As the fall semester begins to wrap up at Ludlow, mentorship is in the air. Sunny and Walt chat about her job offer in New York, Dylan tries to convince Eva that she should stick with poetry, and Greg attempts to keep Tommy on an academic path. Colleges are great for these types of relationships, with older (and presumably) more knowledgeable adults using their insight, experience, and connections to mold and shape young minds. In this episode, Greg and Dylan get it right, but Walt fails to convince Sunny to do the smart thing. Okay, it’s not entirely Walt’s fault — he knows he can’t make this decision for Sunny, so he gives her some mumbo-jumbo wisdom about how her life will be a series of tests — but IMHO, she fails this particular life test when she chooses Archie over her future. Also, I really wanted to see who the show might cast as Walt’s old flame at Biotecha. Was it too much to ask that McGinley’s TV wife, Christa Miller, step in for an episode or two? (Yes, probably. The woman is very busy.)

I hate to say it, but the only thing currently working for me in the Sunny-Archie storyline is Sunny’s bestie, Mo. Robby Hoffman has perfect comedic timing and is just overall excellent on this show, but her character’s affinity for Sunny can’t even make me care about what’s going on here. This is all to say that I’m upset with Sunny for choosing Archie over the possibility of starting an exciting career in the field she’s passionate about. Sure, he leafed through a baby book and attended a single OB/GYN appointment, but does he really care about Sunny, or does he care about the sex and attention? (It’s definitely the latter.) When Sunny tells him about her job offer, he immediately thinks of himself, saying, “But that’s not where I am.” Not for one second does it cross his mind to relocate to allow Sunny to follow her dreams, and, in an even more depressing twist, Sunny knows that he’d never consider it. Mo knows too, and that’s why this gem of a friend shouts, “Huge mistake! Take the job!” I guess it’s good that Sunny is staying because now we get more Robby Hoffman, and that’s always a wonderful thing.

Elsewhere on campus, Dylan has identified Eva as a standout poet in her class. Her poem “Cherry Pop,” written about taking Eli’s virginity, is good enough to be published in the Ludlow Review, but Dylan wants Eva to explore a little more by getting more vulnerable. Eva eventually tells her that she doesn’t want to spend any more time and energy on her poem because she can’t be an artist; her dad expects her to go into a field with high-earning potential, so she needs to focus on that. Dylan is shook. I don’t really know of any professors that would track down a student in their dorm room (is that even legal?), but, as we’ve previously established, the Bill Lawrence Cinematic Universe has its own kooky set of interpersonal rules.

When Dylan arrives at Eva’s door, she’s hotboxing her room in nothing but an oversize T-shirt. I love this girl, and I fully get why Dylan wants to mentor her. The two have a heart-to-heart at the diner, and Dylan tells Eva she’s already an artist. Art can be something you do at any time! (Fun fact: Did you know that engaging with or creating art, even for just a few minutes a day, can exponentially increase your well-being?) So even if Eva decides to become a “crypto bro” (ew), she can still pursue something that she has a natural talent for. Dylan hands Eva a mock-up of the Ludlow Review and opens it to her poem. Once Eva sees her poem in print, her eyes light up like she’s seen something truly magical. Long live physical media!

Greg has a bit more trouble with his mentee, especially thanks to interference from the bumbling Officer Rory. After Cristle returns from break, she enlists Greg to help with getting Tommy back on track. Tommy is thinking about quitting school, and this decision is expedited when Greg hands him back his most recent story, the paper scrawled with dreaded red ink. With only eight more days left in the semester, you’d think that Tommy would decide to just stick it out, but he did just see his mentor’s penis, so I’m gonna cut him some slack. Speaking of, one of my favorite lines in the episode was when Tommy told Greg that he had enlisted a psych major to help him visualize Greg with no genitals. In Tommy’s mind, Greg is just Ken.

Once Tommy makes the decision to quit, it proves difficult for Greg to get him to reconsider. In an impressive twist, Tommy actually has a plan. Instead of finishing college, he’s going to hang in town and become a cop. Honestly, college isn’t for everyone — for example, people really sleep on trade schools — but Greg knows that Tommy has a spark of talent, and he wants him to keep at it. He also probably wants him to stick around for selfish reasons. At one point, Katie tells him that she knows Greg secretly wishes Tommy could be his son, to which Greg promptly replies, “It’s not a secret.” This made me simultaneously laugh and aww at the same time. He loves this kid, and he’ll do anything to help him succeed.

Of course, before he can convince Tommy to stay, high jinks ensue. Tommy and Greg go on a ride with Officer Rory, but, other than the missing mascot costume, nothing particularly exciting is happening in town. Officer Rory has lost his gun, because of course he has, and he’s looking all over town for it. Eventually, Tommy finds the gun — along with a dozen free glazed doughnuts — and delivers it to Officer Rory, who immediately fumbles it. The recurring gun gag is funny, but I am glad that they put it in a paper bag this time so we didn’t actually have to see it being casually waved around.

Steve Carell has great chemistry with everyone on this show, but it’s particularly excellent with Rory Scovel and Maximo Salas, so these scenes were a true delight. The wordless shot of the three guys enjoying doughnuts on their stakeout is worth a thousand hilarious words, and the back-and-forth where Greg attempts to get Officer Rory to convince Tommy to stay in college is very funny. Scovel and Carell always up the ante in their interactions; it’s clear that they’re having a great time playing off of one another. (I still laugh about their “cop hawk” exchange sometimes.) I especially love how Greg presents him with the “Get Out of Jail Free” card from earlier in the season, saying, “I am giving you that meaningless thing,” while asking him to do him a solid. Eventually, Officer Rory does give in and tells Tommy about some of the “bad” aspects of his job, like his penchant for repeatedly pulling over a guy who bullied him in high school just so he can feel alive. As he’s getting into the darker stuff, the stolen Ludlow mascot appears in front of them, and Tommy and Greg chase it. Officer Rory can’t figure out how to get the car going, which is amusing because it turns out that the keys were in the ignition and it was on the whole time. I usually get annoyed by people who are bad at their jobs on TV shows, but Scovel’s performance is so winning that I can’t help but chuckle every time his character does something dumb.

The guys reveal that the mascot has been stolen by none other than Pig Tits, er, J.D. Tommy lets his friend off the hook, telling him to run, and recovers the mascot head. After Greg catches his breath, he and Tommy have a heart-to-heart. Tommy finally reveals to Greg that he was most discouraged by all the red comments Greg wrote on his story. Then, Greg quotes some of Tommy’s writing back to him, which, for a writer, is right up there with seeing your work in print. Tommy beams, and when Greg tells him that he thinks he could really be a good writer with some work, the kid shines like the sun. Crisis averted, Tommy agrees to stay at Ludlow.

The next day, Greg’s fake son runs into his real daughter and they chat. I love that Tommy and Katie have a sibling rapport even though they’re totally not siblings at all. Tommy tells Katie that Greg is the best, and Katie considers this information. Throughout this episode, Greg has noticed that Katie is in a funk, but she won’t tell him why. She even goes so far as to pretend that she’s on a date at a hockey game. (Poor Hunter takes Katie’s nonconsensual head-on-shoulder move very well.) But Tommy’s praise of her dad has her seeing things in a different light. At the end of the episode, she knocks on her dad’s door and she starts to tell him what’s been going on with her. As the credits roll, we don’t hear what they’re saying, we just see Greg listening, lovingly and attentively, as his daughter lets it all out. It’s a sweet moment, made even more poignant by the fact that the audio cuts out. There is truly nothing that Katie could tell Greg that would make him love her any less. He’ll be there for her, listening and loving, always.

• Tommy mentions to Katie that his dad doesn’t give a shit, and this seems to be the catalyst that makes her decide to go see her dad. But honestly, it feels like Katie’s mom doesn’t give a shit. Where was Elizabeth on Thanksgiving? Did she even call her daughter? I’m liking Elizabeth less and less, and she hasn’t even been onscreen in three episodes.

• Katie, spilling truths about Rudolph and Santa: “Like, so what if he’s different? Is Santa saying he can’t be a part of the team, like Santa is so perfect? Santa is a fat fuck.”

• I adore that Spooner is still calling Greg “Grg.” It makes me laugh every single time.

• Oh, Greg and his hot chocolates. At least they’re in-season now!