We’re counting down the days to Thanksgiving by looking at a variety of Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes. Thanksgiving episodes are all different, but they have lots of tropes in common. Today we’re looking at the Raising Hope episode “Meet the Grandparents.”
Basic Info
Directed by: Jace Alexander
Written by: Elijah Aron & Jordan Young
Episode Number: Season 1, Episode 9
Where to Watch It: Netflix
Found Family
Jimmy goes into this episode wanting to give Hope a holiday that’s all about family. So, he reaches out to the parents of Lucy, her deceased mother, wanting to start a tradition with Hope’s grandparents.
Unfortunately, Lucy’s parents are snobs who think Jimmy is a slacker. They remind Burt and Virginia that their daughter was a serial killer, but she was a serial killer with a college degree and her own apartment. They decide to kidnap Hope, so Jimmy has to call the police on them.
Meanwhile, Barney, Javier, Marcus and Shelley all end up coming over to help. Barney puts the dinner together while Javier, Marcus and Shelley deal with Maw Maw, who’s having an episode. At the end of the episode, Sabrina also comes over after hating Thanksgiving with her own family.
As they all eat together, Jimmy tells Hope, “You’re not surrounded by a lot of relatives, but you’re surrounded by people who helped you out and stuck around when things started to really fall apart. They’re your real family. Not so much the people who kidnapped you…twice.”
Food
Jimmy wants a traditional Thanksgiving so he gets a turkey. Burt is not happy about that, telling him, “I can’t believe you bought a turkey. For all the money you spent on that thing, do you have any idea how many pizzas we could’ve bought?…Two!”
When Maw Maw drops the turkey on the disgusting floor, Jimmy calls Barney. All Jimmy wants is for Barney to unlock the grocery store he owns and let him get some stuff, but Barney is alone on Thanksgiving, so instead he volunteers to come over and make the meal.
When the food gets ruined again, Burt gets his wish and they all have pizza together.
Football
There’s a quick mention of football when Virginia says, “I’m drunk and my team is up three kicky points.”
History
There aren’t many references to the history of Thanksgiving in this episode, but Barney does have everyone wear pilgrim hats and feather headdresses at the store.
