Slumber Party (Bob's Burgers)

"Slumber Party" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers and the overall 54th episode, and is written by Scott Jacobson and directed by Jennifer Coyle. It aired on Fox in the United States on January 5, 2014.^[1]

Plot

Worried that Louise does not have any friends, Linda throws a surprise slumber party consisting of four of Louise's female classmates, none of whom she likes: over-talkative Harley, "germaphobe" Jodi, compulsive braider Abby, and boring Jessica. Louise resolves to drive each girl away and end the party. She tells Jodi that her mother suffers from numerous non existent infections, scares Harley into believing that Gene's secret, deformed, violent twin is about to be let out from the Belcher's basement, and refuses to allow Abby to braid her hair. Each girl demands to be driven home, leaving only Jessica, who went to bed early. However, Jessica finds an embarrassing possession of hers missing and believes Louise stole it to mess with her and drive her away. She skillfully evades Louise and searches the apartment, telling her she refuses to leave until her possession is returned to her. In the course of tracking down Jessica in the apartment, Louise finds her to be much more mysterious, resourceful, and cunning than she initially thought. A pillow fight ensues between the girls, but ends when Jessica's missing item is located and revealed: a pair of urine-soiled pajama bottoms. Now that her bedwetting secret is exposed, Jessica is humiliated and waits to be taken home. However, having learned of Jessica's cunning, Louise assures her that she's "no narc" and they're not in the 90s, and that she won't tell anyone at school and, they bond over their mutual cunning, pillow fighting skills, and overbearing mothers. Louise invites her to stay the night and Linda delights at Louise finding a friend in Jessica.

Meanwhile, Linda's fascination with an alley raccoon, whom she had dubbed "Little King Trashmouth" in "Two for Tina", reaches its peak when he is ousted from his territory by a larger raccoon (dubbed "El Diablo"). Linda takes in Little King Trash-mouth, and she, Bob, and Teddy conspire to remove El Diablo and "reinstate the king". Despite trying to keep Little King Trash-mouth a secret from the kids, the kids accidentally encounter the raccoon after he managed to escape Bob and Linda's bedroom. Meanwhile in the alley outside the restaurant, Teddy sets the trap, with Bob reluctantly preparing one of his burgers as bait for El Diablo, who takes the burger used as bait fairly quickly due to not having experience with evading traps. Bob shoos Little King Trash-mouth out of the house, and Linda leaves some red wine out for Little King Trash-mouth, telling him to "drink responsibly" before heading back in the house.

Reception

Pilot Viruet of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, specifically discussing how the episode further illustrates Louise's characterization as someone who "can be mean...but [is] not evil". He also noted a fondness for Jessica and the development of Louise's character, stating, "Out of all of Louise’s previous enemies, I think Jessica is my favorite. She’s on Louise’s level: Jessica is clever, she doesn’t give up, she knows how to pick locks, and she understands what makes Louise tick...The two girls even end up bonding over their crazy mothers and pillow-fighting skills. Louise isn’t going to morph into a social butterfly with a giggly best friend, but this is a nice step in the right direction."^[2]

Robert Ham of Paste gave the episode a 9.6 out of ten, saying, "I have to admit that this is the episode I laughed the least at...[T]here wasn’t a huge amount of stuff to guffaw at. Instead, 'Slumber Party' turned out to be the most subtly heartwarming edition of the show’s fourth season, with Linda’s worries for her eccentric kids and Louise’s slight insecurities leaching in to the story quietly. That is flat out exceptional scriptwriting, folks, and another reason why you shouldn’t miss out on the peerless run Bob’s Burgers is on."^[3]

The episode received a 2.9 rating and was watched by a total of 6.35 million people. This made it the second watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating American Dad! and Family Guy but losing to The Simpsons with 12.04 million.^[4]

References