Summary
“Game of Snownes Adventure” makes Beef’s anxieties literal when Wolf and Honeybee, who he thinks are drifting away from the rest of the family, end up lost in a snowstorm — and on game night, no less.
Winter is coming in “Game of Snownes Adventure”, though I suppose in Alaska it never really leaves. Either way, a severe snowstorm threatens to upend the Tobin family game night, which is Beef’s favorite thing. He’s already worried that perhaps Wolf and Honeybee are drifting apart from the rest of the family after moving into the guest house — they’ve only attended four out of the last seven breakfasts! — and so he’s determined to find them when they get stranded in the storm, despite the fact he’s so ill that he’s having hallucinatory conversations with sentient snowflakes.
This setup to The Great North episode 10 is, needless to say, a literal representation of Beef’s drifting apart fear, which everyone realizes once Judy goes out to rescue Beef, who has already gone out to rescue Wolf and Honeybee. These are the sentiments Beef explores with the giant talking snowflakes, which is touching in a weird way. Even once Beef runs into a (slightly drunk) Wolf, the snowflakes continue to follow him around and therapize him, helping him to confess to Wolf how he really feels. You can’t get more Alaska than that.
Of course, the lesson here is about Beef coming to accept that Wolf is a grown-up who is beginning to build his own family now; that doesn’t mean he’ll stop attending four out of seven breakfasts or family game nights, just that he’ll need a little time to himself now and again. That isn’t too much to ask, and if Beef wasn’t tripping on out-of-date cold medicine he’d probably be pretty cool about it.
The Great North season 1, episode 10 also features a subplot about Alyson getting cozy with Honeybee’s brother, Jerry, which doesn’t really go anywhere but might pay off a bit down the line. The big question is whether or not game night will still take place. I’m pleased to report that it does.
