We open on Lincoln, Lori, Leni, and Lisa, and, for the first time, someone outside of the family: Ronnie Anne! They're going to be reading An Older Remedy for a Younger Heart.
It takes place a month after the Santiagos moved away and Lincoln is doing a video chat with Ronnie Anne about the twins fighting. Ronnie Anne finds the story too dull, so Leni tries to think of funnier stories, but Lori tells her to shut up because she's embarrassed by a story about her and skinny jeans.
The video chat continues, and apparently fanfic Carlota is making Ronnie Anne try on her clothes. After the video chat ends, fanfic Lincoln looks sad and is called down to dinner. During the meal, the family notices he seems sad and bored, and begin to be concerned, but he lies that he's fine. Meanwhile, Lisa is snarking at the narrator for stating the obvious.
Fanfic Lincoln decides to fake tiredness to get out of his family's prying and goes upstairs to bed. Leni (the real one) teases Lincoln and Ronnie Anne and claims she's his girlfriend, then pretends to not know what "girlfriend" means.
Back at the dinner table, the fanfic Louds wonder what is bothering Lincoln and if they should talk to him. Lori hears him groan and, in his room, it turns out that he's sad because he misses Ronnie Anne but thinks he should be used to her absence by now.
Fanfic Lori is on the verge of tears and talks on her laptop with Bobby, who suggests taking him out. Lori agrees, and tells Leni about her plan.
The next morning, fanfic Lori tells Lincoln that she's taking him to the beach, the arcade, for lunch, and to the movies, but he thinks she wants something. She convinces him she doesn't, and they bid Rita goodbye and leave.
They go to the beach and put sunscreen on, and Lincoln is annoyed at Lori babying him by putting in on him (while the real Lisa debunks the myth that Latinas can't get sunburned). Fanfic Lori decides to make it even by having Lincoln put sunscreen on her, but he finds it embarrassing.
When that's done, fanfic Lori makes sure Lincoln is feeling OK, then they go into the sea and have a splash fight. Ronnie Anne (the real one) begins to feel jealous and wish Bobby was around. Lincoln hugs her to cheer her up. Then, the fanfic counterparts of him and Lori play volleyball with two teenagers and head off to the arcade.
At the arcade, they play Dance Battle together and Lincoln wins. Fanfic Lori tries to start a conversation about Ronnie Anne, but he goes off to play a zombie game instead. They then go to have lunch at Jean Juan's French Mex Buffet. Lincoln doesn't want to go there and Lori makes him open up, so he cries, causing the real Lincoln to complain about how dramatic his fanfic self is being.
Fanfic Lori and Lincoln talk it out and she tells him it's normal to feel bad, and that you should always let people know if you feel bad. Then, she apologises for her bossiness and arguments, while Lincoln reassures her that she's a great big sister anyway, and he isn't perfect either. Everyone reading hugs.
At the cinema, fanfic Lincoln goes to the bathroom and finds some teenage boys glaring at him. Their names are Mike, Duncan, and Drake, and they bet money on the football game from "The Loudest Yard" and are demanding fifty bucks. They start to punch him, but Lori hears his cry for help and comes to the rescue, fighting them and scaring them away.
They go home, skipping the movie, and the other sisters and Rita are shocked to see Lincoln injured. He recaps the story and they're very proud of Lori. Luna bandages him up.
Then, at night, fanfic Lori invites Lincoln to bunk with her, which just weirds everybody (except Leni) out, especially when they share a bed. We get a flashback in the story of a preschooler Lincoln sleeping in a fifth-grade Lori's bed after a nightmare.
After the fanfic ends, it's time for bed, so everyone goes to bed while Ronnie Anne crashes on the fold-out couch and they kiss, but only briefly.
This episode provides examples of
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Downplayed. Fanfic Lori is bossy because of occasional stress, as opposed to it being a personality trait like in the show.
- Affection-Hating Kid: Ronnie Anne gags at the thought of her and Lincoln being as romantic as Lori and Bobby.
- Copycat Mockery: Ronnie Anne mockingly mimics fanfic Lincoln for gushing about her fanfic counterpart.
- Death Glare: The teenage boys give fanfic Lincoln a threatening look, then Lori glares at them while fighting them off.
- Eye Scream: Fanfic Lincoln gets a black eye during the fight with the teens.
- Game Over: Discussed when Leni had previously mistaken the game over screen on Dance Battle for a winning screen.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The fanfic ends with Lori and Lincoln falling asleep, and the episode proper ends with everyone getting ready for bed.
- Groin Attack: Used in an analogy, when Lisa says that the story has "all the subtlety of a hammer to the gonads".
- Guilty Pleasures: Ronnie Anne blushes after admitting she likes the beauty salon.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Lincoln and Ronnie Anne snicker at Lisa's use of the word "gonads".
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: A platonic version, where fanfic Lori cheers up a sad Lincoln.
- Mood Whiplash: What starts out as a trip to the cinema switches to a fight scene in the fanfic.
- Narrating the Obvious: Lisa snarks at the narrator for telling us Lincoln's family didn't believe his lie that he felt fine, when she thinks it would be obvious.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Downplayed. Leni, who's already an airhead, pretends to be even dumber and not know what "girlfriend" means.Leni: So... you're not his friend? Or are you saying that you're not a girl? Or-Lincoln: Drop the act, Leni. I know you know what "girlfriend" means.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
- During the crying scene in the fanfic, Lisa, who's reading it, says, "Past. Or. Present. Tense."
- Fanfic Lori says, "LEAVE. HIM. ALONE!" to the teenage ruffians.
- Ron the Death Eater: Discussed In-Universe when Lori is glad to finally see a fanfic where she's actually a good big sister.
- Shout-Out: Lisa says, when Lincoln and Ronnie Anne deny being a couple, "Methinks the lord and the lady doth protest too much", which is a line from Hamlet.
- Stepford Smiler: Fanfic Lincoln puts on a fake smile at dinner.
- Swirlie: Ronnie Anne threatens to dunk Lisa in the toilet for being a Grammar Nazi.
