It’s a brisk autumn day, and Jill is cold. She sends Tim and the boys to the basement to check on the furnace. As they do, they hear a rustling that they think is a mouse. Tim uses this to joyfully torment Jill, but when Randy discovers a shed snakeskin, Tim stops laughing, and calls an exterminator.
Meanwhile, Mark’s Cub Scout troop has a meeting at the house, and a young member has trouble facing his fears. Tim inspires him to grunt in the face of fear. However, when the exterminator fails to find the snake, Tim must confront his own fears, and extract the snake on his own…
Sssaddle up for a very slithery episode of Grunt Work…
Truman and Landen confront their fears of dark basements, mouth spiders, and Boy Scout bullies. New evidence presents itself for the theory that Wilson is, in fact, God, and Landen drops a handful of Michigan snake facts!
Episode Synopsis
When Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) and his sons Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Brad (Zachary Ty Bryan) hear a noise in the basement, he figures it’s a mouse. Jill (Patricia Richardson) freaks out at first, but when Wilson (Earl Hindman) suggests it could be a snake, it’s Tim’s turn to freak out – because Tim is terrified of snakes.
Tim tries to play it off like he isn’t scared, despite ominous warnings from an exterminator (Stephen Root) who suggests that the snake could be anywhere in the house. Eventually, Tim discovers the snake hiding in a light fixture while Mark’s Cub Scout troop is visiting the house. Determined to look tough in front of the boys, particularly one sensitive scout (Adam Wylie), Tim conquers his fears and wrestles the snake into a bag. Or so he thinks – because when he’s not looking, the snake emerges from the wall and crawls into his shirt!
Episode Cast
Adam Wylie
Earl Hindman
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Pamela Anderson
Patricia Richardson
Richard Karn
Stephen Root
Taran Noah Smith
Tim Allen
Zachery Ty Bryan
Number of Grunts
30
Tim's Injuries
For the first time in the series we see the basement, which provides a significant amount of head injuries to Tim, who hits his head on the low-hanging pipe above the stairs. In this episode, he hits it twice!
Property Damage
In order to rid themselves of the snake, Tim rips a light fixture from the wall.
Wilson Is God
In one of the more compelling piece of evidence, Tim and Wilson share an exchange about fear. When Tim asks Wilson what he’s most afraid of, Wilson channels his inner Elon Musk and proclaims that he fears that we all exist in the dream of someone, and when they awake we’ll all cease to exist.
While it’s a minor stretch, one could extrapolate that the only fear God would have is that the second people stopped believing in Him, he would cease to exist.
Or, maybe he’s not God, but Freddy Krueger.
Al Borland: Secret Agent
Al does not appear in this episode.
Randy: The Sociopath
Randy’s sadistic side comes out full force in this episode as he first deals the Death Card to Tim, only to use that as a way to torture him with pranks. However, when he realizes Tim’s true fear of snakes, he goads Tim into putting himself in harm’s way for his own amusement.
Trivia
The snake that appears in this episode is actually a California King Snake, and is not indigenous to Michigan. (Nor is it poisonous.) In fact, Michigan only has one poisonous snake, the Eastern Massasagua Rattlesnake.
Adam Wylie
Earl Hindman
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Pamela Anderson
Patricia Richardson
Richard Karn
Stephen Root
Taran Noah Smith
Tim Allen
Zachery Ty Bryan