Recap / Corner Gas S 4 E 13 Census Sensibility

"You don't know how it goes down! You don't even know when it goes down! It just went down, and you didn't even know!"

A Plot: Oscar takes a job as a census taker for the town as a way to pay back Emma for ruining her bushes with a "U-Pick-It" scheme. He gets paired up with Hank, who is apparently the seasoned census veteran. Hank deems Oscar a rookie, while Oscar considers Hank a loose cannon. They ultimately prove their ineptitude at the task, but the town eventually accepts Oscar's population results: About 500.

B Plot: When Lacey overhears Karen and Davis talk about going to the city for first aid training, she misconstrues it as a secret romantic meet-up. Lacey tries to "discreetly" help the relationship along, and she eventually manages to convince Brent of her suspicions. Lacey's efforts end up leading both Emma and Hank to think that she is in a love triangle with the two cops, prompting a confusing situation.

C Plot: Wanda starts selling "Organo" soy bars from Uzbekistan, and the others are convinced it's a pyramid scheme. Wanda brings Brent in as a seller, but he is pretty unsuccessful. Once they both realize they're terrible at it, they go back to just not doing work at the gas station.

Tropes Referenced:

• Ambiguous Syntax:
  Brent: Okay look, I want you to quit this job.
  Wanda: Really? I suppose it would give me more time to concentrate on selling these bars. It's been a slice.
  Brent: What? No, whoa, whoa! I mean quit the bar one.
• Ask a Stupid Question...:
  Hank: (at the Leroy home) How many people in the house, ma'am?
  Emma: 27 and a monkey.
• Big Eater: Brent, as always. When asked to deliver two boxes of Organo bars to a customer, only one makes it.
  Brent: [with chocolate around his mouth] Here's your box of Organo bars.
  Customer: [confused] I thought there was supposed to be two.
  Brent: I just ate one box. Trust me, you don't wanna eat two.
• Brick Joke: During a test to determine the better census taker, Oscar ignores it and instead takes a quiz in a decades-old issue of Chatelaine to determine his "sass factor". Later, when Hank is trying to explain to Oscar how and when it "goes down" in the census-taking business:
  Oscar: You don't know me! Where I'm from! What my sass factor is!
• Buddy Cop Show: Parodied when Hank and Oscar team up to take the town census.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Fitzy fires both Oscar and Hank as census takers, both of them think he's only firing the other one, and try to stick up for their partner.
  Hank: If he goes, I go!
  Fitzy: I want you to go! I'm firing you both!
  Oscar: I can't do it without him!
  Fitzy: You can't do it with him! You're both fired!
  Hank: So... when do we meet our new partners?
• Description Cut:
  Karen: Don't feel bad, Davis. Every first aid course has a winner and every first aid course has a loser.
  Davis: Why do you have to turn everything into a contest? Not everything has to be a bet.
  [Flashback to the two of them walking into the first aid course]
  Davis: Hey, let's make this into a contest. Whoever does better wins, like a bet.
• Distinction Without a Difference:
  Lacey: Is this one of those pyramid scams?
  Wanda: No. It's a multi-level marketing scam.
• The Ditz: Though not quite Too Dumb to Live, Hank has come surprisingly close, as Brent has supposedly saved his life eight times. Hank also somehow chokes on the same pickle twice.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Oscar sees a farmer named Gil running a U-Pick-It on his berry farm, allowing anyone to pick their own berries and pay for them, Oscar assumes all the people there are Gil's employees, even the kids.
  Oscar: Got a big crew, too. Some of them are a little young...
• Hypocritical Humor: When Wanda tells Brent to deliver Organo bars to a far-away farm:
  Brent: I don't wanna go way out there!
  Wanda: An order is an order. Business only works if you follow the chain of command.
  Brent: All right. Well, clean the freezer while I'm gone.
  Wanda: [snickering] Yeah, right. Make another wish.
• Imagine Spot: When Emma tells Oscar about Lacey supposedly trying to win Davis back, he pictures the two having an argument set to dramatic music, complete with over-the-top romance-novel style attire. Then Fitzy steps into Oscar's mind and gets him riled up about being fired, causing him to forget all about Emma's thing.
• Literal Metaphor: Davis tells Lacey that he and Karen have been in some "sticky situations". Cue a Whip Pan to several events actually involving the word "sticky".
• Literal-Minded: Brent assumes this about Hank, when trying to explain Karen and Davis's "relationship":
  Brent: Heard it right from the horse's mouth. [Beat] I heard it from Lacey. There was no talking horse.
• Morton's Fork: Fitzy laments the choice of census taker being between Hank and Oscar. He gives them an aptitude test and they both fail miserably. He considers it a tie and decides to Take a Third Option, choosing both of them.
• Oh, No... Not Again!:
  Hank: You saved my life.
  Brent: Yeah. What's that make it, the eighth time?
  Hank: First time with a pickle.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Parodied with Oscar and Hank. Despite Oscar being older than Hank, Hank is the more experienced census taker, and thus plays old cop to Oscar's young cop.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping:
  • This is how Lacey's rumor about Karen and Davis gets started. She overhears them talking about meeting at a hotel, but misses the part that they're going to the city to get first aid lessons.
  • Later, Lacey thinks Karen and Davis have broken up and plans a romantic dinner for them to help them get back together. Emma overhears her talk about this to Brent but doesn't hear Karen's name come up, giving her the impression that Lacey is cooking the dinner for herself and Davis.
• Police Are Useless: Hank nearly dies choking on a pickle while Karen and Davis are standing nearby him. To their credit, they consider doing the Heimlich maneuver... but then get wrapped up in an argument about how to pronounce it. Turns out neither of them know how to do it anyway, and Brent ends up having to save Hank.
• Shout-Out: When Lacey initially tells Brent that Karen and Davis have a "fling thing", Brent starts jokingly rhyming like Dr. Seuss to indicate he doesn't believe her.
  Brent: I wonder how they'll get there. On a plane? On a train? On a boat with a goat?
  Lacey: Do you know anything that rhymes with 'immature'?
  Brent: Legislature?
  • Brent also references Superman when further explaining his disbelief in Lacey's theory. In an attempt to gloat after her theory is "proven", she poorly references other comic book characters:
    Lacey: I guess Superman should spin his webs on back to the Batcave.
    Brent: ...You don't read a lot of comic books, do ya?
  • The episode title is a reference to Sense and Sensibility.
• A Simple Plan: Lacey plans a romantic dinner for Karen and Davis to keep their relationship going. They're weirded out by it, but stick around for the delicious food. The dinner gets crashed by both Emma and Hank, trying to convince Lacey and Karen about Davis' apparent indiscretion. The scene ends with everyone even more confused than before... except for Karen and Davis, who are too focused on the food to pay much attention to the conversation and never realize first or last that other people thought they were dating.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Lacey thinks Davis and Karen going into the city together means they have a secret "fling thing". Her conversations with others then lead Emma to think that Davis is leaving Lacey for Karen, and Hank to think Davis is leaving Karen for Lacey.