Middle Men

"Middle Men" (originally titled "Lesson Plan") is the thirty-sixth episode of the third season, and the one-hundred-thirty-seventh episode of The Loud House.

Plot
When Lincoln and Clyde go to tour the middle school, Lynn gives them some questionable advice.

Synopsis
Arriving home, Lynn discovers the smell of cookies. Following the smell to the kitchen, she finds Lincoln and Clyde making cookies. When she asks what they're for, the boys explain that middle school orientation is tomorrow, and they're going to be touring the middle school for the day to get an understanding on what middle school life is like. The boys also explain that they made cookies and business cards in hopes of improving the experience. Lynn, believing that their methods are not fit for middle school, decides to tour them around the school herself.

When Lincoln and Clyde arrive to the middle school the next day, Lynn starts giving the two some advice:
 * First, Lynn tells them to not use maps to figure out where everything is, since there was a sixth grader who didn't know where to go and was misled by eighth graders into going into an unknown part of the school, where she got stuck there for the whole day.
 * Second, Lynn tells them that during homeroom, there are no assigned seats. She advises them to take the best seat there is. When Clyde and a girl reach the same desk, Clyde politely gives it to the girl, but Lynn shoves her away and gives the desk to Clyde. Lynn explains that a sixth grader once got the worst desk there was, and she got stuck so badly that she had to be lubricated by peanut butter as a result.
 * Finally, the trio go to the biology class, where the teacher, Ms. Pham, tells them that they're going to work with mealworms. Lincoln tries to get a box, but ends up bumping into Clyde, causing the worms in his box to fly out, and a fan blowing them onto the other students. Lincoln tries to apologize, but Lynn stops him before he can, telling him to never own up to making a mistake. She explains that there was a sixth grader who admitted to farting during a test, and as a result, the students nicknamed her "Farty McStink Pants".

During lunch, Lincoln and Clyde have started to take Lynn's advice, and believe it is working out. When Lincoln asks what they're going to do after lunch, Lynn tells them that she has to stop touring them, since they have to spend the rest of the day alone to better understand their surroundings. Despite their fears, Lincoln and Clyde are firm that they can get through the day without Lynn aiding them.

Sometime after lunch, Lincoln and Clyde try to find their way to the art class to do watercolors, but they can't figure out where it is. Suddenly, the bell rings, and all the classroom doors shut, making them tardy, and slimming their chances of finding the class. Remembering Lynn's words on not using maps, Lincoln and Clyde arrive to what they believe is the art room, but turns out to be the darkroom. One of the students, angry at the boys for ruining a month's work of photos, tells them to meet her on the blacktop after school at 3:00.

Later, Lincoln and Clyde arrive to a classroom, and they find some good seats to take. However, two students named Byron and Cici inform them that the desks they're sitting on are assigned to them. Thinking the two are tricking them, Lincoln and Clyde refuse to budge, and when the bell rings, their teacher, Mr. Bolhofner, marks Byron and Cici late for not sitting in their seats. As a result, Byron and Cici tells the two boys to meet them on the blacktop after school at 3:00.

During gym class, Lincoln and Clyde wonder why they've already made enemies. Lincoln assures Clyde that they will lay low for now during gym class. At that moment, the gym teacher, Coach Keck, informs her students that they'll be watching a movie instead since she buffed the gym floor. Lincoln and Clyde, thinking they can't mess this up, attempt to join the others, but they slip and bump into a rack of volleyballs, which crashes into a rack of roller pads. When Coach Keck demands who made the mess, no one confesses. As a result, she tells them that she's going to make them clean up instead of watching the movie. As they clean up, Clyde accidentally admits that he and Lincoln were responsible for the mess, and the gym students, angry at the two for not admitting to the mess, tell them to meet them on the blacktop after school at 3:00.

With only a few minutes until 3:00, Lynn sees Lincoln and Clyde approach the blacktop, whereas everyone they upset start to arrive. Realizing the danger the boys are in, Lynn quickly runs out of the school building, and tackles them to hide them behind a dumpster. When Lynn asks what happened, Lincoln and Clyde say that they were just following her advice, but as a result, it made everyone believe that they were just bullies. Lynn, realizing this was her fault, reveals that all the stories she told earlier were actually about her. When she first started the sixth grade, the experience was a nightmare for her, and figured that if she adopted a more aggressive attitude, she wouldn't get picked on as much. She also explains that the reason why she told them this advice in the first place was so that they wouldn't have to go through what she went through. Lincoln and Clyde immediately feel bad for Lynn because of what she had to go through, and Lynn, not wanting the two to suffer anymore, decides to take the hits for them. However, they stop her, saying that they were responsible for ticking the students off, thus it's only fair for them to take the hits.

Lincoln and Clyde come out of their hiding spot, and as they prepare to encounter the angered middle schoolers, the time on Byron's watch strikes 3:00. Lincoln and Clyde charge at the students, when they accidentally trip. Suddenly, the middle schoolers laugh, saying that they weren't really going to beat them up, and say they only told them to come just to make them sweat. As Byron hands back Clyde's backpack, he discovers the cookies Lincoln and Clyde made earlier, and Clyde allows them to eat them. When Cici asks what their names are, Lincoln presents their business card, and the photography girl admits that their business card is "so dorky, they're (actually) cool." As a result, the middle schoolers admit that Lincoln and Clyde are pretty cool, a statement which Lynn gladly agrees with.

Cast
Girl Jordan has no lines in this episode.
 * Tex Hammond as Lincoln
 * Nika Futterman as Student
 * Jessica DiCicco as Lynn
 * Grey Griffin as Lola / Coach Keck / Photography Girl
 * Andre Robinson as Clyde
 * Maile Flanagan as Byron / Eighth Grader
 * James Arnold Taylor as School Cook / Mr. Bolhofner / Upperclassman / Middle Schooler
 * Lauren Tom as Cici / Ms. Pham

Trivia

 * When this episode's plot was first announced, it was also confirmed that the episode might have had a title change. This statement turned out to be true, as the episode title went from "Lesson Plan" to "Middle Men".
 * The title of this episode is a reference to the fact that Lincoln and Clyde are visiting the middle school.
 * This episode reveals why Lynn is so brash and abrasive in behavior: when she first started middle school, she kept getting in difficult situations that made her the school's punching bag. As a result, Lynn thought if she could act as tough as the other students, she could make her middle school years easier to go through.
 * With only 1.08 million U.S viewers, this episode currently holds the record for having the least amount of viewers for the show, beating out the previous episode, Everybody Loves Leni.

Running Gags

 * Lynn giving Lincoln and Clyde advice about what to do in middle school.
 * Lincoln and Clyde following Lynn's advice, but it ends up angering the other middle schoolers.
 * One of the middle schoolers telling Lincoln and Clyde to meet them at the blacktop at 3:00.

Middle Men