CW: This episode revolves around a suicide and its aftermath.

The episode begins with Maggie flying out to meet our titular character. Soapy Sanderson is an elderly man, living alone with a pack of sled dogs way out in the Alaskan wilderness. He refuses to acknowledge the physical limitations of his advanced age; having recently injured himself climbing a tree, he doesn’t care to rest or to perform his physical therapy exercises. Maggie brings Soapy into town for his appointment with Dr. Fleischman… late, having taken the scenic route over the mountains.

Joel plays the “I’m a Columbia doctor, don’t waste my time” snob card, of course, while Soapy sits in the examination room, chuckling as the two bicker. Joel comes in and chides him for not taking better care of himself, telling him he needs to think about his future. A lightbulb seems to go off in Soapy’s head when he stops arguing and tells the surprised doctor that he will indeed think about his future. Before leaving, he asks Joel if he’s married.

Not long after, the two are called back to Soapy’s cabin, where they find him dead. Soapy has shaved, put on his Sunday best, and shot himself. He’s left a note explaining himself and a bottle wine for their troubles. Surprisingly, Joel seems far more disturbed by this than Maggie. Illness and accidents are one thing, but taking one’s own life strikes the doctor as unnatural and especially upsetting.

I put the content warning at the beginning of this review in keeping with the norms of this site and out of a respect for people with certain sensitivities, but I have to say, Soapy’s suicide isn’t a bleak affair. He was an older guy with a failing body, not content to spend his last days sitting around. He went out his way and in good spirits. I don’t know how realistic this is, and I can understand why it might still be triggering to some, but the episode handles a serious topic with some tasteful humor. It’s not a sad story, nor are the laughs cheap.

Back at The Brick, Holling reads Soapy’s last will and testament. It explains that he moved to Alaska after the death of his beloved wife, and he’s greatly enjoyed living out the rest of his life there. Along with detailed cremation instructions, he has left some money for everyone to get a drink at the bar, his collection of obscure country records to be played by Chris on KBHR, and, to Maggie and Joel, his cabin, surrounding land, and huskies–much to the surprise of Joel.

Joel, unimpressed with the “100 acres of dirt and pack of wolves” he’s been bequeathed, has no problem agreeing with Maggie’s idea to turn it into a nature preserve, as Soapy would have liked. That is, until Joel finds out that the land’s worthlessness has some value to some people with money.

Joel is approached by a Native American chief and some of his associates. Chief Ronkonkoma, a savvy (and very wealthy) investor, wants the land for a tax write-off as a purposely failed mining/drilling venture. And he’s willing to pay for it. He offers Joel $50,000. These denim and flannel-clad money men speak out of both sides of their mouths, openly discussing destroying the land for accounting purposes while urging Joel to return the land to “the people who have lived and died here for thousands of years.” “It’s a question of justice…” “Well, justice and fifty thousand dollars.” Joel eagerly accepts, seeing it as a way to get out of his contract (presumably by repaying his debt to Alaska or by having a lawyer fight the contract). Joel makes a suggestion to Maggie: They should give the land to the Indians. He, of course, makes no mention of tax shelters, drilling, or $50,000. Maggie is thoroughly fooled, and thoroughly impressed with Joel.

Meanwhile, a student film crew has come to Cicely to make a documentary about Soapy. It turns out Dr. Sanderson was a professor, a “major benefactor,” and “kind of a legend” back at Kenyon College before retiring up north. Through the episode, Ed goes from serving as their chauffer and guide to becoming part of the crew–holding the camera and even giving direction. If you doubted my previous review’s comment about Ed being a proto-Abed, here ya go.

Maggie, smitten by the man she thought she’d misjudged, comes to Joel’s cabin with Soapy’s bottle of wine, for a supremely unwise and inappropriate fireside dinner–unwise because she is still with Rick and Joel is still with Elaine. After they share some all of the wine, Joel tries to confess what giving the land back to the Native Americans actually means, but she misreads this as judgement of her actions and leaves before doing anything more unfaithful than a kiss on the cheek.

In my last review, I said the will they/won’t they/just do it already energy between the two hadn’t led to any kind of disrespectful behavior in regard to their significant others. Well that statement aged poorly. We’re seeing the best and worst of Maggie here–a woman who will unflinchingly give an inheritance to a good cause, but then cheat on her boyfriend with an asshole because she thinks he’s not acting like an asshole for five minutes. And Joel, for his part, indicates he might have gone along with it.

The documentary crew talks to Maggie, revealing that she had always reminded Soapy of his wife, who she apparently resembles in both physical appearance and in spirit. While we’ve heard before about one of Maggie’s boyfriends dying in a freak accident, they also reveal to the audience that it’s happened more than once. (I think this episode is the first to explicitly mention “The O’Connell Curse.”) Maggie then learns of Joel’s scheme.

Joel is with the documentary crew, reading a passage from Soapy’s journal–a famous (and dubious) environmental quote attributed to Chief Seattle–when Maggie bursts in. She starts to continue the quote from memory before it devolves into her chewing out Joel for his duplicity. Joel goes back to his cabin later to find Soapy’s sled dog team sitting around on his furniture.

The documentary crew asks questions about “The Real Alaska,” to a confused bunch of Alaskans for whom this is just the place they live. Maurice, promoter of the development of the Alaskan Riviera, recognizes what they’re going for. He goes on a rant about how non-rugged Alaska is and about how hearing the likes of Soapy Sanderson’s romanticizing nonsense makes his butt tired.

Joel turns to Chris for advice. Chris: “If you’re here for four more years or four more weeks, you’re here right now. And I think when you’re somewhere, you ought to be there. Because it’s not about how long you stay in a place; it’s about what you do while you’re there, and when you go, is that place any better for you having been there.” I might poke fun at Chris’ on-air freshman’s-first-philosophy-class musings, but this is some serious wisdom. Unfortunately, his words bounce right off Joel.

Joel eventually makes the right decision, refusing the offer for the land and apologizing to Maggie. The two fly off to drop Soapy’s ashes over the Alaskan peaks, but the wind does the funniest possible thing, as Soapy takes his last opportunity to mess with Joel.

As Joel whines about Maggie and pines for NYC, Ed contemplates his potential future as a filmmaker. He already has a credit–second assistant director!

Miscellaneous notes, quotes, and anecdotes:

• From Soapy’s letter to Cicely: “…the person I’ve always longed to be: a hermit, living in a shack in the middle of nowhere.” A man after my own heart. Teaching, then retiring to be a hermit in the woods, and then leaving my land to become a nature preserve is pretty much the platonic ideal of a life for me.
• Per an online calculator, $50,000 in 1990 money is the equivalent of $120,736.42 today. Joel really is giving up a lot here.
• For the first time, we hear a bit from Shelly. Unfortunately, it’s only in relation to her work as a waitress at The Brick. And unfortunately, Joel is a massive dick to her.
• Another John Wayne reference: The Searchers.
• Also two episodes in a row with an Ingmar Bergman reference.
• I think Chief Ronkonkoma is wearing a Do the Right Thing tee under his flannel. Joel wears his Columbia sweatshirt from the pilot again. I forgot to mention it last episode, but Ed wears the Neil Young shirt I commented on from the pilot as well. I like seeing characters repeat clothes. It adds a realism missing from a lot of TV.
• Ronkonkoma is the name of a lake, and a nearby Hamlet named for the lake, on Long Island. Its etymology is Algonquian. I don’t know if this has intentional meaning–a chance for Joel to get back to New York–or if it’s just a Native American sounding word the writers knew.
• Joel on Professor Sanderson: “Someone named ‘Soapy’ has two doctorates?!”
• I’ve never been, but Kenyon College is supposed to be one of the most beautiful campuses in America.
• Maggie reminded Soapy of his wife. Did the educated and uptight Joel remind the esteemed professor of his younger self?
• The Chief Seattle Quote is a fabrication, made famous as part of the 1970s-1990s revisionist history painting Native Americans as environmentalists. Soapy Sanderson was fooled, as was Al Gore, who included it in his book, Earth in the Balance.