It’s Valentine’s Day and love has struck many of the wacky characters of Bob’s Burgers. Some of these are established relationships, like Tina’s ever-awkward thing for Jimmy Jr. Others, like a new lunch-lady or a mermaid riding a unicycle, have just arrived in their lives. Whether it’s with the power of hip-hop or love weeds, we get a lot of demonstrations of love in tonight’s episode.
Bob has realized that he’s messed up holidays in the past, so he actually formed a plan for this one. He was going to surprise Linda with a new talent for ballroom dancing, even if Bob can’t understand why ballroom dancing is so special. He may have had a strategy, but he slacked off on execution. He thinks he may be able to figure it out with Youtube videos, but Teddy convinces him to take time off for one lesson.
That lesson doesn’t end up being waltz, because the teacher waltzed out aka she died. Bob is desperate and books a lesson with the next class – hip hop. It just happens to be taught by an instructor who thinks she’s sticking it to the man by teaching her students to dance. Before the class even starts, they get challenged to a dance battle against the teacher’s son, Flips Whitefudge. Bob is not feeling any of this, but decides that he needs to go the extra distance for love.
Bob doesn’t actually have to go any distance at all. Flips flames out immediately with a side-splitting faceplant during the opening maneuvers of the dance battle. Flips begrudgingly tells his mother to teach Bob and Teddy all the secrets of hip-hop.
While Bob is eager to prove his love, Louise is trying to avoid it. When she sees Regular-Sized Rudy buying a love weed from Zeke (ever the entrepreneur), she assumes it’s for her. Louise has already declared to her family that she considers Valentine’s Day a dumb, made-up holiday and she’s immediately opposed to getting a token of affection from her friend. She tries to scare Rudy off by being as gross as possible, but gets her heart crushed anyway when she finds out that Rudy didn’t like her after all.
Louise doesn’t understand what Rudy sees in Chloe. She’s even more upset when she finds out that Chloe’s been manipulating Rudy to get answers for quizzes. She confronts Chloe and ends up getting into a fight. Louise still hates Valentine’s Day and gives Rudy a kiss out of spite as much as anything else, but it’s a sweet moment from someone who really doesn’t understand how to process her feelings.
At the same time, Gene forms a sudden crush on the new lunch lady. The title of this episode was “Bob Actually,” and, besides the several diverging plotlines, Gene’s story remains the closest to the original material. Just like in the movie, he falls in love with someone who doesn’t even speak the same language as him. Gene is willing to help Isabella the lunch lady make chocolate for her boyfriend, Francesco, even though he’s betting that Francesco is super ugly.
From the wise Isabella, Gene learns to appreciate dark chocolate and the bitterness that comes with love. He may not have gotten a Valentine’s date out of the deal, but he did discover something new about life.
Tina is the only one who had a pretty good plan for Valentine’s Day. Jimmy Jr. surprises her with a lunchtime date on a trampoline. Unfortunately, Tina’s sick and can’t make it to the date. She also has to announce why to a gym full of their friends, but some things can’t be helped. Or maybe they can… Tina grabs a pair of stilts and snags the sky kiss of her dreams.
Linda spends the episode talking to one of the restaurant’s regulars, Ms. Selbo, about lost love. She assumes that the poor woman just broke up with her boyfriend at Jimmy Pesto’s. It is slowly revealed that the woman was dumped by the guy a year ago and has been stalking him the entire time. Linda marches over to Jimmy Pesto’s and finds the ex-boyfriend, but by the time they get back, Ms. Selbo has already found a new guy. Everyone is left a little unsettled and confused, especially by the dance Bob and Teddy surprise Linda with. Linda, however, loves it. Of course she would love it. Even in an episode full of small twists, Linda’s enthusiasm for the weird quirks of her family is always a given!
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
