New York Honey
Jay and Emerald Blake (Lewis J. Stadlen and Elaine Bromka) are annoyed because their new upstairs neighbor is blasting classical music at eardrum-shattering volumes all day everyday. Jay storms to the upstairs apartment and meets eccentric apiarist Dr. Homer P. Jimmerman (MacIntyre Dixon), who has converted the apartment into a beehive/greenhouse, the music he blares being said to promote the growth of his bees. Tasting the honey produced by the bees, Jay discovers that it serves as a potent aphrodisiac, and persuades Homer into bottling and selling it in exchange for a cut of the profits. Sometime later, a beautiful woman, Desiree (Andrea Thompson), appears in Homer's apartment acting as his new assistant and soon-to-be wife, and persuades him to cut off the honey supply. She also begins pushing aside the mousy Emerald for Jay’s love, ultimately revealing herself to "bee" much more than Jay bargained for.
Tropes:
- Aside Glance: Homer flashes a split-second one to the camera as Jay flirts with Desiree, indicating that he knows how this is gonna go.
- Awful Wedded Life: Jay and Emerald lose the romance Homer's aphrodisiac honey gave them as soon as Desiree comes into the picture.
- Bee Afraid: Jay and his missus should be, given that the queen of their neighbor's hive has become human-sized. Under her stern glare alone, the bees in Homer's colony break out and kill him when she's in the Blakes' apartment, and they do the same to Emerald when she rebukes Desiree for stealing her husband.
- Bee People: Desiree is the queen of Homer's colony in human form, sending her drones to kill Emerald, and then killing Jay herself when they get together.
- Big Eater: When Homer is too preoccupied in his apartment to attend dinner with the Blakes with Desiree, Emerald brings him some of the chicken cordon bleu she prepared for the occasion. He's seen ravenously shoveling it down his throat, having forgotten how delicious food can be, in his own words.
- Blackmail: Jay persuades Homer to market his aphrodisiac honey in exchange for a hefty cut of the profits, as well as claiming that he has friends on the city's board of directors who already have a list of complaints made against him, threatening to throw him out.
- Chekhov's Gag: Emerald nervously reminds Jay that she's allergic to bees when Desiree and Homer prepare to come over for dinner. The climax has Desiree's soldiers, workers, and drones, angered at Emerald's slander towards their queen, stinging her to death.
- Classical Music Is Cool: Homer blares classical music to the bees he tends to, which he claims makes them more "generous". The plot of the episode comes about when Jay storms up to his place and demands that he keep it down, the apiarist himself stating that he hates all forms of music himself.
- Denser and Wackier: The first episode of the series to go this way. Just look at the faces Jay makes, especially when he flirts with Desiree.
- Downer Ending: Jay and Emerald are murdered by Homer's bees, who are free to potentially swarm the city.
- Establishing Character Moment: Jay is first observed reading a book blatantly titled "How to Get Sex, Money, & Power", hinting at the vice-like grip he'll apply on Homer, as well as his attraction to Desiree.
- "Everyone Dies" Ending: With the exception of Desiree, every character is killed by bees by the end of the episode.
- Facial Horror: Emerald's face, once the angry bees get through with it.
- Foreshadowing: As Jay and Emerald taste the aphrodisiac honey and get busy, the camera focuses on the couple's terrace as they do so. Desiree assumes her true form as she takes Jay to this terrace and drops him from it.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Desiree, the queen of Homer's colony, who becomes human through no given explanation, and kills both Homer and Jay out of biological instinct alone.
- Henpecked Husband: Emerald tries to restrict Jay in doing everything that he feels should be done about Homer, and it's largely through this treatment that he desires sleeping with Desiree.
- Insect Queen: Desiree is the queen of Homer's bee colony, who has taken a human form to get together with him, and later Jay.
- The Insomniac: The Blakes are kept awake through the ludicrously loud music Homer blares to his bees. Homer himself thinks very lowly of the very concept of sleep, calling it a luxury.
- Interspecies Romance: Homer and Jay both fall for Desiree, a queen bee in human form.
- Love Potion: Jay and Emerald learn that Homer's bees' honey serves as a really strong aphrodisiac, getting frisky as soon as the latter tastes some from Jay's finger.
- Mad Doctor: Homer plays the part with his obsession with his bees, including blaring classical music to them in the wee hours of the night.
- Meaningful Echo: Homer's explanation of how the queen bee chooses her mate, kills him, and watches him die to Emerald is replayed as Desiree performs it herself, dropping Jay from the terrace.
- Out with a Bang: Desiree assumes her natural form and kills Jay by dropping him from the terrace while the pair make out. Homer desires to go out in the same moment of "perfect passion", but has been waiting for just the right moment to do so.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: "Pictures at an Exhibition" plays when Jay allows Homer to serenade the bees with his music, and continues to do so as he and Emerald get busy.
- Pun: A few of them involving bees and the word "bee" are inevitably thrown around here.
- Queen Bee: Desiree is the queen of Homer's hive, and she becomes human for no reason.
- Time Skip: After the Blakes taste Homer's honey and get busy in their living room, the episode skips a month ahead, where Jay has turned the honey business into a thriving, worldwide franchise and spruced up his and Emerald's apartment. At the same time, Desiree has come into the picture and persuaded Homer to cut off the honey supply.
- Title Drop: Jay brings up the title as he gets wise to the idea of a honey being made in a New York high-rise, and he eventually gives his startup honey business that very name.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Desiree pulls the latest batch of Homer's honey from a small bottle fastened on a necklace hidden in her cleavage.
- World of Ham: Everyone goes crazy chewing on the scenery here, especially Jay, with his outrageous facial expressions.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Desiree does this to every male who mates with her, including Homer and Jay, to whom she nearly quotes the trope verbatim.
