Happy Halloween

First of all if you aren't watching "Raising Hope" you should be. It has an original and eclectic voice which makes it stand out in a crowd of new shows. And it is pretty damn funny. Morever, it manages to sneak in touching storylines about character, family relations and life while you're laughing away.
In "Happy Halloween" Jimmy Chance (father of Hope) gets to pursue his dream girl Sabrina when her boyfriend Wyatt can't come and take her to a Halloween Party. Jimmy, who had been traumatized every Halloween since he was a young lad by a mysterious masked monster, never really took to the holiday. But when Sabrina tells him she is a Batman-less Robin, because Wyatt's last minute cancellation, he jumps at the chance to fill in. He even makes a Batman costume. But before he leaves he finds out that the masked monster that haunted him all those years was non other than his dad Burt. Apparently everytime he came screaming back home, Jimmy would hug, well more like cling like a kuala bear to his dad. And his dad liked it, a lot.
Meanwhile Jimmy's mom Virgina who is played by the marvelous Martha Plimpton and is the anchoring soul of the show- and who loves the holiday makes a "kitty" costume for Maw Maw, her semi-lucid grandma, played by Cloris Leachman with great aplomb. Maw Maw gets a lions share of the broader sense of humor in the show and her "kitty" is a unsettleing mix of the macabre and dominatrix.
Just as Jimmy and Sabrina start to get loose at the party, just when Jimmy starts to feel there may be something special going on between them, poof! Like his own personal nightmare Wyatt bigger and classically good looking, shows up in a professional Batman costume. Wyatt is so dismissive of Jimmy as a potenial threat he leaves him in charge of a passed out sabrina so he can "party with my buds" somewhere else. Loyal Jimmy faithfully does his job all the while chasing off a weird foot-fetish stalker.
Finally, realizing Sabrina is not going to wake up and Wyatt is not going to come back, Jimmy carries her to his house. Falling on the couch, Sabrina awakens enought to kiss a surprised but willing Jimmy. Pulling away she announces what an unusually great kiss that was. Jimmy's heart leaps until she follows up with "Wyatt". Talk about a buzz kill.
While this is madness and drama is going on MawMaw and Virginia are making the rounds in the neighborhood Trick-or-Treating and incidents involving police and toilet paper follow.
But alas, Jimmy has zero time to fret, as he goes to check on his daughter Hope- he discovers her missing! He had left her in the "care" of his two very sub-standard friends and they left a note in her crib saying they had a "booty-call" and had dropped her off at the local firestation. He had until 6 am to get her back. He looks at the clock and it's 5:55. He starts panicking and says "I've lost Hope!" in utter depair to his dad when he comes to see what the matter is. His friends had taken the car.
But Burt tells Jimmy don't give up, I'll help you, we can ride the bikes. The pair races down the street, but Jimmy's bike has a flat and he falls behind. Burt says don't worry, I'll get her and makes a heroic push and speeds away around he corner. Jimmy is left with his useless bike in the middle of the road wondering if he'll ever get to see Hope again. A short minute later Burt comes back pushing a stroller with a lovely and content Hope inside. In a burst of relief and joy Jimmy runs up and gives his dad a ginormous hug.
Before you go feeling all warm and fuzzy about that, something in Burts behaviour triggers something in Jimmy, and he figures out the whole thing was yet another plot for Burt to get one of those arms-tight-around-the-neck-hanging-on-for-all-you're-worth hugs from him.
He goes home mad and upset and falls asleep exhausted and exasperated. Shortly after closing his eyes, a thunderclap wakes both him and Hope. Hope is terrified by the noise and starts crying, Jimmy picks her up and holds her close to calm her and she reaches out and hugs him tight, clinging to him for dear life. And in that moment Jimmy understands.