Louise suspects there's something sinister afoot during a Halloween field trip to an apple orchard. Meanwhile, Tina and Gene hope to win the school costume parade.
Apple Trope-Chard! (But Not Tropey):
- 15 Minutes of Fame: Chloe Barbash is out sick, resulting in the other fourth-graders attempting to fill in the void of her popularity themselves. This results in Jessica, then Rudy, and finally Louise gaining a lot of attention suddenly.
- The Bus Came Back: Jessica makes only her third appearance in the series.
- Call-Back: Mr. Frond references the annual costume contest. Apparently enough parents complained about the overly-competitive aspect of it that they replaced it with a costume parade... that is basically the exact same thing but outdoors and with prizes for more than just first place.
- Class Trip: Louise’s class takes a field trip to an apple orchard, with Bob as one of the chaperones.
- Cold Open: The first episode in Season 13 to skip the title sequence.
- Coordinated Clothes: The Belcher kids' costumes are themed around the movie Twister.
- Also, Andy and Ollie go as salt and pepper shakers.
- Creepy Crows: There’s a bunch of them at the apple orchard, flying around and squawking.Ms. LaBonz: Ugh, crows. Please, you’re creeping me out.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Brom brought out the creepy horse skulls normally used on the haunted hayride for the non-haunted field trip, all without considering that something meant to scare teenagers would have an even worse effect on kids.
- Linda made Gene and Tina's costumes too elaborate for the kids to move around comfortably. Ms. Schnurr also points out that the houses, trees and animals should've been put on Tina's costume.
- Easily Impressed: It doesn’t take much to impress the kids in Louise’s class, as it seems like funny noises and simple magic tricks do the job just fine.
- Grammar Nazi: This exchange between Bob and Ms. LaBonz:Bob: Hey, guess what? Me and Ms. LaBonz are friends now.Ms. LaBonz: Ms. LaBonz and I.
- Halloween Episode: Louise takes a Halloween field trip to a creepy apple orchard and Tina and Gene try to keep their costumes from falling apart.
- Helicopter Parents: Linda gets way too involved in her kids’ costumes this Halloween, even going so far as to close the restaurant and go to the school several times to fix them when they start falling apart.
- Hidden Depths: Bob is revealed to have an interest in beekeeping.
- Human Sacrifice: Louise and Jessica find a diagram that indicates the Hero of the Harvest is sacrificed to a Pagan sun god. It was in reality for a completely unrelated hayride.
- Lost Food Grievance: Poor Teddy has to wait outside while Linda has to go fix the costumes. The moment she returns and re-opens the restaurant, she gets called again to re-fix the costumes while a desperate Teddy screams at her to stay. She offers him a plain bun, which at least calms him down.
- Pun-Based Title: A play on “apple orchard” and “gore” - perfect for a Halloween episode.
- Running Gag: Bob asking if things that clearly aren't beehives are beehives, annoying the orchard workers with his endless queries. He finally finds an actual beehive at the end, but by then it's too late into the tour for the workers to let him have a closer look.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Tina optimistically hopes they’ll maybe get third place with their costumes, but Competition Freak Linda doesn’t accept that. The kids don’t end up placing at all, and both Bob and Linda think they were robbed.Linda: Third’s for turds. We’re gettin’ gold.
- Shout-Out:
- The Belcher kids' costumes are all based on Twister—Tina is the tornado, Gene is Bill Paxton, and Louise is Helen Hunt.
- Jessica's costume is a combination of Billy Idol and Billie Eilish, called Billy Idol-ish.
- The Burger of the Day is the "Rosemary's Baby Corn Burger".
- The apples (and the poor harvest), the bees, the paganism and pagan sacrifice are all elements from the various incarnations of The Wicker Man.
- Louise being made the festival's "queen", only to discover it's as part of a pagan ritual sacrifice (or so she believes) is reminiscent of Midsommar. Her blonde wig furthers the similarities.
- Gene: “Let’s get twisted, sister.”
- Sinister Deer Skull: The apple orchard workers wear horse skull masks for the Hero of the Harvest crowning ceremony. It, unsurprisingly, terrifies the kids.Brom: In my defense, I forgot kids were scared of things.
