When a tree branch falls on the Hecks’ car and shatters the windshield, the Heck parents contact their insurance agency and rely on their “Act of God” plan to pay off the damages. When their claim is rejected due to “lack of tree care,” Frankie’s temper tantrum lands them back at home without an insurance check or a windshield. Through their own act of God, the church graciously saves the day by letting Frankie use the church van for a few weeks. Sue first tries to be hard on Axel and refuses to do the project alone, but her love of good grades gets the best of her. A finished paper, project, poster and presentation are sitting by the front door days before the due date courtesy of Sue Heck and no thanks to Axel. Moments before their presentation, Sue and Axel are outside of the classroom with their presentation bag, waiting for their turn to present. But when Sue checks the poster, she finds that it isn’t their model of an Italian restaurant, but a drawn on basketball backboard and dozens of crumpled up paper balls in the bag. During Sue’s emotional breakdown, Axel puts his life skills into use and begins calling in favors. After getting himself called out of class and their presentation time switched to the last spot, Axel runs around the school using his various contacts to put together a great presentation moments before its due, surprising the teacher, Sue and himself. Axel’s character has been growing drastically throughout this season, as we watch him grow up during his senior year of high school. In this episode he saved Sue’s grade and the same compassion was seen in “Twenty Years” when he re-wrote an ending to the book that he ruined for Brick. There will be a lot more character growth for Axel as we watch him finish out high school and continue on to college.
