Theo gets his ear pierced when he stays over at a friend's house as a sign of independence and tries to hide it, until it becomes infected and Denise tells Cliff. Cliff invites his parents over to lecture Theo, and Theo's grandfather tells him a story about Cliff trying to straighten his hair to impress a girl and burning it all off. Cliff's mother then tells Theo a story about a bad tattoo that her husband got when he was young.