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Wednesday, May 08, 2019

Bob's Burgers Season 9, Episode 21 Review - The Art of the Steal: PTA Edition and The Bird That Got Away | yahoo201027's Bob's Burgers Reviews




Joanne, Joanne, Joanne, Joannnne, why must you play Wine Mom like a fool? Joanne, Joanne, Joanne, Joannne, please don’t take her desperate because you can. Only one episode left until vacay time for yours truly, anyway, in this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, Linda becomes friends with the head of the PTA chapter of the town only to fall victim to a Ponzi scheme while Bob tries to make amends to the owner of the hardware store after making an offensive joke about his parrot, seriously? Not one minute without causing a scene, Bob? In my spoilerific review of the twenty-first episode of season nine, titled “PTA It Ain’t So”.

We have ourselves another Linda episode, second time for this season because this season alone pretty much has a lack of Linda episodes and to pick which is somewhat a decent Linda episode for this season, this or Lorenzo’s Oil, this episode might’ve been the decent choice because let’s face it, Lorenzo’s Oil back in January is pretty much a mess up to this point. The main plot pretty much downplay the episode despite there were some good moments in the episode and then we get to this week’s episode where apparently, it’s a complete role reversal for the two plots where the main plot seems are intriguing with Linda not noticing for the first half that she pretty much became a victim of an all-out ponzi scheme from Joanne, the head of the PTA chapter of the Seymour’s Bay area, spotted her ties to a company, and exposes her as a corrupt hack that she is and had help with someone who hates and the last person who she ever want to team up with, that was somewhat pretty surprising to see.

The subplot on the other hand...oh dear Christ, the subplot...dare I say this? Somewhat of a train wreck like the train has derailed from it’s tracks once it took off from it’s station on its way to its destination with the whole Bob thing and trying to make things up with the hardware store owner after making a joke about his parrot flying away. While it’s nice to hear the voice coming from friend to the blog Keisuke Hoashi again since voicing Shinji Kojima, aka Raising Hawk, in Season 5, almost four years ago this month, kind of wish we can get to know a little more on the owner and his son, explain why his parrot flew away from him, and for Bob to make things up by trying to find the parrot. Turn it into a potential search and rescue of the animal. That would’ve been made the subplot somewhat decent, if not, better. That didn’t happen. And the ending felt rushed to close out the episode. No resolution. No anything. Also sorry Keisuke if you’re reading this, hope I didn’t make things a bit harsh over all of this. Though Hawk is returning later in the series, so uh...can’t wait for that.


Starting off the episode with everyone working at the restaurant, most importantly, dealing with some plumbing since we have almost everyone on the bathroom while Teddy works on the dishwater, which of course, there’s some sort of a plumbing issue going on in the restaurant...that may or may not have something to do with the kids, not saying that they have something to do with something, I’m just saying, that may be a possibility to point out to when dealing with an issue with the plumbing. Also Gene has now thrown his hat into the ring for the Iron Throne, fitting because the final season of Game of Thrones is now in play, I think as of this week, we’re now down to the final two episodes I believe? Only six this season? Wow, thought it would like last longer than the AAF. Also let’s put it there, if you have a favorite character, it’s curtains for that character. Note to self, don’t have a favorite character.

So as the rest of the Belcher family and Teddy work on the plumbing, Linda has to head off to her PTA meeting at the school for her to share some ideas to the head of the PTA Chapter of the town in an individual named Joanne and want to impress her enough to grab a one-on-one breakfast with her, trying to be all buddy buddy with the head. And not in like for her to march her way to the top to the chapter or something like that like if you’re an employee and the only way to get a promotion and impress the boss is to make an impression, of course, and work very, very, very hard. But of course, her chances of having all of that is about to be diminished all thanks to Linda’s rival in the board, Colleen Caviello. Yeah, Colleen. Before we were introduced to Linda’s other rival, i.e. Cynthia, i.e. Logan’s mother, Colleen was the original when it comes to the list of rivals for the Wine Mom all the way back to Season 1 when preparing to do the spaghetti social thing that Tina’s little conflict resolution club has set up in hopes to one up her from last year’s with the baked zettiti. Yeah, her. She also appeared as a cameo in Season 7, though that was just a cameo and that’s about it. And with Colleen in the picture in this episode, you could say that we may have ourselves a competition between both Linda and Colleen to see who can up on top when it comes to anything in particular, whether if it’s a bake sale or something. And something tells me...that may not happen in this episode.


Onto the meeting we go with the whole thing ready to be wrapped up for the day with a vote already casted when it comes to having either cookies or brownies to be served, cookies come out as the winner by a majority vote 9-2 and although I like both cookies and brownies as a snack or as a dessert, by the end of the day, it’s cookies all the way for sure. Change my mind. Oh and I see that both Linda and Tammy’s Dad seems to be getting along when over at the meeting despite that their daughters...pretty much hate each other. So uh, that’s something coming from the two. And then we get to the next item on the list for the meeting and that involves the upcoming fundraiser for the seventh grade science class in hopes for some new equipment in the form of a theme because we can’t have an event without a theme. You can’t have an event like a fundraiser without a theme because if doesn’t, then I don’t know if GoFundMe is going to help out as the last minute option to raise money for the seventh graders for their science class. Oh and if anyone asking who’s in the seventh grade class? That’s Darryl. That is Darryl’s grade. Just putting it out there, please give my boy some love and some screen time. What more do you people want?!


Linda came up with a theme for the event in having it into somewhat of a beach themed fundraiser. Turn the place into an indoor beach, minus bringing in the ocean waters, and that did grab Joanne’s attention and into her liking however, there has to be that someone who decided to come and object the whole thing and pretty much squishing Linda’s hopes and dreams like a cockroach roaming around the kitchen floor. That where Colleen comes into play and telling Joanne that Linda’s idea of a theme would cost the board a lot of money and thus objecting to the idea. Don’t know if Colleen was doing that because the fears that it might cost the board massive amounts of money enough for them to be in debt or just doing that because of her hatred for Linda. Either way, Linda’s optimism pretty much came crashing down when her idea for the theme has somewhat shot down.


That of course, got Linda in a sour mood once coming back to the restaurant from the PTA meeting like if Colleen pretty much embarrassed her in front of everyone. In front of Joanne. But just as Linda continues to ramble on and on about how much of a horrible human being Colleen is, the family gets a phone call, in which Tina picks it up and asks Linda to hand the phone over and the person who would call Linda as of this moment following that little scuffle from the meeting? Why it’s none other than, guess who?


It’s Joanne, the president of the PTA board, calling Linda on the phone that she loves the idea that Linda came up during the meeting and asks her to do a one-on-one breakfast, the thing that Linda dreamt about since the beginning of the episode when heading to the meeting. And of course, not hoping to embarrass  herself on the phone, Linda accepts Joanne’s offer and awaits her come the next day around the morning hours. So although that Linda has her day ruined thanks to Colleen coming in with a steel chair and hits her hopes and dreams, it looks like it’s not a total loss for her as she finally got her way in getting breakfast with Joanne. And this is where some fans beginning to sense that something seems rather fishy while the rest of found are too busy fucking around and pretend like we just saw SpaceX launching another rocket into space and not see something is going wrong. So yeah, that was weird for Joanne, the president of the PTA who was supposed to be neutral, to call up Linda over her idea for a theme for the upcoming fundraiser.


Onto the next day over at the one-on-one breakfast in what almost looks like a parody of Starbucks, fuck you Howard Schultz, where just as both Joanne and Linda are just finishing up their breakfast, Joanne asks Linda that she would be better suited in the board and even asks her if she can join in on the board. Joanne is asking Linda of all people to be in the big leagues. I mean, you just met the person and then all of a sudden, she asks her if she can join in the board. That’s like if you’re the new employee at a workspace and the boss, all of an sudden, sees potential in you and ends up giving you an offer to be assistant manager or some sorts, even though you haven’t gained any leadership skills. Though now thinking about...yeah, should probably rethink that. But yeah, Joanne asks Linda if she can join the board and Linda would agree to the offer because why the fuck not? But Linda would rather sit this one out and have Colleen have it when it comes to being treasurer. But looking at Joanne’s reaction to Colleen and being brought up by Linda, let’s just say...like Linda, she hates having Colleen around despite that she has an accounting background and whatnot and would rather have Linda being the treasurer instead. And now, the percentage of fans knowing that Joanne isn’t a trustworthy person has now risen from 10% all the way to 35%, mostly because of Joanne’s proposal to have a position open to Linda and also, using her card, not her personal card, but the card used from the PTA. But her paychecks?! And of course, Joanne asks Linda to join her for a little shopping spree for the fundraiser and rather than heading back home for the day, Linda can’t make a bad impression and agrees to the offer and tagging along for what could be a very long ride for one Linda Belcher.


Onto one of the stores we go with Joanne and Linda trying to buy some bottles from a wine store? Which is weird because wine for a PTA fundraiser? Either if it’s going to be used for the adults for beverage or using the bottles all for herself? Anyway, her basket is all good and ready to go, but Joanne said not so fast and begins to flip around the script and thinks that the whole wine thing isn’t all about her and spouting out the possibly old excuse of the world coming from anyone’s mouth, it’s for the kids. It’s for the kids! That excuse right there. That’s like if you’re robbing a bank, which, we here over at yahoo201027 condone anyone who would ever possibly rob a bank, and the bank teller is telling you why you’re robbing the bank and you say, “It’s for the kids!” Yeah, so there’s that. Also again, don’t rob banks. Oh and Joanne decided to pull out her own excuse card whenever she gets to buy things from this store to the next using three simple letters in the alphabet to get things in her favor, PTA. She’s using her PTA status to get some stuff for a very low price. That’s like if you’re the child of, let’s say the mayor or governor or whatever, and you used that as your free pass to get stuff that you want despite that it cost a lot of money and doesn’t have that enough because allowance and stuff. That’s pretty much a misuse of her powers as the head of the PTA in the Wagstaff chapter of the board and could put her in a massive scandal but because she thinks that she uses for the PTA and nothing else in the personal level, it’s fine. Linda, you’re there. You’re seeing this unfolding. I know you want to make good impressions with her because of your hatred for Colleen and whatnot, should’ve like call her out or at least tell her to rethink what she is doing. Nope, let this one slide over and continues to hop aboard on the ride. Don’t want to take a shit on her experience, so she rather let Joanne have her fun.


Thus to the montage we have with Linda and Joanne going on a little shopping spree after getting the wine from the wine shop and going through various locations for the fundraiser from the candle shop to getting their nails to getting furniture from the furniture shop...okay, now this seems really like things are going wrong here because he’s using her PTA status as a freebie to get stuff and thinks that it’s for the fundraiser, which could possibly split though those who are smart enough can see the red flag waiving around Joanne since the phone call earlier in the episode. And Linda, like the slice of the pie of the fandom, can’t even see the red flag waving coming from Joanne here like you’re looking for that red flag through very thick fog while driving on the freeway for the morning rush type of deal. 


Onto the next meeting we go following that little shopping spree and everything has turn towards Linda’s favor when the decision for the upcoming fundraiser has been decided and it looks like Linda’s theme, the beach theme, has been chosen over the two other themes that was mentioned in the form of both Under the Big Top, don’t know what that means, and also Garfield vs Snoopy. Garfield vs Snoopy, that’s not a theme, that sounds like a potential crossover for the upcoming summer blockbuster season. At least it should be than the train wreck that was Batman v Superman. I’m not too keen with the superhero film genre but man, people are hating on that movie.


Colleen is not pleased that Linda’s theme got picked to be the theme for the fundraiser, calling some bullshit on the plate when it comes to the electoral process. Saying that the board can’t afford everything they need for Linda’s beach themed fundraiser, would possibly put them in debt if the theme is now in full effect. And only saying that because she’s most likely the presumptive treasurer for the board. Oh and speaking of treasurer, yeah, it looks like the word “presumptive” has been dropped and been replaced by the word “runner-up” because Colleen is currently, no wait, was unopposed when it comes to the race to get the position. Joanne on the other hand, decided to have Linda as her opponent and oh look at that, according to majority rule, she’s now the new treasurer. Okay, now I can see the red flag coming out from the fog because seeing Linda getting things her way with both getting her theme chosen and her becoming the treasurer from Joanne, the president of the PTA, it sort of like...let’s just say if someone becomes the candidate vying to be the nominee of his or her own party but unable to beat the odds, low fundraising, polling at 0.5% when it comes to the voters’ option of who would be better suited as their nominee despite having somewhat of a decent policy you have and then all of a sudden, big business comes in, manipulate you, and you end up doing their bidding and gaining name recognition despite not knowing the bullshit from a mile away. Linda once the meeting wrapped up, looks like she’s finally seeing the unnoticeable hole in the wall in Joanne when meeting up in the parking lot.


Linda came up to thank Joanne for everything when she saw her putting some stuff on her car in the parking lot...and seeing the stuff that was supposed to be used for the fundraiser, this is where Linda now begins to put the pieces all together to see what’s going down with Joanne and why and how she’s became the lucky person to be with. And by lucky person, I mean target in what could possibly be somewhat of a full on Ponzi scheme. That or the stuff that was supposed to be used for the fundraiser looking like it’s going towards her and her only for personal use, in which Linda now begins to feel bad about after having that dream later in the night when she has a talk with Joanne over at the restaurant in private and begins to talk things out about what happened and of course, this is a dream that transitioned into a nightmare when given the paperwork to become a fully-fledged member of the board and needed a pen to sign her name only to her to say that she doesn’t need a pen and instead, should use her blood and ripping the face, revealing to be Satan himself, thinking that Linda has finally sold herself out and made a deal with the devil. Louise should be proud of you since she did sell her soul and suffered no ill effects. And then the devil ripped it’s face off and later revealed to be Linda a la something you see from Empire Strikes Back with Luke going through that training and fights an image of Darth Vader only after decapitating the image, mask explodes, and shows an afterimage of Luke himself. Huh? Talk about a while Star Wars Day for Linda here.


The actual conversation in a none dream world takes place the next day over at the breakfast place and just as Linda prepares to tell Joanne that she don’t want to continue going through what she’s doing, Joanne comes behind her and put a necklace on her neck, thought that this was another dream and Joanne would like strangle her or slitting her throat or beheading her, wow okay, this is getting dark, not in like with Linda’s dream turn nightmare back in that Winter episode, yes, I’m calling it a Winter episode because it doesn’t feel like a Christmas episode. But that’s another story come never as Joanne put the necklace onto Linda and it’s the same necklace that she has currently. The one that has the letters PTA engraved on it like it’s a freaking ID tag for a pet. Linda would accept the gift offer from Joanne but Linda decided to take the gloves off and say to Joanne that she thinks what Joanne is doing isn’t right when it comes to the stuff that she has and pretty much used it all for herself all while not trying to make their relationship into thin ice and hurt her feelings. Well, it looks like Linda did kind of hurt Joanne’s feelings and Linda tries to calm her down with trying to get her a muffin. What Linda didn’t noticed is that Joanne was just pretending to be upset and bringing up the PTA credit card to buy the said muffin and handing Linda an envelope which might as well be the form for her to be an official member of the PTA board. Joanne pretended to have her feelings hurt when Linda brought up that Joanne should stop doing what she’s doing when buying the stuff all for herself and not to the board for the fundraiser. So you might say that Linda here pretty much got played. She got fooled and Joanne fool her around to do things that she wanted while possibly running the town’s PTA down to the motherfucking ground. Let’s just say that once the credit card bill comes in by either the end of the month or the start of the month, let’s just say, it ain’t going to be pretty. That and taxes. Mostly taxes. The IRS could be going out for blood on her once this episode is done with.


Apparently I was wrong, apparently what Linda is holding are forms for the kits that the science class needed for Linda to pay since she’s the new treasurer but when Linda saw the company of the science kits, most importantly, the company that happened to be the parent owner of the company of the kits, on the laptop saying in the bottom called the Science Wow, which is the company for the kits. And the parent company is called the JoJo Bear Publishing. And that where Linda finally begins to put the pieces all together when hearing the name JoJo and no, it’s not a JoJo’s reference, calm down JoJo’s fans. I know you’re upset that Gangsta’s Paradise was used for the Sonic trash fire live action car wreck and not your ending for the new season, but it looks like the references has not made it to this series. Anyway, Linda put the pieces together and thought of the name JoJo and connects to who has the same nickname as the company. And that’s where all fingers point towards Joanne. Because her husband likes to call her JoJo, as a nickname for him and a nickname for her husband is Bear. Thus, JoJo Bear. JoJo Bear Publishing.


Also, got to give props to the animators for having that little thought bubble on top of Linda when putting the pieces together and found out that Joanne has ties to that company. So you could scream out corruption since Joanne and her husband pretty much own the company that the school science class need for the equipment and that’s where mama bear decided to take her gloves off and say enough is enough and decided to call her out. Should’ve seen the red flag waving since the beginning of the episode coming from Joanne, but can you blame Linda for it? Possibly a mix match coming from the fans. At least it’s not taking the “Lorenzo’s Oil” route because that was a complete total mess of an episode. Change my mind.

Also just putting it out there for any Canadians reading this review, you may have noticed when watching this episode on that very scene when Linda putting the pieces all together to the fraud that Joanne is, this is according to the Bob’s Burgers Wikia, when she mentioned the nicknames of both Joanne and her husband and said the phrase, “This is JoJo Beary Bad,” watch the video from beginning to end to see what I’m talking about. Credit goes to YouTuber Clawfoot King for that video.


Yeah, looks like the whole Game of Thrones, Starbucks cup thing as an oopsie of an Easter egg isn’t the only gaffe for this week when it comes to the world of entertainment. Well, in the international sector that it. Almost like...remember with the Roller episode just as Alex prepares to drink the sesame filled drink of death, it cuts to commercial like a freaking cliffhanger? Yeah, sort of like that.


Onto fundraiser night with the rest of the family as Linda is ready to land a strike onto Joanne and her apparent corruption she brought to the PTA. Bob questions Linda if she want to have a go in trying to bring Joanne down in front of everyone in attendance. I mean, Joanne did lie to her face and pretty much dragging the town’s PTA to the mother flipping ground like an oil well that one day explodes due to fault machinery. Linda tried to call Joanne on the phone to step down but didn’t call back. Tried to call the National PTA hotline to get her to resign but were only given two options for either car washes or bake sale. Yeah, really great service coming from the PTA that does not include “The President of the PTA is a lying bitch and should probably step the fuck aside” option. Y’all get a standing ovation.


The auction is about to start with Joanne at the mic but before kicking off the prize giveaway, she decided to use that time to give a shout out to Linda, who gets a standing ovation from the audience but just as the auction begins, Linda decided to give a few words to say to the people in the building. This was her way to find an opening to drag Joanne down for the person she is. She used her time to thank Joanne for everything that she has ever done and for her to be more involved with the PTA but once she was done, she decided to have a little more time and that’s where she decided to drop the truth bombs while at the same time, Joanne tries to take the mic away from Linda before getting a spare to prevent Linda from spewing out but it looks like at the end of the night, Linda got her way again but this time, without Joanne’s help, and grabbed a new ally. An unlikely ally to say the least come the person in the shark costume coming in towards the stage in front of both Linda and Joanne and the person behind the costume is none other than...


Colleen Caviello...whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. Hold on for a second there. So two things when it comes to the whole Colleen thing in this very scene in this episode. First off...


Didn’t know that the Left Shark in Katy Perry’s Super Bowl Halftime Show back in 2015 was Colleen. It make perfect sense because the suit does suit her. No wonder she was absent from the series since Season 1. Second...


Colleen and Linda teamed up. Out of everyone that Linda would ever, ever team up with to take down an antagonist or situation of an episode, and it’s her rival in Colleen. Okay, it’s official, we’re living in an alternate timeline. We’re living in an alternate timeline where apparently the characters that we like would team up with characters that our characters don’t like. You remember back in the last season, “The Silence of the Louise”, when Louise has to team up with Millie of all people to investigate who’s responsible for vandalizing Mr. Frond’s office and have the writers humanizing her despite what she has done. It’s like that with both Linda and Colleen when taking on Joanne. So yeah, so here’s the thing, Linda called Colleen, yeah, this seems feel weird seeing a rival asking you for help unless you do that but has to do something demeaning to get the alliance rolling. Linda called her, only to hang up but left her a message that got Colleen to call her back and brought everyone in the board about what Linda went through and showed them the spreadsheets of the payments and auditing the shit Joanne has done to the PTA, running the thing dry like sink water to the drain, or lake water during a drought, and sensed that what Joanne is doing is completely wrong and immoral and pretty much an abuse of her power and that she should resign her position. Or rather, impeach her. Oh boy, something tells me where the whole thing is heading and I would rather not do jabs on politics possibly until next season as the 2020 election begins to take shape.


Joanne gets pissy over what Linda, Colleen, and everyone are doing to get her out of power and laying out some flaws if she were ever to be thrown out from sending out e-mails to the members to pretty much everything else and tries to pretend what just happened with the whole Colleen callout thing never happened and tries to start off the auction but not one person has stepped up to the plate. And here lies Joanne’s time as the President of the PTA as according to a majority vote by the members, Joanne is now no longer in power as she begins to exit stage left hopping mad but before heading out, telling them that they have to clean the sand out of the floor before closing the doors, as the event goes back to normal as the way it should be as we now close out the main plot of the episode, now without a leader for the chapter. Despite that we have two episodes this season where Linda was the main focus, we’re talking main plots, not including the subplots, this was the better one of the two. Despite that Linda got played without seeing any warning flags waving at her, she brought down a powerful person in her PTA meetings when the head of the said meeting targets her and not sensed the corruption and drilling the PTA dry with the misuse of the card, but you do have to give Linda some credit on this, taking down someone like Joanne isn’t as easy as pie when spotted a massive clue to put the final piece of the puzzle and having Colleen as help was pretty much surprising. Like I thought that this episode would be like a Linda vs Colleen type of episode where it would end with either Linda coming up on top through an upset or lost and say that it’s okay and she gave it her own after going through some problems. But them teaming up was surprising to see and like with Louise and Millie, would never imagine to live to see the day where someone like Linda would ever team up with someone like Colleen to take Joanne down, even if it’s off camera. So there’s that.


Onto the subplot we go and while Linda head out to attend the PTA meeting, Bob, Teddy, and the kids plan to head out to the local hardware store to get the supplies they need for the restaurant for the plumbing and oh yeah, bring the kids because kids love hardware stores. Despite that if you’re like an overreacting parent and sending a kid to hardware store, yeah that’s pretty much a PR nightmare to some. With all the tools and all that. Again, NOT a parent. Just putting it out there.


The five arrive at the hardware shop where were introduced to the owner of the shop, Mr. Kim, of course, voiced by friend to the blog Keisuke Hoashi, and also his son, but only for a brief second there. And while Teddy down to one of the aisle to get the supplies he needed and the kids decided to play around, Bob decided to have a small conversation with Mr. Kim to pass the time, only to derail quickly when Bob brought up the parrot, which causes him to exit stage left and upset over Bob bringing the parrot up. And when Teddy came up to Bob after getting his stuff, he ends up getting upset at Bob for bringing up the parrot right on toward Mr. Kim’s face and explains what Bob did has somewhat turned mildly offensive. It reveals that Mr. Kim really loved that parrot. It’s like the child he never had, no offense there Danny, and he was really, really close to that bird until that one unfaithful day when the parrot decided to fly away from the shop and ends up having him fall into the dumps and mentioning the parrot to Mr. Kim is pretty much a trigger warning. So uh, congrats Bob, you ruined a man’s self-esteem. Hope you’re proud of yourself.


Onto the next day while the kids play around with the tube with Tina holding on to it as Louise begins to put the ketchup to the tube for Gene to drink it up from it when Teddy comes in and not looking happy when coming back from the hardware shop and tells Bob if he was the one responsible for sending flowers to the guy. In which Bob replies that he did sent the flowers, which makes the situation even worse than before. Bringing in flowers to a guy who just lost his bird like that’s going to solve anything. Next thing you’ll know, you have to end bringing in a fruit basket and a card that said “Sorry about what happened the other day with the bird. Hope there’s no hard feelings.” Only for the card to have a bird in the cover and making the things even worse. That’s like if your friend comes to you with a broken arm that he or she received and decided to light the mood with a friendly banter and whatnot, only to create somewhat of a sour mood and ending up in the situation that Bob is currently at. Yeah, and because of Bob’s little jokey joke about the runaway parrot, Teddy lost his discount and has to buy sandpaper, which costs him $1.20 for the piece. So now Bob has to patch things up with the owner of the shop though that’s now going to be impossible because it’s like each and every time that Bob tries to apologize to him, the situation is getting even worse.


Onto the montage we go, sharing with the little shopping spree with both Linda and Joanne, we have Bob tries his best to come up with an apology gift for Mr. Kim and each time he tries to come up with a gift that doesn’t upsets him even more, whether if it’s a card that Tina found from the anniversary section, the card that I said earlier in the review, the next option for Bob to do and all we’re missing is a fruit basket, but Bob would rather not take the card because of course, it would make things worse. So the card option has been shot down. Unlike the next gift coming up in mind for Bob here...


He brought up a burger in the form of the bird. No, the burger patty does not come in the shape of the bird, try a regular burger with a toothpick as a neck connected to an olive that resembles a head with a French fry as a beak with chicken wings attached to the buns with the piles of fries of the wings or tail end of whatever. Bob thinks that this would be a good idea but the kids on the other hand, don’t think that’s a good idea. And then we get to later in the night when it’s the kids’ turn to create their own apology gift for Bob in a form of their own card, well drawing through what look like it’s coming from crayon and it looks like those posters you see whenever you go by on the streets and see the posters of a missing pet or a missing child rather than like an apology card.


So you could say that this subplot could probably turn into Bob trying to make amends with Mr. Kim by turning it into somewhat of a search and rescue mission to find the missing parrot. That didn’t happen. Though if that would’ve been the case for the subplot, either Bob or one of the kids would’ve gotten a lead on the whereabouts of the parrot. Yeah, that would’ve like lit the firecracker but instead, it’s like you found the perfect firecracker to light up on Fourth of July but then your partner found the other one and say, “Nah, let’s not have this one. Let’s have this one instead.”


Onto the next day as Linda tries to reason with Joanne about the whole thing with her buying things that isn’t for the auction but for herself, Bob gets a package from a guy, don’t know if we should probably check on the guy because he does look like he’s from like an underground crime chamber and whatnot, and he thought that it would get Mr. Kim to at least get a smile in his face for him to have apology accepted engraved. Except that it’s not a parrot that Bob got and instead...


It’s a pigeon. Yeah, so uh remember that flyer poster thing that the kids created? Yeah, it was spread out, don’t know if they have made it to the local printer shop to make some copies unless Bob hurt that owner’s feelings as well, and that guy saw the flyer and decided to find the bird, that happened to be a pigeon, and gives it to Bob for him to give it to Mr. Kim. But it looks like Bob isn’t going to take the pigeon as he is now back to square one when trying to cheer the owner up with the missing bird. At least Bob tried to make things right when it comes to finding the missing bird. Yeah, he kind of messed up but can you blame him for trying to patch things up? At least give him a participation trophy.


And then to the end of the episode and this is where I have some problems with how the writing and direction of the final two, three minutes of the episode was handled. So onto the next day following the PTA fallout with both Bob and the kids have their own parrot to deliver to Mr. Kim but it looks like they aren’t the only ones who are going to drop the bird to the store because it looks like Teddy brought in his own to do the same thing that Bob is doing. Bob only brought the parrot as the final shot to get his apology accepted by Mr. Kim. Teddy on the hand when holding his parrot, want to give it to him because he just wanted his discount back and the two have their race to see whose parrot is going to be Kim’s new bird. Only to not realize that once the two enter the venue...surprise...


The bird magically came back out of nowhere as Mr. Kim feeds the animal some food. Well could be that though Teddy thinks that the owner got a new bird as a replacement for his old one, the one who ran away, but that little feeding hour gets interrupted thanks to Bob and Teddy barging in with their birds and when Mr. Kim noticed that both Bob and Teddy barged in and have their birds in their hands, in the most rushed way possible to close out the episode, they decided to floor it by dropping the two cages with the birds in it while the current one flies around Mr. Kim, flies around the checkout counter as the two head out and exit stage left to close out the episode. Thought that we should probably like get a little more on the character of Mr. Kim and how the parrot ran away and how the parrot would look like to the viewer though of course, show don’t tell. We have to come up with a picture in our heads. And with the picture that the kids created with the parrot with the top hat, though got to give props to the kids for using their imagination of what the parrot would look like, thought this would be like into a search and rescue and whatnot to find the missing parrot, of course they has to be some leads in order for that to happen, which we didn’t get. More on that in the final thoughts of the episode, in about now.


Reaction/Thoughts:

So all and all, what do I think about this week’s penultimate episode of the ninth season of Bob’s Burgers? For a Linda episode despite that we only have two this season and this season alone, this was the better one of the two. Got to give Linda some credit where credit is due that even though she’s noticing earlier on in the episode that she is being used by Joanne, she did use her experience to drag her down to the ground and of course, come the event with the auction, grabbed some help from the last person that Linda would ever team up with.

A lot of people were hoping that with this episode and having Colleen coming back and play a role in the episode, whether as the antagonist or rather supporting, thought that it would be an all out battle, not in the form of fighting, more in the line of a bake sale and whatnot. Because in Season 7’s “Thelma and Louise (Except Linda is Thelma)”, the bake sale was mentioned and that was before Linda turned left and broke Louise of her in-school suspension and wanting to beat Colleen in that. I thought that this would be that episode to have ourselves an all-out bake sale with the two duking it out that could with going into one of three options, either it ends in a stalemate that would result in the two getting disqualified. Linda wins through an upset. Or Colleen wins and Linda has to accept the results despite going through some wrongs leading up to the big event. That didn’t happen and instead, we have an episode to tackle on corruption and with the PTA of all things.

Despite that there were some flaws in the way in the main plot in the episode, there were some moments that I like in this that didn’t downplay the episode. Case in point, the scene with Linda founding out about Joanne’s ties to the company that the PTA should get for the science kits for the seventh grade class. Got to give some props to the animators for having that thought bubble on top of Linda when putting the puzzle together. I mean, I know in every animated series, the thought bubble seems rather played out from the beginning of everything to now in this episode, it was a nice touch for the animation team to have. So that was something. Got to give a hand to the show for having stuff like that in the visual department.

The whole Colleen/Linda team up thing to take Joanne down was rather surprising to see and hear. Again, like with Louise and Millie in “The Silence of the Louise” back in Season 8, seeing these two working together was kind of unexpected. But of course, Linda can’t take Joanne down by her own and she got to need some help. In order to take down your enemy, you got to get some help from your enemy a la Silence of the Lambs or something like that, don’t shoot the messenger, and Linda has to turn for her opponent to take down her new opponent. Having her and the members who attended the meeting about what Joanne is doing and must find a way to strip her position away like they’re staging a coup d’état because of her being corrupt was something alright and because of that, Joanne is no longer in power but of course, now in need of a new leader. And if you’re probably thinking of what does this mean for both Linda and Colleen following this episode? Well, them being friends is very unlikely like with the events of “Mother Daughter Laser Razor” with both her and Cynthia because last we checked, this is a sitcom. And in sitcoms, the reset button is at everyone’s disposal. Linda and Colleen are not heading towards the same position with Louise and Millie because the writers humanize Millie despite that she’s pretty much cuckoo for cocoa puffs, this might slightly be more in the line of Tina and Tammy. They both hate each other. They pretty much have bad blood. They’re never going to get along anyway even though there are sometimes where either one of the two decided to help out like they don’t even have a choice. So you’ll never know.

The subplot, oh boy, the subplot. Still thought it would’ve been like a search and rescue mission for the lost parrot and for Bob to get his apology accepted by Mr. Kim. But that didn’t happen. While I have to give Bob some credit on trying to patch things up only make the situation even worse than before when trying to send him gifts from flowers to another bird with the idea of a card that Tina found to a burger he made thrown out from the option table, it’s pretty much squidly diddley when it comes to the direction of the subplot. Including of course, the final two to three minutes to close out the episode when both Bob and Teddy has to drop the birds off and not noticing that Mr. Kim got another bird already. I’m going on the limb and say his son Danny might’ve gotten him another bird because he can’t stand his dad being mopey. Yeah, that be my speculation on how Kim got another bird to replace the lost bird.

Was also hoping in the subplot is of course some things that should’ve like brought up from getting to know Mr. Kim a bit. Explain how the parrot flew away from him that made him sad over the unlikely experience. And of course, the ending. What I would’ve thought and like imagine if the subplot were given extra time where it’s both Teddy and Bob barging in of course with the parrots in their hands, but it’s Bob trying to reason with the owner and say that the person who he should be upset at would be him (Bob) and him only and not drag Teddy under the bus since he didn’t do anything wrong and just because he is friends with Bob doesn’t mean he gets the treatment that he should not deserve. That would’ve like make the subplot at least a decent one. Instead, it felt rushed because...squidly diddley. But at least Mr. Kim got a parrot, so at least there’s that.

So all and all, we have a Linda episode for this season was pretty much the better one than the other one in “Lorenzo’s Oil”, kept on bashing on that episode but that episode was like a total wreck in my opinion, don’t like my opinion? That’s fine, everyone is entitled with theirs. This was a decent, if not, an okay episode despite the flaws, some in the main plot and like 65% of the subplot, it didn’t downplay the episode and just glad that we have a good Linda episode in our screens. It’s not like in the form of let’s say “Lindapendent Woman” for example, but hey, at least we got a good episode with Linda on the spotlight. Something that we didn’t have throughout this season. So you better have that. Though yeah, looks like this episode has a rewatch option for y’all to prove me wrong when it comes to my opinions. Again, everyone is titled to their opinions. So I’ll give “PTA It Ain’t So”...


A low-end 8 out of 10. I mean, it’s not perfect but I can take it over the other one from this season because at least the main plot of the episode is going somewhere to say the least. Again, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I have stated mine. So that’s that for this episode and look at that, twenty one episodes down for this season and twenty one episodes for me to review. How am I even alive? Tune on May 12 in the Season Finale when the kids, for the last time this season we have an overload of kids episodes, consisting of Jimmy Jr, Louise, and Gene must find a way to save Zeke from being sent to another school but Tina on the other hand, in the quest for Jimmy Jr all to herself, ain’t gonna let that happen in the twenty-second episode of season nine, the season nine finale of Bob’s Burgers, “Yes Without My Zeke”. Was hoping for the mushroom episode to be that since Bouchard promised it but it looks like we don’t have things going in our way. Tell me what you think about this week's episode. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you think that Linda and Colleen should start getting along in the future? How would you fix the subplot? Any thoughts on what the season finale will hold for us? That and more in the comments below.

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