Rancho Contento

While Honey and Marvin celebrate the birth of their baby, Jessica’s book is finally released, and she’s optimistically looking forward to a book store reading that’s been set up by her publisher to help boost sales. Louis is so excited to promote the book across the country that he buys an RV from Los Angeles Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who owns an RV dealership which is managed by underappreciated Calvin. Meanwhile, Emery and Evan are concerned about Eddie after Nicole tells him that she’s moving to New York, and he seems completely unfazed about losing his best friend.

When Jessica offers to help out exhausted new mother Honey with Zuo Yue Zi – which means “Sitting the Month” taking care of her – Honey begins to realize that 30 days of having to abide by Jessica’s strict rules and dietary regimen could leave her more harried then she already is. Meanwhile, after watching Pumping Iron, Eddie and Emery attempt to put together a workout routine in order to buff themselves up, and Louis tries to bond more with Evan, who is a die-hard “mommy guy.”

Honey and Marvin ask Jessica and Louis to be baby Maria’s godparents, and Jessica offers to babysit her on Halloween night. But the Huangs are in for a spooky evening when they agree to help wean the baby off of her pacifier. Meanwhile, Eddie is hired by mattress store owner Harv for a job to make some extra money so that he can buy himself a car and ends up having to work in the creepy store all by himself on Halloween.

Louis makes it his mission to teach Eddie how to be a good driver after a police officer makes an inappropriate Asian driver stereotype comment. Meanwhile, Evan is jealous when he discovers that Grandma has only been inviting Emery to hang out with her at her new garage apartment.

Jessica and Lewis are thrilled beyond belief when they discover that a Chinese family – Elaine, Julius, and son Horace – have moved into the neighborhood. Jessica immediately bonds with Elaine, who helps her solve an issue with the HOA, and Louis decides to introduce Julius to Marvin and hang out together. Meanwhile, when Evan goes door-to-door collecting information for the census bureau, Eddie and Emery come up with a plan to impersonate being census takers in order to find out when the owners of a pool are out of the house so they can sneak over and use it.

Jessica becomes concerned when she discovers that Eddie’s extended substitute English teacher has thrown out the class syllabus and is instructing the students – and her son – in a radically progressive way. Meanwhile, Louis and Honey try in vain to find a workout group that can help them both lose some weight, and Emery doubts Evan’s ability to extract a painful splinter from his finger.

Louis is crushed to find out that Matthew Chestnut is quitting the restaurant to take a job at Dollywood. But when he offers Eddie a chance to work with him once again at the steakhouse, he passes, and Louis ends up hiring Eddie’s friend Trent, which doesn’t sit well with his son. Meanwhile, when Jessica discovers that Amy Chestnut is moving and leaving her position as PTA president – a job she desperately wants so she can be the “teacher boss” – Jessica goes against all of her pent-up negative feelings about Amy and does everything she can to appease her in order to get the job. And after telling a joke and getting a laugh from Emery, Evan deludes himself into thinking that he’s the funnier brother.

The battle begins between mother and son when Eddie informs Jessica that he wants to spend Christmas with friend Nicole in New York. But Jessica insists that tradition prevails and he needs to spend the holiday with the family, so he does everything within his power to try and get her to crack and allow him to go. Meanwhile, Louis and Evan do their best to try and help an overwhelmed Emery decide which one of his numerous friends to invite to the family’s Christmas Eve dinner.

Louis and Jessica think they’ve won a weekend getaway at a posh resort, but instead they’re stuck at a marriage retreat where troubled couples work out their relationship problems with the help of Guru Sheela.

Evan has a girlfriend! And Jessica deeply disapproves because she thinks it will distract him from his schoolwork and cause his grades to decline. Meanwhile, Eddie, Emery and Honey are shocked when they all go out to see the film You’ve Got Mail, and Louis hates it. But Louis’ reason for disliking the film has to do with a ruthless act he unconsciously committed years ago which resulted in a mom and pop rib shack going out of business, much like what took place in the movie.

Eddie finally gets his driver’s license; but instead of freedom, he finds an endless list of errands to run for his mom. Will he be done in time to take his friends to the Insane Clown Posse concert? Louis is excited for a boys’ weekend at Chili Con with Marvin, until Honey tags along; and Jessica faces off with her nemesis, Jamie, at the school fundraiser.

Louis is obsessed with the great outdoors after seeing the new movie Legends of the Fall, so for his 40th birthday, he decides that the family needs to go camping. Horrified, the kids try to convince him otherwise. Meanwhile, Honey gives Jessica tips about the best gift to give Louis on his milestone birthday.

It’s Chinese New Year and the Lees, Elaine, Julius and son, Horace, are back. Elaine tries to give Jessica tips on building a better relationship with Grandma Huang. Meanwhile, inspired by a Lee family tradition, Louis challenges Emery to a wrestling match to start the new year; and Eddie goes all-in betting his red envelope money on who will be the winner.

On Valentine’s Day, the mood is anything but romantic as Jessica competes with Louis to see who can give Evan the best advice on how to celebrate with new girlfriend, Sicily. Meanwhile, Eddie asks Honey for help to find out who his secret admirer is after he’s passed a love note on a Cattleman’s delivery run.

Jessica drives Principal Hunter crazy at Evan’s school when she declares that she’s “shadow principal” and follows him around for a day to learn about his job. When she finds out perfect son Evan has been caught acting out, she immediately blames Eddie’s bad influence, but there’s more to it than that. Louis, having watched one too many episodes of The Sopranos with Honey, is convinced that Marvin and Grandma are gossiping about him behind his back after Marvin offers to trap the rat that has invaded Grandma’s apartment.

Eddie begins dating Trent’s sister, Tina, but it puts a strain on his friendship with Trent. When Evan fails his physical education test because he can’t run, he turns to Jessica for help, but she’s even worse at running than he is. Meanwhile, Louis is thrilled when the restaurant gets the Golden Prune award as being the best place for seniors to dine, but the honor doesn’t reap the results he expected.

Eddie, angry after his mom tells him he’s too immature to go on a student exchange trip to Taiwan, takes Jessica at her word when she says “my house, my rules” and leaves home. But when he ends up living with Horace in his new apartment, he has second thoughts. Louis and Evan suspect Emery is leading some sort of secret life after he quits the volleyball team but lies about still going to practice, so they begin following him.

Louis tries his best to convince Jessica to consider early retirement, but she’s having none of it. When Eddie looks for advice on how to be a better person for Tina and win her back, he ends up watching her favorite TV show, Sex and the City, for clues.

Jessica starts her college classes, leaving Evan in charge at home as “vice mommy.” But the transition doesn’t go smoothly, either for her starting school again or with Evan taking over the reins of the Huang household. Eddie and Louis run into conflict when Eddie just wants his dad to treat him as an employee, and not a son, at Cattleman’s Ranch.

Tensions between Evan and Eddie run high as Evan’s friends are wowed by Eddie’s coolness when he starts hanging out with them, making Evan feel like a complete nerd. Louis and Jessica become convinced that Grandma is being scammed by an internet lothario in Chile.

Eddie ships off to Taiwan for the cultural exchange program, blithely ignoring his parents’ advice about how hard it was for them when they came to America for the first time. After all, he’s been to Taiwan before; what could go wrong? Plenty, when he ends up separated from his group with no money and next-to-no language skills. Meanwhile, back home in Orlando, the Huangs adjust to life without Eddie.

Just as the Huangs are settling into life without Eddie, an international incident catapults him not only to Taiwanese fame but also right back to America. In order to fix Eddie’s mess, the family gets a new “daughter” - but when things go awry, Jessica must add a new word to her vocabulary. Meanwhile, master babysitter Evan watches Maria for Honey and Marvin, and ends up learning more about himself than he expected.