It’s Christmas time, and the people of Cicely are decorating with an Alaskan twist–lights and holly, with a raven thrown in. We learn from Chris in the Morning that Marilyn has a star role in the annual Raven Pageant and that Maggie O’Connell gets clumsy this time of year. And we learn from Maurice that he, like many others, suffers from depression during the holidays. All the talk of togetherness and family makes him feel his loneliness more acutely.

As if in answer to his prayers (though [spoiler alert] he won’t recognize this), a family appears for Maurice. A young Korean man translates for his father and grandmother. His father, he explains, is Maurice’s son.

[Cue moose strutting to funky jazz music.]

Ed and Dave deliver a Christmas tree to The Brick, while Fleischman expounds on his love of the tradition, which was verboten to him growing in a Jewish family. Perhaps Dave, an animist, celebrates the holidays with a Christmas tree, but Dave wasn’t raised by Herb and Nadine Fleischman. Joel contemplates taking part in the tradition he’s long admired and envied his gentile friends for.

Maggie comes in and immediately trips. Fleischman sees this as an attempt to injure herself and thus avoid going home for the holidays. Maggie denies this, of course. Meanwhile, Shelly helps Holling unpack some hand-painted Raven glasses, but she misses the Catholic holiday traditions she was raised with.

Maurice confronts his newfound family (and grimaces at being called “Grandpa”). Their story checks out. Now what do they want? He seems genuinely baffled to learn they aren’t out for money. A man just wanted to meet his father. This doesn’t stop him from threatening them with his team of lawyers.

Back at his rustic log cabin/mansion, Maurice has a conversation sans translator talks at the mother of his son. The thing is, he doesn’t remember her. The Korean War was a long time ago. He was young. There were many women. And anyway, if she’s hoping to rekindle whatever they had those decades ago, it’s not going to happen. It’s been too long. Also: racism, passed off as reason.

We’ve talked a lot about Maurice representing the best and worst of America. He’s a hard-working entrepreneur, but he’s greedy. He’s kind of a bigot, but he believes in equal opportunity and fair play. Etc. Early on, a commenter here described Maurice as “a thoroughly admirable piece of shit.” Well in this episode, we’re really seeing the “piece of shit” aspects of Maurice.

Fleischman gives in and gets a Christmas tree (which is delivered to his cabin by Ed and Maurice’s newly-found grandson for some reason). But nothing is simple for him, of course, and he feels so conflicted he even talks to the tree, trying to rationalize what he’s done and insisting he’s not betraying his heritage.

Maggie walks limps in, having sprained her ankle in a fall. They take jabs at one another for a minute before sympathizing with each other’s respective holiday conundrums: the Jew whose family makes him feel guilty for wanting to celebrate Christmas, and the Christian whose family makes her want an excuse to avoid it. Later, Maggie gets a letter from her parents: the folks are going to spend the holidays in a timeshare. She has no obligation to go home, and she can stop abusing herself. You’d think she’d be happy… if you hadn’t been watching this show for a couple seasons. Obviously this just causes her more conflicted feelings because of course.

The Yung’s make a Korean dinner, and Maurice’s son expresses admiration for his father. When Maurice is done eating, Duk Won gets up and sings a heavily-accented rendition of Fly Me to the Moon. It’s silly and awkward, but it’s very sweet and earnest. Maurice just grimaces at him. Later, he complains to Chris that he’s always wanted a son “and what do I get? A middle-aged Chinaman.” Yeesh. Chris points out to Maurice that he had no problem embracing “the other” when having sex with an attractive young woman, and the hypocrisy of finding the result of that pairing distasteful. But this is behavior learned from culture, Chris says. “So you can unlearn it.”

This is the most I have ever liked Chris and the least I have ever liked Maurice.

Maurice continues to rebuff Duk Won’s attempts to connect with him. Having finally had enough of Maurice being so goddamn rude and hateful, Yong Ja chews him out, with the aid of Bong as translator. Maurice takes Duk Won down to The Brick to have a conversation talk at the confused man in a language he doesn’t understand. He finally truly acknowledges being his father, and says they should make a good-faith effort to get to know one another. He learns his son is a whiskey drinker and, back in Korea, an engineer. He’s also pretty strong! And I guess these things are enough to make a horrible father proud. They arm wrestle.

Maurice is so over the top.

Joel goes to Maggie’s and makes her close her eyes for a surprise:

“It belongs to you,” he says.

Is this the kindest thing he’s done so far?

Shelly goes to the town church and is surprised to find it decorated with a nativity and filled with lit candles–and Holling, who sings Ave Maria for her, just like that fat Italian singer she saw on TV.

However often Holling fumbles the relationship stuff, he really nailed this one.

Maurice speaks with Yong Ja–telling her she should be proud to have raised such a good son. She recognizes his tone and enough words to get the point, and the two finally connect. Maurice remembers her now and asks her how she is.

It’s nice to see him acting like a human being again.

The people of Cicely watch the Raven Pageant, narrated for the TV audience by Marilyn. And the episode ends with a shot of a totem pole wrapped with Christmas lights.

Miscellaneous Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes:

– I typically watch an episode twice for every review–a casual viewing followed by a frequently-paused viewing as I take notes. My first viewing, I hated this episode. Maurice being such an ass made it hard to watch. The second, I at least picked up on some fun little details that made it more palatable.

– Fun Shelly Earring Alert: Christmas lights! Stockings! Angels!

– Not so fun detail: Maurice says he was 16 in Korea, having forged his father’s signature. This story seems implausible for multiple reasons.

– Joel has a raven menorah in his cabin.

– I noticed when Ed and Bong were bringing in Joel’s Christmas tree, they have a lot in common in terms of dress and demeanor. The show has portrayed Chris as being a sort of son to Maurice, but perhaps Ed more truly fills that role.

– Ruth-Anne is an atheist (sort of?). “I believe in a supreme being. I just don’t think she takes human form.”

– I don’t know how accurate the Raven creation story is to any Alaskan indigenous culture as portrayed here, or how commonly it is associated with Christmas, but there are things like this available online:

– I am envious of Maurice’s office, having wanted a library where you need a built-in ladder on wheels to reach the upper shelves ever since watching Beauty and the Beast. I am not envious of Maurice’s tacky silver Christmas tree, which looks like something out of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

– Chris reads Poe over the air. Because of course.

– I agree with Joel and Maggie. Tinsel is tacky.