Recap / The Great North S1E8 "Keep Beef-lievin' Adventure"

RECAP:
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Original air date: April 11, 2021

Written by: Ted Travelstead
Directed by: Joel Moser

When Moon's friends makes fun of him for still believing in Bigfoot, he starts to give up on everything that's fantasy-related but Beef wants to keep his sense of wonder alive. Meanwhile, Jerry, Honeybee's young brother, comes to Alaska to tell Honeybee he moving to Alaska, but Honeybee is concerned he's only doing this because he thinks it'll make him happy since she's happy here.

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Tropes:

• Actor Allusion: When Beef sees Moon looking sad, he tells him "that's an awful long face, son. You sure you're not part horse?". His voice actress, Aparna Nancherla, previously voiced a horse girl named Hollyhock in Bojack Horseman.
• Alpha Bitch: Moon's classmate, Debbie, is a ten-year-old version. She's the most talented and beautiful girl in his grade, and also the meanest.
• Ambiguous Syntax: After Moon tells Jerry to not eat the crackers he's using to lure Bigfoot again and Jerry reveals he doesn't eat crackers, Judy asks him if he didn't eat Moon's Bigfoot bait the other morning. When Jerry tells her "Morning? What are you talking about?", Ham thinks Jerry doesn't know what "morning" is so he explains it to him.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Moon's belief in Bigfoot is what drives his storyline this episode. He doesn't like the term Sasquatch because it sounds like "ass crotch".
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: When Judy and Ham are giving Moon advice on trusting your gut, Ham tells Moon "Let your haters be your alligators". When Moon corrects him the phrase is "Let your haters be your motivators", Ham tells him if alligators were chasing him then he would be pretty motivated.
• Brick Joke: After Ham tells Moon "let your haters be your alligators", Moon tries to correct him on the correct phrase. During Moon's song, while riding on Bigfoot, they're being chased by three Debbies as ice skating alligators.
• Chekhov's Gun: Early in the episode, Ham mentions he had a "thinking hole", but lost it somehow. It's later revealed that Moon had converted it into a Bigfoot trap.
• Continuity Nod: In the first full-family scene, Ham is designing a cake, showing that he's still Lone Moose's Cake Lady.
• Couch Gag: The boat in the intro is named "Haulin' Floats".
• Cryptid Episode: Moon is trying to catch a Bigfoot. While a real Bigfoot doesn't appear outside of a few Imagine Spots, the ending is ambiguous about whether it was one that took Moon's bait crackers in the beginning of the episode.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Honeybee reveals that whenever she finds something that makes her happy, Jerry would copy her, hoping it will make him happy too and it usually doesn't work out for him. Near the end of the episode, he realizes the thing that makes him happy is making other people happy, and he accepts the job to wear a Bigfoot costume to make others happy.
• Failure Montage: When Wolf and Honeybee takes Jerry to experience their Alaskan lifestyle, he's having a difficult time trying them out.
• Fell Asleep Standing Up: After spending a day with Wolf and Honeybee doing their typical Alaskan lifestyle, while Jerry is in the middle of taking his coat off, he immediately fell asleep before he could get his coat off his arms while standing up. Wolf notes that he fell asleep at 6:30 P.M., and he and Honeybee realize that Jerry isn't cut out to live in Alaska.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: At the end of the episode -
  Wolf: (gasp) So that means there really might be -
  Honeybee: Minions.
  Wolf: I was gonna say "Bigfoot," but eh, why not.
• Fish out of Water: Jerry doesn't take to Wolf and Honeybee's Alaskan lifestyle right away. Among other things, he gets seasick on the fishing boat and accidentally throws himself off his snowmobile while trying to park it. The end of the episode seems to indicate he'll find a different place near Lone Moose where he fits in, though.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Moon puts together his box of Bigfoot evidence to throw it away, the last thing he puts in is a page tracking how many times each Tobin has reported seeing Bigfoot. Beef has six reported sightings, Wolf has three, Judy has two, Ham has four, Moon has seven, and Honeybee has zero.
• Gasshole: Honeybee and Wolf's under-the-bedcovers conversation ends early because they both have to fart.
• Growing Up Sucks: What Moon and Beef struggle with during the episode. After getting bullied for still believing in Bigfoot, Moon gives up on "unrealistic" interests like cryptid-hunting. Beef tries to support him, but he also sings a musical number with his past imaginary friends lamenting his own transition from childhood to "the grown-up zone" and is clearly sad to see his youngest child growing bitter.
• Mood Whiplash: At the end of Beef's Melancholy Musical Number, a Bigfoot appears from out of the woods behind him, plays a few notes on a keytar, then backs away unseen.
• Red Herring: Jerry's wearing a brown fur coat when the Tobins find him in Moon's Bigfoot trap, making it seem like Moon's Bigfoot evidence collection taken that morning was Jerry eating his crackers and Jerry's coat leaving behind hair. At the end of the episode, Jerry says he doesn't like crackers and he only arrived in Lone Moose that night, meaning the fur wasn't from his coat.
• Two Decades Behind: The VFW Lodge has Windows '95. If all else fails to cheer up Moon, Beef plans to show him the star-travel screen saver.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: During Moon's song, Debbie appears to give a short rap about how she likes Moon for finding Bigfoot.

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♫ Pizza Surprise, Pizza Surprise
I jump out from the bushes with pizza pies
Pizza Surprise, Pizza Surprise
First comes the fear, then the joy in your eyes
Pizza Surprise, Pizza Surprise
Pepperoni aroma's my only disguise
Pizza Surprise, Pizza Surprise
Pepperoni aroma's my only disguise
Ah! Ah! Enjoy! ♫

—Bigfoot

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