Bob’s Burgers: Roller? I Hardly Knew Her! is Gene at his best

By Rebecca Mills | Nov 25, 2018

Photo Credit: Bob's Burgers/Fox, Acquired From Fox Flash /

After a Thanksgiving celebration last week, Bob’s Burgers is back with a focus on Gene, friendship and facing fears in Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!

After airing their Thanksgiving episode a little early, Bob’s Burgers is back. This week, it’s back to the regularly scheduled programming. Well, as regular as the Belchers can be. While we met some new friends in last week’s episode, some old friends are making an appearance in “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!”

If you haven’t watched this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, there will be spoilers for “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” from this point on.

“Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” begins with the Belcher kids leaving school and Gene explaining he’s going to wait for his friend, Alex. Before they leave, Courtney stops Gene and asks if he will be her roller-dancing partner. Gene tells her no and they leave.

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The kids go down to the basement with Alex and Gene playing their version of a role play game. The next day at school, Gene is waiting for Alex and Alex admit he decided to be Courtney’s dance partner instead of Gene. The following day, Gene is obviously upset and he questions Alex who admits he like likes Courtney.

Gene invites Alex to lunch but Alex blows him off to hang out with Courtney. Gene sings a song about losing Alex as a friend while he and Courtney practice. At dinner, Bob suggests Gene should go support Alex as his friend and Linda recruits Louise and Tina to go along. Gene goes down to spend time with Alex but Alex yells at him and explains he’ll play with him later.

Later that evening, the doorbell rings which Gene answers and Courtney’s dad, Doug wants his help to get rid of Alex. Doug explains Gene should help so he can become Alex’s friend again. Gene agrees but chickens out after Alex apologizes to him and says Gene is his best friend.

Gene admits to Alex what he did and the two agree to be friends again. Alex suggests Gene replaces him but they come up with a different plan. Instead, the episode ends with the three of them dancing together and Courtney playing Alex and Gene’s game with them.

At the restaurant, Linda notices a woman watching them and she thinks the woman is coming to assassinate her. Linda notices the woman again and this time, Teddy comes up with a backstory for her. The woman starts to come in but runs away instead. She starts to come back later and Bob decides to confront her.

Brenda explains she’s agoraphobia and needs to go into a public place to get over her fear. Bob convinces her to go with him but Linda scares her by being loud. She agrees to come back as long as no one talks or looks at her. Brenda explains she’ll be back tomorrow to try and get over her fears.

After last week’s single-plot episode, Bob’s Burgers is back to featuring multiple plotlines in an episode. This week’s episode, “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” is easily one of the best examples thus far. Obviously, Gene’s plotline was the main focus but the plotline with Brenda didn’t take away from the episode.

Gene’s plotline was truly him at his best. He was the heart of the episode as he was scared of losing his best friend and it showed. The song was the icing on the cake and it ended on a happy note for him. I also loved seeing him, Alex and Courtney all spend time together. It’s so rare to see Gene as the star of an episode but “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” was incredible.

As for the plotline with Brenda, it was interesting. I can honestly say it’s nothing like the show has done before. It started off funny but took a serious turn but was still lighthearted. The cast and crew did a great job of portraying that, too. Overall, I’d consider “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” one of the best episodes thus far and one of my new favorites.

Next. Bob’s Burgers: I Bob Your Pardon is a Thanksgiving treat. dark

I give “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!” an A-.

Bob’s Burgers airs Sundays on Fox at 8:30/7:30c.

What did you think about “Roller? I Hardly Knew Her!”? Do you like how the show is bringing back some older characters? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!