Better with You Episode 1.07 Better With Road Joel

Casey's mom is coming to town for Mia's baby shower. She's hated every girlfriend her baby boy has ever had. Maddie believes things are sure be different with her sister. She says, "I don't know what it is, but moms always love Mia. She's like Pierce Brosnan." But Casey's mom, Ariel (guest star Valerie Mahaffey), must not be a fan of the former Bond man, as she's super-snide to our sweet little Mia.

During the shower, Casey plans a road trip to Vermont. Ben wants to go with him but doesn't know how to ask, as evidenced by this next run-on sentence. Ben says, "You can't just ask someone... hey, can I come on your road trip and we can have guy bonding and make really cool memories and then years from now we can just look at each other and do that smirk that guys do where we know we're both thinking about that great road trip we had but we can't talk about it because the girls are in the room." Whew!

As it turns out, Ben doesn't even have to ask. Casey invites him along on the journey all on his own. They won't be traveling alone though. Joel is going, too. And by Joel, we mean "Road Joel." Who is Road Joel, you ask? Well, he's a bit of a rebel who is prone to shotgunning cans of vegetable juice. See, Regular Joel can't have salt. But Road Joel gets a little crazy once the sodium kicks in. And things are about to get salty!

Road Joel is actually tons of fun in his frenzied, salt-induced state. This bums out Ben who was looking to bond with Casey. The two finally get some alone time when Joel speeds off leaving them behind at a roadside diner. While stranded in the middle of nowhere, Ben is happy to learn that Mia is the one who made Casey invite Joel on the road trip. And even though things didn't work out as planned, at least they now have a great story to tell. Casey says, "Hey, remember that time Road Joel abandoned us in a diner in Albany?" Good times.

In order to get Ariel to like her, Mia shifts into "yes" mode. That means she agrees with everything Casey's mom says. This causes a bit of rift with her actual mom when Ariel insists that the new baby call her nana. That happens to be the grandma moniker Vicky wanted. But Mia doesn't want to rock the boat with Casey's mom. That's probably why she says yes once again when Ariel asks her to give birth in a barn. What the hay?!

The girls realize that the only way to avoid having the baby in the aforementioned stable environment is by getting their mom involved. Vicky has a little chat with Ariel. There's simply no way her grandchild is being born in a barn. To emphasize her point, she threatens to claim the "nana" title as her own.

Vicky will have constant access to their grandchild while Ariel is miles away in Vermont. So she can pretty much convince the kid to call her long-distance grandma anything she wants. Old Mother Wrinklestorm is one possible suggestion. Message received. The barn birth is off!

Ben and Casey take an expensive cab ride home to find Ariel being somewhat nice to Mia. It's quite the pleasant surprise. There's more good news when Joel powers down from his salt high to return home. Unfortunately, Casey's rental car didn't come back with him. Sure hope he got the insurance because, according to Joel, the car is messssed up. Just one more reason to cut salt out of your daily diet.