Bob's Burgers Ep. 4.01 "A River Runs Through Bob"
On the coattails of news that Loren Bouchard’s Bob’s Burgers will be renewed for a fifth season, the show’s fourth season premiered Sunday with diarrhea jokes a-plenty. “A River Runs Through Bob” pits the Belcher family against both nature and a pair of apocalypse touting whack jobs for the show’s ubiquitous and compulsory family camping trip episode. The impetus for the trip being that Tina has missed her Thundergirl (a Girl Scout euphemism) group camping trip.
In an uncharacteristic turn, Bob packs no food, let alone hamburgers, instead insisting that the family fish and forage for food and drink. Of course, Linda and the kids are havin’ none-of-that and quickly capitalize on the goodwill of a pair of nuts-o survivalist RV-campers, who provide the crew not only with sustenance, but also with a copy of their survivalist manifesto. Bob chooses to fish for his dinner and ends up with a fast case of the squirts (hence the episode’s pun-tastic title).
Once the kids retire to their tent, Bob and Linda slip off for a romantic foray to the campground’s “tepid spring.” Bob takes a misstep while attempting to find a bush behind which to relieve his diarrhea, and the couple is swept down river.
The Belcher children awake to an empty campsite and, after finding their parents’ discarded clothing, surmise what has become of them. They swipe a set of intertubes (as well as more food) from the loco neighbors.
Bob and Linda grow desperate as it’s revealed that Bob has led them in the incorrect direction while attempting to get back to camp. The married couple fight and split up. Starving, Bob finds a stash of acorns but is thwarted by a crew of aggressive squirrels. Linda rescues him and the two find their way back to camp. They arrive to learn from the now annoyed but still crazy fellow campers that their children have gone down river. Bob begins to freak out and is lured, along with Linda, into the RV. The survivalists trap the Belcher parents under threats of being bear-maced and attempt to coerce them into joining their survivalist cause and, of course, swinging a little bit.
Meanwhile and in light of their struggle with nature, Tina, Louise, and Gene grow to adapt the survivalist manifesto with the United States Post Office and the Thundergirls serving as the objects of their institutional angst. They stumble upon a group of Thundergirls, also on a camping trip, and Tina rejects her former organization in favor of the survivalist manifesto’s tenets. Eventually the children find their way back to the campsite, and spy Linda attempting to escape the RV through an undersized vent.
Quoting a line from the survivalist manifesto, Tina drops a beehive into the RV, forcing all inside to evacuate. The Belcher family escapes, and happily returns to the city.
“A River Runs Through Bob” represents a solid kickoff for Bob’s Burgers fourth season. I am enthused by the decision to immediately get the Belcher family out of the restaurant and into unfamiliar territory. Both the show’s writing team and its cast are stacked talent, and it runs no real risk of becoming stale, but the decision to place its characters so far outside of their comfort zone as nature (perhaps the polar opposite of a burger joint) indicates that the show’s leadership is toying with bigger storylines and exciting breaks with its formula.
