Eddie is awarded a spot in the honor society, but when Evan wants recognition for secretly helping prepare Eddie every morning, a wedge is driven between the brothers. Jessica tries to improve her cop dialogue by signing up for a ride-along. On St. Patrick's Day, Louis receives orders from Kenny Rogers to fire Matthew Chestnut.
- Call-Back: Ms. Doris appears again, as Evan realizes he forgot his English homework right when her class begins, and her fondness for Eddie lets the latter interrupt to deliver Evan's homework and have a brief chat in the hall about relying on each other.
- Irony: Towards the end of the episode, Evan forgets to bring his homework to class because he'd been too focused on trying to prove to Eddie how forgetful and dependent he is, and then Eddie shows up to deliver it to him.
- Jaded Professional: Averted by Jessica's novel; after having to face the truth of her own inexperience when seeing a dead body during the ride-along, she works the experience into her story (including the Stress Vomit) and spins it as not letting the job diminish her empathy for the victims.
- Just a Kid: An odd version, as Evan is even younger than Eddie, but most of the main plot is Evan struggling to acknowledge that Eddie is actually more self-sufficient and dependable than he had believed.
- Liar Revealed: On the day of the honor society awards, Eddie's plans to get a lift with Nicole end up falling apart, and he ends up having to beg Evan for the bus schedule and fare that Evan had usually been slipping into his backpack. But when they arrive, Nicole's there as a fellow honor society member, and reveals that she had called earlier to reschedule the lift and Evan had taken the message, revealing that he had intentionally manipulated things so Eddie would have to be reliant on him.
- Loophole Abuse: Louis doesn't want to ruin his bond with Matthew, especially on Matthew's favorite holiday, but ultimately does fire him from Kenny Rogers' employ. He then decides to hire Matthew directly.
- Minority Police Officer: One of the first things Jessica learns on her ride-along is that the local police force is actually multicultural, as in her book, she just assumed that all cops were Italian.
- Stress Vomit: After spending most of the ride-along annoyed by how mundane police activity is, Jessica gets to witness a dead body (who perished due to natural causes)...and immediately vomits, followed by fainting.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: In The Tag, Matthew shows up to Cattleman's having completely forgotten the events of St. Patrick's Day, and apparently with a tattoo in his "happy ending" area.
