S12.E09: A Cricket's Tale

[Lantern7]

I goofed . . . this is the ninth episode airing this season, as opposed to "The Gang Tends Bar" last week.

Quote

We get to see a typical day in Cricket's world and then a possible redemption when his family intervenes. Will Cricket finally move on from the gang, finding love in the process? Will Cricket go from filthy beast to his former self, Matthew Mara?

My prediction? No. No, Cricket is not saved. Because nobody gets saved, at least on this show. It's probably 50/50 that he survives to the episode's end.

[Ubiquitous]

Well, that was depressing. :-(

Hey, it's Sargent Getraer and Danny Bonaduce!

[Galileo908]

So THIS is what Cricket was up to during PTSDee. For some reason I love that he's paid in lemons by the gang. Again. Also, has he always had that Member's Only jacket?

I figured that "Belle" wouldn't be what she seemed to be. I thought she'd be his sister, but this is Always Sunny, she'd turn out to be a dog. The collar was a big giveaway.

It was good to see Dottie again, even if it was a reused clip from last week.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Galileo908
Somehow thought the final scene took place during PTSDee.

[Ubiquitous]

Yeah, I got suspicious about Belle near the end and wondered why he didn't set the bathroom on fire when he threw that joint away.

[Lantern7]

Told you. You brace for the floor dropping, you think maybe Matthew/Cricket might pull off the redemption . . . and it turns out he was romancing his father's dog. Of course. I heard "Belle," I thought we were on a Beauty And The Beast riff. Nope. Golden Retriever.

When the show ends, I kinda want Cricket to be above the Gang, instead of being a druggie and a dogfucker (or close to it). I could see him going to Hollywood and becoming a stuntman. He's got sweet parkour skills, and he can take a lot of hits. Better than being a deluded bitch, a sociopath, a meathead, a Section 8, or whatever the hell Frank is supposed to be.

[Amarsir]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

When the show ends, I kinda want Cricket to be above the Gang

That would be nice in it's way, but this episode pretty much proved that won't happen. The show could have shown him with the capacity to be good, only to have the gang drag him down again. But he really doesn't have much in the way of good qualities.

[Oscirus]

This is starting to feel like they took off this season to work on other projects. They're getting quite creative with these episodes. 

Not much a fan of cricket so this episode held nothing for me.

[Ubiquitous]

Holy crap! I think that was Scott Farkas, not Danny Bonaduce, as the brother! That's even MORE awesome if true!:-D

[DrSpaceman73]

10 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

So THIS is what Cricket was up to during PTSDee. For some reason I love that he's paid in lemons by the gang. Again. Also, has he always had that Member's Only jacket?

I figured that "Belle" wouldn't be what she seemed to be. I thought she'd be his sister, but this is Always Sunny, she'd turn out to be a dog. The collar was a big giveaway.

It was good to see Dottie again, even if it was a reused clip from last week.

I was also guessing Belle would be his sister, but a dog makes sense too.  I knew it wouldn't be just some random girl. 

In a way this redeems the gang a bit.  Cricket's problems aren't all because of them.  They certainly don't help matters any, but this episode implies much of this is his own choice as well. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

"He needs the lemons for the scurvy."

[luna1122]

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Holy crap! I think that was Scott Farkas, not Danny Bonaduce, as the brother! That's even MORE awesome if true!:-D

It was TOTALLY farkus!!!

[jcin617]

8 hours ago, luna1122 said:

It was TOTALLY farkus!!!

Indeed it was! (Zach Ward)

Edited March 3, 2017 by jcin617

[vousviou]

11 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I was also guessing Belle would be his sister, but a dog makes sense too.  I knew it wouldn't be just some random girl. 

In a way this redeems the gang a bit.  Cricket's problems aren't all because of them.  They certainly don't help matters any, but this episode implies much of this is his own choice as well. 

I sort of thought the whole thing was going to turn out to be a dream and Belle was a part of that, but I guess they did that in the first episode of the season.

I'd disagree that this redeems the gang.  I think you might justify the horrible way they treat Gail the Snail, but Cricket's downward spiral is pretty much due to their awfulness, from the way Dee tricked him into quitting the priesthood to the way he got hooked on coke.  Granted, he'd be miserable as a priest but at least he'd be unscarred and out of the rain.  Cricket is a reminder that it's never a good idea to get too warm and fuzzy about the Gang, even when they give someone a rocket launcher for his birthday....

[Hero]

This episode was my least favorite of the season. And it was sooooo short! I think I read that it was only 16 1/2 minutes long. While I was watching, it felt like there was 5 minutes of the actual show and the rest was commercials. 

[DrSpaceman73]

11 hours ago, Suzy123 said:

This episode was my least favorite of the season. And it was sooooo short! I think I read that it was only 16 1/2 minutes long. While I was watching, it felt like there was 5 minutes of the actual show and the rest was commercials. 

Yes I watched it this morning and it was very short, took me well under 20 minutes to watch and that was fast forwarding through commercials, so that seems about right for the length. 

Also there was no new footage or scenes of the gang in this one except I believe them paying him with lemons, everything else was Cricket and footages spliced in from prior episodes of the gang, I believe.  The usual crew did like a minute of actual acting work for this episode. 

rewatching it, the first scene with Bell, she mentions smelling Cricket's brother's shoes and him kicking her when she is sleeping and calling her a bitch, so that should have clued us in. 

12 hours ago, vousviou said:

I sort of thought the whole thing was going to turn out to be a dream and Belle was a part of that, but I guess they did that in the first episode of the season.

I'd disagree that this redeems the gang.  I think you might justify the horrible way they treat Gail the Snail, but Cricket's downward spiral is pretty much due to their awfulness, from the way Dee tricked him into quitting the priesthood to the way he got hooked on coke.  Granted, he'd be miserable as a priest but at least he'd be unscarred and out of the rain.  Cricket is a reminder that it's never a good idea to get too warm and fuzzy about the Gang, even when they give someone a rocket launcher for his birthday....

 

Oh I am not in any way suggesting they are good people.  And they are certainly to blame for much of Cricket's problems.  But just based on this episode, I think he is more responsible for part of it too than I previously believed. 

[Hypnocratic Goat]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Also there was no new footage or scenes of the gang in this one except I believe them paying him with lemons, everything else was Cricket and footages spliced in from prior episodes of the gang, I believe.

There was also the scene of Charlie and Dennis on the phone with Cricket.

I thought it was nice how they weaved parts of this into previous episodes.

As for Belle, any other show she would have turned out to be the daughter of the "big client". I was curious where Sunny was going to go with it. All the clues were there in retrospect.

This was a pretty good episode, considering there was so little of the gang in it. It didn't feel short to me. Water Park felt much shorter.

It's a little surprising some people put Water Park at the top of their list. That one felt thin. Like a filler episode they threw together quickly to fill out the season. The Dennis part was solid but Mac and Dee's was useless, while Charlie & Frank was maybe 3 minutes total.

Edited March 3, 2017 by Hypnocratic Goat

[vousviou]

7 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Oh I am not in any way suggesting they are good people.  And they are certainly to blame for much of Cricket's problems.  But just based on this episode, I think he is more responsible for part of it too than I previously believed. 

I could believe that if Cricket had never met the Gang and stayed a priest, he might well have ended up a bitter alcoholic stealing the wine for communion and getting shuffled from parish to parish because he was hitting on every skinny blond high school girl in his congregation who wore some kind of brace or other medical contraption...

[Tosia]

Thank you guys for confirming that it was Farkus so I didn't have to look it up.   He turned out hot! 

[Utpe]

Oh crap, that is Scut Farcus from A Christmas Story!  I knew he looked familiar.

On 3/2/2017 at 9:29 PM, Suzy123 said:

And it was sooooo short! I think I read that it was only 16 1/2 minutes long.

Yeah, what in the world is going on with these short episodes?  I thought The Big Bang Theory was bad.  I've seen YouTube clips that were longer.

You gotta love how Cricket can move.  Too bad he can't be gainfully employed as a stunt double with his parkour skill set.

[ganesh]

I'm not seeing a problem with dancing with the dog.

[cynicat]

This was just on yesterday and it's very different watching when you know it's a dog right from the start.  Made me a little sad that I could only watch that surprise ending once without it being a surprise.  On the other hand, you can catch SO many clues.

Edited November 23, 2017 by cynicat