Sad moments in The Great North.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Season One
Sexi Moose Adventure- The results of Kathleen abandoning her family so she could live a new life with her lover in Pennsylvania. It's clear that the separation has hit all the Tobins hard.
- Beef was so devastated by it that he had what the kids call a "Beef Melt" (a freak out) where he locked himself in his room and only ate icicles while watching every season of Gilmore Girls on a loop. When he finally got better, he became determined to keep the rest of his family together because he's afraid of them leaving him too. He also went into full denial about what Kathleen really did and told his children that their mom got eaten by a bear, while trying to paint her as a saint and ignoring her negative qualities. His children do not buy it at all, but they pretend to play along so he doesn't have another meltdown.
- Because Beef's children don't want to have him to have another "Beef Melt", they have to keep secrets about things that involve being away from him, like Judy's new job at the mall and Wolf and Honeybee planning on moving into the guest cabin.
- If there's a silver lining, while Beef is sad Kathleen is gone, their children have the opposite reaction to her departure. Judy flat out states that Kathleen was a really bad mother and things actually got better when she left. This raises the question on what else Kathleen has done to her family that resulted in things being better without her.
- Beef snapping at his children during Judy's birthday and leaving them so he can track the moose that stole Kathleen's stuff.
- When Beef is tracking the moose that stole Kathleen's stuff in the woods, he falls into an ice chasm and breaks his foot. He then decides to give up to await his death. When Judy finds him, he tells her to leave him and go live her life without him. Judy has to talk him out of the hole and lets him know the family still loves him even if they're pursuing other things without him.
- Mixed with a funny moment, it's clear that Kathleen did not love her family because in her goodbye letter she only wrote "Smell you later," and drew a picture of a hand giving the middle finger with the fingers replaced with penises.
Feast of Not People Adventure
- Wolf wants to impress Beef in the Daver Dash, but he's aware he isn't strong like his uncle who previously competed in the dash with Beef, so he comes up with a plan to make himself strong. This includes using an app to work on his ab muscles, drinking a lot of liquid to increase his bladder size, and wearing high-traction gloves, which he wears for several days so he can break them down. But on the day of the dash, he ends up humiliating himself in front of Beef and the other competitors when he realizes too late that his gloves were inside-out the entire time and the coarse material of the gloves ends up making his hands scratched up and bloody, he accidentally pees his pants after drinking too many liquids before the race, and the exercises from the app end up hurting his abs. This leaves him sobbing in front of everyone and he thinks he failed Beef. But Beef lets him know that despite his setbacks, he still continues to move forward and he's proud of his determination.
- When Ham is having trouble thinking of a cake for the festival and he's stressing out from the pressure, Judy sees him struggling and feels the need to help him, but after getting upset at him for keeping his Cake Lady job a secret from her and taking Alyson's advice on letting things go to heart, she continues to her room. After Alanis tells Judy she can still support Ham in a different way and she plans to side-hug him in the morning, she's too late and finds a letter from Ham saying he plans to quit being the Cake Lady and tell the town he failed them. Judy is able to stop him before he does it and lets him know he doesn't have to deal with the cake alone.
Romantic Meat-Based Adventure
- After Alanis brings up the possibility to Judy that she might be avoiding all possible chances at romance due to how her parents ended up, she freaks out whenever her crush Steven talks to her, which just ends up making it impossible for Judy to kiss him or even talk to him even though she really wants to.
- Even though Beef and Dell get along great, she declines his offer of a date and a job offer. The former because of how all of her husbands dying horrible deaths, which she doesn't want to happen to Beef, and the latter because their attraction would make working together difficult.
Curl Interrupted Adventure
- Werner is stood up by his girlfriend Ziska on the second day of the sunset sail. When she finally calls him back, it's to tell him that she's going back to Amsterdam with his brother.
Pride and Prejudance Adventure
- The story behind the Thomas Wintersbone Memorial Ladies' Choice Dance. Thomas wanted to marry Ruby, but her father would only approve if he proved himself worthy by spending a day out in the wilderness. He got caught in a blizzard and died almost immediately after getting started. Even sadder is the true story as revealed by a poster of Thomas to Judy: he and Ruby were gay and a lesbian respectively, and were willing to have a Fake Relationship to hide their true selves from the public and avoid persecution. The two cabins Thomas was going to build for him and Ruby (explained away to the townspeople as their love being too big for just one cabin to hold) were actually going to be for them and their respective lovers.
- Ham choosing to end things with Crispin rather than risk hurting Judy’s feelings. Neither boy wants to stop seeing each other, and it’s even sadder when you realize that this is Ham’s first relationship since coming out. Thankfully, Judy does come around and gives the couple her blessing.
Keep Beef-lievin' Adventure
- Beef seeing Moon give up on his quest for Bigfoot, and clearly feeling sad for his son having his dreams crushed. Beef then sings a Melancholy Musical Number called "The Grown-Up Zone"
where he laments losing touch with all the fantasy creatures he himself had to give up as he got older. The lyrics imply that it's gotten even harder for Beef to connect with that part of himself as he has aged, watched his kids grow up, and gotten divorced from Kathleen, an all too relatable feeling for many.Getting divorced, take a night school course
Where are those childhood friends?
Children grow up, then they turn into teens
Then grow into adults, no time in-between
We're here in your heart, you're never alone
that childhood magic is lost into
The grown-up zone...
Tusk in the Wind Adventure
- Beef and Wolf have an argument during dinner because of Tusk. Due to their recent obsession with Dynasty (1981), the rest of the family don't help or intervene until after Wolf storms out.
Game of Snownes Adventure
- Beef is worried that Wolf and Honeybee are drifting away from the rest of the family, and his worries end up stirring up worries in the rest of the family about Wolf and Honeybee drifting as well.
- While lost in the snow and hallucinating, Beef voices out his fears that his entire family will eventually leave him.
My Fart will Go On Adventure
- During the wedding reception, the Tobin kids admit that as much as they dreaded the possibility of Kathleen showing up (to the point that they were prepared to perform a shadow wedding to ensure she didn't), a part of them all also wishes she could have been there. Beef reassures his kids that their feeling this way is completely normal.
