Bob's Burgers, "Lindapendent Woman"

Once again, Bob's Burgers is the clear winner of the Sunday night Fox line-up. In any other show, the episode would have been leaden, clomping through the standard "Mom's On Strike" storyline, giving us the usual personal revelations at the end, and everything would have gone back to normal. But Bob's Burgers manages to deftly avoid this fate with a two-part approach: first, by using genuine emotional depth in place of traditional sitcom storylines, and second, with a crazy-ass gender-bent Cinderella subplot that features a used Band-Aid in place of a glass slipper.

In the main story, Linda decides to take a job at a nearby Trader Joe's-like grocery store. The burger joint is struggling financially, and an extra paycheck could make a real difference in their lives. (Maybe they can stop kiting checks, or at least all the checks.) Plus, Linda is charmed by the store's apparently light-hearted approach to life. They have funny signs, and feature a "Disco Minute" every so often where everyone dances to a disco song played on the PA system.

And finally, she takes the job because Bob says she can't.

Linda quickly finds herself being manipulated by every other employee at the store. She gets routed into an undesirable management position (it seems to be the same job she was doing before, for the same pay, plus more responsibility). Then all of the other employees dismissively push her around and she ends up being the sole employee on shift.

This is where we realize that Linda is always a pushover. And the only reason she doesn't end up in this kind of pickle back at the restaurant is because her coworkers are family members who not only feel a responsibility towards her, they also care about her. As evidenced when they all show up and pitch in to help her out when she gets in over her head.

It's hard to pick my favorite moment of the episode. Louise's prank of tying individual shrimp to helium balloons, with the payoff at the end of the episode ("I MADE IT RAIN SHRIMP! WHAT DID YOU EVER DO?") is truly inspired.

Image copyright of Bob's Burgers/20th Century Fox Television