Sue's excitement about moving into the dorm to start college is tempered when she accidentally burns her hair and must cut it short. Axl isn't interested in helping with Sue's move. Frankie discovers she's not sad about Sue moving out of the house while Mike overwhelms Sue with financial and safety guidelines. Brick is clueless when Cindy tells him she wants to take their relationship to the next level.
Anxiously awaiting the arrival of her dorm roommate, Sue drives Frankie and Mike crazy with multiple calls and texts. When the roommate shows up Sue thinks she'll make a life- long friend and all her worries will be gone. Axl and Hutch find their house overrun by ants. Brick gets his own personal bodyguard at school.
Frankie is shocked when Mike trades in his flannel for a Hawaiian shirt; and Sue accidentally tells Devin that Axl loves her, leading Devin to question their relationship. Meanwhile, Brick gets overambitious while cleaning the bathroom.
Mike surprises Frankie when he wants to be involved in his brother's crazy business scheme; Axl goes to extreme measures to prove he can handle Mike's new motorcycle; and Sue begins living in her car to avoid her horrible roommate.
Frankie asks Reverend TimTom to find out why Mike is being distant; and Sue invites Brick to visit her at college, but she loses him after running into the handsome Abercrombie guy. Meanwhile, Axl and Hutch complain to the city about an ant infestation.
Halloween finds the Hecks in their own "Twilight Zone"-type stories, with Brick providing an introduction to each.
Frankie is looking forward to taking part in the annual homecoming tailgate. But she begins to feel like the event will become an embarrassing disaster when her mom, Pat, decides to come out and join in the fun. Meanwhile, with Axl down with a bad case of the stomach flu, Mike turns his attention to Brick to help him win the tailgate cornhole tournament trophy that has eluded him for so long, and Sue volunteers to be the class liaison for Homecoming at the event.
The Hecks agree to forgo Thanksgiving after Frankie finds out that she's out of a job until January and must pick up a holiday position, which requires her to work on Thanksgiving in order to make ends meet. Much to her dismay, she ends up once again having to portray an overworked 19th century woman back at Heritage Village during the Harvest Feast and finds herself going face-to-face with Sheila (Faith Ford), a woman who definitely takes her job too seriously. Meanwhile, Sue goes back to work at Spudsy's over her holiday break in the hopes that she'll once again run into Logan - the dreamy Abercrombie guy, Axl finds himself in foreign territory when he starts becoming emotional over how his life has turned out, and Mike and Brick find themselves needing to find a bonding experience when the electricity goes out at the house and they are forced to interact with each other.
Frankie invites Mike to join her on a trip to Des Moines, Iowa for a convention about her dentist office's transition to a new owner; and Axl informs a disapproving Sue that he's moving into her dorm room. Meanwhile, Mike's dad agrees to watch Brick while the parents are out of town.
Dreading the fact that they are always late to church and end up in the overflow room, Frankie makes the decision to have the family watch a Christmas Eve service on TV from the comfort of the Heck house. But a string of events make their evening anything but a peaceful, silent night.
As Sue desires to join a sorority, Frankie feels useless when Brick decides to go shopping by himself. Axl helps Mike to use social media for his project.
Axl begins his internship at a snack-making company; Frankie complains about working for Smile Superstars; and Cindy confesses to Mike that she kissed another boy. Meanwhile, Sue's professor challenges her to stop seeing the world in a positive light for a writing assignment.
Mike enlists Axl and Brick's help to throw a surprise party for Frankie's 50th birthday. Meanwhile, Sue is mocked after posting a flyer for her missing sock in the dorm laundry room; and Coach Babbitt is determined to turn Brick into an athlete after he turns in a project about how he can't play sports.
While Frankie and Mike try to figure out which household appliance a piece of plastic belongs to, Brick becomes a tyrannical director when he casts Cindy and Troy to re-enact scenes from "Knots Landing" for a school project; Sue's excitement over having new friend Lexie become her college dorm roommate quickly sours when she finds herself being charged for half of the new things that Lexie is spontaneously buying for the room; and Axl finds himself becoming stressed out when his boss (Alan Ruck) befriends him and tells him that the fruit pie division is on the verge of being shut down.
Mike and Frankie go with Brick to see his first film in a movie theater, where a trailer upsets him. Sue believes that she has a chance at dating Logan. Axl and Sean make a discovery.
After Brick attends a Bar Mitzvah and questions when he'll officially become a man, Mike attempts to help him become more responsible in his quest to manhood. Meanwhile, Sue exudes a little too much enthusiasm as she tries to flirt and find herself a boyfriend, and Axl and Hutch find themselves a new home in the form of a Winnebago.
Frankie looks after Sue and Axl after they have their wisdom teeth removed. Brick attempts to impose some new house rules on everyone.
After making some extra money from the diaper business, Mike surprises a rather unenthusiastic Heck family with a spring break vacation at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. In the hopes of livening up what is perceived to be a lame vacation, Frankie suggests that the Donahues join them. While Mike visits all of the attractions on his own, Nancy asks a not-so-thrilled Frankie to speak with Sean to try and talk him into taking his MCATs; Axl enlists Brick to help him pick up women by playing "Jerk/No Jerk" - with Brick in the role of the "Jerk"; and Mike is anything but excited when an exuberant Sue reveals some news to him about her upcoming summer plans.
Sue develops a huge crush on one of her college professors and goes to extremes to get him to notice her, and Frankie and Mike agree to meet Brick's girlfriend Cindy's parents, who end up being just as quirky as their daughter.
Frankie is thrilled when Sue invites her for lunch at the college. But lunch becomes awkward when Sue brings her new boyfriend along - Jeremy, the school activist - and the two of them begin bombarding Frankie with everything she and the world, in general, are doing wrong. Meanwhile, Axl informs a very disappointed Mike that he wants to quit football, and Brick overly obsesses over filling out a satisfaction survey after ordering some graph paper online.
Frankie is excited to lay out and relax on her new backyard lanai - aka patio - that Mike and his workmates built for her. But peace and serenity become hard to come by when new neighbors, with three screaming kids, move in next door and make it next to impossible for Frankie to find some quiet time. Meanwhile, Brick questions Mike as to whether his workmates helped build the lanai because they are his friends, or because he's their boss; Sue and Lexie draw a winning number in the dorm lottery and score the perfect room but find it difficult to kick out its current occupants; and Axl and Hutch open up a grilled cheese food truck out of their Winnebago, with a reluctant Kenny as their chef.
After enduring year after year of botched Mother's Days, Frankie declares that the family gets to take a pass on doing anything at all for her this year. But after a man offers to buy Frankie's groceries at the market when she discovers that she forgot her wallet - and tells her to pay the kindly gesture forward - she decides to have the family pull each other's names out of a hat and do something nice for that person, which doesn't go as smoothly as planned.
Frankie figures out a way to secretly track Sue and Axl after they refuse to abide by their curfew while they're home for the summer. Meanwhile, Brick's determined to discover who else could be class valedictorian as middle-school graduation approaches.
After almost forgetting that Brick's middle school graduation is only days away, Frankie goes on a mission to right a wrong when Brick discovers that the song he was supposed to sing at the ceremony has been cut. Meanwhile, Sue needs to be at Dollywood to begin her summer job on the same day as Brick's graduation, and Axl takes a job as a country club counselor and finds himself being mocked by a 10-year-old carbon copy of himself.