Review: Bob’s Burgers “Lorenzo’s Oil? No, Linda’s”

Is this 2019 premiere an “essential” watch?

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

Linda’s new friend Angie—a young, conventionally attractive woman that she met at the supermarket—has been selling her essential oils. Angie stops by the restaurant to invite Linda to an essential oil party that she’s throwing at her house. Bob and Teddy have promised to help Mr. Huggins move his new bed, so Tina babysits Gene and Louise.

While Tina tries to entice her siblings to complete a jigsaw puzzle, Aunt Gail calls the house. Gail is horrified that Linda is at an oils party, because Gail attended a similar event and spent $600 on a starter kit of essential oils, none of which she could sell. She rushes to pick up the kids and take them to the party to save Linda.

While Linda mingles with a group of oil sellers, Angie pushes the Belcher children into the kids’ room. Tina works on another puzzle and Louise gets distracted by Angie’s dog Ringo. Gail tries to pull Linda away from temptation, but Linda won’t hear a word against her precious oils. Eventually Gail relapses, succumbing to her peppermint oil addiction once again. The kids devise a scheme to force Linda to take them home, but she finds them out.

Eventually, Linda discovers that none of the people at this party have had any luck selling oils. She realizes that Angie’s success isn’t down to the miraculous product she’s peddling—people are just drawn to her youth, attractiveness, and bubbly personality. Linda turns down the offer to sell oils and takes her family home—but not before Louise smuggles Ringo out of the house.

Meanwhile, Bob and Teddy laboriously lug Mr. Huggins’s new mattress and bed frame down an enormous hill and up countless stairs. Bob is eager to get home, but Mr. Huggins admits that he bought this new bed because he’s dating a woman for the first time in twenty years. Bob and Teddy shave his back and offer opinions on his silk nightgown. Finally, Bob delivers some sound dating advice before fleeing the scene.

Our Take

This episode calls to mind the sex toy-peddling house party from “My Big Fat Greek Bob,” one of the first episodes of Bob’s Burgers I ever watched. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure that premise is clever enough to repeat, especially because essential oils are a lot less funny than sex toys. This episode packs in some good laughs, but the overall low stakes and repetitive feel means that Bob’s doesn’t start the year on its most exciting note.

Some moments that tickled my funny bone:

• Tina announces that she has a surprise, and Gene asks, “Is it a meringue?”
• The “charity people” cursed out Mr. Huggins for making them carry his old bed. Teddy agrees, “I hate those guys.”
• Reggie believes that the essential oils have made him so healthy that he never has to wash his hands again.
• The highlight of Teddy’s childhood was the (singular) time his dad high-fived him.
• The dog is named Ringo because he plays the drums.
• Teddy and Mr. Huggins obsess over where exactly to put his lamp for maximum romance.
• Linda says that she’s happy to have kids now and Gene slaps his butt.

Maybe it didn’t make me laugh quite as much as some other Bob’s classics, but this episode does manage to explain the basics of advertising in a concise and relatable way: because Angie is young and pretty and happy, people want to buy the products she uses because they want to live vicariously through her. This is a major principle of ad writing—make people think that your product will help them achieve happiness or beauty or some other universally desired, essentially unattainable dream. Linda realizes that using essential oils won’t turn her into Angie, but rather than try to regain her youth, it’s better to appreciate the great things she has now—namely, a family and children. It’s a reminder that we should focus on forming positive connections with others, that our worth shouldn’t be measured by whether or not we live up to some arbitrary standards of beauty. Overall, it’s a great message.

I’m also pleased to see this episode incorporating Gail into a plot well (and I’m always pleased to see another cameo by Megan Mullally). Sometimes her intense awkwardness feels so over-the-top that it’s grating, but it’s a good twist that Gail is actually in the right for a change, genuinely trying to save Linda from herself. Her peppermint oil addiction is adorable, and I love the quick, frantic sequence that cuts from Gail in the car, to her picking up the kids, to them all in the car together.

For maybe the first time this season, the kids aren’t really integral to the plot here. It’s nice to see an episode focus on Linda, but I do wish the kids were given something a little more exciting to do. I didn’t get much out of Tina’s sudden puzzle obsession, and Louise’s puppy love is pretty predictable.

The B plot starts off slow—it’s not really that interesting to watch Bob and Teddy carry a mattress—but the moment Mr. Huggins begins to ask for love advice, I started laughing and didn’t stop. The awkward, socially inept Bob and Teddy are posited as comparative masters of romance, and I love Bob’s blend of intense discomfort with this situation and genuinely positive love advice. This may, in fact, be one of my favorite B plots of the season so far.

Yet in total, “Lorenzo’s Oil? No, Linda’s” is one of season nine’s most mediocre episodes. When I tune into Bob’s Burgers, I’m looking for something just a little wackier.