Episode #115 "Loser"

  Claudia comes home from work and discovers that Henry is very angry with Sean, who has just refereed his soccer game. It seems that not only Henry, but also his entire soccer team and their parents, have no use for Sean at the moment.Claudia observes that poor Henry shouldn't even be playing soccer. When Walt questions this, both Sean and Claudia admit that Henry's very bad at it. Henry had originally wanted to sign up for tap classes, but Sean would have no part of it and insisted on soccer. An elated Lily tells Claudia that she finally got her courage up to talk to the guy at the soccer concession stand. He's her soulmate, and talking to him was amazing. In fact they had a routine conversation about the hot dog special, but Lily considers it the most romantic, incredible conversation ever. Jimmy tells Claudia that the kids in the back yard are really badmouthing Sean. Sean tells Walt that he's not a bad father; he volunteered to ref. and did everything he could to make Henry happy. For some time Sean was concerned that Henry considered himself and his team a bunch of losers. He tried to practice with Henry, but nothing helped. Claudia tells Sean that he wouldn't let Henry sign up for tap because of his macho insecurity. Things are so bad that Henry's having soccer nightmares and freaking out. Lily has begun to wonder if she sounded stupid when she talked to Frank, the concession guy. This rapidly turns into an obsession as she goes over and over the conversation. Sean tells Walt that last Saturday he was reffing, and the team is actually ahead. Henry's ecstatic. But the opposing team rallies, and soon they're only one goal behind. The opposing team is getting ready to score again when Sean blows the whistle and calls the end of the game with 46 seconds remaining on his stopwatch. Feeling a bit sick, Sean pushes the clear button. Walt tells Sean that as a ref. he violated a sacred trust. Sean protests that it wasn't premeditated; he just couldn't stand by and watch Henry lose again. Claudia, unlike Walt, had no problems with Sean; he got down off his high horse and acted like an outlaw for once. Sean gets even sicker about what he did when it becomes clear that Henry is truly obnoxious about winning. Sean tries to talk to him about his attitude, but Henry isn't listening. Sean figured that Henry's team would go back to losing and today's game would knock them down a peg or two, but that wasn't the case. The score is tied at zero in the closing seconds of the game, and Henry's team is about to score. Sean throws himself onto the ground and trips the player on her way to the goal. The ball bounces away and the other team scores. Sean becomes public enemy number one, but he now has a clear conscience and Henry gets to give up soccer and start going to tap class.