Recap / Bob's Burgers S9E14 "Every Which Way But Goose"

"Pa parara Pa parara"

"I don't wanna be around anyone! Except Bruce!"

—Tina

When Jimmy Jr. cancels their school dance plans, Tina gets attached to a goose at the park. A little too attached. Back at the restaurant, Linda tries getting Gretchen a plus-one that her family approves of for her sister's wedding.

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• Angrish: After Jimmy Jr. cancels the school dance plans with Tina, Tina devolves into this for a while. It's...very forced and crude.
• Big Eater: After finishing his dinner, Gene grabs Bob's dinner to eat in his room.
• The Bore: Linda apparently picked a ton of these as prospective dates for Gretchen.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Linda suggests that Jimmy Jr. will ask Tina to the dance by skywriting... in the sky.
• Everyone Has Standards: Bob, who likes leading a simple, quiet life, tells Linda that the date she picked for Gretchen is boring as hell.
• Footsie Under the Table: How Gretchen scares away her first date who's a pediatrist, aiming her foot at his crotch while claiming that it's an urologist.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Despite meeting him several times (which Teddy points out), Gretchen has completely forgotten who Teddy is.
• High-School Dance: Tina's story revolves around her theme "Dance of the Living Dead" being chosen for the school dance. She goes berserk when Jimmy Jr. won't ask her to the dance (which was due to an embarrassing injury) and ends up forming a bond with a goose at the local park. This leads to the goose disrupting the dance when it followed her to school.
• Hypocritical Humor: Louise and Bob snark about going to Linda and Gene's wedding after the two display overt affection for each other. This is in spite of Louise and Bob themselves having a close (if much less overt) bond of their own.
• Interspecies Romance: Tina develops a crush on Bruce the goose. The family even come across a story she's been writing about her and Bruce having babies, which is what finally convinces Gene and Louise to ask Jimmy Jr. why he's been ignoring her all episode. That and the fact that they were forced to clean the restaurant bathroom, which is Tina's job, but she'd been neglecting it due to her obsession with Bruce.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Gretchen is pretty abrasive at the best of times, but she had every right to be pissed off when Linda logged onto her online dating account behind her back and invited one of the guys she didn't like to her sister's wedding.
    Bob: Lin, Gretchen is really scary right now, but you also kind of pushed her to this point.
  • When Bruce crashes the dance and gets tangled at the top of the bleachers, Tina tries to climb up to free him. Mr. Frond prevents her from doing so because Bruce is still a wild animal and the on-the-way Animal Control would be better equipped to handle the situation. Sure enough, when Jimmy Jr. climbs up to free Bruce himself, the goose bites his hand hard enough to draw blood and he has to get medical attention afterwards.
• Not a Mask: At the zombie themed school dance.
  Gene: Even Mr. Frond is in zombie makeup.
  Mr. Frond: No, I'm not.
  Gene: Oh. You'll be fine.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Getting rejected by Jimmy Jr. makes Tina go a little batty and develop feelings for a goose.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Louise worries about Tina when she doesn't react to Jimmy Jr. talking about his butt.
• Poor Communication Kills: Jimmy Jr. seemed reluctant but willing to tell Tina about why he couldn't go to the dance, but Tina's too hurt to let him get a word in.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is a reference to Every Which Way but Loose.
• Shout-Out:
  • Gene refers to Bruce as "Goosey Lawless".
  • Jimmy Jr. injured his butt trying out a dance move from Save the Last Dance.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "No one's concerned about your future hybrid human-goose babies, and no one read your journal either, so just chill out!"
• Take a Third Option: At the end of the episode, Linda offers herself up as Gretchen's plus-one, as she's somebody who's nice, but not boring, and likes to drink. Gretchen accepts.