Who doesn’t love a classic run-around episode? If you don’t, this episode of Bob’s Burgers isn’t for you! Louise takes on the task of babysitting, I’m sorry, chinchilla-sitting, the fourth grade class’ chinchilla.
Bob orchestrates another date night, and we all know that’s bad news for Linda. Well, maybe Linda and Bob are equally as bad at planning date nights. The date is meant to be a surprise, and Linda really buys into it, but it’s a letdown. Trivia night, what a bore. Linda decides to spice things up when she finds the answer sheet for the trivia. She and Bob start to win! Yay, cheating!
Meanwhile, Louise plays with the chinchilla in the living room when Wayne, the kid who usually watches the pet, storms into the house. As Louise and Wayne argue, the chinchilla make a break for it, and there you have it, folks: a run-around episode.
Jonas, who Gene refers to as “the worst biker gang in the world,” the high school student, picks up the chinchilla, and the kids have to chase it around from person to person. The kids, including Wayne, decide to follow Jonas and encounter Teddy driving his car. We get a hilarious clip of him almost singing, but it turns out he is singing “I wish my radio worked.”
Tammy makes an appearance because she is the only person Tina knows who would have connections to high school students. I loved seeing all of the Belchers interact with Tammy, especially Gene. He gets a choice line with “We get it, you have email!” when Tammy pulls out all of her electronics to “triangulate Jonas’ location.” Perfect.
They find the high school party, and we get to see Tina and Tammy freak out because of the high school students around them. Tammy, who thinks she’s the coolest girl in eighth grade, can’t even keep it together.
Tina and Tammy team up to get through the party and so do Louise and Wayne. The kids learn that Jonas gave the chinchilla to his crush Vanessa, and she took it to the roller rink nearby. On their way to the roller rink, they see Teddy yet again, having an allergic reaction to peanut sauce in his car. They escape again!
The find Vanessa and sure enough she gave the desired chinchilla to the security guard for forty dollars. He claims he needed it as a gift for his landlord because he’s short on rent. Gene then asks him why he didn’t just give his landlord the forty dollars. Gene is on top of everything this episode.
The chinchilla escapes the not-so-secure box and ends up on the middle of the roller rink just as a giant group dance begins, including strobe lights. The chinchilla seizes, and Louise rushes onto the rink to shield him from the impending skaters; Wayne jumps out in front of the skaters to further protect Louise and the chinchilla. How very courageous!
The Belcher children get home before Bob and Louise, who are busy celebrating the cheating date. Louise and Wayne initiate the classic choose-between-the-caretakers trope, and the chinchilla immediately goes to Louise.
Louise makes fun of Wayne, but in the end, she feels bad for taking away the pet he loves so much. Bob drives Louise to Wayne’s house, and the chinchilla clearly doesn’t want to go, so she tells it to “play along!” Bob commends Louise on her uncharacteristic behavior and then he tells her that he and her mother went to trivia for date night. Louise asks, “What’s wrong with you? You took her to trivia? Sounds like you cheated mom out of a date.” And Bob replies, saying, “That’s my girl.”
I am always so excited for Bob and Louise’s relationship so this episode ended on a great note for me. Overall, this was a pretty solid episode of Bob’s Burgers.
This episode also had some great nostalgic tones that I’d like to draw attention to:
– Tina learns other kids are getting paid to babysit, and she requests that Bob and Linda pay her $1,000 and a parking space, but they settle on $3 an hour.
– Linda refers to Trivia as “Homework but fun homework.”
– Louise says that chinchillas and her glow in the dark toy are “both huge in Japan.”
– Tina answers the phone with “Both of my parents are home tonight and they’re black belts,” which is something every young teenager has done before.
– Tina delegates power first to Gene and then to Louise, which is also something I’ve done as the oldest sibling.
– Tammy says that “Anything that is not a dog is a cat to me.”
– Linda suggests that“Next time, let’s cheat in karaoke.”
[Photo via FOX]
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