Donna sneaks around behind Cleveland’s back and Rallo resolves to help Cleveland Junior win the student council president election in the “Ladies’ Night” episode. Keep reading for the full episode summary and review.
Episode Summary
Cleveland and Donna go to Tim and Arianna’s house for dinner and a game night with the other neighbors, but while Cleveland has a blast, Donna is clearly not. She lets him know later that night as they are going to bed and Cleveland responds by pulling out his blow-up doll (more on that later).
Meanwhile, Cleveland Junior is sitting with Ernie at a school assembly when suddenly he is announced as a candidate for student council president. He was nominated as a joke by one of the cool kids.
The next day, Arianna comes over to invite Donna over for a night of chinese food and Grey’s Anatomy and Cleveland accepts on her behalf even though Donna is visibly upset and desperately trying to get out of it. When the room is empty, she sits down and makes a mysterious phone call and says, “I need to see you. Call me back as soon as you can, I miss you.”
When Thursday evening rolls around, Donna leaves the house and tells Cleveland that she is going to Arianna’s place, but secretly carries with her a duffle bag. She drives to a house that we’ve never seen before and heads to the door. Immediately after knocking, she removes her wedding ring and we are left in suspense.
Back home, Cleveland is on a dinner date with his blow up doll and Rallo walks in on him! Cleveland just tells his stepson that he is dreaming, and the next scene puts us back at the mysterious house Donna has visited. However, one of her friends answers the door, not a man, as was expected. It is a gathering of the single ladies’ club to which she once belonged. They have a great night — Donna pretending the whole time to be single — and she comes home drunk to a sleepy Cleveland.
Rallo is hanging out with his friends at home the next day and Cleveland Junior comes in to show them his campaign poster and slogan. Rallo chuckles and makes fun of Junior, dismissing his lame attempt to win office but changes attitude once his buddy convinces him that he will be judged by Junior’s legacy.
The plan is simple: together they will pander to the marginalized student cliques at school including the geeks and single moms. Next, they will sully the good name of Oliver, the other candidate who happens to be deaf, football captain and good looking.
While Cleveland and the whole neighborhood crew are out at the Wheelhouse for dinner, Donna (who made up and excuse) is out clubbing with the single ladies. He finds out that she lied about Thursday night, and is upset that night in bed. Donna comes home wasted again.
On the campaign trail, Rallo decides that any more slander will just make them look like they are bullying the deaf kid. His next idea is for Cleveland Junior to fake blindness in order to earn the sympathy vote.
That weekend, Cleveland decides to take the whole family tubing at the river, but without Donna because she was out “attending to another school emergency.” While rafting down the river, Cleveland catches Donna hanging out with the single ladies. He’s shocked and so are the women but there’s no time to linger on it, because the family heads over a waterfall. Strangely enough, they are rescued by a talking walrus named Mr. Flippers (the scene was “missing”, so we didn’t get to witness his amazing rescue).
Donna and Cleveland argue about her involvement with the single ladies’ club and he storms off to spend time with his single friends, Holt and Terry. Well, the night is a bust as they both pass out on the couch next to him. Just when it couldn’t get any worse, they both vomit on him which then causes Cleveland to vomit on himself. He returns home despondent and he and Donna make up.
Over at Stoolbend High, Cleveland Junior and Oliver engage in a debate in front of their classmates. Junior continues to work the blind sympathy angle and gives a pretty good speech full of puns. Oliver then takes his turn and begins listing his qualifications, but a stage light suddenly falls from above. Junior sees it and jumps to Oliver’s aid and pushes him out of the way.
Well, the rest of the students notice that Junior isn’t blind but Rallo makes a quick decision and shouts “it’s a miracle!”, which calms them. Oliver drops out of the race since he can’t run against the boy who saved his life. Junior then wins by default, an unlikely president 
.
Cleveland takes Donna to dinner and says he has several surprises for her. He excuses himself to the restroom, so Donna walks in by herself and runs into the single ladies. Just then, Cleveland walks in in a pimp suit with two prostitutes, one of whom was with Holt back at the dinner and game night. He tells Donna that he is leaving her and calls all of the women stupid. This was obviously a plan to get Donna back in good graces with the club. He leaves, but not before telling her that he’ll use a condom (hope he was joking).
Analysis
Tonight’s episode featured two separate story lines and both were enjoyable. I love that we get to see Donna’s character get a bit more developed as we learn more about her backstory. She was previously never welcome at Tim’s house because Arianna looked down at her status as a single mother. To fill the friend void, she was a member of the single ladies’ club and together they bonded by sharing experiences and hating on men. They helped her a lot, particularly when Robert left.
She doesn’t enjoy the company of the neighbors so she seeks to rekindle her old friendships, keeping it a secret as long as possible. I love that Cleveland was able to get over it quickly and then set up the elaborate scheme to get Donna back together with the single ladies.
Rallo and Junior worked wonderfully together in the run for president, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Rallo’s plan to turn Oliver’s strengths into weaknesses was hilarious: Athlete – dumb jock, handsome – gay, ladies’ man – rapist were all used in the slander scheme.
The whole episode was fun to watch and made even better because there was little to no focus on racial humor, a refreshing change. I have been saying all along that they needed to start moving away from relying too much on racial humor, and this episode fit the bill. The cutaway gags weren’t great but there were some random jokes, like Mr. Flippers, that tied me over.
Final Verdict
Once again, The Cleveland Show demonstrates its sitcom-style charm by presenting us with traditional scenarios. And in typical “Family Guy” fashion, these scenarios are met with zany, off-the-wall solution. Unlike Family Guy, though, Cleveland and his bunch resolve their issues and succeed, albeit in twisted fashion (Cleveland posing as a pimp, Junior pretending he’s blind).
The show is really hitting a hot streak that hopefully lasts a long time.
Final Score: 9 out of 10
Related posts:
- Episode 6 “Ladies’ Night” Clips
- The Cleveland Show “Ladies’ Night” Preview
- Episode 3 “The One About Friends” Review
- Episode 4 “Birth of a Salesman” Review
- Episode 5 “Cleveland Jr. Cherry Bomb” Review
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Great review – I’ve got to say, I loved it too. This show keeps getting funnier and funnier!