A new Thanksgiving run, organized by the Fischoeders, turns into a disaster as hundreds of crazed birds are let loose in Wonder Wharf, trapping Linda, Teddy, and the kids. Meanwhile, Bob spends the day drinking, completely oblivious to the chaos unfolding in town.
Dawn of the Tropes:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Parodied. After the turkeys break out, Teddy tells Linda that they don't need to repopulate the Earth yet, but they might need to soon.
- Badass Boast: "Who's in control? Animal Control!" ...Until they're not.
- Berserk Button: Bob was absolutely livid when Linda and the kids said they wanted to do the Thanksgiving run instead of having a traditional dinner like he enjoys preparing. He even started crying.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Rudy takes Linda's last water bottle and throws it to shut down the tea cup ride.
- Subverted when Animal Control arrives, as they are quickly overrun. In fact, they only make things worse, as they opened the gates of Wonder Wharf believing they had things under control, which just let the previously-contained birds swarm the entire town.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Combined with Rule of Three:Gene: Okay, don't start a brothel while we're gone. Just kidding; you can!
Tina: And no making a fort out of the couch cushions. Just kidding; you can.
Louise: But don't turn that fort into a brothel. Just kidding; you can.
Bob: Oh, my God, just-
Louise: I mean, it's illegal, but-
Bob: I know. Just leave. - Chekhov's Gag: When deciding what rides to go on, Gene wants to go on the Tickle Boat until Tina tells him it's been shut down because someone died on it. When trying to escape from the wharf, Teddy comes in with the Tickle Boat to rescue everyone.
- Chekhov's Gun: Linda bought a belt of mini water bottles to wear during the run. When they're trapped trying to save the kids from the Scramble Pan ride and they need to shut it off, Linda uses her mini water bottles to shut it off by throwing it at the off button (though technically, it was actually Rudy who did it since Linda kept missing).
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Teddy, who usually qualifies as The Ditz, manages to accurately predict why the turkeys went crazy very early on (being stored with other birds messed up the pecking order).
- Department of Redundancy Department: Teddy initially describes Cyclops as "a crazy one-eyed cyclops turkey."
- Dirty Coward: Mickey left the kids on a ride to save himself from the turkeys. He seemed to think they were safe from the chaos there, so it's not like he was entirely selfish, but still.
- The Ditz: Felix doesn't know why turkeys are so rare around Thanksgiving. Calvin is not amused.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Bob speaks to his turkey baster as if it's an old flame he's spent some time apart from.
- The End... Or Is It?: The Belchers and friends survive the day. Meanwhile, the Fischoeders are having their Thanksgiving dinner at their home until the birds break in through their window.
- Eyepatch of Power: While he doesn't actually wear an eye-patch, the biggest and toughest bird is a one-eyed turkey Teddy takes to calling "Cyclops".
- Feathered Fiend: Thanks to Felix mixing turkeys, chickens, geese, and ducks together, messing up their pecking order, the birds go on rampage and attack everyone. The most notable bird among them is a turkey with one eye they call "Cyclops".
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Linda has thrown nine of her ten water bottles at the button and prepares to throw her last bottle. As Louise begs Linda to let someone else take the shot, Regular Sized Rudy spins in and out of the shot several seconds before his Big Damn Heroes moment.
- Flipping the Bird: Linda does this to all of the birds as they escape the wharf, and she allows the kids to do so as well because it's a holiday.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Mickey starts freaking out that there is no way to escape the birds in which Louise gives him a slap.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bob gets hammered, then decides to go grocery shopping. When a man being attacked by a turkey almost runs into him, Bob says as an aside to his turkey baster, "Whoa! I think that guy was drunk."
- Improvised Armor: To get past the turkeys and reach the Scramble Pan, Linda, Teddy and Mickey tape stuffed animals around themselves as protection. The birds make short work of the makeshift armor.
- Is This Thing Still On?:
- In front of a large crowd, Felix remarks on the dangerous nature of the birds (as well as that not all of them are turkeys) while his mic is still on.
- Later on, the Fischoeders admit that there are people still trapped in the wharf while live on the news. Felix even lampshades that this isn't the first time this trope happened.
- It's All My Fault: Linda believes the birds are attacking in punishment for skipping Thanksgiving.
- Karmic Protection: Bob's frequently forced to go along with whatever ridiculous nonsense Linda and the kids get invested in regardless of how he feels (while often having to learn a lesson about why he shouldn't make them participate in what he wants despite the family not really learning the same lesson). For once, he manages to put his foot down and completely abstains from their Thanksgiving plans since his are so often derailed. As a result, he avoids the majority of the chaos caused by the birds running loose while Linda and the kids are left to fend for themselves, only getting directly involved at the very end of the chaos. He gets a nice day to himself, while Linda and the kids fear for their lives.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The Fischoeders do not escape the birds in the end, as one of them attacks their Thanksgiving dinner.
- Linda assumes that the chaotic day is because she and the kids refused to spend Thanksgiving with Bob.
- Named After the Injury: The flock of rampaging turkeys is led by a vicious one-eyed turkey that Teddy calls Cyclops.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently someone died on the Tickle Boat, but we don't find out how. Its design doesn't make it immediately obvious either, since it's a boat on wheels with four slowly moving gloved hands surrounding the people riding it instead of a fixed ride like a tunnel of love.
- Parental Favoritism: Not actually, but when Linda calls out to the kids, Gene interprets her saying his name first as this.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is a reference to Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- Put Off Their Food: Thanks to the entire experience everyone went through, when Bob served turkey to everyone for Thanksgiving dinner, everyone did not feel like eating and Linda decides to make spaghetti instead.
- Sacrificial Lion: Discussed. Rudy says he wants to stay for the end, but Louise says he probably won't survive. This being a low-stakes comedy show, Rudy makes it out just fine.
- Say My Name: Teddy decides to sacrifice himself to distract the turkeys, telling them to remember his name. Louise then shouts "TEDDY!", before saying she just remembered what his name is.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's opening is similar to the opening of Jurassic Park.
- When Louise refers to the turkeys as "bad company", Gene adds "and not the band!"
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Donna Summer's "Dim All the Lights" plays over footage of the crazed birds attacking people.
- Tempting Fate: Linda claims the Turkey Trot is like a safe Running of the Bulls. It definitely is like Running of the Bulls, but as for being safe... hoo, boy.
- Use Your Head: To assert herself at the top of the pecking order, Linda headbutts everyone except Rudy and Mickey and then the "Cyclops" turkey, which works as the other birds are too afraid to approach Linda.
- Villain Opening Scene: The episode opens with the delivery of the birds being dropped off at Wonder Wharf and one of the employees gets his finger nipped by one of the birds when trying to feed it. This lets us know that the birds in the episode will be a problem once they are freed.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode is half-The Birds and half-Jurassic Park, with some Dawn of the Dead (1978) thrown in there.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Linda, Mickey, and Teddy all fall over and become disoriented when they climb onto the Scramble Pan to shut it down. Louise points out that all of the kids have been on it for a whole hour and no one's even barfed. Gene even had a snack.
