"Oh, my face!"
"WHERE ARE YOU MOM?"
—Gene
The Belchers hunt for lost birthday girl Linda, while she goes through the wringer trying to get back home.
Eat, Spray, Tropes:
- Acquainted with Emergency Services: Linda and Tina would sometimes use the restroom at a fancy hotel. They've been doing it for years and even got acquainted with the hotel security guard there, and even the pianist who plays in the lobby. The guard even knows about Linda's family and her birthday and they even listened to her idea to put new potpourri in the restrooms.
- All There in the Manual: This episode is one of the few non-holiday episodes to have its date confirmed—it takes place on June 3, as a throwaway line from Tina in "The Kids Rob a Train" reveals when Linda's birthday is.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Linda asks the bus driver to take her to "the wharf". The driver ignores Linda blatantly pointing to Wonder Wharf on a map and starts driving in the opposite direction, to a place called Wildwood Wharf.
- Asshole Victim: Whatever feelings the audience is supposed to have when Linda destroys Deirdre's chalk art, sympathy isn't one of them.
- Base-Breaking Character: Turns out Linda is an In-Universe example around town. Some people (like the hotel and pet store) love her. Other places (Like the guy at the bakery where she excessively samples and the uppity cashier at the supermarket) can't stand her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Bob tells Linda to take her time (so he can properly prepare her birthday surprise). He then has to go looking for her when she takes too much time.
- Berserk Button: Bob gets livid when the baker insults Linda's giant hands. Louise just warns the baker that he seriously messed up.
- Birthday Hater: Linda, primarily because she now sees them as a reminder that she's getting older.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Absolutely nothing goes right on Linda's birthday. She still considers it her best birthday ever because she got through all the crap life threw at her and "kicked this birthday's ass".
- Chekhov's Gun: Linda passes by the chalk festival on her initial drive to the store. It later becomes her final hurdle home.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Deirdre, the lady who held Linda up at the grocery store by buying juice and drinking cups for the street art festival, turns out to be one of Linda's final obstacles getting home.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- When Bob realizes Gayle is of no help in finding Linda due to her panicking, he lies that Linda just walked into the room before hanging up. Tina questions him on why would he say Linda was back when she clearly isn't. Bob tries to explain but gives up, though Tina finally realizes he was lying.
- Needing a ride, Linda asks a bus driver named Andrew if he's going to the wharf, which she points at. When he says yes and lets her in without paying a fare, he goes on the freeway headed to a different wharf. Linda explains she was referring to Wonder Wharf, which she was pointing at. Andrew admits he thought she's bad at pointing. Later, when getting off, she points to the bus stop on the other side, with Andrew questioning why he's pointing at him before she manages to explain it to him.
- Cuteness Proximity: Louise's secret hang-out with Linda is visiting a pet store of all things. It takes all of five seconds for Louise to start fawning over a puppy.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Deirdre goes absolutely berserk when Linda scuffs her chalk art.
- Funny Background Event: When Bob tries to calm Gayle down by saying that Linda just walked in, Tina turns her head to check twice.
- Hate Sink: Deirdre endears herself to the audience with her very first line, and only gets worse and worse from there.
- Humiliation Conga: Poor Linda. She has to take a detour because of a street art festival, she gets held up at the grocery store, she gets gum stuck in her hair when she tries to fetch an orange that rolled under the car, she locks her keys and purse in the car, she rips her pants and spends the rest of the day wearing a diaper made from an old grocery bag to hide it, she tries to hitch a ride on a bus that's going the wrong way, she cuts across a field only to break her glasses and get sprayed by not one but two skunks, she has to ride back to town in a horse trailer and the horses avoid her due to the skunk smell, she gets chased through the chalk festival by the same lady who held her up, and she has to break into her own home when she gets back before Bob and the kids.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Tina's secret hang-out with Linda is just going to the bathrooms at a fancy hotel. Even she realizes it's unimpressive next to what Gene and Louise do with her.
- Insane Troll Logic: The cashier at the grocery store dismisses Linda locking her keys in the car and tells her it's not an emergency because "You can't go to the hospital with a case of 'Locked my keys in the car.'"
- Jerkass:
- Deirdre, the woman who blatantly stole Linda's spot in line when the other register opened and told her she only had "A few things" and then spent all her time talking with the cashier and running off to get better cups until Linda's ready to snap from how agonizing it is listening to this woman talk. She later refuses to let Linda cut through the street art festival and mocks Linda because of the way Linda spoke to her at the store.
- The cashier himself isn't any better. He laughs at Deirdre subtly insulting Linda's age, he dismisses her locking herself out of her car (and refuses to let her call Bob), and he straight-up tells Bob that he hated her.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The baker may have banned Linda and other customers (including a baby) for petty reasons, but he was arguably pretty justified in banning another customer for excessive racism.
- The Kindness of Strangers: Deconstructed. A friendly bus driver agrees to drive Linda to the Wharf as she promises to pay him after getting home and fetching some cash. Unfortunately, the bus driver thinks she means a different Wharf and takes a route in completely the opposite direction Linda wanted to go. Turns out, if you ask something of a stranger, even if they agree the chances are they won't know or understand what you're talking about.
- Lack of Empathy: The cashier won't let Linda use a store phone to call for help and dismisses her problems with the car.
- Lethal Chef: Every year, Gene brings Linda burnt toast, and wonders why she likes it that way. Presumably, Gene burned the toast once and Linda was too polite to refuse it.
- Never My Fault: As Deirdre actively tramples over the street full of chalk art, she has the gall to blame Linda for it (even though Linda only destroyed Deirdre's, it was initially an accident, and she took care to actively avoid everyone else's). Linda lampshades it.
- Nice Guy: In contrast to Deirdre, the grocery store cashier, and the baker, the employees of the Royal Oyster Hotel turn out to be quite friendly, talking fondly about Linda and even greeting Bob as if they've known him for years (which they technically have thanks to Linda's stories).
- No, You: When Deirdre asks if Linda is wearing a "street diaper," Linda says Deirdre is the street diaper.
- One-Steve Limit: Bob and the pet store employee share the same first name (well, the employee goes by Robert, but it still counts because that's Bob's full name).
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Quoth Bob, as he angrily throws a baker's samples of pumpernickel on the ground for making fun of Linda:Bob: Guess what?! No one... talks about... my wife's... giant hands... on her birthday!
Gene: (picking up the samples and eating them) Except... for Teddy, because... he also... complimented... her wrists! - Shout-Out: The episode title is yet another pop culture pun, this time based on Eat, Pray, Love.
- Smelly Skunk: Linda gets sprayed by a skunk while lost in a field, twice.
- Skyward Scream: After getting locked out of the car with ripped pants and gum in her hair, Linda looks up at the sky and screams "I HATE MY BIRTHDAY!!!"
- Tempting Fate: When the bus driver allows Linda on despite not having any money, she says that something is finally going right. Then the bus gets on the highway in the opposite direction she wants to go.
- Tomato Skunk Stink Cure: After Linda finally makes it home for the spa day her family throws for her birthday, Linda is next seen soaking in the bathtub filled with tomato juice. Gene even asks if he can dip his cheese sandwich in the tub.
- Vague Age: Linda cuts herself off before listing her full age, making this either her 44th or 45th birthday. It's never confirmed which she is, which also means it's unknown whether she's older or younger than Bob (Bob himself is 44 at the time of this episode). That being said, the sound she makes the first time she cuts herself off leans more towards 44.
