Archie wakes up alone in the morning, on the couch in the living room, and pulls himself together before waking Stephanie up. As they both get ready to go about their day, Edith is nowhere to be seen.
As it turns out, this will be the first clue that something has changed, and that it's now "Archie, Alone."
As the pair eat breakfast, Stephanie attempts to ask him to go to the cemetery, but Archie says that he's planned out their weekend and wants to go to the circus. Before the conversation can continue, they're distracted by the arrival of their neighbor, Molly, who has come by to pick up a casserole dish she lent to them. Archie opens the refrigerator for her to get it, only to reveal that neither he nor Stephanie ate the lasagna she prepared for them. Archie makes up an excuse for why they didn't touch the food, while Stephanie becomes sullen and leaves for school, only stopping to give Archie a kiss when he asks her to come back.
At the bar, the staff are having some good-natured fun with Barney when the subject turns to Archie. Barney draws parallels with the case of his own relative, Eddie, and it's revealed that Edith died in her sleep at some point shortly before the events of the episode. Despite their sullen mood, they offer to cheer Archie up as much as they can. When Archie arrives at the bar, they deliberately go over-the-top with their reactions whenever the subject turns to Edith's passing, which leaves him confused and telling them to stop. Soon after, a representative from an insurance company arrives at the bar to talk to Archie about his wife's insurance policy. Despite Archie's attempts to dodge the subject and leave, the rep asks him to sign a beneficiary claim so he can present a check for $5,000 to him. Archie, still refusing to believe what's happening, refuses to sign the check and asks the rep to send it to Gloria in California. As the rep leaves, Archie gets a call from Stephanie's school telling him she hasn't been in class for a week, and reels in response.
After Stephanie arrives at the bar that afternoon to meet Archie, she gives him an alibi about what she was doing at school that day. When they both arrive home, Archie chastizes her for skipping class, but she tells him she can't go back because the other children look at her strangely and she's distracted from her work. Archie tells her they're not that different, as the staff at the bar are treating him strangely too.
The next day, Archie meets with a counselor, Kathy Wakefield, at Stephanie's school, commenting on how She's All Grown Up. The conversation turns to Stephanie's truancy, and Ms. Wakefield asks if Stephanie attended Edith's funeral. Archie admits she did, then tells her about the subsequent family gathering that was held afterwards. Ms. Wakefield suggests that both Archie and Stephanie go through Edith's possessions so the latter can keep one of her items as a memento, but Archie brushes Wakefield off, telling her he did his duty getting her back into school. Ms. Wakefield warns that Stephanie could have further problems going forward if Archie doesn't confront the issue head-on before he leaves.
Later that afternoon, Archie meets with the staff and relays what Ms. Wakefield told him. He asks Veronica to help him pack up Edith's possessions, and she bursts out crying before agreeing to it. He also asks Murray to talk with Stephanie about what happened to Edith, saying he can't do it himself. Despite Murray's reservations, he agrees to the task for Archie's sake. That night, Archie invites Murray over to talk with Stephanie under the pretense of having dinner with them, and when Archie goes to check on a roast, Murray asks Stephanie how she's doing. Stephanie admits that she can't talk to Archie because he refuses to accept Edith's death, changing the subject whenever she brings it up, sleeping on the couch instead of the bedroom and refusing to open cards from family members. Murray is surprised by the revelation as she leaves for bed.
Murray confronts Archie with the information Stephanie gave him, causing Archie to attempt to dodge his questioning and order him out of the house. Before he leaves, Murray tells him that he is the problem, not Stephanie, causing Archie to react in shock. He goes upstairs to bid Stephanie goodnight, but when she asks if he wants to talk, he dodges the question again and says he should let her sleep.
The next day, Veronica and Molly are helping Stephanie pack up Edith's old possessions. Stephanie decides to keep a pin Edith had planned to give her for her 16th birthday, and they decide to gift the rest of her possessions to the Sunshine Home, where she worked. Archie comes home as they finish removing the possessions, and stares in shock as Stephanie shows off the pin she decided to keep before changing the subject. After the two women leave, he asks Stephanie to keep the pin out of his sight, but refuses to tell her why. After Stephanie leaves, he's distracted by the arrival of a cosmetics saleswoman who arrives at the door and tells him that she's brought Edith's order of cosmetics. Archie lies that she isn't in, and pays for the cosmetics before she leaves. Archie fondly remembers that Edith couldn't say "no to nobody" before he closes the door.
That night, Archie decides to enter the bedroom, and looks through the empty wardrobe before he discovers a single slipper, belonging to Edith, that was left under the bed. He sits down on the bed and picks up the slipper, then says out loud that he should have been the one to go first. He admits that it wasn't supposed to be like this, and that he blames himself for trying to wake her up and not realized she had died. He concludes by saying that he wanted one more chance to say he loved her before breaking down. Stephanie enters the room, and Archie tearfully tells her Edith should have been the one to look after her if he passed away. He tells her that they can go down to the cemetery on the weekend, and that they can bring flowers.
The episode concludes with Stephanie asking if they can bring carnations and Archie agreeing to the request, before he makes light of the relatives who took the bedsheets from the bedroom.
Tropes seen in this episode:
- Broken Tears: Archie’s emotional meltdown, which made for the episode’s defining scene.
- Character Death: Edith Bunker, who passes away offscreen between the seasons due to Jean Stapleton's request to leave the franchise.
- Foreshadowing: Archie refuses to go into the bedroom he used to share with Edith, instead relying on Stephanie to get his day's outfit for him. He doesn't re-enter the room until the end of the episode, where he breaks down upon finding her slipper.
- How Dare You Die on Me!: Part of Archie’s monologue stems from his anger over Edith going before he was ready. He notes that he used to joke about her going first, but he “never meant none of that,” while he expresses anger that she died before he had one more chance to tell her he loves her.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Invoked in-universe. The staff and customers at Archie's bar deliberately go over-the-top with their reactions as a counterbalance when the mood becomes downbeat whenever Edith is brought up.
- Played straight when Archie describes the family's get-together after Edith's funeral, where he describes Edith's family pouring into the house... only to eat the food on display "like a horde of locusts".
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Essentially, Archie's point during his tearful meltdown ... the Dingbat went before he had one last chance to tell her he loved her.
- Rage Breaking Point: Finding one of Edith's slippers upstairs finally pushes Archie over the emotional edge.
