Recap / Big City Greens S 2 E 7

Not the perfect temperature for HORSE.

Heat Beaters

During an intense heatwave, Cricket is forced to challenge Remy to a game of HORSE to maintain his winning streak while the rest of the Greens suffer a rather cold air conditioner.

"Heat Beaters" contains examples of:

• Big Damn Heroes: When Keys comes upon Cricket and Remy having almost died from a heatstroke, he quickly puts them in his car and takes them home. He likewise saves the rest of the Green from the impromptu freezer they got themselves in.
• Big "OMG!": Cricket when he sees the heatwave.
  Cricket: Oh. My. Gravy.
• Cutting Back to Reality: When Keys sees Cricket and Remy nearly dying from a heatstroke, what appears to be Ricky and Wizard turns into what they really are in reality, a trash can and a "no parking" sign.
• Eye Scream: When Cricket opens the door which lets the heat wave blasts he and Remy, eggs break on his eyes and leave their yolks covering them.
• Gone Horribly Right: The new air conditioner made things cool all right, but they set it up so high it froze over and they can't turn it off.
• Hallucinations: The heatwave causes Cricket and Remy to hallucinate Ricky and Wizard.
• Happy Place: Tilly is able to stave off the heat by thinking cold thoughts "until my mind is nothing but a frozen wasteland." It backfires when the air conditioner malfunctions and she can't stop thinking cold thoughts, leaving her delirious.
• Heat Wave: The Greens try to stave off the intense heat; Cricket by playing HORSE with Remy, the others by turning up the new AC. Cricket and Remy almost succumb to heat stroke, while the house freezes up due to the AC being set too high.
• I Let You Win: Cricket ultimately decides his and Remy's friendship is much more important than competing, and forfeits the HORSE match so Remy can win by default.
• Left the Background Music On: When Remy first appears, sitcom music is heard; that turns out to be from the TV as Cricket didn't hear him over it.
• Near-Death Experience: Cricket and Remy nearly die from suffering a heatstroke from the heatwave, while the rest of the Greens catch hypothermia and nearly freeze to death themselves.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Wizard Williams and Ricky Stork is a reference to the famous rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
• Poor Communication Kills: Cricket and Remy hallucinate Ricky and Wizard trying to get them to get out of the heat, but Cricket misinterprets this as them delivering the aesop for the episode.
• Shout-Out:
  • The close-up of Tilly shivering is reminiscent of Jack Nichleson in the finale of The Shining.
  • Tilly wears virtually the same parka as Kenny McCormick.
• Smart Ball: This is one of the few times Officer Keys does his job competently. He sees Cricket and Remy about to die of heat exhaustion and rushes them back home.
• Snow Means Cold: The AC makes the Greens' house so cold there are snow drifts and icicles on the walls. It later turns into Snow Means Death when they start to freeze constantly.
• Wingding Eyes: Tilly's eyes turn into ice cubes as she thinks of things that are cold.

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Do you Bill-ieve in aliens?

Bill-iever

Cricket tricks Bill into believing aliens have landed on earth to avoid getting caught for an accident.

"Bill-iever" contains examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Now let's see if my big Billy fish is bitin."
• Big "NO!": By Cricket at the end of his Imagine Spot, then by Bill when he sees the destroyed garden.
• Big "OMG!": "Oh. My. Gosh. WE'RE NOT ALONE!"
• Bittersweet Ending: For both parties. Bill reveals he knew Cricket destroyed the garden all along and he learns his lesson, but Cricket is undeniably disappointed and defeated at this, and it's implied he'll get grounded for it indeed. Meanwhile Bill had to utterly humiliate himself in order to get Cricket to learn his lesson, hurriedly getting everyone inside before anyone else sees him in his underwear.
• Bottle Episode: The entire episode is set at the Green house, with a short scene in an allyway.
• Brick Joke: When the scooter finishes destroying the garage, it crashes into a shelf and the door slams shut, leaving a cornstalk sticking out. Later on, Phoenix notices this, which allows Bill to see the scooter and find out it was Cricket who's responsible.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Bill points out near the end, none of the madness with the aliens would've happened in the first place if Cricket had just told them the truth.
• Crop Circles: Cricket claims the tracks left in the garden are a crop circle left by aliens.
• Dissonant Serenity: When Bill discovers the scooter dirty from Cricket driving it through the garden, rather than get mad, he instead talks in a calm monotone voice, which freaks out Cricket.
• Hidden Depths: Vasquez pulled off his government agent disguise because he's taking acting classes at the community theater.
• I Think You Broke Him: Watching Bill go crazy makes Cricket think he "broke dad's brain."
• Knew It All Along: The moment Cricket admits it was he that ran over the garden and aliens don't exist, Bill suddenly reveals he knew Cricket did it all along and just acted freaked out to teach him a lesson.
• Loud Gulp: Cricket in response to Bill promising to find out how he ruined the crops.
• Maintain the Lie: To cover up the fact that he accidentally ran over the garden with Gramma's old scooter, Cricket says it was done by aliens. While Tilly and Gramma are easily convinced, Bill doesn't buy it an insists it was Cricket who did it. So Cricket goes to ridiculous extremes to make Bill believe in aliens.
• The Men in Black: Cricket has Vasquez disguise himself as one to make Bill believe aliens ruined his crops. He even uses a neutralizer device like the one in the movies.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Bill appears to freak out after seeing the alien, wearing a tin foil hat in his underwear and climbing on the roof so the aliens can pick him up. After Cricket confesses that there were no aliens and he was the one who destroyed the garden, Bill reveals that he was faking it and knew it was Cricket all along.
• Oh, Crap!: Cricket goes through three of these. The first is when he destroys the garden and Gramma's scooter, the second is when Bill finds the scooter and the third is when Bill seems to have gone insane.
• Psychotic Smirk: Bill gives one to Cricket when he reveals he knew he was disguised as an alien the whole time.
• Reflective Eyes: While Cricket is convincing a delusional Bill that everything will be all right, his features reflect into Bill's veiny red eyes.
• Shout-Out:
  • "The truth isn't down here. The truth is up there."
  • Vasquez as a Man in Black with a neuralizer. There is even a parody of the theme music playing in the background.
  • The morning after the fake alien encounter, Bill is sculpting with mashed potatoes.
• Taught by Experience: The moment Cricket rushes to the scene and asks what happened to the crops, Bill immediately accuses him of being responsible. When Cricket acts offended over always being blamed for such incidents, Bill points out that because he's always responsible.
• Tears of Remorse: Cricket sheds them as he admits his treachery to Bill.
• Tin Foil Hat: Bill starts wearing one after his encounter with an "alien" (actually Cricket in disguise), as do Tilly and Gramma.
• Tranquil Fury: When Bill finds out Cricket wrecked Alice's scooter and destroyed the crops with it, he is furious but doesn't yell at Cricket. Instead, he calmly tells him he's going to get it tomorrow. Cricket is understandably terrified.
• Twinkle in the Sky: Cricket's Imagine Spot ends with Bill tossing the scooter away and leaving one of these as it vanishes.
• Wham Line: "I flip-flappin' knew it."

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