"Sugarcookies!"
"I want to be a lifeguard because... [imagines herself rolling around with boys on the sand]"
—Tina
Tina proves a hindrance when she joins a junior lifeguard program. Back at the restaurant, business booms when Linda gives out the wi-fi password.
Tropewatch:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Linda asks for the identity of the hacker Bosco is pursuing. Bosco points out that if he knew, he wouldn't need to be undercover.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: At the end, Bosco takes the Belchers' wi-fi router as evidence, even though the hacker never even touched the router itself. He promises to return it as soon as he can, before he outright admits that they should get a new router.
- Becoming the Mask: Tina lies about wanting to be a junior lifeguard so she can attempt to flirt with shirtless boys, causing the other kids to despise her as this is something they genuinely want. When she decides to quit, looking at photos of the past squads and how important their role is makes her want to take the program seriously.Tina: I might've joined Junior Guards for the wrong reasons, but I'm gonna finish for the right ones.
- Brutal Honesty: When Gus learns why Tina is quitting, he actually encourages her to because even he thinks she's not cut out.
- Chekhov's Gun: One of the junior lifeguard girls trips in a hole on the beach and sprains her ankle, which lets Tina join in her stead. This becomes important towards the end when an entire Fun Run group is about to suffer the same fate because the coach mistakenly scheduled it on the same day as a sandcastle competition.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The entire lifeguard squad is punished every time Tina screws up, which results in them steadily hating her guts.
- Eating the Eye Candy: The only reason Tina joins the junior lifeguard program is to ogle at shirtless boys.
- Guilt by Association Gag: The coach regularly punishes all of the junior lifeguards for Tina's constant mistakes, which doesn't exactly endear her to the squad.
- Hated by All: It takes Tina a while before she finally realizes that the junior lifeguards all hate her because she's ruining the program. And even when they spell it out for her, she keeps trying to act like they're simply giving the new girl grief. It's only after Tina can't deny that everyone dislikes her that she starts taking the program seriously, and then they actually start to like her.
- Honor Before Reason: Not Bob this time, but Linda. Bob quickly opens up to the idea of wi-fi when he sees it give him a massive boost in business, but Linda gets upset when the customers aren't doing what she wants them to do with it, and considers unplugging the router even as Bob warns her against it. Only Sergeant Bosco arriving to deal with a hacker convinces her not to.
- Hopeless with Tech: The Belchers' wi-fi network is called "KidsTrappedSendHelp", which the kids themselves named. Bob doesn't know how to change it and has to tell the college students asking for the password he doesn't know how to change it and that the kids aren't trapped. Also, the kids made sure the password is "dadsbald".
- The Infiltration: Sergeant Bosco comes to the restaurant to investigate a hacker using the Belchers' wi-fi, passing himself off as just another customer. He has trouble keeping his cover, as he forgets to hide his badge and the shirt he wears says "Police" on the back, but the customers are too busy with their devices to notice.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Parker, the junior lifeguard that tries to convince Tina to quit, looks a lot like a younger version of Fred Savage, his voice actor.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When Bob walks back on allowing Tina to keep her whistle because it's shrill, Louise snarks that he's fine with Linda's voice. Linda responds with a loud Defensive "What?".
- It's All About Me: Linda gave out the password hoping to meet creative people, but got annoyed to find people checking e-mails and online shopping. When she tries to unplug the router and Bob argues that the wi-fi has been good for business, Linda doesn't agree as she doesn't want to "live in a world where people don't smile and look at me when I say hilarious stuff".
- Jerkass Has a Point: Parker was rude towards Tina, and kept saying that she should quit the lifeguard group. However, he was right at the beginning because Tina didn’t take the job seriously and was getting the other junior guards in trouble for her own screw-ups. It's not until Tina starts putting in effort that his rudeness gains less merit.
- Lack of Empathy: Tina initially acts like she's on an episode of Baywatch and really doesn't understand she's ruining the program for the rest of the kids until it's almost too late.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: The coach for the Junior Guards admits that he goofed by scheduling the Fun Run on the same day as the sandcastle contest, and agrees to let the kids back into the program and graduate if they agree to keep it a secret.
- The Load: Tina tries treating the junior lifeguard program like an episode of Baywatch, which on top of her being a weak swimmer quickly earns her the others kids' ire.
- No Indoor Voice: Teddy has headphones in and as a result talks very loud. Bob tries to tell him to keep quiet, but Teddy doesn't take the hint, and Bob just leaves in frustration.
- Oh, Crap!: When some of Bob's patrons consider going to Jimmy Pesto's for the wi-fi, Linda panics and hastily gives out the wi-fi password.
- Pet the Dog: When Parker tells Tina he still thinks she should quit, Willow and the other kids on the group defend Tina saying how she’s really trying this time and haven’t gotten them in trouble for days.
- Selective Obliviousness: When she attempts to quit, Tina assumes that it'll play out like an inspirational scene from TV where someone convinces her not to. Instead, everyone (from Gus to the junior lifeguards) tells her that she should quit, because she's been nothing but a nuisance. Tina, still trapped in her fantasy, construes Gus's encouragement to quit as the exact opposite, and credits him when she decides to stay (meanwhile, Gus tries to tell the thoroughly unamused coach that Tina has it backwards).
- Shout-Out:
- The exterminator van is "Big Little Flies".
- The second Burger of the Day is the "Walk This Waioli Burger".
- The third Burger of the Day is the "Shishito Corleone Burger".
- The fourth Burger of the Day is partially obscured by Bob's head, but it appears to be a reference to Quantum of Solace.
- The fifth Burger of the Day is the "Gouda Wife Burger".
- Ship Sinking: In-Universe, Tina thinks two of the junior lifeguards, Willow and Jason, like each other, but she's then told they're siblings. Tina realizes that's why they said "Bye Mom" to the same woman.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Linda gives out the password, hoping to come across a would-be author writing their novel like in the movies. Instead, it's mostly people checking their e-mails or doing online shopping, though there is a hacker... who is still just doing online shopping.
- Tina realize that being a lifeguard isn’t just about being with shirtless hot boys. It’s about helping and saving people's lives, and her trying to copy what she saw in the TV and movies just results in her group disliking her.
- Tina tries to prove herself to Parker by doing a training exercise for actual adult life guards, using the CPR dummy "Can't Breathy Stevie" as a drowning victim. Although she does quite well and almost makes it to the finish, when the coach sees this he's not impressed—rather, he's furious that she would endanger herself like this as well as destroying beach equipment. He then expels not just Tina but everyone else for enabling her.
- Suspect Is Hatless: Sergeant Bosco's attempts to trace the hacker only manage to reveal that they're using a computer called "My Laptop", which is the default name for a special folder used to access the computer's files that very few if any people bother to actually rename to something else.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: When she fails to get the attention of a customer wearing headphones, Linda lies that she poisoned his fries to try and get a reaction.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Status Quo Is God, but for a brief while, Linda giving out the wi-fi password gives Bob's Burgers a giant boost in business.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Both the A-plot and B-plot are driven by a Belcher's belief that doing something would be like on TV, only to be proven very wrong.
- Tina treats the junior lifeguard program as if she were on a television drama starring teens, annoying the kids who actually take the program seriously, and leading to Bob pointing out she's supposed to be learning about how to be a lifeguard.
- Linda assumed she'd meet someone working on something like a novel by giving out the wi-fi password, like what happens in movies. Everyone just uses it for shopping or checking e-mails (or, in Teddy's case, laughing very loudly at immature videos).
- You Say Tomato: Teddy has been pronouncing wifi as "wee-fee". Even when told the correct pronunciation, he insists on calling it as he originally did in his head.
