Tina and Bob participate in a father-daughter cardboard boat race with Tina's Thundergirls troop, but Tina's tensions with her dad and the machinations of Troop 257 threaten to put a damper on the event. Meanwhile, Linda's empty-nest syndrome rears its ugly head when she drags Gene and Louise to the fire station's open-house.
Motor, She Troped:
- Adults Are Useless: Karen decides not to do anything about Troop 257 cheating until her boss arrives because it would make her look "firm" so that she could get a promotion.
- Bait-and-Switch: "Sorry it smells like onions. I had an 'everything' bagel... and a whole onion."
- Blackmail: Troop 257 were blackmailing Karen into going along with their scheme because they knew about how she kept a lost dog instead of returning it.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Troop 257 seem to be going through this phase collectively.
- Brick Joke:
- After Karen rescues a Troop 257 member from a tree, she remarks that she's going to go to her car and put lip balm on her nipples. In her next appearance, she has noticeable damp spots around that area.
- Harley questions whether or not they're allowed to help a duck who "needs a ride somewhere" during the boat race. Later, when practicing with her father, duck assistance turns out to be part of their training routine.
- The Bus Came Back: Both Thundergirl Troop 119 and Troop 257 return, and their members are consistent with their last appearance, with one small addition—Harley has also joined Troop 119.
- Cassandra Truth: When a fire alert leads to the open house at the fire station being cut short, Louise doesn't seem to realize the captain (who was starting to get tired of Linda and sympathized with the kids getting dragged along to the open house by her) is serious when he says they've got to go deal with a real fire.Captain: This isn't an act!
- Comically Missing the Point: Bob gets a bit caught up on the details of Reena's implausible story about a squirrel stealing her badge sash and so initially fails to realise that Tina is chewing him out about their poorly-constructed boat:Bob: How'd a squirrel take her sash? I don't get it.
Tina: Yeah, Dad, you don't get it!
Bob: Wait, do you think I'm siding with the squirrel? Because I'm not. I mean, I'd like to hear its side of the story... - Enemy Mine: The Troop 257 leader helps Tina and Bob stop Troop 257's scheme because she wants them to stop being so overzealous with cookie sales.
- Empty Nest: Downplayed, as none of the kids are actually leaving, but a central theme of the episode is Bob and Linda coping with the fact that their kids are gradually getting older and changing. They react to this differently, however; Bob is clearly somewhat maudlin by the fact that Tina doesn't need or really want his help in constructing the boat, but is willing to accept it and give her some space, while Linda tries to push Gene and Louise into enjoying a firehouse tour they clearly don't want to attend just to nostalgically relive their younger days.
- Engineered Heroics: Troop 257 decided to cheat in the boat race by putting a motor on one of their boats and purposely have Karen catch them so she could be promoted to Regional Leader. In exchange, Karen will give them all the best cookie routes.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Not even Gene is willing to tolerate the open house for Linda's sake.
- Bob, not immune to being a bit of a pushover to the crazy antics of his family, clearly finds the desperately needy fathers of Troop 257 incredibly pathetic.
- Exhausted Eyebags: 257's troop leader Bethany appears to sport these in this episode, unlike her last appearance in "Tina Tailor Soldier Spy". Justified given that the girl scouts she looks out for are rude little bullies.
- Failure Montage: One plays of Bob not knowing how to tape things.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Mike the mailman seems quite put out that Linda has never brought her kids to a post office open-house when she gets enthusiastic about the firehouse open house.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rina's insistence to Tina and Bob that Troop 257 are now "little angels" would probably carry more weight if she wasn't flipping them off at the same time.Bob: Whoa.
Tina: Yeah, angels usually give the middle finger, thanks for that Rina. - I'm Standing Right Here: When Patty overhears Tina and Bob gossiping about Troop 257, she snaps "We can hear you!"
- Meaningful Background Event: During the Thundergirls meeting, after Karen tells everyone she's the judge of the father-daughter cardboard boat race, three members of Troop 257 can be seen entering the room in the background.
- Mind Screw: Louise claims that her waffle that's somehow frozen and burnt defies science.
- Motor Mouth: Karen loves to talk, which helps contribute to her habit of sharing Too Much Information.
- My Beloved Smother: Linda channels this once again as she drags Louise and Gene to a fire station open house just so she can relive memories of their childhood. Louise reacts to it in a similar manner to "Mother Daughter Laser Razor" (namely trying to find any excuse possible to leave), and it's to the point that even Gene wants out of it.
- Nature Tinkling: Bethany shamelessly admits to Bob and Tina that she was peeing in the woods when they ask her what she's even doing out there.
- Nature Versus Nurture: Jokingly discussed; Louise points out that Linda is teaching her to lie and claims this is why she's an Enfant Terrible.
- Pulling the Thread:
- Pushover Parents: The Troop 257 dads.
- Running Gag: Tina licking something and declaring it not poisonous to get out of an awkward situation.
- Saying Too Much: Karen's habit of oversharing allowed Troop 257 to blackmail her into helping them with their plan.
- Second Place Is for Winners: Tina wins second place in the boat race. Not only did the cardboard boat she and Bob made together actually hold together this time, but she also got to stop Troop 257 and Karen's scheme for the latter to become Regional Leader in the process, so she's fine with second place.
- Serious Business: Troop 257's schemes are all motivated by their desire to acquire the best routes for selling cookies, and the extreme single-minded intensity with which they approach this goal to the exclusion of all else is noted by several. Including their troop leader, who personally would rather they focused a bit more on arts and crafts.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode title is one to Murder, She Wrote.
- The Store Next Door is "Put the Lotion in the Mask-et Day Spa".
- The Exterminator Van is "Are You There, Bug? It's Me, Margaret".
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Linda's attempts to stretch out the open house are intrusive enough to get the firefighters to fake a fire so they can leave with the trucks so she'll have to leave.
- Too Much Information: Karen is known as "Oversharin' Karen" for her bad habit of running her mouth off. It's the whole reason why Troop 257 are able to blackmail her into helping them with their Engineered Heroics scheme.
- We Need a Distraction: The girls of Troop 257 stage a distraction by having one of the girls climb up a tree and pretend to be stuck. While everyone else is distracted trying to get her down, Patty swaps her boat with an identical one with a motor. Later, the fathers of Troop 257 climb the same tree to distract the others while Tina and Bob swaps boats so Patty is rowing the motorless boat in the race.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Inverted; the fathers of Troop 257 are clearly desperate for some kind of positive attention from their daughters, who are all clearly going through a Bratty Teenage Daughter phase at very least. To the point where even Bob, who is going through a bit of a mini-Empty Nest crisis with Tina throughout the episode and isn't entirely immune to getting caught up in the crazy antics of his kids, finds them a little pathetic.
- Who's Watching the Store?: At the end, Bob and Tina return from the Thundergirls boat race to find Linda and the kids coming back from the firefighters' open house, which means no one had been running the restaurant all day!Bob: Great. I guess we don't need money today.
