Bad Teacher: Daddy Issues

In “Daddy Issues”, Meredith and her student Bronwen cross swords over Bronwen’s rich daddy and Joel comes to aid of Irene in her first experience with internet dating.

Last week, when we left Meredith, she just woke up in bed with Joel, apparently not remembering what happened the night before. But that obviously was not a to be continued thing because there was next to no interaction between Joel and Meredith in this episode.

Instead, Meredith set her sights on the father of Bronwen, one of her students. Mike is some kind of real estate mogul whose picture and phone number are plastered all over town on billboards and park benches. Meredith sets up a date with Mike but there’s one little stumbling block to even having dinner. They need Bronwen’s approval.

Bronwen may be a 6th grader but she is a straight-A 6th grader who knows Meredith is a gold digger and doesn’t want her dating daddy. Bronwen says it would be too weird to have her teacher dating her father so the ever-resourceful Meredith asks Principal Carl to promote Bronwen to 7th grade. That’s not what Bronwen wants. She wants Meredith to respect her wishes not to date her father. Well, Meredith is not above fighting with a child so after she rewrites American history to make the colonists’ land grab from the Native Americans resemble a betrayal between “besties,” she whips out an embarrassing note she wrote, and signed Brownen’s name to, involving a crush and the menstrual cycle. She reads it in front of the class. Not the least embarrassed, Bronwen calls her on the fraud.

Irene waits for her internet date, TVWatcher359, while Meredith complains about not being self-centered to Joel. He realizes Irene is being stood up and offers to join her for lunch. Kim thinks that means Joel is really into Irene but Irene says he’s lucky her date didn’t show up. Kim convinces Irene that Joel is TVWatcher359 and Joel doesn’t deny it, saying he came up with the name because he watches a lot of TV and his birthday is March 59th. Irene lets him down gently, pointing out that is not a good idea for them to become fierce lovers because it would ruin their long-standing friendship, plus she has a very strict “don’t poop where you eat” policy. Later she gets an email from the real TVWatcher359 and tells Joel why he stood her up. He tries to pretend he sent it but she says she knows, thanks him for being so nice and goes off to wire TVWatcher359 some money to get back to America. “Don’t do that,” Joel yells after her.

When Bronwen goes out to meet her father after school, Meredith has already had a talk with Mike about who the parent is and who the kid is. She and Mike are sitting in his car. Meredith points out that when the Indians didn’t want to give the settlers the land, the settlers took it. She and Mike are planning a weekend get-away when Lily tells Meredith that what Bronwen really wants is for Mike to come to her concert. Mike always leaves her presents but never comes to her events.

That’s a game-changer for Meredith. When Mike shows up, she tells him that they need to go watch the concert and he refuses, saying he’s left a pair of diamond earrings for Bronwen. Meredith puts up a fuss and Mike says she is beginning to sound more like his ex-wife than a girlfriend. Meredith says maybe that’s because his ex-wife was right. Bronwen is more important than anything else. She refuses to go on the trip and goes to the concert. As she is telling Bronwen that she dumped Mike, he walks in and Bronwen happily spots him. He gives a nearby lady one of his magnets and points out Meredith as his “girlfriend,” and not his daughter!

Cast of “Daddy Issues”
Ari Graynor – Meredith Davis
David Alan Grier – Principal Carl
Sara Gilbert – Irene Dudek
Ryan Hansen – Joel
Sara Rodier – Lily
Kristin Davis – Ginny
Ken Marino – Mike
Caitlin Kimball – Kim
Gracie Kaufman – Bronwen
Madison De La Garza – Kelsey