It’s almost Comic-Con season, with another edition knocking on our doors by the end of this month. Hopefully, we'll get some news about Season 16 and, of course, any updates regarding the highly anticipated 300th episode. A lot is about to happen this fall, as it appears that Season 15 will consist of only 20-22 episodes. This will be the last time under this count before the series transitions to 15 episodes per season starting this September. And y’all know where this is going, renew The Great North. Give the show a fucking shot for once in your lives, as if we might as well treat it as a life-threatening situation. Seriously, give the show some support. I know that I’m sounding like a broken record, but pressure has to be applied. Also, donation link is down below at the very end of the review if you want to chip in to help out the victims of the recent flooding that took place out in the Hill Valley in Texas. Proceeds go to the organization to help the victims in this time of need.
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, the focus is on Tina this time around as a graphic novel that she is working on of a semi-erotic horse fiction being held hostage by a mysterious stranger who has some intentions against Tina in my spoileriic review of the seventeenth episode of Season 15 of Bob’s Burgers, titled “Wild Steal-ions”.
The world of creativity is one of the concepts that make up the human mind. Whether it’s a masterful piece, as if one of us is like the second coming of Leonardo DaVinci, or a work in progress, if you just drew something on the wall with crayons and got scolded by your parents telling you not to do squiggles over said wall with said crayon. And it doesn’t matter with what kind of form of media it should be covered, like making art, music, cooking, or in Tina’s case, for this week’s episode, writing. Especially when it comes to creating a graphic novel, that is different from the erotic friend fiction that we know coming from her, where the episode switches from wanting to show off her hard work to having to worry about your reputation going down the shitter in the hands of a mysterious stranger.
You could say that it almost feels like something coming out of Season 2’s “Bad Tina” where something that Tina worked on that is pretty much her pride and joy is being held hostage as ransom by a mysterious stranger and have to do what the stranger says or else, it’s bye-bye reputation or I guess in this episode, it’s the book itself that Tina worked on. You could say that it’s like that, as if you’re getting deja vu, and that’s fine, I guess, if you want to make the comparison between that episode and this one, the closest I could think of when watching this episode, and you could say that it’s recency bias because I was getting some deja vu from an episode like that not too long ago from another series and we’ll get on that in a bit. But other than that, and this might as well be the moral of this story: secure your hard work, and you better secure it hard because otherwise, it’s going to end up in the hands of some very shady people that could become your op.
So, we might as well get down to business on this dilemma of Tina’s, and I know, a missed opportunity of having the “That’s So Tina” graphic since it has been a long time since I’ve last used it, so let’s see where this goes. Even though at this point, I might as well be thinking of coming up with a criterion for what Tina episode should be considered a “That’s So Tina”. That being said, let’s break this sucker down piece by piece. Also, a heads up that once again, we have a Tina episode where we have no subplot, and the rest of the Belchers, or at least Bob and Linda this time around, are getting sidelined. Yeah, Louise and Gene are off the bench, and Bob and Linda are. And knowing that we’re about to enter the late summer weeks, soon be getting things ready for the upcoming Fantasy Football season. This is “Wild Steal-ions”.
The episode begins with Tina working hard at her desk, writing in her journal. Only, it’s not her erotic friend fiction that we’re aware of, since that’s pretty much her shtick since Season 2’s “Bad Tina”, but instead, it’s something new that she is working hard on this... well, it sets on Friday, so follow along on where this is going. But the point is that Tina is working on her side project, which she is hard at work on in the form of a graphic novel. A graphic novel that doesn’t involve zombies or her peers, especially with Jimmy Jr being the focus of her writing, but it has horses. With one of the horses, named Francois, being the main character of said novel, as Tina paints him as a blacksmith who happened to be handsome, but also sensitive, who knows how to make sparks fly... when making metal. The background of the character speaks for itself.
Of course, Tina gets interrupted right as she was in the zone by Linda, who asks her to come to the kitchen to get some breakfast as she (Tina), along with Louise and Gene, are ready to head out to go to school. But not before Tina decides to show everyone her hard work by showing her novel to the family and the artwork that comes with it. Quite the improvement there for Tina to hone her artistic side in comparison to her writing skills that we know of. You know, aside from the artwork she made for Louise in “They Slug Horses, Don’t They” and having to work on her skills in “Yurty Rotten Scoundrels” while being chased by Gayle. But still, quite the talent Tina has to show off the artistic side of her, just by creating a graphic novel of her own. And this episode pretty much shows it.
She shows various pages of the horse characters she created, not just Francois, but other horse characters who were drawn into the pages, like Gallop-leo, a play on astronomer Galileo. William Studspeare, a play on William Shakespeare. Each horse character is pretty much a play on historical figures like Galileo and Shakespeare as prime examples. The names are pretty much references to historical figures, the same way that the four turtles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after famous artists. That is pretty much the background of where Tina gets the names from for her graphic novel that she is working hard on as a side project. Pretty much proud of her work, and hopefully that it will be completed, and maybe one day, get this shit published. That is, if certain groups who want to be freaking ass hats decide to mess around and ban it. But other than that, Tina hopes that nothing can go wrong with her having to be hard at work on her novel that has her name on it, along with the phone number written on the back in the event it gets misplaced. Let’s hope that doesn’t turn into something serious, as... let’s say, a hostage situation, for example, but that won’t be the case, right? But other than that, Tina hopes for no problems that could ruin her day, her weekend, and her reputation altogether in one weekend, and just get the story completed as if she’s facing a deadline.
Only to end up losing it going into the next scene hours later after school, once the kids return home, with Tina opening her bag to pull her journal out so she can continue what she is doing, only to end up going into full-on panic mode after realizing that she may have lost the book. Misplaced it, to be exact, when being asked where she last used the book, because that should answer her question on where she misplaced it before coming back to the apartment/restaurant for the night.
Ending up being the stairs at the corner of the intersection, where it’s usually filled with teenagers, high schoolers to be exact, which happens to be the last place Tina pulled out her journal, with her not even using her journal, which she is planning to do later once she gets home, but to do her homework while eating a cup of frozen yogurt, that Louise and Gene ate the whole scoop with Tina only getting crumbs with the missing journal left placed on the stair she was sitting so that when she puts her stuff back inside, she forgets to pick up said journal back into her bag and just left it there. And that was after coming across a pigeon that was eating a dirty band-aid that was left on the ground, finding a loose quarter, and yes, getting frozen yogurt for them to eat, using Tina’s babysitting money to pay for it. So, that’s where Tina ends up running out to, hoping that it’s there and also hoping no one finds it, even though she wrote her name and the phone number on the back in the event she misplaced the item in question. But, of course, Tina ends up heading out to see if it’s still there...
Only to find out that it’s gone. Yep, it’s gone. Gone as if it was never there. And this, of course, freaked Tina out that all that hard work, all the dedication that she put in... gone! Gone like... well, America’s credibility. I know that I’m sounding like a broken record with that, but at this point, this might as well be a cry for help. But other than that, Tina’s journal is gone. Nowhere to be found where she last left it. Questioning if it had either been accidentally thrown away into the trash or someone may have found it and either kept it and attempted to make a call, not knowing that it’s towards the residence, though who knows if the phone call would be made to the restaurant phone rather than the house phone because the phone number is written on the back of the book in the event something like would happen. I mean, it’s not like someone found the missing book, sees the number on the bag, and, for some apparent reason, that person may have some sort of grudge against Tina and uses it as leverage.
So, we reached the later hours at the dinner table with Tina now upset as if her soul had been ripped out of her body. The book, nowhere to be found. And all that hard work that Tina poured into the journal to create a semi-erotic horse fiction graphic novel is gone the same way as... well, imagine you’re a digital artist or... pretty much a content creator on YouTube and you’re about to finish putting up something that might be your magnum opus and the moment you put in the finishing touches, your hard drive decided to off itself. All that hard work: gone. And that would suck when having to lose that. And sure, we have a cloud to back it up, but most work is saved in that hard drive, or in Tina’s case, a physical copy like a journal that is irreplaceable, and if something happens like a hard drive corrupting or in Tina’s case, lost and could either be thrown away or holds it for ransom, it might as well be GGs. Pretty much upsetting Tina to the point where it becomes a sensitive topic. One example is Bob asking Tina to redo everything from the start... very sensitive to most people who had their hard work having to be lost to time. And Linda isn’t helping either with her starting the sentence with “hey” when offering her more macaroni on her plate, and both the words “hey” and “hay” sound the same. Therefore, picked the wrong time to use that to start a sentence.
However, it looks like things are about to get worse for Tina as we prepare to wrap up the first act of the episode, as she gets a phone call once Linda picks it up and telling her eldest daughter that the phone call belongs to her who somehow got her number without even bother checking up on a Yellow Page if y’all remember that back in the day. I mean, you could question how the hell the person who is calling Tina has the number to the house, but remember, Tina wrote the number on the back of her journal in the event someone were to find it. But that’s mostly if someone were to find it and decides to call her to say, “Hey, are you Tina Belcher? I found your journal. You may have misplaced it, and hopefully, there’s no hard feelings.”
But no, the caller decides to hide their voice by having to distort to make sure they stay anonymous, meaning that the phone call that Tina is getting isn’t a friendly one. Telling her that she got her book hostage, and if she wants to get it back, she has to pay the $50 ransom the next morning without anyone noticing or having to follow her, as well as giving her some instructions for the exchange to happen. No details about the consequences as of yet in this episode since we’re at the end of the first act, but we know that Tina worked hard, and now, it’s in the hands of someone who could either destroy her work or ruin her reputation. Either one of the two. Or both in that matter. Treating it as if someone has a massive grudge against her for something she did. The closest comparison I could think of with this situation you could that it almost feels like “Bad Tina” 2.0 with this because her stuff is being held hostage, and we’re treating it as if she’s being blackmailed, but that’s mostly because we know that identity and their intentions right away, that being Tammy and attempting to blackmail her to do whatever she wants as if she’s helping her to get to Jimmy Jr.
The closest I can think of with this situation and you could say recency bias, because this just happened just a few months ago, with The Simpsons in the episode “PS, I Hate You” where Marge had a secret stash of angry letters she wrote to calm herself down, and that was held hostage by someone who had to use a distorted voice and threatens to do something, mostly to reveal it to the town, unless a ransom is being paid. And while you could say that it’s nothing like that, and how dare I would bring up a Simpsons reference into this, that is the closest I could think up with this without having this to be a rehash of “Bad Tina” 2.0 because this time around, it’s a mysterious person who is holding her semi-erotic graphic novel hostage as if they have some sort of grudge against her. And I might as well put this out of the way as a spoiler; thank God it’s not a super predictable answer over the identity of the mysterious caller who made the call to Tina. More on that later as you scroll.
Onto the second act of the episode, after dinner and after the threatening phone call that Tina got at the end of the first act, into Tina’s room, with her taking out and counting the babysitting money she has to see if she has the $50 she needs to pay the ransom. Hoping for things to go right with the exchange come the next morning, as the person with the distorted voice makes it clear that she has to do it alone, without having Bob and Linda intervene. Let alone calling the police because... what would the police even do over a stolen journal about chiseled horses? But the caller made one minor mistake to mention when it comes to threatening Tina. Didn’t even bother bringing up her siblings, as if they don’t know if she even has one. And that, of course, is going to have Louise and Gene, per Louise’s suggestion, butt in and unmask the assailant who would dare to threaten Tina. Going for the “If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us” as if we’re following mafia rules with the Belchers.
But much like Gene in “Drumforgiven” as an example, Tina doesn’t want Louise and Gene to intervene. She wants to do it alone since it’s her journal that is being held hostage. And the last thing she wants is her siblings stepping in, just to make matters worse. So far into this episode, five minutes into it, we don’t know what the consequences are going to be if things don’t go right. And you can have endless possibilities, but it mostly comes down to either the journal getting destroyed or threatening to have Tina’s reputation ruined if, let’s say, decides to tell everyone at school about it. Endless possibilities that Tina doesn’t want to deal with going into the next day. Hence, why Tina needs Louise (and Gene) not to intervene and want to do things her way, which is to do what the caller says. But let’s be real, Tina, you should know where this is going. They’re never going to listen. You know, and as much as you want to make it perfectly clear, you should know that Louise isn’t going to listen and wants to butt in anyway, for better or for worse.
Which explains going into the next scene with Tina getting the phone call from the anonymous caller right as Bob and Linda head out to open the restaurant, thinking that Tina was in the clear once 10:00 AM arrives, for the caller to contact Tina to give the instructions if she wants to get her journal back with Louise and Gene, instead of heading downstairs. So, focusing on the phone call first with Tina on the phone. The mysterious caller lists out certain things for Tina to do if she wants to get her journal back into her possession: Of course, make sure she’s not being followed, hoping to have Bob and Linda involved, once again, a minor mistake in not bringing up her siblings, but also the money has to be put into an envelope, which has to be attached to piece of tape into little loops that should be attached to it so it can stick to the bench at Wonder Wharf by the arcade where the exchange should take place. And that is exactly what Tina is planning on doing if she wants to save her journal. And remember when I said that Louise and Gene are not going to listen to Tina’s instructions to not intervene?
Yeah, they overheard the conversation from the comfort of the living room. They overheard everything from the burger phone in the living room, so they can go and butt in as an element of surprise, so they can jump on the person who is threatening Tina and holding her journal hostage. The last thing Tina wants when planning on heading out to make the exchange at the Wonder Wharf and it’s a couple of someones who think that butting into someone’s situation should be considered a good idea because, again, it’s the whole “you mess with that person, you mess with all of us motif”. Hence, going to the next scene at the restaurant with Tina heading out, creating an alibi for Bob and Linda so that they don’t get involved, not knowing that Louise and Gene are also getting involved in this, much to Tina’s dismay.
This leads us to the next scene of the episode at the Wharf with Louise and Gene hiding from a distance so that they don’t get spotted by Tina. Waiting for the right moment to strike, once the mysterious person who threatened Tina decides to reveal themselves. Making it a waiting game, Tina placed the envelope with $50 inside under the bench, hoping things would go right once she left. Hopefully, another phone call would follow to confirm the drop-off location. Or at least go to the restaurant as the possible pickup location. But that looks like that might not be the case since Louise and Gene decided to be nosy about Tina’s business in a situation where she wishes she could do this on her own without having to rely on her siblings’ help.
Especially once we got the view of the mysterious assailant... ‘s legs. Yeah. We didn’t get the face until later in the episode. But we got the first hint of the mysterious assailant just by looking at their legs. Mostly, they are wearing gray pants, which I guess throws a lot of people off when it comes to the identity of the person who is threatening Tina by holding her journal hostage. There was some speculation about who the mysterious assailant is, leading up to this episode’s premiere, because it has to be someone who has mad beef with Tina. Which, of course, was my initial concern with the episode, was whether or not it would be predictable enough to affect the episode. Just be thankful that it’s not a predictable answer like Tammy, for example, because while it’s been a while since we last had a rivalry episode between the two... no, we're good. We’re good on that. It’s someone else. And when looking at the episode when it first came out, looking at the color of the pants, it’s gray. My first thought would’ve been Logan because the person in the screenshot above looks like someone who happened to be older or at least taller, as if the assailant happened to be a high schooler. So, at least it’s not someone who happened to be in Tina’s grade, but what high school, who isn’t Logan, has something against an eighth grader, a middle schooler like Tina, to hold something like a graphic novel in a journal hostage?
Regardless, it looks like things are not looking good for Tina once she returns home moments later and gets another phone call from the assailant. Telling her that it was botched because they told Tina the instructions regarding the exchange, with the main instruction being not having to be followed. Tina replies that she wasn’t, until the assailant replies to her, snapping at her, that a couple of people followed her because they overheard someone mentioning Ken and his faux hawk, and Tina knew right away who the two people were. Once again, you think that Louise and Gene would just listen for once to not butt into her situation that she is dealing with, but let’s be real, they’re not going to listen. They’re never going to listen. They think that what they’re doing is just them looking out for their big sister, and shouldn’t let some random asshole tell her what to do, but in actuality, it’s making the situation worse. Which is the last thing Tina wanted.
This causes her to storm out of the house and head back to the Wharf, where she calls out Louise and Gene, which they did come out of the woodwork after the botched meetup between the victim and assailant. Scolding her siblings that she had it under control and thought things were going to be sweet before the assailant saw the two, thus, having to back away and call the handoff off for the day. Which, again, during the phone call, you brought up the parents (Bob and Linda) and the cops not to follow her. You didn’t mention her siblings during said phone call as if you didn’t even know she had siblings in the first place. So, that’s on you for that. But nothing matters anymore because the supposed exchange is now botched thanks to Louise and Gene being spotted by the assailant on their way to pick up the ransom, and now, as we prepare to end the first half of the episode, in comes the consequences. Down to under the pier, where something is waiting for Tina to pick up, where she saw a piece of paper where a brick that had her name carved to serve as a paperweight, as if the assailant was waiting for Tina to see the moment everything fell apart. Turns out that it’s not a blank piece of paper that was smushed by the brick but instead...
It’s a piece of paper that belonged to her journal, with one of the pages that shows one of her horses, which was drawn, Francois, ripped out of her journal. Showing that the assailant is not fucking playing around with this, as if that person really hates Tina for something she didn’t even do. I don’t want to say certified hater just yet because so far in this episode, at the halfway point, we don’t know who that person is or what they want with Tina that would go and do harm to her hard work that she put into the graphic novel. So, shit is now getting real and is going to get really bad as the weekend progresses.
Especially going into the next day on Sunday with Tina is expecting another phone call, but this time, telling Louise to not butt in once again. Telling her not to listen to the conversation, whether it’s by the doorway of the kitchen, having the bedroom door open, or using the burger phone to listen to the whole thing. Once again, Tina, she’s not going to listen. You’re being threatened, and your younger siblings are playing by mafia rules up to this point regarding one of their own having to be feel threatened. Try telling Gene that in “Drumforgiven” or, I guess, you yourself in “Tina Tailor Soldier Spy” in wanting to do things your way but having to deal with Louise butting in to her own accord. Sure, “Bad Tina”, you did it when dealing with a situation like this one, despite Louise and Gene having to step in at the last minute after having to blackmail her to do their jobs after spying on her, but other than that... I hope this episode doesn’t feel like it’s painting Tina as if she knows nothing about how to treat a situation, because she knows what she is doing. Just comes down to whether or not things will go her way by her lonesome or whether or not she would have to rely on her siblings despite the retribution that comes with the botched exchange just 24 hours ago.
Tina gets another phone call from the assailant, hoping for the coast to be clear this time around, which, to be clear... and we’re going to be honest here, if y’all saw the episode, here we go again. But onto the phone call following what happened yesterday at the Wharf, and it looks like the assailant isn’t fucking around as they decide to inflate the ransom price by $25, going from $50 originally to now $75, meaning that Tina would now have to scramble in a short amount of time to collect that kind of money. And she has until 4:00 PM to do just that, or else, more consequences. The consequences are more of her pages being ripped out that has the other horse characters that she drew. Francois was just the start. So, the clock is pretty much ticking for Tina to rack up $75 by the end of the day. She has the $50 that wasn’t collected yesterday because of Louise and Gene fucking up the exchange, so she just needs an extra $25... which won’t be easy to collect with the short amount of time she has. Especially when going into the next scene when trying to get a last-minute short-time babysitting gig to rack up $25 by 4:00, but alas, nothing available. Especially on a Sunday, when you’d think most people would go to Sunday service, but I guess no kid left behind on that.
Oh yeah, and Louise and Gene overheard the whole thing once again. This time, it’s Gene who recorded everything on his Casio from a distance from the kitchen, but it’s enough to record perfect audio from the phone call. But going into the next scene just moments later, when playing the recording one too many times... nothing. Definitely nothing when trying to things to solve the case. Mostly with removing the distortion of the voice from the phone call to find out who the person is, with no clues for them to pick up. Well, there’s one, but it would leave them to hit a brick wall because the journal was last placed at the stairs at the intersection that is usually reserved for skateboarders, meaning any one of them would have to pick it up. And Louise and Gene know who to turn to for their investigation. As much as they don’t want to go to... him, what other choice do they have since they were at the site of when the crime scene became active.
That being one Logan Bush, whom Louise and Gene have to pay a visit to see if he knows anything about the missing journal and whether or not he may have something to do with it, as they have already painted him as the suspect. Of course, Logan doesn’t know anything about what happened because he was minding his business. He doesn’t have the thing hostage, and the same goes for his friends. And even though Logan is an asshole, and he is still to this day, at least we know that he would never rat out his friends. Or his bros, as he prefers to call them. Especially when trying to avoid answering Louise and Gene’s questions regarding the status of the missing journal and the person who takes it. But Louise isn’t going to let this one slide and decides to mess around with him to get him to spill by having him correct one of his friends’ names, who has long brown hair with bangs, which Logan corrects Louise that it’s not bangs, already falling into the trap in the art of hustling without even knowing. Pretty much tells you how dumb he is. The guy in question that Louise is going for when it comes to searching for the suspect is named Troy, with Louise once again messing with Logan by this time around, calling him by the wrong last name, the street he lives on, and the name of his mother. Thinking that his last name is Walker, lives on Oakwood Road, and his mother’s name is Nancy. Only for Logan to once again correct Louise that Troy’s last name is actually Roberts, lives on Lake Street, and that his mother’s name is Sandy, who has her pizza oven in the backyard.
Hook, line, and sinker for Logan to rat out to one of his friends, to Louise and Gene, without even noticing what Louise was doing to get him to spill. So much for the “I never sell out my bros” commitment now that Louise and Gene got a lead for once in this little investigation to find who is threatening Tina and, hopefully, get the journal back. Louise and Gene got their tip from Logan thanks to Louise messing with the guy’s head and decide to visit Troy Roberts if he has something to do with the missing journal. And while the two decide to do just that...
We go back to the restaurant with Tina entering the restaurant to ask Bob and Linda for some money. This is pretty much the “You know, Bob and Linda haven’t done anything in this episode, so let’s give them some airtime. And let’s throw in Teddy as well since it’s been a while since we last saw him.” But yeah, Tina is asking for a short-term pay raise before the 4:00 deadline, but of course, to no avail because she’s in a panic that the clock is ticking for her to collect the $25 she needs to make it $75 to pay the ransom. But Bob and Linda only care is why Gene and Louise, or even herself, didn’t even bother doing their fucking jobs. I mean, the place doesn’t look that busy, despite being that it being Sunday. I don’t see you two doing it.
Louise and Gene made it to the Roberts residence, where they are being greeted by a teenage girl named Regan, voiced by Mitra Jouhari, who walked them to see her brother Troy, the person who they are looking for, voiced by David Herman, who is in the middle of doing a drum solo and isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. So, Louise and Gene have to ask Troy if he has something to do with the missing journal, as if he has something to do with it. Only for things to go back to square one for them once Troy, who is playing his drums, tells them that he has nothing to do with it and decides to give the two a list of names of the people who were there on that faithful day while waiting for the tempo to kick it up a notch after yelling out Regan’s name as if she’s one of the suspects who were there on that day. Wait on that for later.
But yeah, back to square one once Louise and Gene head back to the house with no leads after getting the names they got from Troy while playing the recorded audio of the phone call earlier in the day. They went through every name that was written down that Troy brought up, and they got no lead as we are about to end the third act of the episode. Especially with the 4:00 deadline is right around the corner, putting everyone, especially Tina, on edge about the consequences that come after.
Especially once Tina overheard the recording that was captured earlier in the day, pretty much breaking what Tina has told the two to not butt in as if they would learn their lesson from what happened the day before, which, again, Tina... you should know better when it comes to this because you know that they’re going to butt in anyway because you’re the victim and we’re pretty much following mafia rules in this. So yeah, Tina scolds Louise and Gene again for having to intervene, which is the last thing that Tina needs on a Sunday as she is already feeling stressed from not having to the $25 she needed to make up the $75 so she can pay the ransom at 4:00. In comes Gene with him attempting to destress Tina with a remix he made on his Casio and it was that remix that finally revealed who is the person who threatened Tina throughout the weekend. Should’ve done that before this exact moment, but fine, I guess. Especially going into the final act of the episode.
So yeah, it’s Troy’s younger sister, Regan, who is named as the suspect who took the journal and threatened Tina. Which, again, thank God that the identity of the person who had been threatening Tina isn’t super predictable to say Tammy or Logan leading up to the episode’s initial premiere. It’s someone new and well, someone older to be exact, because if you look at that shot when Regan when spotting Gene and Louise at the Wharf during the botched exchange, the figure does look a bit taller than Tina as if the person is in high school rather than, well, someone who is in Tina’s grade. But with no clear intention for why a high schooler would go after Tina by holding her journal hostage as if they got serious beef with her. Treating it as if they had something against her back in the day. But yeah, going into the fourth and final act of the episode, and after a remix that Gene made that caused the distorted voice to be distorted no more, Louise and Gene, along with Tina, decide to visit Regan and investigate if she has the stolen book in her possession. Even if Regan can go and deny that it was her, saying that it could be anyone with that voice or someone using AI, which... yeah, 2025 in the Bob’s Burgers universe where AI now has to be mentioned, but other than that, Regan let the three in so they can get them off of her back.
Once again, we have to check up on Bob and Linda because they’re pretty much pushed to the sidelines for the rest of the episode. So we might as well check up on them before going back to the kids at the Roberts residence and wishing for once for their kids to do their goddamn job when spotting the table with the mess that was left behind. I mean, Tina was there earlier, don’t know why you didn’t ask her to do and as a bonus, give her $25 so that she doesn’t have to worry about missing the 4:00 deadline. So, just a random check-up on them because they haven’t done a lot for this episode and, much like a few episodes ago in “The Place Beyond the Pinecones”, no subplot. So uh... bullet... dodged?
Back to the Belcher kids for the remainder of the final act of the episode, with the siblings searching through Regan’s room to see if Tina’s journal is there that they’re accusing her of. So far, no luck other than Tina pulling out an ID card that belongs to Regan, to which Regan replies that it’s her school ID because she’s just started going to high school. Implying that she’s in the ninth grade. The search continues when Louise spots something that was inside the box in her closet in the form of a journal. But it’s not Tina’s journal, and instead, it’s hers. It belonged to Regan, and the journal was revealed to be a graphic novel that she used to work on, like Tina’s horse story. Only replace the horses like Francios, for example, with a frog character she created called Rosie the Ribbiter, which is a play on the woman in the poster from World War II named Rosie the Riveter, where it promotes women in the workforce while the men are away to fight in the war. Of course, Regan reveals that she used to do something like that, but not anymore because she’s in high school. And y’all know where this is going when it comes to the reason behind holding Tina’s book hostage. Especially once Gene spots the pizza oven active in the backyard, and that, of course, has massive alarm bells to ring for Tina as if Regan might’ve put the journal inside the oven.
This causes the Belcher siblings to quickly leave the house and go into the backyard, with Tina trying to dig what she thinks are the charred remains of her journal that was put into the oven while it was being lit. Got stopped by Regan and Troy’s mom, Sandy, who is just coming back from the store, and saw the pizza oven turned on as if they’re expecting pizza night to happen, and thought that the Belcher kids would be staying put for dinner. Which, of course, it’s not, well, not unless you’re Gene because... well, it’s Gene. Of course, it looks like the journal is not in the pit, and instead, it’s in the pile underneath with the logs after being spotted by Louise. Tina was about to take it back into her possession, only for Regan to end up holding it hostage and plans on actually burning it in the oven. And that’s where we got her reason for why she took Tina’s journal in the first place. Her reason?
It’s because Regan was once in Tina’s shoes back in the day, preferably a Wagstaff student at that, where she was the awkward teen girl who was naive and innocent, as well as imaginative and creative, much like Tina. But once she entered high school, she decided to ditch all of that because she was worried about what people thought. Worried about being judged. Or, to keep it short, sweet, and simple, pretty much how the media portrays high school in comparison to real life. Growing up, you’d probably think that going into high school is going to be like entering a battlefield in the middle of an unwinnable war where the name of the game is survival. Mostly because you've seen in stuff like Mean Girls or Degrassi, where it’s pretty much drama central. Over-the-top drama, wanting to climb the ranks of the social hierarchy, falling into peer pressure to do stupid shit like doing drugs, and angst... dozens of angst where you have to face your demons while a ballad song that you never even heard of plays in the background as if it was coming out of a MySpace playlist.
We all went through high school. And while some of the things are there, like the over-the-top drama that would turn some moments into out-of-control school crashout videos that might end up on IG reels, and any other bullshit like it’s a difficult game of choose your own adventure, pretty sure we’ve met the reality than the expectations when surviving through the four years. Survived through the four years like it’s a presidential term. Your biggest concern when it comes to high school is hoping you make the top of the list in your grade, earn enough credits, find the right group, maybe with some of the friends from middle school, or some new ones who accept you to who you are, and not do stupid shit that could land you in a hospital, on a t-shirt, or something worse, especially in the current political climate that we’re in.
But the point is this, when Regan states her reason for why she did it and tells her that Tina should take this as a warning... like... bitch, you’re not the main character. You are not the main character. Tina knows what she is doing, and taking the journal hostage and threatening her doesn’t help your fucking case. Oh, well, at least she didn’t threaten Tina’s reputation by exposing it to the public. Yeah, except that Tammy tried that in her debut episode after blackmailing her after stealing one of her erotic friend fictions, and that blew up in her face after Tina decided to weaponize her farting problems when reading her journal to the masses at the cafeteria.
The point is that Regan pretty much has no right to steal Tina’s journal and then decides to threaten her just because you have to give her a word of warning about high school the moment Tina sets foot. You just can’t do that as if it’s an episode of Scared Straight, just because high school is a different animal in comparison to elementary and middle school. College is a different story, but still. And besides, I’m pretty sure Tina has everything under control with everything, so she doesn’t need any problems, whether it’s right now in Wagstaff or later along the line once she enters the ninth grade. And just for that, Regan. Just for that...
Yeah. I had to drop this off. Child left behind moment right there. So yeah, Tina got her journal back, of course, some damage after Louise had to get it out of the oven that Regan threw before picking it up, not safe for someone like Louise to use her hands to dig into the oven to get the journal out but at least it’s safe and sound despite the damage it sustain from the fire and the page that Regan ripped. But other than that, the siblings leave after Tina got what she was looking for. Especially once they leave and you have a tiny scene with Regan picking up her journal, the Rosie the Frog story, as if you would question either she plans on burning it as if she wants the past to die like she’s Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in The Last Jedi or plans on rethinking her life since she got four whole years of what to do with her life as a high schooler because of having to worry about what everyone thinks. Once again, comes down to being around the right group, but still, L move there in trying to destroy the book there, Regan. L fucking move.
We finally reached the final scene of the episode with Tina finally getting her journal back, and despite the damage it sustained and the stress that came with it throughout the past two days, she wasted no time in getting back to work on her project once the ripped page was taped back together. But yeah, that should do it with the episode, and like I said in the introduction, with the moral of the story: secure your hard work, and you better secure it hard because otherwise, it’s going to end up in the hands of some very shady people that could become your op. But there’s also another moral in this: And that is, as expected, the ending tagline of each of the reviews I do, ignore the haters.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So, all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? This was an interesting episode, to say the least. I see some mixed reaction with this regarding... well, everything with Tina’s situation and how things were handled the moment her journal gets stolen, and having to be threatened by Regan. I think most of the issues people would have are feeling mixed, of course, Regan herself as the assailant, and her reason for why she took the journal, which nearly made Tina’s life a living hell.
It was interesting that once again, we have an episode where we don’t have a subplot, and it’s one character from the main cast taking charge while the rest are being pushed to the sidelines. Well, technically, it’s only Bob and Linda with a sprinkle of Teddy that were pushed to the sidelines, being benched for this episode, and having both Gene and Louise to be taking the starter role, even though this is a Tina-centric episode. Still, it’s somewhat of an interesting little experiment the show is doing since “The Place Beyond the Pinecones”, and hopefully, they do more in the future. Just uh... well, this one feels like a mixed bag.
It’s a mixed bag for sure from the masses with the episode itself, but solely the identity of the person who took Tina’s journal and what their malfunction is against her. I mean, just be glad that it’s not a super predictable outcome on who the person is, because that would totally downplay the episode altogether. So, final thoughts, it’s an interesting episode, it's just going to leave you with some mixed feelings, whether you enjoy it or not, or somewhere in the middle, like I am with this. So, I’ll give “Wild Steal-ions”...
A 7 out of 10. It was either this or a 6 out of 10 as my choice to rate this episode, so a 7 out of 10 would be the way to go. But it’s a low-end 7 out of 10 because once again, you’re going to deal with some mixed feelings regarding Tina’s situation, but mostly with the identity of the person who threatened Tina and the reason behind it. So, 7 out of 10 from yours truly, but that’s my opinion, and I want to hear yours in the comments below. We've got another Tina-centric episode this upcoming Thursday, with her confronting her past when making the free throw competition in the eighteenth episode of Season 15 in “Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy”. And here’s the link below to donate to help out with the relief efforts down in Central Texas...
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