Recap / Corner Gas S 4 E 04 Just Brent And His Shadow

"Hank, I've got pots. You don't have to bring your own."

A Plot: When Brent finds out that Lacey has a job shadow from the high school, he convinces them to give him one, too. Lacey is a little too finicky with her shadow, Pam, while Brent is too laid back with his, Kyle. Pam and Kyle eventually switch jobs when Kyle explains he wants to be a chef and Pam feels Lacey is a "stickler".

B Plot: Hank buys a fondue pot at a yard sale and suddenly everyone wants to have fondue parties. Davis in particular gets rankled when he is repeatedly shunned by the "fondue group".

C Plot: After hearing that another couple had recently divorced due to constant arguing, Emma is determined to treat Oscar more nicely to prevent the same thing from happening to them. This ends up having the complete opposite affect on Oscar, who finds Emma's niceness so disturbing that he runs to Wanda as another source of female hostility.

Tropes Referenced:

• Accidental Misnaming:
  Lacey: I am just trying to help Pam grow as a job shadow.
  Brent: I feel the same way about Kurt.
  Lacey: Kyle.
  Brent: Good kid.
• Amusing Injuries: Kyle tosses an extra fondue skewer to Davis and it ends up stuck in his hand.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": Talking about Lacey's job shadow:
  Lacey: Excuse me. The high school called me. Why did you turn them down?
  Brent: I figured it would be more of a hassle than anything.
  Hank: Plus they didn't ask him.
  Brent: Plus they didn't ask me.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  Wanda: Hey Emma, sorry to hear about your friends Tom and Barb.
  Brent: Tom and Barb died? Oh man, and just after the divorce, too.
  Wanda: I was talking about the divorce.
• Exact Words:
  • When Brent is explaining why he took on a job shadow, he claims the high school principal used the word "desperate". Cut to Wanda getting off the phone:
    Wanda: That was the principal from the high school. She said if she could find a kid desperate enough, she'd send one over. She also said she was desperate for you to stop calling. She said you sounded desperate.
  • Lacey explains that she has a bottle of Kirsch because "it was one of those lame Secret Santa gifts from last year". Cut to Lacey giving Brent the bottle as a gift, and him declining and saying she can keep it.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Parents: Kyle's parents are both quite adamant that he grow up to be a professional hockey player, even though it's quite obvious his true passion and calling is cooking.
• Here We Go Again!: In The Tag, after getting lambasted by Kyle's Fantasy-Forbidding Parents, Oscar insults Lacey and asks what the soup of the day is; when she zings him back, he likes it, just like he did with Wanda.
• Humble Pie: When Kyle's parents show up at the end, Lacey thinks they want to thank her for helping their son find his passion. Instead, they completely lambaste her in front of everyone, since they wanted Kyle to be a hockey player and now he wants to be a chef.
  Kyle's Dad: You, stay away from my son.
  Kyle's Mom: You're a bad person.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Both Kyle and Pam prove to be this when they switch who they're shadowing. Lacey tries to take all the credit for "discovering" Kyle's gift at cooking, while Brent ends up firing Pam for being too good.
  Brent: You've done a bang-up job here, and because of that, people are gonna expect a higher level of service. It's just settin' 'em up for disappointment. I can't do that to my customers.
  Pam: I kind of respect your commitment to mediocrity.
• Insult Backfire: Oscar starts loving all of Wanda's "zingers", despite the fact that she insists she's genuinely being mean to him.
• Malaproper:
  Emma: Well, Barb said it was the constant bickering that finally got her.
  Oscar: They never bickered. Tom always paid full price.
  Brent: That's dickering.
  Oscar: I thought that was bickering.
  Brent: Dickering!
  Wanda: Now you're bickering about dickering.
• Mamet Speak: This conversation:
  Hank: What's a fondue?
  Lacey: Melted sauce.
  Hank: Oh, I thought it was French for something.
  Karen: It is. "Melted sauce". i.e. fondue.
  Davis: Ooo, I eat fondue!
  Karen: Not "I eat", "i.e.". It's Latin.
  Hank: I thought you said it was French.
  Karen: Fondue is French.
  Random Ruby Patron: Did somebody say fondue?
  Lacey: Just about everyone has.
  Pam: I didn't say it.
  Hank: Say what?
  Pam: Fondue.
  Karen: Okay, that's everybody.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In The Tag, Lacey is treated as a dream-ruiner because she let Kyle do something he genuinely loved instead of what his parents want to force him into.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Emma being nice to Oscar seriously freaks him out. So much that he becomes a Stalker with a Crush to a very unwilling Wanda because she insults him the way Emma normally does.
• Right Behind Me: Lacey tells Karen that her newly-swapped job shadow Kyle is "kinda lame" right as Kyle is walking up behind them with soup. This after she had already called Pam "the good one" right in front of him.
  Lacey: Oh, boy. I wish I'd stop doing that.
• Saying Too Much:
  Oscar: I saw Wanda today, at the gas station.
  Emma: Oh. I bet when you tell people that, they don't believe ya.
  Oscar: She's a good egg, uh?
  Emma: I guess so.
  Oscar: A real straight shooter.
  Emma: Sure.
  Oscar: A crackerjack.
  Emma: Do you have a crush on Wanda?
  Oscar: Ah, typical! I mention someone four times and you think I have a crush.
• Shout-Out: When Lacey initially refers to Pam as her job shadow, Brent asks "Does she know what evil lurks in the hearts of men?", referencing The Shadow.
• Stealing the Credit: When Kyle starts showing an affinity for food preparation, Lacey claims that it's only because he was job shadowing her and she rubbed off on him.
• Stealth Insult: After Kyle has just stopped being Brent's job shadow:
  Hank: I think I could be a good shadow.
  Brent: That makes one of us.
• Stepford Smiler: Ironically, Wanda turns to this to finally get Oscar to leave her alone.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Brent and Lacey separately have quite similar warnings to Emma about being nice to Oscar:
  Brent: Well, that's admirable. It's foolhardy and fraught with pitfalls and peril, but it's admirable.
  Lacey: Oh, good for you. That's an uphill battle with very little chance of success, but good for you.
• Teens Are Monsters: Hank seems to think so.
  Hank: [whispering] Lacey! Don't look now, but there's a teenager walkin' around in your kitchen!
  Lacey: Oh, that's Pam, my job shadow.
  Hank: [loudly] Oh! That's great! [whispering] Blink twice if you're in danger.
• Unusual Euphemism: When Oscar takes a liking to Wanda, Emma warns Wanda to "stop cutting my grass".
  Wanda: Emma, I don't know what you're talking about, especially the "cutting your grass" part.