Anger Management’ continues on its 90-episode, two-year run with its 17th overall episode “Charlie Dates a Teacher,” as Charlie finds his performance in bed with Sam's teacher (Danielle Bisutti) adversely affects his daughter's grades, while Lacey (Noureen DeWulf) finds herself having sex dreams about Charlie, and asks for Kate's help.

Previous episode “Charlie and Deception Therapy” saw Charlie attempting to change Ed (Barry Corbin)’s negative attitude by giving him placebo pills to curb his anger, while Jen (Shawnee Smith) tried to better befriend Kate, so what will the latest episode bring?  Are there more laughs to be had in the seventeenth half-hour of ‘Anger Management,’ or do we give it a failing grade?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Anger Management’ episode 17, “Charlie Dates a Teacher”

As the latest group session ends, Charlie asks Lacey to wait afterward, and begins coming on to her. After the two embrace, Lacey wakes in her bed and reminds herself to start drinking before she goes to sleep. Elsewhere in reality, Charlie arrives to Jen’s house with a vacuum cleaner, as Sam’s OCD has been acting up from her bad English grades and causing her to obsessively clean the house. Unwilling to go herself, Jen asks Charlie to ask the teacher what Sam has done wrong.

After the next session, Charlie actually asks Lacey to stay afterward, noting she’d seemed uncomfortable the entire hour. Lacey she admits she can’t quite talk about the problem, so Charlie refers her to Kate as an option. Later, Charlie visit’s Sam’s stunning teacher Kristy and asks for a list of criteria to improve his daughter's writing, to which the teacher happily obliges, relieved he didn’t come to hit on her. However, seeing as she’s transferring to Portugal in a matter of weeks, they might as well have a fling, right?

The next day, Kate assures Lacey in her session that the dreams are merely idol worship of Charlie’s intellect, but when Kate’s own observations become too intellectual, Lacey begins to fantasize about her as well. Meanwhile back at Charlie’s place, Mike enters to find Charlie increasingly worn out from his time with Kristy, and Mike points out that his performance in bed has likely become tied to Sam’s grades. Moments later, Jen and Sam arrive to complain about her latest grade…a B+!

The next night, Charlie gives it his all in bed, as Kristy reveals that she has begun to fall for Charlie, and decided to cancel her plans for Portugal, extending their ill-advised affair indefinitely. Elsewhere, Lacey has another one of her dreams, this time about Kate. If only this were HBO.

Charlie confesses the affair to Jen, who advises him to keep seeing the teacher lest Sam’s grades suffer and her OCD turn even worse. The situation grows even more dire later as Charlie finds out before Kristy's arrival that Sam’s latest paper actually earned her a D! When Kristy finally arrives, Charlie asks what he could have done to earn both he and Sam a D, but Kristy takes offense at the notion that she would screw over a student, for…well…you know. Kristy urges Charlie to actually read the D paper, which admittedly seems much sloppier than usual, before departing.

The next day, Charlie asks Sam why she wrote the paper differently than usual, to which the girl admits she took her father’s advice that it was okay to be less than perfect now and again. Elsewhere, Lacey has a joint dream with Kate and Charlie, believing she managed to resolve her issues with authority, but a dream vision of Ed reminds her she has daddy issues and gets into bed as well.

Admittedly, "Charlie Dates a Teacher" feels a bit more sitcom trope-reliant than usual, which could be a sign that the writers have drifted into more familiar patterns to fill material for the series' immense order. At the very least, we appreciate the attempt to give Lacey a bit of focus, given how other episodes have highlighted the various members of the group in a more positive light. Like Charlie, we're sure the show can do better after a bit of a refractory period.

Did you enjoy the latest from ‘Anger Management’s ongoing run, or did it make you burn with rage? Join us next week for another all-new ‘Anger Management’ episode recap of “Charlie and Catholicism” on FX!

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