Tina attends a discount horse camp, and gets saddled with a troublesome steed. Meanwhile, Linda hosts a series of activities called "Restaurant Camp" for the remaining kids, but her plan to give them a fun time has the opposite effect.
The Horse Troper-er:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Louise finds "Apronface" to actually be pretty scary.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: Tina telling the story of how she met Jericho, her imaginary horse, is done is a 16:9 widescreen format to give it a cinematic look.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Tina's extensive knowledge of horses causes her to be paired with a more challenging horse than she expected.
- Gene and Louise get their wish of not having to go to work, only to find Restaurant Camp the opposite of fun. They then get their wish of not having to go to Restaurant Camp, only to be incredibly bored.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Linda proposes putting on a show to save Restaurant Camp, she says it should have skits and songs and skit songs.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When ranking Restaurant Camp, Gene and Louise specifically list "everything in the world, Restaurant Camp, work, and genocide".
- Brutal Honesty: Bob points out that as nice as it is that Gene and Louise are giving up their belongings to pay for horse camp, they probably won't get enough money.
- Butt-Monkey: Tina goes through a lot of crap throughout the episode, courtesy of Plops refusing to cooperate with her.
- Captain Obvious: Tammy remarks that her grandmother is "older than her parents".
- Cringe Comedy: Tina "riding" Jericho (once at the beginning and once at the end) is cringe personified. Both times it's recognized in-universe, and in fact Louise and Gene witnessing the first time is why they feel she needs to go to horse camp.
- Double Take: Tina cleans her glasses upon seeing the sign saying that she's going to horse camp.
- Downer Ending: Despite Tina's efforts, she fails to tame Plops, has a miserable time at the horse camp and ultimately goes back to her imaginary horse Jericho (which, as Bob lampshades, negates the entire reason her family sent her to camp to begin with).
- Gilligan Cut: Tina writes in her diary that she wishes she could convince her parents to send her to horse camp, before cutting to reveal that she's actually been reading the entry to them at the table.
- Grumpy Old Man: Bob takes on the role of "Old Man Belcher", who threatens to shut down Restaurant Camp.
- Imaginary Friend: Tina's imaginary horse Jericho. At one point, Jericho tries to convince Tina that she is the imaginary one, which happened before and seriously messed with her head.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Jericho starts sobbing when Tina says goodbye to him to go to horse camp.
- Lost Food Grievance: With the fryer out of commission, Bob stops serving fries for the time being. Teddy becomes obsessed with having fries, to the point that he tries to fix—and then exorcise—the fryer.
- Meaningful Name: Plops has a tendency to crap all over the place and is introduced to Tina this way.
- Parental Neglect: Jimmy Pesto dumps the twins at Restaurant Camp, basically forcing Bob and Linda to do free babysitting because he can't be bothered to.
- Pet the Dog: When seeing Tina "riding" Jericho in her sleep, Louise and Gene both decide that she needs to go to horse camp, and so go to their parents to convince them to make it happen.
- Pop Culture Reference Title: To The Horse Whisperer
- Shout-Out: The camp counselor welcomes the kids by quoting the theme to Mister Ed, but says she doesn't get the reference. The quote is a contractual obligation.
- Stunned Silence: Tina is so surprised that she's going to a horse camp that she doesn't respond for several seconds, leaving Gene wondering if they killed her.
- Summer Campy: The horse camp Tina goes to isn't exactly high quality.
