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Louis Huang is the father of Eddie, Emery and Evan, the husband of Jessica, the eldest son of Jenny, and older brother of Gene. He is the owner of Louis Huang's Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse. He is portrayed by Randall Park.
History[]
Season 1[]
Louis uprooted his family, including his mother, from Chinatown in Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida after he opened a Western-themed steakhouse named Cattleman's Ranch in Orlando. While his family believed the steakhouse was his genuine idea, in reality Louis stole the idea from Golden Saddle; Louis wanted to franchise one of Golden Saddle's restaurants, but being unable to pay the $50,000 fee upfront, stole their franchise manual and opened his own replica restaurant. However, the restaurant was not faring up to expectations, much to Jessica's ire. Believing that the restaurant's lack of attendance was due to customers seeing an Asian man at a Western steakhouse, Louis hired Mitchell, or Mitch, to be the host.[1]
While Louis wants his employees to be happy, believing that happy workers makes a happy workplace, Jessica, who has begun working at the restaurant as a singer, begins to micromanage as she believes Louis' actions (allowing croutons to be eaten liberally by the workers and napkins to be served freely) are costing them money. Wanting Jessica to be gone but unable to bring himself to do so, he convinces her that she should homeschool their sons' CLC and prioritize their education, feigning serious sacrifice for the restaurant. However, Eddie realizes Louis' deception and tips off his mother. Louis attempts to tell Jessica that his way of dealing with people, by being nice, is more effective and attempts to convince three Dine and Dashers to pay their bill or find a way to work things out, and while he believes he has appealed to them, they leave anyways, prompting Jessica to handle the matter. Louis then returns home and plays basketball with his sons.[2]
In order to boost his restaurant popularity, Louis forbade Jessica from hanging out with her new friend Honey, citing that the other neighborhood women hated her. During a NASCAR block party, Louis witnessed Jessica sing a song announcing her desire to continue being friends with Honey, and told a neighbor who complimented Jessica's voice that she was a singer at the restaurant.[3]
Steve Chen, Louis' former boss and the husband to his sister-in-law Connie, soon paid them a visit, with both parties pretending to be more affluent. Both men got a perm as an indication of success, with Louis pretending to have a dedicated fax line and a busy restaurant, while Steve relished tales of a successful business which led him to consider opening a second store, all while boasting that his Miata was new. Louis was forced to admit to Steve that the restaurant wasn't doing too good, but was able to come over the top when it was revealed that Steve's car was in fact used and that his family was in severe debt, which made him and Jessica content.[4]
The restaurant's success began to grow, and Jessica, fearing that the success would lead to lawsuits, wished to have the employees be given a seminar on sexual harassment. However, after Jessica ends up sexually harassing the employees, Louis hires Dusty Nugget, a repeat sexual harasser who is on a plea deal. However, Louis' relation with Dusty is strained when Louis and Jessica insult him in Mandarin, only to find out Dusty knows Mandarin. After Eddie gets in trouble for introducing the students to a dirty movie, which was in fact one of Dusty's sexual harassment videos, Louis is tasked with having "the talk" with Eddie. However, rather than go by the textbook, Louis elects to give him a realistic and natural conversation, which Eddie appreciates.[5]
When Eddie asks him for money to buy "Shaq Fu", Louis instead puts him to work at Cattleman's Ranch, wanting Eddie to work hard and learn the value of money the way his father taught him. Eddie begins working as the "fajita boy" before deciding to not show up out of the blue, after having earned only eighteen dollars. Louis is reminded by his mother that her husband never spent time with the kids or showed affection, and Louis decides he does not want to be that kind of father; Louis pays Eddie a visit in his room and gives him money to buy Shaq Fu. Louis has Mitch take over Eddie's duties, although Mitch fails. Eddie then shows up at the restaurant with the game, explaining that he wishes to earn the game himself, adding that he did not come to this realization until after he purchased Shaq Fu. Eddie gives Louis the game to hold on to while he becomes what Louis affectionately refers to "fajita man." After the two return home, Jessica informs them that she has become a realtor.[6]
Following the growing success of Cattleman's Ranch, Louis purchased a billboard in a prime spot to advertise the restaurant, only for the billboard to become vandalized, which he initially attributed to children pulling a prank. However, after being invited to a country club and heading there for a night out with Jessica, the pair witnessed that the billboard had been vandalized once more, with a newfound message decrying Louis as a thief. Taking Jessica to a Golden Saddle, Louis confessed to Jessica that he had stolen the idea of his restaurant from them, ripping off their design as he did not have the $50,000 franchise fee. Jessica assures him that the restaurants aren't identical, as Louis had changed the bear color and added wanted posters for customers with bounced checks, and adds that she prefers a good businessman to a visionary any day. Louis and Jessica are then approached by Finnegan, the owner of Golden Saddle, who reveals that he poached Mitch from Cattleman's by doubling his salary. Although Louis and Jessica are initially miffed, they let Mitch go easily once Mitch offers to return to them if they double his salary as well.[7]
With Mitch gone, Louis hired Wyatt, an experienced and highly qualified worker who embodied the Western lifestyle, garnering Cattleman's further success. However, Louis began to feel that the smooth running restaurant was too perfect, as they weren't facing any hiccups anymore. When Mitch returned to get his job back, with Louis correctly deducing it was because the Golden Saddle conducted drug tests, Louis agreed to rehire him and fire Wyatt. However, Louis could not bring himself to fire Wyatt and attempted to pawn it off on Mitch and Jessica. Jessica and Mitch both refused, but when Louis tells Mitch that the two hosts would have to split their salaries because he couldn't afford the two of them, Mitch fired Wyatt.[8]
The success of the restaurant allows Louis to purchase a commercial hair dryer for his home, which Evan and Emery use to play games. After giving Eddie advice on how to be near Nicole, likening the situation to opening and marketing a restaurant, he tells Jessica, who had been lying about gaining her realtor's license, that he would support her whether she chose to go through with it or not. After Jessica gets her license, Louis stays up at night verbally playing pretend with the machine, situated in their bedroom, much to Jessica's ire.[9]
At the restaurant, Louis is given sexual innuendo by his employee, Vanessa, although he is oblivious to her advances. Returning home, Louis helps take care of his son Evan when he gets the chickenpox, isolating him from his siblings and running him an oatmeal bath. At the same time, Jessica's ex-boyfriend from college, Oscar Chow, comes to stay with them for a short while. Jessica wonders why Louis isn't jealous that her ex-boyfriend is staying in the same house as her, and he replies that it is because Oscar is gay. Jessica refuses to believe Oscar is gay, with Louis telling her that her "gaydar" is broken, although Jessica soon realizes the truth. However, Jessica also discovers that Oscar was in love with Louis during their time in college. Jessica tells Louis that his "lovedar" is broken and that he cannot tell when people are in love with him.
Louis goes to talk to Oscar, who reveals that he is in love with him and that they even dated in college, much to Louis' shock. Louis had interpreted their weekly dinners as "friend-dinners", with the pair sharing one dessert not being a romantic thing but something they had done because they were broke; Oscar had even introduced him to his parents, although Louis had believed that was due to their friendship. Louis apologizes to Oscar for giving him any misunderstandings, and Oscar later tells him that it was Louis who gave him the courage to come out to the world as a gay man. Louis and Oscar go to the Denim Turtle, a lesbian bar that Jessica often frequents. There, Louis makes amends with Jessica, telling her that everyone else should be jealous of him for having her. Louis then goes home, and both he and Jessica watch Oscar's audition tape for Aladdin on Ice; Jessica proudly states that Oscar was her boyfriend, and Louis responds that Oscar was his boyfriend as well.[10]
Jessica is tasked to sell a house situated on 44 West 44th Street, which is troubling for her as she is superstitious due to the number 4 being considered bad luck in Chinese culture due to it being pronounced sì (四), which sounds like the Chinese word for "death", sǐ (死). While she manages to sell the house with ever stepping foot inside of it, she refuses to cash in a check for $7,500 due to the check number being '4444'. While Louis is reluctantly supportive of her decision and watches as she rips up the check and throws it away, he tapes the pieces together and secretly cashes in the check, using it purchase a mechanical bull for the restaurant. However, when Eddie trips on the bull's cord and breaks his arm, Louis asks his sons not to tell Jessica and informs them that it is okay to tell a white lie at times. Louis soon receives a visit from Child Services after Eddie gave conflicting reasons at school for why his arm broke; Louis tells Eddie to tell her the truth, that he wasn't abused at home, although Eddie reveals the truth about the bull.
Jessica becomes angry that Louis cashed in the check with 'bad luck', claiming that they have invited the bad luck into their home and that was the reason Eddie was injured. Louis attempts to dismiss her notions as mere superstition, but when she tells him to remove his jade necklace, which he wears for superstitious reasons, he relents. Jessica then has a Chinese ritual done at the restaurant to ward off the bad luck much to the amusement of the Caucasian workers, particularly Vanessa, Mitch and Nancy, who comment on their "weird rituals" before throwing salt behind their backs. Returning home, Louis receives tax advice from Scottie Pippen, but then shoots a basketball through a net, proudly proclaiming that he scored against Scottie Pippen, much to Pippen's irritation.[11]
Louis and Jessica are called in by Principal Thomas of Palms Elementary School to volunteer or donate; somehow this causes Louis to be assigned as coach to the boys' basketball team at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, run by Principal Hunter. Since Louis played semi-pro basketball in Taiwan, Eddie believes he will teach their team Taiwanese-style basketball, which he imagines to be gravity and physics defying feats of athleticism. Louis tries to impart on the team the notion of working together as a team, since the other boys, including Eddie, do not really play, instead allowing Dmitri, a much taller, stronger and mature young man on their team to single-handedly play the game for them. After Louis accidentally injures Dmitri, rendering him unable to play the game, he still tells them that they could win, likening the situation to the film The Mighty Ducks.
However, the opposing basketball team has a "Dmitri" of their own, and they lose horribly. Louis speaks to the referee about a mercy rule and suggests that they forfeit the game and instead go to a restaurant, although Eddie rallies the boys, claiming that while they can't win, they could still beat the other team. The boys proceed to assault and cause technical violations against the opposing team; while they lost the game, they set the record for the most fouls in the process. Louis then returned to Cattleman's, where he witnessed Emery and Evan stating they didn't want to do their school play anymore, much to Jessica's joy, who wanted her kids to have work ethic rather than fun. Louis asks her if it would be so bad for their kids to have both, adding that her parents could have gotten her the pony doll she wanted while still giving her a strong work ethic. Jessica then allows Evan and Emery to do the school play in its original format, with Louis in attendance. Louis then makes a few phone calls to Taiwan to locate the pony doll Jessica wanted as a child and presents it to her.[12]
Jessica urges Louis to purchase a membership for them at the North Orlando Country Club after the Huangs were invited, believing it to be an ultimate symbol of their success. While Louis is reluctant to spend that much money, Jessica urges him to give it a chance and he is eventually won over. However, when Marvin Ellis responds to the Huangs' statements of them being the first Asian-American members that he forgot they were Chinese, this upsets Jessica, who fears they are losing hold of their ethnic identity. Upon realizing that she eats chip-wichs, watches Melrose Place, makes macaroni-and-cheese dinners and allows shoes to be worn in the house, along with the fact that her children cannot speak or understand Mandarin as well as Eddie's love for Jamaica, Jessica overhauls the entire family to be more culturally Chinese. She tells Louis to cancel the club membership, claiming that they cannot surround themselves by white people and attend country clubs if they are to maintain their cultural identity.
However, Louis has grown to like the club and has forged business deals through them, with the idea to open up another location, dubbed Cattleman's Express. Louis lies to Jessica about cancelling the membership, but she realizes he went to the club due to his aftershave, although Louis discovers that she has stayed home to watch Melrose Place. Jessica laments that she likes the show and she likes making macaroni-and-cheese dinners and that she hates that she likes American culture, although Louis tells her that it is okay to like it and that they don't have to give up American culture to maintain their Chinese identity. After witnessing Eddie defend China at school, Louis tells Jessica that the kids would be fine. Shortly after, they all head to the country club, with Louis finally swapping out the family minivan's Washington, D.C. plates with Florida ones; custom ones that read "SO CHINEEZ".[13]
Season 2[]
Louis informed his family that he was going away for two days for a franchisee conference; however, when Jessica noticed that he packed casual things including swimwear, she became suspicious and suggested that the whole family join him on his business trip, located at the Gator World hotel. Arriving at the hotel, Gator Carol informed Jessica that Louis had faxed his driver's license over in order to reserve a massage and a prime cut rib at a steakhouse. Louis attempted to keep up the pretext of it being a business trip, including seminars, although he was eventually caught by Jessica.
Admitting to Jessica that was indeed a vacation, he explained how his past business trips were all vacations he took because he needed to do so, with Jessica replying that she cannot take a vacation without the entire family falling apart. He then tells Jessica to try relaxing, taking over her duties and handling the vacation himself. Louis sends Eddie to Gator World and explains room service to Emery and Evan, allowing them to try it out. However, he is soon struck with a massive hotel bill filled with multiple hidden fees and charges. He approaches Jessica, who tells him that she couldn't warn him of such a predicament because she was relaxing. Louis then comes to the realization that he has the luxury of relaxing because Jessica looks out for him and the family, and Jessica takes the bill from him, successfully getting the service charges waived and a discount on the hotel fee.[14]
After not receiving hugs from his sons and hearing Marvin gush about how he still viewed Nicole as his little girl, Louis began to desire having a daughter of his own. Returning home, he asked Jessica, although she declined, citing that the "shop [was] closed." Louis then placed calendars of baby girls around the house for Jessica to find; when she did, she informed him that baby girls became teenage girls and neither of them wanted that. Following Eddie's depressive bout after Nicole met Chris, which led to him playing "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men on repeat, Louis sang the song at dinner along with Emery. After hearing Jessica talk to the heartbroken Eddie, Louis declared that he did not want a daughter anymore as he would murder the boy who would break her heart.[15]
Louis then goes to the dealership himself and buys a brand new 1995 Honda Accord for full retail price, much to Jessica's shock and ire. Believing Louis got scammed, Jessica goes to the dealership and returns the car for the exact value Louis bought it for, although upon exiting the dealership, she realizes that Louis bought the car for full price on purpose in order to have her revisit a dealership. Jessica and Louis return to the dealership to repurchase the car, although Jessica claims that the car is now used and therefore should be sold at the price of a used Accord. Louis asks to speak to the manager as only the manager can authorize a deal, but Clark, the floor attendant, claims he is the manager. Jessica and Louis take Clark on an hour and a half test drive to the docks in Tampa, witnessing the 1996 Honda Accords in cargo, and Clark admits he is not the manager. Jessica and Louis return to the dealership and face various employees who claim to be the manager before encountering the real manager himself, who is none other than Shaquille O'Neal. Jessica negotiates a deal with Shaq and gets the brand new Accord at a discounted price, with the free floor mats and autographed shoe by Shaq to give to Eddie. Jessica is overjoyed at successfully winning a car negotiation and returns home with Louis. The next day, they appreciate their new car, although they continued driving the minivan out of fear of ruining the Accord.[16]
While working at Cattleman's Ranch, Louis received a phone call from Principal Hunter at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in order to chaperone at Eddie's school dance, dubbed the Fall Ball. Louis was enthusiastic, informing Hunter that while working at a factory in New Jersey, he watched John Hughes' Pretty in Pink over a hundred times and it was the closest he got to an American school dance, and believes he can now experience it vicariously through Eddie. However, in his attempts to craft the perfect school dance John Hughes would be proud of, he puts a lot of pressure and expectation on Eddie, who decides to ditch the dance and stay home. Eventually, the pair comes to amends and Eddie goes to the Fall Ball, dancing with Alison Olsen as Louis watched on proudly.[17]
When Halloween rolled around, Louis was very excited about finally being able to truly celebrate the holiday now that they lived in the suburbs, as they were not able to do so back when they lived in their Chinatown apartment. Louis dressed himself as Mr. T and bought a cap for Jessica, a "bow-hawk" as he put it, so that Jessica could be Mrs. T, although she refused as she was not interested in Halloween nor its celebration. Louis purchased decorations for Halloween, only to be told by Evan and Emery that their street was considered a dead street on Halloween, and that the homeowners' usually turned off all the lights and went to nearby Highland Avenue where many Disney Imagineers lived instead. Wanting to decorate the house and experience trick-or-treaters, Louis attended a Homeowners Association meeting and convinced the neighborhood to decorate their street. Jessica later informed him that her new investment property was about to be egged by a group of teenage boys, although Louis dismissed it as a Halloween prank. While he enjoyed Halloween, he realized it wasn't complete without Jessica and rounded up his sons and their friends to egg the boys, although the plan failed when the eggs cracked. He later witnessed his children revel in their candy while snuggling on the couch with Jessica, who wore a Mrs. T T-shirt as a compromise.[18]
One week later, Louis was working at the steakhouse when Mitch notified him that two celebrities wished to meet him, which turned out to be Gus and Mey-Mey, the two hosts of Good Morning Orlando. Louis gave them impressions of Sylvester Stallone and Donald Duck, which amused and impressed the hosts, causing them to invite him to be interviewed on their show. While Louis was initially hesitant, Jessica agreed on his behalf as the increased exposure for their restaurant would increase their income. Going on the show, Louis attempted to promote his steakhouse, although the hosts preferred hearing Louis' imitations, which he gleefully did. However, returning home, Jessica berated his actions, reminding him that Chinese people were rarely featured in a positive light on television and thus they must present their best face, reminding him of the character Long Duk Dong from one of his favorite John Hughes movies, Sixteen Candles, whom Louis despised because he was often asked by white friends to imitate the character, a racist and stereotypical Chinese caricature. While Louis dismissed her thoughts initially, he began to imagine his customers, who loved the interview, asking him to imitate Long Duk Dong; as a result, Louis went back to the studio for a second interview to discuss race and yell at the hosts, prompting him to be banned from the studio. He later realized that there was nothing wrong about him doing imitations he loved and people appreciating him for it, and interrupted a live broadcast by the network to apologize to the hosts and showcase his Michael Jackson impression.[19]
On November 9, 1995, the day before Eddie's 12th birthday, Jessica and Louis were preparing to decorate the house and throw Eddie a birthday party. At that moment, Eddie returned from a "sleepover" prematurely, upset about the fact that due to Jessica's rules, he was the only one who didn't get to actually sleep over at a sleepover, although Jessica replied that she was protecting him from pedophilia. Jessica then informed Eddie that just because they lived in the suburbs didn't mean he would have birthdays at a bowling alley or pizza with a rat (referring to Chuck E. Cheese), although much to her surprise, Eddie responded that he didn't want a birthday party or cake , wishing to spend the day with his friends at the mall. No longer having to throw a party, Jessica and Louis decided to go to work instead. The next day, at the investment property as it was now treated for termites, Honey notified her that Nicole had once told her she didn't want a party, and when they obliged, she cried for a week straight as she actually wanted a surprise party. Jessica then contacts Louis to get balloons and decide to throw Eddie a surprise party, and head to the mall to invite his friends. However, arriving at the mall, they realize that Eddie has thrown himself his own party, having invited his own friends and arranged to have a cake; Louis states that Eddie probably wanted to have a party with just friends his age and no adults, only to see that Mitch was invited, much to his surprise.
After Eddie returns home, Jessica and Louis confront Eddie on his secret party, with Louis focusing on the fact that Mitch was invited and wondering when they became friends. Eddie explains that he cannot be himself around them due to their rules and expectations and that he wanted to be himself and with his friends on his birthday. Going to bed, Jessica tells Louis that she believes he thinks Eddie is right about them being too strict, and Louis responds that they could loosen the rules. As a result, Jessica states that the next time Eddie has a sleepover, he could attend, and Eddie reveals that he has an open invite for a sleepover at Dave's that very night; while Jessica is reluctant, citing that she does not trust Dave and that not even Dave's father wishes to stay at the Selby house, she is coaxed by Louis into agreeing. Jessica soon heads to Honey's house to spy on him, with Louis following her to stop her, where she witnesses Eddie having fun. The two then return home, opting to stay up all night to wait for Eddie, only for Eddie to return in the middle of the night, claiming that he didn't have fun anymore and that while he liked hanging out with his friends, he liked staying at home, too. Jessica then offers to make birthday noodles and Eddie agrees; Louis points out that they take six hours to make, to which Jessica replies that she would still do it for her son, and the three stay up to make and eat the noodles. The next day, Louis goes to Cattleman's Ranch and sees Louis and Mitch talking amicably. He asks them when they became friends, and they reveal that they became friends while serving as fajita men during the fajita craze, and show off the scars they received. As a result, Louis shows them a scar on his leg that an old man with dementia gave him.[20]
Louis was soon informed by Jessica that Grandma Chu had chosen them to host Thanksgiving that year. Louis was enthusiastic to host the holiday, which he dubbed "Huangsgiving", and had a family meeting to divvy up roles and assignments. Louis opted for individual Cornish hens instead of the family having to share one roast duck like they did at Steve and Connie's house. As the guests arrived, Louis aided Jessica; when Connie attempted to cause a scene by announcing that she couldn't share a room with Steve, Louis immediately responded that it wasn't a problem and that Steve could sleep on the sofa, which was a pull-out, with Jessica being impressed with his quick response. Louis then told Jessica that together Connie was no match for them and instructed her to go to sleep while he spent the night prepping for the upcoming dinner. However, as the rest of the family went to bed, Steve convinced Louis to have one drink, which resulted in many more. As a result, Louis became increasingly drunk and woke up the next morning on the driveway with a hungover.
As he entered the house, Jessica was aghast that no prepwork had been done and realized off of his smell that he had consumed copious amounts of alcohol. Louis apologized for the last night's activities but assured her that they would get back on track. They were then interrupted by the sound of a doorbell, which Louis took to being his Cornish hens, promising Jessica that he would have them brined, roasted, and on the table by 6:00pm; however, when the hens arrived, he was surprised to find out that they were live ones, prompting him to secure a turkey from his restaurant instead. Louis was then tasked with putting the turkey in the oven, which he did, although he simply turned the oven light on and not the oven itself. Moments after, Marvin and Honey arrived, as Louis had invited them over for Thanksgiving and to play football while he was drunk. Louis tried to extricate himself from the game as he had to help Jessica, although as Jessica wished to give the appearance that everything was going smoothly, simply told the guests that it was just finishing touches and told Louis to go play. Jessica attempted to inform Louis shortly after that the turkey was raw, but he was then knocked unconscious by Oscar Chow, who threw a football at his head. After Jessica purchased a turkey fryer, the bird was cooked in less than an hour and the family enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, Louis asked Jessica if she was still mad that he got drunk and ruined their Thanksgiving, to which she replied that was super mad but that she would wait until tomorrow once the guests left.[21]
Louis was contacted by his old roommate, Barry, whom he lived with for two months in New Jersey. Barry was in town and needed a place to stay, and Louis allowed him to stay at their home; however, Jessica was against this, citing that Barry was a leech and that he had asked them for money before and would ask them for money again. Louis refuted this, believing that Barry had changed. For good measure, Louis still asked Barry if he came to ask for money, although Barry responded that he had money now as he sold new and used goods for a flexible price for people worldwide. Louis then took Barry out to lunch at Cattleman's, where Barry revealed that he did not actually work in a business that sold goods worldwide but that it was actually an idea he had, and that he needed investors, claiming that Louis would not be giving him money per se but rather would be investing in a business.
Louis returned home and notified Jessica that she was right and that he would have to get rid of Barry; at the same time, Jessica was dealing with an issue in friendship too, having cut off Honey, and Louis advised her to apologize to Honey rather than to pretend like nothing had ever happened. Soon after, Louis packed Barry's suitcase and found Barry in their kitchen finishing their mayonnaise. Barry asked Louis to buy more, to which Louis responded that he would not only not buy him mayo, but that he would not be giving him any money and that he would have to find someplace else to stay. Barry tried to use their friendship as leverage, although when Louis asked him what his last name was, Barry did not know. As Barry left, Louis told him that he wasn't interested in his "garagesale.com", and the exiting Barry announced that his website was in fact called Ebay.[22]
As the Christmas season began, Jessica began to decorate the house, including "Jessicatown", a small Christmas town of her creation where she gave all the character statues there names, personas and backgrounds. Louis walks in and appraises her town, sadly noting the gap where the bakery was meant to be, that they were unable to locate and purchase. Louis notices the discarded Santa and remarks that Jessica still has the same feelings for Santa, to which she elaborates that she does not like him as he does not possess a higher degree and is either an over-glorified toymaker or a deliveryman. She wishes to improve on Santa, and decides to tell Evan that Santa is a scientist and graduated from Princeton, using his degree to patent his high-tech sleigh and using the money from the patent to make all the toys. This causes issues as the family is heading to Cattleman's Ranch for a holiday breakfast where "Santa" would be present, and Evan would no doubt ask "Santa" a ton of math and science questions. Jessica and Louis realize that they need an older white man who is smart and enjoys having children on his lap, and they decide to ask Marvin, who has his much younger wife Honey on his lap. Jessica presents Marvin with binders on math and science in case Evan asks questions and Marvin agrees.
While Marvin does a stellar job at Cattleman's, Mitch arrives dressed as Santa, as Louis had originally given him the job. Evan is confused at the existence of two Santas, one of them being Mitch, and Jessica decides to "tell him the truth"; that the real Santa is Chinese, much to Louis' surprise. Louis decides to play along, explaining that Santa is indeed Chinese as he wears red and explaining that the white Santas are because he needs to present a white face, citing his hiring of Mitch as the face of Cattleman's as an example. Returning home, Louis berates Jessica's attempts to modify Santa, telling her that certain traditions do not need to be altered. Louis and Jessica soon attend Evan's holiday concert at school, but faces embarrassment when Evan openly declares that Santa is Chinese. Jessica decides to deal with the problem by dressing up as Santa and convincing Evan that the real Santa is a Chinese woman named lao ban Santa, "lao ban" being Mandarin for "boss". Louis wakes up in the middle of the night to see the dressed up Jessica in his bed, although she asks him to keep quiet, promising to explain things later. The family then enjoys their Christmas morning and he witnessed Emery and Evan present Jessica with gifts as Evan opens his own gifts. Later that night, Jessica gives him a binder containing all the information regarding lao ban Santa; when Louis points out certain inconsistencies, however, Jessica retorts that he shouldn't try to improve on an established character's tradition, much to his chagrin.[23]
A few months later, as Chinese New Year approached, Louis notified his workers at Cattleman's that he would be heading back to Washington D.C. to spend the holiday with his family. However, Louis believed the flight back to D.C. was on Friday the 15th, whereas the 15th was actually Thursday, the day before. As a result, the Huang family was stranded in Orlando, where there weren't any other Asian people they were aware of, which prevented them from celebrating Chinese New Year. Louis decided to go through the White Pages phone book to find Chinese surnames; while he failed to do so, Jessica discovered a number for the Asian-American Association of Orlando. The pair called the number and were greeted by a person named Rick on the other end, who informed them that they would be hosting a Chinese New Year festivity nearby.
Louis took the family to the AAAoO's party, only to discover that Rick and most of the members were white. Louis noted that there were Indians and Russians who were members and admitted that India and parts of Russia were in fact located in Asia, making them Asians, but was miffed at discovering that despite the AAAoO "celebrating" Chinese New Year, they had no knowledge of Chinese New Year celebrations, including what red envelopes were. The family then returned home, although Louis stepped out to get pastries. He initially stated them to be pork buns, much to Jessica's delight, only to immediately disappoint when he informed her they were actually jelly-filled doughnuts. Upset that he had ruined the holiday, Louis went to Cattleman's and rallied the workers there as well as their friends to create a makeshift Chinese New Year's celebration, with Mitch and Nancy as the Chinese dragon performing the dragon dance while their friends, such as Deidre and Carol-Joan, supplying the fruits and explosives while Honey had contacts who could bring in Chinese lanterns. He then brought his family to the restaurant, and everyone enjoyed a nice dinner.[24]
As the Huang family were preparing to go Marvin and Honey's house for dinner, Louis noticed that Emery was hanging all the Valentines cards he got on his wall, which he dubbed his "love wall". Emery informed his parents that he got his romantic side from them, although Louis pointed out that he and Jessica had met at a seafood restaurant waiting in line for the bathroom. The family then went next door for dinner. Afterwards, Honey told Marvin that all Louis and Jessica spoke about was work and since the next day was Valentine's Day, they should offer to take the boys for the night in order to allow Louis and Jessica a romantic night alone. Louis and Jessica agreed, claiming they would go out for dinner and dancing, although in reality the pair chose to stay at home and enjoy a quiet night of filing their taxes. Emery soon walked in on them and was surprised that this is how they spent their alone time together, and began to dismantle his love wall, citing that he thought he wanted what his parents had, but that he wasn't sure. He then added that he had never seen the pair share a romantic kiss, and while Louis and Jessica attempted to do so, they ended up hurting the other.
They relocated to the kitchen, claiming they were still romantic but just couldn't kiss in front of an audience. As they continued to file their taxes, Jessica pointed out that their van was serviced and she wasn't aware of it, and Louis responds that he had forgotten to tell her but that he had done it as she was driving important clients and he wanted her to make a good impression, unaware that Emery was listening. As Emery had been told by Marvin that real romance was in the small, loving gestures, Emery reassembled his love wall. Louis and Jessica walked past his room and witnessed it, and he apologized to them for his behavior, giving them a tax rebate love coupon as a token.[25]
Louis purchased a computer and Internet access and set it up at home as his family returned from grocery shopping. Louis then told them that they would have to take a course on how to use it, although Evan immediately began using the computer and the Internet as he was already well-versed. Evan searched up Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse and a review it was given by the website "Phil's Phaves", with Emery pointing out that Cattleman's had been given a B-minus, which Louis and Jessica declared to be a Chinese "F". Jessica initially dismissed the website's review but they were both aghast when they discovered it had over a hundred views. Louis declared that he wished he could reach out to Phil and have him return to Cattleman's and give it a better review, and Evan, on his parents' behalf, contacted the webmaster of the site and extended the invitation. That night, Louis and Jessica stared at the website's view count in hopes it did not increase, although Evan notified them that they would have to refresh the page, which revealed an increase in page visits. Evan then decided to see whether they received an e-mail back, which confused Louis, who wondered how they would get mail at this hour of night, although Evan opened up their inbox and informed them that Phil had responded.
Louis and Jessica added new decor to the restaurant and gave the employees hats in anticipation of Phil's visit, only to find out that Phil was none other than Phillip Goldstein. Louis and Jessica believed now that Phillip knew they owned the restaurant he would change his grade, although Phillip refused. Louis and Jessica had Phillip waited on-foot, which Phillip detested, and he gave them an updated review with a lower grade, that of a C-plus. Louis and Jessica then went to the Goldstein house to talk with his mother, who refused to have the site taken down as she and her husband advocated journalistic integrity to their son. Louis then asked to use their restroom, although in reality he stole the mouse from their computer, believing it crippled Phillip's access to the Internet and would shut down the site, only for Evan to later point out that the site would still be active regardless.
Jessica then had Evan create "PhillipGoldsteinHasBadOpinions.com" to slander Phillip, giving Phillip the choice of either having his name smeared or to take down his bad review of Cattleman's. However, Phillip merely informed his principal and the police about the cyberbullying, and claimed that while he had his suspicions (having confronted Louis and Jessica before), he would not oust the perpetrators as he had no proof. As Officer Bryson declared that their cyber crimes unit would investigate the matter during a parent assembly at the school, Jessica got up and blamed Louis for buying the computer, prompting Louis to announce that the website was Jessica's doing. As a result of their admission, the pair were given thirty hours of community service to fulfill, and they decided to store away their home computer for the time being.[26]
Louis invited his family to watch what he referred to as the "Asian Super Bowl", which were Michael Chang's tennis matches. Louis informed his sons that they were lucky to have an Asian pro athlete to look up to, adding that he was younger, all he had was the Asian referee, whom he still supported even when he made the wrong calls. Eddie and Evan left, as they found tennis to be boring, although Emery was immersed and interested in the sport. Jessica was initially dismissive of the sport until hearing that Michael Chang made millions of dollars, and wished to foster Emery's interest in tennis as well as dissuade him from his ambitions of being a flight attendant. The trio headed to the country club to play tennis, where they were surprised at Emery's skill in the game despite never having played before. Tennis pro Billie Jean King, who had been watching, praised Emery's talent, informing Louis and Jessica that he had an innate skill for the game. Jessica then attempted to have Emery receive lessons from the country club, but upon hearing that lessons were $90 an hour, instead decided to have Louis take a few lessons so that he could teach Emery second-hand for free. Louis wanted to play in father-son competitions and have a tennis rivalry with his son, adding that he would pass his skills on to Emery and Emery on to his son, dreaming that one day Emery would beat him on the court and they wouldn't talk for years until making amends on his death bed. Jessica, on the other hand, wanted Emery to gain athletic scholarships and become wealthy. Jessica became his manager and Louis his coach, with Jessica making him victory dumplings and both of them rubbing his legs after his victories. Since Jessica wanted Emery to have no distractions, she forced Eddie to give up his room to Emery, causing Eddie to share the bunk bed with Evan.
Jessica created an extreme training schedule for Emery, which resulted in tennis, school and then more tennis for every day without a break. Louis was against this, claiming that he just wanted Emery to develop a healthy passion for the sport and that Jessica was going overboard as Emery was only ten. This resulted in Jessica telling Emery that in order to truly focus on his career, he would have to fire Louis, giving Emery a speech to use as well. While Emery did fire Louis, Emery ended up using Jessica's own speech to fire her as well, instead taking on Billie Jean King as his coach and manager, as she had offered to do it for free. While lying in bed at home, Jessica and Louis overheard Billie Jean King training Emery at night, where she "rewarded" him by making him run laps. Jessica and Louis then attempted to watch Emery's games, but since Jessica often shouted and belittled the umpire at Emery's games, she was banned from attending the tournament. Emery eventually won the tournament but was informed that he would have to move to a tennis academy four hours away in Coral Gables to advance his career, which he did not want to do. As she did not want her son to move away from her, Jessica instantly agreed, informing him that she would support whatever decision he made, only for Emery to respond that he still wanted to travel the world as a flight attendant, irking her. Jessica then procured a brochure for space camp, which she left on Emery's bed, informing him that astronauts were like the flight attendants of space. As Louis attempted to remind her that she had agreed to support Emery no matter what, she added that if her son was going to be a flight attendant, he would have to be the best kind of flight attendant.[27]
Jessica began to get irritated as Louis kept crashing her "girl time" with Honey, as Louis was no longer staying behind to close up the restaurant, having defected those duties to Mitch instead. The pair attempt to hide at the Denim Turtle, although Louis follows them there, too. Honey asks Jessica if Louis was as 'present' in D.C. as he is now, and Jessica explains that he was not as he spent his free time playing pool with a friend named Hank. Jessica then finds three pool halls in their vicinity and ushers Louis to reinvigorate his love for pool, wanting him to find a friend, thereby spending less time with her and Honey, explaining to Honey that while Louis is friendly, he doesn't have a close or best friend in Orlando. Jessica is initially enthusiastic about Louis successfully making a friend named Tony and playing pool with 'him' at night, only for Louis to reveal that Tony is a woman. Jessica becomes irate at the thought of Louis hanging out with another woman, claiming that adults should not have friends of the opposite sex. Honey attempts to comfort her, assuring her that as it is the '90s now and that adults could have opposite sex friends, citing that she and Marvin were friends first before realizing that Marvin was married at the time and that he had cheated on his wife to be with Honey.
Jessica and Honey make their way to the pool hall, witnessing Tony and Louis play, with Honey admitting that Tony looks sexy. Jessica then approaches Tony and asks her why she has a "man's name" (she reveals it is short for Antonia) and calls her a demon and a witch before ushering Louis away. Jessica later tells Louis that he cannot hang out with a woman at night and adds several other stipulations, such as the woman not being younger than her, could not weigh less than her, could not or ever wanted to be a gymnast, or be taller than her. After Louis assures her that he isn't interested in Tony other than someone to play pool with, Jessica offers a compromise: Louis could play pool with Tony, but it would have be at the Denim Turtle, under the watchful eye of Deb and the other women.[28]
Louis initiates a take-out service as Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse, known as Cattleman's To-Go. As he returns home, his three sons gleefully announce his return and he tackles them, playing with them and presenting them with chocolate cake. Jessica instructs the boys to go to bed, although Louis allows them to eat the cake in their rooms; Jessica adds that they must brush their teeth afterwards, and Louis silently informs them that they do not have to. As Louis and Jessica discuss his parenting, Louis attempts to move away from the situation by showing off a dance move for her, although he ends up slamming his knee hard on the kitchen floor. Louis is then given a cast and a wheelchair, and as he cannot get dressed, Jessica offers to manage things at Cattleman's in his absence. Louis is reluctant given the bad nature between Jessica and his employees, although he eventually relents albeit with one caveat – she is not allowed to fire anyone whatsoever. While Jessica agrees, Louis goes a step further and pages Mitch to not only notify him that Jessica is interim manager, but that Jessica wasn't allowed to fire them.
The kids return home from school to find Louis there, although Louis gets uncomfortable and leaves, telling his sons he was going out to a diner on a coffee break. Jessica heads to the diner after work to find him, and he tells her that he is the fun dad with the "tight two" tactic: dazzle and entertain his kids for two minutes before leaving, citing that his father did that and that he saw his father for "ten minutes" of his life yet idolized him. He goes on to add that he is the good cop while Jessica is the bad cop, and that he cannot spend all day with his kids without them realizing he was just a regular guy. Regardless, Jessica orders him stay home all the next day, and Louis starts off by rapid-firing multiple jokes. When they do not land, he decides to watch TV with the boys, although his mother is watching one of her Chinese programs. Louis decides to his own English dub live, although the boys do not find it funny, instead asking if they can draw on his cast. Louis agrees to let them do so, and upon finding out that they find the rash underneath the cast gross yet interesting, allows them to cut it off for fun.
Jessica returns home and finds the cast-less Louis, taking him and the kids to the hospital. As she goes to speak with the doctor, Louis finds the kids being bored in his presence and, panicking, gives them $50 for the vending machines. Jessica returns and asks where the kids are, and he tells them where they went. She then tells him that the wait time is six hours and leaves to return to the restaurant; as Louis proclaims that she cannot leave him alone, she replies that he should spend the remaining hours with his children. As his boys return with a plethora of snacks, he confesses to them that he is not a fun dad, although to his surprise his sons reveal that they find his 'entertainment' a little overbearing at times and that they just want to hang out with him. Louis, surprised, asked if that meant he didn't have to entertain them or be a fun dad, and Emery replies that as their father, all he needed to do was be present and spend time with them, much to Louis' content. Some time later, Louis and Jessica returned to the hospital to have his new cast removed, although to Louis' shock the muscle mass in his right leg had deteriorated, prompting him to refer to as a 'baby leg', to which Jessica quipped that it did not smell like a baby's leg.[29]
As the North Orlando Chili Cook-Off was commencing, Louis signed up to compete, having dabbled in chili contests back in D.C. Louis was informed by Marvin that he, too, was competing, revealing that he had won the last five years in a row and had a hog ready in the shed to use in his pot. Louis then enlisted Eddie to be his chili apprentice, which Eddie was enthusiastic over. The pair headed to Cattleman's kitchen to work on their chili. However, after finally finishing it tasting it, and informing his father that it was "not bad", Louis dumped the chili in the trash, telling Eddie that "not bad" wasn't good enough to win. Eddie suggested they they toast cumin in some bacon fat, although Louis immediately cut him off, notifying him that the reason he never had Jessica come into the kitchen and help him make chili is because she too offers alternatives and attempts to modify the recipe. As a result of his opinions not being acknowledged, Eddie quits beings his chili apprentice.
At the cook-off, Louis notices Marvin's table, where Marvin has displayed his winning trophies and is posing in case someone takes a photo of him. While looking at the contestants sign up sheet, Louis notices the name "Big Daddy Huang" and claims that they made a mistake, only to find out that Big Daddy Huang is not referring to him but Eddie. Louis scoffs at Eddie's decision to enter, citing that Eddie had only just learned how to make chili and had been doing it for only three days, although Eddie replies that he has learned the basics and must break the shackles that bind him to his father. Louis then replies: "Like the French candle says in Beauty and the Beast, "Be My Guest.""
At the end of the cook-off, Louis approached Eddie's table, where Eddie offered him a taste. Louis was impressed by Eddie's chili, uttering in disbelief that Eddie could not have made it from scratch. Gus and Mey-Mey from Good Morning Orlando appeared to announce the winners, notifying that Marvin had been disqualified as he had used pre-cooked meat in his chili: a Whopper from Burger King, causing him to lose his five prior trophies as well and to be escorted off the grounds. The three finalists were then picked: Eddie, Louis and a woman named Gloria. Gloria won, but believing pride was a sin, relinquished the trophy to Eddie and Louis, who took it home and displayed it in front of their window to Marvin, who was led to believe that Louis had won the trophy.[30]
Louis and Jessica began to work on their "week in review", where they sat down and scheduled out the upcoming week. Louis likened himself and Jessica as a team, and prepared to help her when Eddie and Evan contracted lice, despite his mother asking him why he would help, citing that it was the mother's job and that the father was just supposed to work in order to provide financially. Louis claimed that it was the '90s and that parenthood should be a team effort, but when Jessica got lice as well, he decided to abandon her. Louis believed that his career was more important than Jessica's but added that he supported hers and that he babysat their kids while she focused on her career, prompting Jessica to retort that it did not count as babysitting since they were his kids; Louis additionally adds that he had cleaned, vacuumed and helped Emery out with a project, to which Jessica replies that he was merely being a parent. Louis, however, believed that the mother was held accountable more and fled to Marvin and Honey's house, not wanting to catch lice.
Louis spoke with Marvin about his fight with Jessica, where Marvin spouted that he did not agree with men and women sharing the workload at home and that he thought the "it's the '90s" modern mindset would only last a decade at maximum. However, Louis then spoke with Honey, who reminded him that Jessica went above and beyond and that, as a team, he was to be there to support her. Since Jessica needed to have official photographs taken of the investment property, Louis had the pictures taken and brought them home to Jessica, informing her that he wasn't as evolved as he thought he was and that he wanted them to be equal partners. He then decided to hug her; when she protested due to the chance of him catching lice, he responded that they'd just have lice together, although Jessica reminded him that if he was to contract lice, she would make him stay outside of the house like she did to Eddie and Evan.[31]
Following the season finale of Melrose Place, Jessica, on Honey's suggestion, purchased an above-ground pool for the Huang house. Louis, Eddie and Emery went into the pool, where Louis did a handstand underwater. He then suggested his two sons try and see who can hold their breath underwater the longest. However, as they went under, Louis shifted his attention to that of a neighbor, admiring his vest and wondering if he could pull it off, all the while unaware that Eddie was constantly resurfacing for air. As he turned around, Eddie and Emery resurfaced, and Emery asked who had won. Louis then admitted that he had not been paying attention, and coupled with Eddie's blatant cheating, prompted Emery to fly into an uncharacteristic rage and exit the pool.
The next day, Louis returned home with the vest he had idolized, and Eddie asked him how he could shrug off Emery's bout of rage from the day before. Louis then explained that when Emery was younger, he would simply bottle up his negative emotions until bursting at the smallest thing. After Louis brings home Wolfgang Chang's for dinner, Emery lashes out at Louis and insults his vest. Louis, upset, goes to his room and begins to pack the vest back in its box so that he could return it. Emery enters the room and apologizes for his outburst. Louis mentions how Emery hasn't had those moments in a long time, and Emery explains that it is due to his screaming jars.
Confused, Louis follows Emery to his room where Emery reveals that he has empty jars underneath his bed, which he screams into whenever he gets angry; additionally, he carries a travel-sized jar on him at all times, but because he was unable to do so with his swim trunks, could not use a jar to unleash his anger at the pool. Slightly disturbed, Louis suggests they find another outlet to channel Emery's rage and suggests using the pool, although when they go outside, they find that the pool has been removed due to HOA by-laws. Jessica then insults Louis' vest, which infuriates him; Emery then asks him if he needs a scream jar, and Louis responds tat he knows where the jars are as he storms into the house.[32]
After their toaster breaks, the Huang family pay a visit to the bank so that Evan could open his own banking account, which comes with a free toaster. However, Evan is conflicted on whether to use 'Chih Fu', his Chinese name, or his American name, Evan; to make matters worse, Louis and Jessica notify him that the name was chosen at random, after Nurse Evans, a nurse present during his birth. Louis informs Evan that he got the name 'Louis' from Lou Ferrigno as he was a fan of The Incredible Hulk, although Eddie points out that it is a lie as Louis hates the Hulk.
Louis then shares the true story of how he chose his American name: after moving to the United States from Taiwan, he answered a roommate listing by Barry, which is how they met. Barry got him a job working at a diner, where the pair spotted a guest named Louis, an aquarium owning 'gangster'. Thinking him to be cool and believing he had his life put together, he adopted his clothing style and name, referring to himself as Louis. While going out to dinner at a seafood restaurant with Barry, Louis received food poisoning and, while waiting in the line for the bathroom, met Jessica and introduced himself to her as Louis. He then came across the "Cool Louis", who was at the seafood restaurant as well, who did not like that Louis Huang had stolen his name and look. They went into the alley to fight, but Louis vomited due to the food poisoning, prompting Cool Louis to state that he could keep the name. At the bank, Evan chooses what name he wishes to use and the family heads back home with the new toaster, although Eddie drops it and breaks it into pieces. Evan writes a check for his parents to buy a new toaster and Louis points out that it is indecipherable, to which Jessica it is the signature of a doctor.[33]
Louis and Eddie play a game at the kitchen table, with Louis proclaiming that he loves spending time with him, although he immediately drops the ruse and cites it to be boring when Evan and Emery locate the television remote. As Louis pays the two for finding the remote, Eddie asks Louis to buy him a watch, which Louis refuses to do so believing Eddie would use it temporarily and discard it. In order to give Eddie a chance to prove his worth, Louis gives his own watch to Eddie to see if he could take care of it for a week. Eddie does so, but takes it off and leaves it on his bed before taking a shower. Seeing the watch on the bed, Louis believes Eddie has just left it out and takes it back, only to lose it himself. Louis enlists the "Huang Boys" (Evan and Emery) to find the watch, and at the end buys a new one. However, just then Evan and Emery come in with the identical watch and claim they have found it, and Jenny herself also wheels into the room with the same watch in hand. It is revealed that Jenny, not liking the fact that Louis had taken the watch from Eddie, took the watch from him; believing he had lost it, Louis purchased a replacement watch and left it in Eddie's room, while Evan and Emery used their own money to buy the same watch to 'solve the case' as they had never failed to solve one before.[34]
Louis went to the video rental store to rent Beethoven, although wanting be accepted by employee Corey as a cinephile, pretended he was looking for foreign "classy" films and rented a French movie called La Chouffe instead. Corey then informed Louis that the other rented videos on his account would be due Tuesday, prompting Louis to ask what movies and for Corey to respond that someone from his family, whom he was prohibited by store policy to name, had rented movies using his card. Louis then searched the house for the tapes, finding a framed photograph of Jessica under Evan's pillow, which disturbed him. He then found various cassettes of with shirtless men on the covers (action movies starring Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger) and believed that since they were hidden under his mattress that Jessica must have rented it.
Louis goes to Marvin's house to talk about it, and helps him mount a deer head he had just recently hunted. Marvin tells Louis that he needs to be an action man that Jessica craves and Louis takes the advice to heart, parading around the house shirtless and crushing the cereal box with his arms. However, Jessica asks him what he's doing, citing that Louis hates being shirtless so much he wears T-shirts in the ocean. Louis mentions how he's trying to be like the action men on the cassettes she rented, and she states that she did not rent them. Knowing that the tapes are soon due, Louis hides in his closet and waits for the perpetrator to retrieve them from underneath the mattress; when he hears someone doing so, he springs out of the closet only to discover to his surprise that the culprit is none other than Emery.
The pair sit on the bed as Emery tries to explain his reasoning. Noting the shirtless men on the cassette covers and Emery's attempts to hide the tapes, Louis initially believes Emery to be gay; as Emery asks if Louis is mad, Louis stammers that he is not and speaks about Broadway, attempting to tell Emery that a father's love knows no bounds but that their current state, Florida, would not be the best for him until Emery cuts in and clarifies he rented the tapes as research for school. Relieved, Louis claims that he had known it was homework-related, to which Emery clarifies it was not for homework. Emery then explains that his friends at school suddenly have deep voices and have dismissed their usual activities as being dorky, instead preferring to talk about cars, make farts jokes and throw things at other things. As a result, he found it hard to be around them and thus had rented the tapes to learn how to be like them. Emery declares he would write a poem for his class although Louis shuts the idea down, instead suggesting that Emery make himself more like his friends so that he could be more likable.
Emery goes to school and ends up insulting his friend Chad, which results in Chad punching Emery and Emery receiving a bruise. As Louis is called to the school to pick Emery up, Emery blames Louis for the assault for trying to deter him from his usual course of action. However, Emery does not tell Jessica the truth of what happened, instead telling her that his bruise came from looking into a telescope too hard. Watching La Chouffe at home with his mother and Evan, Jenny tells Louis that he always changes who he is in order to make people like him instead of staying true to himself, unlike Jessica and Emery. Realizing he is like that, Louis goes to see Emery in his room, apologizing. He tells Emery that he is ahead of the curve and that the other boys at school are still figuring themselves out. He then goes to the video store to return La Chouffe and picks up the Beethoven rental he had wanted earlier, telling Corey that he finds the cinephile movies to be boring and that he wanted funny movies with animals instead.[35]
As Emery is graduating from fifth grade at Palms Elementary, Louis decides to host an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner at Cattleman's for his three sons, allowing them to bring a friend. Louis allows Eddie to bring his girlfriend Alison, which shocks Jessica as she was unaware Eddie had a girlfriend. Louis tells Jessica that he met Alison at the Fall Ball at that she was nice, and tells Jessica not to make a big deal out of the fact that she isn't Chinese. However, a Chinese girl shows up to their house as 'Alison', gaining Jessica's approval and Louis' confusion, although Eddie clarifies that the girl is Alison's friend Audrey, whom Alison sent as a panic response to Jessica wanting Eddie to have a Chinese girlfriend.
Louis is also appreciative of Emery being class valedictorian and attempts to stress the importance of speeches to his son. He later goes to Emery's room and rips up the speech Emery had written, suggesting that doing so would stir the audience, after which he would give a 'heartfelt' speech that would be secretly written on his arm. At the graduation ceremony, Emery just does that, although he ends up giving an actual spontaneous speech rather than a pre-written one. While Louis is proud, he later finds out that every one in the class was made valedictorian as the school did not want anyone to feel left out. That night at Cattleman's, Louis tells Eddie to go easy on the chicken thighs as they are running low only to witness Audrey, who had been invited as Emery's date, taking most of them on a plate, much to his and Jessica's disapproval.[36]
Louis witnessed his three sons having a fight on the couch and attempted to break the fight up, citing that as brothers, they were all each other hand. Just then, Jessica notified him that his brother Gene was on the phone, prompting Louis to immediately reply "Tell that bastard to go to hell!". Louis was then told by Gene that he had big news and that he was coming to Orlando. Louis then spoke with his mother, referring to an incident at a hot springs, and Jenny told her son that he should set an example for his sons. In response, Louis took the whole family to the airport to pick up Gene. Gene revealed that he was getting married and had turned his life around, and took the rest of the Huangs out to a nice restaurant.
Returning home for the night, Jessica told Louis that she paid Gene $200 as she owed him $200 after borrowing money from him to buy his engagement ring. However, Louis told her that she shouldn't have paid him, revealing that he had been sending money back home for years, and had given Gene thousands, paying for all the schools and career paths Gene pursued. A noise in the living room suddenly caused Louis and Jessica to go outside, where they found out Gene had broken their piano. Louis told Gene to pay for it, though Gene claimed he was financially tight. Louis and Gene got into a fight, with Louis citing that he had sent money back home, to which Gene replied that it wasn't because Louis was generous but because he was guilty, having accepted their father's decision to send one of them to the United States, believing that Louis should have let him go instead. Louis told Gene that his life still turned out okay, but Gene was angry, citing that his life was better now, but that it could have been better had he gone to America instead.
Louis then decided to speak with Gene afterwards, but found a note claiming that he was disinvited from the wedding and that he had taken their mother back home to Taiwan for the wedding. Wanting to make amends, Louis informed his family of Gene and Jenny's departure and told them that they were going to Taiwan.[37]
Season 3[]
Landing in Taiwan, Louis informed the Customs Agent his intention for visiting. Louis met up with his paternal family in Taiwan, including Big Auntie and Little Auntie, borrowing their car to meet up with Gene. Louis was shocked that Gene was having his wedding as a lavish location and that his wife-to-be, Margaret, was a beautiful model. While initially making up with Gene after revealing he flew economy plus direct with no lay-overs for full price, the jealous affected Louis, who believed that he would have a better life than Gene since he went to America, and began to regret that he left Taiwan. This strain caused him to send a lantern calling Gene an "ass pimple", although Gene tore it up.
While attending Gene and Margaret's wedding, Louis suggested that they move back to Taiwan for a better life. Jessica, however, stated that she missed Orlando and wanted to have a bagel, and that while they could have a better life in Taiwan by using connections, they had earned their success on their own back in the States. Jessica added that no one loved the USA more than Louis and that he would miss it if they moved to Taiwan, with Louis stating that Jessica would miss Taiwan when she returned back to Orlando, prompting Jessica to solemnly declare that perhaps they would not feel at home in either location. The next day, Louis made amends with Gene, citing that they shouldn't wait so long until they see each other again. Gene then claimed that he was flying through Orlando the next week, although Louis claimed that was too soon. Following the wedding, the family returned back to Orlando.[38]
Louis and Jessica installed televisions at Cattleman's to show the 1996 Summer Olympics, which brought in more crowds and increased the restaurant's success. Returning home, the pair noticed a watermelon on the floor that Eddie had dropped, and Jessica lamented that she wished she had help cleaning around the house. As a result, Louis hired a housekeeper named Mary, although Jessica was extremely offended by it, crowding over as Mary cleaned. She got into a fight with Louis about it, but allowed Mary to clean as she was paid for it before driving her home.
Jessica was soon called into Cattleman's so that Mary could clean once more, having been hired again by Louis. While appreciative of Mary's cleaning, Jessica explained that this is what she was afraid of, that they would hire people to cut their grass or do their taxes. Louis wondered why it was bad to do so if they could afford it, and Jessica explained that family are meant to do things for each other instead of hiring it; Louis added that he hired people at Cattleman's to do things he did not like, although Jessica iterated that she did not wish to run her home like a business and that, while she did not love cleaning up after her family, she liked that her family needed her, even if she would resent them for being unappreciative. Louis then told her that he would let her clean the house by herself from now on.[39]
Halloween season began, with Louis waking up in the middle of the night to scare his family, although this resulted in Jessica punching him. Jessica did not agree with the notion of Halloween and did not see the point in celebrating it. Louis tried multiple times to scare her to no avail. Jessica decided to spend the holiday attempting to write a horror novel, and was soon asked by Eddie if he could attend a high school Halloween party; while Jessica refused, Louis intervened and allowed Eddie to go, citing that Jessica did not have a say since she did not celebrate the season. As Louis, Emery and Evan prepared to go out for Halloween, Jessica received a call from Officer Bryson that they had to pick up Eddie from the police station, as he had been at a party with no adult supervision.
Coming back home, Jessica berated Louis for not checking before agreeing to send Eddie. Louis mentioned how he wished to spend Halloween with Jessica much like how Jessica always wants Louis around during Christmas, stating that Halloween was to him what Christmas was to her. Realizing how much her family loved Halloween, Jessica woke up her family early morning on November 1st to go trick-or-treating, although they ended up going to Honey's house as they failed to exact candy.[40]
Season 4[]
To be added
Season 5[]
To be added
Season 6[]
The Huangs, along with Marvin and Honey, have gathered around the television to watch the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. Honey is feeding Maria while Marvin groans about the game. Honey has also given birth to her second child, a daughter named Liza, who sleeps. Louis announces that while he would forget about the game in 24 hours, this is his current focus, with him, Eddie, and Evan wearing USA jerseys to support their country while Jessica wears a jersey representing China. Emery, unable to choose whether to represent his native ancestral home or his country, wears half of both jerseys. The game concludes 45 minutes after going into overtime when Brandi Chastain successfully shoots a penalty goal against China, granting the United States team the victory. However, when Chastain gets on his knees and rips off her jersey in victory, the sight of her in her sports bra causes Evan to gain an erection, forcing him to flee from the room immediately.
The next day, Louis walks in with a copy of Orlando Tribune, with the headlines discussing the US World Cup victory and with a photo of Chastain in her sports bra. The picture arouses Evan once more, who flees from the kitchen. Louis observes Evan's unusual mannerism, and Eddie realizes what has transpired, informing Louis, Honey and Jessica that Evan has received the first case of the "tingles." He then clarifies to the confused adults that he is referring to an erection, prompting Honey to excuse herself and leave the house while Louis decides it's time to give Evan "The Talk." Jessica bids him luck, citing that everything waist-down with their sons was his responsibility.
Eddie retreats to his room and lies on his bed, listening to music, when he is interrupted by Louis. Louis asks Eddie if he still has his "Flowers and Watering Cans" school-approved sexual education book that Principal Hunter had given him years ago. Eddie, realizing that Louis intends to give Evan the same "talk" that he received, where Louis spoke frankly about sexual positions, diseases and practices, notifies his father that he cannot relay this to Evan without it affecting him negatively. Eddie then suggests that he give Evan "The Talk", claiming to be Evan's father-figure; Louis finds this insulting and retorts that he is Evan's father-figure and that Eddie is barely a son figure, before apologizing for his comments and retreating, ensuring Eddie that it was his responsibility to talk to Evan and that he would see it through.
Eddie is watching television when he sees someone walk by with a backpack; assuming it to be one of his brothers, he calls the passing figure a nerd, before realizing that it is none other than Louis. Louis states that the backpack contains props for his talk with Evan, including a shell with hair painted on it to signify female anatomy. Eddie tells his father that this would most likely confuse Evan, although Louis is confident in his approach. He then enters Evan's room to talk to him, but finds himself unable to discuss "The Talk" when he sees Evan, sitting on his bed with his Beanie Babies, referring to him as "Papa" and blinking earnestly up at him. He relays his failure to Eddie, who assertively declares that he would fare better, but finds himself in the same situation as Louis, deeming Evan and his toys too adorable and innocent.
Louis and Eddie regroup on the couch, lamenting in their failure. Eddie suggests that perhaps the two should team up and deliver "The Talk" together; while Louis agrees, the two still find themselves unable to discuss the matter with Evan, prompting them to go out for burgers, citing that they cannot do it without an empty stomach, and decide that they should spend the rest of the night watching movies.
At Louis Huang's Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse, Louis and Eddie relay a transcript of their "Talk" to Mervin Ellis, Marvin, and Trent Masterson, with Louis discussing circumcision and Eddie explaining what "bases" refer to. Trent chimes in that he is grateful he received "The Talk" from his sisters as he was confused after hearing Louis and Eddie's "Talk", and Louis realizes that perhaps they need a woman's perspective.
Eddie and Louis return home and head to Jenny's room, where she gives them her version of "The Talk", including explaining how to pleasure a woman emotionally and sexually, even adding sound effects. While Louis is uncomfortable, Eddie laments that he should have taken notes. The two Huang men then state that perhaps Evan is too young for "The Talk" and decide to put it off for a while until Evan enters the room, asking his grandmother if he can store his Beanie Babies in her room as he wishes to have privacy in his room. Eddie and Louis immediately yell at the other to give him "The Talk", prompting Jenny to reply that she would do it, much to the loud opposition of Eddie and Louis. Jenny then informs Evan that Eddie and Louis wish to talk to him, but tell them not to do it in her room, citing that she has already had too much "family time" for the day.
Louis and Eddie successfully manage to give Evan "The Talk" in his room, only for Evan to reveal that he already knows everything they told him. He explains that upon receiving "a tingle" he went to the library to study up on the changes happening to his body, and discloses that while Eddie is a year away from reaching his sexual peak, Louis had reached an age where his genitals would begin to fail. Louis tells Evan that Evan can always come to both of them if he needs to, and Evan, agreeing, responds that alternatively they could speak with him as well.
Louis then heads to the kitchen table, where Jessica is attempting to sew back Emery's sleeves by hand. He announces that his genitals are still working and attempts to seduce her, although she asks him to table his actions so that she may focus on her issues. She tells Louis that Honey is too pushy and rhetorically asks him if he knows what it's like to be with someone like that, to which Louis elects not to answer. Louis attempts to relate her issue to his issue with Evan, and Jessica cuts in asking if Evan already knew about it and if he taught Louis stuff, with Louis affirming both questions. Louis explains to Jessica how he thought, as the father, he would always be the teacher to his sons, only to learn that there are things his sons could teach him as well. He tells her that even though she's always been the one to help out Honey when it came to child problems, their relationship has evolved now that Honey has children of her own. Louis then brings up his working genitals once more, slightly insecure after Evan's comments, and invites Jessica to the bedroom as he leaves.[41]
At home, Eddie is regaling tales to his family, imagining the Y2K situation to be similar to the movie The Matrix, placing himself as Neo and Louis as Morpheus. Louis states that Y2K would not be like that, while Emery believes that the world truly may end as a result of the Millennium Bug. As a result, Eddie states that they should do as much as possible during summer vacation as it may be the last summer of their lives. However, his plans are dashed by Jessica, who enters the room with a stack of PSAT books and tells Eddie that he will study them alongside her in preparation for college.
As he is studying alongside his mother, Eddie complains, prompting Jessica to reply that it is not just his future at stake but her reputation, explaining that she wouldn't be respected as a principal if she failed to get her own son into a top college. Eddie is taken aback at her statement, claiming that he doesn't want to go to a top college, instead preferring to go to a Tier 2 or Tier 3 school, where there is less pressure and more fun and he could rejuvenate from the stresses of high school. Just then, Louis walks in, demanding Eddie what he has done to the bathroom tub. Eddie explains that it is Gia, his mega water balloon that he has inflated with water and left in the tub, intending to leave her there before he can get strong enough to throw her. Jessica scoffs at his ambition and tells him that he needs to grow up and focus on college. Louis tells Eddie that he is jealous of him going to college, claiming that he was a campus legend during his college days before suggesting that Eddie attend the University of Maryland, the school both he and Jessica went to. However, Jessica tells them that Maryland is not on her list, and Eddie leaves once he realizes he has no say in his future.
Louis warns Jessica that her attempts to push Eddie may cause him to burn out of college before he is even accepted, although Jessica responds that she cannot ease up on Eddie without him straying off. Jessica adds that she needs to prepare Eddie, citing that her sister Connie prepped her son Justin for a year only for Justin to end up at UCLA. Louis states that Eddie needs to understand that college is more than academics, where one lives by themselves, socializes, makes connections and has fun, which Jessica shuts down. Louis then reminds Jessica that she made some questionable choices in college, which Jessica shuts down as she does not want Eddie to know about it.
At Cattleman's, Trent is regaling Eddie with the tale of going to Ball State University with his family to visit his sister at her dorm. This impresses Eddie, who wishes he could go somewhere during summer vacation, and inspires Louis to take the Huang family on a trip to visit college. Eddie reminds Louis that Jessica would not approve of a vacation and that even if they went, she would be enforcing him to study all of the PSAT books. Louis, however, reminds Eddie that Connie is Jessica's weakness.
The pair return home, where Evan and Emery are in their work uniforms, having gained employment at a yogurt shop. Louis informs the family that they would be taking a trip to California to a pay a visit to UCLA, which Jessica initially shuts down due to financial reasons and Emery and Evan adding that they cannot go as they just got jobs. Louis tells them to just use their sick and vacation days and notifies Jessica that his brother, Gene Huang, has gotten them free airline tickets to California as he works for Delta Airlines and that they would not have to spend money on a hotel since they would be staying with Justin at his dorm. Louis then adds that if Eddie paid a visit to UCLA and then turned it down for Harvard, Jessica could then rub it in Connie's face, which causes Jessica to immediately notify the family to pack their bags.
The Huangs arrive in California, with Louis, Jessica and Eddie heading to the dorms to pay Justin a visit. Jessica is absent-mindedly flipping a Solo cup when Louis catches her and remarks that her old habits are returning, causing her to smile. Louis then asks Justin what the plan for the day is, and he responds that he has a midterm later that day and intends to study. Jessica scoffs at him, claiming that the midterm could not be that difficult at Eddie's "safety school", only for Justin to reveal that he had a 4.0 GPA, good SAT score and even had a rare sit-down with the Dean of Admissions and still got wait-listed.
Just then, Justin's roommate Kip enters the room. Justin notifies Kip that the Huangs would be staying with them, although Kip responds that he doesn't care since he has flunked out, explaining that despite taking AP classes, being valedictorian and attending prep school, he would still be returning to work at his father's butcher shop. Jessica then realizes that UCLA is a prestigious school, likening it to the "Harvard of California" and changes their itinerary so that Eddie could attend lectures and tour the campus, even going as far as calling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and having him recommend the Dean into having a one-on-one with Eddie.
During the tour, Eddie is excited at the prospect of going to a party, which Louis supports, but is shut down on Jessica, who forces him to memorize everything the tour guide is saying so that he may impress the Dean later. Louis urges Jessica to ease up on Eddie so that he could have some fun, and when Jessica replies that college is not meant to be fun, Louis exposes Jessica's past; during college, Jessica often got drunk, pulled pranks, streaked nude in the cafeteria instead of studying for her econ final and even stole things. Louis recants the past to show Eddie a different side of his mother, only to realize that Eddie is no longer with them, having run off.
Jessica and Louis make their way to the Dean's office, waiting for Eddie to show up. Jessica blames Louis, claiming that by telling him stories of her past, he gave Eddie free license to do whatever he wants on campus. Eddie then shows up, revealing that he left the tour group before hearing any of Jessica's past, instead electing to find Justin to see what kids his age did for fun. Upon hanging out with Justin's friends, who just watched television and took naps, Eddie declares that college is too lame and boring and that he would not be attending. The Dean then declares that personally he is disappointed, and Louis admonishes him, as he had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's recommendation for the school.
Louis then tells Jessica that they need to show Eddie that college can be fun. Jessica laughs, stating that while she allows Louis to play it up in front of the kids, he was really a dork in college. Louis replies that Jessica is the only one who can show Eddie, as Eddie is her. Jessica instantly replies that Evan is the child who is most like her, but Louis clarifies that while Evan is who she is now, Eddie is the person she used to be, and Jessica agrees to do so.
Walking back to the dorms sometime later, Jessica and Eddie throw a water balloon with shaving cream on top of him, drenching him. As Louis gets dried and the trio walk back, Eddie remarks that, after getting a taste of what his mother was like in college, he wonders how his father was. Louis tells him that he cannot disclose his college actions as they would be 'Rated R', which Jessica laughs at, reminding him that he was the one who said they needed to be open about their past to their children.
Jessica tells Eddie that Louis was a club guy, having joined all the clubs, and a flashback is shown with Louis pruning shrubs in the Topiary Club while Jessica slid down the steps in her stolen canoe. With his ego bruised, Louis responds that he had lots of sex in college, which Jessica denies, and Eddie, laughing the entire time with Jessica, tells the two that he has heard enough. Louis then wakes up the next morning with a crippling case of pink eye as a result of having a balloon filled with shaving cream exploding in his face.[42]
Marvin has decided to retire from dentistry and is given a retirement party at Louis Huang's Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse. Honey gifts Marvin with a flagpole that he wanted, which prompts Jenny to state that she too is now retiring, much to the confusion of her family, with Louis wondering what she would be retiring from. The next day at breakfast, Jenny gives Louis a list of gifts she wants for retiring, stating that any one of them would do. Louis asks if her if she wants a party, although she merely replies that all the answers he seeks are on the list. Louis then reads the list of desired gifts, including a trip to Jamaica, a drum kit, or a hot tub. Louis believes that what his mother really wants is a party, but is too proud to ask him for one and expects him to dismiss the gift list, while Jessica declares that Jenny most likely is "retiring" just because she wants a gift. Regardless, Louis decides to go ahead and throw his mother a retirement party.
At Jenny's retirement party, Louis thanks everyone for attending. However, Jenny asks Louis if this is all, and demands to have her gift. When Louis replies that the party was the gift, Jenny replies that he should've just bought her a hot tub. Louis responds that a hot tub is impractical, citing that it was a big responsibility and asks who would maintain it and pay its utilities bill, but Jenny, still wanting a hot tub, wheels herself away.
The Huangs return home, with Louis and Jessica retreating to their bedroom. Louis is complaining about his mother's actions and how ungrateful she is for everything he does for her. Jessica notifies him that mother-son relationships can be complicated, and gives him an example: recently, Evan disappointed her by leaving brand new milk out to spoil, but just then, Eddie had come in asking if they insurance after hitting a mailbox and a tree. She tells Louis that perspective is vital; compared to perfection, Evan had messed up, but compared to Eddie, she sees Evan as a saint. As his mother also has two sons, Louis declares that his younger brother Gene is the "Eddie" and decides to invite him so that when he messes up, Jenny will realize how much better Louis is in comparison.
Louis invites Gene over, but finds him to be a completely different person. Gene divulges that he fell into the lion's pit at the Singapore Zoo, and as a lioness was clawing his chest, it made him realize that life, with every moment on Earth, should be treasured. Jenny then asks Gene if he brought her a gift, but when he replies that his hug is a hug of gratitude, she storms off angrily, claiming that no one knows how to give gifts anymore. Louis and Jessica explain to a confused Gene that while he is away every ten years or so, it is Louis who takes care of Jenny and puts up with her. Gene then offers his assistance, and decides to help Jenny with her tasks for the day and relieve Louis of the burden.
Gene returns after running errands with Jenny, and much to Louis' surprise, Gene enjoyed doing so. Jenny then tells Louis that spending time with Gene made her appreciate all the hard work Louis does for her, which makes Louis happy. Gene then adds that he spoke to Jenny after realizing that there was tension between her and Louis and got her to value Louis. However, just then, Jenny begins to fire up the hot tub which Gene had installed in the garage. This infuriates Louis, who believes that Gene simply bought his mother off, and he storms away.
Louis fetches Trent and brings him to the garage to dismantle the hot tub, only to find out that Jessica is in there relaxing with Gene and Jenny. Louis asks how she could do so, and Jessica replies that Louis' concern with the hot tub was who would pay the utilities, but because Jenny had agreed to pay it herself, she found no issue in using the hot tub herself. Louis scoffs at the idea of his mother making payments, and Gene chimes in that if their mother could not pay for the hot tub, he would; this angers Louis, who states that Gene would be gone by then and that the one thing that would never change was Gene being a screw-up. Insulted, Gene replies that he has changed and is no longer a screw-up and refers to Louis as a martyr; as he exits the hot tub, mentions that he has emotional scars from being Louis' brother.
Jessica exits the tub to have a talk with Louis in the kitchen, where she states that Gene was right and that Louis is indeed a martyr. She explains to a befuddled Louis that Louis cannot handle change, reminding him that when Emery quit volleyball, Louis had stalked him, and that he had pressured Eddie when he was learning how to drive, and that he hit Brian Pew on his scooter as a result. Additionally, Louis' issues of Gene being problematic, Jenny not appreciating him and the financial costs of the hot tub had all been resolved, and yet Louis still had problems. Jessica, using a metaphor of Marvin's flagpole, likens Louis to being the sturdy pole that never changes while everyone else is the flag, swaying with the wind, and adds that while people salute the flag, no one does so for the pole and that he might consider being the flag for a change.
Louis has the hot tub removed from the garage and installs it in his living room, inviting Gene to enter with him, citing that they had their best brother-to-brother talks in hot water, hearkening back to their time in Taiwan's hot springs with their father. There, the two brothers make peace and Gene admits that their family and "Hurricane Gene" did not make it easy on him. Louis adds that Gene's wife, Margaret, must be loving the new and improved Gene, although Gene admits that she left him two years ago, and that he was embarrassed to divulge the fact to his mother or his brother.
Gene adds that her leaving him is what prompted him to change his outlook on life, but clarifies that he still fell into a lion pit and was clawed up as a result. As the two brothers hug, Gene decides to ask what exactly Jenny is retiring from, and Louis replies that he has no idea. Later that night, the Huang family, minus Gene, don their bathing suits and use the hot tub, now installed in Jenny's room, to perform a silent synchronized dance while Jenny sleeps, being careful not to wake her up.[43]
One morning at breakfast, Emery talks about his Drama class while Louis mentions the love between Eddie and Tina at breakfast, causing Jessica to point out the word "love"; while she was aware he was in a relationship, she did not know it had progressed to love. Eddie attempts to deflect the situation by asking Evan and Jenny if they are doing anything, and Evan responds that he and his grandmother have decided to take up meditation. Eddie then asks Louis what he is up to, and Louis reveals that he is designing new napkins for the restaurant. The family then all leave the kitchen and exit the house, leaving Louis alone in the kitchen.
At Louis Huang's Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse, Louis and Trent peruse their new napkins, which feature various Orlando landmarks. Louis notices Emery observing them and writing down notes, and Emery explains that he is shadowing Louis for a hero's journey character study for drama class. While Trent is gushing over the napkins, Louis replies that he feels restless, citing that he is now 40 years old and with Cattleman's is running itself, he wants to find something else to do. Emery suggests that Louis takes an aptitude test to determine a new career path.
Louis has decided to become a barber and has begun cutting hair at Cattleman's. Marvin initially agrees to have his hair cut by Louis, but after seeing Brian Pew complain about how Louis messed up, decides to leave his hair as-is, thanking Louis for the 'cut' and even tipping him. Dejected, Louis states that barbarism isn't as fulfilling as he hoped, citing that he has the talent but not the will after Trent praises him for giving him a shave. Louis adds that Orlando already has a high number of barbers per capita, to which Emery replies that Louis knows a lot of Orlando facts.
Louis then decides to try being a tour guide driver, giving a tour of Orlando in his minivan to Emery, Marvin, Honey and her two kids. Honey and Marvin are not interested in the tour, although Louis persists, refusing to pull over when Honey states she needs to pee and even asking her to keep her babies quiet when they start crying. In his fervor to finish the tour, Louis even runs a stop sign and continues to issue facts until Honey swiftly tells him that no one cares and orders him to pull over.
With his sojourn as a tour driver coming to a halt, Louis ventures into becoming a motivational speaker, although telling a crowd at the Orlando Recreation Center about his accomplishments at Cattleman's does not give them any positive encouragement. Bored and finding the speech pointless, the crowd begins to disperse while Louis laments that he cannot be a motivational speaker and help others find the next chapter in their lives if he cannot even find his.
Emery heads to Cattleman's Ranch where he finds a dejected Louis pondering over the napkins. Louis sadly informs Emery that he wanted to try something new only to fail. Emery then tells Louis that he quit Drama class after being unable to secure a part, much to Louis' shock. Louis tells his son that he cannot quit something just because it didn't work out the first time and that he should stick to it, adding that if he quit prematurely, he would be missing any opportunities that would arise in the future. Emery replies that it is good advice and that Louis should heed it himself, adding that he did not actually quit Drama but merely made up the story to inspire Louis to not give up on finding his passion, and Louis thanks Emery for his support.
Louis and Emery are then approached by a man named Tom, who has come in search of Louis, having been inspired during Louis' motivational speech at the Orlando Recreation Center. Tom tells Louis that he is starting a new business, a website where a person has their own space to post pictures and notes that they can share with friends and family, and asks Louis if he'd like to invest. However, Louis and Emery scoff at his idea, Louis adding that no one would look at pictures of other people on the computer and dismisses him, chuckling with Emery afterwards and referring to Tom as an idiot.[44]
Louis is in the attic obtaining the Halloween decorations, with a rope tied around him held by Evan. Since Jessica hates Halloween, Louis tells Evan that his plan to get her on board with the holiday is to host a haunted house at their home, since Jessica loves to instill fear in others. However, upon their return to the kitchen, Jessica dismisses the idea and tells Louis he cannot convert their home into a haunted house for the neighborhood. Jessica tries to claim that she will still support Louis' holiday by buying candy for the trick-or-treaters, although all she buys are raisins, much to Louis' dismay.
Louis then formulates a plan to get Jessica to enjoy Halloween with him for once. He has Henrietta, one of the students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, dress up as Jennifer Hong, Jessica's character from her novel. He also has Henrietta have her friends dress up as the characters from the novel as well, and giving Henrietta a fake address to give to Jessica, tells her and her friends to go to the graveyard on Halloween night. Louis then invites Trent to his home, and bringing him to the master bedroom, informs him of his plan. Louis plans to have Jessica meet Henrietta at the middle school's costume contest by having her take over his position as judge, which he plans to do so by telling her that he is now too busy as he must host his desired haunted house at Cattleman's instead of the Huang house. As he has no plans to actually have a haunted house, he allows Trent to stay at the restaurant on Halloween night, since Trent easily gets scared.
Jessica soon walks in and asks Louis what Trent is doing in their room, and Louis lies, telling her that Trent is there to help him pick out Halloween decorations for the haunted house. Jessica states that she thought she had made it clear to him that they would not be making their home into a haunted house, but Louis replies that he will instead be transforming Cattleman's into a haunted house instead. Louis then asks Jessica if she would take his place as one of the judges at Abraham Lincoln Middle School's Halloween costume contest, and she begrudgingly agrees, citing that it is the least she could do for preventing Louis from having the haunted house at their home. Louis and Trent then smile at one another as the plan is set in motion.
As Louis is setting up decorations at home, Jessica returns from the contest and eagerly tells Louis that she is on board with Halloween. Louis verbally express his wonder at why she would suddenly be into Halloween before publicly dismissing it, stating she is tricking him. Jessica replies that she is not tricking him, explaining that a girl at the school was dressed up as Jennifer Hong. Louis says that he finds it hard to believe that a child would be dressed as someone from Jessica's book, which was geared towards an adult demographic and didn't sell many copies. Jessica informs him that she was invited to a Halloween party hosted by student "Brain-heads", and Louis displays disingenuous shock that multiple children are dressing up as Jessica's characters. Jessica asks Louis to come with her to the party, but Louis tells her that while he would love to, he has to set up at the haunted house at Cattleman's. Louis eventually makes a deal with her, one where he tags along with her in exchange for her coming to the haunted house afterwards, and Jessica agrees.
Louis and Jessica head to the address that Jessica was given, only to find themselves in an empty lot. Louis states that the address was fake and opts to return to Cattleman's, but Jessica replies that this situation is similar to one in her book, where Jennifer Hong was given a false address, only to find the factory she was looking for down the street. Jessica suggests that they check each house for Henrietta, but Louis reminds her that even on Halloween, two adults going door-to-door asking if there's a little girl at home would be construed as creepy. Jessica then decides that they could ease the situation by dressing up, pointing out that Louis has Halloween costumes in the trunk. Jessica dresses up as Chucky from Child's Play while Louis wears a cow costume, calling himself "Mad Cow Disease", and the pair go trick-or-treating as a way to check each house to see where Henrietta's party is.
Jessica and Louis successfully go trick-or-treating at various houses until Jessica finally comes across Henrietta's house, where Henrietta's sister notifies them that Henrietta is hosting a book club at the graveyard. Louis attempts to head to the graveyard but is stopped by Jessica, who tells him that in her book, the graveyard did not mean a literal graveyard but instead referred to the school, and thus believes that's where her fans would be. Realizing that his plan is close to failing, Louis feigns being upset and tells her that while she could go to the school, he would be heading to Cattleman's to set up the decorations for the haunted house, and walks away.
Louis instead makes his way to the graveyard and tells the students to go to school instead. Staying out of sight, Louis watches as Jessica enters the school and expresses her elation at seeing the children dressed up as her characters, and tells them that in the original draft, they were all prostitutes. When Henrietta asks how Jessica knows that, Jessica reveals to them that she is the author of the book, much to their joy. Henrietta then tells her that she wishes there were more "Brain-heads" and Jessica replies that sales for Stephen King's books spiked after he got into an accident. Jessica then tells Henrietta to take a knife out of her purse and to stab her in her thigh so that her book's sales would increase, thereby creating more fans. The children becomes disturbed and uncomfortable at the situation until Louis walks in, telling them that Jessica is kidding.
Dismissing the students, Jessica confronts him and Louis asks how she knew that he had set the whole thing up. Jessica informs him that Trent told her the truth, and he admits his doing. Jessica confesses that she did enjoy celebrating this Halloween, and Louis adds that he just wanted to spend his favorite holiday with his favorite person. Jessica then rates her day as a 76 out of 100, which Louis accepts as a passing score. Returning home, Louis and Jessica are handing out raisins to the trick-or-treaters, including a group of Powerpuff Girls who Louis refers to as 'feminine insects'. Louis thanks Jessica for handing out the 'candy' with him, and Jessica replies that it was the least she could do after what Louis did for her. The Powerpuff Girls they gave raisins to then reappear, pelting them with the raisins, with one of the girls claiming that they ruined her childhood and referring the two as "bitches."[45]
Eddie and Trent are handling the shipment of food delivered to Cattleman's as Louis walks in to check the boxes, only to find that all they are filled with nuts. The three ponder on what kind of nuts they have been given when the delivery man divulges that they are chestnuts. When Louis asks the man how he knows that, the man replies that it is because he is a 'chestnut', revealing himself to be none other than Matthew Chestnut. Chestnut apologizes for leaving Louis, but asks to come back. While Louis initially seems to be angry at Chestnut, facing off against him, he agrees to bring Chestnut back as his partner, reinstating him as a manager. Chestnut then informs them that he left all of their onions in the parking lot under the sun in order to do his chestnut bit, and Louis orders Eddie and Trent to retrieve them.
Returning home, Louis approaches Jessica and gushes about Chestnut's return. Jessica mentions that she always liked Amy Chestnut, only for Louis to inform her that Chestnut divorced her. Louis adds that with Chestnut assuming managerial duties, he can focus on finding the next chapter of his life, which he thinks is gardening. To his surprise, Jessica tells him that she supports him 100%, and even suggests that he take it a step further and start a community garden, an idea he decides to implement.
At Cattleman's, Louis is holding an employees meeting where he discourages hiding rubber snakes in the fire extinguisher, despite being the culprit responsible. When Chestnut cites that Louis owning up to his mistake makes him a good leader, Trent makes a snide remark about Chestnut being "up Louis' ass." Eddie suggests that they implement a suggestions box so that employees can anonymously share ideas, which Louis initially considers until Chestnut states that back in Dollywood, Dolly Parton did not have a suggestion box as she had two ears to hear any suggestions. Louis then shuts down the idea, informing his staff that they can talk directly to Chestnut regarding any questions or concerns. Louis then dismisses them so that he could go home and work on his garden, and Chestnut walks away with him to discuss the garden.
Sometime later, Louis enters the house and Jessica commends him for deciding to garden in a suit like a rich man. Louis, however, tells her that he will not be gardening since Chestnut convinced him not to and instead retain his focus on the restaurant, and leaves the house to return to work. Jessica, Eddie and Trent then head to Cattleman's, with the boys sitting at a corner table while Jessica approaches Louis and Chestnut. Reminding Louis that she supports whatever he does wholly, she asks him to take her to see the new griddle in the kitchen while alerting Chestnut to Eddie and Trent's 'suspicious behavior.'
Louis, having been informed by Chestnut that Eddie and Trent tried to lure him away with a fake application to Tony Roma's, returns home upset that he no longer has trust. Jessica assures him that he had no idea Chestnut would abandon him once more, but Louis relays what Chestnut told him, and how he recognized "Donny Worthington", the name Eddie told Chestnut was the manager of a new Tony Roma's, as the name of the author of Jessica's Teacher Administration Book. Eddie apologizes to Jessica, citing that he panicked and that she never addressed a manager's name during rehearsal, revealing to Louis that Jessica was involved. Trent then excuses himself and Eddie to retreat to the latter's bedroom to allow Jessica and Louis to argue privately. Jessica explains that she wanted Louis to be able to pursue what he wanted and that Chestnut was a name chaser, but Louis reveals that Chestnut came to him with ideas to address the competition and improved past ideas as well, divulging that the community vegetable garden idea has evolved into a German beer hall garden instead.
Jessica heads to Cattleman's to see Louis so that she could tell him something that's not easy for her to say. Louis assumes she is going to apologize to him, knowing that she cannot bring herself to apologize easily, but is instead stunned to hear Jessica say that he was the problem, and not Chestnut. She tells him that Chestnut didn't make him quit the idea of the garden, and that he chose to do so himself, much like how he quit the idea of being a barber or a tour guide driver, and that failures are what he's good at. Upset, Louis tells her that Cattleman's is not a failure, and Jessica agrees. She informs him that his strength is in getting new ideas off the ground and then handing it off to others, like giving the reigns of Cattleman's and the backyard garden to Chestnut and Jenny, and that the seeds he plants are idea seeds.
Louis realizes that he's an "business farmer", which Jessica refers to as a business consultant, and she tells him that the vocation is perfect for him and that she would support him entirely. She then tells a now relieved Louis that he already implemented a good idea in assigning the garden to Jenny as it would get her used to be in dirt, as Louis stares back in discomfort. As Cattleman's beer garden, dubbed Cattlehaus Biergarten, officially launches, Louis handles the beer taps with Chestnut to serve drinks to his patrons, and laughs as he watches Eddie and Trent dance to Bavarian folk music in costume.[46]
One morning, Eddie tells Jessica he would like to skip a half day of school in order to get an autograph from his new favorite basketball player, Allen Iverson. Jessica refuses, telling him that he was not allowed to leave school early under any circumstances, stating that even if there was a fire at school, he was to stay inside and die with honor. Eddie then asks Louis to chime in, and while Louis states that he should run if there's a fire, he tells Eddie that he is siding with Jessica and is against him skipping school, and heads out.
Eddie is practicing throwing paper balls into his waste basket when Louis enters his room with a gift. Apologizing for not allowing him to skip school but wishing to congratulate Eddie on the hard work he has doing to prep for college, Louis presents with an Allen Iverson jersey he purchased from the bargain bin. Accepting the jersey in gratitude, Eddie tells Louis that he has a plan to cover tuition costs by applying for basketball scholarships, only for Louis to shut him down, informing him that he is unlikely to receive one and that even if he did, it would be on a third-tier Euro league where he would've been accepted as an Asian curiosity. As Eddie replies that he doesn't want that, Louis reminds him that he has a great personality and imagination, and that along with his intelligence, there would be other scholarships for him out there. As he thanks his father for the kind words, Eddie notices that the name on the jersey is spelled "Iversqn" and realizes that it is a fake.
Eddie tells Louis that he has decided to apply for "The Wesley Snipes Scholarship for Orlando Youth," which requires him to write an essay on his hero. Louis asks who his hero is, and Eddie responds that it was an obvious choice – someone who has really impacted his life, embodies the American dream, who came from nothing, has a tireless work ethic, and amazing hair. Louis, thinking Eddie is referring to him, open his arms for a hug when Eddie reveals that the hero has has chosen is none other than Allen Iverson, to Louis' disappointment.
Louis and Marvin are enjoying lunch at Cattleman's when Eddie enters, telling them that he delivered ten meals in under two hours, and asks to take the afternoon off so that he can work on his hero essay. Louis attempts to suggest that he write about another hero closer to home, although Eddie interprets that by thinking Louis is referring to Marvin, whom he thanks for his military service. As Marvin tells Eddie that the best way to thank him would be to enlist, which he shrugs off, Louis clarifies that he was thinking of someone even closer to home, someone he's known since birth, only for Eddie to think he is referring to Jessica. Informing his father that he already wrote an essay about her for Mother's Day, he announces that he will stick to Allen Iverson and heads back home.
Marvin tells Louis that he could tell that Louis wished Eddie saw him as his hero. Louis attempts to brush off the situation by claiming that he was overthinking it, only for Marvin to retort that he was underthinking it. He explains that Nicole used to see him as her hero until one day she stopped, and how she moved out soon after and they were no longer as close as they used to be. Marvin warns Louis that if Eddie no longer views him as his hero by the time he moves out for college, it would over. Louis reminds Marvin that he only has one year left as Eddie is in junior year of high school, and Marvin replies that one year is enough time to turn things around, but that he could always rely on whiskey if he failed.
In an attempt to have Eddie view him as his hero, Louis calls the high school as a family emergency to pull Eddie out of school for the day. Eddie initially is fearful that they are moving suddenly, only for Louis to assuage his fears and reveal that he's taking him to get Allen Iverson's autograph. However, while on the road, Louis feigns a vehicular breakdown so that he can 'fix' the van and further cement his status as a hero in Eddie's eyes. Eddie offers to help him fix the issue, but Louis tells him that he has it handled and asks him to play the cassette in the stereo, which contains nothing but "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler.
While dancing to the song, Louis flings a screwdriver under the van's hood, striking something that causes fumes to emit, much to his horror. Eddie tells Louis that they're running out of time for the autograph signing, and Louis replies that the van's flux capacitor needs fixing and that it would take him a minute. Eddie then gets out of the van and informs his father that 'flux capacitor' is from Back to the Future, adding that he thought Louis said he knew what he was doing. Louis then admits that he doesn't know what he's doing, and that he pretended the van broke down only to break it for real. Eddie asks him why he would pretend the van broke down, and when Louis replies that it was so that he could 'fix' it and become Eddie's hero, Eddie responds that he would no longer get to meet Allen Iverson due to his antics; as he walks off, he mutters "Some hero you are." which causes Louis to fling a wrench by accident into the engine bay, further damaging the van.
Eddie is in his room listening to music on his headphones when Louis enters, informing him that Marvin has agreed to fix the van after he jammed a screwdriver in it. Eddie sarcastically calls Louis a hero and remarks that he "saved the day again," and Louis admits that he freaked out when Eddie chose Allen Iverson as his hero over him and that he didn't want them to grow apart. Eddie then tells Louis that it's ridiculous to think that, stating that Louis has always been there for him, having taught him how to drive, given him his first job, and helped him to deal with his women problems. He adds that Louis has nothing to worry about and that while Allen Iverson is awesome, as his dad, Louis is more than a hero, and that he would always need his father and that they would never grow apart. Louis becomes emotional upon hearing this and Eddie asks if his father would like a hug, and the two share a hug. Louis then tells Eddie that he has an idea and tells him to grab his "Iversqn" jersey.
Louis and Eddie head to an arena, where Louis tricks a security guard before sneaking on to a Philadelphia 76ers bus in an attempt to get Allen Iverson to sign Eddie's "Iversqn" jersey. While Iverson refuses to do as it is a fake, he gives his own game worn jersey to Louis and autographs it. While Eddie relishes being given an official signed jersey worn by Iverson himself, Louis is banned for life from all NBA events and is escorted off the property by the guard he tricked.[47]
Louis and Jessica attend a Homeowners Association meeting, where Carol-Joan suggests they install a piazza as their median for traffic diversion. As Carol-Joan mentions that it could be a neutral territory for community bonding, Jessica shoos her off the stage so that Evan can move on to Louis, who is the next speaker. Louis introduces himself to the homeowners and pitches his new business consultant services, only for Deidre, Carol-Joan and Jamie to ask about his profit margins and clientele. When Louis responds that it would be zero as he has just started, Deidre scoffs that it isn't an actual business if he has no clients, and he is ushered off.
Louis heads to Honey's house, bringing her lunch from Cattleman's as he knows it is hard for her to go out and get food with two young children. Louis mentions how Deidre crushed his dreams, and how she said he had no company due to having no clients or money, while also adding he has yet to come up with a company name. Honey suggests tuning Deidre out, informing Louis that when she needs a break from her kids, she turns off the baby monitor for a few minutes.
Seeing Louis' reaction, she apologizes for the TMI only for Louis to say that he and Jessica did the same thing, albeit without a baby monitor; they increased the volume on their television louder and louder, and became hooked onto Mork & Mindy as a result. Honey is happy to hear that she is not the only one going through parenting issues and expresses her wish that more parents would share their experiences. Louis then suggests that she start a website, and Honey agrees, deciding to call it TMI: True Mommy Insights, with Louis offering his help.
After Honey publishes her first post, they are ecstatic at the view counter that keeps increasing as they refresh the page, only to realize the views are their own. They decide to take a break, with Louis listing off various names for his consulting service, which bores Honey. Eventually, she decides to return to her computer and check the view count, and see that the post has received 100 views. Glad that Louis convinced her to write and that people listening to her maternal problems, she goes through Louis' list of company names.
Louis is at home talking with tech support regarding the various pop-ups on his computer and asking about the $100 the pop-ups claims he won when Honey enters, notifying him that TMI has hit 1,000 page views. Louis then tells Honey that he incorporated her blog as a business and made her his client so that they could both be legitimate businesses. Honey tries to oppose, but Louis construes it as her discussing payment and he tells her that he would not be charging her a cent. He then throws away the champagne she brought over to celebrate the 1,000 page views, citing that they were on the clock, and reveals that he has booked her a spot on Good Morning Orlando. Honey is shocked and claims that she is not TV ready, but relents when Louis mentions that he's finally feeling good about his business now that he has his first client.
Honey goes on Good Morning Orlando, where hosts Gus and Mey-Mey ask her about her blog. Honey tells them that she did with the help of Louis and that he was backstage, only for Gus and Mey-Mey to point out that Louis was at the side with a microphone, and watch as Louis enters and joins the interview. Mey-Mey tells Honey that as a mother she enjoyed Honey's blog, and that she often ignored her child for days on end. This surprises Gus, who asks her about the child he never knew she had, and asks her how old the child is. When Mey-Mey replies that her son is twelve, Gus recalls that they slept together on a cruise twelve years and nine months ago and that when they returned, she swore off sushi and took a sabbatical from work. Mey-Mey then calls for a commercial break, with Gus exclaiming that he wants to know about his son and what his name is. Louis then gives Honey a sign with her web address on it and tells her to flash the goods on camera, clarifying that he meant her teeth.
Honey has finished writing another post about a 55-second rule for floor food when Louis enters and tells her that advertising opportunities have started pouring in since Good Morning Orlando and that she is being paid to write a baby food review, where she must use the word "scrumdeeleeumpcious" and use the promotional bullet points the company has sent. However, Honey refuses, telling Louis that she wants to write what she wants to write. However, Louis ignores her wishes and writes the promotional review himself.
Louis is once again on the phone with tech support, arguing about how his computer was frozen after he attempted to redeem the free trip to Cozumel that he had 'won'. Honey barges in and berates him for publishing the review behind her back, and when he replies with "you're welcome," for making her a business a success, citing it as the reason she hired him, she reminds him that he hired himself and that she was now firing him.
Louis asks why he is being fired, and Honey explains that it was because he went behind her back and published the review even though he knew she didn't want it posted. Honey states that TMI is her blog and not his, and when Louis tries to justify his actions as just being done in a bid to help her, Honey retorts that everything she did was to try and help him since he was desperate for a client, but refers to doing so as a big mistake.
Louis heads outside with a can of baby food and joins Jessica on the piazza. Louis cannot comprehend why Honey would fire him after he helped her turn TMI into a real business, and Jessica tells him Honey has TMI – too much integrity – and that she is not in it for the money. She then tells him how their sons also have TMI – too many interests – and that none of them are her, complaining about how they'd rather play bocce on the piazza than spend time with her. Louis, eating the baby food, then tells her that if she wishes to spend time with them, she should do what interests them, even if it is something she has taken an arbitrary stance against.
Louis heads to Honey's house and asks if he could use her computer, and she refuses as she does not want it to be infected with a virus. He tells her that he wants to show her the latest TMI post, revealing to her that he published her '55-Second Rule' post. He apologizes for selling out her blog, citing that it wasn't her and that he got so caught up in trying to be successful that he forgot that the job entailed supporting someone else and their dreams. Honey tells him that he will make a small business owner happy some day and he replies that she should continue blogging as she has a relatable voice, and she informs him that she would not be stopping as she has so many ideas, disclosing that she even wore a diaper the other day. While discussing company names, Honey suggests that he keep it simple with 'Louis Huang Consulting', a suggestion which Louis likes.[48]
Louis and his family are watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at home. After Louis gets an answer right, picking "C" not only because the answer to always be "C" but because he actually knew it, Eddie tells him that he should be on the show. Louis replies that he would never be chosen to be on television, while Evan points out that Jessica had been selected for a game show in the past, having appeared on Wheel of Fortune. Jessica tells Evan not to compare her accomplishments to Louis', and Louis himself states that in order to be on the show, he would have to call in, pass the screening process, and then out of thousands and thousands of applicants, be one out of only ten to be chosen; he tells his sons there would be no chance he would make it on the show. Regardless, Louis applies anyways.
At Cattleman's, Chestnut is discussing spots on the silverware and wants to throw them out. Eddie tells Chestnut to simply add rinse agent to the dishwasher, and Louis commends Eddie for preserving the silverware. Eddie tells Louis that he is there to support him and discloses that he went through their books and that their profits are up 10%. When Louis asks how, Eddie explains that cutting back on garnishes saved them three cents per plate and that he created an incentive where if a table orders more than four appetizers, he would perform a belly roll for them. Louis tells Eddie that he loves his initiative, to which Eddie assures his father that he has been increasing his performance since Louis is busy with consulting. Just then, Trent informs Eddie that a table has ordered their fifth appetizer, and Louis watches as Eddie performs his belly roll.
Returning home, Louis rushes into the kitchen and admonishes Eddie and Jenny for allowing the kettle to hiss, telling them that it had been at 100 degrees Celsius for the past three minutes. Eddie tells Louis that Jenny has been teaching him how to make bao zi, a Chinese dish. Louis is surprised that Eddie has been taking notes and footnotes, and Eddie explains that he has done so since Jenny does not write any recipes down and therefore thought it would be good to have it written down before she passes away, but does not say the last few words out loud upon noticing Louis shaking his head and Jenny watching him. Louis then tells Eddie that if he keeps up this initiative, he may consider passing down Cattleman's to him some day.
Shortly after, while at work, Louis heads into the Cattleman's kitchen and sees Eddie's new fusion dish, the Cow Bao, which involves him putting burger pieces in the bao zi. Louis appreciates Eddie's initiative, but when Eddie asks if Louis can place the Cow Bao on the Cattleman's menu, Louis immediately rejects him and leaves the kitchen. Eddie follows him outside. Louis tells Eddie that he does not want to mess with what was working, and Eddie counters that China had existed for far longer than Cattleman's; however, Louis reminded him that they are a Western steakhouse and that an Asian fusion dish is not part of their brand, which Eddie seemingly accepts, although not before accusing Louis of being a control freak. Just then, Trent walks in with his arm in a sling, telling Louis that he would not be able to work for a while, disclosing that he had lateral epicondylitis, also known as tennis elbow.
Some time later, while working the floor at work, Chestnut shows Louis his lower back tattoo, which he refers to as a "champ stamp," of an octopus. Chestnut informs Louis that he had gotten the octopus tattoo since an octopus has three hearts, and therefore represented the three loves of his life – his son Max Chestnut, CB radio, and octopus. Just then, Eddie approaches Louis and cites that his Cow Bao would be successful, as he ran the numbers and learned that there was a 63% uptick in Asian cuisine popularity and that fusion dishes were currently "in." Furthermore, since Cattleman's cut their square burger patties into circles for their burgers, they would be able to use the excess corner meat for the Cow Bao, therefore literally cutting corners. While Louis is hesitant, claiming to be unsure if their clientele would accept it, Eddie reveals that he had already put them to the test by offering some to Trent and two of their customers, with one customer proclaiming that she would pay $100 for it. Trent then tells Louis that he has to put it on the menu, and Louis assures Eddie that he would do so.
Louis' application be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is accepted, and having passed the screening process, is selected to be on the show. Meeting host Regis Philbin, Regis asks Louis to introduce himself to the country and asks him what he does for work; mentioning his name and his family, Louis states that he is a business consultant and the owner of Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse, which he would not be able to run without Eddie's assistance.
Regis asks Louis if he's ready to play and the game begins. Regis reminds Louis that he has three lifelines, consisting of 50/50, Ask-the-Audience and Phone-a-Friend, the latter where he can call anyone for help. Louis replies that he as a guy for that, having asked Evan to stay at home and be his lifeline. Regis asks Louis his first question of the game – at what temperature does water boil – with the options being 32 degrees Fahrenheit, 0 degrees Celsius, 100 degrees Celsius, or the temperature of the sun. Louis remembers the incident with the kettle in the kitchen, where Eddie was taught by Jenny how to make bao zi. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Louis tells Regis that the answer is 100 degrees Celsius, which is deemed correct.
Regis calls for a break, and as Louis and Regis are getting their makeup touched up when Regis brings up how hot it must get at Cattleman's, and Louis replies that it gets real hot, recalling when he went into the kitchen and Eddie presented him with his Cow Bao creation. With the game resuming, Regis asks Louis his next question, what the common phrase for lateral epicondylitis is, and Louis ponders back on where he heard that term before.
Remember that Trent had that same condition. Hoping that Trent was right, Louis answers "tennis elbow" and whoops in celebration upon answering correctly. For $8,000, Regis asks Louis how many hearts an octopus has. Louis recalls the memory of Chesnut showing him his octopus 'champ stamp' and informing him that an octopus had three hearts, while also remembering his assurance to Eddie that he would place the Cow Bao on the Cattleman's menu. Regis snaps Louis out of his reverie, and Louis answers that an octopus has three hearts, answering correctly yet again.
Regis calls for another break and asks Louis to meet his family; however, looking into the audience, Louis sees that only Eddie is there, as Jessica and Emery had left. Beckoning him over, Eddie and Regis meet, and Eddie tells Regis about the Cow Bao fusion dish. Regis responds that he would like to try one and Eddie asks if he can mention it on the air, which Regis agrees to do while Louis attempts to curb. Eddie replies that it would be great publicity, especially with Regis chiming in that 28 million people watch the show, but Louis responds that he doesn't want to false advertise since the Cow Bao will not be going on the menu. Upset, Eddie calls Louis a control freak while Louis snaps back that he does not a "dumb Chinese dish" on his menu. The game then resumes, but Regis calls for another break due to "technical difficulties" so that the father and son can mend their relationship, but notifies them that they only have 90 seconds to do so. Eddie asks Louis if he's ashamed of Chinese food and their culture, and calls Louis a sellout as he walks back to the audience.
Regis asks Louis if he's really ashamed to serve Chinese food, and Louis replies that he is not, but that the reasoning goes back to when he first opened his restaurant. Upon purchasing the strip club to convert to his restaurant, the agent asked him what kind of name he would pick, offering various names for Chinese restaurants. Offended, Louis had responded that he was not opening a Chinese restaurant but instead the most American restaurant of all, a Western steakhouse, only for the agent to ask how the fortune cookies would look like. Louis tells Regis that he is not a sellout but just does not want people to assume that he was opening a Chinese restaurant because he was Chinese, stating that he was American as well and wanted his boys to know they were more than one thing. Regis replies that Eddie already got that message since his fusion dish was essentially Chinese cheeseburgers, and had thus embraced being both Chinese and American. Realizing that Eddie was a fusion, Louis thanks Regis for the talk, and he replies that this is why he asks the questions.
With the game resuming, Regis asks a question worth $32,000 – "What part of a computer processes memory?" – with the answers being "monitor," "RAM," "hard drive" or "gizmos." Unsure of the answer, Louis tells Regis that he wishes to use his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call his son. However, instead of calling Evan, Louis' "calls" Eddie in the audience. Louis apologizes to Eddie, telling him that when he started the restaurant, he wanted to be seen as American, but that he now realizes that it does not have to be one or the other and it makes him happy that it is a lesson Eddie did not need to learn. He adds that he would be honored to pass on Cattleman's to Eddie when the time came, much to the audience's appreciation. However, with the time ticking, Louis asks Eddie what the answer is and Eddie reminds Louis of his prior assertion that the answer is always "C.' Louis answers with C for hard drive, but is informed that he has gotten it wrong and therefore has lost the game and the money he accumulated.
Sometime later, the Huang family watch the Millionaire episode at Cattleman's, watching Louis lose on television. Evan remarks that he can't believe Louis wasted the lifeline on Eddie instead of him, and Louis apologizes for losing out on the million dollars, although Eddie points out that he was nowhere close to a million. Jessica tells Louis that it's okay and that money isn't everything, and Emery asks her if she is acting, to which she confirms she is. Just then, Trent serves them with seven Cow Baos and tells Eddie that he owes his own table a belly roll, and that Chestnut had been filling in during Eddie's absence. The family then notice Chestnut pulling up his shirt and parading his "champ stamp" to a dining family, making them uncomfortable.[49]
A few hours after Thanksgiving, Jessica wakes up early and begins to set up her "Jessica Town" model, while singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" out loud at the top of her lungs, waking up her family and causing them to head downstairs. As she tells them it was about time they got out of bed, Evan points out that it is 5:00 am while Emery reminds her that Thanksgiving was just last night, and Eddie, claiming to be more turkey than man, asks her if she could put her preparations on hold until daytime; Jessica declines, notifying her family that with Thanksgiving being over, the Christmas season has officially begun and that there was no time to waste.
Later that morning, Louis has breakfast with his sons when Jessica approaches the table. Louis tells her that the community park is building an ice rink for the holidays and that he would like to go with her, since the last time they skated together was before they had children. However, Jessica declines, intending to spend the time on holiday decorations. She states her preparations have to be perfect since it is 1999 and therefore the last Christmas of both the century and the millennium. Presenting Louis with a gingerbread house, she tells him that she will making a life-sized version to place on their lawn. Louis tells Jessica that she should be subtracting from her holiday list rather than adding, sadly mentioning that he loses her for the entire month of December. Jessica replies that people expect perfection from her when it comes to Christmas, including her Christmas cards and getting her sons the unique present they each want; Louis then asks the boy what they would like for Christmas, and all three unanimously respond that they want a gift card. Telling Jessica that Christmas gets simpler as the boys get older, he once again suggests that they go ice skating; Jessica refuses once more, citing that she could not risk getting hurt on the ice as there would be no one else to do the holiday work, and heads out to purchase tinsel. Wanting to help Jessica finish her Christmas work so that they could go skating, Louis takes it upon himself to write the Christmas cards and seal them in the envelopes.
Jessica is busy rewriting the Christmas cards at the table when Louis enters with a pair of skates, asking her if she'd noticed that he'd completed the cards and if she'd like to lace up and join him on the skating rink. Jessica tells them that she cannot go as she must stay and fix "everything [he] did wrong." Louis tells her that she is going overboard and that he does not know what the big deal is. Jessica replies that her Christmas cards kick off the holiday season and that everyone expects perfection from her. Louis offers to help out so that they could go skating, asking how hard it could really be, prompting Jessica to assign him the task of building the life-sized gingerbread house, giving him until the end of the week to complete it.
Jessica heads into the kitchen to check on Louis' progress, and Louis notes that it is awfully messy and that frosting is solidifying instantly, likening it to concrete. Jessica tells him that it does not bode well for him and offers to take over, but Louis remains persistent that he can do it. Louis calls in Trent to help him, and Trent uses a magnifying glass to examine the gingerbread house. Jessica then enters the kitchen, wondering why Louis stopped screaming and banging his head against the walls, and Louis responds that everything is going great. Jessica notices a smell coming from the oven, and Louis informs her that he is baking fresh gingerbread using a homemade recipe, which he and Trent would use to start building the walls. Deeming it a Christmas miracle and not wanting Louis to succeed, Jessica pushes up the timeline from the end of the week to the next day, asking him if he could handle it, and Louis replies that he can. As Jessica leaves, Trent tells Louis that there was no way they could build the life-sized gingerbread house in less than 24 hours.
As Jessica is setting up the garland at home, she hears Louis calling for her, telling her that she needs him; smiling, Jessica exclaims that she knew Louis did not have it in him. Heading outside, she spots a gingerbread shack on the lawn, and remarks that it looks worse than she thought. Louis tells Jessica that the time crunch made him nervous and prevented him from adding all the bells and whistles, but that the people love it anyways. Jessica then thanks Louis for ruining her Christmas and storms off, leaving Louis and Marvin on the lawn, with the latter recommending that Louis try some eggnog.
Louis heads back home and spots Jessica tossing glitter on his hairdryer, with Jessica explaining that she is doing it to make a joke out of something he loves the way he did to her. Louis states that he thought she would be happy with his gingerbread house while Jessica scoffs and says that it is a shack. Louis replies that it may not be Princess Jasmine's palace but that everyone loves it, which is what should matter. Jessica tells him that Christmas is her holiday and that it has to be perfect, not pushed through or scaled back. Louis then tells her that a perfect Christmas to him is spending time with her, and complimenting her decorations on his chair, leaves the room.
Jessica heads outside to the lawn, where Louis is standing by his shack. She apologizes for insulting the shack and explains that she was just worried that Christmas would be ruined if she didn't try to make it perfect, while Louis responds that Christmas isn't about being perfect but about being together, and that he just wants to spend it with her. Jessica tells Louis that she knows he was just trying to help when he wrote the Christmas cards and asks him if he would like to go skating, holding two pairs of skates. Louis is surprised, reminding Jessica that she was scared of getting hurt on the ice, although Jessica claims that she is good at everything she does, and that she has nothing else to do now that Louis had built the gingerbread house.
Louis tells Jessica not to examine the house too closely as he cut corners, and it is revealed that Trent has been inside the shack the whole time, providing structural support to keep it standing. Trent then screams as he spots a rat inside the shack and calls for Louis, who merely walks away with Jessica. A month later, on Christmas morning, Jessica is wrapping Louis' arms when Louis presents her with a gift. Jessica points out that he could've gotten them for 50% off had he waited a day, but deems them perfect and places them within her Jessica Town set.[50]
Louis walks in on a mock interview of Jessica conducted by Honey in their kitchen and asks Jessica why she would ask Honey for help and not the business consultant she lives with, but comes to the conclusion that it may be for the best as Jessica as used to him being her husband and not a brutally honest and straightforward person. Louis suggests to Jessica that she network with Deidre, since Deidre sits on the board of a private school, although Jessica informs him that the 'networking' she does with Deidre is not exactly positive. Louis replies that he has a business relationship with Deidre as he buys $50 worth of hair products from her every month, and asks Jessica if he can help her get her the job of her dreams. After a moment of consideration, Jessica agrees, claiming that it couldn't hurt and that Honey was doing terrible.
Louis invites Deidre for golf at the North Orlando Country Club, much to Jessica's dissatisfaction, telling Jessica that one must endure hardship and play the long game for the sake of the bigger picture. As Louis compliments Deidre's swing, he tells Jessica that she should butter her up and ease the discussion into Deidre's makeup company, only for Jessica to tell Deidre that she's looking for a job at a private school since Deidre is on the board of Smith-Moore Academy.
Louis attempts to soften the situation by claiming that Jessica starts talking about private schools due to sunstroke, but Deidre points out that Jessica could not have sunstroke with the brim radius on her visor, noting that she knows Jessica wants to talk business. Deidre tells Jessica that Smith-Moore Academy is currently looking for a Dean and that she would perfect for the position, further stating that with her influence, the interview process would merely be a formality and that she would go call the school right now. As she walks away, Louis is disappointed that it happened so fast, and Jessica tells him that he is just upset because she cut his long game short; she then picks up the golf ball and throws it across the field.
After Jessica is hired as the Dean of Smith-Moore Academy, Louis asks Jessica how her first day was when she returns home. Incensed, she notifies him that the school only hired her because she was Chinese, and pulls out a brochure from the welcome packet, with her face on the front above the line "Home of Diversity." Louis replies that he should've known something was amiss when Deidre was too quick to help, and Jessica tells him that Reed couldn't name one thing in her job description and that the title of Dean did not even exist prior to her hiring. Jessica states that the school is caught up in the new "diversity wave" and that they hired her just for optics, and tells Louis that even though she finally got what she wanted, she did not earn it and does not want a handout.
Louis responds that she deserves the job as she put in hard work and that the alternative would no diversity at the school at all. Jessica retorts that his statement sounds like something her husband would say and that she would like to know what her business consultant thinks instead, and Louis advises that while it may not be ideal how she got her job, she should make the most of it and play the long game by working twice as hard. Nodding in agreement, Jessica proclaims that she would work four times as hard to prove her worth, while Louis tells her that he loves it when she is mad at people that weren't him.
Jessica returns home from work and tells Louis that she cannot continue her "job" anymore, and he advises that she should hang in there even though it is not easy. Jessica responds that they won't let her, citing that she tried to pitch in during a staff meeting, where she suggested that they install healthy vending machines to help boost school nutrition, only for no one to acknowledge her; however, seconds later, a teacher named Jan repeated Jessica's idea as her own as the other faculty applauded and congratulated Jan.
Louis considers the fact that perhaps it happened because she was new and did not establish herself yet, but Jessica also reveals when she tried to distinguish herself by being something other than 'the Asian person' by planning to drop Mr. Buns, the rabbit, in the administrative building as a distraction, a colleague asked her if she was carrying him because it was the Year of the Rabbit. Louis claims that even if it was for optics, they were still paying her and that they would want to use her something, and Jessica responds that they want her to sign off on anything "diverse" as a means to protect themselves. She sadly states that she knows Louis, as her business consultant, would want her to stick it out and play the long game, only to be surprised when Louis tells her that she should quit, and that she should look for a position at another school where her talents would be appreciated, and that he has no other suggestions or answers for her.
Louis is home when Jessica returns from work, telling him that she is not quitting and that she needs to play the long game and gain a seat at the table to prevent her discrimination from happening to others. She then tells Louis that she called for a press conference at the school later that day and that she needs his help.
At the press conference, Jessica apologizes on the school's behalf and asks the reporters gathered around if they wish to ask any questions, blindsiding Principal Reed. Louis, disguised as a reporter, asks Jessica what plans she has for the school following her newfound position as Dean, and Jessica responds that she would reveal her extensive list of plans that fall under her job description, which the school would be unable to repeal as she is publicly listing them. Louis then begins to ask about access to the school's pool, but Jessica shuts him down.
Sometime later, the Huang men are on their couch eating pizza and discussing pies when Jessica walks in with Mr. Buns, informing her family that the rabbit is now her assistant and would be staying with them while Reed has a window installed in her office. Louis then tells his family that he is revealed that Mr. Buns is a rabbit after having heard so much about a Mr. Buns whom Jessica referred to as cute and whom she shared an office with.[51]
While in the kitchen, Louis tells Emery that his shirt's pits are yellow, and Emery bemoans that he cannot keep wearing Eddie's hand-me-downs due to the holes, stains, and smells, and that he would have to update his wardrobe. Louis, who is wearing one of Eddie's old jeans, tells Emery that Jessica would not pay for that but adds him that he would be happy to add Emery to the payroll at Cattleman's, although Emery declines, citing that the food industry was more Eddie's thing.
Eddie mentions his upcoming spring break plans on South Padre Island, with Emery claiming that he still cannot believe their parents agreed to let him do that and Louis states that he could not believe it either, but that the ship had sailed as they had shook their hands in agreement. Eddie recalls that he had to mop, vacuum and make a bed in order to convince his parents to let him go, telling them that while making a bed wasn't that hard, he never wanted to do it again. Just then, Jessica walks in with a tripod camera and Louis pleads with Jessica not to take a photo of him wearing Eddie's jeans. Jessica explains that she is setting it up so that she can take a photo of Eddie's face when his SAT results arrive sometime that week, and that she wanted to capture either the look of joy or the portrait of failure when she makes him go missing.
While in the kitchen, Louis smiles as he spots Emery tiptoeing to the fridge to get ice cream, only to be ambushed by Jessica. Jessica takes the ice cream out of Emery's hands and tells him that he could only have some once he finds a job, and as Emery leaves the kitchen, Louis criticizes Jessica for her approach. Jessica retorts that Emery has gotten lazy recently and needs to learn consequences, although Louis states that he knows his son and that if they push Emery too hard, he would rush and make a bad choice, adding that Emery requires a gentle touch. Jessica disagrees with being gentle on Emery, but Louis tells her that he knows Emery and to trust him when he says that giving Emery space will lead to Emery finding a job.
Louis heads to the kitchen to eat some ice cream, telling Jessica to back off and claiming that he earned the right to eat double choco mint ice cream after convincing Emery to look for jobs at the mall without threatening him. Jessica then notifies him that there are no chocolate pieces in the cream since Eddie ate them all using Jenny's tweezers, much to Louis' disgust. Emery then walks into the house with various shopping bags, and Louis exclaims that he must have gotten his first paycheck. Emery explains that he did not get a job since Louis wanted him to find his own thing and he couldn't, and clarifies that the clothes he had purchased came from his Christmas gift cards. Jessica points out that Emery is happy being unemployed while Louis berates Emery for being a "ding-dong" and proving him wrong to Jessica. Jessica then takes Emery's shopping bags from him, telling him that he would have to get a job by tomorrow if he wanted his clothes back. As Emery walks away, Jessica turns to Louis and states that Emery is a horse and that she must ride him to success.
Louis and Jessica are sitting on the couch at home, where Louis asks Jessica if they could give each other shoulder massages, although Jessica declines as she states she prefers having tight shoulders. Just then, Emery enters through the door and announces that he has just been hired at "Abernathy & Fitz." Jessica tells Emery that he can have his clothes back as Emery thanks Jessica for the push. As Emery makes his way upstairs, Jessica tells Louis that not only did she get Emery to find a job, she also caused him to get hired by a law firm, and claims that she deserves ice cream as her reward. As Jessica leaves to go to the kitchen, Jenny asks Louis if they could give each other a massage as her Madonna bra straps are killing her shoulders, and Louis flat-out refuses.
Jessica returns home to find Louis leaning against the wall, seemingly holding a handful of condoms. Jessica replies that she is not in the mood for sex and asks why he has so many condoms, and Louis clarifies that it is actually Lactaid. He tells her that she was right about Emery and therefore does deserve ice cream, albeit the "kind high-schoolers get on an innocent date before they ravage each other," available at an ice cream store at the mall. In the food court, Jessica stares at the shirtless Emery, and Louis, noticing Jessica's wandering eyes, asks if there is a good-looking man behind him. Jessica responds that there is a good-looking adult man that they definitely do not know, but Louis, noting that Jessica is still staring, states that the man must be really sexy. Just then, Emery notices his parents and walks up to them, asking them what they are doing there, and Louis, now staring at Emery's torso as well, asks Jessica why he has come face-to-face with Emery's nipples.
Louis, Jessica and Emery return home, with Emery informing his parents that he has to go take a shower so he could wash the oil off of his torso. Louis asks Jessica why she chose to omit the fact that Emery was working at a half-nude clothing outlet, and Jessica responds that it was because he knew that if Emery was pushed, he would make a bad choice. Louis retorts that despite his warning, she did it anyways and now Emery was selling his body, although Jessica attempts to soften the blow by reminding Louis that he was only nude from the waist up. Jessica apologizes to Louis, admitting that she was wrong and just wanted to help Emery figure out what job to get, and Louis adds that he too was wrong, citing that Emery was a teenager now and therefore needs to learn that the real world has consequences. Jessica then states that technically they were both half-right, but since she admitted her wrongdoing first, she was first half-right, and Louis sighs as he replies "Sure."
The Huangs and Patels attend the Florida State Spelling Bee, and as Evan spells "guetapens" correctly, Louis wonders out loud if Evan would get a trophy if he won. Mina Patel then informs him that he would just get a ribbon and a certificate that would not fit in a standard frame.[52]
Personality[]
- "My husband is a good man. He believes in the good of people."
- ―Jessica Huang
To be added
Trivia[]
- In the episode "How to Be an American", Jessica's Visa application reveals Louis's birth date to be March 23, 1955, making him 7 years older than Jessica, who was revealed to have been born on June 12, 1962.
- In the episode "Legends of the Fortieth", set in 1999, it was revealed Louis just turned forty, making him born in 1959 in Season 5.
- He is the former "Cha Cha king" of Taipei.
- Louis is a Democrat as revealed in "Citizen Jessica".
References[]
- ↑ Pilot
- ↑ Home Sweet Home-School
- ↑ The Shunning
- ↑ Success Perm
- ↑ Persistent Romeo
- ↑ Fajita Man
- ↑ Showdown at the Golden Saddle
- ↑ Phillip Goldstein
- ↑ License to Sell
- ↑ Blind Spot
- ↑ Very Superstitious
- ↑ Dribbling Tiger, Bounce Pass Dragon
- ↑ So Chineez
- ↑ Family Business Trip
- ↑ Boy II Man
- ↑ Shaquille O'Neal Motors
- ↑ The Fall Ball
- ↑ Miracle on Dead Street
- ↑ Good Morning Orlando
- ↑ The Big 1-2
- ↑ Huangsgiving
- ↑ We Done Son
- ↑ The Real Santa
- ↑ Year of the Rat
- ↑ Love and Loopholes
- ↑ Phil's Phaves
- ↑ Michael Chang Fever
- ↑ Keep 'Em Separated
- ↑ Tight Two
- ↑ Doing It Right
- ↑ Week in Review
- ↑ Jessica Place
- ↑ Hi, My Name Is...
- ↑ Rent Day
- ↑ Gotta Be Me
- ↑ The Manchurian Dinner Date
- ↑ Bring the Pain
- ↑ Coming from America
- ↑ Breaking Chains
- ↑ Louisween
- ↑ Help Unwanted?
- ↑ College
- ↑ Grandma's Boys
- ↑ S'Mothered
- ↑ Hal-Lou-Ween
- ↑ Chestnut Gardens
- ↑ Practicum?!
- ↑ TMI: Too Much Integrity
- ↑ Lou Wants to Be a Millionaire
- ↑ Jessica Town
- ↑ A Seat at the Table
- ↑ The Magic Motor Inn