"I see something..."
"Oh, your mother went crazy."
—Bob
After a minor tumble and some odd coincidences, Linda becomes convinced she's psychic. Bob tries to talk her down and the kids try to make money off her supposed talent, but Linda gets in over her head when she agrees to help Sergeant Bosco catch a burglar known as the "Little Boy Bandit".
I Get Psy-chic Out of Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Linda predicts a tall, handsome man will walk into the bar, Bob says he's already there. Gene comments positively on this turn of phrase.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Louise says her plan involves "horses and money and us getting some". Tina thinks she means they're getting some horses, but an exasperated Louise claims they're getting some money.
- Apophenia Plot: Linda becomes convinced she's developed psychic powers thanks to a series of coincidences.
- Big Eater: Mike ate $200 worth of shrimp at the Shrimp Hut, thinking he'd win a shrimp eating contest because Linda predicted he would. Turns out there was no contest and now he's in debt thanks to her.
- Blatant Lies: When Louise asks Linda to pick a horse's name (the name she picks being the horse she's going to bet on), she covers her tracks by claiming she and Gene are renaming Tina.
- The Bore: Bob talking about his lack of equities at length causes a telemarketer to hang up on him.
- Brick Joke: It takes until the very end of the episode, but Bob finally falls down some stairs. Apparently, the fall was bad enough to necessitate Gene coming down to help him.
- Brutal Honesty:
- After Gene copies one of Tina's jokes word-for-word, Bob admits it was funnier when Gene said it.
- After Linda's prediction about a woman in a yellow dress, Teddy spends the entire day looking for what he thinks might be someone he's supposed to fall for. He calls Bob, asking if Linda thinks a dress with yellow floral patterns qualifies. While he does that, he tells the woman in the dress, to her face, that he's not feeling any chemistry, annoying her.
- Burn the Witch!: Discussed; after Bob finally falls down the stairs, Louise orders Linda to be burnt alive.
- Captain Obvious: Linda claims that the Little Boy Bandit appears to have struck the areas the police have marked with flags on a map. One of the officers chokes on his coffee and Bosco just exasperatedly leads her to another room.
- Contrived Coincidence: What spurs the entire plot is that a series of coincidences leave Linda convinced she's developed psychic powers.
- This is ultimately how the Little Boy Bandit is caught—Linda's direct predictions fail to catch him, but one of her earlier predictions sent the kids to the horse track, which in turn sent Bob to the track to find them, which in turn leads to Bob spotting the Bandit disguised as a jockey.
- The Bandit is not only disguised as a jockey, he's the jockey for the horse the kids bet on, meaning they lose their money when the police disrupt the race to arrest the Bandit.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted; since Linda's advice was not only useless but in some cases detrimental (with Mike $200 in debt and Mort being audited), the townsfolk are far from ready to forgive her even after she apologizes.
- Epic Fail: Gene claims that his gym teacher called him doing a sit-up impossible. He then tries to do a sit-up to prove his teacher wrong, with extreme emphasis on "tries".
- Foreshadowing:
- When she tries to predict what Bob hid under the bowl, Linda makes her head bob backwards while keeping Bob's hands close to her face before guessing it's an orange. This looks very much the motion of someone sniffing, indicating she's using a very normal sense (that being her sense of smell to detect the orange scent on Bob's hands) rather than psychic powers.
- When she predicts a color for Teddy, pointing out a primary color, not only does Linda get it wrong (namely saying blue twice), she also guesses green (a secondary color). This is clearly her guessing, which also hints she's not psychic at all. Bob outright lampshades that it took her a ton of tries to get it, all but spelling it out.
- Notice how Bosco never confirms with Linda that she predicted the Bandit was at the Wharf Arts Center—he simply assumes that's what she sees and goes to the center before she can say anything in the affirmative. Sure enough, the Bandit isn't there.
- Happily Married: Much to her annoyance, Gretchen discovers her ex-boyfriend is married and faithful.
- Insistent Terminology: Considering Marshmallow is a trans woman, she rather appreciates Bob making the distinction between handsome and beautiful (namely that Marshmallow is specifically the latter).
- In-Universe Catharsis: Bob can’t help but be happily smug when an angry mob confronts Linda about her predictions being false and she’s forced to admit she’s not psychic.
- It's All About Me: Bosco cares less that the Little Boy Bandit has robbed eight businesses and more that it makes him look bad.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Linda is confronted by an angry mob of individuals who listened to her predictions and got in trouble because of them.
- Not So Above It All: Despite scoffing at Linda's alleged psychic powers, when she predicts Bob will fall down the stairs Bob starts to get a little more wary about the basement stairs in the restaurant.
- Oh, Crap!: Linda claims nobody was outright hurt by her predictions, until she suddenly remembers Bosco has staked his entire career on her predictions.
- Only Sane Man: As usual, Bob, who is the only one who doesn't believe Linda is psychic. He's also the one who points out that her "predictions" could cause actual detrimental effects to other people, which (sure enough) they do.
- Phony Psychic: Linda unwittingly convinces herself (and everyone else except Bob) she has psychic powers.
- Pistol-Whipping: When Linda wonders if she needs to get hit on the head again to reactivate her psychic powers, Bosco comes this close to whacking her with his pistol.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Discussed; Tina notes that Gene plays this role in the Belcher family, but she claims that she could play the role if she wanted. She then makes a joke that fails to make anyone laugh. Gene then makes the exact same joke, with Bob outright admitting it was funnier when Gene said it.
- Police Are Useless: It says wonders about Bosco's competence that he goes to Linda out of desperation to catch a burglar. One of Bosco's colleagues lampshades just how absurd this is.
- Police Psychic: Linda mistakenly thinks she's psychic and goes around making predictions. She gets the attention of Sergeant Bosco, who thinks she could use her powers to help him with a case.
- Rejected Apology: Realizing she's not psychic after all, Linda apologizes to everyone. Gretchen responds with throwing a paper ball at her face and snapping at her. Everyone else is still sending her a Death Glare, showing they don't forgive her for unwittingly tricking them.
- Stealing the Credit: Bob spotted the Little Boy Bandit and Linda passed on Bob's findings to Bosco, but Bosco claims he caught the Bandit entirely on his own. Considering his job was on the line, he gets a bit of a pass on this one.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The kids aren't allowed to gamble at the horse track for obvious reasons, meaning they have to get Teddy to place their bet for them.
- Bosco's general incompetence has not gone unnoticed; he's facing a potential demotion to patrol for his repeated failures. Only by catching the Little Boy Bandit does he keep his job.
- Rather than being a case of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane, it's made pretty clear that Linda isn't psychic; all the instances of her using her "powers" was nothing but coincidence and common ability. Furthermore, after wasting everybody's time and money with her phony predictions, she is not Easily Forgiven, with Gretchen, Mort, Mike, and half the town still mad at her.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: This is Linda's prediction for the next person to enter the restaurant, which she considers proven right when Marshmallow walks in. Bob corrects her, saying that Marshmallow isn't handsome, she's beautiful.
- Too Much Information: Gene claims that "two small coincidences" is what he calls his testicles. Bob understandably doesn't appreciate this tidbit.
