Bob’s Burgers Season 16 Episode 5 Review: The Secret Guardin’

Bob’s Burgers Season 16 Episode 5, “The Secret Guardin’,” places the kids in a high-tension waiting game that features all the humor we’ve come to love from this show.    

It is another Tina-centered episode, this time following her race to replace one of Linda’s precious porcelain babies before she notices that it’s broken.

The callback to Linda’s porcelain baby collection, one of the series’s more iconic gags, is funny to longtime fans and to anyone who knows someone with a niche collection.

And don’t think for a second that it’s not a big deal that Tina broke one of the babies. Linda takes her porcelain babies very seriously.

Initially, everything is going smoothly, but Louise, completely blasted on medication from the dentist, complicates Tina’s reverse heist. The medication is more or less a truth serum, and Louise won’t stop talking. 

Once again, we get another fun episode of the kids looking out for each other. Specifically, “The Secret Guardin’” showcases a bit more of Gene and Tina’s dynamic.

The two of them spend the episode trying to keep Linda away from Louise to varying degrees of success. 

Of all the Belcher sibling duos, Gene and Tina are the two we tend to see the least of, so it’s always a treat when we get to see them pull focus.

That isn’t to say Louise isn’t in the spotlight. If anything, she’s the star of the show.

Louise, loopy on whatever medication the dentist gave her, is handling it in a very Louise way. She’s the source of the episode’s conflict, but also much of its humor. Unfiltered and loopy Louise is truly a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, Teddy’s newish girlfriend, Kathleen, asks him to go pick up her mother from the airport.

Teddy’s relationship with Kathleen has been a genuinely sweet development for the character. It’s nice to see Teddy get a win every once in a while. 

In an attempt to win over Kathleen’s very Irish-Catholic mother, Mary, Teddy spends the majority of the B-plot sucking up to her. He’s laying it on thick. Still, it’s endearing to see him go to such lengths to win over his girlfriend’s mom.

Only it’s not his girlfriend’s mom. He picked up the wrong Irish-Catholic woman, named Mary, who just so happens to have a daughter named Kathleen.

The other Kathleen is a 6’0 heavyweight bodybuilder with a mohawk. It’s almost disappointing that we didn’t get to see her, but restricting that to the audience’s imagination works in the joke’s favor.

While the A-plot and B-plot don’t really connect, they do share a common theme. Tina is scrambling to replace the baby, and Teddy is scrambling to retrieve the right Mary.

While Teddy is coming to his own revelation, Louise nearly blows the whole operation by revealing that something happened in Linda’s room.

Tina rushes to replace the baby, completing her reverse heist. Better yet, when Linda sees her collection unscathed, she brushes off Louise’s confession as the drugs talking.    

It’s rare to see such a clean resolution in Bob’s Burgers, but here it feels correct. Especially when we find out Bob and Linda have their own secret that Louise could have let slip. 

Unlike Linda’s porcelain babies, this episode is incredibly solid. The writing is tight, the jokes are funny, and the crucifixes are extra large.

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Bob’s Burgers airs Sundays at 9:30/8:30c on Fox.

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