When Gracie comes home with first prize in the spelling bee, a new era has dawned – everyone always thought that Ruby was the smart one. But it turns out that Gracie has a knack for spelling – especially as long as she gets to go to Red Lobster for dinner after she wins. So she gradually works her way up from one competition to the next and Jim and Cheryl gradually work their way out of bed earlier each Saturday for drives that get longer and longer.
Meanwhile, Andy tries to get everyone to remember that he was a good speller when he was a kid, but everyone only wants to remember that he wet himself while he was on stage, and Dana gets to fix Gracie’s hair so that she looks good, because that’s really all that is important.
As the contests drag on and the mornings get earlier, eventually Cheryl caves, faking a back injury so she doesn’t have to get out of bed. Jim calls her on it, though, and she finally admits to thinking that she is a bad parent if they don’t do this, and Jim admits that he’s willing to run that risk, and tell Gracie that they must have lost power sometime during the night. But then Dana comes in, sayng she almost has Gracie ready to go, so it’s too late.
Backstage at the next bee, Jim talkes to Gracie and finds out that she doesn’t care about spelling, and that she only wants to go out for shrimp after winning, so he convinces her to take a dive, and he will continue to take her out. But when Gracie gets ready to lose, the prize for this round is unveieled – it’s a year’s worth of dinners from the Red Lobster. Uh-oh. Looks like it’s not over yet.
