Season 2, Episode 27: "Losing Nana Bishop"

It's a crisp, fall day, perfect for autumnal activities and festivities--pumpkin picking, apple cider, the many delicious pies (mmmm... pie). So, what fun-filled activity are the girls up to today? Hunting down rats via stethoscope with Lois!

"Aren't gluetraps kind of cruel?" - Ginger
"That's why it's plan B." - Lois

They trace the source of the sound to Carl's room (rather, they have a hunch). When Lois opens the door, Hoodsey leaps onto a box to hide whatever bloody limb or monster porn is in there. She ignores this to demand an explanation from Carl, but he sadly proclaims his innocence. The sound of the rats is getting louder, so loud in fact, that they appear to be breaking through the walls and into the house. The girls make a run for it.

After they leave, Carl and Hoodsey reveal what's inside the box--bondage chains and shackles. I thought for a second that this show was going to take an R-rated turn, but instead, Carl and Hoodsey plan to become world-class escape artists. Naturally, Hoodsey is skeptical because, as I mentioned in another review, everything Carl suggests is either too dangerous, dumb, weird, gross, or embarrassing for him. Hoodsey bitches and complains for a while, and then ultimately agrees to go along with Carl's plan. What's the point of this routine every time Carl has an idea? Anyway, Carl locks the cuffs around his ankles, oozing with excitement at the possibility of all the prisoners who have worn them before him. Yeesh.

The phone rings, and it's Joanne calling for Dodie. Dodie takes the phone, and she finds out that her Nana Bishop just died, and that she and Hoodsey need to come home immediately. Nana Bishop apparently died suddenly, in her Tai-Chi class, and Macie breaks out in nervous laughter. 

How is it that people on TV always find out so much information from a literal three-second phone call?

The girls all apologize for Dodie's loss, and then Dodie heads upstairs to get Hoodsey. 

Dodie pops in to give Hoodsey the news, but Hoodsey replies with a casual, "Kay. Thanks for letting me know. We have to practice now." Dodie retorts that they have to get home now, and then leaves to let Hoodsey get ready. Carl apologizes for the loss, but Hoodsey's like, "Whatever. What a waste of a good Saturday." Oh my God, Hoodsey, that's your grandmother you're talking about. You're certainly being a hemorrhoid today. As Carl walks Hoodsey out, they don't see that the key for the shackles had slipped between the floorboards. Why is there such a big gap in the first place? And why is there a floor below the floor? 

Ginger confides in Lois her worries about not knowing how to act around Dodie now that she has a dead relative. Lois tells her to just support Dodie and be a good friend to her, as that's all she really can do. And then Lois launches into a story about how she and her mother weren't exactly best friends, but she managed to get through her death. 

At the Bishop house, Joanne talks with someone about her mother-in-law's death. She looks over at Hoodsey scarfing down a Hostess cupcake and is like, "The kids can hardly contain their grief," which may or may not have had a sarcastic undertone. This is a great scene that shows what a bitch Joanne is in general (but mostly to Carl), because Carl calls asking if Hoodsey has seen the key to the shackles, and she ushers him off the phone like, "Can't you see I'm on the phone? No, Robert Joseph hasn't seen your key, so goodbye." I understand that she was in the middle of an important phone call but still, what a bitch. 

The doorbell rings, and it's Ginger and Macie, bringing over a sympathy tuna noodle casserole. Ginger apologizes for the loss of Nana Bishop, and Joanne sweetly says, "Aww, thank you, girls." So, it's really just Carl and Lois that Joanne has a problem with. Still, Joanne's bitch side rears its ugly head again when she asks if Lois used cheap tuna because she's allergic to mercury. Okay, even if she did use cheap tuna, that's still fucking rude to ask. Besides, all tuna has mercury in it. And then Hoodsey steals a spoonful.

Joanne loudly proclaims that it would be a great idea for Hoodsey to speak at Nana's funeral, and then his house of cards falls down in response.

Dodie shows Ginger and Macie all the stuff Nana gave her over the years, and also all the stuff that reminds her of Nana. Dodie even finds a picture of them together, but one of the corners is bent. 

Mr. Bishop comes in, bawling with grief, asking for the girls' opinion on which of Nana's dresses they should adorn her in for the funeral. Both dresses are hideous--one is a green jungle-themed muu-muu while the other is a 1960s powder blue house dress. And both look like they'd fit a ten-year-old. 

Did Nana Bishop have dwarfism?

Dodie is too busy staring at her ruined picture, and Macie can't choose because of her nervous laughter, so Ginger picks out the powder blue dress. 

Through Ginger's voiceover, Dodie spends the rest of the day telling Ginger and Macie stories about Nana, and that they had a weird effect on Ginger, because she started missing her own grandmother, even though she doesn't remember her. This scene is kind of funny because the camera pans to Ginger's bedroom, and through the vents we can hear Lois from downstairs complaining about a mess Carl made, and I think that just adds a nice touch of realism to the show. Besides, Lois is funny as hell. 

Ginger hides under her blanket and makes a call to Jonas for some reason. She gets the answering machine instead. Typical.

She leaves him a message saying that she wants to take a walk with him and talk about Grandma. 

The next day, Carl asks why Hoodsey is going to school, as this is the perfect excuse to skip. Hoodsey confides in Carl that he doesn't want to be at home because everyone is sad and talking about Nana Bishop. He also says that he's not sad about her death. It's not because he hated her, but rather, he didn't have a relationship with her like Dodie did. So, he doesn't feel like he'd be the right person to speak at her funeral, either. You know, that's actually a very legitimate concern. I kind of feel bad for Hoodsey now.

Ginger and Macie talk about the upcoming funeral, and Macie expresses her concerns about the possibility of an open casket. She's never been to a funeral before, so the thought of seeing a dead person scares her, which is also a legitimate concern. But Macie insists that she wants to be there for Dodie, so she's just going to suck it up and face her fears, because she's a good friend. Good on you, Macie!

Ginger heads into the park, and wouldn't you know, Jonas actually shows up! And with his dog, Ben, too. Does that mean we actually have to start liking this guy now?

So, Jonas and Ginger talk about Grandma, and how she used to drive Ginger around the block for hours to help her fall asleep. It's quite a sweet story, but then it becomes awkward when Jonas mentions that his mother was so great so that it would make up for his own deadbeat father, and how it must "run in the family." Before we get a chance to really think on that, Ben runs loose out of Ginger's grip to chase a family of ducks. 

Lois continues the hunt for the rats, so she scours the attic with only a flashlight. I don't know... if I was her, I'd be wearing something other than capris leggings and flats when dealing with possibly-rabid rodents. She finds a box with Jonas's old stuff.

When she goes to investigate it, a family of squirrels leaps out from behind the box and scurries away.

Once the squirrels evacuate, Lois picks up the box and finds a bucket full of acorns, immediately tracing it back to Carl. He tells Lois that he was just trying to help the squirrels evade a long, harsh winter, so it obviously wasn't a malicious prank or anything. Carl's a good kid; it's too bad that his kind of good falls under the chaotic spectrum. 

Ginger finds a bunch of cool stuff in Jonas's box, including home movies and photo frames. I guess that would be cool if you've never seen photo frames before. She decides to give one to Dodie for the bent picture of Nana Bishop she has.

Carl collects all the squirrels and puts them in a little play area in the doghouse. Hoodsey continues to worry about the speech he has to make for Nana Bishop, mostly because he worries about not liking her when he's supposed to. But Carl comes around and gives Hoodsey some honest, yet awesome advice: "You don't have to like your family, just respect them."

"You don't have to like your family. You just have to respect them." - Carl

And then Hoodsey accidentally locks his head in the bondage helmet, forgetting all about the missing key.

The next morning, Joanne argues with Hoodsey through his bedroom door to get into the limo to go to the funeral. A limo, for a funeral? Either I'm dirt poor or they're well-off, because I've never heard of someone taking a limo to a funeral home. Hoodsey obviously doesn't want Joanne to see that he has the helmet locked around his head, so he tells her he will ride his bike there instead. Joanne refuses, but Mr. Bishop (still crying) tells her to let Hoodsey do what he wants, as it's possibly his way of grieving, so Joanne lets him go, giving him 20 minutes to make it there.

As it turns out, the funeral is taking place on a boat.

Would that Lonely Island song "I'm on a Boat" be too inappropriate to use here?

Carl waddles on in his tuxedo, his feet still in those chains. He spray-paints them black, as "it's only appropriate." Joanne asks the group if they've seen her son, but they haven't. The boat takes off, and the funeral begins. The organ player plays a solemn tune as the Bishop family and friends gather into the room to begin. Everyone lines up to take one last look at Nana before the casket is closed and Macie begins to freak out. Ginger tells her to pretend she's sleeping, but Macie can't picture it because Nana had died while wearing pigtails, and finds this baffling. Carl takes a look at the body, and whispers to Macie that he totally saw her move. Macie faints and accidentally steps on the kickstand, so I guess it's easy to see how this is going to turn out.

"Oh, sweet mother of Mabel!" - Macie

Ginger and Macie approach Dodie, and continue to show their sympathy. Ginger pulls one of the photo frames out of her purse to give to Dodie, and then they hug. D'aww.

The crackling of the speakers nearly blows everyone's eardrums out, and they turn to the source. It's Hoodsey, who's about to begin his speech. Everyone listens in, though they're bewildered as to why he has that helmet on. Hoodsey begins by talking about how Nana was much closer to Dodie than she was to him. He then goes off on a mini-rant about her blue denture cream and all the stuff he did with it. Gross. Meanwhile, another boat passes by the funeral boat, causing the funeral boat to tilt. Pair that with a casket on wheels and you've got a party.

So, as the casket continues to roll back and forth against the rocking waves of the sea, Hoodsey gets an epiphany, realizing that Nana Bishop wasn't so bad after all, as she was only trying to share her wisdom and joy with both him and Dodie; Hoodsey just was never interested. And it took Nana's death for him to realize this. Aww. And then, right as Hoodsey closes out his eulogy, the casket crashes right through a window, with only the barriers preventing Nana's decaying body from sinking into the water.

"Mother!" - Mr. Bishop

I know I shouldn't be laughing at this part, but I can't help it. After Nana Bishop (whose name is revealed as Ernestine) is lowered into the ground, Mr. Bishop walks over and hovers over the casket a little too closely, so he falls in while crying out, "Mother!"

And then Joanne just saunters up like the saucy bitch she is and demands that her husband get out of the grave as he's "upsetting the children." And she says it so haughty, too, like she's talking to a five-year-old. What the hell is wrong with you, Joanne? Your husband's mother just fucking died. I mean, yeah, leaping in after your dead mother is an over-the-top reaction, especially at a funeral while others are watching, but Joanne's reaction was just as ridiculous. I kind of get the feeling that Joanne and Mrs. Bishop always had a dagger-eyes war going on, but it's common courtesy to show some kind of remorse for someone's death at a funeral. Hoodsey wants to join in on the casket dog-pile too, but Joanne pulls him out.

The scene abruptly cuts to the Foutley household, where Lois shows Carl, Hoodsey, and Ginger one of Jonas's home movies. There's one scene that shows Grandma Foutley tossing Carl up into the air, and she had accidentally hit his head on the ceiling lamp.

"That certainly explains a lot." - Ginger

I'm guessing this bite-sized piece of memory is supposed to explain Carl's eccentricities. I don't think a simple knock on the noggin is actually enough to make someone weird, per se, but this kind of trope comes up a lot in TV shows when someone's strange behavior is questioned. Like, how many times have you heard something along the following lines: "Eugene, why are you such a weirdo?" "Well, my mom says I fell out of a treehouse when I was five years old." I'm guessing this is roughly the same thing, albeit a more original explanation.

After Lois and the boys leave, Ginger hangs back to watch more of Jonas's black and white silent home movies. Again, why is this format so common in home movies? It's not like video cameras of the 1980s and 1990s didn't have the technology needed to produce videos with color and sound. My only guess is that this format is supposed to give off a "nostalgic" feel. Through Ginger's voice-over, she talks about how family members can make you want to run a blade across your throat sometimes, but once they're gone, all you'll have left are the memories, so it's best to make the most of them. And then she picks up the phone to call Jonas and WOW, he actually answers the phone! That's an awfully sweet way to end the episode. At least now we know that Jonas will be around, and will probably turn out to be an okay character, provided that he doesn't flake out anymore.

But Deebiedoobie, you ask, what about the shackles/helmet subplot? Would you believe that Lois brings the boys out to the garage, takes out some big ass welding tools she happens to have lying around, and prepares to rip open those constricting pieces of metal with a God-damn light saber for a flame?

This is why I love this show.

You know, I rag on this show a lot for having some really shallow episodes, but this one has genuine, heartwarming depth to it, rendering it a Ginger classic. At least in my opinion, it is. It's always a challenge to talk about death with children, because we want to spare their feelings just a little longer, just so that they can live life with a little more experience before slowly being exposed to the harsh realities of the real world.

This episode was very well-done and, with the exception of a few distastefully hilarious scenes, set the tone of Nana Bishop's death appropriately while giving the audience something to ponder over. Also, I can't help but think back to when Hoodsey was giving the epiphany. He started out not really knowing what to say, but as he opened up and allowed his feelings to come through, we see a change in heart (or rather a realization in heart) of Hoodsey's true feelings about Nana Bishop. It's very realistic and not preachy in the slightest, making it one of the more deep, human moments on the show. And thus, it's considered to be one of my favorite episodes.

Lessons Learned From This Episode: make the most out of the time you have with your family, because you'll never know when they'll die; don't leave keys on the floor of your shit-hole of a bedroom.