Review: Bob’s Burgers “The Spider House Rules”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

On their way home from school, the Belcher kids and their friends run into an abandoned mirror. Louise wants to smash it, and is bothered by the fact that no one else does. When a spider makes a home in her room, she decides to be a friend to this unwanted creature. Meanwhile, Bob joins a group text with a bunch of middle aged men.

Our Take:

Bob’s Burgers is back this week after a very small hiatus! The Spider House Rules continues the twelfth season with a Louise centric episode that takes things in a bit of a different direction that usual. Louise is forced to ask herself if she’s normal, and if not, will people still want to be her friend? And speaking of friends, Bob’s on a journey of his own in that regard.

But first, back to Louise. The story starts out with a little moment that makes her consider herself in a new light. When it comes to fun, her brand of chosen activity involves a little danger and a lot of smashing things. This causes her to feel a little out of place among the rest of her family members and their close contacts. So when she finds a spider spinning a web in her room, she takes it on as a pet project. I feel like a lot of Louise episodes involve her paired off with the kids, but this one is a little different since she’s on her own for the first half of the ep with a new friend—and an eight-legged one to boot!

While exploring Louise’s feelings about being the odd one out in the family and in life in general is interesting, it doesn’t really connect to the whole spider thing in as clean a way as I would’ve liked to see. Obviously the two aren’t directly analogous, but Louise’s monologue at the end where she compared herself to the spider felt a little tacked on and forced just for the sake of wrapping up the storyline. I think some added subtlety would’ve gone a long way in this storyline.

Bob’s B-plot doesn’t aim for the same sort of emotional or phycological highs, but it’s still a lot of fun. We’ve covered the ground of Bob not having any friends (besides Teddy, of course) before, but I think this is one of the first times he’s actually gone out of his way to try and remedy the situation. Joining Cliff’s group chat is a nice way to move his little storyline forward while not stealing focus from Louise’s spider search, and it brings some super fun moments to the table, like when Bob finally has people who appreciate his dad jokes.

The Spider House Rules feels like a warm welcome back to the small screen for Bob’s Burgers after last week’s blank space. Louise is one of the best characters in the show, and this episode gave her a bit of new territory to cover, even if it stumbled a bit in the execution. Plus, Bob’s cellphone silliness was super sweet.