Recap / The Great North S4E06 "The Mighty Pucks Adventure"

RECAP:
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Original air date: March 17, 2024

Written by: Thomas Reyes
Directed by: Damil Bryant

The Tobins are given dividend checks from the oil industry, but Judy wants to spread the word about the evils of accepting such money. But when no one shows up for her one-woman play about the oil industry's evil deeds, she decides to sponsor Mrs. Tuntley's hockey team so she can perform her show in front their audience. But when she sees they don't have an audience due to them playing badly, she decides to coach Dorothy's team so they can win more games and attract more people so they can watch her show. Meanwhile, Wolf and Honeybee decide to use their dividend checks to start a homemade gym in their cabin while Ham and Crispin set up a smoothie stand in the outhouse. Elsewhere, Beef, Moon, and Aunt Dirt decide to spend their money on something truly frivolous so they'll feel less guilty for accepting money from the oil industry.

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Tropes:

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
  • Mrs. Tuntley would get drunk during their hockey games and will do things that will get her sent to the penalty box, like harassing the referee multiple times.
  • Apparently, the Puck Chuckers only won the playoffs because the opposing team was drinking during Judy and her teams' show and they got so drunk that several players fell asleep on the ice.
• Bad "Bad Acting": When the health inspector shows up to inspect Wolf and Honeybee's homemade gym after getting two anonymous tips, which were called in by Wolf and Honeybee, they both pretend to act surprised when they see the inspector and disappointed when they get shut down. But despite their bad acting, Wolf is too slow to realize that Honeybee was the second anonymous tipster, while Honeybee already figured out he was also one too.
• Brutal Honesty: Mr. Golovkin tells Judy her performance in trying to spread her anti-dividend check message was pretty crappy.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She has an eccentric way of doing it, but Judy shows her chops as a hockey coach by using her theater exercises to help the Puck Chuckers win more games.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Judy, a teen, ends up coaching a hockey squad.
• Continuity Nod: Judy's obsession with curling from "Curl Interrupted Adventure" is brought up again.
• Control Freak: Crispin ends up being this when he and Ham open a pseudo-smoothie stand.
• Couch Gag:
  • The boat in the opening is "Billie I Fish".
  • Wolf's T-Shirt says "Fart-Time Lover".
• Don't Shoot the Message: The Puck Chuckers point out that this is the main issue with Judy’s anti-dividend check play. Yes, speaking out against Big Oil, its negative impacts on the environment, and how Alaskans are supporting the harmful status quo through accepting the dividend checks is important. However, the shame-filled way Judy’s doing it just creates a horrible performance that alienates people. Sure enough, when they help Judy rewrite the play to make it more entertaining, the audience is much more receptive to the message.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The yeti can be spotted behind Wolf and Honeybee's cabin lifting weights just before it cuts to Ham and Crispin trying to find protein powder in their cabin.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Puck Chuckers consists of three males (Santiago, Mr. Golovkin, and Old Jody Jr.) and three females (Mrs. Tuntley, Junkyard Kyle, and Ester).
• Hard-Work Montage: The "Everything Is Sports" montage has the Puck Chuckers using Judy's theater exercises to win hockey games while it also features Beef, Moon, and Aunt Dirt browsing a place that sells pythons, Wolf working the night shift at their homemade gym, and Ham and Crispin working their smoothie stand.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Wolf, Honeybee, and Ham really don't want to go to Judy's one-woman oil play, but they managed to come up with a flimsy, but legitimate, excuse to not attend. Moon, on the other hand, admits he doesn't have an excuse and bluntly tells Judy that he does not want to come to her oil play.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: Judy helped the Puck Chuckers improve their hockey skills, so the Puck Chuckers help Judy improve her anti-Big Oil play so people are more receptive to it’s message.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is based off of The Mighty Ducks.
• Running Gag: Judy trying to tape a paper of the number of games the Puck Chuckers need to win in order to enter the playoffs on the locker room wall, but it keeps falling off. When she tapes a flyer of her one-woman show on the wall, it finally stays on.
• Save Our Team: Judy decides to sponsor Mrs. Tuntley's hockey team as an excuse to perform her one-woman show in front of an audience, but when she sees their hockey audience, there's only one person who's barely paying attention to the game. Dorothy admits the team has been sucking lately so their fans stopped showing up and their coach is in prison. In order to get more people in the audience to watch her one-woman show, she decides to coach them herself so they can win more games.
• Secretly Selfish: Judy begins coaching the hockey team she is sponsoring just to do her one-woman show that decries accepting dividend checks. The fact that she's rather open about it is probably why the hockey team keeps her around.
• Shout-Out:
  • During Judy's animal spine exercise, Santiago imagines himself as Miss Piggy.
  • When Judy tries to tape the number of games they need to win in order to enter the playoffs on the locker room wall and it keeps falling off, Judy comments Ted Lasso made it look so easy.
• Soapbox Sadie: Judy really doesn't like it when the people of Alaska accept dividend checks from the oil industry and shames them for it. She puts on a one-woman show at school where she shames the audience for accepting money from the oil industry and reveals more details about the oil industry's misdeeds, but only two people showed up (Beef and Gill), and Kima and Amelia admit that if it weren't for the fact they're best friends and also her stage crew, even they wouldn't show up. When she tries her show again during the intermission of the hockey game, everyone heckles her, causing her to gives up. The Puck Chuckers help her by pointing out that while she does have some good points in her play, she needs to make her show entertaining for the audience instead of shaming them at the beginning. While she's disappointed that her show wasn't enough to stop the oil industry at all, she's happy she's able to change three people's minds.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Wolf and Honeybee call in an anonymous tip to the health inspector when they begin to get burned out by their homemade gym. When Wolf confesses to Honeybee that he called in the anonymous tip, she admits she knows because she also did it too and it should've been pretty obvious.
• Stylistic Suck: Judy's oil play consists of this, playing a dividend check who shames people for accepting it. The first two times she tries it, people immediately get bored with her Bad "Bad Acting".
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After getting burned out by their homemade gym, Wolf and Honeybee decide to call in an anonymous tip to the health inspector to get their gym shut down for good. When the health inspector arrives, he admits while he would normally do a full inspection of their gym, he immediately shuts them down by pointing out that their gym isn't even licensed and Ham and Crispin's smoothie stand is in an outhouse.

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Ham and Crispin: ♫ Corner, corner, yes, behind
Hands, hands, yes, behind
Yes, Chef, yes, Chef
Corner, corner, yes, behind ♫
Everyone: ♫ Now let's start this family style
Yes, Chef, yes, Chef
Heard, Chef, heard, Chef, hands all day
Fire the apps
Now let's brigade
Corner, corner, yes, behind
Let's all lose our freaking minds
Yes, Chef, yes, Chef
Yes, Chef, yes, Chef. ♫