It’s not about whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game — unless you’re Mike Baxter, that is. And this fact is more clear than ever on Thursday’s “Last Man Standing,” which sees Mike (Tim Allen) attempt to get his wife Vanessa (Nancy Travis) to join his bowling team.
In TheWrap’s exclusive clip from the episode, which you can view above, Mike comes home with a bottle of “fancy” wine for Vanessa and tries to pretend there’s no ulterior motive behind the act of kindness — but Vanessa knows better than that.
They go around in circles for a bit until Vanessa gets Mike to admit he wants her to join his bowling team after their daughter Mandy (Molly McCook) switched over from “Team Baxter to Team Jesus.” Yeah, Vanessa refuses and Mike asks her to give him one good reason why.
“You’re a crazy person when it comes to competition. All you care about is winning. There’s no fun in it,” she says, giving him *three* good reasons.
“Wow, you really had those ready didn’t you?” he says.
Mike tries to convince her that there’s nothing wrong with winning and that her joining could be “fun, fun, fun, fun” but Vanessa still won’t budge — unless Mike agrees to do the unthinkable.
“You could say, “It doesn’t matter if we win or lose,’” Vanessa tells her husband, giving him the one condition under which she’ll join the team.
We won’t spoil how difficult it is for Mike to spit out those words, so you can see that above for yourselves.
Here’s the official description for tonight’s episode, titled “The Big LeBaxter,” which includes guest star Bill Engvall:
When Rev. Paul recruits Kyle and Mandy to the church bowling team, Mike is left with two unappealing options for Team Baxter – Ryan and Jen. Meanwhile, Vanessa anxiously awaits an endorsement from the Teacher’s Association for her Assembly campaign and Kristin and Chuck worry they have offended Ed with their old age jokes.
“Last Man Standing” airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Fox.