Recap / Corner Gas S 2 E 17 Slow Pitch

"Maybe you should ask Wanda. She looks pretty refreshed."

A Plot: Brent's team is taking on Wes's team in what is supposed to be a friendly game of softball. However, a wager on the game has changed the mood.

B Plot: Lacey has to make the game so Brent's team doesn't have to forfeit, but she is curtailed by the Harvesters Club meeting going on at The Ruby.

C Plot: The team tries to avoid awkwardness by pretending not to drink alcohol in public while Karen and Davis are around. Meanwhile, Karen and Davis are aware of the drinking, but also try to avoid awkwardness by pretending they aren't.

Tropes Referenced:

• Accidental Misnaming: When Oscar cuts out of the Harvester's Club meeting early.
  Oscar: [to another old man] Cecil, vote for me, will ya? [leaves]
  "Cecil": [to Lacey] Who the hell is Cecil?! My name is Brian!
• Ambiguous Syntax: Discussed:
  Lacey: [looking at Hank's glove] Genuine cowhide. Impressive.
  Hank: I don't know why they have to say "genuine", like we don't trust them or something.
  Lacey: Maybe they mean "genuine" as in "sincere".
  Hank: Like the cow was... sincere?
  Lacey: Maybe.
• Baseball Episode
• The Bet: Between the two softball teams.
• Broken Glass Penalty: Davis breaks Fitzy's Grandma's window with a practice home run. He and Karen try to play it off later when she calls in about an act of vandalism. At the end of the episode, Emma breaks a different window at Fitzy's Grandma's house.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Both Brent and Emma think that Emma having played regular baseball in the past would make her unstoppable in a slow pitch softball game. Turns out she's so used to hitting fast-moving balls that she is completely unable to hit a slow-moving one. It takes her several hours of trying after the end of the game before she manages to get a hit.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Talking about Lacey's attendance:
  Hank: It's something we all admire about you, Lacey. Wherever you are, you're always there.
  Lacey: Wow. I don't know if that's deep or shallow.
  Brent: It's shallow.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: Brent gives his softball pitches fearsome names like "Hammer of Thor".
  Lacey: Brent! All your pitches are just big, giant arcs! You should name 'em "Rainbow", or... "Pregnant Lady's Belly"...
• Gone Horribly Right: One Harvesters Club member mentions that he would have left the meeting long ago if Lacey's snack squares weren't so delicious.
• Description Cut:
  • Subverted for a change, when Karen and Davis are practising for the softball game:
    Karen: What if someone sees us? We should be working right now.
    Davis: [laughs] It's Tuesday afternoon in Dog River. Nothin's gonna happen!
    [Cut to police station, where of course the phone is ringing]
    Davis's Voice on Answering Machine: You've reached the Dog River Police emergency line. Leave a message. [BEEP]
    Brent: Hey, I hope you guys are practising for slow pitch. The whole team's counting on ya.
  • Also played straight, when Oscar comes back from buying beer at Wes's store.
    Oscar: That Wes is nuts! He's all stoked up for some reason.
    Emma: You riled him up, didn't you?
    Oscar: I did not! I was minding my own business and he starts ranting and raving. He called us nimrods. Said his team was gonna mop the floor with us.
    [Cut to liquor store]
    Oscar: Our team is gonna mop the floor with your team! Ya nimrod!
    [Cut back to Corner Gas]
    Oscar: ...Or some such.
• Hand Signals: Oscar has a very convoluted set of them as third base coach.
  Oscar: Now, when I touch my hat three times, that means leave the first pitch. If I touch my hat once, that just means I touched my hat.
  Lacey: Okay... Uh, now, what if you touch your hat twice?
  Oscar: [confused] Why would I touch my hat twice?
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Oscar lectures Lacey about how the Harvester's Club meeting is important and should not be rushed, and how every vote is sacred. When he learns the softball game is about to start, he immediately ducks out and tells the guy next to him to vote in his place.
  • This example from the Cold Open works on multiple levels:
    Lacey: Well, it just seems crazy to name your pitches when they're all the same.
    Brent: [offended] Who are you to judge what's crazy?! [speaks quietly to the softball] Don't listen to her, she's crazy.
  • This moment from a discussion about the broken window:
    Hank: You know, kids these days, they got no respect. When I was a kid I didn't go around smashing other people's things!
    Wanda: Yes you did! You had a little hammer, and you wore a mask, and you called yourself "The Masked Smasher!"
• I Know You Know I Know: Brent's softball team all attempt to hide their public drinking from Davis and Karen. Davis and Karen know about the drinking, but since the team works so hard to hide it, they pretend not to in order to avoid an awkward moment. Turns out Brent's team knows that Davis and Karen know about the drinking, but since they work so hard to pretend they don't know, the team continues to make a token effort to "hide" the drinking, again to avoid an awkward moment. At the end of the episode, Karen raises a toast to "beer you don't have to pretend is iced tea"... and causes a big awkward moment for everybody.
• Serious Business: Lacey's perfect attendance.
• Shout-Out: One of Brent's "terrifying" softball pitches is called "Fried Green Tornado"
• Talk About the Weather: Lacey prevents an open discussion about the weather and crops from happening at the Harvesters Club meeting so she can leave and make the softball game.
• That Came Out Wrong: Hank is testing out his baseball glove at the gas station by tossing around the cans of soup Emma is buying and fumbling his catches horribly.
  Emma: [annoyed] Stop playing with my cans!
  [Brent and Wanda start snickering]
  Emma: ...What?