"What the curseword?"
"You love that turkey more than us!"
—Gene, to Bob about the turkey
There's a Thanksgiving saboteur in the house, and Bob's attempts at catching the culprit and salvaging what he can drive him to madness. Meanwhile, Louise attempts to clear her name, Gene and Linda work on a Thanksgiving song, and Tina tries to prove herself worthy of the fabled adults' table.
Tropes in a Can:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Mort is not interested in Gayle. She doesn't take the hint.
- Ambiguously Bi: By the time Bob outright states he's "mostly straight", the only thing keeping his bisexuality ambiguous is that the show hasn't outright used the word "bisexual". It helps that Bob makes it clear that he would actually consider the deli guy's offer to go on a date if not for already being married (as well as thinking that he's not good enough for the deli guy).
- Bottle Episode: Aside from a few brief scenes of Bob buying a replacement turkey, the entire episode takes place within the Belcher residence.
- Brutal Honesty: When Linda offers her services to Gene's Thanksgiving song, Gene quickly tells her that he's keeping the profits and he's going to be very critical.
- Call-Back: Tina is seen thrashing in her bed, just like "Bed & Breakfast".
- Comically Missing the Point: Mort and Teddy can't believe Bob threw out the turkey he found in the toilet, despite him having just said he found it in the toilet.
- The Comically Serious: As the deli guy continually flirts with Bob, Bob's focus is just on getting a turkey and trying to claim he's not a bad cook.
- Crazy Cat Lady: This episode really hammers home how obsessive Gayle is with her cats since she drags all of them with her to the Belcher house for Thanksgiving. She also includes one she found on the way over, which was abandoned "On someone's porch".
- The Ditz: Gayle's genuinely unable to realize she basically stole someone's cat.
- Dreaded Kids' Table: Tina wants to sit at the adult table with the adults for Thanksgiving dinner, instead of at the kids' table with Gene and Louise. Despite her efforts to act more mature, Bob still refuses to let her eat at the adult table. When someone has been putting turkeys in the toilet, Tina is suspected of doing so as revenge for being denied her chance to eat at the adult table. While she didn't do it, she was indirectly responsible for Bob putting turkeys in the toilet, due to Bob's allergy medication making him sleepwalk and have dreams about potty-training Tina.
- Dropped in the Toilet: Bob finds that someone keeps putting the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner in the toilet. It turns out to be Bob himself, who has been sleepwalking due to allergy medication, dreaming of the time he toilet trained Tina.
- Forceful Kiss: When chaos occurs in the bathroom, Gayle kisses Mort. He tries to get her off of him.
- Foreshadowing: Bob is seen sneezing and taking allergy pills as he rants about his ruined Thanksgiving, hinting to the reason he's sleepwalking.
- Funny Background Event: When Bob claims that he's mostly straight, four shoppers in the background can be seen turning to directly look at him, as if they overheard him.
- Group Hug: The Belchers get into a particularly sweet one at the end. Gayle, Mort, and Teddy join them, though Teddy hugs a bit too hard.
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends on a shot of Bob sleepwalking again, this time mistaking one of Gayle's cats for baby Gene.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Teddy's dad toilet trained him for seven years. From ages 7 to 14. Yikes.
- Implausible Deniability: Louise dramatically concludes that it was actually Tina and Gene working together to ruin the turkey, in an attempt to frame Louise as revenge for her slowly stealing their allowances over the past five years. Then Tina and Gene reveal that they didn't know about that. Louise immediately retracts her accusation and assures them that she hasn't been doing that. The two sigh in relief.
- Insists on Being Suspected: While Louise is listing off everyone's motives for putting the turkey in the toilet:Gayle: Maybe it was me!Bob: Was it?Gayle: No. I just started to feel left out.
- Interrupted Bath: During Louise's presentation, her photo of Linda was taken while the latter was in the shower.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Louise does have a point when she claims to have no motive for putting the turkeys in the toilet. She was the only one Bob didn't lash out at in the opening scene, leaving her with no reason to retaliate besides For the Evulz.
- Karma Houdini: To this day, Gayle goes unpunished for kidnapping someone else's pet.
- Loose Lips: Linda tells everyone about the second turkey Bob intended to keep secret. He actually didn't want to tell Linda because he knew she would do this.
- Mistaken for Gay: Bob's repeated return to buy turkeys lead the deli guy to assume he's into him. He doesn't seem entirely wrong.Bob: Who am I kidding, you're out of my league.
- Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker: Teddy advises Linda against waking a sleepwalking Bob, telling her he could get violent. This is Truth in Television, the real reason you never wake a sleepwalker is that they might attack someone from being startled, though Teddy seems to take it a bit too far.
- No Sympathy: Poor Bob really doesn't get much help from the rest of the family when his turkeys keep ending up in the toilet, nor do they really take his concerns very seriously. The only reason Louise tried to figure out who did it was because everyone thought she was the culprit.
- Not Me This Time: Louise is rather offended everyone automatically believes she put the turkeys in the toilet.
- Only Sane Man: Bob seems to be the only one who recognizes that a turkey that's soaked in the toilet and covered in cat litter is completely inedible.Bob: Why does everyone want to eat food from the toilet all of a sudden?
- The Reveal: It turns out Bob has been putting the turkeys in the toilets. The allergy medication he's been taking because of Gayle's cats made him sleepwalk while he was dreaming about helping Tina potty train.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is "Dr. Rangelove".
- Bob's turkey recipe is called the "Father of the Brine".
- While it's not seen in full, the Burger of the Day is the "Gourdon-Hamsey Burger".
- They Just Dont Get It: The deli guy doesn't really let Bob explain that he really is just there to buy replacement turkeys, constantly thinking that he's there because of an attraction and it's clear he's just trying to get out of the rut of his current relationship. While at their last encounter, Bob says he'll call him, though this is never given a resolution at the episode's end, the deli guy having set himself up for inevitable disappointment.
- Thought They Knew Already: Louise claims Gene and Tina were framing her for putting the turkey in the toilet as revenge for stealing their allowance, only they never knew about that, leading Louise to retract.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Gayle not brought all her cats with her (including one she outright stole) to the apartment, Bob wouldn't have been taking the allergy medication that made him sleepwalk, meaning no turkeys would've been placed inside the toilet.
- Vegetarian Carnivore: Gayle mentions her cats being vegetarians.
