If there's one thing we can all appreciate Bob's Burgers for, it's how the show pays homage to certain things while also avoiding saying its true name. One of the more obvious picks has to be The Thundergirls.
We all know that it's the show's version of Girl Scouts but the show decided to go with the same idea but put a twist on it. However, the Thundergirls are truly much more ruthless than any Girl Scout troop I've ever seen. That's just Bob's Burgers for you, though.
Since Tina doesn't age, it's clear we're going to be seeing a lot of Thundergirls for the next four seasons. Fox renewed Bob's Burgers along with its counterparts, The Simpsons and Family Guy. It wasn't a surprise to fans as Bob's Burgers filled a void in adult animation that most of us were craving.
However let's not get ahead of ourselves as we still have the rest of season 15 to enjoy. If you haven't watched the Bob's Burgers episode, "The Place Beyond the Pinecones," there will be spoilers from this point on.
Here's what happened in "The Place Beyond the Pinecones."
The episode begins with Tina getting ready to go on her Thundergirls trip but before she can get on the bus, she sees Troop 257 who are notoriously chaotic. Unfortunately, Tina has to follow them and see them cheating so she can tattle on them. They're at the Needlepoint Campground, and they have to find 8 stones to be able to get to the golden pinecone. Tina breaks off from the group to follow Troop 257, and they tell her to blow the whistle as loud as she can to tattle.
While spying, Tina ends up finding the golden pinecone and gets confronted by Troop 257 who accuse her of cheating. The troop ends up figuring out her plan and throws her whistle away but the three end up getting lost together. They end up stumbling upon a house while they're lost and it ends up being an etiquette camp for good girls which is run by an eerie woman.
The three end up getting stuck without a phone, and Eve wants them to stay as she'll feel bad if they go out into the woods. They end up in the punishment room where the three each get tied to a chair, where Tina gets Troop 257 to admit they were thinking about cheating but didn't. The two find out that Tina had the golden pinecone the whole time, and she escapes, but feels bad so she goes back.
Tina ends up lighting the golden pinecone on fire to distract Lacey and is able to break the other two free. The three end up getting back to the camp and share their horrific ordeal with the rest of the Thundergirls. The episode ends with the rest of the family picking up Tina and her not sharing any of the details about what happened.
"The Place Beyond the Pinecones" is a summery Bob's Burgers tale.
Season 15 has run the gambit when it comes to episode but if there's one episode that screams summer, it's "The Place Beyond the Pinecones." While it could veer into the spooky side of things, this episode felt more like a Summerween treat. Not only did we get to see Tina be the hero but she end up being incredibly brave and making herself the main character which doesn't always happen.
It was also nice to see a redemption arc for Troop 257 as they're constantly getting painted as the bad Thundergirls troop. While Bob's Burgers is sure to feature them again in the future, it was awesome to see them in a different light. Plus it was nice to see Tina get something and then give it up as part of the greater good.
Overall, it was a fun episode and feels like that perfect mix of summer and spooky, making it an easy one to queue up for celebrating Summerween. Plus, I can't deny that Summerween was popularized by Gravity Falls, which Kristen Schaal, aka Louise, stars in. No way I couldn't shout her out as she's such a huge part of both shows.
Bob's Burgers returns with a new episode on Fox on June 19th at 8/7c.