For the Belcher family, there’s always a new crisis, whether it’s something serious to the parents, like not being able to pay their rent, or serious to their kids, like winning a trial in Student Court.
The current crisis is certainly a kid crisis. Gene has a freakout when he learns that Spratt’s Sweets has changed his favorite candy, Chunky Blastoffs. Before, they were a chocolate delight. Now, the spokesperson has sunglasses and the candy tastes horrible.
Gene had previously been censured by his teacher for ditching a project when things get hard (resulting in the A-popsicle-is). This somewhat goes against what we know of Gene, who turned a science fair project into a musical. Still, his sisters agree that Gene enjoys starting things, but doesn’t like finishing them.
This changes when Gene finds something he’s finally passionate about. When the indifferent customer service representative on Spratt’s website ignores him, he schedules a factory tour to find the man in charge. Linda agrees to help Gene with his new “cause,” although Bob points out that it’s just because she wants to go to the candy factory.
Gene can only take so much of the very boring tour guide, Michelle, before he peels off to find the man behind the curtain. The person he finds, Spratt’s scion Ferdie, isn’t much like Willy Wonka. Instead, he needs help tying licorice to the ceiling fan. In exchange for keeping Ferdie’s ladder stable, Ferdie promises Gene he will talk to the board of directors about the chocolate recipe.
While Linda is happy about taking Gene to talk to Ferdie and buying more candy at the gift shop, Bob points out that Ferdie is a stranger literally giving Gene candy. Linda and Gene both overrule him. This could be an amazing resume builder.
Ferdie seemed fun at first, but when Gene tries to get him to focus on convincing the board of directors, he shows his disinterest in the cause and short attention span. He’s more interested in playing around in the factory than guiding the company. He tells Gene that there’s no point in preparing for a meeting because all business is done while walking and at urinals. Entourage told him so.
Gene ends up getting his hopes crushed and learns he probably shouldn’t listen to someone who takes Entourage as a business bible. Ferdie gives up and kicks an angry Gene out of the factory.
Gene turns to someone else for help. Ferdie may be worthless, but Louise has the business acumen and sneaky schemes needed to get Gene to the board meeting to give his chocolate presentation. Gene and his sisters take the factory tour one more time. Tina and Louise manage to smuggle Gene up to the board meeting, but a kindly security guard catches them. Gene’s on his own. Disguised as a rocket, Gene crashes the meeting. Ferdie finds his courage at the last second and lets Gene lecture the board about the delicious original recipe and the creepiness of the new spokes-astronaut.
The board was actually very impressed by Gene’s speech, but nix it when they find out it would cost around 20 million dollars to change the formula back. Ferdie does thank Gene for his passion with a huge box of the original recipe Chunky Blastoffs. Gene’s content. Louise thinks he’ll burn through them all in less than a week.
In the b-plot, Bob’s interest is piqued when Teddy borrows his dishwasher to wash golf balls. When he asks, he finds out that Teddy has a side-business diving for golf balls in the lake, washing them, and selling them back to the club. Teddy’s quasi-illegal scam has made him paranoid about police informants and those jerks at the pro shop. Teddy finally convinces Bob to get in on the scheme by telling him that he should have bigger plans than just the restaurant. Those bigger plans should include dredging $75 worth of golf balls out of a lake in the dead of night.
Bob just thought he was helping out a friend, but when they arrive at the golf course, he realizes he should have brought a ski mask, gloves, and paddings in case the two run afoul of the dogs. Teddy promised Bob that were a thousand balls down in the “deep” of the pond, but the two end up ditching their entire haul trying to flee from the dogs and guards.
In the end, neither Gene nor Bob got exactly what they wanted, but they’re still happy. Bob was never fully invested in the golf ball scheme, so he didn’t lose much when it went south. Gene was very invested in the chocolate, but did get a sweet reward to show that his effort wasn’t completely wasted.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
