It’s Mother’s Day, ladies and gentlemen. And I know that once the review is posted, Mother’s Day has already come and gone. But these reviews are usually posted before the midnight hour on Tuesday going into Wednesday. So technically if you live in Latin American countries like Mexico, the episode came out on the 8th, meaning that it’s not technically late on posting it on Mother’s Day there, or “Dia de la Madres” down south of the border. But besides all of that, we’re now two episodes down until the movie and the offseason. And for anyone wondering if I’m gonna review the movie once it comes out? I’m trying too. Just to find the perfect format of how I want to review it. And also trying to think of a way to get screencaps without getting into legal trouble and Disney ready to send firing squads to my house. I’ll at least try to watch on opening weekend...once tickets are available. Don’t know if by the time I’m currently working on the review or posting it is when we would expect the damn thing to drop.
On this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, the Belcher Kids on this Mother’s Day must track down a lost family recipe from Linda’s side of the family but has to settle an old family feud that’s been plaguing them for a really long time in my spoilerific review of the twentieth episode of Season 12 of Bob’s Burgers, titled “Sauce Side Story”.
And nothing screams a holiday like Mother’s Day like trying to end a family feud that lasted for generations. And this isn’t like the family feud that you think of where you play the game and must fill the board through various surveys. As I said, this family feud lasted for three generations. Three generations of family members from Linda’s side of the family want to not be around them and potentially want to rip each other throats off. And this is exactly what the Belcher kids are doing to at least try to put an end to it on this year’s Mother's Day episode as a way to get a certain recipe from the one side of the family as a way to impress Linda.
Speaking of which, all those moments from this season regarding Linda. The time when she mentioned about a dead dog that used to live next door during her childhood. The flashback of the smashing pumpkins incident. The name of the hometown that she and Gayle grew up in, as well as what the town looks like. The Linda is real, folks. That is pretty much what this season, despite having a lot of problems to state just one issue with it despite that we’re only down to two episodes left before closing the books on it, has led us to this. The revelation of her maiden name. And also her family history. It almost feels like we just got our cake but for some reason, we somehow lost our appetite. The cake is pretty much the lore regarding Linda and her side of the family and the loss of appetite is the current season and how it underperformed and could leave you with a sour note in your mouth. But hey, we’re pretty much suckers for some good ol’ info-dumping from this show and it looks like we ain’t waiting for the movie to get what we want. Let’s stick our forks into a bowl of what is pretty much this episode in a nutshell, this is “Sauce Side Story”.
So the episode begins with some last-minute preparations for this Mother’s Day holiday. How last-minute? Well, you have Bob whisking a bowl with his finger. Yeah, this is how low we have gotten but what do you expect coming from him having to do all of the work to impress Linda on this Mother’s Day while the kids are pretty much there. Sitting at the table and pretty much doing nothing other than well...waiting for breakfast to land on their table. But at least kids did something on this Mother’s Day in hopes to impress the person who gave birth to them by showing off a card...that Tina has to do all of the work while Gene and Louise supervise. Really showing off some of Tina’s talents when working on the card. Mad art skills to be honest here. But it looks like according to the kids, it might not be enough with just a simple card that they made that almost every kid in the country did the same freaking fracking thing every Mother’s Day holiday.
Linda enters the kitchen with a box of stuff that she is carrying and decides to show it off to everyone regarding her family. From a photo of her late grandmother Claudia to a family tree and finally...finally...after twelve seasons being on the air, we have finally got it, folks. We got Linda’s maiden name and according to the family tree that was shown to the kids, it’s “Gennaro”. Yep, Linda’s maiden name before taking the surname “Belcher” when marrying Bob was indeed “Gennaro”, spelled with two Rs. And as much I give a lot of crap to this current season of Bob’s Burgers because let’s face it, this season has not been great, with the exception of episodes like “Manic Pixie Crap Show” and “Loft in Bed-slation”, has gone through a range from bad to borderline average as if the crew is suffering through some sort of burnout while working in between the show and the movie. But despite the crap that I gave the season, despite that we’re only two episodes left in the season, that being the two-parter, throughout this season, we have gotten some stuff regarding the lore of the show. Finding out that someone used to own the building before the Belchers moved in was one item from the list. Louise getting a new bed and getting to stick around in future episodes is another. The teasing of the sidewalk leading up to the movie later this month. But above all else, anything info dump regarding Linda has pretty much been the highlight of this season.
Sure, we didn’t get any mention of a maiden name in “The Pumpkinening” aside from the town that she and Gayle came from after getting the letters that someone saw the two accidentally smashing pumpkins as if they’re pretending to be Gallagher with the watermelons. But it was leading up to this. It was finally leading up to this episode where we finally got a last name coming from a folded-up piece of paper that contains her family tree. And as I said in the introduction to the review, we finally got our cake but somehow lost our appetite. We got Linda’s maiden name and Bouchard and the writers delivered, but for some reason, we felt nothing because of how crap this season has been. At least we got to know the maiden name from Linda and now changing Tumblr tags over at the page is going to be a pain in the neck. Louise notices the portion of the tree being scratched out and this is where we get the lore of Linda’s side of the family on this Mother’s Day.
So the reason why that side of the family tree was scratched out was because of the two sides of the family, the Joeys and the Tonys, being the members who are related to Joey and the members who are related to Tony aren’t on equal footing. They used to get along in what is pretty much your typical Italian family, revealing Linda’s Italian heritage, this was way before Linda was ever born, where her great-grandmother Maria had four kids and doesn’t have a lot of money. And noticing the coloring that was used in the flashback, using the sepia effect, this pretty much highlights that the feud may have started during the Great Depression, with one of her sons, Tony, working by the docks to provide for the family in hopes to buy a dream house out of state in Staten Island. But one of his relatives, Joey, already did his part by marrying a rich girl and pretty much got the easy way out. Would say you would compare this to last season’s Los Angeles Rams where they get every A-list superstar to be on the roster and have an easy path to a title. But they won a Super Bowl, so uh...eh.
So both sides of the family used to get along once the night of the incident occurred when Joey invited everyone for a nice dinner with Linda’s great-grandmother Maria bringing in her famous Bolognese sauce and were having a nice time at the table. Showing off some of her now long-dead relatives, one of which being Linda’s late grandfather Burt, i.e. Grandpa Potato, being one of those people who were there when the moment happened. They had a nice night of being at the dinner table but once Joey was about to get a sprinkle of parmesan cheese into his plate is when Tony accidentally stabbed him in the hand with his fork. And thus, the rest became history.
And you think normally with stuff like this, you probably think that it’s just an accident. He didn’t see where Joey’s hand was going. Apologize for what happened. Saying that he didn’t see his hand coming for the bowl and possibly let bygones be bygones. That’s not the case for Linda’s family and that simple incident is pretty much their version of the shot heard around the world with both sides of the family getting into a heated debate over whether what happened was either an accident or it was intentional. Tony’s side of the family thought it was an accident but Joey’s side of the family thought it was intentional. To the point where the Tony side of the family got kicked out of the house in the pouring rain and those two sides never talked to each other ever again. But why stop there?
Because later on in Linda’s story, when her great-grandmother Maria passed, Joey, his wife Daniela, and their kid paid a visit, not to pay respects but instead, to steal the recipe and claim it as theirs ever since. And Claudia knows the recipe by memory once Linda came into the picture but when she died...that’s about it. Nothing more than a memory. And finding the missing recipe is nearly impossible to find. Mostly because since the incident and each family member biting the dust, they had never seen eye-to-eye, and even if they did, keeping themselves together without wanting to murder each other would be a challenge. And that’s the story of the family feud that’d been plaguing the family for generations. An ugly mess that would never be resolved all because of one minor incident that is nothing more than...well, an accident. But the Joey side of the family sees that it was intentional, as in Tony only did that because the only logical reason to come up with their side of the story is that Tony was jealous because he got a dream house with enough money by marrying a rich girl and he didn’t. And that’s where we’re stuck with. Two sides want to not deal with each other over someone being stabbed by a piece of metal and a bowl of sauce. But is that going to stop the kids from planning on doing something that they shouldn’t do on this Mother’s Day? Of course not!
We transition to the restaurant where Teddy deals with a predicament of his own on Mother’s Day because his mom got a tattoo that she hated on her back and wants to have a laser tattoo removal. Which only cost about...oh...looking at a low cost at $500. A $500 laser tattoo removal because you don’t like the tattoo on your back. Then why do you even have it in the first place? Apparently, she did it because she was in the group and the tattoo consisted of a pair of playing cards. But now that she’s no longer a part of the group, because of her competitive nature, she wants it removed and has Teddy to do the dirty work by paying half a grand to get it removed. And here comes Bob and Linda to step in and help Teddy out in why getting rid of the tattoo might not be a good idea and instead should wear it with pride. A bit of an upgrade is now the name of the game in this subplot that feels nothing more than pure filler. And while that is happening...
The Belcher kids, questioning what to do to give Linda a gift on Mother’s Day, they’re doing a little digging for themselves after listening to Linda’s story about a long-lasting family feud that’s been plaguing that side for decades and found one of Linda’s relatives from the Joey side who appears to live eight miles up north. Hopefully that they could get their hands on the recipe and surprise Linda as a Mother’s Day gift. But for that, they need a ride there. Of course, Bob wouldn’t do it because he got his own issues regarding the subplot with Teddy and the back tattoo. And also him telling the kids to wait for another year to go search for the missing recipe because fuck you. So with Bob out, they don’t have a designated driver to take them there. Or so we thought because if Bob can’t drive them, that leaves the next person up on the list to drive them there and no, they can’t take a bus to the next town over. Or rather a taxi, an Uber, a Lyft. But instead, they’ll be taking the ride-sharing service of using Gayle as their carpool up north...who just got her license back after it was suspended due to bad eyesight. Which almost sounds right regarding the idea of having Gayle to be the kids’ next best bet to drive them to Linda’s cousin Lorraine in Bottom Hook.
And as Gayle and the kids are making their way to Bottom Hook to retrieve the missing recipe, it looks like we got yet another backstory regarding the feud between the Tony side of the family and the Joey side, and apparently, the fork incident wasn’t enough to have the two sides hating each other because there’s also the incident during the wedding that fan the flames even further. Whose wedding? Gloria and Al. Switching over back to Flashback Central with Gloria and Al in their younger days with them tying the knot. Claudia uses the wedding ceremony as a way to play nice and hopes that a special event like a wedding would have two sides to make amends and put this ugly mess aside from decades ago. Or in this case, a potential ceasefire. Yeah...that didn’t pan out well as what Claudia wanted because Lorraine want to show off her dress in white, which could mistake it as a wedding dress and pretty much one-up her on her special day, and then it turned into a fistfight between the bride and guest. Not the peaceful wedding that Claudia was hopeful for. Hopefully, the cake wasn’t touched during that confrontation. Because that would be bad.
Switching over to see how the Teddy subplot was doing with the back tattoo. Also quick update on the sidewalk, the condition is still getting worse. Shame that no one tripped for this week. Back to our regularly scheduled program with Linda recreating what the tattoo looks like from memory and giving it a few touchups with...what was supposed to be the queen card throwing something up and leaving a trail. Either that or her piss poor attempt at drawing an accordion. And you have Bob to step in and do something to at least help the guy out rather than just erase everything and put the chalkboard back up and now he drew the accordion on the chalkboard. This subplot feels dragged out in this episode, so let’s head back to the main plot to see what Gayle and the kids are doing.
They finally made it to Bottom Hook and at Lorraine’s house to get the recipe but sadly, Lorraine is not available at the moment and instead, it’s her son Nico, voiced by John Gemberling, who finally meets Linda’s kids as his cousins...third cousins possibly removed and of course, Gayle has to lie her way for two things: get the sauce and make sure they don’t get caught red-handed. And two...she wants to make a fib when it comes to her daily life. Though when hearing Gemberling voicing Nico, sure, getting a hint of Russell from The Great North, but just to put it out there...how is he not the new voice for Alex? No, seriously. Nothing wrong with Paul Rust voicing the character earlier in the season despite the difference in voice tones between him and Middleditch... it's just why didn’t you cast him as the new voice? I get that the allegations against Middleditch threw a wrench onto the production of the season (and possibly the film) but just putting it out there, knowing the pitch in voicing, please consider this as a “testing the waters” move. Also, Nico was this close to finding out that Gayle and the kids are from the Tony side of the family when repainting his figure but apparently he doesn’t seem to mind because Lorraine isn’t here, currently out to run some errands, Nico doesn’t mind if they’re from Tony’s side as long as he finally met some long-lost cousins. Gained his trust and so begins the heist to get the recipe.
As we check up on the subplot of the episode once again with Teddy struggling to come up with an idea for the tattoo and he decides to create his own modification to the design while being busy with the chalkboard...by giving it wheels and appears to be driving on a car. A drawing that can only come out from what is pretty much by a four-year-old playing a drawing guessing game. But it looks like that might be the design that Teddy will go with in hopes to convince his mom to reconsider with the tattoo removal. And of course, to intertwine with the main plot, you have Bob trying to keep it hush-hush from Linda about what the kids are doing. Not knowing that the kids and Gayle already made their way to Bottom Hook and paid a visit to Lorraine in hopes to get the recipe for the sauce that was once belonged to Linda’s great-grandmother.
Speaking of them, we switch back to the house with Nico showing off a photo album with a picture of his great-great-uncle Joey and there’s like a lot of photos as if the Joey side of the family when it comes to photo albums are probably filled with potential propaganda or something. Louise tries to change the subject and tells Nico if there’s something that they’re most interested in other than just photos of an elderly Joey. Causing him to head off to find another album and giving the kids and Gayle some time to sneak around the kitchen to find the lost recipe. Luckily for them, they located the box of recipes on top of the fridge and take a dive into the box before Gayle stuffs it into her fanny pack just as Nico comes back in with another photo album in his hands to make sure nothing suspicious is going on regarding the box...
Only for Lorraine to finally made it back home with the kids and Gayle being cornered and are on the verge of being busted. Finding out that “Linda” from Gayle’s little fib when trying to make an impression is related to Gloria, so that’s one-half true since Gayle is also related to her mother, and was ready to go all out when finding out that Gayle and the Belcher kids are related to Gloria and them being related to Tony, as well as belittling Nico for allowing them into the house, much to Gayle’s dismay and hopes to get the recipe and getting the hell out of dodge, Louise has to lie their way by telling Lorraine that Joey is right about the incident and thought that what Tony did was intentional. Again, trying to play nice in hopes to get out of dodge with the recipe box in hopes to get the missing recipe for Linda on this Mother’s Day. And just as they’re about to head out and go back to Seymour’s Bay before the sun sets, it looks like Gayle and the kids are staying put by Lorraine and invited them to a small dinner of rotisserie chicken and Sprite. Surprise the laws of television didn’t even bother changing the name of the soda but because of the movie coming in theaters, we gonna need that sweet, sweet dinero into the pockets of the show...it’s mostly Disney who would be getting the big bucks.
Checking back to the subplot with Teddy as he gets a message from his mom on the phone. Telling him by saying sorry for the wait time for her to respond. Telling him her location at an estate sale and also got a good pair of rollerblades. And want to see the design on the skin. Teddy’s skin to be exact by using the pen to draw the art as a preview. Which would require Teddy to take off his shirt and possibly some fanservice for the guy. I know there are some Teddy fans who like those things. We know who y’all are. Except for that poor fodder customer who now has a front-row seat to the action.
We go back to Lorraine’s house for a small dinner of chicken and Sprite and even though the soda isn’t cold and the chicken isn’t warm, at least they got a bite to eat and for them to head out with the box inside Gayle’s fanny pack but is unable to leave the house without having a conversation. Of course, the topic of conversation was Gloria and of course, throwing a lot of shade onto her. I mean, the Belcher kids, they kinda have a right to bash their grandmother though again, trying to play nice while having the recipe box inside Gayle’s fanny pack. But of course, Gayle doesn’t seem to want to stay cool while listening to her cousin bashing her mother regarding the incident with the wedding. Like she knew that it could ruin the kids’ plan to get Linda the perfect Mother’s Day gift but hearing someone from the Joey side of the family bashing on Gloria...yeah, she wasn’t having it. To the point where she accidentally stabbed Nico while getting another piece of chicken and thus...here we go again with the feud. That and also the recipe box fell into the ground as they were preparing to leave. Busting them red-handed and fan the flames even further. Almost feels like our attempted relationship with North Korea.
So the truth is out about Gayle and the kids being related to Tony while trying to apologize for what happened with Nico with Gayle accidentally stabbing him with a fork while trying to get a piece of chicken. And just as the arguing is about making things even worse for the kids, Louise steps in and explains what is happening that led them to where we are now. They came here because they heard from Linda that the Joey side of the family has the recipe for the Bolognese sauce and because Lorraine is related to Joey, therefore, she has it. Though you shouldn’t count out other family members, just putting it out there. But Lorraine reveals that she doesn’t have the recipe. In fact, she stated that the Joeys don’t have it at all and accuses the Tonys of hogging the recipe. So it’s basically a back-and-forth argument over who had the recipe since Maria’s passing that was one of the issues that caused the family feud and have the two sides of the family not speak with each other besides the incident at the dinner table and the other incident during Gloria’s wedding. But regardless of who said who and treating a decades-long feud as if this were...well, nothing more than a normal argument over at the dinner table on Thanksgiving between you and your racist conservative uncle. So the kids pretty much fell short in getting Linda something on Mother’s Day when finding out that the sauce recipe is forever gone because the rest of Claudia’s stuff after her passing got donated to a thrift shop and well...whoever got the recipe from the shop is now the holder and possibly gotten a few bucks if they were to patent it. It’s back to the drawing board for the kids on their way back home.
Almost there to the finish line where Teddy got his preview tattoo on his back courtesy of Linda doing some pen drawing as a canvas and just as he was about to put his shirt on and keep it so he and his mom can share the ink together, he gets a message from the mentioned woman of the hour and telling him that she wanted the tattoo removed. Back to square one and for Teddy to go back to pay the $500 fee for the ink to be removed. Two more episodes, man. Only two more episodes until we’re done for the season...well, two episodes and a movie. And I think there was a short but it’s an Alamo Drafthouse and there’s one where I’m at but it’s almost an hour away from where I’m at. So uh...there’s that. Other than that, it’s back to square one with Teddy after getting the message of his mom getting the tattoo removed from her back. Thank you for potentially wasting our time.
And we’re at the two-minute warning as Gayle and the kids enter back to the restaurant empty-handed as the kids tell Linda about where they went and how their trip went. Of course, they don’t have the sauce recipe that they’ve been looking for all-day in hopes to impress their mother on Mother’s Day because neither side of the family has it in their possession when they paid a visit to Lorraine’s in Bottom Hook. And also to come out and say that the whole feud that lasted for decades over someone being forked in the hand at the dinner table is...well, stupid. It’s a stupid feud. A stupid little confrontation that tore the family apart over one freaking accident at the dinner table. That made the Pig War of 1859 look like an actual confrontation. And yes, that actually happened over the shooting of a pig, even though the background was over an inhabitable island in between Washington and British Columbia. Go look it up. The kids are pretty much sick and tired of the feud and it was getting to the point where the kids had to go and clean up the mess that the adults made and just want this to stop. Kinda like with Claudia back in the day. She tried to get the two sides to put aside their differences over what happened decades ago at the table but didn’t on the day of the wedding. So, no sauce recipe, and instead, the kids had to hand over a card on this Mother’s Day. And I doubt that because the two sides don’t have the recipe that they would have to set aside their differences. Unless there’s like a future episode where you have a family reunion with Linda’s relatives all coming together, the feud is pretty much far from over. But for now, the kids fell short of getting the recipe but that’s more than enough for Linda to have at least a nice Mother’s Day. I know it’s human nature that conflict has to be the normal thing to have in our daily lives, but for once, set aside the differences because again, the conflict is fucking stupid. Have some decency for once. Oh yeah, and now Teddy’s mom decides to hold off on the tattoo removal. Two more episodes. Just two more episodes.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Well, other than the Teddy subplot that felt dragged on and almost feels like it was an unnecessary addition to the episode, this was a pretty good episode. No bullshitting here, folks. This was a good episode, to say the least, if it weren’t for the subplot. But besides all of that, a pretty good episode if you’re a fan of the lore of the show.
We’ve waited for twelve seasons to finally have a last name to be revealed from Linda’s side of the family and we finally got it. We finally got it in this episode alongside her family’s past and their ongoing feud over two items from the list of conflicts. That being the forking incident and the brawl at the wedding which ultimately led to a game of “who blames who” over the recipe that is no longer around and is now lost in the air. As much crap that I gave to this season over how each and almost every episode performed (with the exception of a few episodes like “Manic Pixie Crap Show”) has gone through a range of crap to borderline average, the one thing that this season hasn’t disappoint is, of course, the lore. The show’s lore regarding Linda. I mean, learning about her neighbor’s dead dog, her hometown and the name of that town, her trying to finish a project without planning on abandoning it, the air hockey game, the slumber party where she crapped herself...it’s right there. We got some info-dumping for Linda and her character regarding her past. Her childhood, her teenage years, and her young adult life before meeting Bob. Always thought to myself that because of that info-dumping that the show pumped out is what going to lead us to the movie. Sure, the other Belchers didn’t get that, sorta, but it’s coming, man. It’s coming. The Linda lore is real. And it led us to this episode with her maiden name and her family’s history despite that this season, despite that we only have two episodes left, has underperformed. As I said earlier, we got out cake but we somehow lost our appetite. We got the Linda lore. We got her maiden name and her family’s history along with some other stuff but this season has underperformed.
And yeah, I feel like the subplot with Teddy feels a bit unnecessary to be added into the episode. Going back and forth with the design of the tattoo and whether or not his mom should get rid of the tattoo because she’s no longer with the group that she’s in. So uh...eh. So final thoughts to the episode, despite the unnecessary addition with the subplot with Teddy and his predicament, this was a pretty good episode if you’re a fan of the worldbuilding and lore setup when it comes to the show. Finally got a maiden name from Linda and also her family’s history after twelve seasons and we got it. Sure, the kids fell short in getting the prize because neither side of the family doesn’t have it, but you have to least give them some effort in what they’re doing. So I’ll give “Sauce Side Story”...
A 7.5 out of 10. But that’s pretty much my opinion and now I wanna hear yours in the comments below. What do you think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Tell me what you think in the comment section below along with your mini-review of the episode. Only two more episodes left in the season and it’s the long-anticipated two-parter that was brought up from the panel back in July of last year and again this past April as we dive into the world of the 1982 cyberpunk film Blade Runner as Tina’s form of escapism in the twenty-first episode of Season 12 and the title just updated at the time of working on the review, “Some Like It Bot Part 1: Eighth Grade Runner”.
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