Original air date: April 23, 2023
Written by: Mike Olsen
Directed by: Neil Graf
Directed by: Neil Graf
After believing his friends and family are planning to throw him a surprise birthday party, Beef purposely gets himself thrown in jail to avoid celebrating his birthday. While in jail, his cousin, Danica, is temporary placed in his jail cell for a court date and she breaks out and takes Beef with her so she can rob another bank again. Meanwhile, in order to celebrate Beef's birthday with him, the rest of the Tobins break obscure, crazy Alaskan laws to be thrown in jail with Beef.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: The Tobins purposely break several obscure Alaskan laws so they can be thrown in jail with Beef to celebrate his birthday. But once they're brought to the police station, Danica and Pete break out from their jail cell and takes Beef with them against his will, meaning they broke the law for no reason. But at the end of the day, the Tobins were all released from prison when Chief Edna figures out they only broke the law to be with Beef on his birthday.
- Bank Robbery: Danica has been planning to rob a bank with Pete's help for a while, and once she break out of jail with Pete and Beef, who's taken against his will, she starts her plan. During the robbery, since Danica doesn't have a gun, she fakes one by making a finger gun and concealing it in her pocket while Pete carries a grenade with him. After Beef and Pete have a talk about being worthy, Pete abandons the robbery and Beef reveals to everyone that Danica doesn't have a real gun. When Danica tries to flee with the money, she's immediately stopped by Chief Elba who tackles her to the ground.
- Birthday Hater: Downplayed. Beef doesn't hate his birthday per se, but hates having a big surprise party thrown in his honor. In the end, he confesses that he doesn't feel worthy of such attention.
- Brandishment Bluff: Because Danica doesn't have a gun on her, she sticks her finger her pocket to make a Finger Gun so it seems like she has a gun. After Pete leaves the robbery to be with Wanda, Beef tells the bank teller to not give her the money by pointing out she just has her finger in her pocket, and once she's exposed, she pretends to shoot the teller with her finger gun and flees with the money only to be tackled to the ground by Chief Elba.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Chief Edna demands that Wolf stop giving a moose beer, Wolf emotionally defends the moose and asks to be taken in instead. Edna even states she’s not going to arrest the moose, but Wolf still doesn’t let up in his defense.
- Comically Small Bribe: Wolf tries to bribe Chief Edna to release Beef by dropping 5 dollars on the ground, but she points out it's illegal to bribe a police officer. When that plan fails, he resorts to taking his shirt off in an attempt to seduce Edna into letting Beef out of jail.
- Couch Gag:
- The boat in the opening says "Only Cod Can Judge Me"
- Wolf's T-Shirt says "Breaking Wind".
- Foreshadowing: Danica did not insult Pete when first meeting him, which is out of character due to her unpleasant nature. This is because Pete is her accomplice and he might not help her escape if she insulted him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Beef first meets with Game Warden Burt, the yeti can be spotted peeking behind a tree.
- Freudian Excuse: Beef admits his avoidance of his birthday is because his parents never celebrated it for him as a kid, so he decided to not get his hopes up.
- Get into Jail Free: When the Tobins couldn't bail Beef out of jail, Honeybee suggests that everyone commits a crime in which they break some of the obscure Alaska State laws in order to get themselves into jail so they can bust Beef out.
- Loony Laws: After Pete is arrested for grilling outside, the Tobins explain to Honeybee that he broke the "Attractive Nuisances" law (having something that would attract bears) and that Alaska has several other crazy laws. Not wanting to celebrate his birthday, Beef decides to get thrown in jail by breaking the law where you're not allowed to whisper in someone's ear while they are moose hunting. Not wanting Beef to be alone in jail on his birthday, the rest of the Tobins break other wacky Alaskan laws: Wolf gives a moose a pitcher of beer to drink, Honeybee tows a travel trailer with Judy still inside it, Ham builds a snowman taller than himself on school property, and Moon is carrying a slingshot without a license.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Whenever Beef thinks of the last time he got thrown a surprise birthday party, he remembers it as him being forced to sing while completely naked and on the toilet. Whether he's remembering a dream or just how the memory felt to him is unclear.
- Poke the Poodle: Justified. The Tobins want to be thrown into jail with Beef so they can celebrate his birthday together, but they don't want to get into serious trouble so they choose to break "silly Alaska laws" since the punishment is minor.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is a reference to The Shawshank Redemption.
- Shown Their Work: While the Alaskan laws mentioned in the episode sound crazy and made-up, these are in fact real laws in Alaska.
- Spanner in the Works: Danica brings Beef along to her bank robbery so he doesn't snitch to Chief Edna about her robbery despite Beef pointing out Edna would have figured it out eventually. This ends up backfiring on Danica because during the robbery, Beef and Pete have a heart-to-heart talk about being worthy to the people around them and Pete abandons the robbery to be with the woman he truly loves and gives Beef his grenade and Beef tells the bank teller Danica doesn't have a real gun. After taking the money and fleeing out the bank, Chief Edna and Elba already arrive at the bank waiting for her and Danica is tackled to the ground by Elba.
♫ Bustling city streets, new internet posts
The sun's rise and fall on the coasts
Things on this blue marble just keeping going on and on, never slowing
But there was one Saturday when the world stopped
When Crispin put on that bolo tie and said, "Oh, this pops!"
In that moment, all stood still
And we all felt an extraordinary thrill
In unison, a "wow" escaped our lips (Wow!)
We're different than we were before
Since we saw that bolo tie that Crispin got at the thrift store. ♫
The sun's rise and fall on the coasts
Things on this blue marble just keeping going on and on, never slowing
But there was one Saturday when the world stopped
When Crispin put on that bolo tie and said, "Oh, this pops!"
In that moment, all stood still
And we all felt an extraordinary thrill
In unison, a "wow" escaped our lips (Wow!)
We're different than we were before
Since we saw that bolo tie that Crispin got at the thrift store. ♫
—Ham
