At least we don’t have to wait for the first episode to drop for another month. So that’s lucky. The first review and the first episode of the new year. The second half of the season and it’s not just your ordinary year, much like with every other year despite that the past two years are dog shit in a bag being lit on fire, but because at the end of the season...at the end of May...the movie will be released. The movie will be released and once this review is published, I have already posted my breakdown and thoughts on the trailer and synopsis for the film, so check out on that once you’re done reading it. Will I talk about predictions? Will I talk about theories? Will I talk about everything leading up to the movie? We’ll see. We’ll freaking fracking see, especially since we’re about to go on hiatus due to both the NFL playoffs and the Olympics. So we’ll see.
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, the teachers in Wagstaff gets evaluated by the students, including the Belcher kids, as part of Frond’s initiative to build trust between kid and adult as Bob and Linda discuss about where their final resting spot should be at in my spoilerific review of the eleventh episode of Season 12 of Bob’s Burgers, titled “Touch of Eval(uations)”.
Normally with the start of the review, I would spew certain topics or any random bullshit that may or may not tie in with the episode in question, but we’re talking about judging and evaluating. You know, casting our own honest opinions about certain items. Certain things are a form of entertainment, a certain item, or someone in your workspace via either a piece of paper, on a blog/email, or the old-fashioned way through gossip. That’s pretty much sums up this episode in a nutshell when having it focusing on the students of Wagstaff, including the Belcher kids, to evaluate the teachers at the school courtesy of Mr. Frond. Which we all knew that this was going to backfire when Louise senses the initiative for her and the students to have themselves a rule-free day. Pretty much holding the administrators not named Frond or Spoors hostage but also putting a strain onto LaBonz, who appears to be the focus in the episode. And to give the episode credit, other than focusing on Frond one too many times whenever there’s an episode, especially with Louise taking center stage, focusing on a character that has been given little to no focus is something that you don’t see in any of the past episodes that focus heavily on the Belchers. Edith was that one example in “Bobby Driver” in Season 9. And while it didn’t show some instances of that with this episode, despite that it was being predictable with Louise’s actions in the third act, you have to at least give this episode some credit.
And then you have the subplot where there’s pretty much not a lot to say other than Bob and Linda getting into a disagreement over the location of their final resting place and whatever item they’ll leave behind. Again, there’s pretty much not a lot to say when it comes to the subplot, so we might as well break down the episode bit by bit. Treating it like it’s this episode and how it’s being evaluated. This is “Touch of Eval(uations)”. Though I feel like they really shouldn’t add the parentheses in the title. I get that it’s a reference to a certain piece of media, being film, TV, or music, but I feel like the parentheses shouldn’t be added with the title of the episode regarding the evaluations. Just putting it out there.
And honestly enough, it didn’t take long for the Belcher kids to notice that something is off when entering Wagstaff for what would’ve been another dull day at school. From seeing Mr. Grant, the AV teacher, handing out a plate of brownies, Mrs. Jacobson complimenting Tina over a shampoo fragrance that she’s been using, Mr. DeSanto helping Peter Pescadero pushing the button on the water fountain, Coach Blevins complementing Rudy, to even Ms. LaBonz greeting Louise in a weird fashion...yeah, pretty weird like it almost feels out of character in their perspective like something has to be up. Almost feels like they saw a ghost or accidentally saw someone die and create a pact to make sure that what happened stayed with them a la “I Know What You Did Last Summer”.
I mean hell, when we transition to the fourth-grade class where you have LaBonz passing out forms from student to student, you begin to notice that something is really off as LaBonz pass out the papers, thinking that it’s a simple pop quiz, causing Louise to feel suspicious with what LaBonz is doing and thinks that her saying “five, five, five” doesn’t even feel like your usual pop quiz answers. And apparently, the form train doesn’t only appear in Louise’s class, but also Gene’s and Tina’s. Which leads us to the answer of what’s really going on here since the start of the school day for the kids.
And that comes from Mr. Frond through the intercoms announcing about the forms that each student within the campus they already received. Revealing to be evaluation forms and given an assignment to give their honest opinions on their teachers and must be turned in by the end of the day. So it’s pretty much Frond’s way for the students to give out Yelp reviews on their respective teachers, regardless of whatever class you’re in, and must be turned in by the end of the day. Why did Frond come up with the idea? There’s not a lot of explanation other than his way of saying that students and teachers should get along. It’s vague, but it’s a sitcom. You don’t question it. And it’s not just the Belcher kids from their respective classes, but also their peers who are also given the forms. With the characters with a few speaking roles including Rudy, Andy, Ollie, Jimmy Jr, Zeke, Tammy, and Jocelyn, of course, the usual suspects. But you also have the recurring characters that are pretty much there in the background as cardboard cutouts like Kaylee, Susmita, Hogarth, Harley, Arnold, Chloe, Alex, and Courtney who are also getting the forms as well, though won’t be getting of the action for the rest of the episode. And I’m sorry, can we point out this particular scene in Tina’s class for a bit. Because when the announcement of the evaluation forms was brought up by Frond, you have everyone doing their forms. You have Tammy and Jocelyn talking about evaluating.
Everyone but Tammy are filling their forms and one of the people who didn’t look at their paper for a brief moment before heading back to filling up the forms, you have Susmita in the background looking at Tammy. Don’t know if you wanna call it a random occurrence when doing background characters not following the script or maybe...and this is just a maybe, Susmita could have a possible grudge with Tammy over what happened back in “FOMO You Didn’t” when Tammy tricked both her and Tina to the half house so she can destroy the image that Tina worked so hard to get a good grade for photography class. Just because she, along with Jimmy Jr, Zeke, and Jocelyn are in the image despite being blurred due to Tina’s piss poor handling of carrying a camera. Hey, if Steelers fans can create various amounts of bullshit of thinking that they’re going to the Super Bowl now that they clinched a playoff spot, then why not us with Susmita and Tina and their relationship.
Louise has a light bulb being lit up above her head when finding out about the evaluation forms that Frond introduced to the whole school and decides to use Frond’s initiative to her advantage and treats it as if it’s the kids’ advantage as well when carrying around the forms. Pretty much holding the teachers of Wagstaff hostage and have themselves a rule-free day with the evaluation forms being carried with various students like a fucking firearm. I mean, we’re now at this day of age where a single negative review would destroy things. A single one-star on a Yelp review would shut a business down. We’re pretty much judgmental motherfuckers thanks to the internet. I mean this is America. Freedom of speech, everyone can state their opinion. And you can disagree with those opinions. And that’s what the kids, under Louise, are planning on doing for the whole day. And wouldn’t you guess that the item in question that triggered Louise to create the notion of holding the teachers hostage? Her shoebox diorama of her animal habitat with just a cotton ball attached to a pale blue shoebox that she assumes it’s a polar bear. Hoping to get a B-minus, but ends up getting a “C” instead. That and also the various times she did some stunts that landed her in the principal’s office, but no, the diorama is the sole reason for where this episode is heading.
And so begins the chaos for Wagstaff School with Louise telling everyone to use their evaluation papers as potential weapons to their respective teachers. And when switched over to Frond and LaBonz, you’d think that Frond, who came up with the idea of having the students evaluating the teachers of Wagstaff, would step in and stop Louise and everyone else from following Louise’s idea of holding the teachers hostage and keeping things in order. Hell, Ms. LaBonz pitted all of the blame onto Frond for starting the whole issue that gave the kids unlimited power with their forms at hand. Weaponizing their opinions if something goes back like again, a Yelp review. One negative review would destroy everything. Oh yeah, let’s also not forget what the teachers are fighting for with the student evaluations. A parking spot. That’s pretty much the only thing that each of the teachers are fighting for and whoever gets the most positive responses will get that spot in the lot. You might as well have them fight to the death over at a pit by recreating the Colosseum over at the playground.
But of course, LaBonz isn’t the only one who is against what Louise is doing with the evaluation forms because you have Tina, who is also against what Louise is doing and mishandling the forms as if they’re firearms hanging by the waist. Because that’s what you get whenever there’s a Louise episode. You have Louise planning something diabolical that could bite her right the ass. You have someone, probably Tina, going against what Louise is doing. Louise does the dirty deed before realizing that she did a wrong and proving their point. It’s getting fucking stale. This shit getting old. So old in fact that while tweeting what I said during the episode premiere is where you have one of the interns working for the show liking that said tweet.
There’s no joke. I’m not making this shit up. That actually happened. I don’t know if this is one of the interns agreeing to the notion that they’re starting to get tired of the formula that they’ve been following since...well, a while. Or maybe a random occurrence. Now, don’t get me wrong. That Louise learning a lesson thing from “Manic Pixie Crap Show” earlier in the season was something I gave a pass because it was a very nice lesson about the topic of gender norms and Louise being different from the rest of the girls over something that they like. And I guess that moment from “The Cook, The Steve, The Gayle, and Her Lover” from Season 6 was something but for the rest of time in the current state of the show is where you’re going to lose some people. Would I enjoy the show right now if they decide to bring Louise’s chaotic side back? Yes. Will she go far with the idea? No, because everyone has limits and Louise pretty much has hers when doing some stuff that she’s not supposed to do. But it does feel like it has been used one too many times? Apparently so. And I don’t wanna be the messenger of bad news, there’s more coming in future episodes. It pretty much boils down to using a dartboard to get ideas rather than using imagination or creativity.
We get the montage, well, you have a brief news break from Tammy and Jocelyn before going into montage mode with them interviewing Mr. Grant about the evaluations and also keeping him hostage by answering their questions...live on the air. It’s like he doesn’t even want to do any of things of the kids doing whatever the fuck they want to do but because a certain parking space being in question of the top prize for each of the administrators, being Grant, Jacobson, Twitchell, LaBonz, Blevins, and DeSanto, are gunning for and they need to play nice with the students in hopes to get that sweet, sweet spot in the parking lot as the main prize. Hence, the montage with the teachers keeping their cool whenever scene we go through this very montage from Zeke clapping two erasers as a fog machine with Jimmy Jr dancing or Gene changing the “B” and “K” in book report to two Ps for his class. You’d think by now either one would break before the end of the day and say that enough is enough. But that would ruin their chances to get the parking spot if they were to make one kid upset to force their hands to write down one bad review.
This leads us to lunchtime with both Gene and Louise sitting on the table and eating their lunch with Tina being the only Belcher sibling to abide by the rules and sit like a normal human being. And apparently, while Louise and Gene did enjoy their time of creating minor anarchy with the evaluations they’re carrying as weapons to the teachers, Louise seems that something is missing when doing these evaluations that Frond gave to them. While she enjoys the rule-free day that was given with these papers at hand, she still seems to be bothered over the notion of getting a “C” in her grade for that diorama and thinks that maybe she should get back at her teacher by going hard on her. As in she’s ready to give out a bad review onto LaBonz over a bad grade that she should’ve gotten a good grade from that minimalistic project. And much to Tina’s dismay and wanting Louise to back down, Louise ain’t going to take prisoners and begin to write down her negative reviews onto LaBonz.
Switching over to the end of the day with the kids turning in their forums and as everyone makes their way to exit stage left, you have Louise being the only student in the classroom with LaBonz wanting to hear what she has to say about her. And by that, I mean finishing up the work by writing down the negative responses, and rather than handing it over to LaBonz for her to check out, she handed it over to Mr. Frond on his way to his office for the results to be revealed for each teacher. But before that, we get to Louise with her form and decides to read out her opinions about LaBonz to Tina, who pretends to be LaBonz, and giving Tina, as LaBonz, the results and looking at Louise’s face...yeah, it looks like she now feels bad for the roast-fest that she pulled out and now decides to patch things up. Yep, predictable regarding Louise’s actions in this episode after deciding to have a rule-free day at school and now want to get the form back and rewrite her response for something that she thought it was a good idea to get back at her teacher for getting a bad grade for the diorama. After finding out about a good grade and a positive response from LaBonz regarding her country report on Latvia. So uh, congrats Latvians, you got mentioned by the show and also have Louise to have a change in mind and make sure she doesn’t ruin a teacher’s life.
Leading us to the hour of truth by Frond’s office as the teachers of Wagstaff await their fate on who wins that lucky spot over at the parking lot as Louise comes up to Frond along with Tina and Gene in tow. Having both of her siblings to create a diversion as Louise try to get her form out of Frond’s bag but is unable to get it as Frond gets closer and closer to his office. And when he finally made it to his office and begin evaluating each teacher one by one, it may seem that the Belcher kids, mostly Louise, hit a dead end. Now, imagine you’re in Louise’s shoes when dealing with the current situation. You were unable to distract Frond and take the form that you wrote negative responses to your teacher and replace it with positive ones. What would you do? The first thing to come up in your mind is to knock on the door during the evaluation. But that would be stupid to come up with. Your next option would be to pull the fire alarm. That would be the best bet for Louise to do in interrupting the process and causing everyone to evacuate. Sensing the perfect opportunity to snatch the form even though there’s a possibility that either Frond takes his bag with him for a safe instance because he has a string of yarn attached to his arm like freaking handcuffs. But if you notice when Frond was interviewing the teachers once we get to him and LaBonz, the yarn is gone, and usually with fire drills while attending school back in the day, you leave your shit behind and get the fuck out of dodge. Though sometimes some students take their stuff with them for no reason whatsoever. Let’s also not forget that you have the sprinklers and it would result in the papers being badly damaged due to the water. So that leaves the final option that leads us to the next scene of the episode at the final moments of the main plot...
You have Louise using the intercom and sharing her updated response to the evaluation, interrupting Frond’s interview with LaBonz as she is prepared to do each form. Didn’t go with Louise’s first because it’s probably shuffled by random from each fourth grader in attendance who’ve done the evaluation, but Louise has to intervene and give her teacher some praise for once in her life. And while I’m giving the episode some flack over the fact that it’s a Louise episode and her episodes nowadays with Louise learning a lesson by the end and backs out from a scheme that she planned getting old and old that you can already sense it right away when watching the episode. But...I may have to give this episode some credit for what they’re doing when pointing the spotlight on a recurring character that hasn’t been the primary focus in their time on the show and LaBonz is that character being in focus. We always see LaBonz as one of the adults in the school, along with Frond, that can get into Louise’s nerves and deal with her troublemaking ways. She’s just rarely there other than teaching her class and disciplining Louise like a normal teacher would do. So the idea of giving LaBonz a primary role other than the secondary or background position in this episode is pretty much where I have to give the episode credit despite calling out the overused formula of getting Louise to learn a lesson like we’re watching a Disney Channel sitcom. But regardless of the issue with the episode, I have to give some credit to the episode in giving LaBonz the limelight with Louise’s evaluation of her.
Which makes sense in the final moments of the episode to the next day after Louise gives LaBonz through the intercom with her positive response over what she's doing. LaBonz’s reason for giving Louise that “C” in her grade for the diorama was to motivate her to work hard to get a good grade and Louise did that when she did her country report on Latvia, in which she got an A-minus for that oral presentation. And it did help her to get that good grade. Hell, Tina and Gene when they had her back in their fourth-grade days got the same experience long ago and it looks like Louise got the same thing that her siblings have gone through. Ending the episode with another day of school, back to normal it seems, with the kids making their way to the building and LaBonz finally got the lot thanks to her. And while the kids are playing judge and mess around thinking that they got a rule-free day at school...
Over at the restaurant with the subplot of the episode, you have Mort coming into with a tired look over his clients fighting over who gets to call dibs on an autographed photo of the late Patrick Swayze and it’s for a funeral for a guy who died and left without a will. Hence, the fight that broke out over a photo. And this is where the theme and topic of the subplot is solely going to be focused on, the topic of leaving stuff behind and where to be buried. Teddy already got his will set, of course to Bob, to give him his arrowheads, even though they’re pretty much rocks. Though Mort already has his final days planned, as well as how we wanted since he was a kid using Playmobil figures. So that’s something coming from him. But as everyone got their plans for when they die, Bob and Linda on the other hand...they got nothing. Nothing. Not one item to give away or how they want to be buried when they die. I know that your first guess when it comes to the idea of leaving something behind before they die would be the restaurant itself. We already know that Louise will be the one who is going to take over from Bob once he retires, her words back in “Carpe Museum” from Season 3. So it pretty much comes down to Bob and Linda having nothing to think about in both giving away stuff and how they want to be buried. It mostly boils down to cost because why not.
When we get to the planning stages of the burial and will giving, yeah, it doesn’t go well because let’s be honest to ourselves...God, they’re motherfucking poor to the tee. They’re the definition of the word “poor” when trying to come up with something in having a proper burial that their idea might as well be dumping their corpse into a river. A Viking funeral would be the best option but where are they going to find a boat? A touch stick? They’re not even related to the Vikings? Oh, but at least what Teddy will get if Bob and/or Linda die and that is pretty much all the food from the fridge. I mean, knowing Teddy, at least he can be supportive at best. Though poor Gene who would one day get that same idea later in getting the food from the fridge.
And it didn’t long until both Bob and Linda get into a bit of a disagreement over how they wanted to be buried. Bob wanted to do the old-fashioned way of what to do with the remains of him and Linda by being buried to the ground. But Linda disagrees and wants their remains to be burned and turned to ash. No sign of a compromise whatsoever between the two Belcher adults over how they want to do with their remains once their time comes. Bob wants to be buried on a hill and under a tree, thinking that it’s them having a forever picnic. Though Linda senses a con when having the idea of them being buried to the ground. That being worms. Yeah...worms. I mean to be fair, you’re dead and have to be buried underground, so it’s basically nature for your bodies to be decayed and sometimes animals like worms or vultures or even cats can eat up the dead body like it’s a Hawaiian luau. Not to mention that it would be over at the cemetery and the setting can be haunting. That and also teenagers. It’s always about the teenagers, especially goths on Halloween because why not. Let’s also not forget about grave robbing and also a potential zombie apocalypse if that were to happen later in the kids’ lives and their dead parents’ corpses rising from the ground and we may be looking at a potential Walking Dead situation.
Linda wants their bodies to be created and have their ashes to be put in an urn and how she wanted her and Bob’s ashes to be thrown out probably out of the ordinary. By going on a moving boat out at sea and spreading their ashes into the water. Dump the ashes in the air via plane. Hell, go on a joyride on a DeLorean and hit the speed at 88 mph to spread their remains on the open road. I mean, leave it to Linda for trying to come up with creative ways on what to do with dumping her and Bob’s remains once their time comes. Though Bob disagrees and is unable to create a compromise where both sides can agree on. I’m surprised that neither one picked the idea of donating their bodies to science as one of the options on what to do with dead bodies. Well, at least there’s someone who pretty much got their plan for his finals days all set up leading up to the next scene.
And that is Mr. Fischoeder, who enters the restaurant because it’s that time of the month where he was hoping to collect the rent from Bob but ends up falling short. And if the synopsis didn’t include the sinkhole threatening the neighborhood in front of the restaurant, you would have the film feel like a rethread to “Burger War” back in Season 1. Fischoeder stumbled into the conversation about how they would be buried after Bob and Linda failed to come up with a compromise on how they wanted to be buried and brought up his plans on how he wanted to do with his remains and that is to have his remains thrown into an active volcano in what he thinks would be some sort of ritual from a random cult. Not technically at the same level as an Aztecan sacrifice where they rip your heart out as a way to please their gods but he’s rich, so it’s basically random rich guys doing rich guys things. Especially when talking about how they want to do with their remains.
Of course, to close out the episode, Bob and Linda are still deadlocked and fail to create a compromise on what to do with their remains and instead would go to the old-fashioned route by trying not to die. And here comes Bob coming in and telling Linda that no matter what happens after they die, they’ll at least get to be together before looking back at the brochure of the burial plot before looking at the price to close out the subplot of the episode. Yeah, you might as well say that the subplot was nothing more than Bob and Linda getting into a debate/argument over certain ideas with the topic of what to do with the remains being the topic of the week. So should I call the subplot as a potential waste of time? Kind of. I mean, it pretty much went nowhere once Bob and Linda get into a debate over what to do with their remains once they die. At least Fischoeder’s brief time in the episode did shed light onto the episode that his song about being thrown at an active volcano in the credits seems to be the entire highlight of the episode.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Well, it’s an alright episode. An enjoyable one to say the least despite the many flaws being thrown onto the episode that may have downplayed it. One of which is that because it’s a Louise episode and it’s the same ol’ formula of Louise doing something she’s not supposed to do and someone, being Tina or someone else, would be against it. You know? Her learning a lesson and whatnot. And the subplot to the episode, yeah, what was supposed to be a subplot that may have shown some promise regarding Bob and Linda’s future turned it into another case of them getting into a debate on whether being buried or cremated.
And even though the formula nowadays when it comes to Louise episodes are starting to get stale by the minute, I do have to give the episode some credit. Not a lot, but some credit on what they’re doing and give a character that has no attention to the spotlight since the show’s humble beginnings and gave Ms. LaBonz the primary position regarding the evaluations that Frond passed out to the entire school and have the students holding the teachers hostage throughout the day. How Louise has gone through a complete 180 from wanting to get back at LaBonz for giving her a “C” for her diorama that she was hoping to get a solid “B” and then finds out that the reason why she gave her the grade is because it’s her way to motivate her to perform better and Louise did later on and got herself an A-minus for her oral presentation on Latvia. So while I could argue that the whole issue with how Louise episodes pan out nowadays with the current state of the show and Louise keep on learning a lesson, I have to give this episode some credit over giving LaBonz some focus and development. So that’s something. I mean it’s one of those rare occasions where a side character gets the spotlight and do wish we could do some more. Especially since we’re now only five fucking months left in the film. Sure, we have Season 13 coming up and we’re most likely to be renewed for two more seasons, but still. Five months until the movie. I know they won’t be thinking about it and treat it like it’s a one-time thing, but come on. Give us more of that shit, will ya?
The subplot, I’m going to sound like a broken record, pretty much gone nowhere with whole the idea of the adults talking about the idea of what to do with their remains once they’re gone. Though I do have to give some credit for the subplot with Fischoeder having his few seconds of fame about having his remains being thrown into an active volcano and even having a song to sing about in the credits. That I have to make as the highlight of the episode, in the subplot at least, whereas the rest of the subplot is pretty much Bob and Linda not reaching a compromise on how they want to do with their bodies once they die that you might as well treat the Bob/Linda argument in the subplot as the show’s version of the ongoing Elmo vs Rocko feud that’s been going on as of late. Welcome to 2022, folks! Where a feud between a Muppet and a rock became a headline over an ongoing pandemic. But yeah, the subplot feels like it was going nowhere with Bob and Linda trying to get a compromise going over what to do with their bodies but ends up falling short all the way to the end of the episode.
So final thoughts, the episode was enjoyable, there’s no bullshitting there. It was but it has some problems along the way as the episode progresses. LaBonz being the focus with Louise doing her evaluation forms was something and I got to give the episode some credit in giving the limelight to a character that has little to no focus throughout the show’s history. Though again, the whole moral thing with Louise is getting stale by the moment. The subplot, other than Fischoeder being there, feels like it went nowhere with Bob and Linda struggling to find a compromise with their bodies once they die. So I’ll give “Touch of Eval(uations)”...
A 6 out of 10. But that’s pretty much my opinion and now I wanna hear yours. Tell me what you think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you like the idea of LaBonz being given the spotlight? Do you think that the subplot would’ve done a little more? And you do agree with Fischoeder in dumping your remains in an active volcano? All that and your mini-review in the comments down below. I apologize that the review came out late from this past Sunday’s airing. I had to work on the breakdown and analysis to the trailer for the upcoming Bob’s Burgers movie, which is available on this very site, so you can go and check it out once you’re done reading this review.
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