Originally making its debut in October of 2021, the third season of Big City Greens has taken us from Big City to the rural town of Smalton, AKA “The Country” where the Greens had come from. We’ve seen episodes go deep, or keep the fun simple in premise and hilarious in delivery. All the episodes are great, but take a look back at some of the best episodes of the season in our list below.
Squashed!
The kick off of the third season originally debuted back in October of 2021, launching the season with a trademark Halloween episode. When Bill is disappointed with his pumpkin crop for the year, Tilly sneaks away some toxic alien genetic altering growth aid from Gwendolyn Zapp on a routine produce delivery to the head of BigTech. We’ve seen her products before, typically causing some kind of mayhem with the Greens and Big City, and it won’t be the last we see of them for the season. However, in the case of this episode, the pumpkins outgrow themselves attaching to human hosts at the Green family Halloween party, and it’s up to Cricket, Tilly, and Remy to save everyone in attendance. Gloria has all of three lines in the episode, but steals the show when she is taken over by a pumpkin mob in a near shot for shot replica of a moment from the first Halloween episode screaming “This is just like last year!”
Of course, Cricket (or Trickor) and friends save the day, and Tilly (who was dressed as Bill) learns a valuable lesson from her dad. The episode also gives us the catchy tune, “Monster Man,” and a fun toy you can find now in later episodes.
Honorary Mention: Pizza Deliverance
Really, both are fantastic episodes, but the only reason “Squashed!” is better per se, is only because it’s the full 22 minutes whereas “Pizza Deliverance” is only one half an episode at 11 minutes. Already relocated in the country, the Greens order a pizza from their favorite place in Big City on Halloween night, where the teen employees have been binge watching horror films about Country Cannibals. Apparently, hangry country residents can easily be misconstrued as man-eating yokels. Though, Tilly’s village of stick people is quite the hilariously unsettling moment in the episode.
Takened
Desperate to create a surprise party for his bodyguard Vasquez, Remy and Cricket concoct the ultimate scheme. Tragically, they need Bill’s help in order to pull it off, which leaves a lot to be desired. What ensues is a madcap caper that sees Bill and Vasquez teaming up together, but more importantly we learn more about The Order of The Fang. I was fortunate enough to speak with show creators Shane and Chris Houghton, who said this one-off joke from earlier in the series developed into this episode, and promises more Order of the Fang in the future, and a whole new layer and depth to Vasquez, one of the fan-favorite characters in the series. We learn about his past as Tiger Fang and his archenemy Viper Fang, who is harboring hatred since Vasquez “abandoned” them. Bill even gets a bit of background, making it up as he went along, as Moose Fang. Though their encounter is in large part due to confusion over the surprise party, We get to see them battle it out and learn more about the lore and story of the group.
Delivernator
The new Gloria + Green Cafe, being run by Gloria, still employs Cricket…for now. Gloria gets to test a new delivery robot, another product from BigTech, but if it can outperform Cricket and his hours-long deliveries, Cricket is out of a job. Channeling her former boss, Ms. Cho, Gloria threatens Cricket with the robot replacement. Accepting the challenge, Cricket concocts a scheme that will hopefully stop the robot dead in its tracks so that Cricket can keep his job, and maintain the social life he has built spending time with his delivery customers and neighbors. One neighbor in particular is fond of Cricket, and invites him to play ping pong with him, but today is not the day. He’s gotta beat that robot. Though the customer is sad to see him go, she understands.
The robot survives everything thrown at him (quite literally) and beats Cricket back, but it's when the neighbor comes back to return the hat he accidentally left behind that Gloria realizes Cricket has a knack with the customers and service that the robot could never match. It’s a fantastic demonstration of how this little country boy has adapted to the big city of Big City, befriending the residents and making the city home. Which leads me to…
Dirt Jar
While Bill, Gramma, and Gloria are in the kitchen going over their financial situation (which is good for once), Cricket comes in panicking that he can’t find his dirt jar. What’s so special about a jar of dirt? Well, we find out through a series of flashbacks that also tells the story of how Bill, Tilly, and Cricket ended up in Big City in the first place. Bill loses the farm, and presents to the kids that they must move in with their grandmother, and while difficult to accept, Cricket bails out of the truck and runs into the fields, hiding amongst the crops. There, he expresses to Bill (when he finds him) that all he’s ever known is the country, how is someone like him going to fit in the Big City, or more importantly, what if he loses himself while living there. Bill gets the idea of filling up a jar with dirt from their homeland, that way he can always have a part of the country with him. However, Cricket can’t find the jar in the present because Bill accidentally threw it away. As he sees his son panicking, he comes clean and takes him to their old farm home (replicating the series opening sequence, but in reverse) to make the new jar, but while there sees that his former home and land is still for sale, and remember from the beginning of the episode that they are now doing well financially? Hmmmm. What a good place for a season hiatus!
The Move
When the series returned from the hiatus, what everybody suspected was going to happen, happened. We see the The Greens leave the city and head back to Smalton for the second half of the season, complete with new opening sequence that replicates the original, now with Smalton in lieu of Big City. Leaving Gramma, Gloria and all their friends behind, the Greens head back to “home” and discover things there have changed. They also have Remy in tow, who is heading out on a sort of studying abroad program so that he can learn what country life is like. A great tool, now he is the fish out of water in the series. Launching the whole back-to-the-country story arc, it also launches the whole “you can’t go home again” theme of this half of the series on a more subtle level, leading to the inevitability of the family asking where “home” truly is, and who is there with them.
Each character has their own idea of what their life was like in the country, only to find out its not exactly what they remember. Tilly has conflict with her animal friends, Cricket needs to adapt to the environment finding their abandoned treehouse, and Bill keeps finding repairs that need to be made to make his former house his own again. All serving as a brilliant little metaphor that carries through the remaining episodes.
Homeward Hound
The animals are back, with Jameela Jamil returning as the secret voice of Phoenix the dog as she makes a trek back to Big City, where Tilly has left her favorite friend/sack, Saxon, behind. Setting out with the help(?) of a cow and goat, they must evade the rooster, Cogburn, and retrieve the sack, so Phoenix can remain the favorite animal in the family.
Back in Big City though, Gramma is acting strangely, planning a girls night out on the town for her and Gloria. Gloria knows that something is up, but can’t help but watch the train wreck and let it happen. Throughout their adventures on the town, which also included Gramma launching her own SnapAGram account, we learn piece by piece that Alice misses her grandkids and her son. At this point, they’ve been gone for a few episodes so some time has passed without them around. Spoiler alert, the animals make it back to the Green household in Big City, and Gramma and Gloria come back to discover Bill’s critters in their home.
Gloria says she can hold down the fort, and she can go visit her family while she takes care of the cafe and their home, so now Alice makes the trek to bring the animals back to Bill’s farm, opting to stay a while in the process.
Rat Tail
Having absolutely nothing to do with anything, except a heartfelt moment near the end of the episode between Cricket and his mother, Nancy, “Rat Tail” is just a hilarious excuse to show off Cricket’s new hairstyle. We’ve seen hairstyle episodes before, “Cricket’s Kapowie” comes to mind immediately, but even that shows off more of a premise than this one. This one is simple in the greatest way: Cricket grows a disgusting rat tail, and Nancy hates it. Simple. From there, it's a moral dilemma of Nancy telling her beloved son that she finds his new hairdo style disgusting, or taking a page from her son’s playbook and scheming to get him to get rid of it.
The rest of the episode is filled with hijinx and random bits involving the rat tail, using it as a whip, jump rope, basically any visual gag you can think of. At the same time, Remy is exploring a hidden talent for knitting that he has alongside Gramma Alice which only adds to the mayhem, wrapping up Cricket’s hair in a new style and even adding a bell that becomes a recurring joke through the episode, hearing it ring whenever Cricket is doing something with his hair. It’s not a deep storyline, (aside from Remy’s new talent) has nothing to do with the overall story going on, and is a fun nonsensical romp that doesn’t track far from home, except to maybe a barber shop where the town gushes over the hair instead of the hopes of suggesting he cut it off. Cricket and Tilly’s little jump rope rhyme won’t leave you for days after viewing, and to that I say “good night.”
Virtually Christmas
This season’s Christmas episode was a bit confusing for some viewers, as it found the Greens back in the city again with no explanation. Chronologically, it seems to take place after “Squashed!” but before “Dirt Jar.” Overall story aside, you can consider this holiday episode as a one-off holiday special because it truly is special. Under the guise of a snowstorm, we find Cricket stuck at Remy’s house on Christmas Eve, where he is playing with the new VR system that Remy got for Christmas. Bill, wanting him back home for the Christmas traditions, knew he would get stuck if he went over there, and is upset that his son can’t get home. However, Remy bought the Greens their own VR system for Christmas and it’s sitting under the tree. They can be together again, virtually! This serves as the basis for seeing the Greens and the series as a whole in a way we’ve never seen it before, as a fully realized 3D computer animated world. Yes, a similar farm simulator game came into play in one episode, but this (like real video games) shows the next step in that game engine evolution.
It’s a visual feast, as we see completely rendered 3D versions of our favorite characters in the game world of Outpost Infinity, a never ending destructive world building game (think Minecraft) where monsters come in and destroy things on a regular basis. That fact is kept from the rest of the family as they build their virtual home to celebrate their Christmas traditions while Remy defends them from the beasts (he has all the upgrades) in the distance. Tragically, the monsters get past Remy and it becomes a free-for-all battle zone of Christmas fun in this visually wonderful world. No, you don’t die in real life if you die in the video game. Of course, Cricket realizes he needs to really be at home, and braves the storm to save the holiday. This episode stands on its own so well, it will likely become an annual Christmas viewing in my home and likely many others as well.
Pen Pals
Easily one of the most heartfelt episodes of the season, if not the entire series, sees Tilly and her friend Andromeda relay messages to each other the old fashioned way – through letters.
After all, the “E” in E-Mail stands for “Evil.” Throughout the letters, we catch up with Andromeda, who got a job at the local cryptid museum. Okay, not really, but she hangs out there a lot, where the other kids point out a goat girl statue – the metaphorical stand-in for Andromeda – who would never be hung out with because she is weird and different.
Tilly is having her own issues in the country, the animals that were her friends don’t talk to her anymore and the plants she would go listen to no longer have anything to say. Bluntly, Tilly has a real friend and misses her. Andromeda begins to feel that despite Big City having so many people, it feels empty to her due to Tilly not being there. A fun and heart wrenching song about two friends being separated by distance is also performed, and its oddly a strange juxtaposition between sadness and comedy when the lyrics skew into Illuminati references. After all, it is Andromeda we’re talking about here. In it, the two realize that despite their far distance away from each other, the two of them will always be friends. After the song is over, Tilly and Andromeda sit down and proceed to write another letter to one another. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Long Goodbye
Despite a handful of stories that seem to show the Greens getting comfortable in the country again, the time has come and Remy and Gramma Alice have to go back to the city. When they get there, Bill, Tilly, and Cricket postpone dropping the pair off as long as possible, despite dinner plans with Vasquez and a business deal with Gloria and a notary (special guest Danny Devito). It seems everything we were expecting was right, maybe deep down (or not so deep) they want to stay in Big City too. After a chaotic chase by Vasquez and Gloria and rapid sightseeing/strolls down memory lane with familiar characters in familiar places, we the viewers want them to stay in the city too!
Too bad Gramma, furious at the adventure she has been taken on, tells her family to sort themselves out and go back home. You know, the country. Right? The gang heads home but the adventure was so fast and so furious, they didn’t have time to refill the gas tank, and find themselves square in the middle (quite literally) between Smalton and Big City. Bill calls Nancy for help, and she arrives on scene with the gas tank where she asks how the city was. What follows is confusion about what they really want out, and what home means. Are they country people in the city or city people in the country?
Nancy says she always knew she belonged in the country, but maybe for them its not as easy…but she shares an idea. She is now more responsible and less criminal (as seen in the last handful of episodes) taking care of the farm, so maybe she can stay in Smalton taking care of the farm and the Greens can go stay with Gramma in Big City and they can go back and forth as they wish. Everyone is on board for the idea and they head back into the city while Nancy heads back into the country. And that’s how the season ends. Wait a minute…what’s this last bit?
Oh, it's the tease for a return of the series’ former big bad, Chip Whistler, who apparently faked his own death (?) to return to Big City and cause a whole new set of problems in a whole new fourth season of the show. Or maybe it’s that upcoming movie…
You can catch all of these episodes of Big City Greens on Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and on the DisneyNOW app.