Aurora Borealis

"Aurora Borealis"
Season 1, Episode 8 (?)
Airdate	August 30, 1990
Writer(s)	Charles Rosin
Director	Peter O'Fallon
Guest star(s)
Adam Arkin as Adam Richard Cummings Jr. as Bernard John Procaccino as Ranger Burns Grant Goodeve as Rick Pederson Ryan O'Neill as Adolescent Chris Lou Hetler as Carl Jung Sandy Miller as Mother
←   Episode sequence   →
"A Kodiak Moment"	"Goodbye to All That"

Summary

Joel comes faces to face with the legendary "Adam", a Bigfoot-like character while Chris meets a brother he didn't know he had.

Plot

In Cicely, the full moon is having a strange effect on everyone. Ruth-Anne is eating steak at 8:00 am, Maurice is complaining about the coffee, and Ed tells Joel about Adam, the mysterious person with bare feet and a green head who wanders around the woods at night. Meanwhile, Chris has taped his morning radio show so that he can work at his trailer on his sculpture, called "Aurora Borealis", before the Northern Lights actually occur.

A stranger shows up in town on a Harley and new leathers. Ed comments that he's black, and that they don't have many strangers in town. The man introduces himself as Bernard and goes over to The Brick where he becomes engaged in conversation with Chris about Carl Jung and the collective unconscious. There is a clear connection between Bernard and Chris, and they begin acting similarly.

Joel drives out to make a housecall for a forest ranger named Ranger Burns and, on the way back, his truck breaks down, leaving him stranded in the woods at night. He sees a large hulking figure come out of the woods, steal some things from his pickup truck bed, and then it finally beckons him to follow it. Reluctantly, Joel does, and finds himself in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. He tries to strike up a conversation with the man, but he simply tells Joel to shut up and sit down. He has a difficult time convincing Joel that he's Adam, the mysterious creature everybody's been talking about. Far from a wild beast, Adam is actually a superb chef and cooks a meal that Joel is amazed at.

Back in town at Maggie's house, Chris and Bernard are playing bridge against Maggie and Holling. Bernard rarely plays, and yet he and Chris win every hand, as if they're thinking alike. As they leave, they speak almost in unison, and Maggie and Holling look at each other in confusion.

Later that night in his trailer, Chris has a dream about his father, and is surprised to run into Bernard in his dream, as well as Carl Jung. Bernard and Chris wake up simultaneously, and discover in conversation that not only do they have the same birthday, but they are also brothers. Their dad spent half of his time with each of their families, which explains the similarities, and the mental connection. Chris and Bernard are both blown over by this turn of events.

Back at Adam's cabin, Joel wakes up, but Adam is gone. Joel traces his way back to the truck, is able to start it again, and drives back home. However, when he tries to tell everyone about it the next morning, no one believes him. Everyone thinks that the moon has made him crazy.

Following the formal presentation of Chris' sculpture, Bernard and Chris say goodbye, and Bernard rides off once again into the great unknown. Joel leads Maggie and Ed back out into the woods, only to find that Adam's cabin is gone. All that is left is a garlic press, which Joel is overjoyed to find.

Quotes

Chris: Whenever there's a new moon looming on the horizon, I'll inevitably get a call from someone saying, 'Hey Chris, how bout that sucker?' And, I'll usually say something cordial like, 'Oh yeah, it's a marvelous night for a moon dance,' or 'I wonder what old Sun Young Moon is up to tonight.' But, knowing how we've been tossing and turning these past few nights for fear of where our dreams may be taking us, I'm not about to pretend that that man, in that moon, has our best interests at heart. No way; he's too much of a kidder. So, until the big fellow packs his bag and hits the road, put away those sharp utensils and stay close to your love ones, if you're lucky enough to have any. I'll see you in the morning, folks, or the moonlight, whichever one comes first.

---

Joel: Hey Ed, what is this--is this a track?
Ed: Looks like a track.
Joel: Looks fresh. You know, not that I know what a fresh track looks like, but that...that's big, whatever it is. What? What is it? What's wrong?
Ed: It's a bare footprint.
Joel: As in grizzly bear footprint?
Ed: No, more like as in a person with no shoes on.

---

Ed: Are you lost?
Bernard: No! I just don't know where I am.

---

Bernard: Excuse me.
Joel: Yeah?
Bernard: Where am I?
Joel: You know, I've been asking myself that same question since I got here. I finally figured out we're somewhere between the end of the line and the middle of nowhere.
Bernard: Where is that on the map?

---

Ed: So, you're black.
Bernard: Yeah?
Ed: We had a black logger here, but he left.
Bernard: Why's that?
Ed: I guess he wasn't into drinking beer and fighting.

---

Adam: I don't like people barging in on me, OK?! I don't like people! You are a person and I don't like people! Do you understand me?!

---

Adam: You know who I am? Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Do you know who I am?
Joel: No.
Adam: I'm Adam.
Joel (amused): Well, I'm Chef Boyardee!
Adam: What?
Joel: You're not Adam.
Adam: What do you mean, I'm not A--I'm Adam!
Joel: No, you're not. You're not Adam.

---

(Adam tries to teach Joel how to cook but he is holding the wooden spoon incorrectly, like a violin bow)
Adam: Look. Hold this correctly, OK?
(Adam takes Joel's hand and forces him to hold the spoon with all the fingers)
Adam: It's a spoon, all right? It's not a darning needle. I'm serious!

---

Shelly: What were you talking about this morning? "Yoong" and what was that other stuff?
Chris: The collective unconscious.
Shelly: Do they tour, or do they just cut records? ... I missed something, didn't I?

---

Bernard: Those Northern Lights are some kind of weird psychic...something?
Chris: Yeah.
Bernard: What causes them to do that?
Chris: Well, this is just my guess, but I think that high-speed electrons and protons from the sun are trapped in the Van Allen radiation belt. Then they're channeled through the polar regions by the earth's magnetic field where they collide with other particles and create a brilliant luminosity.
Bernard: What does that have to do with us?
Chris: I swear man, I don't know.

Music

• "Moon River" by Louis Armstrong
• "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven
• "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)" by The Coasters
• "Blue Moon" by Billie Holiday
• "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes
• "Full Moon Full of Love" by kd lang
• "Woody the Indian" by David Schwartz

Trivia

• The episode name's full name is "Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Big People".
• This episode deals with, essentially, the opposite of the stereotypically depressive seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which "Una Volta in L'Inverno" (5-17) deals with.
• According to Ruth-Anne, for the past 15 years, people have been blaming every transgression, mutilation, and petty theft on Adam, whom no one has ever seen.
• Chris and Bernard's father was an avid card player, insomniac and sound-sleeping truck driver who also sold greeting cards and missed their birthdays (July 3, 1963--Chris' age previously established as 27 and 29) every other year.
• First appearance of fan-favourites Adam and Bernard.
• Chris found Chelsea out on Baker's Point.
• Maggie, Holling, and Chris play bridge.
• Shelly's earrings: flamingos
• Ed finds a garlic press at the cabin when he, Maggie, and Joel look for Adam.
• In 1997, this episode was ranked number 65 on "TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time" list.