Halloween should be the most terrifying holiday for Kate of Ben and Kate. The overly protective mother usually spends her Halloween inspecting daughter Maddie’s candy for razorblades, then checking into Hotel Sweatpants and falling asleep with a candy wrapper stuck to her face. While most other shows would probably focus on the actual trick-or-treating of Halloween, especially focusing on Maddie, Ben and Kate instead challenges expectations, giving Kate the closest the show has gotten to a romantic moment, while sending Ben into a drug trip.
Kate has been invited to a Halloween party by Steve, a neighborhood guy who seems to be a good match for Kate, as he sets up a stand to hand out flashlights for the night in his front yard, but Kate can only talk gibberish while near him. Since Maddie has only been what Kate wants her to be for Halloween, such as Mini Madame Curie and The Death of Print Journalism, BJ takes her shopping to get her whatever costume she wants. Since she’s a little girl, she almost immediately flocks to the princess costumes, much to the chagrin of Kate. Tommy wants to go out to a club for the night, but Ben shoots him down, saying they should stay home for hot moms. But after Tommy eats seven of BJ’s “special” candies from Amsterdam, the duo’s night takes a different turn.
The way Ben and Kate handles all these storylines is exceptional. At the party, Kate immediately kisses Steve, but then goes on to cry in front of him, scaring him away. But later that night, Kate meets another new guy, this time a single dad named Will who wants to call the police on the party Kate was just at. It’s almost surprising that Ben and Kate hasn’t had a potential romance spring up yet, but it’s smart that it’s focused on its core characters before introducing other minor characters.