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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: If you're familiar with the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, or if you're a hockey fan, you should enjoy this episode quite a bit. If you're not, this is one of those rare episodes of Corner Gas you can afford to miss. The main plot has local table hockey demigod Brent facing off (no pun intended) against rising star Karen, whose complete annihilation of opponents such as Davis, Hank, Oscar and Wanda has the whole town clamoring for her to take on Brent.
The secondary plot, which has Lacey joining a local women's group called the DRYWA (Dog River Youngish Women's Association) and trying to nominate someone as a distinguished woman, is completely predictable and very much lacking in humor. For the most part, the only laughs to be found in this plot are when it crosses over into the hockey plot.
If you're not familiar with the Summit Series and you want to understand the references in the episode a little better, no worries - I'm including a series of explanatory notes along with this review (see here). If you've seen the episode but didn't know the details of the Summit Series at the time, at least some of these notes should help.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Brent's impassioned speech in response to getting booed. This is, of course, only memorable if you've seen a clip of Phil Esposito's 1972 speech in response to Canada's team getting booed after dropping a game to the Soviets in Vancouver.
MEMORABLE LINE: "Let me show you how it's done" by Davis, as he challenges Karen to a table hockey game and winds up getting crushed like an empty soda can. I've always been amazed at how often people say lines like this and then get their asses handed to them. My boss during my military days in Germany used to say "let me show you how it's done" constantly, and I don't ever remember him winning anything after saying that - whether it be chess, darts, pool or whatever, he'd always lose. He'd also lose after any of his other usual lines, such as "Time to go to school, son." In fact, Wanda's promise to give Wanda "old-school shellacking" reminded me of just that.
KUDOS TO GABRIELLE: Many years ago I lost count of how many times my father has said me "If you want to know if a guy can hit, hand him a broomstick and have him take a cut at a Major League fastball." This is not strictly a baseball reference: what he means by this is that anyone can do well when everything is perfectly set up for them, but only the truly skilled can excel when they don't have the tools to do the job. Gabrielle was given almost nothing to work with in the DRYWA plot and still excelled, which is actually far more impressive than the many Corner Gas scenes she's done where her work was great but so was the writing. The DRYWA plot was perhaps the least funny plot in Corner Gas history, she had to rescue it all by herself, and that's exactly what she did.
Particularly impressive: when she goes into Corner Gas and asks Davis and Wanda what Emma has done for the community. When they don't answer right away, Lacey has a perfect look of exasperation on her face as she turns her head. When they finally give a completely useless answer, Lacey gives an appreciative smile and thanks them for their "help." This scene was priceless, and was one of the few funny moments in the plot that Gabrielle was given. Not much of a surprise that she nailed it, but this was not a guaranteed laugh and Gabrielle turned it into one.
Shortly before that, she did a great job having Lacey give an "it's a man's world, women have to stick together, you have to stop thinking of women only in traditional roles, etc" lecture to Brent - only to happily acquiesce when Brent asks her to get him some more coffee. This was, in my view, the only scene in the DRYWA plot that was a guaranteed laugh, but Gabrielle was hilarious during both her lecture and her smiling as she agreed to go fetch coffee for Brent. Nobody could have handled this scene better.
FUNNIEST LINE IN THIS EPISODE: This line isn't funny unless you see it, but I've got to go with Karen's "I'm really good at table hockey and should play Brent?" as she interrupted Wanda, who was almost certainly going to say the very same thing. The way she rolled her eyes and delivered the line deadpan was amazingly funny, especially after she crushed Wanda while holding a cup of coffee in her hand when playing (this after Wanda promised to give Karen an "old-school shellacking."
FUNNIEST SCENES IN THIS EPISODE:
1.) When Karen thanks Davis for showing her "how it's done."
2.) When Hank calls the DRYWA "join and you can nominate someone" policy a "scam," Brent is forced to agree with him, Lacey goes off on a tirade, Brent agrees with her and then orders coffee. Lacey capped off this scene with absolute perfection.
3.) When Lacey erases what she wrote on the DRYWA form upon learning she can't nominate herself for an award.
4.) Oscar's assessment of the women in Dog River.
5.) The scenes showing the "thoughtful, caring women" of Dog River. The scenes with Wanda, Karen and Emma were absolutely hilarious, especially Karen's.
6.) When Oscar calls Emma "the worst of the bunch." I had to stop the episode because I was laughing so hard at this.
7.) Karen's effortless, one-handed annihilation of Wanda in table hockey.
8.) Davis extending a best-of-seven series to eight games through incomprehensible reasoning.
9.) Lacey thanking Davis and Wanda for their help.
10.) Lacey pointing out her very neat printing.
11.) The big musical buildup to the dropping of the puck at the first game and then Karen and Brent calmly going at it in the most anticlimactic way possible.
12.) When Emma grabs the Meals on Wheels sandwiches for the hockey crowd.
13.) When Hank, Wanda and Emma take turns hassling Brent about drinking. Particularly funny was Brent's "This is the worst intervention ever."
14.) When Lacey comes up with a charity idea for Emma, Wanda asks which charity gets the money, and Lacey says "I don't know, who cares."
15.) When Emma reacts to the third-game tie with "That would never happen in a real hockey series." A tie is exactly what happened in the third game of the series this episode is based on.
16.) Brent's speech in response to getting booed. This isn't funny at all if you're not familiar with the Phil Esposito speech the scene is based on, but it's hilarious if you are.
17.) When Emma says "I don't care about some dumb charity" in front of Lacey and the DRYWA figurehead.
18.) When Karen points out that one of Brent's players is on the ice.
19.) Lacey's final argument to get Emma to show up at the DRYWA ceremony.
20.) When Lacey throws Emma's purse back in her face after winning the DRYWA award.
21.) When Emma jacks up her price after Lacey wins the award.
NITPICKS:
1.) The solicitor who visited Emma at her home did not have his tie caught in the door during the first scene in which you see him, but he does in the second.
2.) Karen's goalie movements as Brent was closing in for the final goal in Game 8 do not reflect the habits of an even remotely competent player, much less the habits of someone who is as good at table hockey as Karen is made out to be. Clearly, it was necessary for Brent to score a goal at that point for the sake of the script, but no effort was made to make it look like a goal that was scored by one good player against another.
NOTE: During the first game of the series, Lacey shows interest in a roast beef sandwich. In real life, Gabrielle is a vegetarian, so this appears to be another inside joke not unlike the one that had Lacey scarfing down meatloaf at a record pace in "Pandora's Wine."
Again, if you are not familiar with the 1972 Summit Series and want to understand this episode better, see here for explanatory notes.