Bob's Burgers: For Whom the Doll Toes (15x04)

This was a fun one!

Cons:

I did like this episode, but I did think it was slightly lacking as a Halloween special - I like seeing the kids in their costumes and all the shenanigans that usually happen on Halloween night!

I also thought the Teddy subplot lacked a bit of pizzazz. I liked the setup for it - Teddy's been working on his grip strength with all these hand and wrist exercises, and when he sees that the restaurant is closed all morning, he decides to while away the time with a lot of his exercises so he can impress Bob. The part that was lacking from my perspective was the part after Teddy's hands cramp up. I feel like there could have been a few more jokes made around Teddy not being able to close his hands, other than just that he struggled to make a phone call.

Pros:

But this was a fun episode for what it was! The main plot is honestly kind of convoluted. Gene is bummed about not being invited to a pre-Halloween "gathering" and he doesn't know why he was excluded. Louise, it turns out, does know why Gene wasn't invited, and it involves Gene standing up for a substitute teacher that the other kids were making fun of. The kids thought he was being a bit of a goody-goody. Instead of Louise just telling Gene this, she stages an elaborate dollhouse murder mystery with the sub teacher in question, trying to show Gene how he was betrayed by his own kindness.

I really liked Gene in this episode - he's often the Belcher character who gets the least to do in most episodes, and when an episode can capture something of his heart and surprising wisdom, I'm always pleased. I loved not only that he chose to be kind and say the right thing in the moment while also not making a huge deal about it, but that he also clocked what Louise was doing and was trying to get to the bottom of it right away. It's not often that Louise is put on the back foot by one of her siblings, and I loved that she felt ashamed of herself and humbled by Gene's goodness. A rare moment where he gets to be a big brother she can really look up to!

And also just, everything about the dolls and the dioramas, and Tina getting over her fear of the creepy dolls to be really devoted to the interrogations, and Linda being swept up in the story... it was all a lot of goofy Belcher family fun! A unique new setting and idea too, this whole dollhouse thing. It was fun to spend some time with them through this weird scenario.

And that's it! As I mentioned above, I was slightly bummed to have this be the spooky episode offering of the season, but I thought it was very fun in its own right!

8/10