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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: This episode is one of the best of the fourth season. What more could a fan of this show ask for than Hank sifting through everyone's garbage, the discovery that The Ruby is within town limits but Corner Gas isn't, Wanda using this fact to hustle Brent out of per diem, Davis continuing to demonstrate that he has no comprehension of the concept of a practical joke, Karen having a slow meltdown as everyone gives the credit for her practical jokes to the completely clueless Davis, and everyone thinking that Emma and Oscar is rich because of Hank's uninformed nosiness?
There isn't much downside to this episode. The scene before the opening credits wasn't funny at all, but it was necessary to set up later jokes. The episode itself starts slowly and doesn't really get funny until Wanda hustles Brent out of per diem (about five minutes in), but all of that is necessary to set up the episode, too. When the episode starts rolling, it's Corner Gas at its finest.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: The scene in which Wanda's car is smoking because Karen had placed sardines on her engine block. When I was 10 or so, one of my father's friends had his car vandalized in a similar way - the only difference is that Limburger cheese was used instead of sardines.
I heard later that the guy had to sell his car for parts because it was undrivable - the interior reeked like a rotting corpse and no amount of spray or pine cone-shaped air fresheners could solve the problem. When something burning on an engine block permeates the interior of your car, the stench is often there to stay.
I hadn't thought about this incident in years until seeing this scene. My better half laughed as she watched the scene, whereas I sat there just shaking my head because of what I was remembering at the time. The joke is quite funny in the episode, but please don't use sardines or anything else that reeks as a practical joke like that, especially against a friend like Karen did - it's not something that goes away the following day, and although it can be funny to some in a sitcom it isn't funny at all in real life.
Take what you will from this story - I really hate to preach (you can't imagine how much), but the engine block stunt is a truly rotten thing to do. At any rate, now back to our regularly-scheduled review.
MEMORABLE LINE: Hank's description of garbage as "wet sticky bag of half-rotten clues." Only Hank could come up with something so disgusting in the middle of lunch.
KUDOS TO GABRIELLE: This episode may well have given her more chances to be funny than in any other one of the season, and she makes full use of every chance. Seeing her repeatedly mock Brent for being an "outsider" was hilarious, but the crowning glory of her work in this one was the bar scene in which she had Lacey do such an utterly transparent job of passing herself off as a Dog River "insider." In order to illustrate what I mean, imagine that you're at a bar, wherever you live - Toronto, New York, a small flyover town or wherever, and think to yourself if anyone you know there who would repeatedly emphasize that he or she is a local. Nobody that I hang out with, for instance, would bother to remind me that he is actually from Washington or New York while we're sitting in either city. Of course, the scriptwriters deserve some credit for the scene, but Gabrielle deserves a lot herself - she nailed the entire scene perfectly, from her mouthy attempts to fit in to her overexaggerated laughter, and everything in between. A lesser actress could have cost the scene a lot of laughs. Another crowning achievement of hers in this episode was her "friendly little chin-wag" with Brent at Corner Gas. If you've only seen a few episodes of the show up to this point the impact of this scene might be lost on you, but if you remember episodes such as "Harvest Dance" and others where Lacey is obsessed with the idea that she doesn't fit in, to see her go off on Brent like this was side-splitting.
FUNNIEST LINE IN THIS EPISODE: I honestly can't decide between the following two:
1.) When Lacey storms into Corner Gas and goes off on Brent with this: "You're the crazy outsider with the harebrained ideas, and I am the trusted local with all the common sense! Huh? In your face! How do you like it? Oh, yeah. Woo-hoo!" Gabrielle simply crushed this line, and made it even funnier when she did that all-annoying "head bob" maneuver which should normally come off as ridiculous and obnoxious to any sensible person, but in this case adds to the humor of the scene. This is what Lacey has been waiting on for years, and Gabrielle had Lacey handle it to perfection. Two factors that add a lot to this scene are a.) the fact that this was billed as something that was going to be a "friendly little chin-wag," and b.) Brent was merely minding his own business reading a comic book when Lacey came in to jump all over him.
2.) When Brent tells a customer that his assistant (Wanda) simply tells him what he has to pay her as they go along, the guy says "When you said that just now, did it sound stupid to you?" This was perfectly followed up by Brent saying "Kind of. You've been very helpful." with a puzzled face. The guy who played the customer, Joel Walmsley, did as good a job with the role of an extra as anyone has ever done on the show.
FUNNIEST SCENES IN THIS EPISODE:
1.) When Hank volunteers to take garbage and Lacey offers him food instead.
2.) Hank and Fitzy haggling over the garbage hauling fee.
3.) Hank classifying microwave popcorn as a sign of commitment issues.
4.) The "practical joke" Davis played on Emma.
5.) Davis firing mashed potatoes at Karen's forehead when she tries to explain the concept of a practical joke.
6.) Lacey refusing to fall for a practical joke, and then falling for another one.
7.) Davis taking credit for the joke, along with Karen's protest.
8.) When the unidentified Dog Riverite calls Oscar and Emma "Mr. and Mrs. Trump."
9.) Lacey giving Brent business advice, and Brent pointing out what Lacey overlooked.
10.) When Lacey says "Brent, don't yell. We don't care for that boisterous behavior - here in Dog River."
11.) Oscar's lengthy protest about the red washer fluid.
12.) When Fitzy's grandmother calls the red washer fluid "devil juice."
13.) Lacey's "friendly little chin-wag" with Brent.
14.) The flashback of Karen's joke on Wanda. I personally hated Karen's joke, but it set up the "practical joke" Davis pulled on Wanda. As a general rule slapstick humor like this doesn't do much for me, but the look on Wanda's face was priceless.
15.) The entire scene with the tow truck driver in Corner Gas. This scene was done to absolute perfection.
16.) When Oscar and Emma give credit to Davis for the joke on Phil, Karen protests, the joke backfires, and Karen backtracks.
17.) When Lacey says "That is NOT how we locals do things here in Dog River."
18.) When Brent shoves Wanda's per diem scheme straight up her ass. This was another scene that was handled perfectly.
19.) When Davis explained the "elaborate illusion" that led to the joke on Karen.
20.) Hank referring to himself as a "sanitorial janitation technologist."
21.) Hank's reaction to being fired, along with Lacey's response.
22.) The scene showing Oscar bargaining with Fitzy.
23.) Brent's plan to get back at Davis.