"If we play this game, there are many losers and only one winner."
—Bob
Bob leads a coalition of all the town's businesses to protest a rent hike. Unfortunately, Mr. Fischoeder is already one step ahead of them as he forces them to partake in a water balloon battle royale with the prospect of having their rent cut in half. To win, Bob must stay dry.
The Troper Games:
- Boring, but Practical: The Belchers don't add any extra skills to the table (until they find the secret balloon stash), and unlike Jimmy Pesto (who uses his twin sons as Improvised Armor) they don't have any unique tactics for the game, but they do have one simple advantage that is apparent from the very beginning—sheer numbers. Most of the other teams only have one (such as Teddy) or two members (such as the Cranwinkles) to their name, with the only large team besides the Belchers being the four-member Pesto family. For a vast majority of the tenants, one slip-up means they have to deal with the rent hike. But the five-member Belcher family has four additional mistakes they can make before the rent hike rears its ugly head. Indeed, they lose two members over the course of the game—something that would have completely eliminated most of the other teams—but the Belchers are able to move past these setbacks and survive to the end simply because there's just so many of them to hit.
- Notably, Jimmy Pesto only has three balloons at the end, and he has to hit three Belchers (Bob, Louise, and Gene). Even if the twins hadn't caused him to drop his balloons, he would've had to nail every shot perfectly to win the game.
- The Bus Came Back: Sal and his sex shop previously appeared in "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins."
- Comically Missing the Point: When Linda tells the town that if they go bankrupt, the kids will have to work in factories, Gene says he wants to work in C+C's Music Factory.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Notable aversion; during the water balloon fight, the Belchers have five members and the Pestos have four members, while every other team has two people at most. This is exactly as unfair as it sounds; by the end of the game, the Belchers and Pestos still have three people each (having only lost Linda, Tina, and Jimmy Jr.), with the Belchers in particular having only suffered any losses at all due to events they couldn't have predicted.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Linda being betrayed by Sal is what causes Bob to finally snap and start hunting the other tenants.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Played for laughs; Linda obviously doesn't die, but she collapses in Bob's arms after being hit by Sal, and her words to Bob before being taken to the other eliminated tenants are played up as if they're her last words. Bob also goes completely berserk when she gets eliminated.
- Divide and Conquer: Mr. Fischoeder does this, and apparently he's done it before. He offers to the people the opportunity to have their rent cut in half, in exchange for them to fight each other and the rest of the town having to pay the rent hike. The less altruistic members of the group accept it without a second thought, making the more altruistic ones fear to become victims and accept the game.
- Dwindling Party: Due to the nature of the water balloon fight, not all of the Belchers make it out dry. Linda is eliminated first by Taking the Bullet for Bob. Tina is eliminated second when she's hit In the Back by Jimmy Pesto. Bob, Louise, and Gene all survive until the end, but Gene and Louise run out of balloons, leaving Bob to deal with Jimmy Pesto alone.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Though he doesn't get the 50% rent cut, Bob successfully accomplishes his original goal of convincing Mr. Fischoeder not to go through with the rent hike. As a bonus, he also makes it through the entire episode without being splashed once.
- Everyone Has Standards: At the end of the episode, Fischoeder rewrites the rules to give the participants a rent cut every time they hit Bob (who will have his rent raised every time he's hit). After a speech from Linda, however, the participants realize that they're not willing to effectively ruin Bob's life for a simple rent cut. Even Jimmy Pesto isn't willing to hit Bob.
- Honor Before Reason: Bob has the last water balloon and is ready to throw it at Jimmy Pesto, until he decides to talk and address Fischoeder rather than win the game. Then the balloon pops in his hand and Fischoeder decides to designate Bob as the new target.
- Human Shield: Literally. Jimmy Pesto has Andy and Ollie serve as body armor. It works in his favor when Gene and Louise fire balloons from the top of Fischoeder's estate, as the balloons hit the twins while Jimmy Sr. stays dry.
- In the Back: Tina gets eliminated after Jimmy Pesto pelts her while her back is turned.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: Linda thinks RENT is about a rent strike. Bob disagrees.
- Jerkass Ball: Teddy and Mort are among the crowd trying to pelt Bob at the end, showing just how badly Mr. Fischoeder's game has twisted them. Though, to his credit, Teddy is first to stand down after Linda's Shaming the Mob speech, and both of them actually sided with Bob until this pointnote .
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's saying it solely to avoid getting hit, but Zeke hits the nail on the head when he claims Jimmy Jr. doesn't appreciate Tina, given not one but two episodes have shown he's not into her until she has another boyfriend.
- Killed Offscreen: Well, not killed, but Jimmy Jr. and Zeke are the only major characters not eliminated on-screennote .
- Laser-Guided Karma: Sal attempts to hit Bob with a water balloon, and Linda jumps in front of Bob to block it with her face. Later, during Bob's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, he nails Sal in the face with a water balloon.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Bob becomes determined to win after Linda sacrifices herself for him. Louise even comments how different he is at the moment.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jimmy Pesto tricks Sal into turning on Bob and Linda.
- Musical Slapstick Montage: The end credits feature a montage of characters getting hit with water balloons while the cast sings an off-key version of Nena's "99 Red Balloons".
- Noodle Incident:
- Edith once jacked up the price of yarn, causing a riot.
- Harold Cranwinkle once had a stroke.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The first sign is that Bob is playing for keeps is that Mort is the first person he personally eliminates.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Louise's line before dropping Felix's dirty laundry on the tenants:Louise: Let's try and keep it briefs.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: Mr. Fischoeder weaponizes this when his tenants go on rent strike. He offers them a water balloon throwing game where the last man dry will get 50% off their rent, but everyone else will have their rent raised, which benefits the winner greatly, but will make everyone else get screwed over by the rent they say they can't pay, instead of Bob's strike plan, which could result in nobody having their rents raised at all. Bob can see right through it, but everyone else (including his own family) joins the game pretty quickly.
- Properly Paranoid: Edith argues that the Belcher kids shouldn't be allowed to participate because it'd give the family a numbers-based advantage. While Mr. Fischoeder dismisses the issue, Edith is proven right as the Belchers' sheer numbers allow them to survive setbacks that would otherwise completely eliminate another team.
- Sacrificial Lion: Linda is eliminated midway through the game (making her the first Belcher casualty), and it's her elimination that convinces Bob to play for keeps.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Teddy is the second casualty in the water balloon fight to show that not all the main characters will make it to the end and deprive the Belchers of a potential ally.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Mr. Fischoeder doesn't let anyone forget that he's in charge."Bob, you have ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, six, one, go!"
- Shaming the Mob: Bob tries this when he holds Jimmy Pesto at balloon-point, but fails once his balloon pops. Linda later successfully does it when she offers to concede defeat.
- Subverted Catchphrase: Despite "Ow, my face!" being one of her Catchphrases, Linda doesn't say it after getting hit in the face at close range with a water balloon.Linda: My whole face flashed before my eyes.
- Taking the Bullet: Linda takes a water balloon to protect Bob.
- Token Evil Teammate: Jimmy Pesto is the first tenant to go for the water balloons when Fischoeder reveals the chance of a rent cut, and he's the only one who hesitates to stand down when Linda calls the tenants out on their selfishness.
- Took a Level in Badass: When Bob starts actually fighting back in the balloon fight, he scores eliminations left and right. He even vanishes into the bushes in an impressive showing of a hit-and-run tactic, something he's certainly not shown before or since.
- Underestimating Badassery: Mr. Fischoeder states that the Belcher Kids aren't actually advantages to Bob and Linda, which is why he's fine with them participating despite giving the Belchers more people than everyone else. He is proven wrong when Gene and Louise use Linda's bra to become snipers and get the secret extra balloons.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The title and plot resembles that of The Hunger Games. Zeke directly references the film by comparing him and Jimmy Jr. to Katniss and Peeta.
