OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)Regular Sized Rudy gets ready with his dad to go meet his mom and her boyfriend for a family dinner. But when a magic trick Rudy plans goes wrong, he runs to the Belcher house and pretends he was allowed to come over before Louise escorts him back.OUR TAKELast season, I got to cover “Radio No You Didn’t”, which I remarked that it felt just shy of being an instant classic of an episode. I haven’t exactly checked the fan reception to that specific episode, but if anyone liked that one as much as I did, they’re probably going to like this one just as much, if not more. Getting a perspective episode on a character who isn’t one of the Belchers is rare enough already, but giving all of the episode to Regular Sized Rudy is a big swing that I think really pays off. We’ve been aware of Rudy’s situation with his divorced dad for several seasons now, but it’s mainly been used as a gag to show how awkward and sad that can be for a kid to deal with, almost like being the Milhouse of the show. This time though, it’s not played for laughs, or at least not nearly as much. Rudy’s a kid, trying to figure stuff out, with a dad who also seems to still be trying to figure stuff out (even apparently still needing to accept his ex-wife, who we see for the first time in this episode, has moved on), and there’s a lot about that which is said without needing to be said.There is a scene partway through the episode, when Rudy, his dad, and his dad’s girlfriend (who was born in 2002, holy crap I’m old) meet up with Rudy’s mom and her boyfriend at the restaurant for dinner. The shot stays fixed on Rudy for what feels like ages but is only 35 seconds. We hear his parents and their partners making awkward conversation as they wait for their table but Rudy stands there silently. The reason they are all there and the reason his parents still have a connection, but easily overlooked and unable to participate in their talks. So much pressure simply by existing. We then see flashbacks to how he would get his parents’ attention when they were together by showing them magic tricks, igniting his passion for the hobby, showing us why messing up the trick at dinner is so devastating, and the best idea he has of a whole family is the Belchers, which is why he runs to them. I don’t have time to go into it all here and I’m sure others will do a far better job, but this episode has certainly set a high bar for the episodes to follow.