A Plot: Karen and Davis discover a mannequin dumped in the woods and try to solve the crime; the matter becomes more intriguing when the mannequin's head is recovered, with a picture of Brent's face taped onto it.
B Plot: At Corner Gas, Brent surprises Wanda with an electronic scanner. He also makes an unusual request to her involving throwing things at him to improve his goalie reflexes.
C Plot: In the Ruby, Lacey, Oscar, Hank, and Emma get drawn into an unusual bet about hand sanitizer, Oscar's immune system, and the flu. The bet has Hank in denial, Oscar tailing Hank everywhere, and Lacey freaking out about germs.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: A Discussed Trope. When Hank and Brent are practicing hockey, Hank claims he's Bobby Orr and Connor McDavid passing to each other. Brent argues that it makes no sense since the two stars are from completely different eras.
- Bait-and-Switch: Davis and Karen are sent to find a supposed dead body and discover a hand sticking out of a pond, where the scene cuts. When it comes back, there is a closeup of their faces:Davis: [shocked] The wrists are duct-taped to a 2x4!
Karen: And the head is missing!
[Scene pulls back to show a mannequin]
Karen: This would be real disturbing if it was a human. - Compliment Backfire:Lacey: It's just, I'm not like you. I don't come from a long line of strong prairie women.
Emma: You think I'm strong?
Lacey: Are you kidding? You're tough and durable, like an old catcher's mitt. Rugged, and leathery... and this isn't coming out right at all. - Continuity Nod: Brent mentions he's the best goalie in the Pickerel Valley Hockey League, which was established in the episode "Face Off" from the live action series.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Lacey after Emma smears chili dog all over the hockey stick Lacey was using to clear dishes:Lacey: Ugh! That was cheating, and disgusting and erotic... Not erotic. I didn't say "erotic". [She chuckles nervously.]
- Double Meaning:Karen: [flipping through a catalog that is evidence] Hang on! This page is dog-eared. I know that skirt.
Davis: I don't think women like to be called that. - Hopeless with Tech: Brent can't figure out how to use the new electronic scanner without Wanda's help. In The Tag, when Wanda tries to use this to her advantage and requests a raise, Brent immediately switches back to the old register and gives Wanda a wrist strap to help deal with any impending carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Implausible Deniability: Hank continuously insists he doesn't have the flu despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Without the cut:Oscar: You've done a lot of crazy things in the past, Lacey, and I've kept my mouth shut...
Lacey: You've never kept your mouth shut! - Lame Pun Reaction:Hank: I'm not sick. This is allergies.
Lacey: You say that every year, and every year you infect the whole town. Or has everyone forgotten the snot-pocalypse of 2012? Do you not recall the phlegm-ageddon of 2015? [She chuckles]
Emma: Do you not recall you're the only one who thinks those names are funny?- Then later:Lacey: This feels like the start of a-
Emma: Stop!
Lacey: flu-nami.
- Then later:
- Malaproper: Oscar talking about how he never gets sick:Oscar: My immune system is as strong as Fort Knock.
Lacey: It's Knox.
Oscar: Pardon?
Lacey: It's not Knock.
Oscar: Who's there?
Lacey: [sighing] Why do I even?- - Mondegreen Gag: The cops confront Hank:Davis: We found evidence that ties you to a tortured mannequin we found in the woods.
Hank: Someone tortured a mannequin? That's terrible! They're so big and friendly and cuddly looking.
Davis: Cuddly looking?
Hank: Why was it in the woods? Don't they live in the ocean?
Karen: I think you're thinking "manatee". - No Accounting for Taste:Lacey: [on the phone with Oscar] It's Lacey. I'm calling on behalf of Emma. She wants you to come back to the Ruby. She, uh, she misses you.
Oscar: Misses me? That doesn't sound right. - Running Gag: Brent not being able to operate the "beep-boop" machine properly, despite it being pretty easy for others.
- String Theory: Parodied when Davis is studying the clues from the mannequin case.Davis: I think I found a way to connect these things. [He ties yarn from one clue to another.]
Karen: You're just physically connecting them with yarn! That's not police work.
Davis: I see it in police shows all the time! - Tempting Fate: At the end of the C Plot, Emma brags about how she was in the right about Lacey being a hypochondriac, because of both Oscar spending the day with Hank without catching his illness and with Lacey handling food all day with her hand sanitizer replaced with a placebo...and before she's even finished her sentence, both Lacey and Oscar sneeze on her at the same time, with Emma sadly stating she knows exactly what'll happen to her next.
- Terrified of Germs: Lacey is overly obsessive about using hand sanitizer all the time, so Emma challenges her to not use hand sanitizer at the same time Oscar has to follow sick Hank around. Lacey can't hack it and uses a secret hidden bottle, which Emma had actually replaced with hand lotion. Lacey immediately gets sick. We also find out that Lacey orders clothes from a catalog because the idea that other people may have tried on clothes she's buying freaks her out.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Towards the end of the episode, it turns out the A and B Plots are directly linked; the mannequin was used as a training dummy by Hank in order to practice getting a shot past Brent, who spent the majority of his plotline using Wanda to train his reflexes in response to Hank scoring on him.
