Bob tells Linda and the kids the story behind an old, broken radio that used to belong to his grandmother Alice and the part it played in her discovery that a German spy lived in her building.
Tropes:
- Action Survivor: While Bob's maternal grandfather Billy served in the army (and was overseas at the time of the story), Bob's maternal grandmother Alice was just an ordinary citizen. That didn't stop her from catching a German spy.
- All for Nothing: Linda gives up on cleaning the closet when the stuff in there (besides the old radio) is recent stuff they haven't used much (and she's embarrassed when she finds out the duck slippers were a gift from Tina from a year ago but only remembers that after saying she was going to throw them out).
- Animation Bump: Gertie's attack on Mr. Miller is notably more fluid than the rest of the episode.
- Artistic License – History: Bob states his story happened in the summer of 1941, but also states his grandfather Billy was deployed to fight in World War II—the U.S. didn't enter World War II until December. While they did send troops overseas to aid Britain's occupation of Iceland in the summer of 1941, which would normally fit with Bob's timeline, Bob's dialogue indicates that Billy was actively fighting and not just stationed overseas.
- Big Damn Heroes: Gertie returns home just in time to interrupt Mr. Miller's attempted murder of Alice, and helps Alice escape the apartment to alert the authorities.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Gene states this would be his response if he was cornered by a German spy. When Bob asks if it would be out of fear or as a defense mechanism, Gene admits it would be both.
- The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Alice realizes that the spy's short-wave transmission is coming from the roof of her building because she can hear Lilly's crying and Billy's pigeons through the radio.
- Cassandra Truth: Alice's mother Gertie is naturally skeptical about there being a German spy in the apartment building. Mr. Miller is similarly skeptical... well, he would be, if it weren't for the fact that Miller himself is the spy.
- Chekhov's Gun: The old radio is described as being extremely heavy by both the modern day Belchers and Alice in the flashback story, the latter of which claiming it weighs so much that she can't move it to another room when Gertie asks her to do so because she's annoyed about Alice pacing around the room with Lily and having the radio turned up with it playing white noise static, which Alice claims helps Lily sleep. Sure enough, Alice ultimately tips it over on Mr. Miller's foot to incapacitate him when he's distracted by Gertie.
- Cut Phone Lines: After Mr. Miller discovers that Alice called the police, he yanks the phone cord off the wall, then tries to strangle her with it.
- Disappeared Dad: Lily's dad/Alice's husband Billy and Alice's dad/Gertie's husband are both absent from the story. Billy is explained to be overseas fighting in World War II, while Alice's dad is implied to be dead or divorced from Gertie, as Gertie gets rather flirty with Mr. Miller.
- Evil All Along: Mr. Miller, the Cool Old Guy who seems to be a potential love interest of Alice's mother Gertie, is the spy Alice overheard.
- Foil: Bob's family is pretty much cemented as a full foil to Linda's family with this episode. The most famous thing Linda's relatives ever did was spend decades feuding with each other starting from when Joey Volpintesta got stabbed with a fork by his brother Tony. Here, we see Bob's relatives were responsible for exposing a Nazi spy ring, ultimately coming across as good natured and heroic individuals compared to Linda's petty, vindictive family.
- Framing Device: The Belchers are cleaning out the closet, and when Linda tries to throw away an non-functional old radio, Bob resists since the radio is a family heirloom. Seeing the rest of the family's confusion, he explains why by telling them how his grandmother used it to catch a German spy.
- Good All Along: Peter is a genuinely hardworking shipyard employee who only wanted to keep his attempt at proposing to his girlfriend a surprise.
- Mama Bear: When Mr. Miller grabs Alice's leg, Gertie repeatedly stomps on his arm to force him off. And then continues stomping after he lets go, for good measure.
- Naturalized Name: Mr. Miller's name is an alias he used to hide the fact that he's a German spy. Bob can't remember his original name.
- Nazi Grandpa: Mr. Miller is an older man who spies for the Nazis.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: It'd be suspenseful enough for Alice to be living near someone she knows is a German spy... but to ramp up the suspense, it turns out she was wrong about Peter being the spy despite his constant shiftiness, and that the real spy has been beneath suspicion the entire time.
- Not So Above It All: When explaining why Rolo was constantly taking out the trash, Bob briefly jokes that he was found to be a serial killer.
- Oh, Crap!: Gertie's reaction when she walks in on Mr. Miller about to strangle Alice. When Alice announces that Miller is the German spy, Gertie's response shifts from disapproval to horror when she realizes what's going on.Gertie: Oh Alice... (finally notices that Miller has Alice and Lily backed into a room and is holding severed phone wires like rope). Oh Alice!
- Out-of-Genre Experience: An animated show that deals with running a restaurant and family life dedicates an episode to uncovering a German spy during the Second World War.
- Parents as People:
- Alice is shown to be a loving but exhausted mother from having to look after both baby Lily and dealing with Gertie's snarking.
- Gertie is this to Alice. When Mr. Miller proposes that Gertie will look after Lily after he strangles Alice, Alice quickly states Gertie is much better as a grandma than a mom.Alice: You gotta trust me on this.
- Police Are Useless: The police think Alice is getting details mixed up about the German spy due to a lack of sleep and non-circumstantial evidence, interpret her franticness as being testy, and hang up on her to take a "real" call. Mr. Miller then rips the phone cord out of the wall to prevent them from being of any more (dis)service.
- Red Herring: Peter is the person Alice primarily suspects as the German spy for most of the story. The end of the story instead reveals the seemingly-Cool Old Guy Mr. Miller was the spy, and after his arrest Bob explains what Peter was actually doing.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is "Sell Me Something Wood", a reference to Tell Me Something Good, written by Stevie Wonder for Rufus.
- Linda says that cleaning out the closet was like Flashdance, except instead of water falling on her it was all their old junk.
- When Bob asks the kids if they remember the story he told them about their grandma, Gene says Bob told them how their grandma treated a man covered in burns during World War II. Bob then corrects Gene by telling him that's the plot of The English Patient.
- Tina says the Belchers used to have a squirrel living in their attic, and Gene says they named him Flowers.
- During the end titles, the Belchers sing a big-band style rendition of Queen's "Radio Gaga".
- Spanner in the Works: Bob's mother Lily, then a newborn, kept crying throughout the night. Alice attempted to use the radio static as white noise to calm her down, only to hear a voice speaking German from the radio, as well as Lily's own crying indicating the voice was nearby. This led to not only her exposing a spy, but uncovering an entire Nazi spy ring.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Alice is pretty much an older Louise without her bunny ears and a slightly different hairstyle.
- Wham Shot: The start of the episode makes it clear that the German spy was communicating on a rooftop with a lot of bird poop on it, and that the spy stepped in some of it since there's a footprint. Near the end of the story, Alice drops something under the kitchen table and goes to retrieve it... only to find bird poop staining Mr. Miller's shoe.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Two of Alice's initial suspects as the spy disappear entirely as Bob's story continues, and after the story ends the kids have to ask Bob what happened to them.
- Peter, originally the prime suspect, disappears after Mr. Miller shows up at Alice's apartment, during which Alice discovers that Miller is the spy. When Louise asks about Peter, Bob goes back to explain Peter's seemingly-shady actions that were innocuous all along.
- Rolo is another neighbor with seemingly-suspicious activity, in that he's constantly taking out the trash—more than an average person would. This is dropped shortly after it's brought up, and Rolo is never mentioned again. After Bob explains what Peter was doing, the kids ask about Rolo, after which Bob reveals he genuinely had that much trash (and probably some baggage).
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: While he has no qualms with attempting to strangle Alice, Mr. Miller intends to leave Lily alone, stating she can just be raised by Gertie. That said, he's a spy for the Nazis, so it's probably a case of Pragmatic Villainy rather than him having a moral code.
