We are now in the winding moments for this season for The Great North as, once this review is posted, we’re now in May. Three more episodes after the release of this review. I mean, it was just yesterday that we finally got the date of the new season...of course, that was after waiting for the show’s return for nearly six months after the end of Season 3 but it does feel like time has flown by so fast. So, might as well get used to the remaining episodes for the remainder of this season. Oh yeah, for the Bob’s Burgers fans out there, it looks like we’re looking at a shortened season. Like a “shortened” season with 13 episodes instead of what we thought it was going to be 17 episodes. This is the first time we have had a shortened season for Bob’s Burgers since Season 2...though Season 6 had 19 episodes, so I guess it’s the first time in a while that we had a shortened season. And hopefully, things will go back to normal going into the Fall.
In this week’s episode of The Great North, it’s the sequel to “Code Enough Said Adventure” from last season with the Tobins stuck in the house once again during a winter storm, this time being a blizzard, with Jerry and Golokvin this time around with the family, trying to avoid cabin fever, going into roleplay mode by pretending to be members of the British Royal Navy...only for things to fall apart and we have ourselves the next installment of Moon Court in my spoilerific review of the twelfth episode of Season 4 of The Great North, titled “Any Court in a Storm Adventure”.
For the second time in this series, we have the Tobin family undergoing a sudden cabin fever during a natural disaster event. Cabin fever isn’t new to everyone because we all had to go through that, whether it’s bunkering down during a natural disaster like a winter storm or a hurricane or if y’all remember 2020, the early days of the pandemic when we all had to go through the lockdowns. Oh yeah, that’s the definition of cabin fever and we had to endure that when the world shut down four years ago. And when it comes to that, it’s mostly a mind playing tricks with you for staying in a confined space for way too long, hence, the lockdowns in early 2020 where everyone would lose their shit after week one of the lockdown as if you just developed claustrophobia...well unless you’re an introvert, then it’s pretty much a normal Tuesday.
Not if you’re the Tobins in this episode or in “Code Enough Said Adventure”, which was the last time the family and some of their friends had to stay put during a weather event and we all know about what everyone, especially the Tobins, had gone through hours on end during an ice storm with no power. Acting as if the Tobins have taken back centuries before electricity was ever invented. At least they sort of learned their lesson this time around but knowing what happened last time, don’t be surprised if we get the same result where things turn chaotic right before the power comes back on. Trust me, surviving through more than an hour of not having power isn’t fun. And I’ve been through worse. Okay, yeah, this is me saying the storm that entrapped the Tobins and their friends for days may have nothing with the deep freeze that took place more than three years ago and not having power and heat for almost 36 fucking hours and could’ve been worse if the state’s grid almost went through a total collapse that would make Texas into a third world country. The memories are still fresh, man. At least Alaska’s power grid is better than Texas’ and Texas’s power grid, whenever a conversation notice had to be issued, might as well rival the likes of North Korea’s. Had to get this small rant out, this is the breakdown of “Any Court in a Storm Adventure”.
And it’s gonna be one of those episodes where we have to retrace our steps from the beginning. Because we begin the episode with what is going on at the end of the episode with a lot of noise inside the Tobin household during a blizzard with the Tobins going against each other as if they all have a pair of Black Air Forces, showing no remorse when going after something that caught their attention. To the point where you hear Moon asking Dirt, and yes, she appeared in the episode, more on her later in the review, to shoot anyone point blank and hear a gunshot from inside as if someone got shot. Treating the start of the episode to get the people to be on the edge of their seats when hearing what is going on inside the cabin, treating it like it’s the first trailer to Cars 3, if you remember that trailer, rather, a teaser and have everyone believed that Lightning McQueen may have bit the dust. Shades of “Autumn If You Got Em Adventure” and “Mall-mento Adventure” with these types of episodes where we have a chaotic outcome to start the episode and have to retrace every footstep from the very start for the buildup. The root cause of the situation is about to take place. And we might as well start from there, going back to three days ago. At this point, whoever is the focus in this episode, might as well have a moment of their head and question the viewer how we even got to this point before going to the start of it all, while “Baba O’Reilly” by The Who plays in the background.
The episode actually starts, three days earlier, with the Tobins along with Jerry and for some reason, Mr. Golovkin at the household, playing cards. Might as well start with the small comparisons to “Code Enough Said Adventure” to this episode because, in that episode, you have the Tobins, of course, this was pre-Dirt because that was in Season 3, with Jerry, who is in this episode, but you also have Cheesecake and Henry along with his mother Dorothy who was just picking up before the weather deteriorated and the power going out. This time around, of course, Jerry is there, but taking three people’s spots for the price of one, you have Golovkin filling in.
Which makes you question how Golovkin is even in the Tobin household as Judy questions why their teacher is even at the house and not his, and he explains after everyone heard the news that blizzard conditions have gotten worse and Jerry and the rest of the Tobins having to go through another round of cabin fever, that’s only here at the household is, as he put it, not there as their teacher but as a friend to Beef, but it’s mostly because he and the other teachers contracted lice, which surprised the family and Jerry that Golovkin might’ve brought the lice to them. But Golovkin reassures everyone that he should be good to go but when seeing the one scene with him scratching his head as the family panics over the idea of Golovkin might’ve brought the lice with him, especially with the weather conditions getting worse and Jerry getting the bat signal that history is about to repeat itself as everyone is hunkering down. However, that lice storyline had to be sent to the backseat because that’s not the important item on the list that the episode should be focusing on as weather conditions decided to go to shit...
No, that focus goes to the box of chocolates in the shape of a potato that Beef brought into the house from a novelty candy company called the Coddingham Creme Potatoes, a novelty chocolate company that...of course, create novelty chocolate that you would not see in shelves at the stores and you have to place an order to get the special chocolates, so, pretty much those chocolate that you see some students sell as part of a fundraiser. And what special about these chocolates that Beef had to bring into the house and presenting it to the family...of course, everything points back towards Kathleen being Kathleen and keeping on going on an affair while she was with Beef and it was through an online messaging board, which the romance there didn’t last long, but while, yes, this would be added into the list of the Kathleen curse that the family had to go through, this one had a bit of a blessing because despite that online romance between Kathleen and a user named LuckyCharms69 ended, of course, Kathleen no longer in the Tobins’ lives, they enjoyed the chocolates even though it was made out of chocolate, but also mint and a hint of fried potato mixed into the candy, the family would eat the crap out of it but getting it to the US isn’t easy because the company is based in Ireland and getting an item from another country would take long to export. But with all of that out of the way, with the candy potatoes serving as the plot device to the episode...
Once Golovkin gets the call from his girlfriend Ms. Anderson, not for the lice issue, but about the weather conditions, he tells Beef to turn on the radio and check on the news. Beef obliged and turned on the radio to hear that the winter storm had been upgraded to a blizzard and the storm system had been upgraded to a category five. Surprising that no one heeded the warning of an impending snowstorm like...days before and had everyone, primarily the Tobins, stock up and be prepared for the event, hopefully to get first dibs on bread and water. But it seems that the weather conditions have gotten worse, automatically placing Lone Moose under a blizzard warning, and the announcement of the category seems a bit surprising but at the same time, intriguing. Because when it comes to weather regarding the scale of each natural disaster, you have the Enhanced Fujita scale for tornadoes, the Richter Scale for earthquakes, and for hurricanes, the Saffir-Simpson Scale that ranges the categories from one to five. You usually don’t hear snowstorms having the same categories as hurricanes but apparently, they do.
It’s called the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS) and as the name implies, yes, it usually works for the Northeast region of the United States during the winter and early spring when having to deal with snowstorms, primarily due to the constant threats of nor’easters but some times, from a frontal system that came all the way from the Pacific Ocean. So the fact that the writers have the balls to bring out a system that usually works for the Northeast but could be useful for the Midwest and the Western States, which would also include Alaska, I’m already betting my hedges that some of the crew who worked on the show are from the Northeast and they know what it’s like living in a region where they get bombarded by Mother Nature during the wintertime and that they have to bring in the scale to measure how severe the winter storm is. And probably should’ve talked to someone who is either a meteorologist, either on TV or at the offices of the National Weather Service, or someone they know who is at college and taking a course in meteorology before having to crank the lever on how severe the storm for the episode instead of going right off the bat and say, “Category five, take it or leave it” while writing the episode. Hopefully, that’s not the case when trying to get to the point where cabin fever decides to kick in once more.
Of course, whenever there’s a severe winter weather event like a blizzard that the local weather service decides to upgrade the severity to kill-storm, Jerry knew right away that shit is about to go down in the Tobin household when having to hunker down from a weather event until further notice when putting on a jacket and asks Golovkin to drive him to his place before the roads become impassible, even though a reasonable person would heed the warning and not even think about heading out during a blizzard, because Jerry knew what is about to come with the Tobins during a weather event. He doesn’t want to catch any of the smoke because he knows what the family is capable of when hunkering down for days. We all know what happened in “Code Enough Said Adventure” because he was there when all of that happened when he, along with Dorothy, Henry, and Cheesecake were there when the family had to deal with Beef having everyone to watch “Enough Said” one too many times as if him having a movie marathon of the same movie on repeat as if it’s TBS airing “A Christmas Story” one too many times during the Christmas holiday.
Jerry hopes to get out of the house before the power gets knocked out, but it looks like that’s not going to be the case because oh look, the power’s house. And right off the bat, Moon is already in a murdering mood once the power goes out and goes on to poke Honeybee in the torso. Like damn, it’s not even a full minute, and already Moon’s mental state has taken centuries back to the days of no electricity as if the Tobins are reenacting the Oregon Trail. I mean, the Tobins did have a plan in place in the event something happened like that would happen, but again, remember what happened last time when that set of rules broke. Which makes you question, knowing that the show is set in 2024, how in the fuck the Tobins survived the early days of the pandemic during the lockdown? Because that was Cabin Fever City when all of the world had to be put indoors while everyone was panic-stocking on toilet paper. But this time around, Beef has a plan to keep the family’s sanity in place as they, along with Golvokin and Jerry, attempt to keep their sanity together.
By having everyone, including himself, dress up as members of the British Royal Navy and play pretend as if they’re out in the open seas. Yep, that is what Beef is going for to keep the family to behave themselves for the next few days as they await for the storm to blow over and the power to be restored. And he had everything all panned out by having everyone go through a schedule: Cleaning the house, eating boiled food, exercising regularly, going through lectures, and then going to bed. So, the regular schedule of a sailor and everyone have to agree to do the work if they want to get through the next few days but not before Beef decides to throw in an extra set of rules, or rather, a few restrictions. We knew about what happened last time when everyone lost their sanity during the ice storm before and after Beef’s copy of his favorite movie was ripped apart by Ham and to avoid another “Code Enough Said” situation, a few restrictions had to be put in place. That being the following: No chaos, no Moon Court (which upsets Moon and Golovkin given an explanation by the family on what it is), no mutinies, no cannibalism (also applying to Moon), and the harshest restriction that Beef can muster up: no sweets. As in the chocolate potatoes that Beef brought in earlier in the episode are off limits. And that, of course, made a lot of people peeved off that they couldn’t get their hands on a single piece until the storm passed. The same way you tell your kid or what you heard from your parents that you won’t be getting ice cream or at least a kid's meal from a fast food place until they pass their exams. Everyone seems to be hating the idea but it looks like they have no other choice but to play along if they want to keep their sanity throughout the storm.
Though Moon, along with Judy and Ham, begins to notice that out of the members of the family who might be acting crazy the most, it’s Beef that should be under the limelight. As Moon put it, out of everyone in the house, he’s the most insane whenever the family hunker down during a natural disaster and not having power for days on end. This means that if anyone is going to break first as the storm progresses, it’s going to be Beef, though that wasn’t the case in “Code Enough Said Adventure” because Ham was the first because he, along with everyone else in the house, was getting tired of seeing and hearing “Enough Said” one too many times. But again, Beef will make sure that no one loses their sanity this time around. Or as one former athlete would put it when it comes to not falling into the halls of insanity...
@yahoosports Take care of your bodies, mentals and chicken #NFL #Seahawks #NFLPlayoffs #BeastMode #mentalhealth #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound - Yahoo Sports
Cabin fever might be no laughing matter if we’re talking about how it can affect the person’s mental health. We saw what happened to the Tobins when having to hunker down with no power to survive just because of how severe the storm was. And knowing that we had to rely on technology for everyday use, let’s be real, society would freaking collapse if there was a freaking outage. A repeat of I guess the blackout of 1977 in New York City. I know everyone had some issues during the early days of the pandemic, but we’re all here are we? We survived the damn thing and now have to worry about a potential bird flu outbreak, but hey, we survived and had to follow protocol that does not include injecting bleach like a dumbass.
Ending the first act of the episode and going into the second, everyone does their part when roleplaying as the Navy. Forgot to mention the positions for each member of the family. Beef, of course, is the caption with Jerry serving as the person who records everything on a book and a feather serving as a pen. The rest of the family as sailors with Moon taking the role of first mate, Ham and Judy as “looftenants”, which is Beef’s way of saying having the Alaskan twins be the lieutenants of the helm, Wolf and Honeybee... ditto on them being the lieutenants. And then there’s Golovkin, and because of him contracting lice and quietly infecting everyone, because he was standing in-between Moon and Honeybee, so you’d think that the lice would’ve been transmitted to them and the rest of the family by now that either one of the Tobins would’ve at least start scratching their scalp. Then again, in the Bob’s Burgers episode “Lice Things Are Lice”, everyone thought that there was a lice outbreak at school with Tammy thought presumed to be Patient Zero who brought the lice and anyone who came in contact with her or wore the hat that she wore when entering the nurse’s office was the “cause” of the “outbreak”. But yeah, the close contact would probably serve as a warning shot during the lockdown.
Now going into the second act of the episode and surprisingly, despite hating the idea of having to play sailor and having to hear the restrictions that Beef laid out that includes a ban on eating sweets like the chocolate potatoes that were shipped to the Tobin household before the weather turned ugly and having the family, Jerry, and Golovkin trapped inside the house, their sanity has been held. Yeah, they have been following Beef’s instructions of playing sailor by cleaning the house, eating a healthy meal, going through lectures, and exercising by doing some leg work and that jazz, it seems that Beef’s little plan to get everyone to do a little roleplaying seems to be working as Beef mouths everything he has witnessed with Jerry writing everything he has said when supervising the masses. And should be a total breeze for the Tobins and for Beef, he probably thinks that if this continues once the storm passes, then all the bad stuff from last time and any other times in the past during a power outage in the middle of a severe weather event should be nothing more than a memory that should be locked away for good. Out here treating the family trying to be on their best behavior like they’re the Minnesota Timberwolves and that team just recently won a playoff series for the first time since George W. Bush was president. Though that shot when the Tobins, Jerry, and Golovkin eating dinner with Golovkin picking his scalp with a fork and then went on to eat his dinner with that infected fork...
No...no, no, no, no, no...throw him in the brig. I don’t fucking care if it’s going to infect the area, put him in the brig. Would say the basement but uh...we’ll get to that later in the review, so...maybe the attic or the panic room, but still, nasty ass behavior coming from Golovkin to do something like that. They better burn the utensils...and everything that Golovkin touched once the blizzard has passed. Nasty ass motherfucker out in the open and thought it was a good idea to venture out despite reeling from a lice infestation. But yeah, day one is out of the way and things may have gone well for everyone to not lose their shit and hopefully, in Beef’s perspective, things would stay that way as the storm progresses.
That was until day two hit as the blizzard continued to blast through Lone Moose with the snow fastly building, quite a slow-moving storm system that the town and primarily the whole of Alaska had to go through, either that or how big the system was but that’s not important, what is important is that going into day two of the lockdown and the family, along with Jerry and Golvokin, doing the same routine as the day before but this time around, while it was fun while it was lasted, much like every internet trend, it became a passing fad. And the Tobins, along with Jerry and Golovkin, once we get to the table with everyone eating their food...
It has gotten to the point where they don’t want to do it anymore and want to get back to normal despite that the power is still out and if they do stop what they’re doing, they’ll descend into madness. But that doesn’t stop the Tobins to now realizing that it was fun at first for them to follow everything that Beef put out to make sure everyone doesn’t succumb to cabin fever but it does almost feel like cabin fever wants to enter their mentals. Knocking on the door and waiting for either one to answer it and, of course, crank the insanity lever up to 10. That and also everyone starting to have a craving for the chocolate potatoes. I mean, you’d think that because they did follow protocol for one day and believed that they should be awarded with the exported candy, but again, the candy that Beef had to quietly put away is part of the restrictions that he laid out and won’t be for consumption and it may have gotten to the point where they’re starting to become impatient. As if cabin fever is slowly creeping up on them, but it’s mostly because of the cravings for the candy, but you’d be the judge of that. And remember earlier in the episode with the kids worrying that out of everyone who would break first, it would be Beef? Well, when day one of the roleplaying session took place, they had sorta thrown it away because the plan seemed to be working as if everything had been under control.
But Golovkin knew something was up regarding Beef’s mental state the moment the power went out and for him to don the uniform. Already jumping to conclusions that Beef may have quietly fallen into cabin fever, which the family doesn’t buy it even though, once again, before the roleplaying session, Moon, Judy, and Ham brought up that they, along with Wolf, Honeybee, and Jerry, should be concerned about Beef’s wellbeing because they know that Beef would eventually descend into madness first, even though, again, in “Code Enough Said Adventure”, Ham was the first to descend into madness because he and the rest of the family along with their guests having to deal with sounds of the movie one too many times to the point where he had to break the disc. But aside from that, Golovkin told the family, from the stairwell because he is under quarantine for the lice infestation, that Beef may have already fallen into madness because if you haven’t seen either “Mutiny on the Bounty” or “Cast Away”... we’re already at a “Code: Cast Away” situation and the next few scenes would further Golvokin’s proof to the family as the second act of the episode progresses.
And the lecture that Beef is presenting to the family and Golovkin was just the tip of the iceberg for them to go through a long ass lecture about the importance of swabbing that feels like something coming out of a college course and the looks at the Tobins and Golovkin’s faces when going through the whole thing for hours on end. You’d think that the Tobins having to go through Mayor Peppers’ lecture of how laws were made in “Pa-shank Redemption Adventure” was boring for the family (though Ham seemed to enjoy it in that episode), but this one for the family was downright dreading. Wishing for the damn storm to pass through and get back to their daily lives (and also getting their hands on the chocolate potatoes) but they can’t do that because that would be considered a mutiny. So they’re pretty much stuck until the storm passes.
But the ride doesn’t stop there because going into the third day as the snow continues to pile up on the property, with the family already looking like yours truly behind the scenes after posting these reviews or any posts in the socials in the overnight hours, dead and cooked. Waking up at four in the morning by the sounds of Beef’s bell and ready to do another day of following the schedule despite the tired state that the family, Jerry, and Golovkin are in with bags under their eyes and looking like freaking zombies to the point where they don’t want to do any more of Beef’s antics and any one of them want to tell Beef to cut the crap but again, they’re pretty much trapped and standing up to the guy would result in possible mutiny as if they got cabin fever, even though Beef is the one who is going through it. It gets to the point where the family takes Golovkin’s word to heart about Beef quietly descending into madness despite that the kids point it out first before throwing it away because they thought that the plan to roleplay would work, which it did at first, before getting tired and doesn’t want to do it. All because they want the chocolate potatoes that should’ve been treated as a reward for each day, but are now worrying about Beef’s wellbeing. So, everyone is getting tired and Beef becoming insane by the minute, and the next scene as we’re nearing the end of the first half of the episode is where the straw breaks the camel’s back.
At the breakfast table with everyone once again eating a bowl of oatmeal, getting really tired of eating the same shit for the past three days that Beef decides to be nice for once to everyone as the storm progresses by rewarding the family with what they wanted since the start of the roleplaying session. Which is, of course, the chocolate potatoes that were left untouched since Beef puts it away in the basement. However, it’s not the chocolate potato that everyone, especially Moon, thought it was going to be and instead, it’s a single piece, I repeat, a single piece of chocolate for anyone to take. And not just any chocolate that was presented to the family, dark chocolate, oh, the horror. And that...that is the final straw from Moon and decides to go the whole nine yards if it means getting first dibs on the exported candy as if the cabin fever has now gotten into his mental state and more or less of Moon’s cravings for sugary and/or sweet stuff like the chocolate potato is really taking a toll on him to contain himself. Moon plans on going the whole nine yards by planning on attacking his father for not letting him (and the rest of the family, but mostly himself) by heading to the basement with everyone else following him to make sure he doesn’t do the deed...
Only to end up catching Beef red-handed on eating all of the chocolates as we are about to end the first half of the episode with the family seeing Beef eating all of the chocolate potatoes, proving Golovkin’s accusations to be true of him (Beef) quietly descending into madness with cabin fever). Beef can bullshit his way out of trouble after eating the whole thing, but they've seen him doing the deed, rather, attempting to finish eating the entire box, but that’s not going to save his skin and that’s more than enough to put Beef on the chopping block, and thus... knowing that it’s an episode where the family had to hunker down with no power during a natural disaster, ladies and gentlemen and others, to end the first half of the episode and going into the second, it’s time for another installment of Law and Order: Alaska, aka Moon Court.
Moon Court is now in session to start the second half of the episode, funny that this episode took its sweet ass time for Moon Court to be called in session. In “Code Enough Said Adventure”, Moon Court wasn’t called until the end of the first act of that episode, and going into the second act and it took three-quarters of the episode for the court to take place. This episode lowers to two quarters with only less than 10 minutes left in the episode. The rest of the Tobin family serving as the plaintiff and Beef as the defendant with Golovkin serving as the stenographer with Honeybee and Jerry serving as the jury...or was the jury before Honeybee gets set to join the others to the plaintiff stand and Jerry, because he was with Beef throughout the event, at the defendant stand. Both served as lawyers and Golovkin...he too got sent to the defendant's stand just for running his big mouth because he stated that the captain shouldn’t be the one on trial, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, and got sent there, despite being infected with lice. So now, we have no stenographer and jury for this court, which would make the trial a little off-balanced with the two spots left open. And also bailiff, there’s no bailiff for this jury. You might as well change the format to Moon Court to trial by combat if there’s no jury, stenographer, or bailiff to declare it an official court case. Someone has to take the spot but who? The roads are impassible and I’m sure communication is down for the time being, so someone had to step up to the plate to do the job. And that’s where she comes in after being absent for more than 13 minutes in the episode...
Y’all know who it is, it’s one Dirtrude “Dirt” Tobin hitting the stage and crashing the trail before it has even begun. I know some of y’all leading up to the episode thought that, when seeing the promotional images leading up to the premiere, Dirt wasn’t going to appear in the episode, and knowing that the production order this season got fucky because of how it got scattered that you don’t know if Dirt was there in any episode after her debut in “Aunt Misbehavin’ Adventure” and probably play it off by saying that she’s in her bunker. Which is what we all thought during the snowstorm that Dirt would hunker down in her bunker to ride out the storm, but apparently not, and instead, she ended up stowing away the house because let’s face it, the bunker is good for surviving a nuclear attack or certain weather event like tornadoes, and yes, Alaska rarely get tornadoes, a winter weather event like a blizzard or ice storm might not be the best place unless you have a heater on the ready. Not to mention that knowing how many inches, rather, how many feet the snow is building as the storm progresses, would make things impassible for Dirt to get out of the bunker, so she had to make the right decision to leave the bunker and hunker down at the house. But when she noticed that the family was playing British Royal Navy, thinking that they were Scientologists and unaware that cabin fever would affect everyone’s mental state, she decided to hide in the panic room with a gun and a few flasks to get her through the storm until she decides to check back in to see what the family is doing and thus, here we are. All because she ran out of booze in her flask and ends up joining the family in this trial with Moon giving her the position of stenographer and thus, despite having no jury or bailiff in the courtroom, we might as well begin the trial of The People v. Beef Tobin.
We began with the opening statement from the plaintiff with Honeybee on the stands with her opening argument on why Beef should be given the guilty verdict and deliver some sort of punishment to the jury...who are invisible because there’s no freaking fracking jury in attendance unless you want to make Dirt the jury as well since she’s at the couch and writing everything down throughout the court case. A lot of pig puns for the opening statement that, like the pig puns that were used for the talking fetal pig in Bob’s Burgers, who was voiced by Paul Rust (the voice of Ham), got old quickly but it pretty much boils down to say to the people, or at least Moon as the judge and Dirt as the jury/stenographer, that Beef is clearly guilty of the crime of eating some, but not all, of the chocolate potatoes that she and everyone else (sans Dirt) at the basement like a dirty pig. I mean, the trial might as well be considered a formality because everyone knew that Beef’s guilty. They knew what the answer was going to be. Moon knows it and he’s the judge. The judge should be neutral until the verdict has been made, but because he was one of the few who spotted his father eating the chocolates after having his cravings going through the extreme for the sweet and possibly salty snack, it does feel like the decision have already been made before the courtroom was set up.
We get to the defendant’s statement, as told by Jerry, to prove Beef’s innocence even though he too was there with the rest of the family when spotting the guy eating the chocolates but has to take the role seriously to get Beef out of dodge. And he does so... by calling Beef to the stands to make his argument, which Honeybee thinks that Jerry shouldn’t do that because the lawyer of the defendant cannot call the defendant to the stands during the opening statements, but Moon allows it at the behest of Jerry and thus, everyone has to hear his case to prove to Beef’s innocence. Making a powerful case to protect the guy and sway the plaintiff, that being the rest of the Tobin family and Moon as the judge, that even though Beef did commit the crime by eating the chocolate potatoes, they shouldn’t blame him because he has succumbed with cabin fever and thought that things were going well for everyone before things predictably fell apart.
But despite the chores that they had to do and also eating the candy behind their backs, it looks like the rest of the Tobin family may have started to have their minds changed, following for the crocodile tears that Beef had to show off during Jerry’s argument, ready for the case to be declared a mistrial and for Beef to get acquitted. But damn, that seems to be a powerful case from Jerry to make a statement to have people have a complete 180 on their verdict that you could imagine Jerry as a lawyer...or a manipulator, or maybe a politician, but it’s a powerful case indeed from the guy and might’ve saved Beef’s ass from possible punishment... only for Beef to throw Jerry under the bus and points the finger at him as the suspect in question for the consumption of the chocolate potatoes. And thus, going into the fourth and final act of the episode, it’s Jerry’s turn to be the defendant.
The trial of The People v. Jerry Shaw has now gone underway as we start the fourth and final act of the episode and it looks like we might not have any stenographer stepping in to highlight the trial now that Moon ordered Dirt to join Jerry at the defendant’s stand and serve as his lawyer. Though... okay, if we’re gonna be real, as much as we are starting to like Dirt as a character and would like to know more about the character, especially once we get to Season 5... sometime later, and I know that I’m probably going to get burned at the stake, the one issue that I would have an issue with Dirt, mostly her character, is that she’s pretty much being treated as a time capsule from the 1960s because she kept on references from stuff from the early 60s (before going into hiding for 60 years) and even though we do want to know more about the character, she, as of this moment, has been treated as if she’s the grandparent who yapped about how great the olden days are and that today’s time would never survive if they were in their shoes. Especially when bringing up a favorite character of hers from a show from 1961 called “Shirley Dunn, Lady Lawyer with a Gun” once she stands next to Jerry. Forgot to mention Judy wanting to get the smoke on Jerry for the chocolate potato that would’ve turned the case into a kangaroo court or trial by combat. Dirt arrives and wants to follow in her favorite character’s footsteps...
Decides to pull out her gun and shoots point blank towards the roof to get the people’s attention. That and the possible case of tinnitus because everyone caught the noise of the gunfire from Dirt’s revolver because she wants to get into the position of being a lawyer to defend Jerry. Like whoa, calm down Dirtrude, don’t pull out the 9. But yeah, Dirt is ready to take the stand to defend Jerry as his lawyer to prove his innocence...only to have the lawyer rat the defendant out because she caught him red-handed.
We have a flashback to what Dirt saw while he was in the basement, even though Dirt was in the panic room for the entire first half, but this happened on the night of day two, just as everyone was asleep when Dirt was searching for some cigarettes and a couple of magazines when she spotted Jerry all by himself to find something from the basement. Searching for some toothbrushes for him to brush his teeth because if he’s going to survive the blizzard trapped inside the house. He was searching for the toothbrush until he spotted the box of chocolate potatoes that Beef put away and rather than moving away from the box and finding the toothbrushes, he ended up taking the box and eating the chocolate all for himself. Shocking everyone that Jerry, someone who would do no wrongdoings in his life, would ever do just a heinous act. But he did and you can thank the fucker known as cabin fever for taking over his head. Yes, folks, Jerry has finally succumbed to the Tobin cabin fever experience when admitting to the crime because of the temptation to eat the candy. But before Moon gets to have the final saying, that being giving Jerry a guilty sentence, Jerry decides to pull out the Uno reverse card and transfer the blame back toward Beef because he was promised a better snow-in experience. Hoping for things to not be a repeat of what happened during the ice storm last season but all he got was disappointment and having to be his lackey throughout the past two to three days since the power went out. And thus...
Going into the two-minute warning, Beef is back on the hot seat to defend himself, this time around with no one to defend him. No lawyer to save his ass and would have to find a way to get out of receiving the guilty verdict, even though, once again, he is guilty by everyone. The Sixth Amendment in the US Constitution states that anyone who is on trial should have the right to hire a lawyer; Beef had a lawyer in Jerry and was this close to getting acquitted if it weren’t for him to throw him (Jerry) under the bus and take the blame, only for Jerry to admit the actions and pulls the Uno reverse card and places the blame back to Beef. And with no lawyer in tow, either Jerry or Dirt, he’s pretty much screwed. He is screwed. And instead of attempting to recuse himself by his lonesome which would make him look like a dumbass, he decided to waive the white flag and accepts whatever punishment he would take, that being the death sentence as what happened last time Moon ordered everyone sentenced to die, whether it’s getting attacked, get sent outside during the blizzard, or get a one-way ticket to Galveston and swim in the waters. And I live in Texas, I’ve been to Galveston a few times, knowing that there are a lot of refineries across the coastline because Houston is a shipping hub, the waters and stories should paint the picture but I’ll leave y’all to decide. Just as Beef is about to take his punishment as a man because he’s the captain, or was the captain because his actions had no place for a captain to lead his crew and betrayed their trust...of course, knowing that we’re less than a minute to go in the episode...
Chaos erupts for the family as Moon and everyone else prepares to storm their way to the basement to get their hands on the chocolate potatoes that haven’t been touched by Beef and Jerry as if it’s Black Friday and getting the items that were on sale. We are already at where the episode started with chaos erupting and Dirt unable to fire her gun because she wasted her bullets shooting at the ceiling when taking up the position of Jerry’s lawyer. And, of course, just as everyone is about to put on a pair of Black Air Forces and ready to act like savage animals fighting over a dead animal that they caught, the power comes back on. Signaling that the storm had passed and everyone survived once again from another winter weather event.
Thus, ending the episode with the aftermath as Beef and Golvokin stare at the scenery, though quite surprising that the property from the storm received about 4-6’ of snow at the minimum for the past three days just magically disappears without having to deal with any negative aftermaths like...I dunno, flooding from the snow melt because that was a lot of snow, but I guess having the piles of snow disappear has to be the way to go unless the city had the snowplows on standby leading up to the event, but whatever. Everyone survived and everyone but Beef, Golovkin, and Dirt are eating the chocolate potato as a reward for surviving the blizzard but knowing that Golovkin was infected by lice, yes, we haven’t forgotten about that, by now, everyone should’ve been infected by the damn insect. Well, anyone but Dirt even though she was there when the chaos took place and standing next to everyone when Beef got his retrial, but at least everyone survived before ending the episode with Beef believing that Christmas is right around the corner, even though by the posting of this review, it would have already been May. Yeah, Beef is currently not well in the ol’ head after going through three days of cabin fever but he’ll be good to go in the next episode. And remember folks, take care of y’all’s bodies, take care of y’all’s chickens, and take care of y’all’s mentals because the next time we have to undergo another lockdown...don’t be like the Tobins. Just don’t.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of The Great North? Ooh boy, that was a lot to take, mostly from writing when having to shift my focus between this, the posts for the socials, and the ongoing playoffs for both the NBA and the NHL, but that’s not important, it was a good episode not gonna line. Thought that some things were going to downplay the episode as if we’re going to expect lightning to strike twice from last season with “Code Enough Said Adventure” but it’s a good episode regardless.
I mean, nothing special because it does give you that feeling of deja vu as advertised by the Molyneuxs that we would get another installment of Moon Court and I guess it did not disappoint and how taken how long for the court to be called into session when comparing to the last time the Tobins and the others had hunkered down at the cabin with little to no electricity to survive. But it does give you some sort of idea when watching the Tobins, Jerry, and Golovkin having to undergo a roleplaying session to keep their sanity in check, thinking that they have learned their lesson from last time, shout out to continuity, it just you knew on what is about to come because we all saw happened last season. So it pretty much boils down to who’s going to break first, what the crime is going to be, and how long until Moon Court gets called into session.
Oh wow, this might be the shortened reaction/thoughts section of this review that I have ever done but you knew what was about to happen but it didn’t downplay the episode altogether. The twists and turns were interesting during the trial and having the blame was tossed from Beef to Jerry to Beef once again as if it’s a game of hot potato. Jerry finally succumbing to cabin fever was interesting because he was there the last time a storm hit the town and now, as a seasoned vet, for someone who hadn’t done any wrongdoing, that was quite a twist to see and hear before placing the blame back to Beef during the trial. So, final thoughts, despite knowing what the outcome is going to be for this episode, it’s not a bad episode. It’s a good episode. Some hit and misses but it’s still an enjoyable episode, to say the least. So I’ll give “Any Court in a Storm Adventure”...
A 7 out of 10. But that’s my opinion and I wanna hear yours in the comments below. Only three episodes left in the current season of The Great North, good god, how time flies, and once this review is released, it’s already freaking May. Goddamn, it was just yesterday that we entered the new year and getting ready for the new season to drop but here we are. The next episode has your usual one person attending different places in one night trope with Judy running around to three different places with three places in hopes of scoring a kiss and Beef meeting a new friend that he met online, only to find out that he’s a cruise ship captain and ends up having beef with the guy in the thirteenth episode of Season 4, “You’ve Got Sail Adventure”, set to air on May 5.
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