In a nice little hidden chapter out of Stan and Hailey’s lives, we learn that every President’s Day Stan takes Hailey to a different presidential museum and bombards her with the corresponding history. Hailey’s not opposed to history, per se, she just wants it to be as engaging as the yarns spun in something like Step Up 6. Therein lies the problem of Stan trying to jazz up presidential history for Hailey so it can stand up against her competing interests.

It’s also great to see this adventure going on specifically between Stan and Hailey, not only because of their firmly cemented political views, but more so for their diametrically opposed takes on what qualifies as “interesting.” Hailey is constantly blasé and without enthusiasm, whereas Stan’s excitement stems from blind patriotism and the footnotes of America. This makes their common ground all the more difficult to realize than if it was say, Stan and Steve, Stan and Hailey, or Steve and Hailey on the presidential excursion. That alone is enough to keep this episode interesting. But then they also Jurassic Park Garfield back to life.

The episode doubles down on the idea of opposites being forced to attract, as the other plot of the episode sees Steve intermingling with football of all things. Steve has started working for the school paper (which is run by Principal Lewis, because why not?) which he hopes will end up getting him slotted to doing a story on the cheerleading squad. A position that has a tradition of yielding the writer a cheerleader of their own (bottom rung of the pyramid only, sorry). However Lewis makes sure that touchdowns are going to be in Steve’s bylines. Besides, he’s totally right. A rookie reporter like Steve can’t handle the cheerleading story. Lewis knows what he’s doing!

Steve’s goes on to try to make the best out of a bad situation when he runs into Roger who’s masquerading as a sort of whistleblower—specifically, a Deep Throat. Besides this being perfect characterization is a logical complication to this story, especially when Steve’s having issues with even identifying what a football looks like. This Roger beat kind of buries itself until the episode’s ending, and frankly there’s enough going on all ready without Roger gaslighting people through all of it, too. The conclusion of all of this might come across as a little rushed, but it at least brings everything full circle in a nice way.

There’s also a weird, sexed up vibe to this newspaper story where Lewis is reading each finished story in a sultry, soulful voice. It’s a silly idea that doesn’t amount to much, but to try and understand the workings of Lewis’ mind are beyond my capabilities. It at least makes this boring, middle school newspaper have some life to it while injecting some absurdity at the same time.