NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Lucky Hank episode 3, "Escape."
Hank (Bob Odenkirk) is stuck. Metaphorically as he loathes most of his colleagues, his students and Railton itself, but also in the literal sense.
The delivery of a moving pod right in front of Hank's garage, blocking his car, is an unwelcomed surprise, one made worse when he learns it's his father's old office and the recent retiree is planning on relocating to Railton. Talking with Lily (Mireille Enos), he not only worries about how his long-absent father's return may impact him, but his mother as well after not contacting them for years.
While Hank could only wish his dad was just taking the piss out of him, Lily has to deal with actual piss at her school when a student relieves themselves on some lockers. She asks the custodian to clean it up, but he is adamant he doesn't do urine. Lily speaks with the principal for a solution, but he offers nothing tangible, much to Lily's frustration.
On campus, Dean Rose (Oscar Nunez) tells Hank that, hypothetically, the university's president is asking all department chairs to write a list of about 20% of their professors who could be cut, and that he needs this "hypothetical" list by the end of the week. Rose wants Hank to keep it a secret to prevent starting a panic among the staff.
Well, panic has already set in, as the rumors have spread and the English department wants a straight answer from Hank. He confirms the gossip as fact and in his sarcastic tone tells them he's hard at work on it. While Hank privately expresses his reluctance to write the list, his colleagues don't trust that he won't, so they try and figure out how to protect their jobs.
Gracie (Suzanne Cryer) makes the case she is a better option to keep than Rourke (Cedrick Yarbrough) because she can teach any subject and level; June (Alvina August) and Teddy (Arthur Keng) try and ingratiate themselves with the dean by agreeing to be the faculty advisors to Bartow's (Jackson Kelly) "excellence committee;" and Rourke brings in their union rep to try and fight it. Meanwhile, others seem resigned to their potential fate, including Emma (Shannon DeVido), who cries in her car, and Billie (Nancy Robertson) who drinks.
Meg (Sara Amini) on the other hand, unaware of the potential cuts, is trying to get Hank to recommend her to be a professor rather than just continuing to be an adjunct teacher forced to work part-time at the bar. Hank tries to encourage her not to, but she is insistent.
To help vent his frustration, Hank decides to break into the moving pod. Looking through his father's stuff, he quickly finds a mass of letters from his mom spanning multiple years. He plans to confront his mother about this.
Lily, meanwhile, is taking matters into her own hands to clean up the piss. But she also faces frustration when the principal says he is not going to reimburse her for the cleaning supplies because she did not get official approval for them and he doesn't want to classify urine in the halls as a reason to dip into the emergency fund. Instead of lashing out, Lily asks for a personal day so she can go interview for the job opportunity she has in New York.
Elsewhere, Meg interviews Hank's son-in-law Russell (Daniel Doheny) for a job at the bar. Meg brings up the fact that Hank thinks Russell is an idiot, but the young man provides some surprising insight into Hank's emotional complexities. Impressed, Meg actually takes the chance to ask Russell why he thinks Hank isn't supporting her push to be a professor, to which Russell believes Hank is incapable of making a decision.
Hank confronts his mom about the letters. He's upset she has been in contact with his dad while also acting like the abandonment was a unifying thing for them. She clarifies he abandoned Hank, but he just "moved away" from her and now he is moving back on her invitation. Hank leaves. On his way home, he calls his father's office and leaves a message, telling him he is not welcome in Railton.
Of course, Hank isn't exactly parent of the year himself, as made evident by a conversation he has with Julie (Olivia Scott Welch). As she tries to tell him how she is feeling overwhelmed, he suggests she could move somewhere else and start fresh. But that's not what Julie is talking about, she's just concerned about the DIY pool she and Russell are building. She's upset that Hank is projecting his distaste for the town onto her.
Later at the bar, Meg reveals to Hank she knows about the potential cuts. Hank, seeing another opportunity to convince someone to get away from Railton, tells her it's not just cuts, the school is instituting a hiring freeze and he won't have any classes to give her in the fall, which is not true. Meg decides to drown her disappointment with some shots. She gets drunk and Hank takes her home. As he gets her some water and Tylenol, she undresses and tries to seduce him into bed, but Hank leaves.
When he gets home, he is open with Lily about Meg's come-on, which she takes relatively well. What she is less pleased about is that Hank lied to Meg about the teaching positions and is again projecting his feelings onto others. She asks him straight up if he hates Railton, to which he pleads the fifth. She tries to make a final point, but decides against it. She tells him that she is doing the job interview in New York.
New episodes of Lucky Hank air Sundays on AMC and are streaming on AMC Plus.
