"Cricket Versus" is the first segment of the second episode of Big City Greens (though it is the fourth episode in the series' chronology).
Synopsis[]
Cricket is tasked with wrestling a wild animal to complete a Green family right of passage but renounces his family name when he fails to find any vicious creatures in the city.
Plot[]
Cricket happily awakens one morning to declare that today is the day that he "becomes a Green". Every member of the Green Family has wrestled a wild animal so that they can officially be considered part of the family. Tilly had wrestled a horse (named Frederico), Bill had wrestled a giant hawk and even Cricket and Tilly's mother Nancy had wrestled a wolverine. Afterwards, their historical feat will be chronicled on the Green Family Triumph Quilt. Gramma Alice warns Cricket however that he must wrestle a wild animal by sundown or he will have failed his rite of passage. After a couple of false leads (at restaurants of all places) Alice states that if he fails he will not be considered a Green anymore, with the addition of warning him to never let his guard down.
Cricket heads to Big City Park to look for his next prey. He spots Officer Keys' horse Buttercup, but ends up scaring them away. Alice further insults Cricket's attempts with a dog and a squirrel (the former for having a leash, the latter not considered a "real-life monster") by reminding him that she fought a bear. Cricket begins to doubt that there is anything dangerous in Big City so he fabricates a story of an escaped lion by covering himself in ketchup. Alice sees through his lie and the two get into an argument. This escalates with Alice refusing to give Cricket his favorite food, green bean casserole, and he storms out. While Bill tries to talk Alice down, she refuses to let off of Cricket as she believes it is important. Cricket somberly sits outside and has an epiphany; Alice is the scariest thing and challenges her for his rite of passage.
Alice and Cricket proceed to fight throughout the house and in the front yard. Tilly and Bill rush out and try to stop them with the former declaring that she could just put Cricket's patch on the quilt, but he refuses. Alice declares that Cricket can never beat her and he seemingly agrees. He admits that he no longer cares about the rite of passage stating "I don't care if you don't consider me a Green, cuz I feel like a Green, I know I'm a Green and that's something no one can ever take away from me." Realizing that Cricket has significantly matured, Alice changes her tune and accepts him as a Green, only for him to pin her down, revealing he only pretended to surrender to let her guard down, and successfully completes the rite of passage. Alice adds Cricket's triumph on the quilt and then proceeds to start "round 2".
Cast[]
- Chris Houghton as Cricket Green
- Bob Joles as Bill Green
- Artemis Pebdani as Gramma Alice
- Marieve Herington as Tilly Green
- Anna Akana as Gloria Sato
- Andy Daly as Officer Keys
- Shane Houghton as Food Dragon manager
Trivia[]
- This episode reveals Alice's full name as Alice Dolores Green.
- This episode is the first instance of Nancy Green, Cricket and Tilly's mother, being mentioned.
- On the episodes opening title card, there is a doll sitting on Cricket's shelf that resembles Reed Gunther from the Houghton Brothers' comic book of the same name.
- While Alice is thinking of potential last names Cricket could change his name to should he fail the rite of passage, she names "Hawking" and "Einstein", which are references to the late famous physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Interestingly, Hawking died on the same day Einstein was born, March 14, 2018, three months and five days before this episode premiered.
- Cricket's rite of passage occurred on Wednesday in the second week, but the month's name is unknown. Chris Houghton joked on his Tumblr Cricket had his rite of passage in the month of "Seppyemberly".[1]
- Gramma rejects Cricket's fight with a squirrel because she doesn't consider them "real-life monsters". While squirrels are harmless in real life, there's a chance they could carry rabies.
- Tilly's rite of passage involved wrestling a horse. In "Horse Girl", it is revealed that Tilly hates horses, implying that her wrestling one was based on her hatred of them, or that she developed her hatred following the rite of passage. A user on Twitter suggested the latter, which Shane Houghton apparently noted, though he has yet to confirm whether it is canon.[2][3]
- Moral: Your opponent may be right with you all along.
International Premieres[]
- June 18, 2018 (Spain)
- June 19, 2018 (United Kingdom)
- June 30, 2018 (Australia, New Zealand)
- July 1, 2018 (Canada)
- November 5, 2018 (Latin America)
References[]
- ↑ "Tumblr Rite of Passage". Tumblr (March 27, 2020).
- ↑ "User's Headcanon". Twitter (December 8, 2022).
- ↑ "Shane Houghton's Acknowledgment". Twitter (December 8, 2022).
External links[]
