Season 3 of The Goldbergs ends with “Have a Summer,” which in the main storyline features Adam (Sean Giambrone) graduating from 8th grade and transitioning to high school. Only problem is, the final week of school for Adam and his buds is called “Freshman Fear” week, so Barry (Troy Gentile) uses this opportunity to rough up his little brother as a rite of passage. Their mom (Wendi McLendon-Covey) tries to put a stop to it, but Barry wins Mama Goldberg over by being truthful, saying Adam is growing up, and that he needs to become a man. Beverly takes to the closet to take strong whiffs of Adam’s baby blanket to remember the times when he was young, only to be discovered by Murray (Jeff Garlin), who doesn’t agree with this kind of behavior.
Since Barry gets the best of his mom, he’s free to torture Adam back at school, but Adam puts his foot down and uses adrenaline to toss Barry over his shoulder. The pay off is a well placed, hilarious bleeped out curse word from Barry, as the school gathers around Adam and cheer him on. Barry is totally broken emotionally, he’s dumped by the JTP (JTP!), and Lainey (A.J. Michalka) is totally looking at him differently now.
Meanwhile, students at school have been putting things into a time capsule, so Erica (Hayley Orrantia) puts in a New Kids on the Block piece of memorabilia to see what it’s like in the future. Geoff (Sam Lerner), ever the romantic thorn in Erica’s side, puts in a tape dedicating his love to the oldest Goldberg child. She won’t know about it for a good couple years, right?
Wrong. When Beverly goes looking for Adam’s baby blanket, Erica realizes she wrapped her NKOTB piece of merchandise in said blanket. So, Beverly utilizes her daughter to dig up the time capsule. Geoff finds out about this, a water line main breaks, and Geoff’s tape is given to Erica once everybody lands in the principal’s office.
Murray freaks out at Beverly because of the destruction of the school’s property, but she protests she was just trying to get the blanket back. However, the Goldberg patriarch tells his wife that sometimes you gotta let go of such things. Beverly understands, and comes to terms with such life decisions.
Barry and Adam hash it out as well about what happened at school, but ultimately Adam realizes that Barry needs Freshman Fear week ups to fit in. The youngest Goldberg grants him the opportunity, and Barry ends up using the sprinkler system to soak the entire 8th grade. Thankfully, everything is back to normal!
Or so we thought. Once Erica listens to Geoff’s tape (him singing Asia’s “Heat of the Moment” is downright hysterical), she realizes (through the help of Barry and Lainey) that she’s been attracted to the guy all along, except she always acted like she wasn’t. When she goes to talk to Geoff about it, it seems he’s moved on to another girl, Evelyn Silver (Allie Grant), who’s been flirting with Geoff the entire episode. Too little, too late Erica!
While the third season of The Goldbergs wasn’t flawless, I definitely can say that there were more hits than misses. ‘Have a Summer’ wasn’t the strongest season finale in the series, but it was entertaining, had a good amount of laughs, and gave us a semi cliffhanger with Erica and Geoff. Plus, Beverly is supposedly going back to school to get her teaching certificate! Who knows what that will lead to? In any case, here’s looking forward to season 4!
Rating: 8/10
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Logan J. Fowler is a senior writer and video game editor on Pop-Break.com. He contributes his thoughts every week for Trailer Tuesday and ABC’s The Goldbergs.” Logan’s “kid at heart” nature has led to his discussion about pop culture that many geeks love to talk about, including superheroes, Super Mario Bros., Pixar, and Muppets, among other things. In addition, one of his first pieces for the site, “Top Ten Comic Book Movies,” was picked as a “Freshly Pressed” piece by WordPress and remains one of the site’s most well-read articles. Many of Logan’s friends have said that he moonlights as Spider-Man but this is so not true. Wait, are those police sirens I’m hearing?! Gotta go! -thwipp-
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