Recap / Corner Gas S 5 E 04 Dark Circles

"Divorce? Not a chance! She's not getting half my magazines!"

A Plot: Emma hires a painter for the house, but the smell of paint fumes makes Oscar sick, so he has to look for a place to stay in the meantime. This causes Davis to think that Oscar and Emma are splitting up, so he offers to let Oscar stay with him out of pity. Meanwhile back at the house, the paint fumes are having an effect on Emma.

B Plot: Hank wants to scare the town a little, so he devises a plan to create crop circles in the middle of the night. His plan is not the brightest, as it's May and there are no crops to smush down. He fails to spook anyone with his "dirt circles" and "grass circles". Karen tries to turn it back on him by burning her own circles, but this actually does cause a town outcry and Karen is too ashamed to admit it.

C Plot: Brent loses his work shirt and is accidentally sent a black one as a replacement, which causes a drastic personality shift when he puts it on. The new "Black Shirt Brent" is a toothpick-chomping, intimidating tough guy who terrifies Wanda and makes Lacey swoon.

Tropes Referenced:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Not all, just Lacey. Black Shirt Brent's "bad boy" personality pretty much turns her into a Smitten Teenage Girl, watching him from afar with a dreamy look on her face. Wanda tries introducing her to another bad boy, Marco, but she seems repulsed by him ... at least until Brent abandons his Black Shirt persona. Then she seems willing to give Marco a shot.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment:
  • When Hank mentions that Wanda always makes fun of his plans, Wanda is very offended and hurt ... because she makes fun of everything about Hank, not just his plans.
    Wanda: I don't just make fun of your plans. I make fun of your clothes, and your truck. I make fun of how broke you are, and the stupid things you say, and that weird smell that comes off you sometimes. Don't I?
    Hank: True.
    Wanda: So then you'll have to admit, I'm pretty fair and well-rounded about it.
    Hank: Yeah, okay, you got a point there. I'm sorry I came down so hard on you.
    Wanda: Apology accepted.
  • Also, when Hank offers to take the fall for Karen's crop circle:
    Karen: I can't let you do that, Hank. [Beat] Although that would make things way easier on me. Okay, let's do that.
• Call-Back: At the end of the episode, Brent refers to his shirt as "powder blue", even though the last time someone did that, he was somewhat offended.
• Casanova Wannabe: Marco.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Brent's whole subplot is that putting on a black shirt instead of his normal blue one turns him into a Darker and Edgier version of himself. However, it's subverted when he reveals to Hank that his new personality is all just an act he's putting on to freak people out. Possibly double-subverted when he finds he can't make himself act like that without the black shirt, however a black apron from the Ruby works just as well, if only in his own mind.
• Crop Circles: Hank decides to create his own to freak people out.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  Oscar: If you go ahead with this, I'm gonna find somewhere else to sleep.
  Emma: If that's a threat, you should make it less appealing.
• Flashback Cut: Oscar gets angry at Emma for hiring a painter when they were supposed to talk about it first. A flashback shows they did talk about it, but Oscar vehemently said no. This was apparently enough for Emma to go ahead with it, anyway.
• Hypocritical Humor: Davis warns others not to spread around the rumor about Oscar and Emma splitting up. A Description Cut then shows Davis himself doing exactly that.
• Kafka Komedy: Hank takes the blame for Karen's burnt circles, and the town congratulates him on a good prank. When a little girl points out that it was actually Karen who did it, everyone turns against her. When she complains that five seconds ago people were congratulating Hank for it, it's explained that an idiot like Hank pulling something like that off would have been impressive, but her doing it is just mean. Then they applaud Hank again for no reason.
• Malaproper: When Oscar asks Davis if he can stay at his place, Oscar says it'll be fun, like a "sleeparound".
• The Mob Boss Is Scarier: Wanda is so scared of Black Shirt Brent that she drops all of her usual snarkiness around him and obeys his every command without question.
• Mushroom Samba: Emma gets high on paint fumes and starts hallucinating; seeing bats that aren't there, the painter as a vampire, Davis with a Horny Viking helmet and Fu Manchu, and her yarn as spaghetti.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Lacey is concerned about Brent being hosed by the salesman, but Brent mostly ignores her to talk about what happened to his work shirt.
  Lacey: Okay, are you just making up my side of this conversation?
  Brent: A little hungry, yeah.
• Perverted Drooling: Wanda accuses Lacey of doing this in reaction to Black Shirt Brent.
• Police Code for Everything: Parodied. The police code given is for something mundane that you would expect there to be a police code for in real life, but Davis found a creative use for it.
  Davis: Karen, I want you to get the RCMP down here right away. Tell 'em we got a 10-92.
  Karen: Parking violation?
  Davis: By aliens.
• Porn Stache: Marco has an impressive one.
• Shout-Out: Brent likens his Black Shirt persona to that of the Fonz.
• Snake Oil Salesman: The salesman Brent deals with is very fast-talking and knows exactly what to say to get Brent to buy in bulk, even though Brent doesn't even know what he's buying.
• Speaking Like Totally Teen: Wanda calls out Lacey for being so flustered by Black Shirt Brent that she uses the phrase "as if".
• Squick: invokedMarco cleaning his ears with his toothpick and then putting it back in his mouth grosses out Brent enough that he spits out his own toothpick and abandons his Black Shirt persona altogether.
  Lacey: Hey, what do you know about this, uh, Marco guy?
  Brent: I know he put me off toothpicks for a while.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Oscar's vague explanation that just thinking about being at home makes him feel queasy causes Davis to assume he's splitting up with Emma. Then when he sees Emma acting strange from the paint fumes, he assumes it's because she's distraught about the break-up.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Oscar is a terrible house guest for Davis. He drinks all the milk straight from the carton, wears Davis' pants and pajamas, and is an all-around nuisance. At the end of the episode, Emma joins Oscar at Davis' house, and is seemingly just as bad.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Brent is loving his newfound bad-boy reputation. That is, until Wanda compares him to the creepy Marco. Marco's compliment of "nice shirt" is enough to get Brent to nod unassuredly and spit out his toothpick.