Bob's Burgers is once again on a bye until sometime in April as my possible guess on when the next episode would show up on our screens, so yours truly is back doing The Great North for the time being when it comes to the full breakdown. And we got ourselves a long for this week's episode since I'm back doing the usual format that I would do for the Bob's Burgers reviews. And if you're questioning why I didn't do it in last week's episode review, I can only do one full episode breakdown at a time. Also, it was Daylight Savings. And I was fully exhausted. So yeah, might as well get this episode review out of the way in the full episode breakdown format for this week's episode.
In this week's episode of The Great North, each of the members of the Tobin family gets their monthly checks and gets their own plots with Wolf and Honeybee running a homemade gym, Beef, Moon, and Dirt trying to find something for them to spend, Ham and Crispin opening up a smoothie shop while aiding Wolf and Honeybee, and Judy coaches a hockey team in an attempt to get her voice her on being against the idea of getting a monthly check in my spoilerific review of the sixth episode of Season 4, titled “The Mighty Pucks Adventure”.
The topic of money is the name of the game in this week’s episode of The Great North. Especially regarding the conversation about a certain type of checks that if you live in the state of Alaska, you get them in the mail regardless of job status or age of personnel. And we'll get to that in a bit when it comes to the topic of the oil dividend checks that each Alaskan gets in the mail every month as if it's a trip to an ice cream shop after getting a good grade. And with these checks for everyone, including the Tobins, it's going to be one of those episodes...rather, this is the first for the show where each Tobin member has their own plot with them on what to do with the checks and, of course, things happen with each member of the Tobin family on what to do on how they want to spend their money that would make other states feel jealous or question how in the hell does the richest country in the planet doesn't lend out $1,000 every month to everyone. Yeah, I know that the stimulus checks during the pandemic were a thing, but, and this doesn't make me sound like a money grubber, the fact that most of our taxpayer money goes towards creating weapons instead of funding something like education or fixing up roads that are turning to crap. But yeah, most of the episode is with the Tobin family going on a spending spree, well, except for Judy, who is against the idea of getting money in the mail, solely on who or what the money is coming from because of environmental reasons.
As for the title of the episode itself, “The Mighty Pucks Adventure”, of course, a reference to the movie “The Mighty Ducks”, which was also the original name of the NHL team Anaheim Ducks when they were an expansion team in the early-to-mid 1990s, is where you put two and two together that even though each of the family members have their own plots, it’s automatically a Judy-centric episode with her hoping to get her voice heard of being against the idea of every Alaskan getting oil money from big oil by ending up becoming a coach to a local hockey team. This means that we got hockey being brought into this episode, hence, the episode title aside from the entirety of the episode being every member of the family having to spend their money on stuff they want to buy. But, that being said, might as well break this episode down, oh, and because this is the type of episode where each member of the family has their own plot...yeah, I should stick to what I did in my "Gift Card or Buy Trying" review where we go from start to finish than what I did in my "Legends of the Mall" review back in 2019 where I have to do each of the plots, so the first option would have to be the way to go, mostly because Ham and Crispin's plot ties in with Wolf and Honeybee's plot, so, might as well do that, this is "The Mighty Pucks Adventure".
Already right away to kick things off with the episode, every member of the Tobin family, and yes, I said every member of the family, this includes Dirt, who I guess now the state of Alaska has to change her record when finding out that she's not dead and had been hiding for 60 years, so that would make her qualify for getting the check courtesy of the other members of the family, getting paid in checks. But not in the way where you usually get your checks from your job every month through a salary. It's called an oil dividend check and every resident of Alaska, regardless of job status or age because those checks don't require you to be over 18 years of age to be qualified because Judy, Ham, and Moon got theirs in the mail, get paid. $3,000 to be exact. And where the money is coming from seems a bit sketchy because of where it's coming from. Mostly because of the name and...it's coming from big oil. The money is coming from big oil because Alaska is an oil-producing state and big oil, well, they love to drill the resources out of the state, and the money that each Alaskan gets every month in the mail, that the state government has to approve, something they have done since it was first introduced in 1976. It was pretty much a bribe, hush money from the big oil companies for every Alaskan to spend while the companies continue to frack the resources and, of course, killing the Earth.
Hence, why you have Judy, despite getting the check herself in the mail along with the family, is 100% against the idea of having the checks sent out. Not because everyone in the state gets paid, which they should benefit from it for essential needs like paying bills to make ends meet, regardless of what kind of job you have, or hopefully saving it to pay off student loan debts, as I said, it's pretty much hush money from the big oil companies to let them continue to drain the resources from the state, thus, slowly killing the planet and already bad enough with the ongoing climate crisis because of things like fracking. And this girl went through hell with the underground bunker that turned into a ticking time bomb on prom night. Judy is in the minority by being against the idea of having their checks mailed by the oil companies just for letting them get a free pass to drain the state of their resources and she wants to spread the message of not receiving the checks, not saying that she wants the thing fully banned like it's TikTok, but more of wanting the people to not accept the money or at least spend it for good use like donating to a charity or paying loans.
And when comparing oil dividend checks to universal basic income or the stimulus checks during the pandemic is that, well, you now know that the dividend checks only applies to the people of Alaska, as well as some countries that are oil-producing countries like Norway and Kuwait...okay, just Norway and Alaska that can only pass out checks like these. With Universal Basic Income (UBI for short), sort of like with the dividend checks, you get the money but you would have to be at least 18 years of age, regardless of job status and education, and get it for at least $1,000/month. I think Finland is currently going through that if I'm not mistaken, any Finnish readers, feel free to correct me in the comments on what's going on there. And mind you, during the last presidential election, during the Democratic primaries, you had a candidate who ran on the platform of giving everyone $1,000 every month in the mail. Then comes the stimulus checks that were passed out during the pandemic, there wasn't a lot in there, about at least $600 at the minimum, I'm not an economist, just putting it out there, where you usually get it in the mail because every business shut down during the heyday of the pandemic during the lockdowns and having to work at home and struggling to make ends meet unless you're a content creator, animator, producer, voice actor, writer, or director for an animated series or movie. Also, what's funny about the dividend checks when it comes to an oil-producing state like Alaska...how the fuck does Texas, an oil-producing state, didn't follow along the lines of passing out checks as if it's candy? A few things to state the comparison. Alaska heavily relies on oil for its economy aside from fishing and lumber, whereas Texas, while they rely on oil, they also rely on other resources like natural gas and imports. I see one comment on Reddit when searching it up that Texas is more private while Alaska is public when it comes to land ownership. Also, knowing Texas...they’ll think that giving everyone checks in the mail would think that giving everyone free money is socialism on steroids.
Aside from Judy now establishing her plot of the episode, which is going to be the main plot, with her being against the idea of having the money being issued by the corruption caused by the oil companies and wanting to have her voice heard, the other members of the Tobin family have their plots ready to go on what they should do with their checks. For Wolf and Honeybee, it’s opening up a small gym at their cabin with Ham and Crispin with their respective checks opening up a small smoothie hut at the outhouse, meaning that both of those plots have to be combined into one since they’ll be aiding Wolf and Honeybee to give the patrons their protein smoothies after their workout. And also, you have Beef, Moon, and Dirt with their own plot being settled...with them trying to find something to spend. No, really, that’s the entire plot for the trio with them trying to find something for the three to spend their money on. So, when we get to the school to begin the main plot of the episode, that being the Judy plot, is what money, especially oil money, can do to people...
By having people go on a spending spree and enjoy whatever they buy once we get to the school with Judy passing out flyers to promote her one-woman show with both Kima and Amelia holding the flyers for Judy and it looks like not one person has gotten the attention from Judy as they...well, play around with the stuff that they spent with the dividend money that they got in the mail to the point where it feels like as if they’re...well, how people would usually react if they won the lottery. Though, you already know that Judy is about to have a rough...couple of days regarding her wanting to have her voice heard about the dividend checks and you can see the reaction coming from Kima and Amelia when holding the flyers since they got a front-row seat to the rehearsal...yeah, they noticed that Judy's show would be a total Debbie Downer because of the way Judy will go once the night hits for her to point her finger at everyone who would easily take the blood oil money without noticing that one day, they're going to feel the consequences with a warmer climate, high sea levels, and contaminated water. As if she's telling every Alaskan that they didn't learn their lesson from the oil spill that happened in Valdez back in 1989 by accepting the hush money.
We head to the junkyard, I guess after school later in the day, where we have Beef, Moon, and Dirt at the junkyard for them to find something they can agree to spend since it does sort of look like what the C-plot...or I guess D-plot even though the Ham and Crispin storyline is a part of the B-plot with Wolf and Honeybee, so this is pretty much the C-plot with the trio as they look around the junkyard where you have Junkyard Kyle enjoying her spending with her check by getting a tiara and a partially eaten onion bagel, the tiara from The Princess Diaries and the onion bagel from The Devil Wears Prada, both films starred Anne Hathaway. At least Kyle had her money spent on things that may or may not be the actual items that were used in either of those two films unless they turned out to be replicas, whereas the trio themselves, I did mention that it’s going to be them struggling to find something so they can spend their money on. I could say that they should take the reasonable route and save the money, you know, put it in a bank account, well, Beef would have to put it into his. Moon would have to create his own. And I guess the same goes for Dirt after hiding for 60 years inside the bunker. But knowing that it’s about people spending that sweet, sweet oil money, that’s what we’re going to be doing with those three as the episode progresses.
The night arrives for Judy’s one-woman show to be presented with Judy ready herself to talk to the audience about why accepting money from oil companies as she does a vocal warm-up while dressing up in a unitard with a handmade constructed of the dividend bill on her head as she prepares for the curtains to rise, with Kima, Amelia, and Golovkin working in behind-the-scenes, and once the curtains are open...guess the number of people who attended the one-woman show that Judy worked hard on? You already guessed it because you looked at the screencap down below...
Two. That's right, two people were in attendance. Not twenty. Not two hundred. Not two thousand, though the question is whether or not that would be over capacity but that's beside the point, but only two people in attendance. I mean, Beef is understandable because he wants to be supportive towards Judy, regardless of whether or not the show would be bad, and he said it earlier in the episode at the breakfast table despite that the rest of the family lie their way out of not wanting to see Judy perform because...of course, the issue of money as if she wants the damn thing to be banned altogether. At least Moon was honest in not wanting to attend with him saying he doesn't plan on going there, all because he doesn't plan on doing it and not because he too wants to spend his oil-covered check. So, you have Beef because he wants to be supportive of Judy for her show, which is not surprising. Also not surprising since there are two people in attendance, you have Gill. Gill is also in attendance because why not? Gotta have him in the show somehow and also doing this because we all know about him having a huge crush on Judy, so it would make sense for him to at least show his support towards her. Even said a line after Judy left after her one-woman show abruptly ended in disaster when attempting to have a conversation with Beef from the row behind him by telling Beef that Judy is a talented performer despite the show abruptly ending in disaster. Did I mention that Judy's one-woman show abruptly ended in disaster? Yep, it did because no one but two people (Beef and Gill) showed up, and was hoping for a full audience but Judy now notices the writing on the wall that her show is a downer and they would rather take the hush money from the oil companies, not knowing that it will one day fuck up their daily living, than listen to Judy's take and calling for an end to the dividend checks.
Going into the next day at the end of the first act of the episode with Judy feels depressed and upset over no one attending her one-woman show and not getting her message heard as if she noticed the writing on the wall of people not wanting to land a toe onto the auditorium. Moping while lying on the couch before she hears a doorbell, revealing to be Mrs. Tuntley at the door, ready to pick up Henry, and notices that something is off with Judy. Judy tells Mrs. Tuntley about what happened last night when no one attended the one-woman show about how bad the oil dividend checks are and how the companies are killing the Earth. She's now embracing how Kima's father Walter went through about the planet going through a crisis and having people wait until an environmental disaster strikes to notice the writing on the wall.
As Judy walks back to the sofa for her to lie down once more in a mopey state as Mrs. Tuntley enters the house as she awaits for Henry to come down to take him home, she (Mrs. Tunley) tells Judy of a similar issue that she is going through, though different from Judy’s situation because the local team, a Triple-C minor league hockey team called the Lone Moose Puck Chuckers, is in quite in a sticky situation, though going into the second act of the episode, it’s a similar situation, but the team doesn’t have a sponsor. Because the previous sponsor...yeah, the sponsor is question dropped out of a plane with no parachute attached, so uh...that spokesperson is pretty much dead.
So, the team doesn't have a sponsor and that's just item one on the list of what would be a down bad team. Judy is starting to have a lightbulb being illuminated above her head moment when she brings up to Mrs. Tuntley if her league has the intermissions after the clock at each period reaches zero like with how the NHL does it, which she said yes, and in-between those periods is where the entertainment comes into play. And I've never been to a hockey game, mostly because I live in a city where there's no hockey team. But yeah, the intermission portion of the game in between the periods once the clock hits zero and each team makes their way to the locker room is where the entertainment portion of the night comes in, whether it's playing games with the audience or whatever shit mascots do. This caused Judy to locate her opportunity to spread her message of being anti-oil money and decided to be the team's sponsor. Yep, one person, not a company, one person is poised to become a sponsor of a local team. Is that even possible? Eh...unless you're someone like MrBeast for example, it's damn possible...well, unless you're a billionaire hack, but that's not going stop Judy from doing the impossible. How is she going to pay for it? She did the responsible thing when it came to finances because even though she's against getting money from the program, at least she saved it despite not wanting to put in a fund like wanting to open a bank account, but she'll the job regardless...despite that, the budget for the organization is about $13,000, but she’ll take the offer regardless, and thus, Judy’s now a one-woman sponsor to end the first act of the episode.
And now, going into the second act with Judy arriving at the hockey rink with Beef as her escort as she is preparing to do her first night as the sponsor. And, despite that it does feel like she somewhat became a bit of a hypocrite because she doesn't want to lay a hand on her past dividend checks because of her stance on money from oil companies and yet, all of her saved-up checks from years past has to be spent, once she gets the green light for her check to go through, she’s cleared to go for her sponsorship with the hockey team, as well as sending the entire team an e-card to welcoming herself into the organization. And so, it begins for Judy to set up a road map to get her one-woman show and her message heard to the masses during games. Only to end up meeting with a few hurdles once going inside the rink.
Once she walks up to the rink and spots Mrs. Tuntley in the penalty box for at least two minutes since that's the usual timer being used for a player for something they're not supposed to do on the ice, like in Mrs. Tuntley's case, and she quotes "nut tapping the ref", resulting in her being sent into the box and for the opponent, a two-minute power play. Oh, and when it comes to the people in attendance, much like with Judy's show a night ago that ended in disaster because no one showed up...surprise, only a few people showed up than what was originally advertised. Though, the key difference between what happened here at the hockey rink and Judy's show at the school a night ago when it comes to difficulty in trying to get people's butts into their seats, is that with Judy’s show, it’s because it was a total downer and people would rather keep the dividend program going so they can get free money. Whereas the low attendance for the hockey game, the team just fucking sucks.
And Judy can see why when looking at the lack of performance from the team. We are looking at a team that looked lost as if they don’t know what the fuck they were doing when seeing Santiago and Esther trying to play defense but ends up falling on their asses and the goalie, that being Old Jody Jr, not playing perfectly good goaltending and let the opposing team score. We're now getting into the usual plotline of most sports movies that come into play with Judy when visiting the hockey rink and see the team being down bad that they're getting their butts handed. You have a team that is down bad, like...totally down bad, like in a way that they're not even tanking, they just freaking suck as if they're the Carolina Panthers of last season, oh wait, this is hockey, this season's San Jose Sharks (even though they might be tanking), and the person who happened to be the main lead decides to step in as the coach and have the team go through a turnaround. That is exactly what Judy is planning on doing. Going from being a sponsor for the organization to now being the interim head coach. As for what happened to the previous head coach? Apparently, you can't coach a team while you're in prison serving time. So, the team had no coach, and no backup coach, and it was every person for themselves before Judy arrived. And knowing that Judy was the coach for a bit back in Season 1 with curling, looks like the rebuild has begun.
We finally have the B-plot going after eight minutes of not having it show up since the start of the episode with the A-plot with Judy and the C-plot with Beef, Moon, and Dirt, it’s now Wolf and Honeybee’s turn to get the boat that is the subplot to leave the docks. Wolf and Honeybee decided to spend their dividends on gym equipment as they’re expected to convert their cabin into a small gym for everyone in town to use, for free of course without having to deal with creating a membership and having to pay for it. And that would be the rest of the subplot for Wolf and Honeybee, especially once they get their first customer to try out the new gym, being Delmer, who saw the advertisement in the newspaper that has now gotten the attention of the residents of Lone Moose. I did say that both the Wolf and Honeybee subplot and the Ham and Crispin side story had to be intertwined since that storyline has to be together.
Because you have Ham and Crispin opening up a smoothie shop at the outhouse to aid Wolf and Honeybee with their gym and the side story for this as well as the subplot with Wolf and Honeybee would have to focus on the pressure of keeping things together and hopefully things operate pretty well. Ham thought it would be fun at first by deciding to make smoothies to help Wolf and Honeybee with their gym once they get their first patron to try out the small gym. But once more and more people try out the small gym at the cabin, the pressure begins to mount as the episode progresses. Not just Wolf and Honeybee who would soon deal with the pressure of keeping up with the people who are using the gem, as well as stocking up items and restocking them for the next day and beyond, but also Ham when attempting to keep up with the smoothie orders. Going in the direction you see from Hell's Kitchen because that's what the next time we see when going back to them later in the episode. By the way, how are Beef, Moon, and Dirt are doing with their end-of-the-story bark of the tree?
Yeah, there’s no way the family would donate their dividend checks to purchase an old submarine. After spending the past day in trying to find something at the junkyard, Dirt wants something to spend her check on something and she spots a submarine that seems really old and unclear if it even works since it's an old submarine that hadn't been used since the Cold War because it does sort of looking like a Soviet-era submarine that caught Dirt's attention. And why does she want to spend her check on something as massive as a submarine when there's no way in hell the family van to carry it to the docks? Yeah, despite Dirt continuing to adapt into the 21st century after going off-grid for over 60 years, the thoughts of the Cold War and the paranoia that came with it, despite that she used the Great Alaskan Earthquake and pretended that it's Soviets invading as her chance to participate in the Carmen Sandiego Challenge, at least she now knows that the Soviet Union is no more and knows who the current leader of Russia since Dirt brought up Putin's name. Though, even if they do agree on getting the submarine, spoiler alert, they did not, there's going to be a lot of engineering to make sure the thing works well back to tip-top shape despite that the technology might be outdated. Plus, I don't think taking the submarine to Russia would be a good idea, especially in the current climate that we're in since the US and Russia...well, they hate each other, let’s go with that.
We go back to the main plot with Judy, now the interim head coach of the Puck Chuckers, taking the team outside of the usual training guards at the hockey rink to the school auditorium to give the team a different approach to train the team to get into the groove of things. Instead of hitting the pucks and sticks, they’re going to use words as if it’s an improv exercise when preparing to do a show and you have to treat a sporting event like a show. And if it doesn’t tell that the scriptwriters for any of the major sporting events are quietly being called out because of the running joke in the sports world that the whole thing is scripted. So, this is what the team under Judy will have to go through in hopes of a turnaround for the remaining games of the season, as seen with the team going through a "finish each other sentences" exercise to get the team to work together if they want to win games and get people to attend their games. Not to mention, making some changes for the team to change their habits and focus on the games, that including going sober. Oh yeah, should also brought up that we're now at the second half of the episode that you didn't even notice that we're already past the first half. The first half of the episode went by fast and we’re only ten minutes into the episode. The episode has a 21:02 runtime when compared to last week’s episode where it has a 21:38 runtime, mostly because last week’s episode had the shortened intro. But yeah, the first half has gone by fast. And it’s mostly because it has to establish Judy’s plot with her taking over the hockey team in hopes for her to spread her message to get people to not accept money from the oil companies.
We go back to the subplot, rather, the side story of the subplot with Ham and Crispin as the smoothie shop becomes fully operational as everyone comes in and out of the small gym that Wolf and Honeybee set up and it looks like the rest of the side story of the subplot with the smoothie making is solely Crispin going full Gordon Ramsey to add pressure onto Ham to make sure the smoothies are good for the gymgoers to enjoy after an hour of working out inside the cabin. Granted, Crispin does work at a smoothie shop at a mall and has him and Ham opening one up for themselves, even if it's them helping Wolf and Honeybee with their gym business, so the expertise from Crispin has to come into play for Ham to make sure the smoothie is blended just right because no one wants to have a lumpy smoothie after a workout. Even if it means putting a lot of pressure on Ham, to the point where he can't handle it when trying to perfect it. Again, go for the Hell's Kitchen angle and make sure things go perfectly, especially once Delmer makes the first order for an apple protein-i. And that’s the playbook going forward as the episode progresses. Especially when going into the montage later on into the third act of the episode. Speaking of Wolf and Honeybee...
The gym seems to be going well for the duo with business already becoming a success since spending their dividend checks on equipment and other stuff for the gym. Things are good for Wolf and Honeybee for having a successful business in operating a gym so they decided to change it up a bit. Going from the usual hours of closing for the night to going for the 24/7 route so that anyone who didn't have the time to go the gym, especially after a long day at work can go to a gym without having to wait for the weekend or just lock away the jogging shoes. Of course, make the business a 24/7 operation, meaning that the place would be open throughout the overnight hours, the position of being the lookout is open...for Honeybee to take the day shift and Wolf to take the night one. Of course, before going back to the main plot, you have Cheesecake coming out of the bathroom. You'd think by now, especially with the dividend checks passed out to every Alaskan, Cheesecake would at least use that money, along with the $20,000 check that he got in the last episode, and would not be surprised if he spent it all on drinks (knowing him, he would do that), would get his trailer back than spending an additional few days at the cabin.
Going back to the main plot as the Puck Chuckers play a game of hockey with Judy as the coach with Mrs. Tuntley once again in the penalty box, where it feels like we might be back to square one before Judy jumps into the scene to become the team's head coach where the players once again look lost. And this is where the turnaround comes into play before we get to the montage portion of the episode with Judy telling the players to use the power of acting to help them earn some goals if they want to win games and get people to attend them as they went through earlier in the episode under the new Judy regime. And lo and behold, the exercise works with every player as they pass the puck on their way to the goalpost by finishing each other sentences. Enough for the turnaround to begin and so goes the deep push to get the Puck Chuckers into the playoffs. Yes, the mind of the playoffs is now on everyone's head following their win and if they want to get to the big dance, they have to continue to listen to Judy's lead as the interim head coach. Even if it means throwing away the liquor and staying sober to be laser-focused. And so begins the montage with each of the plots from the Tobin family. Starting with Judy's main plot.
And not going to lie, whether you want to question her coaching skills to a hockey team in comparison to her brief stint with curling, though the curling one was Judy being a different animal and showing off her competitive side, or whether or not the visiting team would question why a high schooler like Judy would be in charge of coaching, not to mention, being a one-woman sponsor without any affiliation with a company, she is doing an amazing job coaching a Triple-C minor league hockey team that looked lost at the start and having little to no attendance as if we're reliving the COVID era of minimizing the number of people attending as if we're preparing for the next pandemic to hit, it has been quite the turnaround for the team. This is a team that looks like the core should be called to be dismantled because of a lack of people attending and, of course, a spokesperson who was dropped dead and their old coach serving time for something that I don't want to know, the team's mindset is now on making it to the playoffs as the montage shows a deep playoff run for the team. Especially under Judy, as the interim head coach, in her first week since taking over the position, it's quite freaking impressive as the montage progressed. Since we are talking about the sport of hockey, when it comes to the comparison of a certain team in the NHL to this team in The Great North... no, it's not last season's Florida Panthers because they kept their coach year-round.
More of the line of the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues. That team, like the Puck Chuckers, went from worst in the league with a core that looked lost, incompetence in the team where there would be some tensions between the teammates and a coach that doesn't know what he was doing. But once management decided to clean up their act by getting a new coach and a shakeup in the roster, they became cup contenders and later clinched the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup win against the Boston Bruins back in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. All that is missing from the Puck Chuckers is to have the song "Gloria" by Laura Branigan play in the speakers and then, you have your reference. Oh yeah, and by the time speak about this, the Puck Chuckers are now a win away from punching their ticket to the playoffs and for Judy, an opportunity to have her message heard.
A quickie touch on the C-plot with Moon, Dirt, and Beef with what to do with their side quest on how they want to spend their money and I guess we know where Moon wants to spend his over at an animal sanctuary, as seen with him being wrapped with a snake over him and petting it, posing no harm to him or Dirt, but Beef on the other hand, getting spooked by a snake to the point where he felt like his life is under attack and getting to the point where Dirt has to step in and stop the snake herself to save her nephew. But as the montage progressed, we have Judy having herself a time by having the team making a deep playoff push and for Moon, Beef, and Dirt continuing to figure out ways to spend their checks...
You have Wolf and Honeybee, as well as Ham and Crispin, who are having the most difficult time at their end of the bargain. Starting with Wolf and Honeybee, especially Wolf with him taking the night shift when restocking items for the next day while supervising the gym altogether with Alyson on the treadmill in the middle of the night. And for Wolf, especially when seeing Honeybee sleeping and him not, the idea of having to keep the gym open 24/7 seems like a bad idea after all. Wow, it's as if the general masses, that being the fans, say that it's a bad idea to do that. Oh, wait, because it is bad when not thinking about implementing business hours rather than keeping it open 24/7 as if it's a late-night outing to a Waffle House in the middle of a long road trip. And that's not enough as the montage progressed...
You also have Ham and Crispin who are also realizing that mistakes are made when opening up a smoothie shop and having trouble keeping up with the demand with every gymgoer asking for a cup. Mostly Ham because of the mounting pressure that he had to endure when making the smoothies from earlier in the episode and again in the montage. But it looks like he's not alone in this because Crispin as well is feeling the pressure when keeping up with the demands from the gymgoers and lending Ham a hand to keep the orders going. Talk about uh...I guess balance when it comes to who has it good in the third act and who has it bad.
The ticket-punching moment is finally here for Judy and the rest of the Puck Chuckers hockey team as they're now a win away from advancing to their league's playoffs and I guess the goal is pretty simple for this game, especially with more people now coming into their seats to watch the team ready to get to the big dance, it's win and you're in. That is what I would say if this was the beginning of the game. We're already at the near end of the third period with the game tied at 2-2 against the city of New Fork and on the verge of having the game being sent into overtime and a goal before the end of regulation would be the Puck Chuckers' official stamp to get into the playoffs. To do that, they need to score a goal against the visiting team's goalie which would serve as a hassle to get the puck to go through. And to no one's surprise, with the team continuing to follow through the playbook that Judy cooked up by getting into their acting skates and fooling the opposing side as if it's a wrestling match, they finally scored a goal right as the clock hits zero and the Lone Moose Puck Chuckers are heading to the...well, the playoffs. They're far beyond competing for the Stanley Cup, but they made the playoffs and shocked the world. And because of the team making it to the big dance, the window has finally opened for Judy to finally have her end of the bargain to have her one-woman show to the masses on ice.
Might as well wrap up the subplot and the side story of the episode before switching back to the main plot for the remainder of the episode. We start with Ham and Crispin inside the cabin with Ham and Crispin trying to find something with Crispin telling Ham that they’re out of protein powder for the smoothies to take to the outhouse. Ham suggests that both he and Crispin should use shredded cheese and bacon to serve as an alternative to the protein in the smoothie since looking it up, it does...as long as you don't make it too unhealthy like using too much. But at least the side story of the subplot finally comes to an end with Ham thinking it was a good idea before having a change of heart but that didn't stop Crispin from giving the green light to do that as they prepare to head back to the outhouse, but not before having themselves a make-out session. As for Wolf and Honeybee with their subplot...
A visit from the city inspector and noticing a few violations were enough to shut the business down. One item on the list is that it's over capacity when noticing how small the cabin is even though it can house up to at least 8-10 people during visitation hours, then comes them not having a permit to operate, and of course, seeing a smoothie station at the outhouse, again, over capacity knowing that the outhouse can only fit one person because it's pretty much a port-a-potty. But that's more than enough for the place to be shut down. Now, it doesn't mean that Wolf and Honeybee are automatically evicted because it's their house...that is on Tobin property, so that would take it up to Beef. But they're not going anywhere, relax. It's just that they need to shut the gym down at the behest of the city government and convert their cabin back to what it once was. But not before Wolf and Honeybee decide to walk on the treadmill one last time before throwing it away, though if they do, which I guess they did, that would be a waste of money and should at least sell one treadmill and keep the other or sell both and get the money back in cash. Thus, ending the subplot...but not before we get another glimpse of Cheesecake coming out of the shower. Again, question whether or not he's in for another stay at the guest cabin or got his trailer back. I feel like that should be answered.
At the end of the third act of the episode, and the Puck Chuckers are ready for playoff hockey now that they're in the big dance thanks to Judy, resulting in everyone across the town attending their games now that they're in the playoffs and need about...well, a lot of wins to take home the trophy though unclear if the minor hockey league does the traditional best-of-7 series like with the NHL during the playoffs, especially with the playoffs coming up in the coming weeks. Meaning that Judy did her end of the bargain to make the team relevant and now, the window is open for her to do a redo of her one-woman show that ended in disaster a few nights ago when Beef and Gill were the only two who attended the show. This time around for her shot at redemption...yeah, it's the same thing but with a bigger kick in the nads for her now with a full audience who would rather watch the game than hear Judy's lecture about why taking big oil money is bad. Not to mention, misusing props like pointing the laser pointer toward some of the audience's eyes that would've blinded them. Yeah, her redemption ended in disaster and once again, going into the next day, going into a depressed state as if history has repeated itself for Judy when trying to get her message heard.
So, onto the fourth and final act of what is pretty much going to be a very long review once more, and much like the end of the first act, Judy is upset that her show about why accepting oil company money is a bad freaking idea, now met with boos and straight up embarrassing herself during a playoff game during an intermission. And much like the end of the first act, you have Mrs. Tuntley, along with Golovkin, Esther, Kyle, Santiago, and Jody, checking up on their coach after making an ass of herself. Telling the good news that she needed to hear that the Puck Chuckers won their first playoff game. And without a coach because Judy had to storm out following what happened. So, the team needs her to come back for Game 2 of their playoff series but Judy, despite wanting to be out there and help the team expand their lead, would rather stay on the couch and leave in her lonesome. This is where the team notices the problem with the presentation from Judy because while they're fine with her sharing her ideas, the show itself was a downer and the way she performed didn't capture not one person to grab their attention. Especially during a sporting event like playoff hockey. And that's where the idea of persuasion comes into play from the team to give to Judy to get her message heard. Instead of making it a total downer, Judy has got to shake things up to make things more entertaining while at the same time, getting the people's attention about the issue at hand. If it worked for John Oliver during the past ten years doing his show on HBO, Judy has to follow suit. And in front of an audience who are here for a sporting event. And so, the turnaround begins for Judy...
By taking in the notes from the team to make the show entertaining and persuasive by dressing up in a puck mascot costume with googly eyes as if she was hoping to make her own version of the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty, just without the...well, everything but the googly eyes. But Judy in a hockey puck mascot seems to be the way to go with her getting people into a chant about loving Alaska, loving hockey, and hating on big oil and the money that came with it from the mail while trying to get into the mascot role by acting like how most mascots would do and perform. But that's only the beginning of the ideas from the team that Judy can take for her performance. You also have Esther switching out her hockey uniform for her old figure skating uniform when she was once a member of the Smurfs on Ice crew in her twenties. Especially when having the words "no drilling" written on the backside of her uniform that would get the crowd going. And if that's enough, you have Golovkin wearing a sign that said, "Greedy Oil Pig" and have to get beat the shit out of, though, not actually getting beaten up. Followed by Judy, in her mascot costume, passing out t-shirts to get the message heard. Did it work this time around? Well, they got the message heard and plan on using the dividend checks for good use like saving it for essential items or donating to charity. And while that audience isn't as big as getting the entire population of the state, it's a start to get the people in attendance to do the right thing. And that’s all that matters as long as you have to get people to be entertained to persuade the masses. So, that’s the end of Judy’s plot. As for the C-plot on what Beef, Moon, and Dirt had purchased...
Getting a Zamboni to end the episode in style. Why not? I mean, they probably spent some of the money visiting the animal sanctuary and hell they got the submarine, so a Zamboni that was just there in the open is the next best thing despite how slow it is and the arena needs the damn thing to clean the ice rink. But that's not going to stop Dirt and Moon from planning on leaving the premise in style with the Zamboni as if they got themselves a low rider as if the two are ready for when GTA 6 comes out next year. But that's the end of what is pretty much an episode that was scattered with the Tobins having their money and uh...yeah, as Judy said, don't take bribes from big oil. I feel like that should've been the focal point for every politician running for office. We have a money problem and a corruption problem at that. The richest country in the world, folks.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of The Great North? A lot of ground to uncover with the four plots from each of the Tobin family getting money and scattered across the episode once every member of the family gets their checks in the mail aside from Judy not accepting the check because of where the money is coming from and wanting to have her voice heard about not wanting to accept the donation.
Clear to say, that out of the four, rather three, because Ham and Crispin's plot had to be intertwined with Wolf and Honeybee's subplot, Judy's side of the episode was the one I enjoyed the best. Bringing in the sport of hockey into the conversation was nice, hence, the title name of the episode despite it does feel like your usual sports movie where a team was down badly and the team members looking lost and one person had to step in and have the team go through a turnaround to make it to the playoffs (and possibly the championship). But it's a good main plot despite that the first half of the episode went by fast that you didn't even notice that you're already at the halfway point at the ten-minute mark, but it's a good main plot nonetheless and Judy did a good job when taking over the interim coach and impressive that she took a team to the playoffs in her first few days since taking over the role.
The other plots of the episode were okay. I mean, it's not bad, but it's whatever. I mean, the C-plot with Beef, Moon, and Dirt was alright. Especially with Dirt now getting more screen time since it looks like she's poised to be a semi-regular member of the family. The small shot at the animal sanctuary was alright with Moon being around the snake while Beef was fleeing for his life. The subplot with Wolf and Honeybee is where I have to say it’s the weakest of the four plots because it was somewhat predictable that they’re not going to keep the business open forever, especially once Wolf brings up the proposition of keeping the place open for 24 hours. Though the side story with Ham and Crispin operating a smoothie station with Crispin going full Gordon Ramsey towards Ham, while it's random to do that by treating it as if it's a reality show, not like we're expecting Crispin to drop an F-bomb, it was an okay one and the start of the side story was amusing, especially once Delmer reaches towards the outhouse and orders his smoothie. So there's that. Other than that, it's an alright episode, and out of the four plots, Judy's plot is the one I somewhat enjoyed the most. So I'll give "The Mighty Pucks Adventure"...
A 6.5 out of 10. But that's my opinion and I wanna hear yours in the comments below. Tune in this upcoming Sunday for a brand new episode of The Great North with the family attempting to get to New York on the road to get Ham to enter a cake-baking competition in the seventh episode of Season 4, "Judy Presents: The Staircake", set to premiere on March 24.
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