As the episode begins, Eric Walker (Nick Robinson) returns home to his mother Sandy (Rya Kihlstedt) after his crazy night with his teacher. Eric explains that he decided not to stay with Josh (Dylan Schmid) and he is a little tired but everything is okay. He is asked about homecoming before admitting it was a lot of fun. Claire Wilson (Kate Mara) arrives at home and laughs alone in her car. She still seems to be processing what has happened. Inside, Matt Mitchell (Ashley Zukerman) talks to his friends and bandmates about one of his past performances and a girl in the audience. Dr. Rob Peters (Jeremy Walmsley) explains Matt was telling them about Lakelight’s Pacific Northwest tour.

Matt invites Claire to hang out with them but she is tired and decides to go to bed. Eric reaches his room and sits on the edge of his bed before telling himself he is the man. The following day, Eric meets with Josh and Logan (Shane Harper) and pretends he was sick so he left the dance early. Logan says the after-party wasn’t great before shifting the conversation to Alison (Camila Perez) who was angry because Eric left her. He confesses he should’ve texted her. Logan reveals that Mary (Ciara Bravo) ghosted them and decided to go somewhere else too. Josh doesn’t know where Mary went but he is confident she didn’t want to be around Logan. When Logan goes for drinks, Josh tries to find out what Eric really did last night.

He knows about the girl Eric met at work thanks to Logan and Eric admits he has never felt this way before. She says it is new and she is confusing. Seconds later, Matt checks on Claire who is busy grading papers. While hanging out with his friends, Eric thinks about his night with Claire so he sends her a message telling her about it. Then, Eric’s messages get more sexual. Claire quickly deletes the messages and doesn’t respond to them. Alison tracks down Eric at school before he apologizes. She doesn’t believe his lies and wants to know why he really left. He says it wasn’t planned but she doesn’t want to hear it. Claire tells her students that their papers were good before singling out Eric.

When class ends, Claire approaches Eric and reminds him that the SATs are coming up in two weeks. She thinks they should schedule more tutoring sessions to make sure Eric does well. She offers to meet him after practice that night and they agree to meet then. While waiting for her, he posts something on social media that upsets Claire. She pulls up and tells him that this cannot happen because anyone could see it. She reminds him that she is screwed if anyone finds out about their relationship. She says no photos and recommends changing her name on his phone. Eric has already done that though. She says they can only meet once a week and Mondays will be okay but nothing can happen on school grounds. Eric apologizes and deletes the photo.

She reminds him it is Monday so they can get going before removing her pants. They have sex in her vehicle once again. That night, she returns home to Matt who has food for them. He makes sure she isn’t mad at him before checking to make sure she is okay. She claims she had a bad day at work and is just glad to be home. Matt tries to comfort her. She begins undoing his pants and pleasing him. We jump over to the school where Logan asks his kids if he wants to play paintball this Saturday. Josh doesn’t want to and Eric has to babysit because his mother has a date. Claire walks overhead and looks down at Eric. She gets his attention and he stares back at her. She asks Kathryn (Marielle Scott) if she has anything going on this weekend.

She agrees to go out with Claire. Mary arrives and asks Josh to take her somewhere so Logan injects himself into the conversation and offers to take her. She wants Josh to take her though and he agrees to do so. Josh tries to convince Logan to just stop and that seems to hurt his feelings. When they leave, Eric tells Logan he has to stop since it is Josh’s sister. Logan says he isn’t screwing with Josh and actually likes Mary. He wonders if he ruined it with the motel stuff by playing like it was all about sex. He confesses he should’ve been honest with her and told her he wanted to date her. He curses Eric before getting up and leaving. That night, Sandy tells her son she can tell she isn’t going to like him already.

She doesn’t like a 48-year-old man texting her “sup?”. She leaves after Eric promises he has it covered at home. Meanwhile, Claire drinks with Kathryn who notices a hickey on her neck. She thinks Claire is getting hickeys from her husband and Claire doesn’t tell her otherwise. Claire goes to the bathroom and seems excited to have a hickey from Eric. She plays around with her breasts before snapping a picture of her cleavage. She sends the picture over Snapchat to Eric. He quickly sends her a compliment before she asks to see him. Eric says he can’t so Claire returns to her dinner date. Eric sends her a message at 8:29 and tells her to give him 30 and meet at their spot. Claire decides to leave Kathryn. Eric gets Lee Ann to babysit his siblings even though she has never babysat before. He gives her tips and says they’ll basically watch themselves.

He meets with Claire and she is ready to take him. He tells her to wait a second because he is confused. He asks her about the rules but she doesn’t want to talk about them. Then, Eric blurts out that he doesn’t want to just screw. He admits he has never been with someone like her but he is worried he sounds lame. She tells him she likes him too. After that, the sex begins. When Eric returns home, Sandy is there waiting for him. She scolds him for leaving his brother and getting someone else to watch them. He tells her he had to go to Logan’s to drop off a textbook but she doesn’t believe that. She asks if he is doing drugs and he quickly denies that. He learns that Devin burned himself while he was gone. Eric goes to his room to talk about it before telling himself he is the man again.

 

A Teacher Review

This was a better episode of A Teacher. The Logan character was scaled down a bit and we got to see his human side. That was interesting. We’re also experiencing the odd relationship between Eric and Claire. It is very difficult to place the blame on either character since both seem to be active participants.

I am wondering if Eric is beginning to second guess himself though. He didn’t look so confident in his room at the end of the episode. As for Claire, she is going full force now despite urging Eric to be secretive at the beginning of the episode. Her actions will likely blow up in her face soon.

Overall, this was one of the best episodes this season. We could complain about Claire’s rapid change of mind or her irrational actions but I won’t. This episode made me cringe a lot less so I won’t complain at all. This episode scores a 7.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of A Teacher are available on Reel Mockery.