Recap / Corner Gas S 6 E 04 Meat Wave

"I would catch you, buddy, but my hands are kinda full with this iced tea and Freezie."

A Plot: During a heatwave, Corner Gas turns their air conditioner on at full blast, which Hank makes various jokes about. However, when Hank walks in wearing a snowsuit as a visual gag, Brent decides to have some fun of his own at his expense. The situation worsens when the air conditioner breaks down, and handyman Hank's too affected by heatstroke to fix it himself.

B Plot: Karen and Davis win a raffle for a year's worth of meat, which the Leroys bought multiple tickets for. When the officers don't have enough freezer space to hold all of their winnings, they ask Oscar and Emma to help store them. But Karen's worried about them using the meat without their permission, which leads to trust issues and pounds of thawed meat.

C Plot: Lacey finds a lost virtual pet in the Ruby, and quickly grows fond of it. When she asks Wanda to pet-sit during work, Wanda also grows fond of it, leading the two to battle for custody.

Tropes referenced:

• Ambiguous Syntax:
  Lacey: Oh, it's one of those virtual pet things. Some kid must have left it.
  Davis: What's it doing now?
  Lacey: I don't know. It's probably at school.
  Davis: I meant the pet.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Parodied in the middle, with an environmental message from David Suzuki while he's leaving a blender on to make a smoothie, and at the end, when Lacey tells the audience to spay and neuter their virtual pets.
• Anti-Climax: Brent's opinion when it turns out that all he needs to fix the air conditioner is a new fuse.
• Baby Talk: Lacey to the virtual pet:
  Lacey: If I don't give him what he wants, he gets vewwy vewwy sad.
  Wanda: This got "vewwy vewwy sad" a while ago.
• Companion Cube: "Darrin", the virtual pet.
• Cuteness Proximity: Darrin again, for Lacey and Wanda.
• Easy Come, Easy Go: After Oscar and Emma refuse to keep Davis and Karen's meat any longer, it starts thawing in the trunk of the patrol car. They end up having to throw a big neighborhood cookout, giving away their winnings.
• Happy Dance: Karen does the "meat dance" when they first win the raffle.
• Heat Wave: One's affecting the town, and is important to both the A and B Plots.
• Malaproper:
  Hank: It's like the hottest day on record out there and in here you got it colder than a witch's mitt.
  Brent: That's not how that.... never mind.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Hank gets stuck in the snowsuit and asks for Brent's help. Most of Brent's "help" just intentionally makes things worse.
• No Sympathy:
  • Brent to Hank after he breaks the zipper:
    Brent: But look on the bright side: I'm not stuck in a snowsuit.
  • Turned up to eleven in the air conditioner repair scene (see image above.)
• Not So Above It All: Wanda initially criticizes Lacey for caring so much about the virtual pet, but when she sees how cute it is she ends up caring just as much.
• Our Slogan Is Terrible: Curtis Meat Market's slogan is, "The market where you can buy meat!"
• Pun-Based Title: Referencing both the "Heat Wave" that's in town, and the "Meat" that Davis and Karen win.
• Replacement Goldfish: When the virtual pet passes, Wanda resets the device, and it takes all of five seconds before Lacey accepts it. Exaggerated at the end, when Lacey implies she's now on the 15th reset.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Davis and Karen are admiring their meat in the Leroys' freezer:
  Oscar: Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer.
  Karen: Davis, get a picture of me with the meat. I've never won anything before.
• Shout-Out: Wanda re-programs the virtual pet to bring it back to life, then mentions that "it's still Darrin, it's just a new Darrin, like on Bewitched".
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When the virtual pet's owner and his dad show up looking for it:
  Wanda: Oh, is it like a kind of blue keychain thing?
  Kid's Dad: Yes.
  Wanda: Haven't seen it.