Truck Stopped
The kids get to get a single snack at a Truck-ee's Truck Stop, but Cricket must contend with Tilly and her overly-contemplative nature when trying to find the "perfect snack". Meanwhile, an incident causes Grandma and Bill to accidentally leave them behind at the Truck Stop.
Truck Stopped contains examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: By Tilly when asking to get a snack for the road:Tilly: I respect your passion for punctuality, Papa.
- Apple of Discord: The $5 bill, which Tilly insists she hold onto while Cricket tries to interfere.
- Blind Mistake: While waiting for the kids, Bill and Alice are temporarily blinded by the sun shining on a novelty “butt bumper” on a truck. Looking back, they think they see Cricket and Tilly in the back seat and drive off, not realizing that it was actually two balloons held by a kid standing behind the truck.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Though Tilly makes a good argument in not wanting to rush into a decision on her snack because she wants to consider all of her potential options instead of making the wrong choice that she’ll regret later, Cricket also makes a good argument in that she’s taking WAY too long with that decision making and that if she doesn’t hurry soon, then Bill might make them leave the truck stop without getting any kind of snack at all.
- Bland-Name Product: Truck-ee's Truck Stop serves as a stand-in for the Buc-ee's chain, and the Truck Nuggets Tilly and Cricket pick out at the end are a stand-in for the chain's "Beaver Nuggets", a crunchy yet puffy corn nugget snack that’s covered in a brown sugar caramel coating.
- The Ditherer: The main conflict of the episode deals with Tilly's difficulty in narrowing down the perfect snack choice quickly even though she knows that Bill told her to hurry. Cricket himself accuses her of being indecisive, but she defends herself as simply being "deliberate".
- Doomed Supermarket Display: Cricket and Tilly’s fight over the $5 bill ends atop a stack of boxes shaped like Truck-ee, which comes tumbling down when they rip the bill in two.
- Fourth Wall Psych: Tilly’s opening narration turns out to be her talking to a random trucker, who wasn’t even aware that she was talking to him.
- Goofy Suit: Tilly seeks help from a man in a Truck-ee the Truck mascot costume, insisting that she ride him up and down the snack aisle while she makes a decision. The poor guy eventually tires of carrying her around, but ultimately helps her decide by suggesting that she put on “blinders” to narrow her choices.
- Hope Spot: After Cricket and Tilly got their popcorn chicken, Bill hopes they aren't mad at him for leaving them behind by accident. Unfortunately, the kids got mad at him.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Cricket mentions Truck-ee's has "the best road trip food ever" when asking Bill to get a snack.
- Opening Narration: The episode opens with Tilly explaining how the Green family is doing after their decision to split time between the country and the city.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Although the police officer wasn't happy when he learned Bill was speeding, making an illegal turn, and leaving his kids behind by accident, at least he offered to help him and Alice go back to Truck-ee's and retrieve them.
- Shout-Out: Tilly's Opening Narration begins with her reciting, "It was the city-est of times, it was the country-est of times."
- Take a Third Option: When it becomes clear that her slow and careful approach isn’t going to work out and that Cricket's "pick it and go" strategy is just too darn stressful for her, Tilly decides to finally make a decision by taking Truck-ee's advice of "putting up her blinders to limit her view" by combining her and her brother's strategies: she has Cricket rush through all the aisles to pick out three potential tasty snacks to limit her options, and then finally makes a decision with her analytically-thinking mind between cotton candy (which she describes as "sweet, but not very filling"), spicy chocolate (which she notes will just give them tummy troubles), and an exclusive food called Truck Nuggets (which she deems to be "the perfect snack" because it is savory, crispy, and sweet).
Jingled
Tilly gets "discovered" by a commercial jingle-writing executive during a family farmer's market day and gets hired as one of their leading songwriters with Cricket as her manager. However, she soon discovers that a life of fame and executive power isn’t all glitz and glamour and soon finds herself shaking under the pressure of it all. Meanwhile, Bill and Grandma try in vain to keep the customers coming back to the stand by singing their own poorly written jingles.
Jingled contains examples of:
- Didn't Think This Through: Rick Razzle mentions that he first got into singing because, like Tilly, it made him happy. But he didn’t realize that when he became a jingle writer that he’d have to tone down the longer notes of his songs, which are his favorite parts, because of jingles having to be kept short, sweet, and simple for their commercials.
- Head Desk: Tilly thuds her head on the piano keys after hearing she only has 56 minutes left to present the Mama Roni's jingle.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Tilly calls jingle-writing "the best job ever" as she follows Bonnie to her office; this is immediately followed by Rick shouting the inversion in the practice room behind her.
- No-Sell: Bill and Alice's attempts to sell vegetables didn't quite work out since Tilly is the only one who can use her jingles at the stand, but it did give Tilly a chance to learn that both of them were only having fun.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rick Razzle is lauded as the kingpin songwriter of Big Jingle, but as soon as he sees the potential in Tilly to become his successor, he immediately hands her his high-ranking position, rips off his professional clothing, and runs away screaming— er, well, singing, about how he’s finally "freeeeeeeeeeeee".
- Special Guest: Amy Sedaris as Bonnie Spark and Michael Bolton as Rick Razzle.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Just after the kids leave to follow Bonnie to their own office, Rick proclaims, "Jingling is the worst job ever!"
