Recap / Big City Greens S 2 E 8

Baby, there's a shark in the water... or just a boy pretending to be one.

Shark Objects

During a trip to the beach, Cricket starts pranking the beach-goers with a fake shark out of Bill's orders which puts him in fatal danger, while Gramma ends up in beach jail.

"Shark Objects" contains examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: A few parts of the episode.
  • "Not so proud now that I've plucked you from the sky, huh?"
  • "I could've pulled off the perfect prank!"
  • "You're sure bein' particular about my playtime, Papa."
  • "Care to join our beachside boogie?"
  • "Not to worry, son! The chances of a shark showing up on this beach are incredible slim!"
• Animation Bump: The parts where Cricket has a devious face and when he and Nancy go "Hm, yeh" are much more fluid than the rest of their expressions.
• Beach Bury: Tilly at first tries to bury Saxon, but since he's all head it's a little difficult. She then buries Bill under a six-foot pile of sand, making it impossible for him to move when Cricket is in trouble.
• Beach Episode: The episode is set during the Greens' beach trip.
• The Beastmaster: Alice befriends the sea gulls and uses them to get revenge on the lifeguard.
  Alice: You messed with the wrong old lady! I am the Bird Queen!
• Big Damn Heroes: Alice showing up with the seagulls and taking the lifeguard far out to sea, saving Cricket from his unforeseen fate.
• Bittersweet Ending: Nancy managed to prove herself responsible and protect Cricket, but her giving herself a talking-to causes him to break down and never do the shark prank again.
• Bottle Episode: Most of the episode takes place at the beach.
• Chained Heat: Alice and the sea gull are cuffed together by the lifeguard. When he leaves to deal with the shark (actually Cricket), the two of them work together to reach the keys and escape.
• The Chessmaster: Cricket manipulates Nancy into handing him back his fin so he can carry out his prank.
• Didn't Think This Through: Cricket didn't know his prank had extremely dangerous consequences, and the lifeguard takes it so well it leads to him nearly killing him.
• Face Framed in Shadow: Seen briefly on Cricket when Bill points out his Slasher Smile.
• Finger-Tenting: Cricket does this when he realizes Bill is distracted and Nancy isn't paying any attention, giving him the idea to manipulate Nancy into giving him his shark fin.
• Food and Animal Attraction: Alice's pretzel attracts a sea gull who tries to take it. The lifeguard sees them fighting and puts them both in beach jail.
• Forbidden Fruit: Cricket is told not to pull the shark prank, yet he still wants to do it.
• Gone Horribly Right: Cricket's shark prank goes so well it causes the lifeguard to believe there's a real shark and vows to harpoon it, unaware he's coming to unintentionally kill him.
• Heroic BSoD: Cricket completely breaks down when he realizes his shark prank caused trouble and vows never to do it again.
• Hooking the Keys: Alice and a seagull she was fighting are handcuffed together and put in beach jail. Alice is able to swing the gull at the desk to retrieve the key.
• Near-Death Experience: Cricket's shark prank works so well it almost results in him harpooned to death.
• Nightmare Face: Seen briefly on Cricket as he prepares his shark prank. Bill even notices.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: All Cricket wants to do is pull a prank and trick the beachgoers there's a shark in the water. It works too well, causing the lifeguard to think there really is a shark, and is nearly killed because of it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Nancy when she realizes the lifeguard is out to harpoon Cricket.
  • Cricket when Nancy gives herself a talking-to, causing him to realize his prank almost got him killed by the lifeguard and vows never to do it again.
• Pain-Powered Leap: While buried, Bill is threatened by a crab. When he cries to be let out, the crab buries its way to Bill's butt and pinches him, causing him to break out of the sand.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Delivered by Gramma before taking the lifeguard and saving Cricket:
  Gramma: Hey, pretzel thief! You messed with the wrong Gramma, for I am THE BIRD QUEEN!!!!!!!!
• Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on the term, "sharp objects".
• Running Gag: The Fun T Shirts for every saying that comes up.
• Shark Fin of Doom: Cricket's prank is to scare people with a fake fin.
• Slasher Smile: Cricket flashes this as he prepares his shark prank. Bill even notes on this.
  Bill: Boy, what are you doin'? You've got that devious look in your eyes.
• Special Guest: Rhys Darby as the lifeguard.
• Too Dumb to Live: Cricket apparently forgot he's in danger of being harpooned by the lifeguard when his shark prank flies off the handle.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happens to the lifeguard after Alice takes him out to sea.
• You Are Grounded!: When Nancy gives herself a talking-to upon learning Cricket's shark prank nearly killed him, she says she's grounded for a month.
• You Monster!: Gramma says this to the lifeguard when he refuses to give her pretzel back.

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This is what happens if you weave dreams too much.

Dream Weaver

Cricket discovers he has the ability to manipulate the dreams of his family, only to turn them into nightmares.

"Dream Weaver" contains examples of:

• Armor-Piercing Question: "If you're the truck, then who's drivin' you?"
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In Tilly's and Alice's dreams, they get threatened by giant creatures (a giant Puppy Benny and a giant Gnome King, respectively).
• Bittersweet Ending: The dreams are fixed and everyone finally gets a good night's sleep, but since Cricket spent a sleepless night doing so, he doesn't, and is too exhausted to spend the day with them now.
• Book Ends: The episode begins with Cricket happily waking up in the middle of the night while the others are asleep, and ends with the sun rising, the rest of the family happily waking up, while Cricket is exhausted.
• Bottle Episode: The entire episode is set inside the Green house, with occasional shifts to the dream sequences.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The opening theme to Tilly's show.
• Dream Episode: Cricket messes with each of the other family members' dreams.
  • Tilly dreams that she's the host of a TV show. Cricket makes her conjure up a two-headed cow in a suit, who then takes over the show and threatens to cancel it.
  • Bill dreams that he's a truck. Cricket makes him question how he goes around with no driver, which freaks him out.
  • Alice dreams she's a tough Barbarian taming the wilderness. Cricket makes her think she's visited by annoying gnomes that drive her up the wall.
• Dream Weaver: Cricket messes with the dreams of his family, causing them to have nightmares. It's even right there in the title.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Cricket has these when he's too exhausted to enjoy the day while the others are fully energized.
• From Bad to Worse: In trying to wake up his family, Cricket only makes their dreams even more worse.
• Gone Horribly Right: Cricket's influence with his family's dreams eventually lead to consequences which ultimately turn them into nightmares.
• Hope Spot: With his family's dreams fixed, Cricket can finally get some sleep...but right when he lies down, the sun rises and his family awakens.
• Hourglass Plot: The episode begins with Cricket waking up in the middle of the night while his family is sleeping, and proceeds to manipulate their dreams in return. In the end of the episode, the whole family wakes up, but now Cricket is too tired due to his sleepless dream manipulation.
• Irony: Cricket wakes up in the middle of the night, unable to wait for morning and spends the whole night manipulating the dreams of his family, that once the sun comes up, he himself is unable to enjoy the day due to a lack of sleep while the rest of his family is energized.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Cricket gets his comeuppance for messing with his family's dreams by becoming too tired once the sun comes up, thinking everything is a nightmare.
• Marshmallow Dream: In her dream, Tilly tries to eat a giant sub sandwich, but in reality she's about to swallow a fireplace poker.
• Matryoshka Object: When Cricket asks Truck Bill who's driving him, out of him comes a second Truck Bill.
• Minimalist Cast: The only characters present are the four main Greens.
• Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker: Upon realizing he turned his family's dreams into nightmares, Cricket tries several methods to jolt his family awake. However, they're too deep asleep, and he only keeps making their dreams worse.
• Not a Morning Person: By episode's end, Cricket is too exhausted to spend the day with his fully energized family, since he stayed up all night messing with their dreams in the first place.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Cricket has this moment when he realizes him messing with his family's dreams have turned them into nightmares, and he has an even bigger one when he is too tired to spend the day with his overly-energized family thanks to his sleepless night.
  • Each Green gets this in their dream sequences as they start to go downhill.
• Precious Puppy: The cow threatens to replace Tilly with Benny as a puppy.
• Sentient Vehicle: Bill dreams he's his own truck, until Cricket makes him question the very idea of a car driving itself.
• Shout-Out:
  • The opening of Tilly's show spoofs the opening of The Twilight Zone (1959) and ends with a giant foot dropping down. The set is reminiscent of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
  • Bill as a truck references the Cars franchise. May double as a Take That! when Cricket's influence pokes holes into the logic of his dream, deeply unsettling Bill in the process.
  • SpongeBob's voice can be heard saying "It's King Dinkles!".
  • Bill encountering a stone statue of himself is a reference to the finale of Planet of the Apes (1968).
  • As Alice is stomping one of the gnomes she goes Alice smash.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the beginning, Cricket wakes up, but it's the middle of the night and he's far too energized, so he messes with his family's dreams to pass the time. However, he's unable to go back to sleep when his family starts having nightmares thanks to what he did, so he quickly fixes them. When all that's taken care of, he finally gets some rest, but the sun comes up right when he proceeds to do so, leaving him too tired to spend the day with his family, who are fully energized from getting enough sleep when Cricket didn't.
• Tempting Fate: Once all the dreams are fixed and Cricket vows never to mess up dreams again, he finally gets sleep himself, only for the sun to come up right when he goes to sleep.
• Titled After the Song: The episode title comes from the hit single by Gary Wright.

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