O’Connell is flying Dr. Fleischman back to Cicely after a successful vaccination mission to a remote village. Joel is (of course) whining. His “shooting arm” is tired, and the gift the grateful villagers gave him, a whole bunch of whale blubber, is something he finds unpalatable. Maggie is in good spirits, though, complimenting the doctor on a job well done and laughing at him for being jittery every time there’s some turbulence. But it ceases to be funny when the plane actually has engine problems and the two have to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. I mean more “middle of nowhere” than usual.

[Cue moose strutting to funky jazz music]

After the initial shock, and realizing that he’s still all in one piece, Joel is thrilled with Maggie’s emergency landing. He calls her a genius and hugs her, which is really cute. It’s also cute that Maggie has to stand on a rock to see into the engine of the plane. What’s not so cute is that they’re stranded in “4.2 million acres of genuine wilderness.” And no, Joel, they cannot call the airplane version of AAA. They’re not in any immediate danger… they’re just very, very stranded for the next few days.

Back at The Brick, as Holling and Ed discuss the predicament their doctor and bush pilot friends are in, a too-hip-and-modern-for-Cicely-looking young woman walks in asking for Shelly. It turns out Cindy is an old friend from Shelly’s Canadian days. She’s there because for the past six months she’s been married to Wayne (remember him?), who recently drunkenly let slip that he’s still married to Shelly. The two hardly recognize one another. Shelly, sensibly dressed and carrying in a box of vegetables, looks “old,” while Cindy has lost a lot of weight since Shelly last saw her. Cindy demands Shelly divorce her estranged husband. Shelly, somehow feeling betrayed, childishly refuses.

A lot of the animosity between the two is about a shift in the balance of their relationship. It turns out Shelly used to be the center of attention and the girl all the guys wanted to “paw” after a game. But these days Cindy has slimmed down and earned a degree from the Saskatchewan College of Applied Arts. (Major: Hair. Minor: Base Application.) So now while her newly-thin friend with a fresh sense of style is traveling with the boys and staying at motels (sometimes hotels even!), Shelly’s stuck in Cicely getting thicker (note: not really). Now obviously, the show treats all this with a very tongue-in-cheek attitude, as if finishing cosmetology school and becoming a hairstylist to a minor league hockey team is life in the fast lane. But to her and Shelly’s limited perspectives, I guess it is.

There’s not much to the Joel/Maggie situation here for a while. She tries to tough it out and come up with solutions. He whines. They argue. At one point, this happens:

No, really.

Back in Cicely, Cindy wows the town by giving makeovers, and tensions between the two old friends come to a head. Shelly admits to her jealousy, and Cindy admits to having felt jealous of Shelly in the past. Shelly describes the pressures of growing up being perceived as “perfect” and of everyone just assuming you’re doing well all the time. It’s “not all beer and roses.” Again, this is all very tongue-in-cheek. But again, to these two young women these feelings are nonetheless very real. And so it’s nice when they apologize, hug, and make up.

“Can I see your copy of Sassy, Cindy?”

In easily the brightest point of the episode, Maggie (or both Maggie and Joel, maybe?) has a dream that the two are a married couple of cave-people, bickering over what a bad provider Cave-Joel is. It’s tons of fun to see this Flintstones-style humor acted out on a sophisticated and philosophical live-action show. Cave-Maggie points a bone at Cave-Joel and says she should have married a muscular stud. Sure he had a sloping forehead, but “at least he put a stegosaurus on the table every night.” It’s utterly ridiculous–downright stupid, even–and I’m here for it. At the end of the dream, the cave couple make up when Cave-Maggie admits she didn’t marry Cave-Joel for his killing ability. In the real world, they wake up kissing and pull away from one another in horror.

Holling goes to Chris for advice. I know I harp on the dichotomy of Chris a lot, and this episode’s review will be no exception. Holling asks Chris if he ever thinks about him and Shelly, to which Chris replies “You’re some of my favorite people, Holling. You know that.” [Cat with heart eyes emoji.] But Holling is referring to their large age gap. Chris says he’s not bothered by it. He doesn’t believe in chronological age. After all, Jerry Lee Lewis had a 13-year-old wife! [Barfing emoji.] To his credit, Holling does not seem happy with this answer.

Maggie, being sick and tired of Joel blubbering about blubber, goes hunting and brings back a squirrel for Joel to eat. He’s grossed out, but also impressed with her. The two stop bickering and actually talk for a while. Later, Maggie goes off again but has worse luck. She’s stumbling back into camp when she’s horrified to see Joel working on the airplane’s engine. She scolds him and puts the pieces back together. But it turns out Joel was actually helping. He’d decided to take a break from being an incompetent ninny and lean into what he’s actually good at: being a doctor. An engine isn’t all that different from the human heart, after all, and he found that this one had pulmonary stenosis a gunked up valve. Despite Maggie’s (very understandable) anger, the plane is in working order again. And so they fly back to sort-of civilization.

Shelly decides to finally divorce Wayne and asks Chris to do the honors. Though Chris initially explains that a divorce is a legal matter not to be “performed” by someone who became an ordained minister through an ad in Rolling Stone, he eventually agrees anyway. Wayne calls in, and they hold a divorce ceremony live on the air. As with much of this show, it’s oddly cute. Cindy leaves town, the two old friends on good terms again. That night, Holling tells Shelly she doesn’t need to stay in Cicely. She can go home to be with her friends, if being with people her own age is what makes her happy. But Shelly rejects the idea, wanting to be with Holling. From now on, she won’t let him make her feel old. Instead, she’s going to make him young.

Miscellaneous notes, quotes, and anecdotes:

– Fleischman and O’Connell mention an airline disaster in which a plane hit a flock of starlings and dozens of people die. Though the precise details differ, they seem to be referring to this real-life tragedy.

– The 4.2 million acre Anaktuvuk Preserve (“Anaktukuv,” in an apparently unnoticed flub by Holling) doesn’t exist, but there is a real-life village named Anaktuvuk Pass.

– 90s things Cindy says: “buns” “have a cow” “P.O.ed” “bug up your butt”

– I noticed in one scene that Holling’s eyes looked… different. It turns out they are! John Cullum has heterochromia, which he masks by wearing a blue contact over his brown eye. Why would someone want to hide such a cool feature?

– Fleischman eating mystery berries he found in the woods seems out of character.

– So does Maggie handing him a gun. Highly irresponsible.

– Biggest Laugh: Cindy inanely jabbering away at a pleased Marilyn.

– Shelly and Cindy are both massive assholes to Holling, who shows nothing but patience and grace throughout the whole adolescent ordeal.

– This song plays on KBHR as Cindy tells Chris he needs volumizer:

As someone who doesn’t know much of the genre aside from Bob Marley’s Legend, I appreciate the obscure reggae tracks the show has introduced me to.

– Cindy: “Steven Tyler’s cute, but my god he’s almost 40.” Oof for Shelly and Holling and oof for everyone watching in 2025. Extra oof for Steven Tyler.