"Well yeah, that's the idea, but it might be a little wordy."
A Plot: Oscar becomes the substitute school bus driver by accident and is immediately suspicious of the innocent young riders. His over-the-top sternness leads the usually well-behaved kids to rebel against him.
B Plot: When Brent starts selling a new energy drink at Corner Gas, Wanda is highly skeptical of its effectiveness. She tries it, anyway, and finds she loves the taste. Emma and Brent also love the sudden energy Wanda has, using her to do chores around the gas station and Leroy house.
C Plot: Hank creates a driving "Hankboard" advertisement service on his truck and offers Lacey the first take. She refuses, but after he greatly reduces the price, she decides to go along with it. Hank ends up annoying everyone by stopping traffic, causing Lacey to follow him around apologizing.
D Plot: Karen accidentally elbows Davis in the face and knocks him out easily. This causes her to worry about whether or not she can count on him to back her up in a physical scuffle.
Tropes referenced:
- Bait-and-Switch: In-universe:Hank: It hit me last night: I should be in the advertising business. Maybe because I was watching a Bewitched marathon on TV.
Lacey: Oh right, 'cause Darrin was in advertising.
Hank: No, I just really liked the way they advertised the marathon. - Call-Back: Dog River's oddly well-behaved teenagers make a reappearance.
- Damned by Faint Praise:Emma: Karen, leave Davis alone. [to Davis] Come to my place. You can fertilize the garden and clean leaves in peace, far away from Karen's hurtful teasing.
Davis: Uh, I'm good with the teasing.
Emma: I thought someone with your delicate constitution would be better suited to working around the house.
Davis: Nope. Thanks for sticking up for me, though.
Emma: Someone has to, Glass Jaw. - Entertainingly Wrong:Wanda: What's that stuff?
Brent: It's one of those new energy drinks.
Wanda: Scam-ola!
Brent: No, it's called Haywire. - File Mixup: The reason Oscar got the substitute bus driver job is because the guy Fitzy puts in charge of picking someone gets two paper lists confused: one of everyone qualified for the job and one of everyone not qualified at all.
- Ghost in the Machine: Emma offers to make Brent a four-cheese lasagna in exchange for doing chores around the house. Brent is very conflicted, and says that his Gluttony is fighting with his Sloth. Cut to a black void with two Brents arguing.Gluttony: Come on! Free food, four kinds of cheese, let's go!
Sloth: Let's just stay here. There's hot dogs right next door.
Gluttony: (shrugs and nods)
(Cut back to the gas station)
Brent: I'm just gonna stay here. There's hot dogs ri- I mean, I have a lot of work to do. I'm gonna go next door now... for work. - Implausible Deniability: Wanda continues to claim that the energy drink has no effect on her, despite all the crazy stuff it makes her do like clean the cooler from the inside or climb up to the gas pump overhang.
- Laser-Guided Karma: All episode, Karen teases and distrusts Davis for getting knocked out so easily. Then, when responding to a school bus disturbance, she gets knocked out by an errant textbook.
- Literal Metaphor: When Lacey offers Hank $20 to advertise the Ruby:Hank: What?! That's insulting! That's a slap in the face!
Lacey: No it isn't. I could give you an actual slap in the face and show you the difference.
Hank: 20's good. - Motor Mouth: The energy drink makes Wanda (and, in The Tag, Oscar) one.
- My God, What Have I Done?: According to Davis, after one of the kids on Oscar's bus accidentally hit Karen with his textbook, they all immediately felt guilty and quieted down.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Wanda does this while on Haywire, talking to Emma from on top of Corner Gas's overhang before appearing next to her in the following cut when asked to do chores at the Leroy house.
- Out-Gambitted:
- Brent reveals that it was his plan to get Hank to lower his prices so Lacey would hire him. Brent then started sending everyone over to the Ruby to convince Lacey the adverts were working, knowing that Hank would have to drive around a lot and pay for the gas. This had the added affect of Lacey driving around, too, leading to more money for Brent. However, Lacey points out that all the extra business at the Ruby netted her an added profit of $400, meaning she really came out on top. Hank tries to one-up both of them, but just realizes he got royally screwed over.
- When Brent goes to retrieve Wanda from the Leroy house, Emma sneaks into Corner Gas and takes the remaining Haywire cans, holding them hostage until Wanda is returned to finish the chores. Brent makes a deal to give Wanda back in exchange for the four-cheese lasagna Emma offered earlier (which gets bumped up to a five-cheese lasagna), but Wanda's energy has crashed by the time Brent drops her off, and Oscar drinks the remaining Haywire before she's recharged. However, it's ultimately Brent that ends up worse off, because Oscar ends up just as hyper as Wanda was and obsessively rearranges Corner Gas after finishing the chores at home.
- Pun-Based Title: Wanda's energy drink "buzz" and Oscar as a bus driver, in addition to Hank generating buzz for The Ruby by driving around.
- Rage Breaking Point: The kids on Oscar's bus put up with a lot, including him confiscating one of their books and completely halting traffic to read it instead of taking them home, but Oscar confiscating their pens so they can't write strongly-worded letters of complaint leads to them rioting.
- Self-Deprecation: After Hank says "You can sell any kind of crap with a well-placed ad", the show immediately cuts to a short ad for Season 4 of Corner Gas on DVD.
- Shout-Out:
- Karen notes that Davis slams the cabinet drawer like he was King Kong or Godzilla. Davis then disagrees, arguing that King Kong would just shake and throw the cabinet and Godzilla would burn it. Then he wonders why either would even need a filing cabinet.
- There's also the Bewitched reference mentioned above.
- Oscar says you have to discipline kids or else it's anarchy, "like Lord of the Rings". He quickly gets corrected to Lord of the Flies, only to later mix it up again with Lord of the Dance (1997).
- Oscar takes one of the kids' homework, which is the book To Kill a Mockingbird.Oscar: This title is misleading. Are they gonna kill any mockingbirds or not?
- When Wanda starts "crashing" from her Haywire buzz, Brent says he saw something like it on The Mod Squad.
- Something We Forgot: In The Tag, Emma feels like she forgot something after Oscar drinks Haywire and does all the chores. It then cuts to a mostly-unconscious Wanda still left in the yard, getting licked by a passing dog.
- Tap on the Head: In the opening, Karen accidentally knocks out Davis with her elbow while fixing a cabinet drawer. When they're called in to deal with the riot on Oscar's bus, Karen gets knocked out by a thrown textbook. Then, when Davis tries to carry her back to the car, Oscar accidentally activates the bus's Stop Sign and knocks them both out.
