Anyone remember that totally scathing review I wrote of "Driving Miss Hazy" around the beginning of the year?  After having some private discussions with Curious-Poker-Chip and thinking more about the cartoon's general logic, I've been forced to retract that conclusion I made of the episode.  I can't say I love it because I still think it peters out at the end.

I initially excoriated the episode for what I initially thought wasn't following its own logic with Lori sabotaging Leni's test and with Lori being so rotten.  However, I'm willing to be flexible about the logic portion of it given that Leni was asleep when it happened and not in her normal state of mind when awake.  Now with Lori's character in the episode, I initially wrote her off as being a one-dimensional villain with a cheap and sudden turnaround at the end, but then I remembered the South Park episode "Chef Goes Nanners" when Chef turned into a racist due to many people in town wanting to keep the South Park flag the way it was but quickly changed his tune when he realized the kids wanting to keep the flag as it was didn't see race in the people depicted in it, so I no longer think it's a cheap way of storytelling (of course, it depends on the context). Lori was merely drunk with power in the episode and was willing to make things better once Lincoln confronted her over her reckless actions.

Even with my more positive views of the above, the ending still leaves a lot to be desired because it's never resolved at the end (or in a future episode) whether or not Leni gets her driver's license (while Lori got her just desserts over how she's in for an extremely tough slog teaching Leni to drive, the ambiguous ending hurts the overall quality of the episode quite a bit).

All in all, while I no longer think that it's the worst Loud House episode or even one of the worst episodes, I still don't think it deserves its status as a "favorite" among fans (though I have no ill will against anyone that does because thinking less of others just for having different opinions on cartoons is among the most childish of things one can do).  With that said, I think it's the worst of the episodes focused on Leni (even though there were crucial scenes showing the nuances in her character), but for the episode itself, I would say it's "meh" overall.

Finally, while I've warmed up a little to Lori's character in this episode in that I see her actions in it closer to being that of an actual person's than a cheap villain's (I should point out that I've also come to appreciate Lori's character a bit more in future episodes), I still feel compelled to keep her at the bottom of my favorite Loud sisters list because despite her wanting to make things better at the end (and the grueling work that lies ahead of her), the lack of closure in Leni getting her driver's license doesn't actually erase her treacherous deeds and thus makes it extremely difficult for me to put her anywhere but in last place.