A Plot: Adam's hard-ass history teacher, "Doc" (Kevin Heffernan), agrees to let him make a movie about World War II instead of writing a term paper. Because Pops is a veteran, Adam decides to interview him, but he finds all of his grandfather's war stories boring. Pops spices it up by telling fictional far-fetched tales that actually came from Hogan's Heroes episodes. Doc discovers Pops' stories are plagiarized from the show and gives Adam an 'F'. Adam throws a piece of chalk at him in disgust, earning him a trip to the principal's office. Adam has to face the fact that Pops lied to him.
B Plot: Erica realizes she can't take care of herself while away at college and asks her mom about her "mothering" techniques. But Beverly worries about teaching Erica and Barry basic life skills in fear that they'll never need her anymore, so she tricks them into leaning on her. Later, they go behind Bev's back and ask the single Coach Mellor for advice, and he trains them in life skills.
- An Aesop: Kids grow up and will need to have the necessary skills to live their own lives or take responsibility for their actions.
- Call-Back: When listing off Beverly's past attempts to keep them from growing up, Barry and Erica bring up her faking a pelvis injury to keep Erica home on Thanksgiving, the swear jar she started to spend on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, and apparently her forging her Mother's Day coupons.
- Continuity Nod: Murray also brings up the events of the previous episode when Bev faked a medical condition to stay with Erica on her first night at college.
- Innocent Innuendo: Erica and Barry prove to Beverly that they can be self-reliant by making one of Bev's signature breakfast dishes, eggy in the hole (a fried egg inside a hollowed-out slice of toast). They proudly declare that they can "eggy our own holes".
- Naked People Are Funny: In order to clear Adam's record, Pops decides to arrange a meeting with Doc, and arrives in his military outfit. However, it turns out to be stuffier than he remembers, so he frequently stops to undress; by the time Pops is down to an undershirt and boxers, Doc agrees to give Adam another chance just so he won't undress further.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Pops tries to spice up his stories of WWII for Adam by retelling episodes of Hogan's Heroes. Unfortunately, Adam then retells those stories at history class and is found out by his teacher, who happened to be a Hogan's fan.
- The Reveal: Turns out some of the Mother's Day coupons Beverly used in "Smother's Day" were forged so she could get more attention from Barry and Erica.
- Sadist Teacher: "Doc" has a habit of throwing his chalk at students that are slacking off or badmouth him.
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: The most interesting thing that Pops actually experienced during the war was having to reorganize a shipment of mislabeled army uniform pants being sent to the front lines. This story initially bores Adam, but after everything else happens and he makes a video presentation on it as a second attempt at Doc's assignment, Doc admits that his own father never saw action in the war either but they shouldn't dismiss anyone's contributions just because their role wasn't glamorous.
