Recap / Bob's Burgers S2E1 "The Belchies"

"You're... made of taffy?"

Louise: If you could make a map in a shape, what shape would you make it?
Gene/Tina: Butt.

Louise leads her siblings, the Pesto kids, and Zeke in a quest to find the secret treasure of an abandoned taffy factory, but Louise's frustration at the kids' incompetence leads her to search for the treasure on her own. Meanwhile, Linda and Bob try to have a romantic night, but when they discover the kids' absence they embark on their own quest to find them—during which Bob starts feeling the side effects of a special pill Linda snuck into his food.

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Tropes:

• Abandoned Warehouse: Caffrey's abandoned taffy factory, complete with Absurdly Spacious Sewer!
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Half the episode runs on this. Justified; the tunnels were originally constructed to smuggle alcohol during Prohibition and were simply repurposed afterwards.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Bob finds Tina's made-up word "duderus" funny.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Taff", for the taffy dummy Louise befriends.
• The Alcoholic: Teddy mentions his uncle had a serious drinking problem.
• Art Evolution: This was the first episode of the show to make the switch from Adobe Flash to the more reliable Toon Boom, resulting in the animation for the rest of the series being noticeably more restrained and less "floaty" than the first season.
• Beachcombing: What the Belcher kids are doing at the start of the episode. They use their metal detector to find another metal detector.
• Big Sister Instinct: After putting on a helpless front to attract Jimmy Jr. for the bulk of the episode, Tina drops the act and instantly concocts a plan to rescue Louise upon finding her in danger.
• Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Teddy invites Bob to come watch a game with a "Bring-Your-Own-Bean" Three-Bean salad party. Later, a construction worker mentions having a friend that hosted a "Bring-Your-Own-Bean" Three-Bean salad party.
• Call-Back: Teddy's first appearance in "Crawl Space" has him talking about the false walls in Bob's Burgers being a holdover from the town being a big bootlegging town during Prohibition, even mentioning his uncle's speakeasy. Teddy talks more about the town's Prohibition-based history in this episode, and it kicks off the main plot when he reveals an unassuming taffy tycoon was in fact the biggest bootlegger in town.
• Cellphones Are Useless: When the group finds Louise stuck at the bottom of a pit a booby trap knocked her into, Linda decides to call the fire department but she can't call them because there's no service. Linda blames the Belchers’ awful phone plan, then Bob points they are underground so no cell tower waves can get through.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Jimmy Jr. and Zeke's wrestling holds come in handy when Louise is trapped in a pit, as Tina gets the idea to form a Human Ladder using those holds to get her out.
  • Similarly, Gene banging a brick on the walls to create "music" ends up saving the day when Bob notices one of the walls he's hitting sounds hollow, allowing him to break down the wall and find an escape route.
• Companion Cube: Louise grows attached to a taffy doll while she is stuck with it. It doesn't stop her from ditching it on the beach when Linda forbids her from bringing it home, though.
• Continuity Nod: In "Human Flesh", one of the coffins in Mort's morgue contains Mr. Caffrey's corpse. In this episode, the kids end up exploring his factory, abandoned after his death, and it's revealed that Caffrey himself was a bootlegger during Prohibition.
• Damsel in Distress: Invoked by Tina; she believes that by acting helpless, she might conquer a man's heart, but she eventually ditches it when her little sister is in danger because it's just not her to be helpless as she prefers taking action. Plus, Jimmy Jr. wasn't paying too much attention to her anyway due to bringing along his brothers and Zeke on the hunt, and he wasn't very brave as she imagined.
  Tina: That's not who I am. I am a smart, strong, sensual woman.
  Bob: Oh god...
• Dope Slap: Louise whacks a hypocritical Tina in the back of the head for getting the Pestos and Zeke in on their treasure hunt.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Gene, who casually admits he's not very perceptive of other people, points out that Jimmy Jr. isn't in love with Tina like she believes he is. Considering Jimmy Jr. completely ignored Tina's advances for a good part of the episode, Gene is completely correct.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Owing to this being Zeke's debut episode. Zeke's parents are both seen at the demolition of the taffy factory, and both of them appear to be about Bob's age. Later episodes reveal information that contradicts or retcons this:
  • Zeke's parents divorced when he was a baby, meaning they both wouldn't be together watching the demolition.
  • Zeke's mother had Zeke as a teen, meaning she'd be in her early 30s rather than the mid-40s that her appearance suggests. That said, it's entirely possible that she's Younger Than They Look.
  • Similarly, Zeke's father has another son who's thirty years older than Zeke; at the bare minimum Zeke's father is currently pushing sixty and is more realistically around Mr. Fischoeder's age (mid-sixties). Assuming his appearance here hasn't been retconned, he looks maybe half his age.
• Epic Fail: Gene implies that he didn't know until recently his parents were Happily Married.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Among the first of many episodes that reveal Jimmy Pesto Sr. as one.
  Jimmy Jr.: (while dancing) Don't tell me not to dance, Dad!
• Gave Up Too Soon: Louise and the other kids fail to notice the butt shape mentioned in Teddy's story is actually based on the cliffs near the secret entrance under the taffy factory, and when she leaves Taffy behind on the beach they completely miss the fact that a gold bar was hidden in Taffy before he gets washed out to sea.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": At one point, Louise instructs the Pesto twins to each walk in front of and behind her in case there are booby traps. Cue Andy and Ollie singing "Booby" until an irritated Louise snaps at them to "Zip it!"
• Hollywood Density: Louise is able to carry Taff around by herself and never once notices how heavy he should be from having a gold bar inside him.
• Human Ladder: The group uses this to save Louise from the deep hole one of the booby traps knocked her into.
• Hypocrite: Tina invites Jimmy Jr. to the treasure hunt without asking Gene or Louise if it was okay, then gets angry when Jimmy Jr. invited his younger twin brothers and Zeke to it without asking her if it was okay. Louise wastes no time calling her out on it, though the sarcastic way she does so renders Tina oblivious to the irony.
• Innocent Bigot: Gene tells China to "stick to noodles". He didn't intend to be racist, but after saying it realizes the implications were there.
  Gene: Is that racist?
  Bob: Yes.
  Teddy: A little.
• Insane Troll Logic: Louise believes Teddy's map to the treasure is legitimate, on the basis that anyone would base a map on a butt, apparently not considering the same idea would be used for a joke. The map did turn out to be accurate, but still, a bit of a leap in logic.
• I Told You So: Louise accuses Taff of doing this, even though he is unable to speak.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Bob and Linda discover that the kids snuck out because the three of them were never quiet when they sleep, prompting Linda to go check on them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While she goes a bit too far with it, and eventually ditches her siblings to find the treasure for herself, Louise does have every right to be pissed off with them for how they've been more detrimental to the hunt than good (Tina invited Jimmy Jr., who in turn invited his brothers and Zeke, when Louise just wanted only the Belcher kids to find the treasure, while Gene messing around with the equipment ended up getting everybody stuck in an elevator). She's also completely correct when she notes how Zeke and the Pestos are even more useless, considering how they all got caught in a net trap Bob had to free them from when they were separate from the Belchers.
• Living Crashpad: When Bob and Linda fall down the elevator shaft in the old factory, Bob ends up breaking Linda's fall.
• The Load: The Pestos and Zeke don't really do anything to help with the treasure hunt. Louise outright calls everyone a burden.
• Long-Lived: Mr. Caffrey was old enough to run a bootlegging operation during Prohibition and only recently died at the time of the episode, meaning he would have to have been over 100 at the time of his death^note Prohibition ran from 1920 to 1933; assuming Caffrey founded the taffy factory and started bootlegging at the same time, he'd have been born in 1915 at the latest, but he almost certainly didn't start at age 18 nor is it likely he only bootlegged for one year with the amount of money he supposedly made from it; therefore, assuming he was at least 30 when he started and that he bootlegged for at least half the length of Prohibition, his birthdate would be around 1897 at the latest, making him at least 114 when he died but quite possibly even older.
• Papa Wolf: Coupled with Mama Bear; Bob and Linda immediately spring into action when they realize their kids are in the soon-to-be destroyed taffy factory.
• Raging Stiffie: Bob spends most of the episode with an awkward erection after Linda secretly slips him a penis pill. And then Taff gets stuck to it, leaving a rather amusing image.
  Teddy: Whoa. Your sex night took a weird turn, huh Bobby?
• Real After All: Teddy's story about Mr. Caffrey's treasure initially seems made up, but turns out to be very real.
• Remember the New Guy?: Tina seems fairly familiar with Zeke even though this is his first appearance in the series.
• Sanity Ball: After Louise and the others get trapped, leaving only Tina and Gene, it's Gene of all people who holds this, focusing on trying to find Louise while Tina is distracted talking about Jimmy Jr.
• Shout-Out:
  • Louise refers to the story of Aron Ralston, who cut off his own arm when he got stuck in a dislodged boulder.
  Louise: I don't have to cut my arm off like that impatient idiot.
  • Gene plays "Aqua Boogie" by P-Funk twice in the episode.
• Sleeping Dummy: The kids use these when they sneak out of the house. Louise uses an inflated balloon and bundled-up clothes, Gene uses a stuffed garbage bag, and Tina simply leaves a post-it note with her name on it.
• Sneaking Out at Night: The Belcher siblings, the Pesto brothers, and Zeke all sneak out of their houses while their parents are asleep so that they can find the gold in the abandoned taffy factory that is scheduled to be demolished the next day. Bob and Linda later discover that their kids have left when they've been too quiet and go in after them.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Louise realizes that the treasure map might be real because if she were to ever make a map, she would choose to make one shaped like a butt.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Andy and Ollie remark that Jimmy Pesto came for them. Jimmy, who didn't even know they were gone, just rolls with it and celebrates being a "good" father (the way in which he does so suggesting he's aware he isn't).
• Tastes Like Feet: Gene, Andy and Ollie start licking the machinery in the taffy factory.
  Gene: I can taste all the flavors from the past sixty years. I can taste the Korean War!
  Andy: I taste rust.
  Ollie: I taste Andy's spit.
• Tempting Fate: Louise proves to be nigh-unbeatable at this.
  • Louise celebrates that nobody knows about the treasure but the Belcher kids. Cut to Jimmy Jr. riding in on his bike.
  • Afterwards, Louise asks if anybody else is coming. Cut to the Pesto twins riding in on a skateboard.
  • Louise tells her siblings they'd just keep triggering obvious booby traps... right as she triggers an obvious booby trap and gets knocked into a pit.
  • Bob gets in on it too. He claims Louise isn't in any danger right as the demolition begins and shakes the tunnels.
• Too Dumb to Live: Louise accuses everybody of being this, and she is not wrong. While Tina and Gene show a glimpse of capacity of surviving on their own, the other four do get caught in a trap when left alone.
• Treasure Hunt Episode: In an old taffy factory.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Tina spends the episode trying to woo Jimmy Jr., only to lose interest when he shows signs of liking her. Ultimately, she goes back to liking him after seeing his ass.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: What Teddy thinks is a harmless prank on the kids nearly gets the entire Belcher family killed when they get caught up in the demolition of the taffy factory.
• Wham Shot:
  • The shot showing that the cliff where the Taffy Factory is the butt-shaped structure that Teddy's uncle talked about.
  • Taff having gold inside of him.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To The Goonies, from the Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title to it being a Treasure Hunt Episode, and Louise befriending what she believes is a humanoid monster when she gets separated from the other kids. Cyndi Lauper even performs a parody of her theme song, "The Goonies 'r' Good Enough," during the credits.

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