Warning: Major spoilers ahead

As Katie drives Greg to his new accommodation on campus for writer-in-residence stay, she catches him lying about having friends in Florida, realising he’s using the names of Cheers characters. The house comes complete with multiple rooms, and a welcome basket of booze and Ludlow merch, which excites Greg, who suggests Katie move in with him.

Instead, she lays some ground rules with her dad. She knows the job will be good for him but shares her hesitance as she has fought to step out from her mother’s shadow on the campus. Now she worries she’ll be in his, so asks for him to give her some space as she recovers from her split and suspension her own way. He agrees.

The next morning, complete with a shiny new pair of shoes, Greg heads out to work and immediately spots Dylan, who now lives next door. She insists she’s not mad at him for taking the job she had lined up for her friend, Ruby, but asks him for a favour, to which he agrees.

Across town, Sunny and Mo are adjusting to Archie now living with them, but Archie is finding it tougher. When the girls speak in the kitchen about Sunny’s summer internship, he blames them for talking too loud for him to concentrate on his novel. In response, Mo tells him it’s her house and she can speak where she wants.

However, when Sunny mentions she might approach Walt for help as a mentor after spotting him at the gym, Archie chips in again, saying it’s “not good for him” if she does that. Mo reminds him it’s not up to him to make her life choices, but he comments that, given the attention he and Sunny have got from faculty for their relationship, having the president of the college around their business is probably not a wise choice. She begrudgingly agrees not to ask him.

While Dylan might not be mad at Greg, she’s still mad at Walt. She scolds him for hiring Greg to be writer-in-residence instead of Ruby, whom he’d promised the position to. He tells them she can do it next semester, but the opportunity to have Greg on board was too big to pass up.

Greg tells them both he only agreed to it because his hand was forced to save Katie’s job and begs them both not to tell her. Walt suggests Dylan’s anger is more to do with his decision to ditch The Review rather than Ruby, and says he appreciates Greg for not wanting anything from him like everyone else does.

Greg is shown to his new office – directly attached to Walt’s.

At the gym, Sunny approaches Dean Riggs and asks if she would be his advisor. She’s looking for an internship in biotech with a focus on health and wellness, so thinks they’d be a good fit. Instead, Riggs makes a joke about her being a “beautiful scientist”, but she should “buy him a drink first” and quickly turns her down, noting “his lawyers have told him not to”. As Riggs heads off for a smoke, Walt overhears and encourages her to find someone she connects with.

Now convinced Walt is the right guy for her like she initially suspected, she shares her thoughts again with Archie. He continues to discourage it as a choice, saying Walt was just inserting himself after eavesdropping - something he has a long habit of doing, even buying Archie’s beloved dog Roscoe because he’d overheard him mention he was thinking about getting one. Archie offers to talk to Riggs on Sunny’s behalf to get him to change his mind.

Greg arrives at Katie’s house to for feedback on a proposed lesson plan for his students, but she’s busy with her teaching assistant, Lily, who is taking over her classes while she’s suspended (and covering for her smoking habit). She tells him his plan is over scheduled, and he needs to relax and be more flexible. She reminds him that he coached her soccer team for a brief spell, and they only won a match when he told them just to go out and have fun. Nonetheless, he’s worried and needs a plan to calm his nerves and be a “rockstar” teacher like her. She reminds him that, right now, she’s not any kind of teacher, and to cheer her up he invites her to a hockey game that night.

As Greg makes his way to class, he tries and fails to take a shortcut up a hill – taking a tumble thanks to his slippery new shoes. He arrives at his class scuffed up with his leg bleeding. Among the attendees is Ronni, the girl who confronted him for “hating women”, and Tommy, who has brought one of his books, ‘Miami Amour’, to class.

He declares the class is called “The Art of the Page Turner”, referring to his books as “beach reads” that you find at the airport, and immediately starts to falter, writing his name as “Grg” in permanent marker on the board, and annoying the students with his intensively planned schedule. When Ronnie tells him she didn’t recognise any of the authors and was unsure “if the literature will speak to her”, he tells her not to worry, referring to her as the “white whale” he hopes to win over before the semester is over.

She immediately reports him for body shaming, and he’s hauled into a disciplinary meeting. He tries to tell them it’s a popular saying rooted in literature and argues it “doesn’t make sense for him to call her that because she’s got a lovely figure” which just makes it worse. Archie steps in to plead for forgiveness on his behalf (as much for himself as anyone) but Greg doesn’t want to hear it. Riggs rules it a verbal warning and leaves, later asking Greg to meet with him that evening to “give him the lay of the land” over a scotch.

Dylan discovers the college’s free speech zone – famed for its protests – has been moved to right outside her new office. She is furious, and goes to confront Riggs about it, finding him with Archie, who has bribed him into mentoring Sunny with a vintage bottle of wine. Riggs comments that he must “really love his mistress”.

Speaking with Dylan, Riggs confirms he moved the free speech zone to outside her office to annoy her after she complained about him to Walt, even happily bragging about being that petty. As Archie listens outside, Dylan launches a tirade at him, ignoring his request for water and calling him every name under the sun she can think of. But her tirade is cut short when Riggs starts choking, eventually passing out. Dylan darts out of the room and leaves Archie to phone an ambulance. He does so – but swipes the expensive bottle of wine back first.

As Greg arrives for his evening on the porch with Riggs, he’s instead met by his wife, Susan, who asks him to drive her to the hospital because “it’s bad”. Walt gets news that it was a heart attack, but he will pull through. Dylan feels guilty as she denied him the glass of water he requested, but Walt gives her Riggs’ position as Dean while he’s in hospital, joking “if you kill a man, you take his job”.

Greg waits with Susan at the hospital, who praises him for being a good friend to her husband. Greg doesn’t even know his name – only ever calling him Riggs. Susan eventually reveals he’s called Vincent, and Greg compliments him making them out to be better friends than they were.

With nothing to do all day, an idle Katie creeps outside Archie’s class and watches him work. Two of his adoring students notice her lurking at the door. Realising she’s been marked, Katie scarpers.

After dealing with the philosophy teacher, Dylan’s new secretary, the very odd Cristle, warns her the best way to do things is to not talk to anyone unless it’s an emergency. When Katie bursts through the door, she begs to get her suspension lifted because she’s going crazy sitting at home. She doesn’t understand how Archie can be so upbeat amid their split instead of struggling like she is.

Unbeknownst to her, Archie is struggling. Between periods of trying and failing to write his novel, he is tearfully looking at old photos from his marriage with Katie. Sunny comes to see him and tells him she needs a mentor who can “breathe on their own”, sharing a list. When he asks what the rush is, she reminds him she’s pregnant and needs to secure it before she starts showing and they don’t want to hire her. While he comments they can’t discriminate against her like that, she knows that’s not how the world works.

Greg ends up staying overnight at the hospital, sleeping on a sofa in the corner. When he wakes, he realises he’s running late for class and darts off. With his strict schedule now thrown out the window, he decides to take Katie’s advice free wheel it. He admits he never went to college, but still managed to write 11 bestsellers, and that teaching petrifies him. He says despite this, they all have things in common: everyone there likes to write. He confesses the Rooster books are all the things he wishes he could do in life, and writing them is the closest he can get to being someone else.

Tommy steps in to share writing helped him feel smart. Another student then adds that she started writing after her parents’ divorce. He goes to high five her, slips on her bag and accidentally grabs her chest. Soon he’s in yet another disciplinary meeting to explain his actions, but the girl involved acknowledges it wasn’t intentional, and it’s dismissed.

At the gym, Archie approaches Walt, who, having spotted a pack of cigarettes on the running machine, admits he is missing Riggs, noting him as ‘something problematic in his life he has a soft spot for’. Archie then encourages him to mentor Sunny, bringing her over to make the introduction. Walt’s aware she’s pregnant, but she charms him with protein shakes and health knowledge.

As Archie leaves, Walt questions if she minds him having a front row seat to her drama, but Sunny admits she’d likely appreciate the outside POV.

That evening, Greg is at the hockey game alone. Calling Katie, he finds she is out having a good time with Lily and her friends. He’s disappointed, because he wanted to share that her advice worked. She asks if they can call back later but gets angry that he’s making her feel guilty.

Dylan arrives, having heard that the hockey coach is drinking on the job and in need of a chewing out, but while she’s there, she’ll give him a talking to as well. She questions how hard it is for him to stop offending people (right down to his “Ontario Indians” hockey jersey) and he admits it’s clearly harder than it seems.

Greg admits that he has too much free time at the college and wants to go home, which makes her laugh as he sounds like a college freshman. She reminds him that he’s 60 - and he can leave whenever he wants. He says he’s actually 57 and calls her mean, leaving her to deal with the raving hockey coach, who is now breaking glass bottles on the rink and singing Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline at the top of his lungs.

Arriving back at home alone, a sad, lonely and bored Greg kills time by throwing his spare change into a glass.