"If Teddy believes he is gonna be happy, he'll be happy, if he believes he's gonna be miserable, he will be miserable."
—-Linda
At a comet watch party, Bob tries to keep Teddy from going off the deep end, looking for signs from the universe. Meanwhile, the kids try to make their comet wishes come true.
Comet-y of Tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: When Tammy realizes Tina wants a pure heart to make a wish on the comet, she basically blackmails Tina into doing various things for her, claiming it'll help her decide whether to forgive Tina for perceived wrongdoings.
- Apologizes a Lot: To give herself a pure heart, Tina apologizes to everyone she believes she's wronged (even though said "wrongdoings" are extremely minor or basically non-existent).
- Brick Joke: Linda leaves the plot early on after running off to find kettle corn. She finally finds some near the end.
- Brutal Honesty: After his Rage Breaking Point, Bob tells Teddy that every bad thing that's happened to him over the past thirty years wasn't because of a sign from the universe or stepping on a rusty nail at a comet watch party—it was either unlucky happenstance or his own fault.
- Delicious Distraction: Linda's plot has her seeing someone eating kettle corn and desperately looking to buy some.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Jocelyn's usually as dense as Linda, but she stands up for Tina by acknowledging Tammy is just exploiting Tina's kindness and that Tammy herself is the one who doesn't have a pure heart.Tammy: Uh my heart is pure!Jocelyn: No.
- Hourglass Plot: The episode starts with Teddy believing in signs from the universe while Bob thinks it's nonsense. By the end, Bob is the one ranting about signs while Teddy is skeptical.
- Hypocritical Humor: After Teddy spends half the episode believing anything was a sign from the universe to overturn his assumed bad luck of 30 years, when Bob tells him about his encounter with the seal and how it relates to the new counter for his restaurant, all Teddy can say to that is that it's a stretch that Bob thought all that.
- Mushroom Samba: Mr. Fischoeder shows up at the comet watch party high on mushrooms. Considering his attempts at pulling the clouds away, it's pretty clear he's tripping out of his mind.
- Never My Fault: Teddy would rather believe he got cursed at a comet party from 30 years ago instead of acknowledging the bad things that happened to him since were either shitty luck or his own lack of attention and care.
- Pet the Dog: Jocelyn, who otherwise stands idle or partakes in Tammy's bullying, chooses to stand up for Tina when Tammy continues to exploit her, calling Tammy out on her nonsense and pointing out that Tammy is the one who needs to apologize to Tina, not vice-versa.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is based on The Comedy of Errors.
- Rage Breaking Point:
- After Bob falls into the ocean chasing after Teddy, Teddy tries interpreting the seaweed covering Bob's body as another sign, causing Bob to snap at him.
- Tina reachers hers when she calls out Tammy for exploiting her desire to earn a pure heart by making her do menial tasks.
- Relationship Upgrade: While previously implied in "Fingers-loose", this episode explicitly confirms that Teddy and Kathleen have started going out.
- Saying Too Much: Mr. Fischoeder seems to have just enough clarity to realize he shouldn't be announcing he's tripping on mushrooms.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is "All the Shingle Ladies".
- The Burger of the Day is the "Take Bahn Mi Burger".
- Linda refers to someone at the comet watch party Glow-dee Foster (since she's wearing a ton of glow-in-the-dark accessories).
- While listing non-existent family members she wants wish paper for, Louise cites her Uncle Buck and Cousin Vinny. Gene then asks for one for Vinny's girlfriend Marisa Tomei.
- The comet central to the episode is called Kirby's Comet, which is a very likely reference to Kirby, especially since stars are his main form of transportation and the full Japanese title for the series is "Kirby of the Stars".
- Superstitious Sailors: Teddy, previously established as being in the Navy, is shown to interpret many things as signs from the universe, to the point that he attributes the past 30 years of his life to stepping on a rusty nail during a comet watch party (and wants to make the next 30 years better with the current comet watch party). Bob points out that all of the things he blames on the comet (his abusive marriage and subsequent divorce, weight gain, hair loss, and stepping on other rusty nails 75 times) could be attributed to other factors (for instance, aging, making poor decisions or not looking where he's going). He continues to spiral throughout the episode, interpreting literally anything as a sign to the point that he can't decide which kind of chips to get without flipping a coin.
- Sweet Seal: After seeing the comet, Bob sees a seal poke its head out of the water. Enthralled by the sight of it, he starts to believe it's a sign and assumes that it staring back at him means he and Teddy are going to be okay (though Teddy criticizes Bob for thinking that far).
- Wish Upon a Star: Part of the comet watching party is writing wishes on paper and burning them, so they reach the comet and are granted. This greatly interests the kids, Louise especially (mainly about the burning part).
- Wishing for More Wishes: Inverted. When Louise thinks they've had too many wishes written down, Gene makes a wish for less wishes.
