Pretty good episode, overall. I'd give it a 3 or 3 1/2 out of 5.
I'm surprised the janitor Eugene was replacing wasn't Bernard (as far as we know). That would have made an interesting twist in the plot. Maybe Rusty could have written something negative about Bernard (maybe accusing him of not being able to do anything except clean windows, run a
local TV show for kids, and argue with his cousin). When that's already eating at Mr. Walton, he hears the kids talking about how great Eugene is, and maybe he is ready to 'let Eugene have it'--but the part about him arguing makes him decide to be more agreeable.
I'm glad to read that we'll be hearing what's bothering Mandy. This was a very rare occasion when I
didn't like her character at all. She's almost always been nice, other than when she and Liz fought over Seth. I think their fight helped us relate to Mandy as being imperfect and sometimes needing to apologize (kind of like Lucy in the "Daring Deeds, Sinister Schemes" album), but I was concerned that this time the writers were making Mandy be a bad person without even giving her a reason (not that a reason would make it all right to be bad, but if we had a reason, then there would be better hope for it to be resolved than if she suddenly became like this without an explanation).
One other thing I didn't like was Eugene's lie about the janitor who saved the school kids and faculty by discovering the gas leak. He didn't have to say he knew the janitor, and the man was a great guy, etc. He
did know the guy (since it was him), but he implied that the guy's name was really what the paper said it was, and thus that it was a different person from him. It would be one thing if he just said, "I've made his acquaintance before," and just left it at that.
But with all that said, I still liked the way Eugene kept trying
not to hog the spotlight and was constantly thrust back
into it. Pretty funny!
Also, I like the fact that
Odyssey decided to make Rusty grow up, because age progression makes for a sense of believability.
I think it's cool that the characters were able to take Rusty's criticism, evaluate it, and learn a lesson if there was some truth in what he said, yet in the end they also learned when
not to listen to him (like Whit deciding to keep wearing the type of pants he liked, etc.).
Liz was pretty funny, btw, in the scene where she tells Mandy to get on the job. I'm glad Liz isn't rude and mean like she used to be, but her ability to be agressive when the situation requires it helps us remember that she's still the same character and just uses her sometimes tough personality for
good nowadays!