[Cue moose strutting to funky jazz music.]

It’s a crisp fall morning, and Chris is waxing nostalgic over memories of hunting in his youth as he looks forward to going on his annual hunting trip with Holling (who, you will remember, still only shoots animals with a camera). Maggie drives into town with a large buck in the back of her pickup truck, and Joel (of course) confronts her about it. He says it’s wrong to kill a living thing for fun. She says it’s hypocritical to eat animal products and then criticize those who procure them. I kind of agree with both of them, but I’m leaning towards Maggie here, who points out that life is not some intellectual exercise, it’s real life. Fleischman eats meat. “Well say hello to meat.”

Joel: What gives you the right to be a murderer of animals for your own pleasure?

Maggie: My hunting license.

On top of being judgy, Fleischman seems genuinely baffled about the popularity of hunting. He asks around about why people do it, getting responses ranging from the philosophical to the practical to those who hadn’t much thought about it. Chris at least admits he enjoys the thrill. Joel decides to go along and experience the thing itself to see what all the hubbub is about.

Ruth-Anne has broken her foot–just a hairline fracture, but enough that she needs to stay off it for a while. Fortunately she has Ed to help her around the store and at home. While bringing her groceries (and movies, of course), he learns that her 75th birthday has recently come and gone. This information, combined with the injury, and the news that an acquaintance of Ruth-Anne’s recently died at the “not exactly young” age of 72, has Ed suddenly concerned for his elderly friend. He begins to coddle and worry over her and to nag her about her health (and her diet–Ruth-Anne favors Cherry Garcia, it turns out). He decides she must have skipped her birthday celebration because she’s being “stalked by the Grim Reaper” and is waiting to die.

Meanwhile, Joel is in the woods, having a blast. Literally. He shoots a can with a shotgun and is thrilled with the experience. Throughout the trip, Holling is eager to get back to The Brick and his young almost-wife, while Chris seems to be enjoying himself–but Joel… Joel is ecstatic. Dr. Doolittle no more, he’s now eager to commit Bambicide kill some grouse, to the point of the annoyance of his hunting companions.

But when Joel wings (but doesn’t kill) a bird, he snaps out of his bloodlust and rushes the poor animal to his office. Holling is glad to be home, but Shelly chides him for his cheerfulness. She, too knows the pain of having an innocent animal’s blood on her hands (what Chris refers to as “a pet death she never got over”). Maggie learns Joel is trying to “unshoot” a bird he shot, and she visits him as he attends to his patient. But no amount of Alaskan tough love is going to get through to him. The poor, sweet little bird is teetering on the brink, and it’s his fault.

The grouse dies, and Joel is distraught. Holling’s and Shelly’s sweet-but-bumbling attempts to ease his pain are cute. Ed’s recipe recommendations not so much. Maggie pays him another visit–this time to his cabin, where he’s been watching sad animal-themed movies (Old Yeller, The Black Stallion, White Fang, The Yearling, Bambi, The Bear) and crying. But it’s a cathartic, cleansing crying, he says. He’d never thought much about animals, but now he’s suddenly faced with the fact that they have lives and feelings not unlike ours. The experience of hunting was exciting, but the reality of ending a life was just too much for him.

Ed’s been acting mysterious and asking around about what to get a woman who doesn’t want anything. Turns out he’s been planning a surprise party, and a big gang of Cicelians ambush Ruth-Anne at The Brick. While everyone digs into roast grouse (and picks birdshot from their teeth), Joel realizes that his bird might be his bird. He eats his maybe-patient anyway, apparently having come to terms with killing for food.

Ruth-Anne, who earlier insisted she didn’t want the fuss of a party, very much enjoys the fuss of a party. She also appreciates the gifts, though the jar of dirt from Ed confuses her. The next day, he takes her to see “the rest of it.” It’s a spot of ground with a view of a lake and some mountains. It’s her grave. She seems baffled at first, perhaps even offended… but I suppose she remembers this is Ed, after all. What would be ghoulish and mean from anyone else was clearly a well-intentioned gesture. She decides the two should take the opportunity to dance on it. And so they do–he having come to terms with his older friend’s mortality, and she having come to terms with Ed being Ed.

Miscellaneous notes, quotes, and anecdotes:

– “Fleischman” is German for butcher.

– Ruth-Anne on Ed: “He’s showing real aptitude, Joel. There could be a future for him working in a store.”

– A running gag it took me a while to realize was a running gag: Everybody in Cicely loves canned soup. They treat it like a delicacy.

– Maurice takes over the radio, and Ruth-Anne turns it off. “He’s giving me heartburn.” She later defiantly tells Maurice the radio “broke.”

– When he’s bummed, Ed goes to The Brick and orders a cup of Jello “straight” (no sprinkles or whipped cream).

– Chris does the David Foster Wallace look in this episode, and it’s so insufferable.

– I was kinda disappointed in Shelly’s earrings at first. She wore a couple of different pairs of typical 90s style abstract shapes… until: Fun Shelly Earring Alert!: Beetles! And then Troll dolls in Jack-O-Lanterns! Big, blue Koosh balls!

– Shelly tells a story about taking her pet angelfish, Angel, for a walk in a pickle jar she didn’t clean out well enough, resulting in a belly-up Angel. I’d venture to say this was a true story from one of the writers’ childhoods. It’s just too awkward not to be real.

– This episode first aired November 18, 1991. Ruth-Anne reads an issue of The Christian Science Monitor from October 1 of the same year. Realizing this show produced 20-something-part seasons with a ~6-week turnaround for episodes might make me a little less critical of its flaws.

– Ruth-Anne smokes in the store. It’s crazy how long casual, indoor smoking was legal and socially acceptable.

– Fun throwback technology: Lots of flashing 80s and 90s-looking cameras at Ruth-Anne’s shindig.

– I couldn’t find a proper video of the song Ed and Ruth-Anne dance to (an original piece by David Schwarz), but in searching for it I learned there’s an annual Northern Exposure fan meeting in Roselyn called MooseFest.

– Anybody else know grouse from Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet?