It really was only a matter of time until Louise found her calling as a defense lawyer. It mixes her love of cunning tricks with her theatricality in a way that makes complete sense for the character. Even the writers know that it would be a shame to squander Louise’s potential on lame fairy-tale court gimmicks, so they create a new trial of the century with the Case of the Stolen Yogurt.
It’s mock trial day at school and Gene and Tina are also settling into their roles nicely. Despite telling their parents that they were chosen based on luck of the draw, Gene is the perfect flashy prosecutor and Tina the perfect impartial juror.
The school has roped in a retired judge to rule on the case of Snow White vs. the Evil Queen. Judge Conklin proves he’s a professional by doing the one thing all judges must do, establish a sassy rapport with his bailiff, Zeke.
While Louise thought it would be boring to be a lawyer, she does enjoy badgering Prince Charming Jimmy Jr. into admitting to some slight necrophilia. Despite Louise asking for a mistrial due to an inability for the jury to remain partial when her client’s first name is Evil, the jury rules in favor of the prosecution. It looks like the end of Student Court until an argument between Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Frond spills out into the cafeteria.
Mr. Ambrose accuses Mr. Frond of eating his yogurt and the two decide to take it up in Student Court. The penalty of losing will be a simple sign-based shaming. Louise loves every bit of it until she realizes she will have to defend her arch-enemy (one of many) Mr. Frond in court.
Louise tries to keep getting Mr. Frond to take the plea deal so they can wrap the whole thing up, but Mr. Frond’s sad resignation to wearing the sign tugs at her heart-strings. Despite the fact that it would cause her to miss a chance to see Mr. Frond wearing an “I’m a yogurt thief” sign, she decides to do her best to defend her admittedly annoying client (even Bob wants to see the sign). She even takes it as an opportunity to teach Mr. Frond to think of people as innocent and not guilty. At least, she wants him to think of her as innocent and not guilty whenever she’s sent to his office.
Linda is very proud of Louise’s first crisis of conscience and Kristen Schaal absolutely perfects the awkward pre-teen girl voice crack as Louise defends herself against her family.
Louise knows the only way to defend Mr. Frond is to find out who really did steal Mr. Ambrose’s yogurt. She calls witness after witness and badgers Mr. Branca into doing an A Few Good Men parody. She pieces it together and accuses Judge Conklin. Judge Conklin admits it and praises Louise’s ability. He is very nice about the whole thing and is excited about wearing the yogurt thief sign. It will make a great icebreaker for a date.
Meanwhile, Bob, Linda, Teddy, and Jimmy Pesto find out just how much fun revenge can be. A scam artist has been putting hairs in his food and getting all his meals comped. Bob and Jimmy Pesto are both victims and decide to get back at the guy by doing the same to him. Using the internet (Teddy is very impressed) they find out that he works as a celebrity impersonator. They’ll hire him for Mort’s mother’s birthday party (which will go over great because she loves revenge) and not pay him. When the day of the party arrives, they hire the impersonator and go hide in the closet.
In the middle of the act, the group bursts out of the closet and tries to claim that the impersonator’s Borat impression is horrible. They didn’t realize that they had to pre-pay for the performance and their revenge scheme was for nothing. Bob makes the guy stick around and finish the impression anyway, much to everyone else’s disgust.
While the adults learned that they might want to tone it down when it comes to revenge schemes, Louise was rewarded for being her best self. It was nice to see an adult who isn’t just her parents compliment her on her zeal and intelligence. A lot of episode’s plots are driven by Louise taking something too far, but she finally found a place where her drive is praised. We probably haven’t seen the last of Louise Belcher, Lawyer.
