On Valentine's Day, Louise and Linda try cheering up a despondent Tina, while Gene and Bob take their spot at a Valentine's trapeze class.
V for Valentrope-detta:
- Birds of a Feather: Nat the limo driver is basically a grown-up Louise. Louise is quite happy to meet her.Louise: I knew I'd find my real mom one day.
- Bland-Name Product: At one point, the girls eat in a place called "Tiramisu Warehouse", which is likely a reference to the Cheesecake Factory.
- The Cameo: Gretchen appears in the background of the salon after the Belcher women debut their special Valentine's Day appearances. Jimmy Pesto also makes a cameo as Jimmy Jr. and Becky's chauffeur to the restaurant.
- Continuity Nod: Bob's acrophobia comes back into play with the trapeze.
- Drama Queen: Tina has shades of this, although she certainly and understandably feels traumatized by Jimmy Jr.'s betrayal.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Bob and Gene bond over their mutual fear of the trapeze.
- For the Evulz: Louise calls Tammy to find out Becky's phone number, making her ask why she'd bother doing Louise a favor. When Louise tells her it's for the purpose of revenge, she agrees immediately.
- Gender-Separated Ensemble Episode: The episode evenly divides the Belchers by gender.
- Have You Tried Rebooting?: Gene suggests unplugging Tina and plugging her back in to stop her moaning.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Nat tries to crawl through the little window in the limo that separates the driver's seat from the back seats, but finds it's a bit of a tight squeeze and needs the help of the Belcher girls.
- Heroic BSoD: As a result of Jimmy Jr.'s actions, Tina becomes so depressed that she, a noted horse-lover, doesn't even react to Nat and Louise repeatedly talking about a dead horse.
- Hypocrite: Jimmy Jr. coldly remarks that he can finally tell what Becky's saying with her braces off.
- I Think You Broke Her: After what happened with Jimmy Jr., Tina does nothing but moan. Gene and Louise mention several times that she's broken, with Louise saying that "her puberty operating system crashed" and Gene wondering if anyone's tried pulling her plug and plugging her back in yet.
- Jerkass Ball: Jimmy Jr. really holds onto it throughout the episode. Choosing someone besides Tina as his Valentine is one thing; he doesn't have to go out with her. Being an absolute jerk about it to Tina, being several hours late to his date with Becky, and then dumping Becky mid-date to try and reunite with Tina is another thing, and pushes him way over the line.
- Kick the Dog: It seems Jimmy Jr. learned the art of dog-kicking from his father, given how he does it twice throughout the episode.
- Tina wasn't upset just because Jimmy Jr. asked someone else to be his Valentine. It turned out she gave him a handmade picture frame with a photo of the two of them inside, which he then replaced with a photo of Becky.
- Jimmy Jr. then does this to Becky when he decides to callously dump her in the middle of their date and tries to get back together with Tina.
- The Makeover: Linda takes Tina and Louise for makeovers. Louise's is a shark's mouth painted on her face, accompanied by dark eye makeup.
- Mama Bear: Linda is legitimately ready to make Jimmy Jr. suffer when she finds out what he did to Tina. She gets even angrier when he dumps Becky and makes her cry.
- Misplaced Retribution: Discussed. Tina stops her plan to ruin Jimmy Jr. and Becky's date because she realizes Becky didn't do anything to hurt her and thus doesn't deserve to have her date wrecked. Jimmy Jr., on the other hand...
- Nice Girl: Becky, who didn't do anything to hurt Tina on purpose, which is why Tina realizes she shouldn't ruin her date.
- Nightmare Face: Louise's Oni-like makeover is an almost literal example, since she says it was inspired by her nightmares.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Linda figures out exactly how deeply Tina is hurting over what Jimmy Jr. did when she's so miserable that she doesn't even freak out when Nat and Louise discuss scaring him with a dead horse, repeating the phrase "dead horse" about 5 times in the course of a single sentence.
- A downplayed case; the fact that Louise is willing to go with Linda's girls' night idea without so much as a complaint shows that she recognizes how much Tina needs to be cheered up.
- Out of Holiday Episode: While the majority of past Valentine's Day episodes haven't aired on the day itself (only one by this point), this one didn't even air in February, airing instead on the 14th of January, exactly a month before the big day.
- Papa Wolf: Bob, which is lampshaded by the trapeze artists.Bob: I am your dad. I will not let anything bad happen to you. We are going to be fine.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Bob and Gene each give one to each other after finally getting out of the trapeze.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Nat spends much of the episode talking Tina into retaliating against Jimmy Jr.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to V for Vendetta.
- The Store Next Door in the opening is Gloves Actually.
- Nat mentions that many people got decapitated sticking their heads out of limo sunroofs, blaming the movie Big.
- When trying to track Jimmy Jr. and Becky, Nat asks if Becky could possibly be a Cylon.
- At the restaurant where Jimmy Jr. is having his date, Nat says they're going to Goodfellas their way through the back door.
- Nat proposes putting a dead horse in Jimmy Jr.'s bed, but dismisses it because he'd be expecting that and instead decides to put it in his backpack so he grabs it when he tries to retrieve his homework.
- Stalker without a Crush: Tina knows where Becky Krespe lives with perfect recollection and can even describe the scenery.Louise: Wow. Stalk much?Tina: Yes, like, a lot.
- Stink Bomb: Nat has several that she keeps just in case. Tina plans to use one on Jimmy Jr., but then decides not to because Becky doesn't deserve to have her date ruined. When Jimmy Jr. breaks up with Becky, Nat and Linda go ahead with the plan and bomb him.
- Stupidly Long Filler Sound: Tina emphasizes the "long" part by holding her trademark moan for half a day.
- Trauma Button: Mentioning that it's currently Valentine's Day upsets Tina.
- Unknown Rival: Nat tells Jimmy Jr. that she'll see him in Hell. Because this is Nat's debut episode, Jimmy Jr. has to ask who she even is.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: When Louise asks Tammy for Becky's phone number, it starts with 201. 201 is an area code for Northern New Jersey, adjacent to New York City.
