"We have to get to the kids before wolves raise them."
"Don't Survive, Sur-thrive! Apocatips for the Apocalypse"
—Doomsday Preppers' Book
The Belchers decide to camp when Tina needs to make up for a camping trip her Thundergirls troop took when she ended up getting sick. A nighttime skinny-dipping adventure of Bob and Linda's leaves them swept away by a river, and they need to walk through the woods naked to find their kids while the kids are trying to find them as well.
A River Runs Through Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Bob and Linda's story is a Whole-Plot Reference to the premise of Naked and Afraid.
- Bee-Bee Gun: Tina weaponizes a beehive against the Crazy Survivalists.
- Bond One-Liner: After Tina uses the survivalist book to weaponize bees against the survivalists, she recites the page she saw it from.Tina: Page 17.
- Chekhov's Classroom: A line in the survivalists' book claims insects can and should be weaponized, which Tina later uses the pre-established beehive (itself a Chekhov's Gun) to accomplish. Both Tina and the survivalists lampshade it.
- Chekhov's Gun: The beehive next to the Belchers' camping site is used by Tina to drive the survivalists out of their camper and allow Bob and Linda to escape.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Thundergirls debut here, but their sole representative is Troop 39, who never appears again as the rest of the Thundergirl-focused episodes focus on Troops 119 and 257.
- Crazy Survivalist: The Belchers camp next to a couple of doomsday preppers. Who turn out to be a little... off. Louise is pretty quick to get into their literature.
- Deadpan Snarker: Linda calls Bob on his (lack of) nature survivalism, which results in his food poisoning."Oh, okay, you didn't eat a raw trout that didn't make you poop and barf your way through the forest like some kind of disgusting Hansel and Gretel."
- Everyone Has Standards: As gung-ho as Bob is about camping, when Tina lists off all the "fun" activities the family can do Bob is quick to tell Linda they don't have to do any of that stuff.
- Eye Scream: The survivalists spray bear mace into each others' eyes at the end of the episode.
- The Food Poisoning Incident: Bob undercooks his trout and spends most of the episode firing from both ends.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The survivalists are taken out by advice from their own book. They even lampshade it.
- Honor Before Reason: When the kids stumble onto a Thundergirl camp, the troop leader realizes that they're alone and asks if they want to camp with them for the night. Given Louise just ranted about how organizations like the Thundergirls are soul-stealing...Louise: I'D RATHER DIE!
- Horrible Camping Trip: For Bob and Linda, who become separated from the kids and go through hell reuniting with them.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Bob repeatedly states he's a natural camper when he really, really is not. He has no idea what to do in nature and pushes back when Linda turns out to be the natural camper in the family.
- Look, a Distraction!: Bob tricks Linda into looking away while sick from the trout he ate, first with a pelican and another with Patrick Duffy.
- No Name Given: Neither of the Crazy Survivalists are named. The end credits list them as "RV Guy" and "RV Girl", but that's as close as it gets.
- No, You:Linda: You've got horrible diarrhea, Bob.Bob: You've got horrible diarrhea, Bob!
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: It's a Shout-Out to A River Runs Through It.
- Red Herring: The episode starts with a strange ranger giving terrible information to the Belchers, and hinting that the camping site has become dangerous, with either bears or squirrels, before he suspiciously drives away while the kids look worried. While squirrels show up in a one-off gag, they aren't as relevant to the plot as the beginning hinted at.
- Sacrificial Lion: Discussed; Louise believes that because Nature Is Not Nice at least one of the kids (she singles out Gene) isn't gonna make it through the night.
- Shout-Out: The exterminator van is "The Great Ratsby".
- Skinny Dipping: Bob and Linda try to do this, and it's what leads to them being sent down the river when the ring of rocks they're bathing in breaks away.
- Toilet Humor: Bob spends much of the episode having to run off to puke and/or take a crap thanks to getting food poisoning from eating under-cooked fish he insisted on catching and cooking over a campfire.
