The offseason is right around the corner as the weather continues to heat up. I know that it feels like a shortened season, even though it is because we’re below the 22-episode threshold that we usually got with The Great North with Seasons 2 and 3 since getting the Fall slot back in 2021. It’s gonna be a long offseason filled with questions aside from wanting to know what to expect for the next season, though those questions hopefully get answered during Comic-Con later in July, but also the scheduling for the upcoming Fall season (edit: as of typing and posting, the schedule came out and The Great North is slated to air Season 5 for the midseason, so around January). For now, it looks like The Great North being on its own for this page is coming to a close...for this season because Bob’s Burgers returns next week, so, that means it’s double trouble for your boy when doing both reviews. At least the offseason is right around the corner and I need a long-needed break after that.
In this week’s episode of The Great North, in concern for Beef’s well-being, the Tobin family tries to push Beef to visit the doctor for his psychical and the consequences if he doesn’t book an appointment as Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt unravel a mystery regarding a corpse’s grave in my spoilerific review of the fourteenth episode of Season 4 of The Great North, titled “Doctor? No! Adventure”.
With summer right around the corner, the one thing that should be on people’s minds aside from trying to keep themselves cool, booking a trip, or having shit ready since we are looking at a very busy hurricane season, health seems to be the top item on the list. Mentally is the top issue on the list, but you shouldn’t ignore physical health as well since you have to get things going and once or twice, visit a doctor even though that’s more of a yearly visit when it comes to a yearly check-up. Case in point for this episode, don’t be like Beef and listen to your body by visiting a doctor. Yeah, this episode might as well give me vibes to the Bob’s Burgers episode “Friends with Burger-fits”. That is because it was when watching this episode the night it came out this past Sunday. I mean, we all have our fair share of not wanting to go to the doctor growing up. You know, the phobia of getting a simple check-up as if the doctor is going to do something to you. Not saying that you shouldn’t go get a checkup to see how you’re doing and whatnot, you should do that as if we might as well treat it as an after-school program.
Aside from the main plot with one of the main characters puts on a brave face while having to reel from the pain in his body and the family keeps on telling him to go see a doctor as if he’s made out of glass like he’s this family’s version of Anthony Davis, you also have the subplot with Honeybee, along with Judy and Dirt, putting on their investigative caps after running across a gravestone with no name, so gotta add into the conversation as well as what the person really accomplished while living in another state. With this and next week’s episode left in the season, might as well give this episode a diagnostic and break this sucker down piece by piece under the lights, this is “Doctor? No! Adventure”.
The episode starts with the Tobins at the breakfast table and already, just as everyone has gotten their plate of pancakes, you have Judy not want to eat the pancake on her plate. She doesn’t hate it, it’s just the style of it in the shape of a reindeer with the bacon serving as the antlers, blueberries as the eyes, and strawberries as the nose and mouth. As if she had imagined herself eating the pancake is the same as eating a live or dead reindeer. Though, you have Dirt stepping in and telling Judy to at least toughen up when seeing her food in the shape of a reindeer. So there’s that. But, leave it to Ham to pull something out of the fridge that he had been cooking up, that being a tray filled with flan. And the flan-making coming from Ham is something that he had recently cooked up and is important for the guy because of an upcoming presentation that would put him on the map at the nearest restaurant and be on the menu. All ages as Ham puts it and this is pretty big for the guy as one of the desserts that he making, especially when pulling out the practice flan that he made, noticing that there’s not a lot on the plate because Beef almost ate all of it, I’m not a flan guy, but when noticing that the tray filled with various plates of the dessert almost empty with only a few portions left, Ham should be a shoo-in to have his creation on the menu for the whole town to eat. So, it’s a pretty big deal.
However, it looks like Ham’s upcoming presentation to have his flan put on the menu is going to be overshadowed by the main situation of the episode for the main plot as it is setting up shop, and that is that Beef might be dying. He might be on the verge of being sent packing to the upper room because he is in sharp pain once the family heard the noises from upstairs, causing Wolf to go up to his room and check on his father, who was just coming out of the shower, all naked and wet but also reeling from a part of his body that is where the soreness is located. And totally not a taken-out-of-context image to describe the situation regarding Beef, it does seem to be that the source of the pain is around the groinal area as if he’s experiencing a kidney stone or a gallbladder stone, pretty much the latter even though the rest of the episode has the pain transported to the chest, primarily the heart as if he’s seconds away from undergoing either a heart attack or cardiac arrest. “Isn’t it the same?” Actually, it’s not. There’s a difference. Google it.
Wolf thinks that Beef should go and see a doctor to treat his pain right away before things get worse, but that’s not going to stop him (Beef) from putting on a brave face and trying to brush off the pain once going downstairs and grabbing himself a piece of bacon before planning on heading out to a location outside of town, that being a pipe that is leaking water from a rock in Death Cliff that he claims that it can heal him. Though, I doubt that a pipe that is leaking water and whether or not that should be tested for lead should heal someone like Beef as if he’s Ponce De Leon finding the Fountain of Youth. Beef leaves the kitchen, despite that his towel has fallen off, causing the family to react when looking at his bare ass. And also that one comment from Honeybee about the Tobins have crooked butt cracks. I don’t want to know about that.
And speaking of Honeybee, later in the day, once breakfast is finished, she talks to her friend Veronica, voiced by Jessica Childress, catching things up with their lives between the screens. Veronica thought that Honeybee died because she thought that she was following some guy in the wilderness, thinking that she was being held hostage for her life all because she and Veronica never chatted for two years since moving to Lone Moose from Fresno. Surprising that she didn’t even attend the fucking wedding back in Season 1 now that you think about it. Honeybee reassures that nothing bad happened while she was living in the Last Frontier State and is currently married to Wolf, the person whom she chased after since they first met at a forum site. However, Veronica thinks that Honeybee should let a guy like Wolf follow her and not the other way around once she goes offline after seeing her neighbor’s kid looking through the window. Causing Honeybee to scoff at the remarks that her friend made and decide to go on a walk across the property, just wanting to prove to her friend that she doesn’t need a guy to push her around.
Going back to Beef’s side of the coin in the episode with him finally arriving at his destination, a rock in the mountain where the pipe is that is leaking water in Death Cliff for him to take a sip if it means healing his pain, even though the whole family back at the house earlier asked him to go see a doctor before things get worse. But Beef decided to ignore the calls and here we are with him at the rock and takes a sip to help him restore his HP to 100% full health. In the same way when during the COVID pandemic, you have dumbasses trying out different methods of protection from the virus ranging from injecting bleach into the system to taking horse medicine. And that was before the vaccines rolled out. This isn’t me calling Beef an anti-vaxxer just because he didn’t want to go to see a doctor, I’m pretty sure every Tobin member, still unclear if Dirt had hers despite hiding for 60 years, had their shots.
It’s sort of like the Adventure Time episode “Another Way” with Finn, who was injured with a broken leg, wanting to find another method to heal both Jake, who also had a broken leg, and himself because he doesn’t want to deal with an influx of clown nurses treating the duo, just because of Finn’s fear of clowns. Heading off to find a Cyclops and uses his tears as a healing factor. It’s sort of like that with Beef in this episode, just without the clowns and more of him thinking about his pride and stuff, though that doesn’t seem to be the case later on, and takes a sip of the water, thinking that he’s good to go. Well, before falling on his ass after slipping on a loose rock that resulted in his body feeling sore even more, and planning on going back up there. Might as well get the lesson of the episode out of the way, don’t be like Beef and go see a doctor. They know what the hell they’re doing.
Honeybee continues to go on her walk across the property following her video call with Veronica as we switch back to the subplot where while she was talking to herself, taking Veronica’s word as some sort of offense, where got stopped by something that blocked her way when going into the woods. She bends down to see what is blocking her way and unravels something that is behind a bush, revealing to be a tombstone that says “Wife” and the year the person on the grave that she died, the year 1888. No name was added to the tombstone, it only has the title of wife engraved on the tombstone. Hell, not even taking the name “Jane Doe” and that (Jane Doe for the females, John Doe for the males)should’ve been used if the person who was found or missing was unidentified in the records. The use of the names had been around since the 1700s, if not, before that. So, it looks like the mystery of the gravestone and the woman who died is now on Honeybee’s mind, and is now, ready to put on her investigative cap.
Once she, along with Dirt on her side while eating rotisserie chicken, and I mean the entire tub of rotisserie chicken, quite the table manners there, Dirt; the two pick the kids up from school and on their way home with Honeybee, fresh out of her small walk, have the thought of the tombstone of the dead mysterious woman on her mind for a while once leaving the school after picking up the kids and telling them on the way about the grave that was located outside of their house, not surprising that they knew about it. Moon spotted it when drawing out a map in the event of a zombie apocalypse and Judy spotted it but ended up ignoring it because not having the name attached and having only the title on the tombstone was pure 19th-century sexism at its finest. Aside from those answers from Moon and Judy, Honeybee wants to get to the bottom of this, six feet from the ground, to get to know the woman who died in the past and had to be buried outside of the Tobin property. Surprising that her spirit didn’t...I dunno, were to haunt the damn place. I would not be surprised if this were to make a comeback in the event we have a Halloween episode for the next season. Spoiler alert, guessing that won’t be the case because at the time of typing the review, Season 5 is slated for January of next year. And yes, Season 5 has been renewed even though it was quietly greenlit during an interview with the show’s co-creators long ago. The cards are already set as we prepared to close out the first act of the episode with Judy and Dirt helping Honeybee investigate the tombstone and for Moon and Ham, helping Wolf to get Beef to go see a doctor. Speaking of them...
Going into the end of the first act of the episode, as the girls and investigate the mysterious grave, you have the boys about to watch TV with Beef, after coming home following taking a sip of the “mythical” water that came from a pipe on a mountain that he thought he was healed, too bad that his body didn’t take that kindly and now, his condition is getting worse by the hour. Especially when watching a show about people filmed and having mishaps, so a nod at America’s Funniest Home Videos even though the internet is a thing and can watch it every day, and that alone is more than enough for Wolf to call for a private emergency meeting with Ham and Moon at the panic room/walk-in closet upstairs and talk to his younger brothers that they need to take matters into their own hands because they’re worried about their father. They’re worried about his wellbeing. It’s bad enough that their mom left and the last thing they need to the kids being orphaned because their father refuses to go see a doctor. So, if they can’t take him to a doctor, I mean, they could overnight and take him to a hospital without turning it into a kidnapping, they might as well bring the doctor who him. What does that mean? It means that they have to take matters into their own hands as Wolf calls it Operation HPV, which needs a better name than what Wolf conducted according to Ham, but regardless, the mission to get their father to the doctor is a go.
And that’s where we get to the second act of the episode, going into the next day, with Ham and Wolf working on the flan that Ham is working on and even though Ham’s big moment is about to take place at the restaurant later in the day, which, again, a pretty huge moment for the 17-year-old, their father’s health is what important. Especially because Ham needed Beef to be there at the restaurant for support. So, Plan A is about to go into effect, though Wolf really needs to rephrase what he is saying before the operation takes place. Acting really sus with the way he says. Anyway, Plan A is ready to go into full effect once Beef, whose condition continued to go on the decline and now acting like an 80-year-old struggling to get up from his seat, with Ham and Wolf try to play it cool and act normal to make sure they don’t give away their plan. Wolf walks up to his father and pulls out a chart for him to pick an option, ranging from 1 to 4 with 1 being happy and 4 being wishing you want to die. The chart thing didn’t work because Beef didn’t pick either one of the options.
And that is where Moon comes in with him holding an empty cup as he walks down the stairs. Asking Beef to urinate into the cup, thinking that it’s part of a class project, which is not a real thing because the school would be questioned on why they ask the students to go and collect pee unless it’s to bypass a drug test, but knowing that we just started the second act of the episode, Beef doesn’t buy it. Claiming that the boys are only doing this to force him to go see the doctor and keep on saying that he’s fine. But Beef, you’re not fine because motherfucker, you are in serious pain all across your body! Your sons are doing this because they’re concerned for your well-being! Things are not going to get better if you’re going to continue to act like a dumbass unless you book an appointment to see a doctor before things get worse with your condition. Beef, of course, doesn’t budge and heads out once more, note that earlier in the episode, the source of the pain was somewhere around the upper body, between the stomach and the groinal area, it has now transmitted to the heart, and with Plan A, the at-home approach, failed, it’s time for Plan B to go into effect. That being bringing a doctor to him. And they know which doctor they can turn to for this situation. More on that later in the second act, or just scroll down since this isn’t a YouTube video from your boy.
We switch over to the library where Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt are with them going through each book about the mysterious tombstone that was spotted by Honeybee yesterday and wanting to know about the woman who died. Wanting to know about her life, what she’s like, and, of course, how she died. And there’s gonna be a few imaginations when going through the mysterious woman’s life as Honeybee goes through the book that she is currently reading for research. Two to be exact with the first in this act and the second going into the third. And, of course, with Judy and Dirt tagging along, aside from them lending Honeybee a hand in her digging into the identity of the deceased woman through the power of books, y’all know where this is going leading up to the start of the backstory. Judy and Dirt have to take up the role of the deceased woman when going through the backstory of the suspect in question.
And so begins the backstory as Honeybee reads through the book, or at least, tries to put a spin on the deceased woman’s past, with the said woman, portrayed by Judy, as a visitor strolling through the earlier settlements of the place that would soon become Lone Moose. Though, time out for a bit here, because I know that it is all for imagination purposes and shit, a person who is portrayed by Judy having to visit Lone Moose all the way from London? As in London, England? Dude, that had to be a very long distance from Alaska to England for Judy’s character to visit the place that has yet to be settled. And do you know how many miles is from London to Alaska, let alone Anchorage? 4,490 miles. Almost 4,500 miles if you round it up and that’s on a plane alone. And this is the late 1800s, the airplane had yet to be invented until 1903. So, your possible guess would be that Canada is next door and it was a British colony at the time, well, this was 1888, meaning that portions of Canada would be a country in the early days of that nation, though through an act through parliament instead of declaring independence like the US did. So that has to be it but I can get a hold of myself and I guess that it’s all imagination and crap, but hey, someone had to step in with the historical fact-checking.
So Judy’s character is an associate professor who is visiting Lone Moose to do some research and knowing that the town back in the day, was filled with settlers, white settlers to be exact, who had to dig themselves holes on the ground and declare it as their homes. Survival of the fittest at its finest since it was the olden days where there was no technology of any sort back in the day. Judy’s character, once getting off of her carriage, falls in one of the holes that was covered and just brush it off despite being stuck as she writes down in her journal on what she had encountered for her studies. That was before being saved by one of the settlers, a boy of course, and the two end up falling in love at sight. Well, it’s there but that’s later in the story. The settler gives Judy’s character a bit of a tour of the town by showing her a pile of dead animals and dead people as if they have no idea where to dispose before showing her what he claims to be a playground, seeing a baby with a knife stabbing at a piece of wood. Lesson, don’t give babies weapons. Judy’s character cooks up an idea for the settlers to build themselves something better when it comes to living adjustments, that being a house, in which the settler and everyone else did their part and built themselves a house. Once that’s done, just as Judy’s character prepares to leave the town, of course, a romance takes place between Judy’s character and the settler when giving her a doll and asks her to be his wife, his way of a marriage proposal. She said yes and thus, the two became a married couple and lived happily in the newly built town. As for how she died...
A hit in the head does the trick. And all of this was while both she and the settler were watching a game of baseball from the stands where instead of an actual baseball, it’s some sort of ball mixed with a taxidermied beaver, and what was supposed to be a home run from one of the players who batted...Judy’s character in the story got Maude Flanders’d and died from the stands after getting bonked in the head. You could say that she should’ve been treated, but because it was the late 19th century, a bonk in the head is pretty much an automatic death sentence. So, Judy’s character dies and because the town didn’t even know what her name was, though you’d think that they should’ve known, it just boils down to either the spelling of the name or the settlers are...I guess illiterate. So there’s that. But that’s just one story and we’re nearing, if not, already, the halfway mark of the episode, so there’s more than meets the eye to know who that woman was and why the tombstone was placed at the property where the Tobins currently reside.
At the end of the first half of the episode, the Tobin boys finally decide to pull out the big guns in hopes of convincing their father to see a doctor. If they can’t bring a doctor to the house, they might as well bring a doctor to Beef outside of the restaurant as, of course, everyone is in preparation for Ham to make a presentation for his flan to be added to the menu, by bringing in the town’s doctor Dr. Callahan, voiced by Colin O’Donoghue, dressed up as a pirate as part of Plan B of the boys’ plant o convince Beef to see a doctor and have his issue resolved. And the clock is pretty much ticking for the boys because if Beef continues to ignore the calls to get himself treated, he might as well be sent packing and leaving them behind #PackWatch on the patriarchal member of the family. So just as the Tobin boys and Callahan enter the restaurant and meet up with Beef, making sure that the plan doesn’t fall apart, to their surprise to end the first half and go into the second...
Beef seems to be okay when seeing him at his table and eating his lunch. As if he got his pain out of the way in a snap. He was in deep pain earlier in the day after coming home and now, a few hours later, he seems to be up and running to the point where he’s good enough to eat a full-course meal. So, going into the second half of the episode, the boys and Callahan are surprised to see Beef up and running after dealing with a lot of pain all across his body earlier in the day as if he had taken a Senzu Bean and back into full health as if the issue throughout his upper body never even happened. However, there’s a lot of bullshit in the air coming from Beef claiming that he’s good to go, all to avoid going to the doctor and without any explanation of how he even got “rid” of his extreme pain across his body. Callahan suggests that even though Beef claims to be okay enough to not see a doctor, he should do it anyway because, let’s be real, he is pretty sure he doesn’t buy Beef’s little lie of him being okay but in reality, he’s not. And that’s more than enough for Beef to storm out of the restaurant, placing a tip at the table and taking his baked potato on the go. Not even bothering to stay put to see Ham finally getting his due to have his creation on the menu as long as they continue to push him to see a doctor, and with Callahan in attendance. Beef heads out through his snowmobile and just as he was about to leave the parking lot while holding a baked potato in hand...
Is when his body decides to tell him that the time for games is over. Beef undergoes cardiac arrest that results in him falling from his snowmobile before reaching the exit point of the parking lot of the restaurant and thus, we might be looking at the end of Beef Tobin, all because he was acting like a dumbass for ignoring the signs and refusing to listen to both his body and his family, and now, on the verge of having his own #PackWatch with no one stepping in to help out. I mean, the Tobin boys and Callahan are inside the restaurant, but by then, the presentation has already begun, leaving Beef in his lonesome and on the verge of his life subscription not being renewed.
We go back to the subplot, now in a different location for Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt going from the library to the historical society as they continue their investigation on the dead woman who was buried in the Tobin property. And mind you that what happened back in the library was just the first story coming from Honeybee when going through one book with Judy taking the role is just the first of the two stories. And now, in the second half of the episode, it’s Dirt who will be taking over the role as we enter another story regarding the woman who died.
Going into the second version of the story where this time around, according to Honeybee, with Dirt now taking the role of the deceased woman, imagining her, and mind you, this is the 1880s and the story kicked off with her, as the deceased woman, coming into a cabin with a man and knowing the 1880s, you already know. So Dirt’s character when taking the role of the deceased woman, instead of her being an associate professor like when Judy took the role, it’s Dirt’s character taking the role of an expert log roller. And she was a professional when doing the sport out in the water, legs on the log. Making the sport her bitch and making her opponents look like clowns. Case in point, Dirt, as the deceased woman, was on X-Games mode. And a log-rolling competition in Lone Moose should be a piece of cake for Dirt’s character and was about to clear the field with her skills. There’s just one little problem for Dirt’s character just as she is about to participate in the log-rolling competition and you already know what it is. It’s the 1880s, so, of course, sexism had to serve as the barricade to prevent Dirt’s character from participating... in a competition that she started. After giving everyone a course on how to log roll. So, she decided to teach her husband the basics and the husband ends up winning it all. And it was that exact moment where it grinds her gears when the husband gets the trophy and says that rather than accepting the notion of Dirt’s character teaching him how to log roll, it’s the opposite. Blatant sexism at its finest. To the point where she decides to give her husband a taste of his own medicine.
And, time out, a wave that came out of nowhere in a river? That is strong enough to push Dirt’s character to the open waters? Again, I get that this is a story through the imagination and they can do whatever the fuck they can cook up, but the logic had to be questioned here. It has to be questioned. I mean, not since “Bed, Bob, and Beyond” where a wave came out of nowhere in Tina’s story in that episode at the Thames River, trying to mimic the Titanic with that scene. And now, with this?! I know, I know that it’s a cartoon and the logic shouldn’t be questioned. I know that the only answer to the age ol’ question of anything regarding this show or Bob’s is to not question it. But I had to question it regardless. So...giant ass wave came out of nowhere and like Aunt Dirt outside of the story, fell off from the face of the Earth and continues to log roll across one area in the ocean, mind you, no airplanes because it had yet to be invented, meaning no helicopters. Sure, the Coast Guard during the time was around because it was founded in the 1790s but didn’t become a part of the military until 1915, but does anyone want to sail their boat to that part of the Pacific Ocean where Dirt’s character was at?
Also, another time-out. The fucking Titanic?! Again, I get that it’s all for shits and giggles when it comes to the storytelling...the fucking Titanic?! In 1888?! In the Pacific Ocean?! I mean, if you want to treat it as some sort of anthology with the investigation, be my guess. But with these stories that they had to conjure up, knowing that we’re still in the third act, the investigation is going nowhere in finding the identity of the deceased woman. She died after getting fucking ran over by the Titanic for some fucking reason, just be thankful that the ship didn’t include a rapping dog inside there, and yes, that happened, not in the actual event, but there was a movie that came from Italy that had the rapping dog inside the Titanic...it was so bad that it does feel like a disservice to passengers who died when the ship got hit by an iceberg, but yeah, Dirt’s character died after ran over by the ship and her husband in the story dies after once grieving at her grave, somehow found the body washed up, after suddenly combust because of heartbreak. We’re nearing the offseason, might as well let that one go. Other than that, and probably be swallowing some ibuprofen after this, it looks like the girls are heading to their next destination, that being the old sawmill after Judy brought it up to Honeybee that the records had to be there. Seriously? The fucking Titanic?! Seriously?!
So, going back to the main plot at the end of the third act with Beef moments away from being sent to the upper room as if his body has written his name on the Death Note. Lying on the snowy ground in what would be his final moments on Earth after being a dumbass for ignoring the signs and his family to go see a doctor because of pride and shit. Turning his head to his left and sees the presentation taking place, if not, wrapping up with Ham finally getting his flan added to the menu with Wolf and Moon in attendance. Sure, you have the two parties missing out on what is pretty much Ham’s biggest moment in his life like Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt, who are missing out because they’re in the middle of solving the mystery of the mysterious tombstone, but it’s Beef is who missing out the most and now, he’s most likely going to die lying in the cold. And how is he going to probably spend his final minutes on the planet? By crawling to reach for his phone that fell out from his pocket and tries to get it, which he does, but he accidentally presses the call button once Londra decides to call him about her morning. So, this is how Beef dies as we close out the third act of the episode...lying in the cold after ignoring the signs that led to his demise and an accidental phone call with Londra, even though she would’ve been helpful for Beef to send out an SOS, and thus, the end of the third act of the episode.
And now, going into the fourth and final act of the penultimate episode of the current season of the show with Beef in a different world, in his imagination as if he’s in limbo or some other place where I think you’d go to when you’re about to die and whether or not you’ll get a ticket up to heaven or some other place from whatever religion you’re affiliated with, so might as well call it I guess Star Haven from Paper Mario. Beef gets transported there and he comes across an imagination of his heart, voiced again by Jon Hamm, quite fitting that Hamm would appear once more in the show because Grimsburg had their season finale this past weekend. And this was after a few months ago back in February in “Risky Beefness Adventure” on the same night Grimsburg had their official series premiere. I feel like, at this point, The Great North and Grimsburg might as well be colluding whenever Jon Hamm is on the show, talking about his stint on The Great North.
Beef finally has himself a come to Jesus moment while on the verge of meeting Jesus when telling his heart why he didn’t listen to his family’s call to go see a doctor as if he’s a therapist. I mean, Dennis (Beef’s heart) should be in the know because if Beef dies, he goes too, so you’d think that he should know when reeling from the pain throughout the past few days. So yeah, we find out that Beef is afraid of going to the doctor because of the bad things that would happen if he ever goes through a physical. It’s pretty much the sort of standard of you thinking that you’re healthy and following what they’re telling you to, only to have the doctor tell you that you’re doing it all wrong and could be minutes away from being sent to the lobby. And...yeah, I mean, you can see where he was coming from when saying that. Because when you become an adult, aside from...well, everything from finances to securing a job, the issue of health (physical and mental) has to be on top of everyone’s mind. And whether or not you’re following the doctor’s instructions to eat right and exercise daily should be on top of what is going to scare the piss out of you because you’ll never know if you’re completely healthy that you’ll live a longer life or you’re doing it wrong and you could be having an unofficial date with the Grim Reaper.
And I guess that is what Beef is implying because the guy is in his 40s, he’s middle-aged, and his physical health is on watch because of whatever shit the universe might do to the guy. And it’s more than just having to raise four kids all by himself where he would have to feel stressed all his life by his lonesome, mostly coming from the financial side of things. It’s bad enough that Beef missed out on Ham’s presentation of getting his flan added to the menu, and missing out on a lot of stuff is something he doesn’t want to deal with if he’s not there. And he truly doesn’t want to miss things out. I mean, fuck, he’s finally gotten back into the relationship scene and is currently dating Carissa, as well as some other stuff now that things are starting to go right for him and the family. And if he wants to renew his subscription to life, wanting to see the day he continues what he loves like fishing, seeing the possibilities of his kids having grandkids, and living a happy life in a new marriage with Carissa, in the event the show was to push that narrative unless they decide to fuck around with that storyline, he finally decides to listen to the calls that he ignored throughout the episode: go see a doctor. And so, Beef is finally back to life, but with a very low bar on his health bar the moment the Tobin boys and Callahan walk out of the restaurant and see him walking like a zombie before passing out.
We check back at the subplot with Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt visiting the lumber mill to find any records to finally get some answers from the databooks...only for the three to meet a dead end because the receptionist tried to look up what Honeybee, Judy, and Dirt were looking for, only for the record to be lost because the old mill burned down...forty-seven times, like Jesus freaking Christ, man. How do you burn a place down over and over almost fifty times?! I mean, yeah, it’s a lumber mill and you’d think that accidental mutilation would’ve been the top issue on the list but there has to be some sparks that would enlight a fire to burn the place down. So it’s a dead end for the trio once they leave the lumber mill and Honeybee thinks that it’s not over until she says it's over. This causes Judy to tell Honeybee that she should drop it and question why is this even important. Even though, yes, a mysterious tombstone did pop up by their doorstep and question why and how the deceased woman from long ago was buried there, it all comes back to her video chat with Veronica earlier in the episode and the issue of the claims that she (Honeybee) left her life behind in Fresno and moved to Alaska just to be Wolf’s wife.
Of course, Judy and Dirt, but mostly Judy tell Honeybee that she’s more than just Wolf’s wife since moving to Lone Moose. And a lot of continuity came from her mouth, ranging from her being the town’s mayor for the day to being attacked by an eagle that turned out to be a member of the board. Though I don’t remember the drifter part, my memory has been fuzzy, mostly because Judy mentioned Honeybee having a slapfight with a drifter, so anyone helps me what is that a reference to in the comments below? Though, are we not going to mention the part where she knows how to survive a blizzard back in Season 1? And mind you, she came from a place where it rarely gets accumulated snowfall. So the fact that she knew her way to survive it was pretty damn impressive coming from her. So, Honeybee got her hopes and even though she, Judy, and Dirt have met a dead end in the investigation, they might as well pay the mysterious deceased woman their respects by placing flowers and a box of pizza, which, alright, honoring the dead after spending the day trying to find the identity of the dead woman. Nothing wrong with that despite being buried on Tobin property...until things took a complete 180 at the end of the subplot once the three discovered another tombstone and apparently, the “wife” title isn’t a title at all and instead, it’s a last name. A weird last name if you ask me, and the tombstone they unraveled belonged to a guy named Bartholomew Wife.
This leads to one more investigative journey back to the library and turns out that the tombstone that said “Wife” belonged to a woman named Manifred Wife and uh...oh boy, the three Tobin women might as well regret paying their respects because according to the book, Manifred did a lot of stuff. Bad stuff. She was on a 17-person killing spree. Seventeen people, including her husband! Like...wow, okay, I did not see that coming. I mean, they, along with everyone, were off on who the person on the tombstone was, unless there’s a very tiny slice of the pie who got that correct. So, they just pretty much paid tribute to a serial killer back in the settlement days and I’m guessing they may have already started to regret doing that because of her actions, but because the killer didn’t have her legacy painted to be just Bartholomew’s spouse, they might as well give her a pat on the back in spirit, even though Manifred is pretty much burning in hell just for the killings.
And now, entering the two-minute warning of the episode, Beef is finally recovering when being transported to the hospital and turns out that the pain he was experiencing throughout the episode was nothing more than the case of gallbladder stones and it looks like Beef might need surgery to remove it. But just be thankful that he gets to live to see another day because otherwise, it’ll be painting a different story if he continues to ignore the calls. Though probably should’ve brought up one other thing when it comes to the phobia of going to the doctors...the bills. Yeah, you’d thought that a health scare was scary, try paying for it just to check yourself in to get yourself treated and the cost won’t be pretty. Yeah, richest country on the planet, and our healthcare system is a fucking joke. Otherwise, the boys are proud of their father that he finally visited a doctor and all it took was for Beef to nearly die outside of the restaurant because of him acting like a dumbass because of his fear of going to the hospital. That and pride, but it’s mostly him not wanting to get the bad news whenever he goes to the doctor to get treated and decides to visit a doctor often...five, six years tops according to him. Especially because Beef by then would be eligible for a prostate exam. Yeah, gotta bring that up because that’s the age requirement the next time he pays a visit for his check-up. Other than that, once the surgery is finished as we are about to close the episode and...
Yeah...much to Honeybee’s surprise in the final scene of the episode, it seems that the Tobins are ready to go in the event either of them, if not, all of them get sent to the lobby. All five plots are reserved outside of the Tobin cabin...okay, does the place used to be a freaking cemetery when it was built?! Because that’s a lot of tombstones outside of the cabin in between the house and the guest cabin. Although, I noticed Dirt didn’t have her tombstone settled when seeing the entire area. That’s because the plots were settled a few years ago and this was when Dirt was hiding inside her bunker. As if they’re not going to pay for a spot in the cemetery and instead, going to bury in the backyard as if they’re hamsters. But now that Dirt is out of the bunker...they might as well make room for one more. And if that’s not surprising enough to end the episode, you have Wolf surprising Honeybee with her tombstone as if she’s going to be buried in Alaska rather than transporting her body to Fresno and even having the date settled, though that seems too far fetched to think that she’ll die in the year 2221 as if she’s going to be just a head in the jar like she’s in Futurama. We already know the moral of the episode and that is that you only get one life and you have to cherish it by doing something to build yourself a legacy. But it’s pretty much the lesson of don’t be like Beef and visit a doctor in case there’s something in your body. Otherwise, it’ll be you or yours truly on #PackWatch.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s penultimate episode of Season 4 of The Great North? Well, it’s an alright episode despite seeing people giving it some praise for something as simple as Beef knowing the consequences of not paying a visit to a doctor after dealing with an extreme amount of pain and a subplot that I thought it was going nowhere until it got a 180 turn regarding the ending to the subplot over the identity of deceased woman in question.
The main plot was alright with some moments here and there. I like how the Tobin boys look out for their father when seeing him in an extreme amount of pain throughout the episode and you have to give them some credit for trying their best to get him to a doctor. And I guess it’s nice to see Dr. Callahan again after being there last season during the Disaster Day event once the boys decided to bring out the big guns to get Beef to pay him a visit to get his issue treated. Beef’s heart also made a return, so that’s interesting, and without having Beef’s wang in tow this time around, again, feels like both The Great North and Grimsburg might be colluding all because Jon Hamm is there as if it’s the show’s way to promote Grimsburg. But it’s an alright main plot despite knowing the lesson/moral of the episode from the main plot after seeing Beef on the verge of death.
The subplot was okay. I mean, it did feel bland at first and it does throughout the whole thing when investigating the tombstone as if they’re going nowhere with the research, especially with the two stories when depicting the deceased woman. But the ending of the subplot was a complete 180 with the surprise of finding out who the woman that was engraved on the tombstone, her being a murderer was something I did not expect. So that’s something to make the subplot okay but I do like the continuity nod from Judy when telling Honeybee that she did a lot of things since moving to Lone Moose. So, final thoughts, it was an alright episode. Almost gave me vibes to “Friends with Burger-fits” but it’s not to some parts. Out of the two plots, the main plot was alright. The subplot was okay, sort of bland but saved by a Hail Mary with the twist of the deceased woman’s identity. So I’ll give “Doctor? No! Adventure”...
A 7 out of 10. But that’s my opinion and I wanna hear yours in the comments below. This is it, folks! This is it. The season finale of both Bob’s Burgers and The Great North this upcoming Sunday. With Bob’s Burgers, it’s Tina attending Chelsea’s party, you remember Chelsea? The girl who once accused her of cheating on a test even though she did the cheating herself? Yeah, she’s back and Tina’s going to the party but hits a snag when experiencing butt sweats in “Butt Sweat and Fears”. And for The Great North, the Beef and Carissa storyline can finally begin with them as a couple with Beef attempting to be more romantic towards her new girlfriend a day across town and the rest of the Tobins spending their time at the pool outside of their house in “Fifty Worst Dates Adventure”. Both are set to air this upcoming Sunday, May 19. And yes, I’ll be doing both reviews since we are now nearing the offseason.
Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. The sixth match of the Group A and B matches are ongoing between Maka Albarn (Soul Eater) and Noelle Silva (Black Clover) in Group A and both Son Gohan (Dragon Ball) and Yuji Itadori (Jujutsu Kaisen) in Group B. Both polls close on Saturday. Speaking of polls, time is running out for y’all to cast your vote for the MVP for both The Great North and Bob’s Burgers. Those polls close on Sunday Night right after a brand new Bob’s Burgers. Links in my bio of my social pages. So if y’all haven’t made your pick for the MVP title, the link is in my bio for each of my socials. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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