and live life as more than just a mother.
- The Prankster: When Adam learns from Barry he wanted to be the one to pick on Adam because he didn't get picked on and was resented for it, Adam and Barry pull a prank at the 8th grade graduation ceremony (setting off all the water sprinklers, soaking everyone) that erases all memory of Barry being bodyslammed.
- Security Blanket: Beverly has a literal one in the form of Adam's baby blanket.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Feedback from the microphone cuts Principal Ball off when he announces Adam's generation as the Graduating Class of "Nineteen Eighty-", keeping the setting in a Vague Age.
- Technobabble: Adam helps Barry regain confidence in himself with a lie about how it's the summer solstice and how the moon's proximity to Earth is the only reason Adam was capable of bodyslamming him, purposely playing up the science-ness so Barry won't question it.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: In the end, after hearing the mixtape Geoff made her, Erica realizes she likes Geoff and goes to tell him. However, she sees Geoff has finally moved on after her multiple rejections, and is dating Evelyn Silver, causing Erica to quietly walk away.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Beverly gets Erica and Geoff suspended for a day after digging up the time capsule while trying to retrieve Adam's old baby blanket, causing a water pipe to break.
- Murray encourages Beverly to reevaluate her life now that the kids are growing up so fast, so she decides to become a teacher at William Penn Academy, much to her children's embarrassment.
