While a friend of hers is away for three months, Dana can have her apartment. Carol is against, but Frank convinces her this is the best way to let her try out living alone close by before she goes to college next year. Carol gives in, but is obsessed with 'her baby' to the point Al feels neglected. Even J.T. discovers he misses one thing about Barky: a sparring partner at trading verbal abuse. At first Dana felt hounded by ma, but once she's really alone feels miserable enough to start talking to Gordon, the pot plant Cody gave her as company. She's ready to return to the comfortable nest, but now Carol has changed her tune, so she calls the men for fake repairs in the apartment... Meanwhile Frank has accepted a construction client's payment in kind: the TV of his choice, to put in the parents' bedroom, but Carol makes him promise to throw it out as soon as watching sports gets in the way of their love life given his addiction to sports airings...