A Plot: Emma sees high art in Hank's hedge-trimming and sells his services around town.
B Plot: Prompted by Oscar, Brent tries to collect on the IOUs piling up at Corner Gas, resorting to unorthodox means.
C Plot: With the power out in their office, Davis and Karen work out of The Ruby while trying to avoid Lacey's meddling (and their own work).
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: When everyone hates Hank's final topiary work, Emma says she has something to say, making Hank think that she's going to confess that she's the one who made it. Instead, Emma tells Hank that he's really screwed things up and storms off with the rest of the crowd.
- Big Eater: Oscar takes a $45 cheese wheel from Foo Mart to make up for the $50 that Won owes Brent, inspiring Brent to barter for goods from other people who owe him money. Except for one slice that Brent gives to Oscar at the start, Brent eats the entire cheese wheel by the time he and Oscar are done collecting payments.Brent: You're just out of sorts because we ate a whole wheel of cheese.
Oscar: I had one slice!
Brent: You're right. We should be ashamed of ourselves. - Chekhov's Gag:
- Hank offers to clean up Emma's yard because he wants to use the leaves to make a swamp monster costume. In the tag, Hank goes to The Ruby wearing the completed costume and frightens Lacey.
- To help Karen and Davis while they're using The Ruby as a replacement police station, Lacey sets up her own jail, which is just a chair facing a wall and surrounded by velvet ropes. When Oscar admits that he stole the cheese wheel from Foo Mart instead of bartering for it, he's arrested and forced to sit in Lacey's jail.
- Lacey notices that Davis is shopping for hockey equipment online when he claims to be working. Near the end, Davis offers to buy some hockey gloves from among Brent's bartered goods.
- Continuity Nod: Lacey asks to borrow Wanda's Sadie Spy Kit from "Spy Me to The Moon".
- Description Cut: Two in quick succession when Lacey asks if Karen and Davis were busy during last night's windstorm.
- Karen says that she barely got any sleep. Cut to Karen sleeping with the sound of the windstorm being drowned out by a white noise machine playing windstorm noises.
- Davis says he fought the storm all night. Cut to Davis wearing headphones while playing a video game where he's controlling a tornado as it destroys a farm.
- Extreme Doormat: Karen is concerned by how susceptible Davis is to doing what people ask when they say "Come on". Davis says they'll discuss that later and tries to fire Lacey from investigating for them, but she says "Come on" and Davis says she can stay. Karen says "Come on" so Davis tries to fire Lacey again, but Lacey says "Come on" and Davis says she makes a good point.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Karen and Davis try to keep Lacey out of their hair by asking her to help them investigate crimes around town while they stay at The Ruby. The "crimes" she reports include Rheena cheating at bridge, Nate bragging about getting out of a ticket by telling Davis "Come on", and Josh getting the lyrics to Camptown Races wrong.
- Forced Meme: After Karen says "Alright" and Davis reminds her that's his catchphrase, Karen becomes determined to come up with her own catchphrase. Everything she comes up with is either terrible or stolen from something else.
- Here We Go Again!: Brent clears all of his customers' IOUs with bartered goods that he plans to sell to make the money back. Davis then offers to buy some hockey gloves from him and Brent agrees to take an IOU.
- Hypocritical Humour:
- Won tries to get out of repaying his IOU to Brent by saying that money is tight, only for Bu to come in with two brand new iPads, so Won throws two other iPads in the trash because they're covered in fingerprints. Later, when Lacey asks about the bartered wheel of cheese, Won tries to make the same money excuse, but then Lin's smartwatch beeps to tell her that her Fitbit is done recharging and she rides away on a hoverboard to go to her treadmill.
- Oscar berates Brent for accepting IOUs in lieu of actual payments from customers. At the end of the episode, Wanda discovers that Oscar never collected payment from Brent when he bought Corner Gas, which Brent has known all along.
- Imagine Spot: Every time Wanda tries to concentrate on the gas station's finances, someone manages to say something bizarre that causes her to daydream about whatever they said. For example, when she mishears Brent say "Rolling in dough" as "Rowing in dough", she imagines her and Brent in a boat made of bread rowing through a lake of cheese.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder:Oscar: What kind of jackass lets people take stuff from a store and pay for it later?
Brent: You're right. I'll call Visa and tell them they're being silly. - Shout-Out:
- Among Karen's attempts at a catchphrase are Tony the Tiger's "Grrrrrreat!" and J.J.'s "Dy-no-mite!"
- Lacey compares Karen and Davis to having the energy of "Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, and Barney Miller rolled into one" and Davis asks if he can be Fish. Despite her earlier attempt to rip off Good Times, Karen mockingly asks them if they've watched a show from this decade.
- Wanda's daydream about Hank painting Emma's portrait has Emma say "Paint me like one of your French girls."
- Tempting Fate: Karen and Davis don't believe Lacey's claim that the stolen cheese wheel is a sign of organized crime in Dog River, with Karen mentioning that they'd need to see more serious crimes like extortion or fencing of stolen goods to convince them. Oscar immediately walks past them and tries to sell Josh a blender that he stole from Brent's bartered goods for $100, which Josh calls extortion.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Brent calculates just how much money people owe him:Brent: That is a whack of cabbage.
Oscar: That's enough cabbage to pay someone else to whack your cabbage for you!
Brent: Yeah, I hope I don't know what that means. - True Art Is Incomprehensible: In-Universe, this is initially Emma's view on Hank's topiary art, believing that he's creating abstract representations of animals rich in hidden meaning. When Hank admits that he just doesn't know what he's doing and she realizes she was deluding herself into thinking otherwise, Emma makes a much more accurate and technically impressive topiary piece of a dog in a river, but the townsfolk think it's pedestrian and obvious.Helen: If I can see the art, where's the art?
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: When Wanda hears Emma talking to Hank about art, Wanda has a daydream about Hank painting Emma in the nude. When the daydream ends, she slaps Hank and calls him a pervert. Helen then comes up and asks Hank when he's going to get to her boxwood, causing Wanda to slap him and call him a pervert again.
- Verbal Backspace: When Emma sees Hank's topiary elephant:Hank: Don't get mad! I'm not done!
Emma: I'm not mad! I'm impressed!
Hank: Oh. Then I'm done.
