Recap / The Great North S4E04 "Ready Mayor Won Adventure"

RECAP:
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Original air date: March 3, 2024

Written by: Marina Cockenberg
Directed by: Neil Graff

When Honeybee becomes the interim Lone Moose mayor over Wolf, Wolf does his best to support her, but he ends up annoying her to the point where she starts ignoring his very important advice. Due to Honeybee ignoring Wolf's advice, she unknowingly gets Whippleton to declare war on Lone Moose and the town is in chaos from approving laws that people are taking advantage of. Meanwhile, the rest of the Tobins are getting free stuff from the people in town due to Honeybee's popularity, in exchange they get a picture of her for their business.

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Tropes:

• Couch Gag:
  • The boat in the opening is "A Dinghy Ate My Baby".
  • Wolf's T-Shirt says "The Queef's Gambit".
• Dark Horse Victory: Honeybee, who wasn't even running for interim mayor, was elected as a write-in candidate. This is chalked up to her general popularity, though it's also likely that her husband being on the ballot made some people think of her by association.
• Didn't Think This Through: Honeybee approving new laws without listening to Wolf's advice and thinking about the consequences backfires on her horribly as Whippleton and Ted's Folly declares war on Lone Moose and the town is in disarray due to everyone taking advantage of Honeybee approving all the new laws.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Wolf is announcing he's revoking all the laws Honeybee approved, when we see Mrs. Tuntley's reaction, the Yeti can be spotted peeking out from the trees on the right side of the screen.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Because Wolf lost the election to Honeybee, he becomes jealous but does his best to try to support her. But in his effort to support her, he ends up constantly trying to tell Honeybee what to do and it ends up annoying her to the point that she ignores all his suggestions and sends him away on a Snipe Hunt.
• Ignored Expert: Wolf had studied all of Lone Moose's laws as preparation to be interim mayor, so when Honeybee is elected instead, he takes it upon himself to help her. Honeybee, however, just finds him annoying and brushes off his attempts to explain how her decisions will cause trouble. It's only when her new laws lead to chaos and two other towns declaring war on Lone Moose that Honeybee realizes that she should've listened to Wolf.
• It Amused Me: Vera knew full well that expanding her fence over the Whippleton border is an act of war to the town and she even called them to let them know what she did.
  Vera: Chaos keeps me young.
• Karma Houdini: Vera doesn't get punished for purposely inciting a war between Lone Moose and Whippleton. Although it's justified because Vera was able to do it because Honeybee approved her request to move her fence and ignored Wolf's warning. The mayor of Whippton even called her out by pointing out that Vera may have instigated the war, but Honeybee was the one who signed the authorization for her to do it.
• Legalized Evil: Not fully realizing the consequences of her actions, Honeybee unknowingly got rid of the noise curfew law and legalized hunting moose within the town, public drinking, and public nudity.
• Mayor Pain: When Honeybee becomes the interim mayor, she decides to make everyone happy by approving all the laws they want to happen all while ignoring Wolf's advice about the law she's approving. She learns her actions are disastrous when Whippeton and Ted's Folly declare war on Lone Moose and the town is in chaos thanks to everyone taking advantage of Honeybee's new laws.
• Never My Fault: Honeybee gets mad at Wolf for not mentioning that Vera moving her fence five feet onto Whippleton's border is an act of war towards the town, despite Wolf trying to explain it to her but she chose to ignore him and she refuses to own up to her mistake. She finally realizes she messed up after seeing the town in chaos and returns to her cabin crying for Wolf's help.
• Outdated Outfit: When Whippleton and Ted's Folly declare war on Lone Moose, they're both wearing colonial uniforms while two members of Whippleton wear medieval clothing.
• Poor Communication Kills: Because Honeybee's father always bosses her around when she used to work in her family's curtain shop, she refuses to listen to Wolf's suggestions because it reminded her of her father's bossiness. Her refusal to listen to Wolf ends up getting two other towns to declare war on Lone Moose and leaving the town in chaos.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is based off of Ready Player One.
• Quirky Town: While we don't actually see Whippleton, what we see of its mayor and some of her cabinet suggests they make Lone Moose look sane and humdrum in comparison.
• Silly Reason for War: The town of Lone Moose and Whippleton have the Treaty of 1989, where it mentions if anything Lone Moose builds is built on Whippleton's territory (in this case, Vera purposely moving her fence five feet over their border), they have the right to declare war on the town. Also in the treaty, if Whippleton declares war, than their ally town, Ted's Folly, will join them and also declare war on Lone Moose.
• Taking the Bullet: At the end of the episode, Honeybee jumps in front of Wolf to block him from getting hit by the sandwich Gwen throws at him.

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♫ Bittersweet memories
That is all I'm taking with me
So goodbye, please don't cry
We both know I'm not what you, you need
And I...
Will always love you, ooh. ♫

—Honeybee