So, a bit of big news to serve as the introduction is regarding the scheduling topic for Animation Domination. Unless y'all lived under a rock, it looks like American Dad is returning home to where it all began. Its TBS officially came to a close this past week with the recent season finale, and the question leading up to it is where does the show go since it was looking likely that TBS, rather, Warner, didn’t even bother renewing the contract to air new episodes even though it will still air re-runs. The most obvious answer would be moving it to Hulu because people nowadays are cutting the cord and testing out the streaming market. And Hulu (and also Disney+ internationally) would be the way to go. The decision to go back to FOX was a surprise and now, makes you question where will fit in an already congested lineup for Animation Domination. A lot of questions that need to be answered and hopefully, we get something once July arrives hopefully to get something regarding next year’s AniDom season when July arrives. At least we know for one thing: American Dad isn’t going anywhere. Though probably going back to the ol’ syndication version as if it’s back in the day when some scenes are censored and the DVD version was uncensored, unlike the TBS days where it’s doing whatever the frick you want.
In this week’s episode of The Great North, Dirt becomes the school’s debate team coach after getting caught by Principal Gibbons when impersonating a lunch lady to impress one of the workers as Wolf attempts to woo Beef by attempting to do something in what is pretty him glazing his father in my spoilerific review of the sixth episode of Season 5 of The Great North, titled “Can’t Debate Adventure”. Already starting to become like Bob’s Burgers with the notion of recycling episode tiles.
It’s been a full year and a month now since the world was first introduced to Dirt Tobin. February 25, 2024, with the premiere of the Season 4 episode “Aunt Misbehavin’ Adventure,” where we were introduced to the long-lost member of the Tobin family living just a walking distance within the property. Since then, aside from certain episodes from last season because the production order had been screwy and the past two episodes this season in this current production order where she is absent, Dirt has been becoming a prominent character and facility becoming a part of the main cast with her appearing numerous times as of late but have yet to have an episode where she takes on a major role since her introduction.
Lo and behold, we got it in this week’s episode, with her taking charge. And it happens to be a debate episode of all episodes to have her take the spotlight. And what better way to have an episode and to have Dirt become the center focus would be to... well, channel another character that her voice actress Jane Lynch played before voicing the character and a well-known one from the last decade from a show that also aired on FOX back in the day. I’ve never seen Glee, but it was kind of fitting once Dirt takes up the coaching gig after getting busted by Gibbons for impersonating a lunch lady after trying to woo another lunch lady. But other than that, Dirt finally got an episode of her own since semi-becoming a part of the main cast, still gonna call it a missed opportunity for not having her to be added in the intro as of late, and it’s to break this sucker down piece by piece. This is “Can’t Hardly Debate Adventure”.
The episode begins with the Tobins at the breakfast table nonchalantly playing this charade regarding Dirt wearing a uniform as she gets her cup of coffee for the morning. Dressing up as a lunch lady and pretending to be one is Dirt’s way of setting up what kind of episode we’re getting, with her taking center stage. And the Tobins, they probably would be against the idea at first because of the issues that come with the supposed “gig” because of numerous reasons: mostly in the event Principal Gibbons were to find out that she’s been impersonating a cafeteria worker at the school.
But that’s not going to stop Dirt from taking the risk and saying, “Fuck it, I’m going in as one and they can’t stop me from doing it”. And for good reason as to why she decided to play dress up and infiltrate the school, if you think it’s because of the money, that doesn’t seem to be the case. However, it does make you question how much a cafeteria worker makes when it comes to salary. But no, it’s because she’s in love. She is crushing on one of the lunch ladies, the head lunch lady, named Gloria, who Dirt met at the store. And that’s going to be her life mission for this episode by playing lunch lady so she can get some alone time with her. The woman is in her 80s, but that’s not going to stop her from having to ride the saddle. And that’s all she has to do while hoping she doesn’t get caught by Gibbons. And Dirt doesn’t plan on getting caught if it means having some alone with Gloria and hopefully doing just that at the lunch lady lounge. And to them, that’s apparently a thing because if the teachers can get their own lounge, then why not the lunch ladies? They’re basically faculty, despite working for the food company.
Hours later, at the docks and as the kids and Dirt were dropped off at school, you have Beef, Wolf, and Honeybee making their way to the Mighty Beef for the usual daily job of catching fish, asking Honeybee if they’ll still be soulmates in different universes. You know, that meme that you oftentimes see with your favorite pairings asks if they can still be in a relationship in different universes. He asks that to Honeybee before asking the same question to Beef, which... to Honeybee, it’s fine because that’s his wife. Beef, on the other hand, does feel like I’m painting it as incestuous, but it’s not; it’s more on the line of glazing as one way to describe it. The talk gets interrupted by someone who backflipped into the water, and that alone got a “whoa” comment from Beef, who is impressed by it. And to Wolf who saw this, it’s pretty rare to see Beef being impressed by something and saying that it’s similar to a Paul Hollywood handshake, and that’s pretty much what the subplot is going to be with Wolf wanting that reaction from his father. The definition of glazing right there.
We transitioned from the docks to the cafeteria at the school with the lunch hour going on. Dirt, as the pretend lunch lady, impresses Gloria, voiced by Brooke Dillman, by telling some stories and shit that Dirt enough to get Gloria impressed as she heads back to do her job. Especially with Gloria asking Dirt if she can one day visit her bunker, and with that, things are starting, if not, already clicking between the two elderly women. Dirt has a shot at having Gloria all for herself, and things are about to go fine with her as she pretends to play lunch lady... only to be spotted by Principal Gibbons and already planning on sneaking away so she can get away.
Only to be stopped by one of the students named Sandy, voiced by Jana Schmieding, who is a loudmouth. And not in the way of, say... in comparison to Harley from Bob’s Burgers, who is also a loudmouth, but with Harley, aside from her being a loudmouth, she’s also a motormouth and can’t keep her mouth shut and that before the voice change at the start of this decade. With Sandy, she just doesn’t know what an inside voice is. Loud Sandy is what people call her, and the name speaks for itself, or rather, yells for itself. Like, she doesn’t need to yell as if people are not going to get her attention like it’s a panel or a town hall meeting hoping to address your question or concern. Use your inside voice for the love of God.
Sandy stopped Dirt from sneaking out because the pizza slice that she got was cold and was hoping Dirt would give her another slice, but Dirt replied that Sandy didn’t need another slice and told her that it was not cold and that she just exaggerating regarding the condition of her slice. Turing it into a confrontation by turning it into a debate with the conversation going in Dirt’s favor with her telling Sandy that she should stop being upset about her slice being cold and tell her that pizzas back in the day weren’t the triangle that we know today and instead, anyone from any generation before Gen Alpha who were once elementary school students, y’all remember those rectangle pizzas. Telling Sandy that back in the day, they used to have rectangular pizza, and it was the result of the war effort. So, pretty much an argument in this debate just to get Sandy off of her back. And lo and behold, Sandy leaves and accepts the cold pizza, just in time too... for Dirt to get caught by Gibbons.
Who gets sent to his office to talk about why she is impersonating a lunch lady on school grounds, which does feel like an offense that could land you on the registry list just for being a stray adult that Gibbons accused her of being. And we know Dirt doesn’t do that shit, just to put it out there. She doesn’t do that shit. Anyway, Dirt is on the verge of getting thrown out after being caught by Gibbons for impersonating a lunch lady on school grounds, which would be considered a big no-no from a legal standpoint. But here’s a twist that should be talked upon about: according to Gibbons, Dirt, despite sneaking into the school playing dress up as a lunch lady and is an elderly woman herself, Dirt is technically allowed to be on school grounds because according to him, she is technically still a student because she never graduated. Not in the way of calling her a dropout, but more of her being missing for 60 years and everyone thinking she was presumed dead courtesy of the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 as Dirt’s opportunity to hide, thinking that it was the Soviets invading America.
This is interesting while at the same time, throwing off a bit regarding Dirt’s past and when it comes to how old she was when deciding to go into hiding in 1964. When having to do some math when it comes to the timeline, I thought that Dirt was in her 20s when she decided to participate in the Amelia Earhart challenge and go off the grid all the way to 2024, the year she was founded by Moon, and that would put her in her 80s. The fact that she never graduated high school and the best possible guess would put the age of having to do that would be around I guess... whatever age range she would fall in, probably around senior year, which would put Dirt in her 70s in 2024, currently in 2025, instead of what I thought would be in her 80s baffles me a bit when it comes to the math and the historical standpoint of things regarding the canon of the show. And is still active regardless of age and ready to fuck shit up the moment something happens but unless it’s an angry beaver who has a hating bone in his body or the sounds of nonstop accordion music, that’s pretty much her way of saying that she doesn’t want to deal with any of that.
Dirt got her get-out-of-trouble-free card thanks in part to Gibbons pulling out her old school record and revealing that she is still a student after getting caught impersonating a lunch lady and plans on leaving the office before getting stopped by Gibbons to speak to her on something. A proposition, to be exact, regarding Dirt’s little situation since he can’t pretty much kick Dirt out since she is technically a student. The proposition in question? He asks Dirt to be the school’s debate team coach. That’s his proposition to the elder Tobin to keep Dirt in the school as an adult after seeing her easily win a debate against Sandy over her cold slice of pizza without having the facts to help her with her argument. That alone has Gibbons thinking to himself that he may have found his golden ticket leading up to the upcoming debate competition called, and get this, “The 48th Annual 49th State Debate”, quite the name for the event that doesn’t sound too basic on the nose.
Gibbons found his golden ticket in Dirt after seeing her debate to bring home the trophy and also to rub it to another school’s principal named Gregg “Bowtie” Buttsworth, who is the principal of an elite school in Juneau, a private school to be exact, who torments the guy back in principal school, which that can’t be a real thing. But regardless, Gibbons wants to bring the trophy home and rub it on the other principal’s face and with that, we have ourselves a deal with Dirt after bringing up her offer in having to keep her job as a cafeteria worker and a trip to the lunch lady’s lounge and with that, meet Lone Moose’s new debate coach.
Going into the second act of the episode, you can see why Dirt is needed to be the school’s coach for the debate team. You have the team, consisting of Judy, Ham, Gill, and Sandy, who are looking lost because they have no debate skills or how to counteract to win an argument. And we’re pretty much following the playbook of how sports movies work with this episode, or in this show’s case, sort of like with what happened in Judy’s side of last season’s episode “The Mighty Pucks Adventure”. You have a team that looks lost as if they don’t know what the fuck they were doing. Case in point, a lack of debating performance from the team when seeing Judy and Gill on stage, and have no counterargument with their topic. The type of argument where you could be easily shredded like paper if this were shown on national TV during an election year that could cost you or your running mate the election.
That’s where Dirt comes in to save the team from keeping on falling flat on their asses. She’s only doing this just to keep her job and her time with Gloria, and she plans on doing that. And yes, a character played by Jane Lynch being put as a coach of a school extracurricular with Dirt becoming the coach of the school debate team. I have never seen the show Glee and I guess this was the show that put Jane Lynch on the map and her character on the show was a staple of television that people should know when having to know what kind of role she plays other than having a voicing role in Wreck-It Ralph. And that is what Dirt is going to channel as the episode progresses, leading up to the day of the competition.
Oh yeah, and you have Moon there. When the promotional images came out and showed Moon with the team alongside Dirt, you probably thought he was either a part of the team, even though he was not wearing a blazer, or just there to watch this dog-and-pony show go. We got our answer, and he’s the team’s water boy. According to Moon, he’s just there because they- I’m guessing it’s his class- ran out of sports teams for him to be assigned. So, the debate team had to be the way to go for him to be placed for volunteering. And with that, we have four members of the Tobins being a part of the school debate team as Dirt begins her reign as the newly appointed coach by Gibbons to lift the locker room, or I guess the gymnasium, with only four people as a team. Dirt makes her way to the stage and decides to use the three letters to help everyone get their minds straight and to use this particular method as a way to picture it if you know, you know on what Dirt is saying. And that is the double D’s and a big ol’ V. Good luck sleeping tonight when picturing what is supposed to be. But no, the two Ds and a V that Dirt wrote on the board mean that the kids should know if they want to win this thing.
DDV, or as the board describes, Deny, Distract, and Victimize. Deny the facts, distract them with useless information, and victimize where if the first two fails, play the victim until they apologize and have the debate go in your favor. Or to keep it short, sweet, and simple: bullshit. Just bullshit your way and make sure the debate goes your way without anyone having to rebuttal or be fact-checked. That is what Dirt did earlier in the episode when getting into a quick argument with Sandy over how cold her pizza slice was, just to get her (Sandy) off of her (Dirt) back. And now, that is being passed to the others as practice ahead of their debate competition by the end of this week. Just bring up some bullshit and make sure it’s believable that won’t force the opposing side a chance to counteract or have the moderators or the fact-checkers behind the scenes to fact-check and hope to not get a “pants on fire” rating.
We check on what’s going on with the subplot of the episode, with Wolf attempting to woo Beef after seeing what happened at the start of the episode. And he tries to do so by attempting to kick a fish that he caught into the pile, thinking he’s Messi or something. Wolf attempts to kick the fish to the pile like it’s a soccer ball, only to realize that his aim isn’t all that great. Especially with the fish not being kicked to the pile and instead hitting Beef in the face before falling to the ground. Was it enough to get Beef to say “whoa” to Wolf? Fuck no. It’s still early in the episode. He needs to find something else to do if he wants to continue to glaze his father. And there are a lot of options to think about.
The next day arrives with Judy, Ham, Gill, and Sandy standing by the stairway to the entrance with Dirt waiting for them to show up. And show up they did, as today is the day the four kids will exercise what they picked up from Dirt the day prior and use the DDV method in preparation for the upcoming debate competition. And once the four enter the school, so begins the exercise.
Whether it’s Judy and Gill arguing with Ms. McNamara about the school bell with the first D of the three letters from the method, i.e. denial, Sandy using the distraction action when convincing one of the lunch ladies to give her an additional brownie to her tray, or Ham playing the victim when being denied to go use the bathroom by Golovkin, it’s not surprising that they would pick up the method that fast for them to use as practice without anyone outside of the team knowing that it’s all an exercise. Becoming a pair of savages across the school as part of their exercise to get them ready for the competition. And Dirt is not kidding about having them be a nightmare to everyone, especially towards the faculty, without even giving notice that they’re doing this just to get ready for the big day at the end of the week.
Especially once we get to the end of the montage with the team now dressed up in suits and blazers, not to mention Dirt continuing to flirt with Gloria during the montage with her inviting the lunch lady to the competition and then have the montage ends with Gloria getting a ticket to the event and a rose that was placed inside her car that she may or may not have picked her car lock, but other than that, the exercise seems to be a success with the four had to become a pain in the asses for some who dare to come across to the point where three of the teachers tried to send in their resignation letters just for having to deal with them. So, with the exercise all wrapped up, you’d think that the team should be good to go, right? Ready to haul some ass and cruise their way to bring the trophy to Lone Moose and for Dirt to have some alone time with Gloria? Well, according to Judy, after giving a “mm” as a response to all of this, even with the DDV method that they picked up from Dirt, Judy thinks that it might not be enough to get the win. Already feel nervous that they’ll likely going to fuck it up, even if the method does work. That, of course, causes Dirt to declare an emergency field trip to get everyone’s mind out of the gutter before the big day.
The bar, Danky’s, is not one of those places that help the four teens to get their heads straight leading up to the day of the competition as we prepare to wrap up the first act of the episode. But that’s the place to get the mood up for everyone and where else to test the method out one more time like a bar. Especially when having four teens do the part as if they’re off to get drinks for a high school party without ever needing an ID. Judy, Ham, Gill, and Sandy get into a hurdle to come up with a plan to exercise the DDV method if they want to get the monkey off of their backs with the competition now hours away and it didn’t take long for them to come up with the perfect act to convince the security guard to let them in.
They do so by pretending to be drunk and attempting to make the guard look bad for not letting them. Using the DDV method in full force despite this being an exercise and all. Trying to play the victim while putting the guard in the corner that he is put under pressure by them the same way they did to the teachers throughout the week. It’s pretty much the equivalent of- and Bills fans, ignore what I’m about to say- 13 seconds. The AFC Divisional game from a few years back against the Chiefs, as people say, was one of the greatest games in football, where the Bills thought they finally had a shot in beating the Chiefs to get back to the championship game and to host the Bengals, only for the Chiefs to rally back to tie the game to send it into overtime, won the coin toss, and y’all where this was going: Bills never got the chance to get the ball. That is what I can think of when the kids were using Dirt’s method to not give their opponent time to come up with a perfect rebuttal to counteract in the debate. As a result, to wrap up the first half of the episode, the security guard has no other choice but to let the kids in. Oh yeah, they’re ready to haul some ass once the next day arrives as they enter the bar and for both Gibbons and Dirt to get them out.
The second half of the episode arrives, and so does the 48th Annual 49th State Debate as every debate team across every Alaskan school, public or private, comes into Lone Moose School where the debate competition will be held. The Tobins are being dropped off with Beef unwilling to attend the event just to cheer them on because of previous issues a couple of years ago for giving the mascot from the other school the middle finger, and he did not hold back on that. Luckily, Beef won’t be attending the event, and instead, his ticket goes to Gloria, who Dirt continues to attempt to win over by giving her the ticket to the competition to make an impression.
The kids are being dropped off, and here comes one of Lone Moose’s opponents for the competition and the school that they want to beat the most: the Juneau Horse Prep School. And yes, that is a school, in-universe wise, where, of course, it’s a private school for the elite, one of the students is pretty much a freaking nepo baby who is related to the principal, and speaking of the principal, looking like a Great Value version of Nikola Tesla with the way he was designed. The principal of the school, Principal Bowtie, comes in to mock the school as if they have the whole thing in the bag as Dirt comes in to strike back with a jab of her own by talking shit about his clothes. And you can already tell things are about to get heated between the two schools as if we’re about to watch the fight of the century... at the debate stage, of course, and we know already that they’ll meet in the finals because this is the antagonist of the episode. Might as well save you guys the trouble if you haven’t seen the episode and somehow stumble into this site.
We go back to the subplot of the episode with Wolf’s continuous attempt to woo his father, and since the fish kicking didn’t work out, he decides to give backflipping to the water a shot after just days ago, someone did the same thing that got Beef to say the word. He attempts to do the thing just so he can get Beef’s attention... only to hesitate and attempt to stall. Honeybee decides to help him by showing him how a backflip works as she does it to enter the water since everyone is doing it. Sadly for Wolf, Honeybee ended up stealing his thunder because Beef gave the whoa treatment to her. I mean, it is a nice backflip and well... it’s a freaking backflip and treating how they look like it’s freaking dunk contest during NBA All-Star but it’s something that Wolf just wants to do in this scene but doing the same thing some random guy did at the start of the episode. And the bad part about this, if you’re Wolf, is that the subplot was never touched upon again until we got to the end of the episode. Once the debate competition ends. At this point, man... might as well put the fries in the bag. It’s probably for the best. Because for the rest of the second half of the episode...
All of the focus is on the debate competition with every school, including Lone Moose School, to get ready to debate their butts out. Especially when we get to the next montage of the episode with Lone Moose, as expected for everyone and their mother, having to breeze through a couple of rounds all the way to the Finals. Using the DDV method to their advantage, as the montage shows, is working in their favor. Easily cruised through the competition, with each scene showing each team member going at it with their opponent, not having the opportunity to counteract even after making their statement. Especially that one scene in the montage by the end of it where the discussion is about why texting and driving should be banned; Lone Moose got the “don’t ban it” side, and even though for a quick moment, Judy knows that it feels like a topic that would get Lone Moose to lose in a snap. Thank God for Dirt’s DDV method to help Judy to breeze through the debate that officially punches Lone Moose’s ticket to the final round. And we condone anyone from having to text while driving.
It’s pretty much shades of what we saw in the Bob’s Burgers episode “Ain’t Miss Debatin’”, which is also a debate episode with Tina becoming a member of the Wagstaff debate team. Having someone who someway, somehow has expert debate skills and becomes a member of the said debate team and ends up becoming that team’s golden ticket to winning it all and also having to go face-to-face against a school who will find a way to play dirty, and we’ll get to that in a bit, and also a bit of a romance sideplot in-between with the main lead of their respective episodes. But if you have seen “Ain’t Miss Debatin’” when watching Bob’s Burgers and you have watched this episode of The Great North, you already know where this is going, and I’m not saying it in a bad way when describing this episode. Well, if you ignore the subplot for this week’s episode, it’s an interesting episode with someone who was introduced in the previous season, and it did not disappoint. So now, we finally reached the finals, and to no one’s surprise, it’s Lone Moose vs Juneau Horse Prep who will be squaring off at the debate stage. And with the DDV method working for the Lone Moose team, thanks to Dirt’s coaching, you’d think that Lone Moose will have an easy path to take the trophy home... or I guess staying home since the competition is in Lone Moose School, they probably think that they have this shit in the bag. Remember when I mentioned that the opposing school has to find a way to play dirty?
Juneau Horse Prep does that once Principal Bowtie enters the auditorium with a sheet of paper in hand that happens to be a page from the rulebook to make sure Juneau Horse Prep wins by default. By accusing Lone Moose of violating one of the rules, and I guess cheating their way to the finals. The rule in question revolves around, who else, Aunt Dirt. According to the rules, the coach of a high school debate team has to be a faculty member. Aunt Dirt is not a faculty member and is considered a stray adult; therefore, Lone Moose is disqualified, thanks to Gibbons bringing in Dirt to be the coach without even officially hiring her as part of the school faculty. Because we’re still in the third act of the episode. You’d think we’re gonna wrap this shit up that early? It happened to Wagstaff in “Ain’t Miss Debatin’” at the end of its third act, though it’s mostly Sasha doing the dirty work just by weaponizing Tina’s romance personality because she was falling for Duncan, who was introduced in the episode, despite being with Henry at the time. However, that one didn’t cause Wagstaff to be disqualified; it was more of falling into chaos so they could lose focus on stage. Here? The school had to pick up a random adult who once never had a position in the school faculty, and that is considered a big fat no-no.
Lone Moose is pretty much out of the race, thanks to Juneau Horse Prep playing dirty by accusing the school of cheating for hiring Aunt Dirt as their coach without even bothering to hire her. Don’t know if they let her keep her credentials as a lunch lady, but I had to Google check, and that won’t do any good to clear their names. About to get an asterisk added to their name as if they're the... well, I don’t see any sports teams who have done that where they have to bring in a random person who has no coaching experience without having to go through the hiring process. But then again, “The Mighty Pucks Adventure”, I don’t see any of the towns surrounding Lone Moose or Alaska in general accusing Lone Moose of bringing in a high school student as their head coach. Let alone an interim head coach to have a turnaround instead of having them lie down to die like they’re the Dallas Mavericks.
Back to the topic at hand, Lone Moose is disqualified from competing, automatically giving Juneau Horse Prep the trophy without even getting the chance to compete and a mighty fine asterisk that comes with it. The loss for Lone Moose means that Gibbons can’t beat Bowtie, but it would also mean that Dirt would lose her privilege as a lunch lady, even if it was for pretend, and would not get her alone time with Gloria. The school is about ready to waive the white flag and let Juneau Horse Prep take home the trophy and about to take the cheater label because Gibbons didn’t know that just a rule would exist, but alas, the damage is already. That was until Judy spotted a rule while taking a look at the rulebook that should serve as a loophole for Lone Moose to get them back to the debate stage. And if you remember what happened earlier in the episode when Dirt was caught by Gibbons after getting into a debate with Sandy, if you know, you know where this is going.
Especially once we wrapped up the third act of the episode and going into the fourth, where the supposed coronation comes to a sudden halt once Lone Moose enters the auditorium and tells the moderator, after losing a round of Wordle on her phone, and gives her the rulebook to let Lone Moose back to the competition thanks in part to a little loophole, rather, a reacharound after being disqualified for brining in Dirt who has no faculty history. The rule that Judy found states that if a player is disqualified, they can bring in one person from their school to serve as the backup. Juneau Horse Prep, as said by the nepo baby Bowtie Jr and later Bowtie himself, said that Lone Moose shouldn’t do that. Trying to get the supposed coronation going by saying that Lone Moose can’t bring Dirt back as an enrolled stray adult just because she’s old. Wow, gotta bring in the ageist card into the conversion, and we elect presidents who are lifetime AARP members.
Regardless, Lone Moose is allowed back to compete and here comes Juneau Horse Prep spewing more bullshit, thinking that they would put in an uncomfortable position. They already said that they can’t enroll Dirt because of her age, good luck telling that to colleges, especially community colleges, about that, and here we go again with them saying that a member of the team should be in high school and high school only in their desperate attacks towards Dirt. Especially when having to shoehorn Moon, who is only there as the team’s water boy, because he’s not a high schooler. Though, some props to Moon for having to tell Bowtie to correct his animal wardrobe, calling him a mouse even though he’s a bear. And coming in with the rebuttal from him, telling the opposing school that he’s not the substitute who will be stepping in, which Moon would easily put the opposing school to their place, but it’s not him who will be taking the stage...
It’s Aunt Dirt who is ready to chew some bubblegum and kick some ass. And the reason is simple for why Lone Moose had to pull out the rule about allowing a student to fill in after getting kicked out despite her being the coach. Go back to earlier in the episode when Dirt was caught impersonating a lunch lady. He pulled out her file and found out that Dirt is still a student since she never graduated. Meaning that she is still enrolled and is now eligible to step into the ring. Ready to become Lone Moose’s golden ticket to win the damn thing and with that, the appeal from Lone Moose is approved and they’re back in the competition with Dirt now taking over the wheel.
The topic for the final debate is about privatizing National Parks as both teams get into a hurdle with Juneau Horse Prep getting the “against” argument while Lone Moose gets the “in favor” argument with only a minute spare before both teams take the stage. And the team from Lone Moose... they might as well be fucked because Dirt, while she is good at debating and spewing bullshit so that the argument goes in her favor, doesn’t know about the topic and her first thought when it comes to the word “privatazing”, she thinks of privates, as in private parts. Gloria’s private parts, to be exact, because her mind is already becoming clouded and could serve as a hurdle. That’s where the DDV method comes into play, where instead of doing it on-stage like we saw throughout the montage leading up to where we are now, once Dirt and nepo baby take the stage and behind their respective podiums...
The Lone Moose team begin to heckle whenever Juneau Horse Prep get their turn speaking. Turning a debate competition into a heated town hall meeting. Using the DDV method by disrupting nepo baby Bowtie Jr whenever he gets to speak to the point, Judy, Ham, Gill, and Sandy use the method to make sure he loses his train of thought so that he would have trouble speaking so Dirt can have an easier time. Whether it’s Judy telling the Spawn of Bowtie to speak louder as if she got wax in her ear, Ham mixing words when hearing the argument, Sandy... being Sandy and having to raise her voice, and Gill pretending to find his contact lens where the debate had to be put on pause for a bit, it’s more than enough to waste his time before reaching zero. Hell, Moon is also committed to the bit by carrying a gallon of water to Dirt for her to drink before getting her turn to speak.
Dirt only speaks for 20 of the 60 seconds in her time to talk for her debate and not having to relate to the topic in question before handing the spotlight back to Bowtie Junior, which the moderator did tell Dirt that she only got 40 seconds to spare to continue her rebuttal, but decides to handing it over to her opponent. And that is what Dirt is doing as Juneau Horse Prep gets their turn once more, and oh boy, it’s not looking good for them once their clock starts. A possible PR nightmare for the school as Bowtie Jr continues to struggle to talk as Judy, Ham, Gill, and Sandy continue to heckle, and already it’s working. Bowtie disciple is currently losing his train of thought to the point where the audience, led by the Lone Moose Team, are twisting his words like they’re the internet police and would bring Dirt’s age, gender, and orientation into light. The moment something like this would happen when trying to think before you talk while having to deal with angry constituents to the point where you gonna trip on where you speak and twist an ankle or two, it’s GGs. That's a career-ender right there. And on Women’s History Month, too? Holy shit, dude. You’re done, man. You’re done. And as a result, going into the two-minute warning of the episode...
Lone Moose won the competition after what the moderator thinks was a lackluster final debate that turned into an angry and out-of-control town hall meeting. The plan worked that got Juneau Horse Prep to lose their guard and I guess their favorability and as a result, taking the trophy home, or rather, keeping the trophy home since the place of the competition is on their home turf. However, a deal is a deal since the start of the episode from Gibbons, and even though one of the promotional images for this episode and the one from the upcoming episode that is set to air on April 13 called “Dial M for Moon-der Adventure” that pretty much spoiled the outcome for this episode, and Dirt...
She gets to keep her job, rather, officially hired as a full-time cafeteria worker for the school. Even though it should be up to the food distributor who gave the food to the school for the students to eat to make the hiring decision, but Dirt is here to stay at the school as part of the deal. The team asks Dirt if she has anything to say since she has been a big help to get them to where they are, winning the trophy and having to beat Juneau Horse Prep, finally allowing Gibbons to one-up the principal for once. You know, hoping for a wholesome message to give to them before asking Gibbons to hand over the keys to the lunch lady lounge, which is technically a storage room closet in the kitchen with a microwave and a coffee maker to make it look like one, and with that, she’s off to a one-way ride to Gloria-polis.
The family meet up outside of the school after winning the event with Dirt having to stay around just to get some lunch lady coochie with everyone preparing to head home with Moon out of nowhere carrying a box of fireworks when walking out. Apparently, those are celebratory fireworks in the event the team wins the competition. Of course, and this is us going back to the subplot, Wolf decides to get carry the fireworks and rather if it’s intentionally as if he wanted to do it since we’re at the end of the episode or accidentally set it off while even knowing where he was going, he slides through the ice patch on the sidewalk and attempting to keep his balance as the fireworks goes off and that’s more than enough for Beef to let out a “whoa”. Thus, ending the subplot, Wolf finally gets his father’s reaction. Still think it’s fires in the bag for him if the subplot were to end after the third act of the episode.
Finally reached the episode for Dirt, who is now officially an employee as a cafeteria worker, thanks to the deal that was made by Gibbons; she’s finally getting what she wants. Dirt opens the door and sees Gloria waiting for her to come in and, uh... yeah, this is where we end the episode with them getting down and dirty. And with Dirt now officially a lunch lady, I can guess that this won’t be the last we’ll see of Gloria as long as Dirt continues to appear in the school along with the Tobin kids. So, the moral of the story: remember the three letters in the event you get into an argument or a debate. Don’t try this at home, is what I’m saying.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So, all in all, what do I think about this week’s episode of The Great North? This was an interesting episode, to say the least. And for this being the first episode to have Dirt to have the full spotlight since her debut last season, it did not disappoint. Well, aside from the subplot that feels like it was going nowhere with Wolf wanting to get his father to be impressed by him, it was an interesting episode.
It was shades of “Ain’t Miss Debatin’” from Bob’s Burgers, with this episode being a debate episode and all, and even though, when having to compare the two, sure, the Bob’s one was more interesting than this one. Mainly because of the subplot, and that episode of Bob’s Burgers introduced us to Duncan and what’s not to like about the guy. Here, you have Dirt giving it her all as if she’s making her first official impression to the viewers on what she got since making her debut in the previous season. And it did not disappoint wth her being named the coach of the debate team. Even if it was sort of the show’s way of paying homage to Jane Lynch’s character that she played before and a well-known one in Sue Sylvester from Glee, she was one hell of a coach and sure, the notion of her finding out that she never graduated from school, making me believe now that she went into hiding around her late teens and would probably put her in her 70s than her 80s as I what thought when we were first introduced to her was interesting to say the least.
And even though one of the promotional images for this episode and the one for an upcoming episode set to air on April 13 did spoil the outcome for this episode, it looks like Dirt is here to stay as a cafeteria worker and I would not be surprised if we see more of Gloria and see where this little interaction goes from here. Sandy is also an interesting character, even though it was giving me Harley vibes just by being a loudmouth and hopefully doesn’t become a possible replacement of Drama John because we have yet to see him so far this season even though we did but it was a non-speaking cameo and it was to dress up as Judy in her Bonesy heist. Let’s hope that’s not the case. Other than that, aside from the subplot that was... uh... there... Honeybee did a backflip, so there’s that, it was an interesting episode and quite the impression for Dirt in her first official episode of the series since her introduction last season. So I’ll give “Can’t Hardly Debate Adventure”...
A 7.5 out of 10. But that’s my opinion and I wanna hear yours in the comments below. We got another episode coming up on Sunday to wrap up March and going into April with some ice skating with Judy and Moon when Judy fears that Moon is drifting away from her and we’re getting the return of Zelda if you remember her from “Sister Pact Too Adventure” and a small scene in “Risky Beefness Adventure” as she becomes the Tobins’ new neighbor, good God, Carissa needs to come in to this since the pact is pretty much null and void once again, in the seventh episode of Season 5 in “It’s Compliskated Adventure”.
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