"Hank, if you still boycott the place after this, I'm gonna break more than your sign."
A Plot: The town of Dog River is abuzz when newcomer Lacey from Toronto starts renovating the diner formerly owned by her late Aunt Ruby. Hank is very suspicious of her intentions and responds with a boycott.
B Plot: Brent decides to start renting movies at the gas station, which Oscar meets negatively. Emma forces them to resolve their differences by having Brent rent a movie to Oscar.
C Plot: Davis and Karen argue over who gets to be "Car 1", as well as acknowledge their relative uselessness as police officers in a small quiet town.
Tropes Referenced:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Brent jokes that Hank's theory of Lacey being a drug user will lead the kids to meth, then marijuana, then jazz music.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Combined with Godwin's Law. Lacey suggests that if The Howler wanted to depict her any more negatively, "they could have run a photo of me in a Hitler moustache tossing puppies into a woodchipper." Hank promptly asks, "Does such a photo exist?"
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:Lacey: Look it, I'm not clubbing baby seals in here, and I'm not using Honduran children to make sneakers.
Hank: You could be clubbing baby seals with Hondurian children, I don't care about that. - Book Ends: The "surveillance bush" Karen hides behind appears only in this episode and the series finale.
- Complaining About Things You Haven't Paid For: Hank complains about his cup of coffee from the gas station, to which Brent snarks in response, "Oh, well, let me refund your money. What'd you pay for it? Zero?" and mimes taking invisible money out of the cash register and handing it to him.
- Death Glare: Emma gives a great one to Brent and Oscar to stop them from arguing.
- Distinction Without a Difference:Hank: I'm not complaining, I'm just saying the coffee tastes terrible. Tastes like it's been filtered through a wig, that's all.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Near the end of the episode, Lacey helps ease the town's trepidation over the changes to the diner by revealing that she renamed it after her dear departed Aunt Ruby. This is treated as a somewhat heartwarming moment. A good portion of official Corner Gas merchandise features the Ruby logo, and literally any other episode besides this one will prominently feature the new Ruby sign, spoiling the mild reveal of this moment.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Oscar has never heard of the movie Jaws, which came out when he was only in his mid-30s and is one of the most popular and successful films in history.
- Produce Pelting: Hank and Wanda's ideas for Lacey getting even with the newspaper all involve things being hit by watermelons.
- Shout-Out: Oscar does a poor impression of Ed Sullivan when he thinks Brent wants to go into show business.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Oscar is completely unfamiliar with how movie rentals or even VCRs work in 2003, at which point video rental stores had been commonplace for about 20 years and VCRs had been around for nearly 30. What makes it plausible is that Oscar has lived in a small town his entire life and is stubborn to an extreme degree. Also an example of
Technology Marches On, as VHS tapes and VCRs would soon become completely obsolete with the proliferation of DVD players and DVRs. - They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This is Hank's reaction to Lacey's alterations of the restaurant.Hank: She turned it into a gay bar!
- Two Words: I Can't Count: Hank after he sees all the changes Lacey has made to the diner:Hank: Well, I got two words: "boycott". I'm gonna put this place out of business.
- Welcome Episode: Lacey has just moved to Dog River.
