Love & Money

When Allison tells Eamon that the reason her father doesn't like him is because Nicholas is the alpha dog and Eamon is the new dog invading the alpha dog's space, Eamon decides to invite Nicholas and Effie out to dinner hoping they'll see what it's like on the new dog's turf -- which promises to be a real dog for all. Nicholas and Effie are none too thrilled that their transportation for the evening will be the subway, nor that Eamon is taking them out to a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant's owner, Mr. Chiu, knows Nicholas as the guy who owns the building he lives in -- where his rent was just jacked up -- and punishes Mr. Conklin by serving him some mystery meat. And Effie develops a reaction to the food that causes her face to puff up like a blowfish. Meanwhile, Finn begins dating Gloria, a woman he met at Molly's, but Eamon doesn't like her or her nervous laugh that causes her to punctuate every sentence with a chuckle, and especially doesn't like when Finn takes it upon himself t

Finn delivers news that a mysterious young man has been breaking into all the apartments and stealing chachkas. Though all signs point to it, Nicholas and Effie don't think for a minute that it might be Nicky -- until Kiki Farrington visits to spell it out for them. When Nicholas and Effie talk to Nicky about Kiki's visit, Nicky can only mention her ""perfect"" son, Larry, whom he claims is deranged. Nicholas and Effie take a more active approach to parenting, and set out to find whether or not their son is the culprit. Meanwhile, Allison is hurt when Eamon doesn't want her hanging out with him and his friends at his favorite pub, Molly's, as he feels she won't have fun. After a talk with Puff, who convinces her that any relationship that's gone this long without such an introduction is doomed, Allison decides the time has come to meet his friends. But even with Puff along for the ride, Allison finds herself out of her element, much like Eamon warned her she'd be.

Effie's abusive socialite stepmother, Beverly, visits the Conklins. Though the rest of the family wants nothing to do with Beverly, Effie sucks up because she's hoping to inherit one of her many homes when the old bird kicks the bucket. But Beverly brings an abrupt halt to that dream when she announces that she's already left it to someone else -- her cats. So Effie throws her out. But when she discovers through Finn that Beverly is destitute and staying in a dumpy hotel in McBride-like poverty, Effie puts aside her greed and family differences, and tries to give her stepmummy a helping hand. Meanwhile, Nicholas takes Nicky to his old London tailor to buy him a suit, and, if all goes well, share some father/son time the way he and his father used to. There's just one problem: Nicky doesn't want to share some father/son time.

After Allison's attempt at a cultural date bores Eamon to death, Nicholas reasserts his belief that Eamon is nothing more than her rebound guy. Allison furiously tries to prove her father wrong, but when she follows Puff's advice and plans a romantic evening with Eamon that he tries to back out of, Allison starts to wonder if Nicholas is right. Realizing he's hurt Allison's feelings, Eamon, meanwhile, seeks advice from Finn on how to make it up to her. After Nicholas talks about how he wishes Allison would get back together with Howard, Effie accidentally slips up that it was she who led Allison to jilt her ex-fiancé -- which, of course, infuriates Nicholas. Since Effie is equally infuriated by the way Nicholas treats Eamon, the two end up making a pact where she promises to stop meddling if he promises to stop criticizing Eamon.

Nicholas schemes to bring Allison and Howard back together, and he receives help from an unlikely place -- Allison -- after Eamon has a fight with her in regards to an expensive big screen TV she gave to Finn for his birthday. Feeling financially inadequate, Eamon takes the TV back to the store -- which of course ticks off Finn. Now that Howard's put his life back together courtesy his therapist, Allison makes up with him. In the platonic sense. Nicholas twists the truth around to Howard by saying that Allison still wants him and he should make a move on her. Meanwhile, Eamon tries to deliver an apology to Allison while she's in the middle of the fateful meeting, but Nicholas intercepts it. Effie finds out what Nicholas did, and threatens to make his life miserable if he doesn't fix things. So Nicholas puts together a romantic dinner for Allison and Eamon atop the roof in hopes they'll make up then - only to have Howard drop in on it to carry out Nicholas' former plan. In the end, Fin

Effie and Nicholas try to hide their embarrassment at what Allison has done. Allison, afraid of her parents' reactions, tries to hide Eamon from them, in hopes that they'll pretend nothing has happened. But after Allison witnesses Eamon and Finn have a brutal argument, it inspires her to persuade her family to be more open with each other. Unfortunately, the Conklins' past inability to deal honestly with problems brings years of pent-up hatred bubbling to the surface -- to the point where even Allison wonders if this is what she wants.