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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: This is one of those rare episodes where there really isn't a noticeable side plot; everything revolves around a beer league softball game. It isn't by any means in the upper half of second-season episodes, but there are enough killers in it to make it more than worth watching - and one thing that's particularly impressive is how the episode is structured so that even those who have no clue about the rules of baseball or softball can follow along with no problems.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: When Wes was arguing against his own team and Brent responded by arguing against Wes. This leads to both team captains giving their teams unusual orders.
MEMORABLE LINE: "I am starting to question democracy" from Lacey in response to the Harvester Club's vote on new pushpins for their bulletin board.
KUDOS TO GABRIELLE: She's just brilliant as she goes through a slow meltdown watching the Harvester Club stumble through its votes - first watching the votes, then facilitating the meeting and the votes, and finally throwing everyone out of her restaurant. This is one of her best performances of the season and the series. Her rundown about three-ply toilet paper and the Valentine's Day dance being "on or around Valentine's Day" had me in stitches, and when she told everyone to leave I was pretty much beyond help.
FUNNIEST LINE IN THIS EPISODE: "Two definite camps on that one" from Lacey to Brent after he asked how the pushpin vote went. A close second was this classic from Brent to Wanda: "Go get yourself a beer. This is no time to mess with medical science."
FUNNIEST SCENES IN THIS EPISODE:
1.) Brent's lame names for his lame pitches in the opening scene.
2.) Lacey's reference to Brent's pitches as "girly," Brent correcting her by referring to them as "terrifying," and Hank agreeing with Lacey.
3.) When Brent and Wanda crack up after Emma says "stop playing with my cans."
4.) When Hank and Brent go off on Wes, who doesn't deserve any of the abuse he's getting.
5.) Oscar's absolutely ridiculous coaching signals lecture at The Ruby.
6.) Lacey taking over the meeting and summing up the Harvester's Club toilet paper and Valentine dance votes before smacking down the gavel and moving on.
7.) When Wes tells his team to swing at every pitch and Brent tells his team to drop every ball Wes' team hits.
8.) Wes attempting to convince Brent, his team, and the umpire that he was out - and the Corner Gas Guzzlers arguing that he was safe.
9.) Lacey chasing the crowd out of her restaurant.
10.) Oscar's absurd signals being interrupted by an insect, and Lacey asking "Should I just hit it then?"
11.) Lacey racing to first after an effortless base hit and saying "that was easy" in earshot of Emma.
BLOOPERS:
Forthcoming, although I can't resist including the most obvious ones now:
1.) When Davis crushes a pitch and breaks old lady Jensen's window, his hit is solidly to left field. Later in the episode, after the game, Emma tags a pitch and breaks the window pane next to the one Davis broke, but her hit is to right center. Assuming that both hits were of relatively equal distance, they'd have landed over a hundred feet apart, but in this episode they landed within just a few inches of each other.
2.) After Emma strikes out about 18 minutes into the episode, the scoreboard shows the Corner Gas Guzzlers leading 8-7 in the top of the ninth inning when a player from their opposition, the Wild Ones, grounds into a double play. At that point, you can hear the umpire say "Okay, Guzzlers, you're up." However, unless the Wild Ones scored, which they didn't, the game should have been over right then and there.
3.) The next scene shows Hank sliding headfirst into home to beat a tag that wasn't coming, which based on previous events should occurred in the bottom of the ninth. In the scene immediately thereafter, the scoreboard shows the same 8-7 score with a '0' having just been put up for the Wild Ones, which of course means that for the second time, the game should have been over, but...
4.) ...the scene immediately after this one (again, starting with an 8-7 score with an '0' showing for the Wild Ones in the top of the ninth) shows the Wild Ones at bat again!
5.) At this point, Brent tells everyone they're one out away from victory, and if you look closely at the scoreboard behind home plate (you'll probably have to pause the episode to see it), that '0' that the umpire just posted for the Wild Ones in the top of the ninth is no longer there. This means either that they're replaying the top of the ninth and Hank's run didn't count, or that they traveled back in time.
TRIVIA: The umpire is played by Tobias Mehler, who was Gabrielle's real-life boyfriend at the time of the episode's shooting and stars with her in Robson Arms.
NITPICKS:
1.) Judging by the five at-bat rule Hank found and the resultant deduction that Lacey didn't have to be present until the fifth inning, it appears that in Canada they play as follows these days: nine innings with every team member getting one at-bat per inning. I realize that co-ed leagues tend to have their own rules, but I've never heard of anything like this: when I was a teenager I played in a couple of softball tournaments in Canada (in Ontario, if it matters) and they played exactly how most leagues in the States play: seven innings, three outs per inning. Things may have changed up north pretty drastically. And if that is in fact how they play in Canada (or Saskatchewan, anyway), a minimum of ten at-bats per team for eight and a half innings only resulted in a combined 15 runs?
2.) Don't even get me started on how often people struck out in this game - striking out in slow-pitch softball is almost impossible for a coordinated adult who is actually trying to put the ball into play, even opposite handed.
3.) When Lacey (who was playing shortstop) turned her double play, where the hell was the second baseman given that a right-handed hitter was at the plate? Lacey had to run to second and step on the bag herself before throwing to first, and the team converted the double play only because for some reason the runner couldn't cover 60 feet in the considerable amount of time elapsed.
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