Recap / The Great North S1E1 "Sexi Moose Adventure"

RECAP:
Index
Season One | Season Two | Season Three | Season Four
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Original air date: January 3, 2021

Written by: Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux & Minty Lewis
Directed by: Carlos Ramos & Casey Crowe

It's Judy's sixteenth birthday today but a moose breaks into the Tobin's house and accidentally steals Kathleen's bikini. As she's Beef's ex-wife (who he's still not over even 10 years after the fact), this causes Beef to have a minor meltdown. Judy also has to keep her new job a secret from Beef who still hasn't come to terms with his wife leaving him for someone else and he refuses to have his family separated from him. Meanwhile, Wolf is hesitant to tell Beef that he and Honeybee plans on moving into the guest cabin.

---

Tropes:

• Birthday Episode: The episode takes place on Judy's sixteenth birthday.
• Bishie Sparkle: Beef sees Alyson surrounded by sparkles and a pink border.
• Blunt "Yes": Alanis calls Judy her best friend and inspiration. When Judy jokingly asks if she's just saying that because it's her birthday, Alanis gives her this in reply.
• Brick Joke: When talking about the bad things their mom did, Moon brings up a time when their mom named their family dog "Grandma" so she wouldn't be lying when she tells people the kids were with grandma when they ask. Later, when Beef leaves the boat during Judy's birthday party, Moon asks if they could stop by an animal shelter and get a new Grandma.
• Chekhov's Skill: Moon claims he can ride a moose, but his family doesn't believe him. When the Tobins get approached by a moose planning to charge at them, Moon proves them wrong and is able to repel it.
• Comically Missing the Point: Honeybee wants to have a wedding themed after her favorite romantic movie - Brokeback Mountain.
• Couch Gag: The boat in the intro is named You Yacht-a Know.
• "Dear John" Letter: Kathleen left her family a goodbye letter before she left. When Beef finally has the courage to read the letter, he sees that she only wrote "Smell you later" and drew a picture of a middle finger where the fingers are replaced with penises.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Judy tries to get to Point & Shoot before Beef gets there so he won't find out about her new job, but she blows it when she gets distracted seeing Crispin at the smoothie stand.
• Everybody Knew Already:
  • After his wife left him, Beef went into full denial and told his children that their mom got eaten by a bear, but they all know the truth and pretend to believe him so he doesn't have another meltdown. By the end of the first episode, he finally comes to terms with his wife leaving him and moves on.
  • Ham comes out as gay to his family, but Moon points out they already know because he's already come out to them a bunch of times in the past and he keeps forgetting.
• Flare Gun: When Beef goes into the woods to find the moose that took Kathleen's bikini, Wolf gives everyone a flare gun to signal the others when they find him. Ham purposely fires his gun twice in the air because he loves the sight of the flare in the sky and he accidentally fires another one during his search and gazes at it again. When Judy finds Beef with a broken foot, she's about to signal the others but accidentally fires her flare near Beef.
  Judy: Man, this family is not good at flares.
• Free the Frogs: As a distraction to keep him from finding out about Judy's job, Wolf shows Beef an indoor plant. Beef calls it an abomination and takes it to release it into the wild.
• Give Me a Sign: After Beef gets stuck in a chasm with a broken foot, he looks up towards the sky and asks Kathleen for a sign whether she's coming back to him. He sees a flare in the sky that was shot by Ham and assumes it's a sign but isn't sure if that was a yes or no. Then he said if he sees another flare again then he'll take it as a sign to continue to hope she'll come back. After nothing happens he said he'll wait a little longer.
• Heroic BSoD: After finding out Judy has a second job at the mall, Beef seems to congratulate her but then gets disoriented and then sits down in an elevator that's still under construction and gets stuck inside.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: When Judy finds Beef in the ravine with a broken foot, he tries to pull this, telling Judy to leave and tell the other he died doing what he loved — being her dad. Judy immediately points out everyone else is already on their way to rescue him and they’re not that far from home.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Both Judy and Alyson call Judy an "associate photographette."
  • Both Beef and Wolf call the ravine they're trapped in a "steeply embanked ice chasm."
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When the family all falls in the ice chasm, Wolf says not to panic because he's sure the moose won't voluntarily follow them down. Guess what happens next.
• Just a Flesh Wound: Beef falls down an embankment and hurts his foot. He tries to walk it off, but when he can't he decides that it's "Alaska broken". When the family finds him, Wolf asks him if it's "regular broken, or Alaska broken?"
• Killer Rabbit: The Tobins tell Honeybee that moose are very dangerous, citing an incident where a moose got into the school gym during a basketball game the previous year and almost killed the coach.
  Honeybee: But they're so big and cute, like Jason Momoa.
  Wolf: I find him more brutally handsome than cute, but...
• Last-Second Word Swap: Moon starts to say they know Kathleen is alive in Pennsylvania, but Wolf cuts him off halfway through to say, "Pencil Heaven. Because she was a saint who is definitely dead."
• LOL, 69: Alyson flirts with Beef by pointing out that the total of his purchase ends with sixty-nine cents.
• Metaphorgotten: "Dad, it's time for me to take life's butt cheeks by the hand, and, uh, take kind of a deep dive into..."
• Moby Schtick: Near the end, when the moose starts attacking them, Beef says either the moose is his Moby Dick or Beef is the moose's Moby Dick. He never actually read the book.
• Mundane Luxury: Judy sleeping in until 5:45 AM is treated like this.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After learning about Judy's second job, Beef becomes upset as he drives towards the marina with his family. When Judy tries talking about a new generator model and ask Beef about his opinion about it, he doesn't want to talk about it. Wolf points out Beef being silent about generators is a serious problem.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • After thinking of wedding plans on the way up from Fresno, Honeybee wants to invite Jake Gyllenhaal, but if he can’t make it, she hopes Maggie Gyllenhaal will come. But if she can’t make it, hopefully her husband Peter Sarsgaard can. But if he can’t make it, then hopefully Alexander Skarsgård can.
  Honeybee: It was a very long drive.
  • Alanis Morissette tells Judy she doesn't want to spend her life catching fish after fish after fish after fish after...
• Pull the Thread: Beef's story is that Kathleen was "eaten to death by a bear on her way to buy medicine for the children's hospital." Honeybee wants to know why the children's hospital accepts donated medicine, but Beef ignores her.
• Queer Establishing Moment: We learn Ham is gay when he comes out to his family during Judy's birthday, but the family already knows and Moon points out he came out to them a bunch of times already.
• Rage Breaking Point: After a moose steals his wife's fur bikini and hair extension and learning that Judy got a job at the mall, Beef becomes upset and angry. During Judy's birthday on the family boat, when he tries to light the birthday candles, the wind keeps blowing them out which pushes him even further. When Judy tells her family she's decided to quit her job so Beef won't be upset, Wolf tells her she shouldn't give up her job and confesses to Beef that he and Honeybee plan on moving into the guest cabin. At that point, Beef snaps at his family and leaves the boat.
• Shout-Out
  • During his opening lines, Beef mentions that he's going as Sully from Monsters, Inc. for Halloween.
  • One of the things Beef does during his Freak Outs is watch Gilmore Girls on mute.
  • When Judy is trying to cheer Beef up by having everyone try to list crustaceans and have Honeybee go first, all she can think of is crab, crab dip, and Squidward.
  • When Beef is having trouble lighting the candles on Judy's birthday cake because of the wind, Honeybee offers to use virtual candles on her phone, and said they can even make the candles look like the Minions.
• Signs of Disrepair: A moose gets inside the Tobin's house and gets some of the balloons that spelled out "Happy Sixteenth Birthday" tangled up in his antlers, specifically the ones that spell out "SEXI".
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion:
  Judy: You don't have to let us go.
  Beef: I just have to let you -
  Judy: - grow.
  Beef: - pursue outside interests.
  Judy: Oh, I went for the rhyme there, but yeah.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Beef would only want to hunt the moose for sport, not because it took his ex-wife's things that still kind of smell like her or that he still likes to smell sometimes.
• Toilet Humor: Ham's Establishing Character Moment is him telling Beef about a dream he had about eating ice cream, and then waking up to take "a glorious dump."
• Waxing Lyrical: Upon finding out Judy got the photographer job, Alanis tells Judy she has one hand in her pocket and the other hand "is very proud of you!"

---

Beef: ♫ Way up here, you can breathe the air, hup ♫
Everyone: ♫ Catch some fish, oh ♫
Ham: ♫ Or gaze at a bear ♫
Everyone: ♫ Wow, hup, oh, the Great North ♫
Judy: ♫ Here we live, oh, oh ♫
Beef: ♫ Here we'll stay, oh, whoo ♫
Everyone: ♫ From longest night to longest day in the Great North. ♫
Ham: Ooh, I like the part where we say "Hup".
Everyone: ♫ The Great North. ♫
Oh, yeah, hut, whoo, hup, oh, hey, whoo, oh
Everyone: ♫ The Great North. ♫

---