Comic-Con season is right around the corner, and it will be a busy one with what we’re about to get busy, busy, busy when playing look out so I can give my thoughts on the matter at hand. And speaking of which, the nominations for this year’s Emmys were out this past week. And wouldn’t you guess it... “They Slug Horses, Don’t They?” is the episode that got picked to represent the show. I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother knew it would be the pick, much like “The Amazing Rudy” last year. You can’t pretty much beat that... well, within certain episodes after the nominations were announced for last year’s Emmy awards. And it’s going to be a tough battle this time, like the previous years, because we’re facing the likes of Arcane and Common Side Effects. Will we pull off some sort of upset in the Emmys this time around? Who knows?
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, Tina’s past decides to haunt her right as she is about to participate in the free throwing competition, fearing what is about to come when taking the court in my spoilerific review of the eighteenth episode of Season 15 of Bob’s Burgers, titled “Don't Worry, Be Hoopy”.
It’s going to be one of those episodes for this week’s installment. We’re talking about a trilogy of errors where we have a set of acts that play a role in Tina’s situation that she is dealing with on the day of her free-throwing competition. And if you don’t know what that is, I don’t know what the actual trope is called, but it mostly would stem from, and this is the best that I can remember, an episode of The Simpsons called “Trilogy of Error” where you have three different sides, three different POVs, dealing with the same day but with various situations that is tied in with the main situation. It’s definitely like that with this week’s episode regarding Tina feeling the pressure ahead of her free-throwing competition, and it would have three people’s POV in three of the four acts being shown.
Not to mention that it’s also one of those episodes where it starts with a moment that happened later in the episode, and we would have to trace our steps in how we ended up with what we saw at the start. Just like how we saw at the start of the episode, on the day of the competition with Tina was haunted by her past. Her past self wearing a ballerina outfit, as if you would easily put two and two together on what Tina’s deal is. Especially since it was pretty clear that it was going to be a past version of her when the images for the episode were released, although it was some sort of speculation game when the script cover for it was out last year. I mean, we know that it was going to be Tina, and we know that the ballerina outfit would give away that something happened in her past that it took until now to haunt her. The original idea would’ve been Tina being a part of a girls’ basketball team for school, and her past decides to affect her performance as it was holding her down, but either way, her past decides to put her in a chokehold and that is exactly what we’re going to do when breaking the episode down piece by piece. This is “Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy”.
And yes, it’s one of those episodes where we have to start with a scene from later in the episode and have to retrace our steps to how we got to this point later on. Because the episode starts with Tina hiding herself in the storage closet on the day of the free-throwing competition, we’ll get on that in a bit, over something that is preventing her from going on the court as if it’s another installment of her dealing with stage fright. Tina plans on hiding from the public, thinking that she’s Sam in “Butt Sweat and Fears”, and hoping for the day to be over. Only for her to come across a small figure in a ballerina outfit and causing her to scream as if she had just summoned a spirit that she is not supposed to do.
We get a text card that reads ten days before the day of the competition, with the Belcher kids returning home from school. Louise and Gene had their stuff that was not important, with the spotlight focusing all on Tina as she shows everyone a certificate for what she did in gym class for free throwing. You could say that it feels more like a participation trophy with Tina getting it just by doing a couple of free throws, as if Coach Blevins would think that she’s Wagstaff’s version of Steph Curry, just by doing a couple of free throws for her gym class. So yeah, Tina got a certificate from Coach Blevins for her free-throwing skills at the court, and that alone would give her a ticket to the free-throwing county finals and represent Wagstaff as if she’s the best student to do the job. Yeah, she beat out everyone to land her the spot, and you probably pray that her throwing skills didn’t deplete since winning the Cheese Royale earlier this season. Because otherwise, you might as well label her as washed.
Other than that, Tina got her ticket to the county finals for free throwing, which is ten days away, and should be ready to go, but is also feeling nervous about having to do this. Especially in front of people, as if we’re going to question what kind of Tina we’re getting in this episode, whether or not this might be the stage fright talking. At least we got a callback with Linda mentioning her being the free-throw champion back when she was in fourth grade, as mentioned in Season 6’s “Stand By Gene” when the adults were playing free-throw with napkins. So, talk about genetics. Besides, it was a granny throw that Tina had to do when doing this, as if she were winging it when standing by the free-throw line. That, and also having to be coached by Jimmy Jr leading up to the big day, so... this episode was pretty much early Thanksgiving dinner for the Tina/Jimmy Jr shippers, especially when going into later in the episode. But other than that, Tina should be ready to go for the county finals going into the next day and the next scene, and if she wins the county finals, then she moves on to regionals, and then state, and then the motherload, which is nationals. About to make a name for herself with what she is doing. It all just comes down to what is about to come next that won’t throw off her game. I mean, it’s not like she has stage fright or something when having to throw in front of people in the bleachers, aside from her family, and Teddy as a plus one because he wants to be included in this.
Onto the next day, at a nearby high school, it’s not Huxley, but it’s a high school called Julius Henry, where the Belchers and Teddy are sitting in the bleachers as they prepare to show their support for Tina. Of course, we have Teddy at the moment, having some issues with the bleachers. You could say it might be a... well, capacity and not wanting to get cancelled, but mostly because the bleachers are showing signs of aging and could be moments away from a possible accident waiting to happen, just by knowing how rickety it is. Don’t know why he and/or the Belchers should just go to the front so it won’t cause potential problems or something that could put the competition on pause. But other than that, the Belchers and Teddy are ready to cheer Tina on, despite the aging bleachers that should be checked out. There’s just one little problem for everyone in attendance, especially once the participants are entering the gym, so they can get ready to shoot the basket...
Tina is not with the participants. She is absent from the group, as if something has happened that prevented her from leaving the locker room. Drawing concern for everyone, and wants to get to the bottom of it. Or at least some will be staying put while Linda heads out, thinking she will go and check up on Tina, but instead, she will be going to the concessions to grab some snacks. And this is where we enter the trilogy of error territory for this episode, examining what led to Tina not running out to the court. And we begin with Bob on this one to get through the rest of Act One, as he thinks he might be responsible for Tina because of the awful advice he gave her.
This leads us to the night before the competition, with Tina brushing her teeth as she is dealing with butterflies in her stomach, as if anyone in the family should read the signs that something is bothering her. Bob tries to comfort his eldest daughter by giving her a pep talk. And a shitty one at that, and look, you can call cap on that because we know that Bob can, at times, give decent pep talks and other motivational speeches, but that only works if this was the near-end of the episode. We’re only five minutes into the episode, and the writers think that it’s way too early for Bob’s pep talk or Linda’s once we get to her in the next act, so they have to stretch it out because it would feel like it would end the episode early. Even though they could do something with that, and still have Tina’s past haunts her as we saw at the start of the episode. But Bob’s little would-be attempt at a pep talk does have consequences in this flashback that soon turns into a fantasy.
Especially once we transition to said fantasy with Tina coming out of the locker room and into the gym where she decides to throw away her chance to advance to state, thanks in part to Bob’s pep talk because he doesn’t know anything about sportsball and Tina thinks while brushing her teeth that she could lose as if all of this doesn’t even matters because, let’s face it, life fucking sucks. And for Tina in Bob’s imagination, she took it to heart, with her being horrible at throwing the ball as if she were throwing her shot away and would live the rest of her life as, well, a failure.
To the point where we go flash forward to Tina in her twenties, still wearing her clothes from the present timeline, still living with Bob and Linda, who have gotten old, gifting her a laptop for her to get back to doing what she does best, which is writing her friend fictions. That, and hopefully that the browser has indeed bookmarked for her to find a job. And if that’s not bad enough, if you think about it, knowing that Tina is 26 in that fantasy, or just turning 26, it’s like Bob would imagine Tina, of course, not moved out of the house, but also not able be going to college and all she can do is work at the restaurant and... well, whatever she does that isn’t her having to write on her desk. So, that would be more problematic if you think about it, along with her not having to find someone to spend the rest of her life with.
And to top it all off, in this sad fantasy of Bob’s is Tina, at age 42, still living inside the building and yet to move out. And at this point, Bob and Linda, who would be in their 70s in this, decide to say enough with having Tina extend her stay and decide to kick her out and buy her an apartment. Of course, sad future Tina doesn’t want to leave because she remembers what Bob said in the free-throwing competition: nothing matters. Saying as if Tina is born to be a failure because Bob, in his point of view, fumbled the ball. Fumbled really hard and not even sniffed the goal line with that “pep talk” and now, ending the first act of the episode, Bob believes that he’s to blame for Tina having to chicken out from free throwing, even though that’s not the case if y’all watched it already. But let’s get to the second act with Linda’s POV, the moment she leaves to get snacks.
Because, like Bob, once she leaves the gym, she is also showing some concern over Tina not being present at the court and thinks that something is going on that is bothering her. And just like Bob, it’s regarding the pep talk she gives to Tina right before she went to bed last night, and not, you know, the main thing that is bothering Tina at the start of the episode when she sees a small figure that later reveals to her a younger version of herself in a ballerina outfit. But sure, it’s the pep talk that bothers Tina once Linda returns with the snacks. You’d think that with Linda to get the snacks that she would go to the locker room and find Tina to tell her why she hasn’t gotten out, though she would be in the storage closet, so that would be difficult for Linda to find Tina, but she would probably hear the only sound she could hear. Just putting it out there. I’m just putting it out there. But yeah, Linda believes her pep talk is what scares Tina from leaving the locker room, as she did the polar opposite of what Bob gave to Tina in the bathroom that would, of course, boost her ego.
And quite the fake out we got in the next scene. This is definitely a fake out because the next scene has Tina coming out of the locker room as if what happened at the start of the episode, and you’d think that it’s actually happening with Tina getting her confidence after feeling nervous leading up to the day of the competition, but instead, release, you’re not catching me in this Genjutsu. Yep, this is still Linda’s fantasy because you have Tina coming into the gym and stroking her ego as she makes every basket. And I mean every basket because she hasn’t missed a shot when at the free throw line. Shades of what Linda did back when she was in fourth grade, as if she just saw herself in Tina’s shoes with her doing the free shots, metaphorically, of course. Did I mention that this is all in Linda’s head? That is exactly what it is with this fantasy because you have Tina following in her mother’s footsteps to the point where her ego is quickly taking over.
Especially when having to see various scenes in the flash forward department with her winning the county finals and moving on up to regional, to state, all the way to national, knowing how the size of each trophy gets bigger and bigger. To the point where she is laser-focused on the free throw, and just the free throw, as if you’d think that someone from the scouting team for various colleges or within the WNBA takes a look at her and wishes they could recruit her to be their free-throw player for their team. But regardless, it’s fueling her ego, and that little pep talk in Tina’s POV pretty much created a monster.
And you see that as the fantasy progresses with practicing in the back alley, surprising that their neighbor, Mr. Huggins, didn’t make an appearance in this scene. That, and also her winning a medal at the Olympics, don’t think free-throwing as its own sport is an official sport in the Olympics, spoiler alert, it’s not, so don’t expect that to happen in the upcoming 2028 Olympics. So, if Bob’s side of things, when it comes to the blame game for why Tina hasn’t left the locker room described as painting Tina as a failure, Linda’s side of things would paint her as an overachiever. A monster in the court as if she’s Judy in the curling rink. And you know what they say, ego can be one person’s true downfall. And that is what we are somewhat seeing with Tina having to crash out during an interview when bringing up, yes, the pep talk from Linda that same way we saw with Bob earlier in the episode. Pretty much making the poor girl feel confused in the first half, according to both Bob and Linda, as if they think they’re to blame, respectively, for Tina not coming out of the locker room once we get to the end of the first half of the episode. To the point where the cup of soda landed on the popcorn. That alone should be considered a crime against humanity.
But now, we get to the second half of the episode, and no, Gene and Louise don’t have a thing in this episode with four acts, but with three different scenarios, so the second half is all on Tina, on what is really going on with her, leading up to her wanting to hide at the start of the episode. And we flash back to ten days ago at the gym with the eighth-grade class having gym period, with them having to do a couple of free throws with Jimmy Jr about to wrap up his session after making eight throws out of the twenty-five. Literally putting up Tony Snell numbers if you think about it. Out of the four major sports that I watch, basketball is the sport that I’m the least knowledgeable about, okay. So, Jimmy Jr pretty much did a poor ass job in trying to do a free throw by only doing eight out of the twenty-five, or at least trying to meet up required number, despite that he is on the school basketball team, first seen in a small scene in Season 10’s “Wag the Song”.
Tina is called up next as she is the last person in class to do a couple of free throws, as she is being evaluated, which would soon have her automatically punch her ticket to the free-throwing competition in ten days. She does so... by missing the first shot in the usual throwing position before having to rely on the granny throw that would have landed seventeen of the twenty-five shots once her session ends to wrap up gym period for her and the other eighth graders. Hopefully doesn’t spell possible regression for her since winning the Cheese Royale earlier this season, because everyone in their grade knows what Tina is capable of since winning the damn thing. But yeah, other than that, Tina won the American Association for Youth and Fitness Free Throw competition, with her getting a certificate, pretty much a participation trophy, because she scored the most baskets, automatically landing a spot in the county finals.
Getting to the point where Jimmy Jr comes in, of course, congratulating her for winning the competition and making her way to the county finals, being the first to do so, where are the rest of y’all who are sitting on the bleachers after y’all’ve done yours?! Jimmy Jr congratulates Tina as he tries to make a free shot of his own, which ends up being a brick, and they are about to leave the gym for the locker room, but not before he asks Tina to be her coach leading up to the day of the county finals. Okay, I don’t know what the hell Jimmy Jr’s reasoning is for why he wanted to coach Tina leading up to the county finals. Not that I’m against the idea of her getting some much-needed help, because that’s pretty much Tina entering the big leagues... of having that being filled into, let’s say, a college resume that would land her in a good college, well, once she's through community college at an affordable price.
But Jimmy Jr, as the coach, after seeing him throw and only made eight baskets? Okay, I don’t see everyone else in the bleachers did their part, and the number of throws they made, probably in the range of Jimmy Jr’s baskets and Tina’s baskets, but looking at it, this might as well be the writers giving the Tina/Jimmy Jr shippers an early Thanksgiving dinner. Though Jimmy Jr talking about the county finals and that Tina would have made the basket in front of a crowd, in a crowd of random people, the family, and maybe some friends, but it’s just the family and Teddy, with the pressure latching onto her... yeah, that’s not helping. That is not helping. You know how anxious Tina is, as if we’re not aware of the whole stage fright issue. But other than that, Tina ends up agreeing to have Jimmy Jr as her coach once the two, along with the other eighth graders, make their way to the locker rooms. And you know that the writers are adding fuel to the Tina/Jimmy Jr pairing for this week’s episode.
Because the next scene transitions to after the lunch period, where we have Tina and Jimmy Jr lying on the basketball floor, which, again, if you’re a Tina/Jimmy Jr shipper, this is pretty much y’all’s early Thanksgiving dinner because it does feel like it’s giving y’all something to fawn over and look, Jimmy Jr is trying to helpful here when trying to at least ease Tina’s nerves ahead her free-throwing competition and that’s fine. You know, it’s fine. Just looking out for his friend here, and you cannot turn into a ship thing. Though you’re probably thinking that what I said for y’all to read feels like I don’t ship these two, which I don’t because of how the pairing game for Tina became a two-party system and having to choose either Jimmy Jr or Zeke unless you go third party, like hoping Josh was still around or hoping for someone like Sam to make a move. But for now, it’s just a friend looking out for a friend, with Jimmy Jr giving Tina some pointers on what to expect with the upcoming competition, with him telling her to clear her mind when taking the court at the free-throw line. Find her happy place so she can’t get the anxiety out of her body. And knowing Tina, we know what her happy place is.
Yep, it’s her jumping on Jimmy Jr’s ass because it’s Tina, you obviously can’t blame her. Especially when being around her friend/crush alone after the lunch period, and accepting him to be her coach, leading up to the day of the county finals. That’s pretty much her happy place when trying to clear her head and hoping that this would stick around leading up to the county finals; however, that gets interrupted when she spots a younger version of herself in a ballerina outfit standing in front of her that is going to haunt her as if she saw a ghost or something that would serve as a barricade. Treating it as what happened back in the day, when seeing a younger version of herself donning a ballerina outfit, had followed Tina and wasn’t brought up, was never brought up whenever Tina is on stage, whether it’s doing a presentation or about to do a singing number with the siblings, until just now in time for the free-throwing competition. I’m pretty much treating this as if it were part of the show’s lore, but in actuality, it just came up because the girl is anxious. She is anxious about this, and again, the topic of stage fright and anxiety, and whatever the outcome is going to be once she hits the stage. Our minds just love to mess with us. Sometimes because of something traumatic that happened, but most of the time, it’s pretty much for the love of the game.
And it’s the thought that is continuing to haunt Tina going into the later hours on the day before the county finals, with her dealing with pressure that she has never experienced before. Telling her family at the table that she made some improvements ahead of the competition, thanks in part to Jimmy Jr’s help by making nineteen free throws out of the twenty-five. Meaning that she should be ready to go once the big day arrives, as long as she doesn’t lose her cool. Of course, the anxiety is there, and it’s not going away anytime soon as the day of the competition draws near. Because as much as she wants her family’s support with them saying a lot of stuff as if she’s about to make the big stage just by making a few free throws... yeah, once again, not helping Tina’s cause. And that leads Tina to abruptly end her dinner and make her way to sleep for the night as she tries to clear her head, of course, after that attempted pep talk from Bob in the bathroom and Linda at her bedroom door.
We switch over to Tina’s bedroom later in the night as she tries to go to sleep so she can be well-rested for her big day, but something tries to disrupt that as she is wide awake when her mind decides to play games with her once more with the silhouette of the deflated balloons that were attached to the power line forming into a ballerina figure with her legs busted up. Twisted like a soft-serve pretzel, of course, got to keep it PG with a silhouette figure and not the actual thing... even though we saw how fucked up Russell’s arm was at the start of “Bust a Moon Adventure”, so uh... got to put that out there. But yeah, Tina’s mind is already playing mind games with her in the middle of the night, with her seeing the deflated balloons transform into a ballerina figure with her legs looking fucked up as if it was coming out of a freak accident, as if she was going through a season-ending injury. Tina puts on her glasses and, of course, the silhouette goes back to the deflated balloons. Once again, her mind is playing games with her, causing Tina to force herself to sleep, trying to think of something else but like we saw not too long with the silhouettes and the young Tina appearing in her fantasy earlier in the day with Jimmy Jr. Especially once she punched her ticket to the county finals that triggered her mind to mess with her.
We finally reached the big day from Tina’s point of view regarding the whole situation, with her about to head out with the other participants to the gym to perform their free throw. And y’all already know that at the end of the first act of the episode, with Tina absent from the group that entered the gym that caused the family became concerned for her well-being. And y’all already know where this is going, a full circle. Tina plans on hiding in the storage closet as she plans on hiding and hoping for the competition to be over, pretty much throwing her shot at winning a competition away, as if, of course, nothing really matters due to the anxiety that is eating her. Second away from a full-on anxiety attack, leading, of course, to the reveal of the figure that is haunting Tina since the start of the episode, or in Tina’s case, the moment she made the county finals after having a near-perfect free throw count...
Yes, it’s a younger version of Tina in a ballerina outfit. I mean, it’s not a surprise because the plot synopsis reads that Tina’s past decides to haunt her. And we know that Tina has a horrible case of stage fright because we've seen that a few times in the show. Though there are some moments where her stage fright is non-existent, like “Spaghetti Western and Meatballs”, for example, when doing the introduction for the dinner, though that was interrupted because she took the exercise seriously when she saw Jocelyn talking to Jimmy Jr. And “Crystal Mess” needs no introduction if y’all already know the outcome of that one. At least she didn’t develop sweat in her armpits, so that’s a plus. But other than that, ending the third act of the episode and going into the fourth and final act, a younger version of Tina in a ballerina outfit is the figure that haunts her since punching her ticket to the competition and we’re about to give ourselves an explanation for why Tina is going through an extreme amount of anxiety that likes she has never endured before...
But not before we check in on the rest of the Belchers and Teddy, as they are still concerned about Tina not showing up at the gym. Bob and Linda respectively blame themselves for Tina not coming out because of their little “pep talk” the night before, which would’ve messed her up, even though that’s not exactly the case. I mean, it’s somewhat the case because of the fear of the outcome, whether it’s Bob’s pep talk and his vision that Tina would live in failure and thinks that nothing really matters, or Linda’s pep talk and her vision that Tina would live as an overachiever, it’s messing their eldest daughter up in the head and decides to get to the bottom of this. I.e., find Tina so they can apologize for what they did, so they can give Tina an actual pep talk to help her ease her anxiety. Even though it’s more than just a pep talk, that is clouding Tina’s conscience as they prepare to leave the gym to find Tina, leaving Teddy, Louise, and Gene alone with the now soda-soaked popcorn. Makes you question how the hell those cups don’t come with lids the moment Linda got back with the snacks at the end of the first half.
So, going back to Tina’s situation, the ghost of her past self finally comes out of the shadows of the storage closet in a ballerina outfit, and this is where we get to the reason why she is haunting present-day Tina, leading up to right now on the day of the free-throwing competition. Oh, sorry, I mean “saving Tina”-what a younger Tina is saying to her present-day self as she talks to her future self about a mistake she is about to make. Once again, pretty much her mind messing with her, with the anxiety eating her up. I mean, it’s no surprise that Tina is anxious. Has a terrible case of the heebie jeebies whenever she’s on stage, worrying about what the people think when she's on stage. This might as well be the origin of her having anxiety, but we know that in Season 1’s “Hamburger Dinner Theater”. That shit ain’t new.
Okay, so the background to this. You see a younger version of Tina wearing the ballerina outfit because she used to take ballet classes. She was in the zone, knowing the basics and all that stuff. Thinking that shit was going to be sweet for her when attending those classes... that was until the day of the ballet recital, where her instructor picked her to do the pirouette, which is a dance move where you have to turn with only one leg, and that alone, especially when having to do it in front of everyone in the crowd outside of her family, was something that Tina doesn’t want to do. Once again, stage fright. Once again, anxiety. She wants to do the thing as if she wants to make a name for herself, but at the same time, there’s the fear of what everyone would say once they see her on stage, much like the fear of what everyone would say once Tina takes the court. So, rather than thinking that she might embarrass herself, she decided to fake an injury. Thinking that she twisted her leg, hence, the silhouette ballerina figure with the fucked up leg that looked like a pretzel, along with her stomach and face, and thus, having to back out from the recital. Anxiety’s a bitch, and Tina knows it. She knows it all too well, and even though we see her in some episodes where she has some anxiety whenever she’s doing a presentation or having to take the stage. Even though there are some instances where she doesn’t have that whenever it’s her opening the dinner in “Spaghetti Western and Meatballs” or having to perform with Gene’s band at the end of the movie... yo, can the cast and crew make up their minds with this? I know that this episode has Tina’s anxiety at in center, but still.
We go back to Bob and Linda in the hallway of the school, with them having no luck finding Tina. All but the locker room, or didn’t even bother checking the storage closet where she is hiding. You’d think that if they went to the locker room, where they have to hear the only voice that is in there, that would be enough to locate Tina. But no, they checked the whole school without even bothering to check the one place they would check, and that would be the locker room, or rather, the locker room storage closet. A+ navigational skills right there, even though this place is pretty much new to them. Times like this, where schools would have a directory like how you see with malls. All but the one place that they should’ve checked.
Going back to Tina and Young Tina, as we are about to make it to the two-minute warning, Young Tina decides to have history repeat itself for present-day Tina in an attempt to get out of participating in the free-throwing competition. She decides to pull the injury card from her deck. But instead of faking an injury because some folks would not buy that story, and would have her evaluated, that would have her take her ass to the courts. So, Young Tina decides to take it to the next level, an actual injury. Yeesh, for someone who has serious anxiety issues, you’re not freaking playing around when it comes to this in trying to make excuses to not do the job on some straight demon timing. But, of course, going into the two-minute warning of the episode, and especially once Tina’s name is being called up, that got Bob and Linda’s attention to make their way back to the gym...
Tina decides to back out of doing an actual injury to get out of throwing a couple of free throws and decides to confront her fear because, as much as Young Tina doesn’t want present-day Tina to do it, because of whatever outcome she’ll get upon making the free throw line on the court. But present-day Tina wants to confront it either way because she’s past that. She’s past the idea of wanting to get out of it by faking an injury or illness, or attempting to do an actual injury, and even though she doesn’t want to face the crowd and wants to make an ass of herself, it’s pretty much a risk she’s willing to take. She doesn’t want to let the people down. She doesn’t want to let her family down. She doesn’t want to let her down. Nib fear in the butt, though I don’t want to know about her having to outgrow wearing nighttime diapers up until the age of 10 unless she had a bedwetting problem.
But yeah, going into the two-minute warning of the episode, Tina plans on entering the court because, as much as she wants to get out of doing this, she has to because she’s not a scared little girl anymore. Pretty much telling her anxiety to go fuck itself as she prepares to head out. But not before telling her younger version to do the same thing because you never know what outcome you’re going to get as long as she is out there. So, Tina heads out, but not before getting stopped by her younger self and saying “damn it” after saying it earlier in their conversation, and what do you expect? She was a little kid and had to hear kids saying a bad word as if it’s a bad thing to say to the public... if this was before the era of social media and technology taking over our lives, because they can pick that language up when being on their iPads and is about to turn it into a Call of Duty server while playing Roblox.
But yeah, we finally reached the end of the episode with Tina finally coming out of the locker room and into the gym with Bob and Linda now back to the bleachers to see their daughter make a couple of free throws. And we don’t even see her doing the free throws because we had to cut to the credits once Tina throws the first ball, and towards the camera. But at least the whole anxiety issue is being put away for right now as she makes a couple of throws. And the moral to this story: anxiety’s a bitch and we all know it. But you have to confront it and take matters into your own hands and not let it falter, where it can put you in a mental chokehold.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So, all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Average, to say the least. It’s middle of the road when watching this episode when seeing where they are going with this. Even though we know that Tina is extremely anxious because we've seen that a few dozen times during the past fifteen seasons of this show, with some episodes treating it as if nothing happened. Seriously, make up y’all minds or something.
Especially when seeing her wanting to hide in the storage closet and wishing for the day to be over with before having to be confronted by a younger version of herself. Sure, the topic of anxiety was something because we all had that experience of not wanting to fuck everything up to the point where you might die of embarrassment because of one slip-up that could change your life. That is exactly what Tina doesn’t want to deal with in what she thought was going to be hidden away, with her having to deal with an X amount of anxiety eating her up after punching her ticket to the county finals after making a couple of free throws. And Bob and Linda’s point of view, respectively, of blaming themselves for Tina not coming out of the locker room was uh... okay, I guess, even though that didn’t seem to be the case.
So, I guess the only highlight from the episode would be Jimmy Jr having to help Tina get to know the basics of free throwing after Tina won the competition that caused her to punch her ticket to the county finals. Even though, if you’re a Tina/Jimmy Jr shipper, this is pretty much early Thanksgiving dinner for y’all. Other than that, this was a middle-of-the-road episode where I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either. Forgettable if you think about it, though the rewatchability is there. So, I’ll give “Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy”...
A 6 out of 10. But that’s my opinion and I want to hear yours in the comments below. We’re off this week with no reason other than that Comic-Con is this upcoming weekend. There is a Great North episode review coming up later this week with “Heelraiser Adventure”. Bob’s Burgers returns the week after on July 31 with a double header... oh joy... at least The Great North isn’t new that week, because otherwise... my brain would be fried. Episode 19 of Season 5 in “The Dead Bo-ats Society” and Episode 20 of Season 15 in “Dad-turday Kite Fever”. And if you want to continue or have a chance to help with the relief efforts to those affected by the Central Texas floods earlier this month, here’s the link below to donate to help out with the relief efforts down in Central Texas...
>>> Click to Donate to Help with the Texas Flood Relief <<<
Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. The 2025 Battle of the Week Voting Tournament is already underway with another set of double matches for this week, with both matches from Group D with Match 9 between Moon Tobin (The Great North) and Morty Smith (Rick and Morty); and in Match 10 between Cole Tillerman (Central Park) and Benson Dunwoody (Regular Show). The poll for these two matches closes on Saturday. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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