[Cue moose strutting to funky jazz music]
The episode begins with Maggie O’Connell taking a rush delivery to Dr. Fleischman. What’s in the mystery box she did a two hour turnaround to Anchorage for? Specialty equipment for a much-needed test? Vaccines? A human organ? It turns out it’s bagels. A big box of ’em. All kinds. From New York. (“They say it’s the water,” explains Marilyn.) A justifiably angry Maggie storms out of the office.
Just then, Pete Gilliam, the lying, miserable, deceitful son of a Joel’s boss in Anchorage, calls with an assignment for him. He is to visit an even more tiny and remote village to teach a hygiene class. Marilyn can’t attend with him, as she’s going to a pow-wow. So the good doctor has to travel with the pilot he just pissed off.
As Chris is doing his thing, a couple of uniformed airmen come to the station to speak with Maurice. And so Maurice learns of his brother Malcolm’s demise, to the tune of Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy.
And Chris learns that Maurice had a brother.
Meanwhile, Holling learns from Ed that an old nemesis is back. We’ve heard in previous episodes that Holling had given up hunting, and now we learn why: On the hunt for an especially mean, livestock-killing grizzly bear, both bear and man nearly killed one another. After, they both went their separate ways, wounded and with the “agreement” they would stay away from one another. Holling gave up his guns after that incident, with the exception being for Jesse, if he ever came back. But now Jesse (that’s the bear’s name, for some reason) has returned to the area, as evidenced by paw prints minus the toes Holling shot off.
Joel and Maggie fly to Boswell for the hygiene classes… only to find a room full of pregnant women and their partners who are expecting lessons on child birthing. Whether Gilliam screwed up or intentionally misled Joel is unclear, but Joel shifts gears and starts his class with four words: “I. Want. My. Epidural.”
Back in Cicely, Maurice contemplates his mortality and what might happen to his fortune and budding empire should he die. He decides he needs an heir and protege. Joel is uninterested. So Maurice turns to Chris, who has no real family and whose shack was just crushed by a tree. A surprised Chris agrees to be the one to carry on the Minnifield Empire.
Holling and Ed head into the woods, on their trail of vengeance–with Shelly, who insists on joining. But despite all his dramatic talk of needing to do what a man has to do, Holling is frequently distracted by his girlfriend. Ed waits dutifully while Holling and Shelly spend most of the trip in their tent.
Maurice and Chris have an awkward dinner at one of those TV rich guy ridiculously long tables.
It becomes even more awkward when Maurice asks Chris to call him “dad” and starts talking to him as if he’s a kid. Awkwardness aside, we also find out a little about what makes Maurice tick. His dad was a very wealthy aeronautical engineer. His brother was a hotshot pilot. You’d think they’d be proud of the astronaut in the family, right? Not really. He was just “Spam in a can” to them. The next day, Maurice surprises Chris and Joel both by giving his “son” the keys to his beloved gold Caddie.
It wouldn’t be a Season 1 episode of Northern Exposure without a Maggie-Joel fight, so of course Maggie and Joel fight. Maggie thinks Joel did a poor job of his birthing class, accusing him of being misogynistic and feeding the women “the company line.” So Joel lets Maggie take the driver’s seat next time. It becomes a very 90s TV birthing class: imagining happy places and doing breathing exercises.
In a pretty predictable development, Maurice’s increasingly heavy-handed fathering becomes too much for the free-spirited Chris, culminating in Chris calling it quits and walking out during a very uncomfortable game of croquet.
One of the birthing class students goes into labor, and Joel and Maggie come together and help a new life into the world–him with his conventional approach to medicine, her with her new agey, feminist ideals. After, the two fly back to Cicely, happy with themselves, one another, and what they’ve accomplished.
Holling realizes he’s missed the boat on bagging Jesse, and the hunting party heads home. On the drive back, Ed sees the legendary bear. He tries to wake his passengers, but their amorous camping trip has left them exhausted. Ed goes off alone, camera in hand, and successfully nabs the bear (on film).
Maurice visits Joel at his cabin that night to wax philosophical. “A man dies… a baby is born. The cycle continues.” Joel suggests starting a trust, but Maurice shrugs it off just as he’d earlier shrugged of the idea of founding a museum. He has a new idea. He’s decided to live forever. (And yes, he’s serious.)
The episode ends on this gentle Alaskan summer night as snow begins to fall on an incredulous New Yorker.
Miscellaneous notes, quotes, and anecdotes:
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