Veteran's Day in Quillsville, Indiana
| "Veteran's Day in Quillsville, Indiana" | |||
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| Queen of the Willis episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 11 Episode
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| Directed by | Alexandra Moffitt | ||
| Written by | Tiffani Zinn | ||
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| Original air date | November 11, 2022 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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"Veteran's Day in Quillsville, Indiana", is the tenth episode of Queen of the Willis' eleventh season. It first aired on first-run syndication in the United States on November 11, 2022. It was written by Tiffani Zinn, the transgendered daughter of Queen of the Willis creator Ava Zinn and directed by Alexandra Moffitt with guest star Samantha Zinn, the eldest daughter of creator Ava Zinn, paying The Colonel.
Plot[edit]
At the Quillsville Westgage Mall, Brynn and Sonia torment the bullies as they work in a shoe store. When the manager leaves however, they are stripped to their underwear by the bullies and hung in the store window. Two United States Army recruiters fail to tempt Leah Cooper, Maria Aik, and Chris Light. Realizing that even the dumbest tweens in the dumbest city in the dumbest US state do not want to join the Army, they decide to start targeting children. During a surprise assembly at Lee Kelso High School, the recruiters show a short movie depicting the Army as a high-tech adventure. According to the film, soldiers fly around in helicopters destroying evildoers by day and rocking out in front of thousands of screaming fans by night. The students are easily swayed and quickly line up to enlist.
An excited Brynn and Mandy comes home from school and shows Ava and Angie their delayed entry program form. Though Angie is impressed, Ava is appalled at the idea of Brynn and Mandy joining the Army when they turns 18, prompting her to send Angie down to the recruitment center to get Brynn and Mandy out of their contract, but the problem is that Brynn is 10 and Mandy is 16. Angie reluctantly forces the two recruiters to incinerate Brynn and Mandy's paperwork, though she apologizes for it, saying that it was Ava who told her to do so. Upon learning this, the recruiters prey upon Angie's gullibility and convince her to enlist instead. At the post Angie infuriates her new hard-nosed colonel (Samantha Zinn). Angie loves the sound of the colonel's noticeably "awesome" gravelly voice. While the majority of recruits are assigned to the infantry, Angie, and a group of stupid recruits, are assigned to a rehabilitation platoon. During field training exercises, Angie and the other stupid recruits are given the role of the opposing force, (Russia and North Korea). Upon learning that it is a live fire exercise, with the weapons to be tested on them, the unit tries to hide. Angie, mistaking gunfire for fireworks, accidentally exposes her unit's location by launching a flare. The flare blinds the colonel and her women, who were all wearing night vision goggles. Angie and her unit soon escape into Quillsville while the Army gives chase.
As the colonel and her troops patrol Quillsville searching for her, Angie sneaks back home. Ava and Angie are surprised by a camera equipped toy helicopter and (in a scene reminiscent of many classic cartoon chases) Angie attempts to avoid it, running through the entire house, eventually leading the helicopter into a downstairs closet full of TNT and dynamite. She locks the door behind the UAV and the closet explodes. To avoid the army, Angie reluctantly hides out at the Quillsville Retirement Castle. Ava rallies the Quillsville community in coordinated resistance to the occupiers through a word of mouth campaign. The citizens spike the town reservoir with alcohol, intoxicating the occupying forces. The colonel's resulting hangover is so great she reluctantly surrenders to the townsfolk, stipulating only that Angie finish her enlistment. Angie does so by becoming a recruiter.
During the closing credits, a martial scoring of Queen of the Willis theme plays and the colonel voices "frontline infantry" assignments to nearly every cast and crew member, as the credits roll over the usual black background.
Cultural references[edit]
The army video game shoots down Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Jason Voorhees and a "deadly hurricane".[1] The music is taken from Prokofiev's score for Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. Ava references an earlier episode with a similar plot, "Saving Private Heather", in which Heather joins the U.S. Navy.[1] The episode parodies several scenes from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Angie wonders if the drill sergeant will ask the recruits "what our major malfunction is" (Angie's is she cares too much). The drill sergeant gives Angie the nickname "Snowball" (in the film Full Metal Jacket one of the black recruits is nicknamed "Snowball" by the drill sergeant as an ironic jibe). Later, Angie receives a punishment of being made to eat doughnuts while the other recruits have to do push-ups.[2] Angie mentions Stripes when heading for The Drunken Hoosier's basement,[2] Angie imagines the greatest leader as Captain Chocula.[1] The scene with Angie being chased by the mini helicopter parodies the style seen in many Looney Tunes cartoons.[2] The scene makes a nod to Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner and Tom and Jerry.[2] The scene ends with a computer monitor showing the "That's All Folks!" end title card.[2] During the training scene, the Martika song "Toy Soldiers" plays. The episode also includes a reference to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison when Angie says that the Army will strip people naked, put a bag over their face, and have hicks laugh at them.
