"Where the Buffalo Roam" is the first segment of the seventeenth episode (and the thirty-second story overall) of Close Enough, and the Season 3 premiere.
Synopsis[]
After a major windfall, Josh and Emily decide to take the honeymoon they never had.
Plot[]
Josh and Emily have just gotten married and are enjoying a tender moment on a hill, overlooking the busy traffic bellow. Despite their loving mood Josh reveals that the couple are not having a traditional honey moon do to lack of proper savings, to which he apologizes for. Emily reassures him, however, that their current situation is great and the two make a commitment to save away money, in the form of coins, inside a bear-shaped jar for a more exciting honey moon sometime in the future. Seven years later and the jar is finally full, so the two of them go to a supermarket and cash in the coins for a money receipt. They're greeted by the market staff, who break-out into song to celebrate the couple's future trip, but the merriment is cut short by the fact that Emily and Josh's savings have amounted to a meager four hundred dollars.
At their apartment, Josh and Emily bemoan their limited funds to their housemates, to which they receive some lackluster ideas on what to spend them on. But Alex, while on his laptop, shows them an add for Catalina Island and proposes that they should use their money for a romantic trip there, which appears to have only favorable reviews online as well as being affordable to their current budget. Despite some initial hesitance, Emily agrees with Josh and the two take a cruise-liner to Catalina. On the island the two are impressed with the view, but can't help but take notice of the large number of bison on Catalina. At a local motel named after the island the couple are greeted by the overly-enthusiastic manager. After explaining to her about their marital status Josh asks the manager about the local bison. She reveals that during the 1920s the bison had been shipped to Catalina Island for a Silent-Era movie, however the director had inexplicably went insane and so the buffalo were never returned to the mainland. The manager tells them that the buffalo are completely docile, then proceeds to offer them a complementary pamphlet detailing all ten romantic activities that they can do on the island.
At first, Josh and Emily try enjoying themselves at every activity, with an added phrase "BEST HONEY-MOON EVER!" to compliment the feeling. But, at every turn the local bison keep squandering the couple's fun. After an especially unpleasant horse-back ride being chased by a buffalo herd leaves both Josh and Emily battered (especially at their genitalia), Emily calls up Bridgette on the phone to complain. Bridgette sympathizes with her friend and tells Emily to just call the entire honey-moon off, to which Emily fears it would break her husband's heart. While the two continue their conversation in the kitchen Alex walks in to make a sandwich and overhears Bridgette saying that Emily should "divorce." Alex instantly begins panicking for his best friend's marriage, jumps through the kitchen window outside and rides a scooter to the Los Angeles harbor. From there he rides a motorboat towards Catalina Island while trying to phone Josh and inform him not to sign any divorce papers. Back at the kitchen Bridgette continues her conversation, telling Emily that she should "divorce", as in to cancel the entire honey-moon, though admitting that her word choice was odd. Emily agrees and hangs up just as Josh comes back to bed with an ice pack for his crotch. At that moment Emily begins telling her husband the truth about how miserable she had felt while on the island, but had been lying about having a good time so as not to hurt his feelings. Unsurprisingly for him, Josh admits the same feelings, since he to had been feigning to be enjoying the stay in the hopes that eventually the trip would improve. With all that said, the two decide to leave the island as last ditch effort of romance.
The couple make their way at the reception booth where they are met by motel manager, who is disappointed that the they have decided to leave early. Despite explaining as kindly as possible that they couldn't stand the buffalo constantly interrupting their loving moments the manager is offended and reveals the sinister secret of the island: "Catalina SUCKS!" She summons a herd of angry, Silent-Era actor trained bison inside the motel and reveals that she cannot allow Josh and Emily to ever leave the island and leave it a low-star-review online. As a result Josh and Emily are being chased by the buffalo as they try to make it to the pier, with high jinks ensuing along the way. The couple eventually make it to the pier, just in time to catch the last ferryboat, but are prevented from getting on board by the motel manager, riding a bison and producing a blunderbuss with which to shoot them with. Just then, Alex rams his motorboat sideways into the manager and the bison, knocking them unconscious. The three of them ride the motor boat towards the ferryboat, only to be cut ahead again by a four bison on a motor-boat. Emily uses movie director jargon to have the bison fall over, thus allowing the three to make it to the ferry, mostly unharmed.
Back on the mainland, Josh and Emily are enjoying another romantic evening on the same hill where they previously made their honey-moon vows. As they kiss Alex is watching them from a far, in a bush with a pair of binoculars, proud at himself for having saved their marriage, completely oblivious that the two were never planing on divorcing in the first place. At that same time, Alex is also being stalked. One of the Catalina Island bison is spying on him with a pair of binoculars and laughs ominously as it submerges itself into the waters.
Characters[]
- Josh Singleton
- Emily Ramirez
- Frederica
- Bison
- Alex Dorpenberger
- Bridgette Hashima
- Candice
- Pearle Watson
- Randy Watson
Trivia[]
- Its revealed in this episode that Josh and Emily have been married for seven years.
- Alex is shown in this episode using more modern computer devices, specifically a laptop computer and a smartphone, when previously it was established that he was technologically illiterate in the Season 2 episode "Cyber Matrix". It is probable that Alex has overcome that limitation, or that the events of that episode were not fully canon. Alex's is lack of understanding of computer hardware is brought up again in the Season 3 episode "Summer Job".
- This episode, alongside "Halloween Enough" and "Match Made In Valhalla" (all of which are from Season 3), touch upon Alex and Bridgette's divorce, and how they haven't completely gotten over their feelings towards it.
Pop Culture References[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the 1980 film of the same name.
- The Silent Era movie alluded to in this episode would be The Vanishing American, which was supposed to be partly filmed on Catalina with a number of fourteen bison having been brought over for filming. The movie was filmed during 1924, while the events of this episode anachronistically place the introduction of the bison on the island in 1920.
- The Catalina Island bison population is monitored and preserved by the island's local animal conservancy, having become a staple of the island. Attacks on humans by the bison have been few and far in between as far as sightings have been observed.
- Silent Era movie star Buster Keaton is indirectly referenced in this episode's black-and-white silent chase sequence during the segment's climax. Several gags in the vain of Keaton's earlier career comedies are used during the buffalo chasing Josh and Emily. The scene where they make it to the pier even features a recreation of the famous house-frame falling over the main character from Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. in 1928, a scene that has been recreated by other comedic performers such as ''Weird Al'' Yankovic, Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville.
- The front of the house falling gag was previously used in the Season 2 episode "Handy."
- The famous spaghetti-kiss-scene from the Disney animated movie "Lady and the Tramp" is parodied during one of Emily and Josh's activities on Catalina.