I’ve been dreaming of a white…Christmas…if it weren’t for those damn teens ruining the kids’ day of having some fun on the snow for their winter break. That what’s been going down in this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers when the kids, spotting Logan and his friends having a snowball fight, battle it out to take back the hill for their winter holiday enjoyment as Linda races against the clock for her to knit three scarves for the kids just in time for Christmas in my spoilerific review of the Tenth Episode of the Ninth Season, the Seventh Holiday Episode of the Series, titled “Better Off Sled”.
Last episode of 2018 and nothing screams ending the year off like girl power. I know that this episode…doesn’t seems Christmas-y…but this episode was an alright episode to be honest. We have the kids, enjoying their holiday break before Christmas comes knocking in, wanting to enjoy their break following an overnight snowstorm by going sledding down a hill only to be stopped by Logan and his pals. Bringing in the big guns in the form of Rudy’s cousin…only for the teens to fight fire with fire. Let’s just say, the battle to retake the sledding hill over at the park was a very long battle to partake…for the kids I mean. Mostly on Louise’s watch.
And the subplot was alright as well. Though…you already know the answer if you’ve been following me since the beginning of the comeback back in September. Going nowhere…at first. But it has a cute ending with Linda being jealous over Bob being better than her when it comes to making scarves for the kids and racing against the clock for making the said scarves. And of course, what sold me that the subplot was rather decent, if not, fine, good to say the least, is of course, that little dream sequence we have with Linda and doing a complete 180 come the second time around. It’s no “Bleakening” or “Christmas in the Car”, but all and all, it was an alright episode. So let’s get to the review.
Skipping out the very beginning of the episode where everyone is talking about how the town got inches and inches of snow and of course, the Belcher kids ready to head out and enjoy their snow day. Kind of ironic of seeing snow on the show. Though if you live in the Southeastern United States, mostly the Carolinas and Virginia…
Yikes. Sorry for y’all who didn’t make the cut to watch the new episode on the air. There’s still streaming so…yeah, there’s that. Anyway, the kids are heading off to the park where there’s a hill that is covered by the snow from overnight and want to go down sledding. But once arriving there, seeing both Darryl and Rudy in their winter gear, unable to sled down the hill due to the fact that there’s a pair of rowdy teens hoarding the said hill because they’re too busy having themselves a snowball fight.
Yep everyone, Logan’s back. First time in a while since Season 7…you know, when he threatened both Gene and Louise when they were home alone following a melon accident. It was an accident, in which Logan wasn’t like, “That’s okay. It was all an accident. I’ll just get another pair of clothes and forget all that ever happen.” No, he went all “I’m gonna make your day a living hell” on the two and even made Louise cry and tremble in fear. And yet, every time Logan makes a comeback into the series, you have the locus nest known as the Lougian shippers, people who Louise with Logan, out of their cocoons and swarm like it’s freaking migration season. Like…I can’t tell you how or how not to live your life or how you ship, all I know is that…this is disgusting. And it’s not because of the age thi…yeah, it’s mostly because of the age thing. But it also shows that Logan’s an ass. I’m sorry, but he’s a major ass. I would’ve thought that Louise and Logan would’ve have like a big brother, little sister type of friendship following the events of “Mother Daughter Laser Razor”, but the writers decided to press the reset button. You know, that “change my mind” meme from earlier this year? Yeah, that pretty much sums up that.
So the kids are now stuck and had to either wait for the teens to be tired out and exit or wait for another day, not hoping for the snow to melt, but that won’t stop the Belcher kids from preventing them to sled down the hill. Only to end up getting pelted by a pair of snowballs like missiles and causing them to run away.
Next time around, Louise enters the ring, not sledding down the hill, but to tell Logan and his friends to get out of the way so she and the rest of the kids can sled down the hill. But of course, knowing Logan, no way in hell they’re gonna give up their spot. And that of course, angers Louise. To the point where she throws the snowball at Logan and storms off. And of course, heading back up the hill before she ends up getting pelted back. And asks Tina, Gene, Rudy, and Darryl if they can throw a good snowball. To the three, Gene, Tina, and Rudy, they don’t want to deal with another round of snowballs pelting them in the face.
Darryl want to give a try when holding a snowball on his hand, but…
Yeah…don’t quit your day job, man. You’re doing amazing, sweetie. Don’t know if the snowball Darryl threw retracted to the point where he threw it forward but then…gravity decided to not be on his side and goes backwards? Or either Logan or one of his friends threw it and…I don’t know. I’m no psychics teacher. Out of options until Rudy comes up with an idea to get the hill back to their side. Found out that Rudy has a cousin that she can throw good and of course, was a member of the high school softball team. Meaning that the kids now have the upper hands to retake the hill.
We were introduced to Rudy’s cousin named Mandy. Of course, voiced by Jillian Bell. Who also voiced Nat the Limo Driver back earlier this year in Season 8’s “V for Valentine-detta”. And found out from her that she knew Logan since these two are in the same high school and of course, like Louise, became a victim of bullying from Logan. Calling her names like “Mandatory Napkins”. Not because…that. But mostly because she’s the smallest one in like his grade. Just to put this out there kids, don’t pick on the small ones because you two meet again in the future and he or she ends up becoming taller than you…good luck. Logan notices as he is about to throw another snowball that the kids are now coming back down the hill and then notices that Mandy is with them and then she straight up hits him down to the ground with a snowball. Snowball after snowball from Mandy to the teens. Bombardment. Bombardment. Bombardment. Remember that from The Simpsons? Logan’s friends now begin to make a full retreat but Logan on the other hand decided to take on the kids and Mandy by himself and oh man, Logan, if I were you, I would go full retreat with your friends and coward into fear. But nope, Logan decided to take on the whole gang, one-on-a lot. In math terms, who has the upper advantage? And Logan retreats, thus giving the hill in the kids’ control. But for how long the victory will last? Who knows? Could be minutes? Hours? Maybe days even? All we know is that kids finally got their way and can enjoy some good ol’ sledding…until…
Yep, more pelting. Just both Tina and Gene sled down the hill, a huge massive snowball comes into play and hits them like…let’s just say, is how the American Civil War began with cannon fire. Logan and his friends now came back into play and think to themselves that if the kids can bring backup, looks like they can bring backup of themselves. Fighting fire with fire with another athlete in play for the snowball fight…now calling it a war, bringing in a basketball player. Oh boy, this is going downhill…for the kids I mean. Because just as they’re about to be in position again with Mandy in pitch and the kids protecting her with their sleds to block the snow, it was not good enough to block some three-pointers from Cameron, the varsity basketball player, thus resulting in Mandy getting hit by the snowball and retreat. Thus putting the kids in retreat mode as well. And just like with Logan in the previous battle, Louise ain’t going nowhere with both Gene and Tina on her side…only to end up retreating as well and the hill is now back in Logan’s control yet again. Remember when I said that this episode was gonna be Braveheart in the snow? Well, this is now turning into…not like in the form of The Alamo, either version, 1955, 1960, 2004, either way, one side did not make it out alive…referring to the Texas army defending the landmark from Mexican Troops in March of 1836. No one died in this episode, so there’s that.
So while Gene and Tina looking like they’re about to throw in the towels, Louise however ain’t giving up without a fight. She then ask Teddy as he clearing out the snow on his truck as he is like doing some plow work if he can do her a massive favor for her. Following Teddy telling his story of having a snow bully of his own, well…Louise asks Teddy to do a favor of plowing the hill so that Logan and his friends won’t do their snowball fight. So that there isn’t any snow for them to make some balls and throw them. Teddy think that what Louise came up with is definitely not a good idea since he can only do streets and driveways and parking lots and whatnot. But knowing Louise, despite the risk that Teddy brought up, decided to pull the Ricky card and uses it against Teddy. And right there now got Teddy to do the dirty deed. Ah. Using the emotional trauma to get the stuff in your direction to get back at a bully of your own. I know that despite that it’s Christmas and using that trauma to use for your amusement or using it in like a massive battle like this one, but Louise, she’s not going down without a fight. And Tina brought up a flaw when it comes to the idea of Teddy plowing the hill and prevent Logan and his friends from continuing their snowball fight, stating that if Teddy were to plow the hill, that means that they can’t sled. And it looks like Louise knows the risk of getting the hill to be fallen in the hands of the plow by Teddy, but of course, tough love has to come into play and the hill that they enjoy have now got to be plowed away. If she can’t have the hill, no one will. See that, tough love. For that hill. A sacrifice has to be made.
We then head over later in the night as Louise, once everyone gets into bed, gets a phone call from Teddy, who’s now already at the park and was about to be ready to plow the snowy hill, telling her that he’s now beginning to have second thoughts about the whole ordeal with the hill. But Louise has still have the emotional trauma card already in play and asks him to just picture the hill as his snow bully and plow the damn thing. Like he’s imaging him running the guy over. Okay…um…that’s pretty much fucked up. And on Christmastime of all holidays. Like anyone have those moments where you’re tired of all the bullshit from your bully and imagine you want to one up on whoever your bully is and want to like deck in the face, or in this case, downright murder…actually, no. Don’t. Just…don’t. Peaceful resolutions is the best way to tackle a situation. Violence never solves anything.
So yeah, the deed is done. The hill is gone when Teddy told Louise on the phone late in the night and with that…Logan and his crony friends won’t have any snow for their snowball fight. Despite that because of that, the kids also don’t have a hill to sled down. But it was worth it…for Louise. Meaning that the whole turf war comes to a dirty and destructive way to wrap it up… but if you think Louise dealing with Logan’s crap was bad enough? Well…here enter a new challenger into the ring overnight to ruin Louise’s revenge plot.
Mother Nature…gotta love her. Yeah, just as Louise got her plan finally come to a complete success, imaging her saying, “Ah! What a beautiful day. The sun is shining. And with no snow for dumb Logan and his dumbass friends to do their dumb snowball fight. Yep, I say everything is a complete success.” And then Mother Nature overnight decided to say to her, “Oh you poor, sweet, innocent child…you got no idea on what I got in store for you.” It snowed overnight. It snowed overnight…again. Meaning that Louise’s plan to get back at Logan and not have him taking over the hill is of course, a complete and utter failure. And because of that, Louise is now heading back to the hill for another round of sledding and of course, ready to be pelted by Logan. And of course, Tina and Gene decided to tag along as well.
Finally arrived back to the sledding hill and of course, seeing Logan and his friends back at the good ol’ game of having a snowball fight. Just as Louise is about to set up and ready to sled, despite that Logan and his friends are in the way and may possibly pelt her with snowballs and knock her out from the sled, just as she is about to adjust her armor once putting down the sled on top of the hill, the sled ends up falling down. Louise ends up chasing it down only to end up getting caught by Logan and his friends on the way. Louise said that no matter what they’re gonna do with them, throwing snowballs at them, it ain’t gonna stop them from having some fun down sledding. But Logan said to Louise that the snow they’re using for the snowballs this time around is the snow that somehow plowed overnight, thus resulting in the ball being all hard, heavy, and icy, enough to cause some damage to the body as one of Logan’s friends showcases a bruise on his abdomen. And they’re planning on using that on Louise.
Why? Why?! Again with this shit?! This is Season 7 all over again with the Norwegian Pit Stink. And yet, the Louigan shippers wouldn’t give a fuck about this. Just like with the Tina/Jimmy Jr shippers whining over the events of “V for Valentine-detta” over the writers making Jimmy Jr into an ass hat, shipping might be the root of slowly making this fandom toxic. Let’s just put this out there, controversial statement, the Louigan shippers are now the Trump Supporters of the fandom. Come the fuck at me! Tina and Gene then comes to Louise’s defense as Logan and his cronies are about to pelt her with snowballs. And it looks like just as they were about to get pelted, all three, about to get to pelted by a hoard of snowballs coming from the hands of Logan and his friends…
BAH GAWD! BAH GAWD! THAT’S MANDY’S MUSIC! Yep, Mandy has now came back into play and pelted Logan and his friends with snowballs to save Louise, Tina, and Gene. And it looks like she ain’t alone in this fight.
Yep, every girl team in school. From the softball team to the lacrosse team, it was at this moment that Logan and his friends knew…they fucked up. And you can thank Rudy for bringing in backup for the Belcher kids to take on the teen boys because if he didn’t step in and bring in backup, then…oh boy, I don’t even want to imagine that. So Rudy, Mandy, and the girls teams for the win. And it was beautiful to watch seeing Logan getting the comeuppance that he deserves for just being an ass throughout the episode. And just as things are about to get really, really good. Logan…
…using Louise as a human shield. To defend him from the girls who are ready to pelt him with snowballs… god, I fucking hate Logan so much. Next to like Jimmy Pesto and Ass Hat Joe, Logan is pretty much in the top three in the characters that I hate so much. But despite that Logan is now holding Louise hostage, it ain’t gonna get the girls to step the fuck down so Louise would be let go like it’s a freaking hostage situation. They get to surround Logan in a full circle and ready to strike from every angle in his body. But once they are about to ready, set, aim on Logan from different angles of his body, Louise…because it’s the holidays, decided to do the unthinkable and save Logan from the girls and take down to the next hill over. To the Louigan shippers, they now think that Louise saved him from being pelted by a hoard of snowballs. No bitch, she gave him a head start like you seen shows where a group of people, after getting washed ashore, spotted a mansion in the middle of the island, only to end up being a part of the hunt. That’s pretty much that. And nothing else as Logan now cowards away in fear as the girls now chase him down and pelting him with snowballs as the hill has now finally, finally back in the control of the kids and they can enjoy their day of sledding down the hill. You could say you might hate the episode mostly when it comes to how the episode is playing out or the pacing or something else, but seeing Logan getting his comeuppance was something to enjoy. Finally seeing some justice from all the awful things that he’d ever done. So I guess I’ll talk about the main plot and talk about what I think about it once we get to the reaction/thoughts section of the review as we now head over to the subplot.
The subplot is mostly Linda racing against the clock as Christmas approaches when she brought up a bag that she found and what inside the bag shows a knitting set, mostly yarn and needles, and decided to take up knitting. Once again. Yeah, I said once again because Linda used to knit, but not anymore and haven’t used the yarn since carrying Louise long ago. And with only two days away until Christmas Day, Linda can’t have any distractions and must knit day and night for the kids to get the knitted scarves for the holiday season.
Gotta love Linda and her imagination when getting into the zone with knitting. She feels like despite that she haven’t used the yarn for over ten years now, I know Louise’s 9, but it feels like 10, it feels like of course, like I said, feels like she’s getting into the zone. She imagines her in a ballerina outfit and dancing around what appears to be yarn world and by her side, a knitted nutcracker compilating her for the stuff she is doing with yarn. Just like Bob with Thanksgiving, Linda with Christmas almost feels like she’s living like a child again.
But then we get to Bob after Linda showing him how to knit. Giving him a try to knit for himself and just like that, Bob, out of nowhere, somewhat becomes a pro when it comes to that. At first, Linda thinks that with Bob now in the helm, she now has the extra hands that she need to knit the three scarves and make it in time before Christmas morning. But then comes overnight at the same time Teddy is busy doing the dirty deed of plowing the hill for Louise, despite that Mother Nature decided to bring in another pack of fresh snow once the plowing is done, she notices that Bob’s stitching when doing one of the scarves is somehow better than hers, which appears to be rugged. Rusty to be honest. Though Linda, probably a long time. So first time back would’ve been rusty but come the next time around, you’ll be back to being good at stuff. Linda is a whole different story.
Going back to the dream sequence that she had earlier in the episode and it went a full 180 on her. Thought things are about to be all gumdrops and gingerbread houses with Linda doing all the work, but now with Bob outdoing her when it comes to the knitting and the stitching, that got Linda beginning to feel a little jelly over that. To the point where the knitted nutcracker begins to call out Linda, calling her a bad knitter, and then chokes her. Man, this is getting dark. Bouchard, didn’t know you’re taking that direction? But the dream is short-lived as Linda wakes up from having a nightmare and that’s where the next day comes into play.
Linda continues to knit but Bob on the other hand, his stuff is gone. He searches from the restaurant at all areas looking for his knitting set…only to find the two scarves, one looks like it’s about to be completed and one that is ready to be made, in the trash. Accusing Linda of throwing it in the trash. And Linda can’t live in the guilt and telling Bob the reason why she threw it away and hid it from Bob is that she saw Bob doing a better job with knitting. Better than her, thus thinking to herself like she can’t do dickity shit with the whole knitting ordeal. Of course, Bob told her that she’s not a failure and that he already did the two and her doing the one, that’s enough for the kids to get the scarves from either one of the two. And by the time Christmas morning comes into play at the end of the episode, the kids got the scarves and of course, didn’t know who did what when it comes to the scarves until Linda comes blabbing out saying, “Oh yeah, that’s me. That’s all me. I did the work.” Shit like that when Louise grabbed the purple one. The purple being the one Linda made. You could say the end of the subplot seems like it has fallen flat in its face, but it’s not like last week’s mess. The dream sequences pretty much sold me that it was gonna be somewhat of a decent subplot. It’s not that bad. But I’m not saying that it was not that good as well. More of line being 30:70 tolerable. So all and all with the subplot, it was somewhat decent. But that’s for you to be the judge.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Well, this episode was something alright. Despite being the last episode of 2018, we started off the year with girl power with the Belcher women and Nat and we end the year with the Belcher kids, Rudy, Mandy, and the rest of the female athletes over at the high school to take on Logan and his cronies.Of course, with Logan coming back, you have the locus nest known as the Louigan shippers coming out from their resting borough and swarm like crazy around the fandom. It’s like they don’t even learned their lesson since the events of “Large Brother, Where Fart Thou?” with Logan threatening both Gene and Louise over one simple accident. It was just an accident but Logan doesn’t like just forget anything happen and treat it like an accidental car crash where the two drivers exchange their insurance info. No, the fucker decided to make their day a living hell. To the point where she made a nine year old on the verge of tears and tremble in fear. That right there really, really pissed me off. So seeing Logan getting pelted by a hoard of snowballs, first by Louise, later with Mandy and the rest of the girls from their school. That was some sweet, sweet justice.
As for what my thoughts on the main plot of the episode? Well…it was fine to be honest. And not in a sarcastic manner. It’s mostly a tough, tough battle over who gets to own the property or turf as the kids call it. Jesus, I’m sounding like a baby boomer here. Though this time around, it’s the snowy hill for the kids to sled when the snow rolled into town late overnight and the teens decided to have a snowball fight instead. And I say it was a decent episode from top to bottom. Better than last week’s apparent mess of an episode.
Same goes to the subplot of the episode. Though the ending of the subplot to wrap up the episode almost seems like it has fallen flat on it’s face, it was also a decent subplot. What sold me on the subplot being decent is of course Linda having two sequences, despite being the same dream, did a total 180 once Linda realizes that Bob is doing a better job when it comes to knitting a scarf than her and she’s been doing it for hours when being the clock just in time for Christmas. But above all else, this was a decent subplot, better than last week where it was a total dumpster fire of a mess we got.
So to sum it all up, this was rather a decent episode. I could it earned the rewatchablity factor, but that’s up to you to decide. So until then, this was somewhat of a decent episode. And since this is a Christmas episode, when it comes to the rankings, I say this episode falls around…let’s either fourth or fifth place, just to be safe. So all and all, this episode was a decent way to end the year with some icy justice that needed to be served. I give “Better Off Sled”…
…an 8 out of 10. Oh man, ten episodes that I’ve done this season alone in my comeback to do these reviews. Ten episodes straight. That’s crazy to imagine how much I’m doing since getting out of the slump. Let’s just say 2018 for the fandom has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride for yours truly. And well…it was the ride that despite there were some…things that have to get through to beat out the slump, um…this year has been somewhat something. Kicking off big with “V for Valentine-detta” all the way to where we are right now…man, 2019…I don’t know what’s gonna happen next year when it comes to the fandom but uh…it’s gonna be more crazy than this year. Let’s hope I can do a full on season all the way towards May when the season finale takes place. Unless it’s a double then…uh…oh boy. Oh boy. And because of that, a jinxing procedure is now about to take place. Reverse jinxing, don’t fail me now.
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