Review: Bob’s Burgers “Frigate Me Knot”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When the ship that Teddy served on during his years in the Navy is going to be decommissioned and scuttled, Teddy isn’t sure he wants to attend the closing ceremony. But Linda convinces him that he can’t let his bullies win, and together with the Belcher clan, Teddy shows up in style. And when he’s caught with the ship’s bell in hand, he learns that those bullies might really have been friends all along.

Our Take:

Another week, another new episode of Bob’s Burgers. It’s settling in that the show is really back after that super long stretch of football, and this week’s episode is a really good one. Frigate Me Knot has Teddy all in his feelings about his Navy days, and how everyone made fun of him for falling overboard twice on the same day. It’s a really sweet story that has plenty for each of the Belcher family members to do—and it’s definitely an upgrade over last week’s mid-season premiere.

It all starts with Teddy’s invitation to attend his Navy ship’s pre-scuttling ceremony. The show has briefly mentioned Teddy’s Navy experience before, but being able to go deeper into those days is a great way to add depth to a character who’s been a crowd favorite since the first season. Teddy’s such a goofy guy that seeing him serve in the Navy is a real switch-up—although maybe not that much since his major memory revolves around the unfortunate events that led to his Navy mates calling him Double Dip.

What starts out as a bad thing eventually turns into a good thing when the crew reveals how Teddy being older and not being afraid to make mistakes inspired them and calmed some of their fears. I was totally expecting them to tell Teddy how they viewed his falling as a fun thing, but I didn’t expect the show to throw in that little extra bit of emotional background, and I think that extra pinch of feeling really helps this episode stand out.

Another thing the episode gets right is the pairings. In a show with such a large main cast, who is involved in what storylines can make or break an episode. Linda and Louise is one of rarer duos I would say, but I think I would love to see more of them together after this episode. The two of them really bring out the chaos in each other, and that’s super fun to see. Meanwhile, Gene and Tina get to bond as the older Belcher kids in a way they don’t when Louise is around running the show, and I loved their low-key mockery of Bob as he struggled with knot tying.

Frigate Me Knot takes an interesting deep dive into Teddy’s past, adding on that extra bit of specialness that makes the best episodes of Bob’s so good. Plus Louise and Linda unleash some mischief of their own, while Bob, Gene, and Tina chill out and tie knots. Each of the subplots is pretty nice on its own, but the way they all came together to, uh, tie things up was even better. Double Dip might have had a negative connotation to Teddy at the start of this episode, but it doesn’t any longer… and I think I could definitely double dip and watch this episode again down the road.