Review: Bob’s Burgers “Sea Me Now”

Sea this?

Spoilers Below

Teddy arrives at the restaurant to tell the Belchers that he has finished rebuilding his boat. He offers to take them for a ride, which they accept, but he doesn’t seem to understand that they accepted his offer.

Once they are on the boat, the Belchers find that Teddy has cobbled together some parts. The wheel is the steering wheel from his truck, a couple of the passenger seats are just metal folding chairs strapped to the deck, and there are a few other changes that come into play later in the episode. Anyway, Teddy decides to drive them past The Schoon Hound, where his ex-wife, Denise, works. Oh, and it happens to be owned by her boyfriend. All of the Belchers think this is a terrible idea but they aren’t driving.

When they reach the restaurant, Teddy fails to get Denise’s attention. So he makes a u-turn to try again. He fails the second time. So he makes another u-turn to try again. He manages to get her attention this time but, while he talks to her, he crashes his boat into the dock. Since the front end of the boat is stuck under the dock, Teddy has trouble backing it out. Eventually, he gives the boat everything it has. But then he crashes the rear of the boat into the other side of the dock. Embarrassed, Teddy races away from the scene as fast as he can.

The boat, however, is not doing so well. The engine is pouring out smoke and there is water leaking onto the deck. Teddy gives everyone life jackets, just in case. This is where he realizes that the boat’s radio doesn’t have a microphone. He used it for a Halloween costume and forgot to put it back. So they can’t call for help. Bob is sure that they are going to sink. Thankfully, Teddy has found a nearby private island owned by a super rich guy. They should be able to find help there.

Again, Teddy crashes the boat. This time it’s some rocks near the island’s shoreline. Everyone has to wade up to the beach. Soaked, they see a house on top of a hill. They decide to head up to the house to get help. They quickly find their way blocked by a huge herd of cattle. The gang separates into two groups: Bob, Louise, and Gene go to the right while Teddy, Linda, and Tina go to the left. Each group has to climb a series of rocks to get past the cattle. On the way, Linda and Teddy roleplay what would have happened if there was a positive outcome with Denise. It leaves Teddy thinking he has a chance of getting back with his ex-wife.

The two groups get past the cattle and reunite. They find the caretaker for the house, who tells them a story about the owner of the house doing everything he could do impress a girl. It finally gets through Teddy’s brain that he has to move on from Denise. As the caretaker tows the boat back to the mainline, Teddy accepts that everything he has been doing is for his ex-wife and he sets his boat on fire. Too bad all of their wallets were on the boat…

A secondary story in the episode involved Tina. She stole the chalkboard eraser from the restaurant and carried it around the entire time to prove that she is responsible enough to get her own phone. Of course, he does lose it a few times but she does find it again rather quickly. In the end, she decides that she doesn’t want to a phone because she’d rather experience life instead of having to focus on a phone all the time.

While I get that Teddy has been stuck on his ex-wife ever since their divorce, this episode seemed a little over the top for me. This episode made it seemed like all Teddy cared about was Denise but we’ve seen him try to date a number of women over the course of the series. If he really was this “into” Denise, she is all he would think or talk about. He would never even consider dating another woman. It just seemed out of character for him.