The Belchers are asked to house-sit a vacation home but get caught in a storm. They meet Helen, the widow of the house's owner, whom Linda and Louise suspect of murdering her husband.
House-trope:
- Age-Gap Romance: Larry Goodwin has graying hair in a photo with his first wife, while Helen doesn't look any older than her late twenties, even in the present day.
- Alone with the Psycho: Linda and Louise when Helen (whom they think is a murderer) visits the house.
- Later, Linda when Helen wants to be alone with her, when she learns Linda thinks she pushed her husband.
- Ambiguously Evil: It's not clear if Helen really did kill her husband or just thought about it. The ending heavily leans towards the first choice, though.
- Asshole Victim: Discussed; Linda and Louise suspect that Larry dumped his first wife and married Helen because his first wife was getting too old. That said, this gets dropped the instant they learn Helen might have killed him, because whether or not the victim deserved it doesn't really mean much when the Belchers are in the house of a possible killer.
- Black Widow: What Linda and Louise think Helen is, accusing her of stealing her husband's clock fortune. It doesn't help that towards the end, she gravitates toward Teddy. While Linda eventually drops her suspicions, at the very end of the episode it's implied that Helen really is one.
- Cassandra Truth: Implied. The episode ends with a strong hint that Helen did kill her husband, either by sabotaging the widow's walk or pushing him off herself.
- Closed Circle: What the house becomes when Bob's back injury coupled with a storm traps everyone inside.
- Contrived Coincidence: Of all the Belchers to find Helen's toolboxnote , it was the one member who was too high on painkillers to draw the proper conclusion.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": In her impulsive attempt to prove Helen's guilt, Linda winds up pushing Bob over, injuring his back and rendering him largely immobile for the second half of the episode.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: When Linda directly accuses Helen of killing Larry, Helen doesn't quite make the best case for herself until she saves Linda from meeting Larry's fate.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In Larry's first wedding photo, his first wife drastically changes in design between shots.
- Functional Addict: Helen implies that she was addicted to painkillers. She later remarks that she took some alongside Bob, implying she still hasn't quite shaken that habit, and the fact she wasn't as loopy as Bob suggests she still has a high tolerance for them.
- Gilligan Cut: The family discovers the back door is open, and although they explore Bob says they won't touch anything. Cut to them playing with various items in the house.Bob: (reading a magazine) I think I like boats now.
- Happy Marriage Charade: Regardless of whether she did or didn't kill her husband, it becomes clear at the end that despite putting up the appearance of a happy marriage Helen wasn't truly happy with Larry.
- He Knows Too Much: Helen's facial expression when Bob finds her toolbox implies that she would have killed Bob if he were able to put the pieces together and deduce that she did kill Larry.
- Hidden Depths: Bob really likes pool, to the point that he originally wanted to get a big house specifically to accommodate a pool table. That said, he's not exactly good at it despite insisting otherwise and blames missing his first shot on a warped pool cue even though neither the kids nor the viewer can tell (then misses his second shot on a cue he just said wasn't warped).
- I Can't Hear You:Teddy: Storm's really whipping up out there!Linda: I can't hear you! The storm's really whipping up!
- Karma Houdini: Assuming that Helen really did kill Larry, she's gotten away with it and continues to get away with it—Linda drops all suspicions against her and the only evidence is buried with nobody able to connect the dots.
- Last-Second Word Swap:Linda: All I know is that this woman is a mur... [notices Helen] ...maid. Mermaid! And that's the history of mermaids.
- Match Cut: When Linda asks Bob to roleplay what she thinks is the murder scene, the setting changes to them as Helen and her husband on the widow's walk.
- Mood-Swinger: Helen goes from admitting to caring for her husband to hating being married to him when she tries to convince Linda she didn't kill him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In her attempt to prove Helen's guilt, Linda causes Bob to injure his back, which bites her in the ass when Bob finds actual evidence of Helen's crimes and is too woozy on painkillers to connect the dots. On the other hand, however, Helen witnesses Bob find the toolbox and it's implied that she would have killed him if he were able to make the proper conclusion, meaning that Linda also indirectly saved her husband.
- No Sympathy: Linda calls Bob a baby when she pushes him to the floor and injures his back. Once Helen arrives she's even less considerate, trying to get Bob to leave the house with them despite his crippling back pain and then trying to keep him from taking Helen's painkillers when she offers, though this at least is because she's afraid to have her kids in the same house as a potential murderer and she believes the painkillers could be poisoned.
- Noodle Incident: Gene isn't allowed to wear cologne again until he proves he can be responsible with it.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Given the end of the episode implies she is a Black Widow, Helen saving Linda from falling has the benefit of covering her tracks by making Linda think she's a good person.
- Romancing the Widow: Well, not quite romancing, but Teddy has a crush on Helen and is trying to hook up with her.
- Running Gag: While high on painkillers, Bob constantly misnames people, calling Helen "Henry" and both Linda and Louise "Gene".
- Saying Too Much: Bob gets high on painkillers and outright tells Helen that Linda thinks she murdered Larry.
- Wham Shot: Bob finds something buried near Helen's house—a hammer and some pulled-out nails, all but confirming that Helen did kill her husband (since her alibi hinged on her not having tools to sabotage the widow's walk).
