Two episodes remain after this one, which will be posted after this. A few days, to be exact, once this review is posted. Would never expect that when doing these since 2014 with the Bob’s Burgers reviews, if it does reach the end, which is God knows when, so I guess till I die, that I would have to do a final episode review. Especially in the coming days, since this upcoming Sunday is a double header, so a week to do so before getting back to the Bob’s Burgers side of things in preparation for the upcoming 300th episode to start Season 16. I mean, it’s no secret that FOX is currently edging on what the fate of The Great North is going to be, whether or not it’s going to get renewed, and potentially finding a new home. Even though the signs are becoming clearer and clearer by the day, that we may have now already know what the answer is going to be, stranger things can happen between now, at the time of writing the review, to the day of or the day or week after the finale that you’d think it’s still 50:50, even though it’s already a 90:10 or possibly a 95:5 that it’s GGs.
It’s pathetic on FOX’s part for edging on the news. Not telling us what the status of the show and I get that it’s a complicated process because that decision would have to go to the head of the network to either extend it to another season or pull the plug, and whether or not it would slap the trade clause because they got nothing better to do, go ahead and tell anyone who is a Cowboys fan that following the Parsons trade, even though the signs are there from poor ratings (possibly due to piss poor advertisement) to now animators and other crew members ready to move on as if they already saw the writing on the wall. And a network meddling with the show or a company meddling with a film project isn’t new. We saw that with Disney, with any other show, with the prime example being, maybe you heard of it, Hailey’s On It, after one season. One fucking season that ended in a fucking cliffhanger.
This shit ain’t new, and despite the pressure by the fans... It’s sickening, alright. It’s fucking sickening to see that kind of practice with our own eyes, that people should’ve put the pieces together since the start of this season, or rather, at the end of last season, but brushed it off thinking that nothing was going to happen or that we’re being hyperbolic the same way most people aren’t fucking bothered that we’re hurling towards a dictatorship with troops being sent to cities as if a civil war is about to erupt. This shit ain’t new, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon because if the show doesn’t make the network money, or probably fall into pressure by the whining from whatever in the political scale, mainly the right, it’s GGs for said show despite a loyal fanbase who watch it daily or the hour when dropping all in one day. Welcome to the world of capitalism, folks.
Oh yeah, cartoon community, y’all are not getting out of this axe grinding because... what the fuck are we doing? What the fuck are we doing?! Y’all had one job. One job. If you can’t get past three episodes at least when planning on watching, that I can understand. That I can understand. We’re treating it as if we’re trying out new foods when trying to expand our taste without wanting to develop a case of food poisoning or possible rejection from your digestive system. But there comes a time when you have to at least give it another shot and go through the whole season. Especially if some of y’all decide to be freaking hypocrites when deciding to go the full 180 from “Nah, I don’t feel like it” to “Oh no, that sucks. Might as well give it a watch even though it got canned.”
At least show your support, especially when watching it via streaming (Hulu in the US and Disney+ outside the US) in a legal manner... yeah... legal, so y’all can watch through five seasons. At least try to do just that, just to boost the numbers. And if we do get a Season 6, knowing that FOX doesn’t have any room unless they’re doing another summer block like what we got earlier this year, which... please don’t, I’m drained from doing that, Hulu, or I guess fully Disney+ once 2026 rolls, but not the whole thing, just the standalone app because Disney+ has that Hulu on Disney+ feature, streaming might as well be the way to go like with what happened with Nickelodeon with The Legend of Korra back in 2014 when airing the remainder of Season 3 and the entirety of Season 4.
As for yours truly, once the news becomes official, since this is pretty much year two of talking about The Great North, I’m still going to do Bob’s Burgers because that is my tried and true. Especially with Season 16 right around the corner. But that’s the first 10 episodes of the 15-episode count per season following that renewal. Because once we get to the Winter/Spring half of the new AniDom season... It’s pretty much a waiting game with the remaining five episodes, this is just a guess, by the way, take it with a grain of salt, with the block having to make room for Family Guy, Grimsburg, and the long return of American Dad to the block, and with no new Great North episodes, if it does get canned, then I’ll probably find a way to improvise while at the same time, trying to go easy with myself without having to fry my brain. But other than that, if the double episodes this upcoming Sunday are going to be the end of The Great North, especially with the second of the double episodes in “It’s a Beef-derful Life Adventure” since it’s written by the Molyneuxs, might as well try to make it as much as I can to make it somewhat of a sendoff. And until then, please give it a try and support it. Or as this video below would say, you otherwise...
Welcome to desperation mode. We’re at that level now. In this week’s episode of The Great North, what was supposed to be a foolproof schedule for the upcoming Summer vacation for the Tobins, with a trip to the amusement park on the line, hits a massive dent when Ham now has to race against the clock to do his class projects to avoid summer school, as Wolf dons a set of modified eyebrows after what was supposed to be a simple plucking in my spoilerific review of the twentieth episode of Season 5 of The Great North, titled “Cakeleratiton of Judedependence Adventure”. And I would have an introduction set, but the rant, once again, serves as an introduction just to blow off some steam. So uh... let’s get to the review and breakdown portion of the episode.
The episode begins with a family meeting that Judy is hosting for the rest of the Tobin family, listening in. Seeing the presentation that Judy is showing, with the summer months of June, July, and August being filled with plans for each family member in a way to balance things out, with that one week in June not filled up. And Judy has everything planned for whatever the others are doing for the summer vacation before Judy, Ham, and Moon return for the next school year. Whether it’s one week with Moon having to go to his Lil’ Preppers camping trip to Honeybee and Wolf visiting Fresno for the almond festival, to Dirt... doing whatever she is planning on doing for the summer, as Judy dubs it “horny season”, that the family should avoid when paying a visit to the Wooly Ma’am. Which is pretty much July in Dirt’s standards. But beyond all else, other than other events that were mentioned by Judy, like the best time to catch fresh salmon in the open waters, to Ham visiting a baking convention, Judy wants to make sure that nothing can ruin the planned-out summer for every Tobin, including her, to do during the next three months. And this is where that one week in June that was left unfilled gets brought up, which is pretty much the goal if things go correctly as planned, and a trip that the family, primarily Judy, always wanted to go on. A little place called Maple World out in Winnipeg.
Think of it as Canadian Disney World, but with syrup as the theme, because aside from Vermont, which almost sounds like a Vermont exclusive, since that state’s resource is maple syrup, but Canada loves their maple syrup so much that there has to be an amusement park somewhere in Canada, with Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the location. Just need the plan to go well and their passports ready to go. And it’s a dream vacation that they wanted to go straight out of a National Lampoon movie, and they don’t want to miss it like last time. Because the last time they were supposed to go to the amusement park, of course, fucking Kathleen. Having to trade away tickets for a jug of white wine. And the kids were devastated when that happened six years ago because they wanted to go, but their mother... well, it’s typical Kathleen behavior. Though the flashback was off, or at least, in my opinion, because last I checked... didn’t Kathleen leave the family after Moon was born? Like, right as Moon was a toddler, or at least 3-4, maybe 5 years old at the minimum, when all of that was happening? Just putting it out there. Also putting it out there, the mention of bar mitzvah money that Moon had. Last I checked, the Tobins aren’t Jewish. And that’s not me saying it, Moon brought it up to correct Ham in Season 2’s “Beef’s Craig Beef Adventure”.
Though the art game for the scene when the family describes the theme park was pretty impressive to say the least. It was coming out of a freaking painting when looking at each scene of their hypothetical trip to the amusement park, and like the thought bubble and fantasy a few episodes ago during the previous doubleheader back in June, the show’s art game with the hypothetical was top-notch, so that you could say that it feels like it was movie quality. Though if there is a movie that would serve as the show’s proper conclusion, then that is the quality that I want to see. It would cost them the big bucks to have that, but with the show that is likely going to be GGs, at least give us a proper conclusion if that were to be the case, instead of a Season 6.
It’s similar to what we saw with the Comic-Con poster from last year, with the Tobins at Maude’s with that style in comparison to what we are seeing with the Tobins hypothetically enjoying their time at Maple World if things go right as planned. It’s an amazing art quality with those scenes, even if it was still frames and not a fully animated one, and having to move around, and yeah, this is the type of shit that you don’t see in Bob’s Burgers despite the quality we got in the movie, but still. The closest you would get with that similar style would be, yes, “Mother Author Laser Pointer” with the Snail and Newt story. I would love to see that if the show were to give another shot to give us another chance in giving us a movie to serve as a proper conclusion. But other than that, the artwork with the stills was good and really upped the art game with that as Judy and the rest of the Tobin come into an agreement to not have one fuck up, just one fuck up with the trip to Maple World on the line. God, I wish I could own a piece of merch from the show. Without any silly business that could pose a threat to me or my family, in GTA.
Onto the next scene of the episode, into the guest cabin, pretty much seeing the view of the inside of the newly renovated place... the first floor to the exact, where Honeybee is in the midst of plucking a rogue eyebrow hair on Wolf’s face. The lone eyebrow hair was plucked and prevented what would’ve been a potential unibrow for the guy, before Honeybee spots another rogue eyebrow and decides to pull it out. Before she noticed that she fucked up and decided to pull out a pencil to patch it up... and again, and again, until finally, in comes the set of angry eyebrows that Wolf is now donning that you can’t tell if he’s upset or happy. At least Wolf cleared things up that while he should be upset with the result, at least it got the rogue eyebrow out of his system. Hopefully, going into later in the episode, doesn’t draw concern when coming across whenever him and Honeybee are out of the house.
Later on into the night, going into the next scene, into Judy’s room with Judy doing some calling as she goes through what I’m guessing is the school directory. She does it when making a lot of calls by trying to convince every student, one by one, to vote for her for the category of “Most Talented Student”, since it is the end of the school year and she wants to get her hands on said award. Especially since her only other opponent, who was nominated for the title, is, of course, Stacy B. She tries to convince the students, named Jason, who was her lab partner, to cast a vote for her ahead of the last day of school... only for that offer to be declined, and she plans on voting for Stacy. Which upsets Judy right as he hangs up. So, it’s not looking good for Judy when it comes to the voting process, and she fears that she could potentially lose to her arch-rival and might not hear the end of it. But that’s just one issue for Judy for this episode, and as long as everything that is planned for the summer goes as planned, it can’t get any worse for her as it progresses, right? Right? Riiiight? Riiiiiiii- y’all already know where this is going.
Judy heard some noise in the background that happened to be Ham’s voice. And speaking of Ham, he enters Judy’s room, looking all nervous as if he had something to share that could spell trouble for everyone, but most notably, Judy. Ham tries to remain calm and collected, despite being in a nervous state, because he knows that what he just did would hinder everything Judy had organized for the family, creating an opening for a trip to Maple World. Telling her how they shared a class, rather, used to share a class this past semester, which threw their little dynamic out of whack and for Ham, just to get to the point on what he is going to say that he knows that it would trigger Judy, the guy is on the verge of failing the semester and could be placed in summer school because he didn’t do a project in class... or rather, projects from all of his classes. All due in two days.
And the worst part from Ham that could really be the icing on the turd cake that could disrupt the summer plans, the starting date for summer school for Ham if he fails to do all of his projects by the last day of school, which is in two days, happens to be on the week when the Tobins were supposed to go to Maple World. And you can already tell that Judy is seconds away from wanting to commit homicide towards Ham, in GTA, because she worked hard on creating a planned summer vacation for everyone to follow, with a single week left open for a trip out of town, and hoping for no one to have a single fuck up that would hinder their summer vacation. But I guess Judy can’t have nice things now, is it? Throughout the season, no less.
Ham’s little fuck up that would put the Tobins’ plan for a week out of town to Maple World, which is now in jeopardy, causes Judy to call an emergency meeting with just Ham and Judy, along with Moon and Dirt, to discuss about pulling an all-nighter between now and the next night, because, for the rest of the episode, it’s no Tobin left behind. Each Tobin sibling has to do all three of Ham’s soon-to-be-overdue assignments; yes, they have to resort to cheating because Ham can’t do all three in one sitting. I mean, he could, and it’s not like I’m calling him lazy or something; it just seems impossible to do all three in a couple of days with a trip to the amusement park hanging in the balance. The three projects in question, as seen on the board, that Ham needs to turn in are to create a video diary, do some coding, and do something called pedestrian arts. And it’s not the way of what you would think, it’s mostly him having to do some steps.
And there’s also a fourth item on the time table that is meant for Dirt by Judy. Which is to distract Beef because it’s the last thing they want when having to help Ham out by doing some cheating. Keeping Beef busy is the name of the game for Dirt, while Judy, Ham, and Moon have to do all of Ham’s homework when having to race against the clock. Don’t worry about Wolf and Honeybee since they’re busy with their own situation regarding his eyebrows. Of course, knowing Moon, he can’t go through with the plan unless compensation is made. A deal to be exact. Judy tells Moon that Maple World is the deal, but it’s the road to the park that is the quick subject matter that Moon wants to make a deal out of. The deal: not wanting to sit in the middle seat while being on the open road. In which Ham has to come in and say to Moon when he suggests that he doesn’t want to sit in the middle seat of the back. Calling him a “sick fuck”, with the word bleeped out, because, of course, which is an out of nowhere wowzer from someone like Ham to say something like that. But if it means getting Ham a good grade to pass the semester and get everything back on schedule, leaving the middle to whoever is unlucky to take, so be it. And with that, that’s the end of the first act of the episode with the kids and Dirt teaming up to help Ham pass his classes so that the Tobins can finally go to Maple World after the mishap that happened six years ago prevented them from doing that.
Onto the second act of the episode, going into the next day, and it’s crunch time for the Tobin kids in “Operation: Get Ham a Good Grade So We Can Get to Maple World, So Help Me God”, with each sibling doing their assigned job of doing Ham’s homework with Ham getting ready to do his part in filming a video for one of his classes. And as much as Judy wants to go and play director to make sure Ham follows the script, she has to do one of Ham’s assignments in coding, which is something that Judy knows nothing about. Probably wished she had an audiobook of Coding for Dummies installed and listened to in her sleep in preparation for her task, and no, this isn’t a sponsor for Amazon Kindle, this isn’t a YouTube video. Besides, your boy will never sell out if there’s a sponsor. Ham begins his would-be acting skills once the camera rolls as Judy leaves Ham’s room so she can begin doing her part with the trip to Maple World on the line.
Dirt does her part in the whole mission in distracting Beef to make sure it doesn’t draw concern from him, and could disrupt the process. And Dirt knows what Beef wants because she can probably read him like an open book when having to play the distraction action, what’s his junction card once we transition to the bunker, as each sibling begins to do their part. She decides to gift his nephew a present that he can’t turn away like he’s a kid on Christmas: a hazmat suit. That alone should give Beef something to celebrate because with Dirt gifting him the suit, not knowing that it was her doing a task given by Judy to distract him, he thinks that today is finally the day to clear the asbestos within her bunker. Knowing that the bunker was made during the Cold War era, it was asbestos city since there was no regulation at the time on it that would cause some mesothelioma that the Tobins would’ve banked on a compensation for. Once again, Beef is feeling giddy over the idea that he’s getting a hazmat suit and is about to clear the asbestos like a kid on Christmas opening his gifts, not knowing that it’s all a distraction just to keep him busy.
Checking up on the subplot of the episode with Wolf and Honeybee struggling to find an available parking spot on their way to get a professional to give Wolf his normal eyebrows. However, it looks like the eyebrows might be doing their magic, especially when trying to park the van, I don’t know why they can’t just take Honeybee’s car, but whatever, I guess, once Vera was about to take the final spot in the lot, and a shocking turn of events for the first time in their lives, Vera was scared away from the spot and giving the spot to Wolf and Honeybee. Someone as scary as Vera is scared away by Wolf just because of the angry set of eyebrows that Honeybee accidentally drew on this face. That is quite the experience that Wolf and Honeybee got, and it looks like the eyebrows might be here to stay as the episode progresses. Because with Wolf’s angry eyebrows, knowing the montage later on in the second act, it would be used as something that should be used in their favor, as if Wolf is being painted as the bad boy. Or an evil twin no one would know and have his name spelled backwards from Wolf to Flow.
Back to the main plot of the episode, with Moon doing one of Ham’s missed assignments as he walks across the forest around the backyard of the house. It’s basically Ham having to record his timing when taking a stroll, even though Judy wrote pedestrian arts instead of performing whatever K steps Ham should take, but it’s one of the three assignments that Ham needs to pass before the end of the school year. He tries to do his best to stay focused without wanting to fall into temptation in whatever the forest has in store for him, whether it’s him wanting to have a staring contest with a squirrel or creating a pinecone army, but spoiler alert, Moon can’t help himself create a pinecone army later on in the scene before finally getting his head straight. Noticing that he only made about a hundred steps out of, I guess, thousands that were assigned to Ham, and needs to do a lot more before handing the watch over once night hits.
We check up on Judy’s side of the task as she is on the computer, and since she has no experience in coding, she decides to go to a forum site that may or may not be Reddit and sends a post for some advice. And it didn’t take long for the first comment to arrive... and then gets flooded with message after message. Spam, to be exact, with some probably posting some inappropriate stuff, probably some GIFs that you probably see in some Instagram posts. The companies would rather put in AI to age verify, which would be free game for hackers to use, instead of combating spam accounts. What the hell are we doing?!
However, things might not be looking good for Dirt’s side of the ring because we transition back to the bunker with Beef now about to take off the hazmat suit after clearing all of the asbestos from the bunker walls. And Dirt knows that this could spell trouble because the kids need time to get all of Ham’s assignments done by the end of the day, and Beef coming to see either of the kids doing one of Ham’s work, primarily Moon doing Ham’s PE work when walking around the area would mess everything up and could put a massive dent in a already dented plan for the summer. So now, Dirt has to improvise to make sure Beef does not leave the bunker. And she does so by knocking a container filled with nuts and bolts for Beef to pick up. And for a moment there, it seems that Beef might’ve picked up a case of OCD once Dirt threatens to put different types of bolts into the same container, similar to how Moon would do in Season 3’s “Arranger-ous Minds Adventure”. Who knows if that shit might as well be hereditary at best when it comes to that. But how should I know? I’m not a psychiatrist. And speaking of Moon...
We check up on him as he finds an easy way out to do Ham’s assignments of having to do a mile by bringing in a dog to do his work. Delmer’s dog, to be exact, named Bonnie, with Moon thinking that he would dog-sit, but in actuality, it’s mostly to use the dog to add a lot of steps. And dogs are known for speed, which should be enough for Moon to tie the wristwatch around its neck like it’s a collar so it can give him the results he needs just to get the task out of the way. Of course, knowing that we’re still in the second act of the episode, things would fall apart... in a would-be plan that is already crumbling like it’s a piece of dry wall that has seen better days. Because what was supposed to be a “foolproof” plan for Moon by using Delmer’s dog as the easy way out by playing a round of fetch turns into a search for a runaway dog. Not looking so good for three of the four Tobin siblings, with the clock already ticking and the deadline approaching. We know that it’s already the second act of the episode, and we're about to make our way to the end of the first half. You all already know the deal: we can’t have nice things. Well, unless you’re Wolf and Honeybee at the moment. And speaking of them...
Going back to the subplot, it looks like the two are riding high on what just happened regarding Wolf’s new set of eyebrows. And scaring Vera away for the final parking spot in what was originally going to be Wolf getting a professional to remove what Honeybee did, before deciding to use it to give the town what they want, like they’re a couple of... well, a bully in the schoolyard. And here comes the next place for Wolf’s eyebrows to be used as an advantage, like they’re a couple of Make-A-Wish kids with Honeybee trying to tell the receptionist to cancel her gym membership, in which the receptionist declined and told Honeybee to take it to the main office, before having a change of heart after seeing the eyebrows. But why stop there? Because we go into montage mode with the two getting what they want when using Wolf’s eyebrows as an advantage. From wanting to get his license patched because it got his last name wrong to checking on the status of the car at the repair shop, it’s like they’re tired of the shit they’re dealing with, and what was supposed to be a simple eyebrow plucking, which turned into a fuck up over trying to pluck a couple of rogue eyebrow hairs that leads us to this exact moment with the angry set of eyebrows as if Wolf is about to be seconds away from having a place to be a top headline story on the five o’clock news, they’re really enjoying life with the eyebrows to serve as an advantage. Not knowing that with every action comes with a consequence, once we get to the second half of the episode.
We go back to the Tobin cabin, once day turns to night, and time starts to run out for Ham to get this shit ready for the last day of school, once Judy enters Ham’s room to check up on him to see if he made any progress with his video diary. And already, it’s not looking good for Ham because he needs to get everything out by the end of the day tomorrow, and for the rest of the Tobin family to have their way at Maple World. Hoping for, of course, a no Tobin left behind initiative. Out of the 49 videos that Ham was supposed to make for his class, yes, you read that correctly, 49 videos, he only made three. Once again, not looking good for everyone because the trip is on the line. And where was Ham in all of this, even though he made only three videos out of the 49 he was supposed to do? He was busy making a cake that was 10 feet long that it has to be created at the shed, and the cake in question references the Declaration of Independence, with Ham finally getting a hold of mimicking the signature that belongs to Button Gwinnett. Button Gwinnett, of course, was one of the people who signed the Declaration and was the Governor of Georgia; hence, a county within Metro Atlanta is named after him. Gwinnett County represent, boi, despite currently being in Texas, but was raised there.
But aside from that, things are not looking good for the Tobins, primarily Judy, on the verge of crashing out towards Ham for slacking off. And if that’s not enough, here comes Moon, who tells Judy and Ham that he lost Delmer’s dog when trying to do the easy way out, when having to track the run time for each step. Well, it looks like the search for Bonnie, Delmer’s dog, was short, as we are about to reach the halfway point of the episode.
Yep, Bonnie ate the cake. The dog ate about 80% of the cake, which doesn’t have any ingredients that were made for dogs, and decided to go full Scooby-Doo and eat it without any problems. Well, now a problem that the dog is likely going to have is an upset stomach from eating too much. But regardless, at the halfway point of the episode, the Tobins might as well kiss their trip to Maple World goodbye thanks to everything that was out of their control while trying to help Ham pass his classes before the school year ends. Looks like that ain’t happening now for the family, and, of course, Judy. Who was hoping that this year would finally be the year she and the family would go to the amusement park after Kathleen traded away their tickets for a wine bottle, but instead, they will be staying put in Lone Moose, thanks in part to Ham not doing well in his classes. It’s pretty much the gold standard when it comes to sitcoms, and I guess life itself, we can’t have nice fucking things. Even if we’re at the halfway point of the episode.
Onto the second half of the episode, with the kids transporting Bonnie to the veterinarian to be treated. Judy is on the verge of crashing out after what happened that spiraled out of her and everyone’s, but mostly her control. Judy was about to crash out on Ham because of what happened. I mean, you could blame Moon for losing Delmer’s dog, not knowing that the dog would wind up in the shack and eat the whole cake, and knowing dogs when food is lying on the ground or left unattended, like what Ham did before this exact moment, it was free eats... literally. Well, at least we can now know that Ham will now tell his teachers that the dog ate his homework... literally... if the cake was for an assignment for class. And this ticked Judy off. Ticked more than ever because of what Ham was actually doing. Because it was revealed that Ham was procrastinating. He was procrastinating because he said to Judy that he made the cake not for a class assignment, but instead, he did it for fun. He was bored. Feeling like he wanted to do the job because he knows what’s at stake, but instead, he gave in to the procrastinating bug, and decided to make a giant ass cake. Because he was bored. Yeah, not looking good for Ham, but it’s not looking good for Judy as she is seconds away from lashing out at Ham...
Only to be interrupted by Beef coming into the building, meaning that their plan to help Ham pass his assignments has already collapsed. Thanks in part to a phone call from Dr. French after treating Bonnie and knowing that the kids were the ones who had to drive him there, of course, they need an adult to do the job as transport, even though it’s not their dog, it’s Delmer’s. But regardless, an adult has to be called, and Beef was available to do the job as an escort because Wolf and Honeybee have their own thing, which we’ll get to in a sec, and Dirt... I don’t know what the hell she was doing when trying to keep Beef busy, not knowing that he had his phone with him. Should’ve taken drastic measures like knocking him out, in GTA, just to buy the kids time. But here we are, and for Judy, y’all already know, we’re seconds away from a potential nuclear crashout coming from her going into the next scene of the main plot.
Checking back on Wolf and Honeybee at the bar as they continue their momentum of having Wolf’s eyebrows as an advantage, so that they don’t feel like they’re being walked over. But it looks like their luck is about to run out because the eyebrows caught the attention of a few bar patrons, thinking that Wolf is looking for a fight since the eyebrows do look intimidating and give that “I want to fight. I’ll kick your little ass so hard that you’ll be crying like bitch back to mommy” feeling. Both Wolf and Honeybee try to clear things up, saying that the eyebrows were an accident because she was plucking a few hairs before messing around to give him the set, and uses it as an advantage. But knowing those bar patrons, those muscular bar patrons who are always looking for a fight for the simplest of things, they got a fight and a fight that Wolf and Honeybee don’t want to be a part of as they make a break for it and hide behind the dumpster, hoping for everything to die down. Did I say that their luck may have run out? Well, it is. Their luck when using the eyebrows as an advantage comes to a close, realizing the consequences that come with it. Even if it’s for the simplest of things, like a set of eyebrows. Treating it like how the internet reacted to the Cracker Barrel logo.
Going back to the main plot of the episode, we finally got our Judy crashout once she and the rest of the Tobins returned home from the veterinarian after having to go get Delmer’s dog treated. She’s going nuclear on everyone, mainly Ham, because he was the one at fault, but it’s everyone who is getting the smoke from her. She worked really hard on the schedule for the summer to balance things out for each member of the family. She worked really hard to balance things out. Hoping for this year to finally be the year that they go to Maple World after missing out six years ago, thanks in part to their mother being a terrible human being trading away the tickets for a wine bottle behind the bar at 3:00 in the morning the same way your parent bought the present you wanted for your birthday, only to be accidentally dropped, ran over, picked up by the garbage folks, and burn it when being transported into the incinerator. She worked hard on it because Ham had to go and fuck it up because he and Judy had other classes at the start of the semester that would put him at a disadvantage.
And look, Judy does have the right to be upset over this because she had everything planned out. She was bearing down the responsibility of certain tasks each Tobin had to do if they wanted to balance their summer plans before the Fall season arrived and for the kids to return to school for the new school year. The right to crashout. Not just because of Ham in this episode, for him not doing shit with the classes that it took just now at the zero hour to do his work and hoping to avoid going to summer school, but instead decided to slack off and bake a cake, but the whole season. And you know where I’m going with this. Because even though we know that Ham was treated a bit dirty throughout the season, from having to end his relationship with Crispin to falling into a depressive state after finding out his ex is in a new relationship, not to mention nearly got mauled by a beaver, nearly got battered on the skating ice, not to mention being a part of a bet, scolded for missing the last time the Tobins had a reservation at a French restaurant due to a health emergency, and oh yeah, this episode with him on the verge of failing the semester, it’s Judy who ended up getting the short end of the stick.
This wasn’t her best season, and not the season that she wants to go out on. You can tell that the fall off is real regarding Judy. And I like Judy. She’s my favorite character. But good God, her Linda Belcher side is starting to show when it comes to the insufferable side of things. Y’all did my girl dirty. Y’all made her dirty. Shades of when Bob crashed out on Teddy in “The Gene Mile” after failing to get tickets. This is not how she wants to go out if the show doesn’t get renewed, or at least a movie to wrap things up, and I guess valid for having a crashout, even though the crashout is on her scolding Ham for messing up with the plan because of him not doing his work and putting the trip to Maple World in jeopardy. She leaves the living room and goes up the stairs in anger, leaving the boys feeling bad for fucking up everything as if they’re not taking this seriously.
We go back on Wolf and Honeybee as if what they’re doing is not helping Judy’s case in trying to have a foolproof schedule for the summer. The coast is now clear once the bar patrons who want to beat the ever-living shit out of Wolf because of the eyebrows. And now, the two know that their little experience with the eyebrows being used for their advantage has to come to an end, if it means not wanting to get into a bruhaha once caught. Or at least to clear Wolf’s image once a cat called Dr. Whiskers popped out of the dumpster, already recognized as a runaway cat due to the collar that had the owner's name and information for lost return. And that is what Wolf and Honeybee have to do when trying to clear his image when it comes to the eyebrows. Painting him as a non-intimidating person in all of Lone Moose. Too bad that plan blew up in their faces once the two made their way to the cat’s owner’s house, thinking that it was a hostage situation at the door.
Ending up at the police station because of a misunderstanding, thanks in part to the eyebrows. Because the cat’s owner thinks that it was a kidnapping in progress, even though Wolf and Honeybee were only just returning the cat’s owner after spotting the animal in the dumpster while hiding from a few bar patrons who wanted to catch the smoke. Edna pulls up the wanted poster of the sketch to compare it with Wolf's, focusing on the eyebrows. Good job, sketch department. Feels like it was drawn out of MS Paint when having to be drawn. And rather than locking Wolf and Honeybee behind bars for the night, which, of course, would create even more problems for Judy than ever when dealing with the current situation, she’s dealing with Ham, Edna decides to drop the case, and once again, gives both Wolf and Honeybee a warning and got left without any legal action whatsoever from what happened earlier in the episode. Corruption at its finest, especially in a small town. Wolf and Honeybee are let go, but not before Edna plans on giving Wolf a little going-away gift before calling it a night. It was fun while it lasted, but the eyebrows have got to go. Knowing that we’re now less than four minutes left in the episode, it’s for the best. Even if he does end up with no eyebrows. Spoiler alert, he has no eyebrows going into the final act of the episode.
As we transition back to the main plot of the episode as we prepare to close out the third act of the episode and going into the fourth and final act of the third-to-last episode of the season (and possibly series) with Ham, of course, feeling bad about the whole thing that caused Judy to be extremely upset with his shenanigans that pretty much cost the family a trip to Maple World. Beef comes in, and as much as he wants to scold Ham for not doing work that resulted in Judy being upset and pretty much costing the family the trip for the summer, along with not having to pass his classes, drastic times call for drastic measures, with the clock ticking, Beef decides to follow Judy’s idea from earlier in the episode, which is to cheat their way to help Ham pass his courses. Something that should’ve been dealt with earlier, without having to keep Beef occupied, and I know that cheating is wrong and not the way to go, but it’s pretty much the only option they've got, even if it means helping Ham pass his classes, so that Judy doesn’t feel upset, and can finally get to Maple World. Even if it means pulling an all-nighter and developing a slight case of insomnia.
So, going into the fourth and final act of the episode, transitioning from the cabin to Dirt’s bunker, where the rest of the Tobins, minus Judy, all have a job to do if they want to beat the clock before sunrise. We know that in the video diary assignment, Ham has to be behind the camera, but he needs a director since he can’t pretty much self-direct the set of videos. That’s where Wolf and Honeybee come into play, and yes, Wolf doesn’t have his eyebrows after what happened earlier. Better than having to be pummeled if you ask me. Leaving Moon and Dirt at diorama duty, and Beef having to do a mile. But, he’s not going to do all the walking, and instead, like what Moon tried to do early in the episode, decides to do the easy way out.
And that is exactly what Beef, as well as the others, are doing, going into the next scene with a montage of everyone doing their part. It was the zero hour, and each Tobin was trying their best to make sure everything looked believable enough to convince each teacher from each class that it should be good enough to give Ham a good grade for the semester. And if it means pulling a Bob a couple of weeks ago in “Insomni-Bob”, calm down, it’s nothing like that where they would have to feel like shit due to a lack of sleep. Just giving it their all from the three assignments up until the 3:00 AM hour, and having to do it quickly as if they have all the time in the world to do the job like it’s an Amazon workshop. But other than that, despite everyone looking like they’re ready to pass out after all that hard work, all three of Ham’s almost missed assignments are complete and ready to be turned in once the sun hits, with everyone ready to go to sleep. Well, except for Ham, who plans on doing one last thing before calling it a night. And it’s not the cake from earlier that he plans on doing. But a little something that should benefit one Judy Tobin going into the last day of school. Especially once he turns in his assignments and into the cafeteria, going into the two-minute warning of the episode.
Once Bethany gets her award for the “Most Likely to Secretly Live at the School” award, which is not really an award because that’s where Bethany usually resides as a refuge. It was funny at first, back when it was first brought up. Now, it feels like a cry for help. Like, seriously, what is going on over at the Bupatutti household for Bethany to not be with her family other than... well, not wanting to spend time with them? That’s one plot point that I guess needed to be touched upon, but probably not, before having to wrap things up. Can’t leave people hanging, even if it’s all for laughs.
Oh yeah, and Judy, to no one’s surprise, won the award for “Most Talented” in her grade. And you can thank Ham for throwing in his support at the last minute under the name of, you guessed it, Button Gwinnett. Well... that and having to mess with the ballot box to make sure the election goes in Judy’s favor because Judy was concerned throughout the episode before things spiral out of control regarding Ham’s situation, that she was about to get slaughtered at the ballot box when going toe-to-toe against Stacy. And after feeling bad for what happened with him slacking off and taking his assignments seriously, it was pretty obvious that Ham would have to make up to Judy for what he did. Even if it means, yes, use cheating as a viable option. At least that’s out of the way and with Ham turning in his assignments and yes, passing all three of his classes, meaning that he passed his semester and has narrowly avoided summer school...
The Tobin family finally got their wish and finally attended Maple World, going into the final scene of the episode. Riding on the world’s slowest log ride since the river is made out of syrup. About to go down the waterfall where their photo would be taken, like it’s the park’s version of Splash World. And even though it is a slow ass ride, the Tobins can finally put a check mark on visiting Maple World, and fun fact, this is the first time we have the Tobins vacationing outside of Alaska since the park is in Winnipeg. And the moral of this story... well, I would say don’t cheat, but they did cheat all the way to the end. So uh... I guess enjoy it while it lasts because come this upcoming Sunday, and a week after with the posting of the season finale’s review, that’s it. End of an era unless FOX decides to pull a rabbit out of its hat and decides to renew. But other than that, enjoy it while it lasts. The ride’s almost over.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So, all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of The Great North? Middle of the road. It’s average at best from start to finish with this episode. Mainly coming from the main plot, with the Tobin siblings having to help Ham pass his classes because their long-awaited trip to an amusement park in Canada was at stake. And the subplot was fine, I guess, with Wolf having to go around town with the new set of eyebrows that Honeybee accidentally messed around with when trying to pluck a couple of rogue hairs on the brow.
It was middle-of-the-road for most parts of the episode, especially coming from the main plot. With the episode title that’s called “Cakeleration of Judedependence”, while the cake in the episode title is there, with Ham bringing up the cake that happened to be 10 feet tall and supposed to resemble the Declaration of Independence, that’s pretty much what we got and thought it was going to be more than that going into this episode as if it was going to be summer episode, funny that the episode is set on the last day of school and you see people still wearing their coats, but then again, Alaska is in the most northwestern part of the US, so there’s that. At least the Judy crashout was somewhat valid because, despite that this season was not her best, she did work her butt off when trying to balance things out for each Tobin member just to get to do something they were supposed to do in the past and was hoping for not a single fuck up to happen, before Ham had to go and fuck it up when bringing up the work he’s missing for his class.
And for the subplot, it was okay. It’s pretty much Wolf having to don the angry set of eyebrows and deciding to be intimidating across town after a mess-up while having his eyebrows plucked. And you already know that the magic was going to run out once he and Honeybee are out drinking and having to pick up trouble by a few bar patrons over the simplest of things like the eyebrows, as if he was hoping for a fight. But other than that, it’s a middle-of-the-road episode. I don’t hate it, but I feel like there should’ve been more than what we got. So, I’ll give “Cakeleration of Judedependence Adventure”...
A 6 out of 10. But that’s my opinion, and I want to hear yours in the comments below. We have made it to the finish line for the season and probably the series (hoping for that to not be the case, but the writing is on the wall), and we have a double header, much like last season’s finale where in the first episode, Moon and Russell have a sleepover at Russell’s house, but Moon would have to deal with an unexpected guest crashing the event, that being Russell’s cousin in “Into the Russell-verse Adventure”. And in the second of the double header, the Season 5 finale and probably the series finale, Beef is tasked to bring a moose to the town, but gets knocked down and stranded, about to have a life flashing before his eyes moment in “It’s a Beef-derful Life Adventure”.
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