Review: Squidbillies “Dewey Two-ey”

Squid Free or Dewey Hard

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Continuing from “Duel of the Dimwits” two weeks ago, Early awakens to find his shack has been barricaded off from the rest of the land due to the recent legal revelation that the land is the property of the Duvalls, rivals of the Cuylers. With this go-ahead, Dewey Jr has taken steps to make Early’s life a living hell for his dad getting in the way of Jr’s dad having an affair with Granny, but mostly just because Early is a colossal dick and requires constant punishment from the universe because of that fact. Unfortunately for Early, the only land he owns is the shack and everything outside it is either torn down like the outhouse or towed away like his truck-boat-truck. And his gun was in it, so he doesn’t have much of a means to back up his threats. Even worse, Granny is now pursuing a relationship WITH Dewey Jr, which quickly turns sexual. Early attempts to reclaim his truck by gliding down a power line, but only get shocked and shot as he watches it get hauled out, and Sheriff can’t do anything to stop it (and probably has no intention of doing so). The only way this could get worse is if the Duvalls open up a taco shack next door.

Which they do! Though clearly just to eff with Early. So, he takes a literal leap of faith to make peace with Dewey, who accepts after a bit more dicking around with him. The price is simple: Early must climb up the town water tower and read aloud a shameful self-defamation of his own character in front of the entire town while wearing a bikini and squirrel taped to his jock. Or make love to a beehive. He chooses the former, which the town seems to love, and is enough to mend the rift between the two families. This is celebrated by the admitted creepy marriage between Dewey Jr and Granny. Partly because they are in love, but also partly because it takes away Early’s last piece of land, which is once again burned down. At the creepy wedding, even the pastor is looking to Early to interject and disrupt, but Rusty tells him to accept they’ve lost. Early storms off, having lost just about everything.

OUR TAKE

Well, my first thought is how odd it is that this is clearly a two-parter that was oddly broken up by the Christmas special last week, but I guess it would be a bit weird to put the special in the first week of December to make room for these to be played back to back.

My other thought is how dour this is for a season finale, and I don’t remember if this show has ever done season-ending cliffhangers before, but it is a bit odd. I would have expected this to be the end of the Duvall business, but I guess we’re moving it into at least the beginning of next season (if we get one, though I doubt they’d end the whole show here after going this long). The family rivalries kind of just got dropped on us all at once, and it doesn’t seem like Dewey and his son are very active in the town so I’m unsure what this will change, but it did serve as a very overdue comeuppance for Early, whose dickishness was rampant throughout this season. Dewey exists almost entirely to eff with him, and this episode almost ALMOST made Early the more sympathetic character with how much payback he got. Where this all will head is hard to say, but on its own, especially with a pretty funny use of mariachi trumpets forswear bleeps, this episode was a retribution a long time coming.