‘Diary of a Future President’ Episode 2 Recap — ‘The New Deal’

Change isn't easy when you're a middle school student. Here's our recap of the latest episode of 'Diary of a Future President,' entitled 'The New Deal.'

by Julia Dzurillay

Published on January 25, 2020

3 min read

Elena just saw her mom kissing Sam

This episode picks up right where the last one left off — with Elena finding out her mother is dating someone. Sam. And Elena just has a few questions. Is he her boyfriend? For how long? Any prior marriages? How happy does he make her, more, less, or equal to Elena’s father?

Gabi reassures her daughter that Sam is in no way a replacement for her father. Later, while the family is watching a game show, Elena tells Gabi that she’s willing to give Sam a chance. He starts coming for breakfast and slowly, Bobby and Elena start warming up to him.

One morning, Bobby shares that as an eighth-grader, he’s probably the best tennis player in the district and he’s pretty pumped for tryouts. Just then, the family’s sink stops working. Normally, it’s Elena’s thing to step in and stop it from running, but Sam figures out how to fix it.

Tess Romero, Charlie Bushnell, and Selenis Leyva arrive at the Disney +’s “Diary Of A Future President” after party | Morgan Lieberman/Getty Images

Bobby and Elena head to school as Gabi and Sam head to work

Back at work, Sam and Gabi told their co-workers that they’re dating. As they’re about to order lunch and Gabi finds out that her usual sandwich isn’t on the menu anymore. During lunch, Elena vents to her best friend about the sink-whisperer thing but it’s not really reassuring.

The next morning, Elena picks up donuts for the whole family to try to win them over. She comes back home to find out Sam made eggs for everyone. She tells Bobby she did his To Kill a Mockingbird assignment, but Sam beat her to that, too.

During tennis tryouts, Bobby gets showed up by a new player and he’s pretty upset about it. He invites him to a formal “kickoff party,” where he and the other players plan to throw water balloons at him. Elena meets Jessica in the bathroom (again) and confronts her about ditching her as a friend. Jessica confesses that Elena just isn’t cool and it’s a pretty big loss for Elena.

Elena discovers she’s experiencing grief

That night, Sam comes over with the other sandwiches on the menu, so Gabi can do a little taste-testing. When Elena walks in on Sam answering the literature questions on the game show, she’s finally had enough of being replaced. She grabs the donuts that are left and bikes to the drive-thru.

When she tries to return them, she thinks she hears the person called her a nickname that only her dad said. Elena starts talking to her dad, sharing that the family kind of learned who they were once he passed away. Now things are changing and she’s not exactly ready.

Elena’s mom shows up with the car and the two talk about grief. Elena learns that it doesn’t just have to do with death, sometimes it has to do with change, like a discontinued sandwich. Bobby heads home and starts talking to Sam. Sam thanks him for being so welcoming. Bobby then heads to where they planned to prank the new tennis player and apologizes. A few nights later, the four of them are all gathered around the tv, watching the game show together.