Welcome to the second review for this week as we have to burn through the entirety of the season with the offseason right around the corner. This would be the part where I would be labeled as a masochist but that’s not entirely my fault that the network had to air two episodes in one night. It’s nothing like last year, back in March of 2023, where we had two Bob’s Burgers episodes and a Great North episode sharing one night and having to do three reviews in a single week. And yes, that led to The Great North having its own review to where we are now with these reviews I’m doing. That’s enough for the introduction, now we get to the second of the two new episodes for this week’s Great North.
So, in the second episode of this week’s installment of The Great North, when finding out that the school doesn’t know how to party, Judy and Ham, along with their friends, decide to reach out to a former student who knows a lot about partying as Beef, Wolf, and Honeybee compete in a drinking competition and it looks like Beef, drinking one too many brewskis, gets drunk in my spoilerific review of the tenth episode of Season 4 of The Great North, titled “A Chug’s Life Adventure”.
In the world of being an adult, one of the things that should be on the list of…well, wanting to get excitement in life or desperation or trying to get out of anything that would put you in a sour mood, and that, of course, is drinking. Basically partying as a whole whether you’re an adult and grabbing a beer to chug or a high schooler…and illegal grabbing a beer to chug, yeah, we have problems. But partying is one of those events in your life that you have to enjoy while you can…it’s mostly because of the subject of booze that is being thrown into the question at hand for this episode. Especially with a competition at a bar in which Wolf and Honeybee, and later Beef, participate to win the grand prize. Now, I’m not a drinker…yeah, I know, shocking, had my birthday this past weekend and this son of a bitch (referring to myself) would rather not take a milliliter of alcohol. No sir. Staying sober as it is. Though the adults of the Tobin family, that’s their business. Especially with Beef, who apparently in this episode, not as much of a drinker as advertised, but decided to change that later across the line.
But you also have the kids in their subplot with Ham and Judy having to feel the pressure to try to, of course, prove Stacy B. wrong that they can know ball and how to live their lives that it almost feels like you’re about to get mad flashbacks with “Bee’s All That Adventure” with Judy running her big mouth. The subplot itself is pretty much a race to find someone who is long believed to be a myth but again, you can thank Judy’s big mouth to go and search for a former student with a reputation for partying and whatnot. So, might as well get to break down the second episode of the brand new episode of The Great North that came out this week and y’all already know that I’m already cooked as it is. This is “A Chug’s Life Adventure”.
And much like the last episode… and the episode before that, we start the episode with Diondra Tundra reporting on the scene with this time around stationed in front of the Toe in the Snow Tavern and interviewing the bartender and owner of the tavern, Pamela, about the annual Chug n’ Tug family tug-of-war, which is like your usual game of tug-of-war but with beer as the choice of drink and you have the chug that shit to make sure you’re good and ready to go… or get drunk and possibly cost your team the dub. Of course, while the interview was happening on the TV, you have Pamela, the tavern owner, carrying a jar with something inside. And no, it’s not a jar of pickles or pickled eggs because neither of them doesn’t have humanistic features swimming inside some sort of pinkish liquid. She kept a toe inside the jar and not just any toe, that was her dead father’s toe that she kept as a memento. Yeah, I really don’t want to know why she kept the toe in the jar from the dead body of her father, but aside from that, the tavern is hosting the Chug n’ Tug event later tonight…
And for Wolf and Honeybee, as everyone is at the breakfast table and eating their plate, they’re throwing their hats into the ring to participate in the event because why not? They’ve been practicing and are ready to face the trials of what’s in store for them, even though it’s them chugging beer and playing tug-of-war. But despite the practice they’ve been doing leading up to the event, they’re not the favorites to win and the same goes for everyone because Craig Ptarmigan and his family are the defending champions and might as well treat the event as the Ptarmigan Invitational but regardless of result, Wolf and Honeybee would be fine with either result as long as they had fun. Of course, the competition at the tavern only requires three people, three family members mind you, and Wolf and Honeybee, in order to compete, they need a third member to step up to the plate. They ain’t gonna ask the kids because… well, they’re underage, and the age requirement for drinking at 21 years of age. You could say that they could bring Dirt, but I don’t want to imagine what a drunken Dirt would look like… also, she’s banned from the tavern for using the tug-of-war rope as a possible murder weapon back in 1957, no need to know more about that.
So that leaves Beef as the last option for Wolf and Honeybee to join their team… only to deny their request to be their third member and for good reasons. And this is where we learn a bit about Beef’s past leading up to Wolf’s birth. And that is that he had a repudiation when it comes to chugging when bringing up the event. Apparently, Beef was a different animal in the past from who he is today and there was a lot of stuff that he had to endure when being in a drunken state long ago where, instead of an actual flashback, you’d get an animated drawing dramatization of Beef being a party animal while playing a parody of the song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” by Dropkick Murphys, or as Beef puts it, “Three Sad Wives”. And he did a lot of stuff leading up to the day Wolf was born.
Whether it’s covering himself with bees, being an amateur daredevil, or I guess anything that would be considered illegal and dangerous, the guy was an animal that was let go of his leash and go wild. Mostly because he gets paid by Craig to do those stunts and he would accept the cash offer… all but the jar that contains the rotten toe because even he has limits when it comes to taking dares. Which I’m already betting him being a party animal when consuming a lot of alcohol would ultimately get him to land Kathleen. Given the nickname “Dare Bear” by the public and like actual bears, he decided to hang it up and hibernate. Why? Easy, he became a father once Wolf entered the picture, and while Kathleen continues to… well, being Kathleen and being chaotic across town, he has to bear the responsibility of raising a child when taking care of Wolf and later along the line Ham, Judy, and Moon. So, Beef refuses to join Wolf and Honeybee to participate in the Chug n’ Tug and instead wants to spend that night with the kids vacuuming across the house but it appears that Ham, Judy, and Moon all groan as if they’re too old of doing something as lame as vacuuming across the house as their plans for the night. We’ll get to that in a bit, but Wolf and Honeybee are still one member short from partaking in the event. To the point where Wolf would have to call in Cheesecake to fill the role, even though the event is for families, that won’t stop Wolf from at least trying to create a reacharound to compete for the event.
Back to the kids once we switch over to the school hours later with Ham and Judy being stuck on doing something as lame as vacuuming across the house with Beef for the night, it looks like Kima and Crispin are no help for them to help the two to get a look at the event they’re planning on going and will unlikely going to attach iPads over their chests as if they’re wearing body cameras like they’re undercover cops. So, Judy and Ham are at a dead end and will be the only ones who won’t be attending the event called the kegger in the woods, leaving them the only two teens in the school to never attend a high school party, and I mean “attend”, not throw a party like the mystery party in Season 2’s “Skidmark Holmes Adventure” or Bethany’s birthday party in Season 3’s “Great Bus of Choir Adventure”, I mean like attending a high school party. That, of course, have both Ham and Judy to be ridiculed by Stacy B., who had to butt into their conversation with Kima and Crispin, and making fun of the two for being the only two who had never had a partying bone in their bodies and having to spend their time vacuuming the house along with Moon (who would also have a dismay towards) and Beef. So, Stacy is just being here, butting into the conversation, and acting and talking like a bitch towards the group, but primarily towards Judy. So, once Stacy leaves, of course, Judy is frustrated that she and Ham are the only two who haven’t attended a single party in their lives, and even though it’s more of the line of Beef hasn’t laid a hand on a pitcher of beer in a long time and doesn’t want him to be alone, even though Moon would be with him (Dirt also but she’ll probably be at her bunker), whether or not you want to call it an excuse from Judy’s mouth, she mentioned that the kegger hasn’t been too exciting since a former student, named Doug De Luca, moved out of his parent’s house and stop coming to the party ever since.
And it appears that Doug, according to Kima and later Judy, has a bit of a reputation for being the “party guy” of the school back when he was a student. Whether it’s him being wasted to the point where he had to chug a fish tank with live fish in it and the decorations inside the tank into his body from Kima, which is surprising how the guy is still alive after doing that, to renting a hot tub limo and did a cannonball where he nearly drown from Judy, just be thankful that he didn’t miss because otherwise… oh boy, it might as well be a different story. The point is, Doug was a legend to the school, and for Judy and Ham, it sucks for them to miss out on everything he did during his time at the school, and kind of like the eclipse last week, you ain’t gonna get another shot. But knowing that we are five minutes into the episode, that shit is about to change later along the line.
We cut over to the tavern with Beef coming into the establishment, the first time in more than 20 years, and knowing that his reputation is still going strong at the tavern when coming across Pamela. She offers Beef a drink, which is pretty much beer for breakfast but Beef declines because that’s all in the past and instead, he’s only here just to drop off Wolf’s application for the upcoming Chug n’ Tug event. And this is where I’m guessing the guilt-tripping comes into play that would eventually get Beef to unretire from his drinking days. And the reason for this is that the tavern is poised to be permanently closed and fearing that this upcoming Chug n’ Tug might be the last the town will have. All of this because Pamela’s cousin had a gambling problem, got that settled, before starting to gamble once more with the bar’s savings as his choice of cash to gamble on, thus, the bar is screwed unless it makes a lot of money to keep the town’s staple open. $6,000 worth of debt is what Pamela owns to pay off the bank if she wants to keep the tavern open. And thus, it looks like the title of “Dare Bear” decides to come out of retirement and if it means saving the tavern and preventing a total bank takeover, Beef has no other choice, for one night only, to bring his wild side out of hibernation. And with Beef back in action…
Of course, that means that Cheesecake has to be switched out from the lineup just as he was getting a practice run with Wolf… feeding him baby food in preparation for the Chug n’ Tug. While yes, bringing in someone who is pretty much the town’s drunk getting involved would at least be helpful for Wolf and Honeybee, despite that the competition is a family matter, I feel like they would check if Cheesecake would be legitimate to join the competition without putting the Tobins in hot water. But it appears that Wolf and Honeybee might no longer need Cheesecake’s services to be their third member of the Chug n’ Tug at the tavern.
Because the “Dare Bear” is back in action once Beef enters the house and tells everyone that he’s all in for the Chug n’ Tug, which is good news for Wolf and Honeybee because they need a third person to step up to the plate for the event at the tavern and Beef was the person of interest that Wolf and Honeybee want since it is a family event, even though it has be the adult members of the family who had to participate, so that solves the issue of finding the third member for Wolf and Honeybee. But it’s also good news for the kids, primarily Judy and Ham, who don’t want to go through another night of them being so-called “party virgins” and breathing a sigh of relief that with Beef now going out, even if it’s for one night, they may finally have a shot to have a night out and a chance to attend their first-ever high school party. However, that would leave Moon hanging since he too appears not to want to do another night of vacuuming the house, though he’ll probably go with Dirt in her bunker or the cabin rather than having the house for himself and we all know what happened the last time that happened. But aside from that, to wrap up the first act of the episode, Beef decides to unretire his persona and joins his son and daughter-in-law for the Chug n’ Tug, replacing Cheesecake for the final spot, though… Cheesecake… quite the daddy issues that is going on with him that uh… needed to be explained, but besides that, with Beef now getting a night out to the tavern with Wolf and Honeybee…
Going into the second act of the episode, with Judy and Ham talking to Kima and Crispin at the lunch table that they’re free from a night of vacuuming and ask the two the rundown of what to expect for the kegger in the woods since it would be their first-ever visit. That conversation gets interrupted by Stacy and once again, pokes fun at Judy and Ham for being first-timers and basically her being a massive a bitch towards the group but mostly Judy because she is a bitch. She is a massive bitch towards Judy and to anyone who is around her even though she (Stacy) had no beef with them, just only does so because they’re around Judy which would result in having a target on their backs.
But Judy… Judy, Judy… I know you’re my favorite character on the show, aside from Moon, you’re one of my favorite characters on the show… you had to spout your big mouth toward Stacy in another attempt to one-up her. Almost getting some flashbacks to “Bee’s All That Adventure” with how Judy wanting to shove Stacy into her place with this time around, telling Stacy that they won’t be attending the kegger at all and instead, want to create their own version and even bring up Doug De Luca just to one-up Stacy and going for the clout chase. That, of course, did not go well for anyone, especially Kima and Crispin, because they don’t know where he lives. No one knows where he lives since moving out of his parent’s house. But Judy can’t shut her mouth whenever Stacy is around that she would go into full-on damage control, whether it’s transforming the exchange student Jill into a cool person or bringing up Doug’s name and wanting to have their own party just to tell Stacy to fuck off, the bitch loves to antagonize her and would have Judy got into full damage control. Stacy leaves the group behind in frustration but Kima and Crispin are frustrated even more because of what Judy said. Saying that everyone, including themselves, doesn’t know where Doug even lives and saying that he could be anywhere by now. But that’s not going to stop Judy from wanting to find the person of interest, and this is what the subplot to this episode is going to be about.
Especially once sunset hits and once Beef, Wolf, and Honeybee are leaving the house with Londra as the designated driver, they’re not taking the van because knowing that they’ll be drinking a lot, they should get a designated driver to get to and from the tavern, leaving Dirt to be the guardian of the house for the night, is where the subplot truly begins once the adults leave the property and Judy calling the all clear signal for Kima and Crispin to come out of the woods. Of course, Dirt and Moon want the deets on what the teens are planning for the night since they’re not going to be in the house, that being searching for Doug De Luca. Hoping to get some clues that would lead them to their destination but Dirt knows a little about the De Lucas, mostly because Doug’s grandfather Chester, according to her, has an underground speakeasy, and like his grandson, he too was a partying legend. More than enough for everyone to head out to get to the old building and talk to Chester to know where Doug lives. Except for the fact that Dirt, being the only adult in the house, meaning that she would be the one making the calls, wants Moon to do the driving, much to everyone’s objection because Moon’s ten years old and shouldn’t even near the steering wheel and wants Ham to drive them, but ends up going along with the idea of letting a ten-year-old like Moon being the designated driver for the night. As for how Moon would learn how to drive… that is a big question that needs to be asked and someone needs to bear responsibility for letting a young child take the wheel as if it’s the real-life Grand Theft Auto.
We switch over to the main plot with every team, full of adults, ready themselves for the Chug n’ Tug event as Pamela announces to the contestants of the event the rundown of the whole thing from presenting the defending champions, that being the Ptarmigans and getting the boos from the crowd, knowing that they’re the defending champions and are poised to win it all again tonight. Aside from that, the combatants are set, and how the tournament works, which is pretty much a single elimination tournament with sixteen teams, eight on each side of the bracket, with the last team standing will be dubbed as the winner. Though, Wolf, calm down with the competitiveness when the Ptarmigans are brought up. I know that it’s a contest and you’re probably saying that in a competitive way as if you’re hoping for a blowout (to them) but that’s seriously taken out of context there.
The Tobins go first on the docket as they go against the Evanoffs and knowing that it’s the Chug n’ Tug, when it comes to the families that are present, primarily the adults, is where you’d get new family members that we didn’t get a chance to see. Of course, you have the usual suspects, that being Walter and Esther, but you also have another member of the Evanoff family, named Duane. Though unclear whether or not Duane is from Walter’s side of the family or Esther’s is out of the open on where he would fall in the family tree. The contest with the two families chugging despite that Beef was having a hard time at first because it had been over twenty years since he last laid his hand on a pitcher but he got through the whole pitcher with the assist of Wolf giving him some confidence and to no one surprise, despite being Beef’s first time back into drinking, with enough brute strength from the three members, the Tobins easily won the first round against the Evanoffs in what might as well be a very long night for the Tobins as the night progress.
We check back at the kids and Dirt going into the subplot for a brief moment with Moon taking the steering wheel and arriving at one of the locations… only to end up arriving at the police station that Dirt mistaken it as a speakeasy because the station was built over the old speakeasy that Dirt thought it was there but not anymore. This means that the kids have hit a dead end in their search to find Doug… or so we thought. Despite the building that once hosted the speakeasy is no longer available, Chester is alive because Dirt once ran into him a week ago, in the show’s timeframe, and should be there at the retirement home because Dirt’s dealer Morty is there and should at least give the kids some clues on Doug’s location. Though Dirt did have the right call to not explain what sort of deal this Morty guy is that Dirt comes across but still not going to question how they allow a kid like Moon to drive or should’ve been pulled over by now and gets questioned by the cops. I mean, they’ll find a way to lie if they pulled over and give a cop a counterfeit driver’s license and probably tell that Moon hasn’t hit his growth spurt.
Going back to the main plot and with the Tobins’ win over the Evanoffs in the first round, they advance to the second round in the bracket and lo and behold, they’ll be facing Alyson’s team, consisting of her and two of her sisters who visiting from Portland, named… wouldn’t you guessed it, Madison and Wisconsin. Madison I get, but aside from the names Georgia, Virginia, and Indiana, I have never heard of someone named after a state in my entire lifetime unless you want me to Google search a list of names through a baby naming site and find out, no need for that suggestion. The two sisters are taller than Alyson and knowing that they are related to Alyson, and also them being taller than her, of course, Beef would show some signs of affection towards them, especially during the tug-of-war portion of their match after the chugging. All while dating Carissa to do something like that… is what I would say if the production order this season hasn’t been out of fucking order. No, seriously…
The production order for this season alone had scattered to the point on you don’t know where we’re going when it comes to the storyline, or as I would call it, “squiddly diddley”. I already knew people over on Twitter or any other social site when the first episode came out during the live blogging session thinking that Beef was falling for someone else despite being in a relationship with Carissa, but remember kids, read the graphic above, the production codes are out of order. This would also explain why Dirt wasn’t around in “Ready Mayor Won Adventure” and “Idita-Ruth Adventure” post-Aunt Misbehavin’ because, again, production order is out of order, even though some will play around and say she was minding her business in her bunker or doing something Dirt would do that could get her into legal trouble. Other than that, despite Beef showing some signs of affection toward Alyson’s sisters, feelings be damned, the Tobins once again win their round and will be advancing to the semifinals with Beef already starting to show signs of him becoming intoxicated with him drinking the amount of booze he was given whenever the Tobins’ turn is up. At least there’s some sober in Beef when noticing that he should check up on Ham, Judy, and Moon, not knowing that they’re out of the house alongside Dirt, Kima, and Crispin across town, but aside from that, already at the end of the first half of the episode, Team Tobin is moving on to the semifinals.
And reached the semifinals at the start of the second half of the episode with the Tobins being one chug n’ tug away from reaching the final round and probably a date with the Ptarmigans for the title as they now take on the Tuntleys, consisting of Dorothy, Jim, and a third Tuntley member in their team. Probably guessing that would be an older sibling of Henry. That is what I thought as well when seeing the promotional images for this episode. So, the semifinals take place and it looks like the drunk side of Beef after chugging his third pitcher of beer is starting to take over and the performance during the tug-of-war portion of their round against the Tuntleys is not looking good. Especially because Beef, during the tug-of-war fell onto the ground while holding on to the hope, as if him starting to become drunk is starting to slow the team down or could possibly cost the Tobins the contest. But ultimately, the Tobins did end up winning this round and are now moving on to the Final Round and a date with the Ptarmigans but with Beef’s drunken state starting to put a dent in Wolf and Honeybee’s performance for the competition, they should at least be concerned on where the direction is heading, especially the moment Beef takes his first or second pitcher of beer. They should at least notice that they need at least a minute to take care of matters before their next match. Mostly because… let’s just say their opponent in the final round may or may not be planning on doing something that could use Beef’s return to being drunk might be used for their advantage to take home the crown. No way they can do that, right?
Going back to the subplot with the kids and Dirt now at the retirement home where they come across Doug’s grandfather Chester with him telling Dirt that if she’s looking for her dealer Morty, he’s currently locked up. But that’s not important for everyone as the kids and Dirt want to know where Doug lives so they can bring him out of retirement from partying and get back into the groove of things and luckily enough, Chester tells the group where his grandson lives, telling them that he lives on a boat at the marina. So that was easy for them despite arriving at the police station earlier that Dirt thought that the old speakeasy would be. So, the group leaves, mostly because they the night is still young, and don’t want to know what’s going on in the back, so they skedaddle out of the retirement home.
And it didn’t long for Judy, Ham, Moon, Kima, Crispin, and Dirt spotted the boat that Doug lived at the marina. Knocking on the door and the man of the hour opens the door and sees the group outside of his property, hoping for him to come out of retirement and party the night away for them to have a party for themselves and telling Stacy who’s boss on how they know ball. And this is what years of retirement can do to people like Doug for example after moving out of his parent’s home that resulted in him not attending a single party since then.
And this is that moment post-partying as we see Doug, along with Judy, Ham, Moon, Kima, Crispin, and Dirt, doing some couponing. Cutting some coupons for him to use because this is what living like an adult would look like. Seeing what the adult world shows and Doug is experiencing it through his own eyes after moving out of his parent’s house. The simple mind of a kid thinking that an adult would have a lot of freedom to do whatever they want but once you get out of high school, that thought process would bite you in the ass so hard that you will not have an ass for you to sit. Whether it’s trying to find something on the cheap or telling everyone that alcohol is expensive, and that is with inflation, by the way, this is Doug’s life now. Especially now that he has to work two jobs and live on a wage just to make ends meet. So, you might as well say that the subplot feels like a waste because you’d think that Judy and the others, thanks in part to Judy’s big mouth when fending off against Stacy because she (Judy) and Ham are the only two high schoolers that never went to a high school party, turns it into the search to find the legend that is Doug De Luca, found the guy after the drive through town… only to find out that he’s already embracing the adult world and knowing the adult world, as an adult myself… especially living in one of the richest countries in the world, it sucks. And hoping for a day where you’d finally get a day off, or a life off from work and not having to deal with anything that would be stressful but would have to rely on a world-ending event to do that… I’ve started watching Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead for y’all who don’t know the reference I’m going with here.
We go back to the main plot as we are rounding out the third act of the episode with the final round taking place between the Tobins and the Ptarmigans but it looks like things are not looking good for Team Tobin because it looks like Beef is already becoming wasted with booze already injected into his system. Causing a massive dent for the Tobins once they and the Ptarmigans finished chugging and heading to the middle of the tavern to get the ropes. I mean, Beef did take the risk of taking his first glass of beer since Wolf’s birth after hearing that the tavern is on the verge of shutting its doors for good thanks in part to a relative going through a gambling problem and this was the result. And just as the Tobins are one brute strength away from dethroning the Ptarmigans and pulling off the ultimate upset, and of course, saving the bar, don’t forget about that. The only problem is, what else? Beef. Him being drunk for the first time since the Clinton Administration the last time he ever laid a hand on a pitcher. And guess who decided to use that as an advantage to get his team an easy dub?
Who else but Craig Ptarmigan, away from where his family is at and by the jukebox and putting on a song? But not just any song mind you? The song that would be the final lock to be unlocked to unleash the beast that was once the “Dare Bear” and the three words that would easily hand the Ptarmigans the win by default, Three. Sad. Wives. And that alone would hand the Ptarmigans the win by default by using Beef’s drunken state to disrupt the Tobins’ chances of winning the contest but would also cause even more trouble for the tavern. What’s worse about that is that the Tobins didn’t even get the chance to get their hands on the ropes because they were shortly focusing on trying to get Beef to not fall into temptation once the song began playing while being in a drunken state. Case in point, the Tobins got Buffalo Bills’d… and I’m talking about the 2021-22 Divisional Round where they didn’t get the chance to get the ball in overtime. Yeah, that’s bad for the Tobins but also bad for Pamela, who was hoping for a Tobin family to dethrone the Ptarmigans so that she could save her tavern from closing its doors. Okay, yeah, Pamela would have rigged the damn thing to make sure the Tobins get the win without having anyone in the bar questioning what is going on behind the scenes, especially with Beef making a promise to help her keep the bar open after filling in his name on the application sheet that he was dropping off for Wolf and Honeybee. But I’m already guessing the Tobins want to play fair.
So, going into the fourth and final act of the episode, the Tobins, of course, lost before even getting the chance to play tug-of-war thanks in part to Beef going out of control and his blood alcohol levels going through the roof and even though Wolf and Honeybee feel defeated and the bar on the verge of shutting down, they might as well watch and drink the night away, all sober of course, as they watch Beef going all out across the tavern and seeing his reputation in their own eyes from dancing on the table to making bets to see how much can chug the most beers. More on that in a bit.
We go back to the subplot of the episode and yeah, this subplot has pretty much run its course and, well… a freaking time waster when the kids and Dirt see Doug trying to feed his cats, or I think that was his cats and could be a couple of strays when feeding them bologna meat. And this is probably where the kids and Dirt say that they should now leave while the night is young. Thinking to themselves that finding Doug is more than enough for them to just call it a night and head back home. But yeah, the subplot might as well be a total waste of time because all that buildup for that one person with a reputation, and once the suspect in question was located, all we see him was couponing, feeding cats with deli meat, and pretty much everything else without having to retort to drag the guy, making him miss his shift, and head to the forest where the kegger is at. But even then, this isn’t like with Beef after taking a pitcher of beer, and the guy might as well be in his Celtics Shaq era in the event he decides to come out of retirement.
Switching back to the main plot in the second-to-last scene of the episode with Wolf and Honeybee continuing to drink away while watching Beef continuing to go out and wild, now naked… well, nearly naked because he’s down in his underwear, but still, going wild. And it has gotten to the point where while they did lose the competition and Beef got hammered by drinking one too many pitchers throughout the night, they might as well admit that it’s actually a good thing for Beef to cut loose. Beef had to spend most of his adult life sober and trying to raise the family on his lonesome before and after Kathleen’s departure that just for once, he got to cut loose and enjoy the night hammered after drinking one too many pitchers of beer, even if the consumption did cost the family the competition that they already knew that they ain’t going to win the whole thing. But even if they should allow Beef to enjoy being drunk for the first time since becoming a parent, there’s still the situation regarding the fundraising to keep the tavern open. And that’s where Honeybee comes up with an idea when spotting the Ptarmigans at their table and celebrating their win.
This leads us to the final scene of the episode going into the morning hours with Beef waking him with a hangover from being drunk at the bar to now waking up in the bathtub and the whole family beside him, of course, Beef feeling like shit as if he had been run over hard as if he had woken up from a very long coma. And even though Beef, in his thoughts, feels like shit, both physically and mentally, the one question that stays with his mind throughout the night is whether or not the bar was saved. And well, according to Honeybee, he did save the bar. Because according to her, even though it does feel like it was her idea since she did lay her eyes on the Ptarmigans in the previous scene to find a way to keep the place operating, Beef did something that would save the tavern and it’s the one thing that he hadn’t done back in the day way before becoming a parent at age 19, and that would be chugging the jar with the toe and Craig dared away $6,000 for Beef to drink the son of a bitch, including the damn toe, which is disgusting if you think about it because it is. RIP to the people’s appetite after seeing that while eating. But aside from that, the $6,000 dare from Craig has saved the bar once given to Pamela to keep the tavern open, and thus, one wild night of Beef returning to drink a lot of beer and treating it as if it’s a wild weekend in Vegas, made him the hero that saved the town staple and upheld his reputation. At least it’s not a total loss for the Tobin adults despite losing the competition, but at least the tavern is saved and didn’t become a waste.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about the second of the double episodes of The Great North? The main plot was alright and we got some insights into what Beef’s life was like before becoming a parent, as well as seeing a different side of him other than the Beef that we’re used to throughout the series. The subplot, of course, was the one that, in my opinion, downplayed the episode.
No issue with the main plot despite that it would be predictable that the Tobins aren’t going to dethrone the Ptarmigans from their crown, even they admit that they can’t do the job, it was an alright main plot of the episode. Gotten to know about Beef’s past leading up to him becoming a parent. Him being a loose animal after consuming one too many beers that would make him lose control was interesting for him to have a reputation. The competition was at least enjoyable, to say the least, and you couldn’t lash out at Beef for once in over two decades to cut loose for once after spending his adult life raising four kids that it was about time he should, at least for once, cut loose that would ultimately save the tavern from shutting its doors. So, that was interesting. Mostly to know about Beef’s life before he became a parent and see a different side to him.
The subplot, of course, was the one I would consider to be a waste. All that lead-up for Judy and the others to find out about a former student who had a reputation and then have to go on a search after Judy had to spew her big mouth in front of Stacy, just for antagonizing her, only to go on a search and once you find the guy, you pretty much find him living his retirement life of him being an adult and that’s what the kids and Dirt found once finding his location. Aside from everyone letting Moon drive for the night being the highlight of this subplot, this does feel like a wasted opportunity from start to finish with the kids bringing up Doug’s name and for Judy to spew her big mouth just for wanting to one-up Stacy that you know that you’re about to get flashbacks to the events of “Bee’s All That Adventure”. And that one felt like one of Judy’s worse and she was the nominee in the voting tournament that year and later won. But yeah, subplot, wasted opportunity and that would make the score for the episode a bit hard to give out. So I’ll give “A Chug’s Life Adventure”…
A 6 out of 10 but it’s a low 6 out of 10. Mostly because I’d enjoyed the main plot but the subplot was the one that felt like a wasted opportunity because of that build-up to a former student with a reputation for partying. Then again, most of the attention was on the main plot, so that has to be the case. Tell me what you think about the episode in the comments below. And stay tuned for this Sunday’s episode, back to the singles we go. It’s the day after 4/20 with Judy and Kima getting high and going on an adventure as if they’re Harold and Kumar if y’all remembered those movies while carrying a tub of cottage cheese as Wolf gets upset over his sandwich being removed from the menu in the eleventh episode of Season 4, “High Expectations Adventure”.
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