"I never thought this is how I would go
Here under the pier tied to Mr. Fischoeder
But looks like Linda will be a widow
Oh, bad things are bad..."
Here under the pier tied to Mr. Fischoeder
But looks like Linda will be a widow
Oh, bad things are bad..."
—Bad Things Are Bad, Bob's opening verse
Enraged that the wharf isn't being sold, Felix leaves Bob and Calvin Fischoeder tied up under the pier, doomed to drown when the tide comes in. Bob manages to send a final text to his family, but autocorrect garbles it, forcing his family to decipher the message and rescue him and Calvin before it's too late.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Bi: While getting Bob's phone from his pocket, Mr. Fischoeder is implied to have grabbed Bob's butt a couple times.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Bob's realizations as he's about to drown under the pier are that Linda will be a widow, he's going to die alone, and he's never going to see who wins Game of Thrones.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The Belchers; see Dying Declaration of Love below.
- Additionally, Louise joins in on the "I love you" train without a hint of sarcasm.
- Big Brother Instinct: Calvin is the reason Felix doesn't go to jail at the end, even though Calvin has every reason under the sun to make him face charges.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Gene and Louise join in on Tina's trademark moan when it looks like Linda isn't able to rescue Bob.
- Brick Joke: After Tina swallowed the key to the bike lock in the previous episode, The Stinger for the episode shows that she finally pooped out the key and freed herself.
- When the Belchers take paddle boats to find Bob, the guy remarks that the turtle is the fastest, but none of the Belchers actually use it. Later, Fanny catches up to the Belchers despite having been ages behind them—and it's shown she took the turtle.
- Brutal Honesty: While Bob loves Linda to death, he makes it very clear during what he believes to be his Dying Declaration of Love that he prioritizes the kids over her.
- Bullying a Dragon: Even as Felix is waving a gun around, Calvin outright mocks him and calls him too cowardly to carry on with his murder plot. Bob asks and then begs him to stop mocking the man who has them dead to rights. He continues doing it once Fanny hijacks the murder plot, mocking her intelligence even though she has even less qualms about murdering him than Felix did.
- The Bus Came Back: Officers Julia and Cliffany, two supporting characters from Season 1 who haven't had a speaking role since "Lobsterfest", make their return to arrest Fanny.
- Buy Them Off: Despite Felix having a Heel–Face Turn, Bob understandably doesn't forgive him and is about to tell the police everything Felix did when Calvin stops him by offering thousands of dollars to keep quiet. While the two aren't seen finalizing a deal, the fact that Felix walks free in later episodes without so much as a mention of his actions suggests Calvin did give Bob something.
- Call-Back: Louise talks about eventually putting Bob in a nursing home. Unlike the earlier episode, where she claimed it would be Tina and Gene's doing, here she openly admits she'd be behind it.
- The Cameo: Several characters appear in the background of "Bad Things Are Bad"—Jimmy Pesto, Trev, Ollienote , Darryl, Jocelyn, Logan Bush, Gretchen, and Speedo Guy.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Double subverted. Calvin appears utterly apathetic to his drowning plight, casually chatting about Bob's flip phone or how they can't blame the ocean for their problems. He starts to get visibly nervous once the tide reaches his neck and openly wondering if Bob's family won't save them in time... then immediately becoming casual again once Felix appears, taunting him as a coward.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Subverted. When one of Bob's texts gets garbled, Linda assumes a man named Pierre is force-feeding Bob shrimp and freaks out. It initially seems like Linda would be overreacting... until one remembers that Bob is severely allergic to shellfish.
- Dark Reprise: The lighthearted and comedic "Nice Things Are Nice" from the previous episode becomes the somber and depressing "Bad Things Are Bad" in this episode. As Felix contemplates his actions and the Belchers conduct a town-wide search, Bob laments his imminent death by the rising tide.
- Deadpan Snarker: When Fanny remarks that all the noise means she can't think, Calvin replies "What else is new?"
- The Ditz: Discussed; the Belchers try to figure out who kidnapped Bob. Tina suggests Jimmy Pesto, but Louise shoots that down solely because Jimmy is an idiot.
- Dramatic Irony: Linda spots Felix and thinks he's worried about his brother's life, not knowing that he's the reason Calvin is in any danger at all.
- Drowning Pit: Bob and Mr. Fischoeder are tied up under the pier as the tide comes in.
- Dying Declaration of Love: The Belchers believe they're going to die under the pier, and spend the next minute telling each other that they love them. Although it's very fortunately subverted—the Belchers manage to survive another day.
- Easily Forgiven: For trying to kill two people, Calvin Fischoeder lets his brother off pretty easily by pinning all the blame for the scheme on Fanny. To be fair, unlike Fanny, Felix did try to save Bob and Calvin at the end.
- Bob initially defies it—as the Only Sane Man, he outright asks Calvin why Felix isn't being locked up. The rest of the Belchers are also implied to have averted it; after part of the wharf collapses, Linda and Louise are pissed to see him resurface before Bob does. However, it doesn't last—later episodes show that the Belchers have all but forgotten what Felix did. Arguably justified; the end of the episode implies Calvin paid a lot of money to the Belchers to keep things quiet.
- Either/Or Title: The episode's full title is "World Wharf II: The Wharfening (or How Bob Saves/Destroys the Town—Part II)".
- Every Man Has His Price: When Bob attempts to tell the police about Felix's actions, Calvin attempts to bribe him to keep quiet. Bob retorts that he can't put a price on his family, but given Felix walks free in later episodes it's implied that Calvin did in fact manage to name a price that would appease Bob.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Calvin and Felix are genuinely baffled at the Belchers telling each other they love them.
- Fun with Homophones: When Louise asks if anyone has something of Bob's they can use to track him, Gene says he has Bob's jeans. Louise exasperatedly remarks that all the kids have his genes, after which Gene clarifies what he meant.
- Global Ignorance: Linda assumes Mexico and the U.S. are on opposite ends of the Atlantic Ocean.
- Heel Realization: Felix gradually feels remorse about what he's done and goes to free Bob and Calvin.
- Leave No Witnesses: Bob asks why he's being tied up under the pier if Felix's grudge is solely against Calvin. Felix points out that Bob is now a witness to his plan to kill Calvin, and can't be left alive with that knowledge.
- Like a Son to Me: When looking for Bob, Teddy yells at the maître d' to give him his son back.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Belchers freak out when Louise deciphers the garbled text to mean "tied up".
- My Eyes Are Up Here: Inverted; Fanny gets mad twice when Felix isn't staring at her breasts.
- Never My Fault: As seen above, Felix doesn't want to kill Bob, but because Bob was there when he enacted his plan to kill Calvin he needs to Leave No Witnesses. He acts like this is an unfortunate consequence of the plan, like it was inevitable from the start—except Felix could have avoided creating a witness by waiting for Bob to leave (something he was just about to do) before pulling his gun on Calvin. Bob being there to witness the plan is entirely Felix's own fault. It's eventually deconstructed when the internal guilt actually, steadily gets to Felix, leading him to own up (to a point) to his crimes and attempt to save both Bob and Calvin. Too bad his girlfriend Fanny doesn't have a similar attack of conscience.
- Noodle Incident: Between Calvin's nonchalance about the situation and stating that he gets one free punch on Felix as a rule, it's implied that Felix has made a serious attempt to murder Calvin before (possibly in the same incident that cost Calvin his eye, but it's never made clear).
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Felix's annoying, gold digging girlfriend Fanny proves she's also dangerous when she grabs Felix's gun and is prepared to let Calvin and the Belchers drown so Felix can sell the wharf.Fanny: All my life people have been telling me what to do. "Fanny, you can't show your butt! Fanny, you can't shoot people!" Well today I'm gonna do BOTH!
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bob manages to text "tired yo" to Linda. With "yo" being something he would never, ever say, the Belchers realize he actually meant to type something else, and after running through the possibilities Louise lands on the correct answer of "tied up."
- Police Are Useless: Sergeant Bosco dismisses Bob's texts for help as drunk texts solely because Bosco himself has done drunk texts before.
- Previously on…: The episode opens with clips of "Wharf Horse".
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The maître d' Teddy chokes out in his search for Bob still gives Gene free shrimp and tells Tina she's welcome back any time.
- Sanity Slippage: When Fanny learns that Felix would rather save Bob and Calvin than sell the wharf to build her nightclub, she doesn't exactly take it well.
- Series Continuity Error: Gene is shown eating shrimp with no ill effects despite episodes both before and after this one confirming he's allergic to shellfish.
- Shout-Out: Bob laments that he'll never know who wins Game of Thrones.
- Skewed Priorities: When Felix tells Fanny about what he did and that he's going to rectify the situation, Fanny isn't pissed that her boyfriend nearly committed double murder, but rather that she's not going to get her nightclub.
- Two Decades Behind: Bob's crappy cellphone is barely able to get a message to Linda.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: In trying to murder all five Belchers as well as Mr. Fischoeder, Fanny skyrockets to the position of the series's darkest villain within a few minutes. Well, at least at the time.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Fanny attempts it by swimming off into the sea after part of the wharf collapses; Linda even remarks on her attempted escape. Subverted one scene later when she's shown to have been quickly caught and arrested.
- Villainous Breakdown: Fanny's obsession with building her nightclub has driven her to murder Mr. Fischoeder & all five of the Belchers.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being involved in the first half of the search for Bob, Teddy is absent when the Belchers actually find him.
- Likewise, Rudy agrees to help find Bob, but disappears after the musical number.
- Would Hurt a Child: Fanny is prepared to either shoot the kids dead or make them drown.
