Recap / Moral Orel S 2 E 20 Nature Part 2

"There are no mistakes..."

After a quick recap of the previous episode, it's revealed that what Orel shot was Clay's last two bottles of whiskey. An angry Orel yells that Clay becomes a bad person when he drinks. Clay tries to belt Orel in response but is too drunk to even take off his belt. He suddenly grabs a gun and points it at Orel, shooting him in the leg in his drunken state. He promptly blames Orel for getting shot, tears up Orel's favorite lucky shirt to make a tourniquet, and drinks all the rubbing alcohol Orel brought instead of treating the wound. Orel glares and declares that he hates Clay. Clay tells him to 'hate away' and passes out. A bear, attracted by the smell of the cooking dog, invades the campsite, and Orel is forced to shoot him to save his and his father's lives. Clay ends up sleeping for over thirteen hours, waking up once only to pull a sleeping bag over his eyes. When he comes to, he has no memory of shooting Orel, and therefore denies it, but asks if Orel shot the bear. Orel hesitates before lying and saying Clay had done it. Clay takes him to Dr. Potterswheel, who would keep his mouth shut about Clay shooting Orel.

Later, as Orel recuperates at home, he asks Bloberta why she married Clay. Her answer is 'why not?'. When he asks about Clay's drinking, Bloberta says that it's just his true nature coming out. A demoralized Orel eats his breakfast while outside, the blue bird Orel sees, now surrounded by flies, watches him.

Tropes:

• Cerebus Retcon: Clay's abuse of Orel has always been portrayed as a form of Black Comedy, but here it's shown how truly horrific it is and it only gets worse from there.
• Darker and Edgier: While the series played around with depressing episodes before, such as the season 1 finale, this is the episode where the show goes from a dark comedy with a tiny bit of drama, to mostly a drama with some dark comedy.
• Despair Speech: Clay gives a drunken one once he realizes that his life is full of "bright."
• The Dog Bites Back: Orel holds no punches against calling Clay out for his abuse, straight-up telling him to his face he hates him (not that Clay really cares), and spitefully refusing to fulfill Clay's wish in that he killed the bear for him.
• Double-Meaning Title: Nature refers to the fact that Clay and Orel are at a Nature reserve, and Orel finding out about Clay's true nature.
• Downer Ending: Quite the list. Orel finds out Clay's true nature, Clay gets drunk and accidentally shoots Orel in the leg, Clay passes out for 2 days, Orel shoots a bear he didn't want to kill out of self defense, denies killing said bear just to spite Clay (while Clay denies shooting his son since he didn't remember it), and Clay drives Orel to the hospital, while both of them are bitter about the whole thing and destroying any bit of innocence Orel had left.
• Faux Affably Evil: Clay acts like a bumbling but well intentioned dad after shooting Orel in the leg.
• Genre Shift: As stated above, this is the official moment where Moral Orel stopped being a dark comedy and became a straight-up drama.
• Heteronormative Crusader: When Orel asks his mother why she married Clay, she misses his point at first and goes off talking about how if men married men or women married women, "we'd give birth to nothing but fairysexuals!"
• Immediate Self-Contradiction:
  Clay: You shoot ONE THING this whole trip, count 'em, ONE THING, and it's TWO OF MY LAST BOTTLES OF LIQUOR!?
• In Vino Veritas: Discussed at the end of the episode, after Orel asks Bloberta why she married Clay in the first place.
  Orel: Well, it's just that...when he drinks, he...changes.
  Bloberta: Oh, he doesn't change, Orel! That's just his true nature coming out.
  (Bloberta leaves)
  Orel: Hmm..."nature"...(sigh).
• Insult Backfire:
  Orel: I hate you.
  Clay: Hate away, sister. Hate away.
• Kick the Dog: Clay decides to consume the entire bottle of rubbing alcohol out of spite rather than attending to Orel's gunshot wound.
• Never My Fault: When Oral points out that Clay shot him in the leg, Clay claims he doesn't remember, therefore it wasn't his fault.
• Non-Answer: After Orel and Clay return from the hunting trip, Orel asks Bloberta exactly why she married Clay in the first place. Tellingly, the only answer she can give him is "Why not?"
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Orel reluctantly shoots the bear to save Clay.
  Orel: Sorry, Mr. Bear, but my dad's a jerk.
• Psychopathic Manchild: When Clay attempts to strike Orel with his belt, he ends up tripping over his own pants and falling on the tent. He then proceeds to have an honest-to-goodness temper tantrum, literally kicking and screaming. As we learn in Season 3, there's a reason for this behavior.
• Save the Villain: Even after Clay remorselessly shoots Orel, Orel still saves him (though begrudgingly) from being mauled by a bear. When Clay asks if he shot the bear, Orel just denies doing so as payback.
• Stupid Evil: Just to spite Orel, Clay downs a whole bottle rubbing alcohol, which in real life would be very dangerous. He passes out, but it's treated more like a drunken blackout than anything major.
• Tranquil Fury: Orel tells Clay he hates him a pretty cold, blank tone. But Clay doesn't care at all since he hates himself more than Orel will ever hate him.
• Trauma Conga Line: Orel gets shot by Clay, stranded in the forest for two days (without any medical treatment), and almost gets mauled by a bear.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Clay asks Orel if he shot the bear to him; that way, he can be happy. After Orel's traumatic experience no thanks to him, however, Orel denies it and lies that Clay had shot the bear in order to remove the latter's satisfaction.