Bob’s Burgers: Better Off Sled is a Christmas twofer

Before going on hiatus for 2019, Bob’s Burgers is back for one final shebang and it’s a Christmas episode with two different yet intersecting plots.

It’s hard to believe that Bob’s Burgers is already going on break for 2018 and won’t be back until 2019. Sadly, we do have a small hiatus to deal with but before that, the show is airing their annual Christmas episode. Entitled “Better Off Sled,” it’s pretty obvious it will feature the kids sledding and maybe, even Bob and Linda sledding. As a Christmas episode though, there’s even high expectations.

If you haven’t watched this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, there will be spoilers for “Better Off Sled” from this point on. 

“Better Off Sled” starts with the family watching the news about the recent snow storm and the kids getting ready to go sledding. They meet up with their kids and find out Logan and his friends stole their sledding spot. Louise decides to confront them but ends up arguing with Logan and throwing a snowball at him.

More from FOX

• Only 3 of FOX’s live-action scripted shows are coming back in March 2024 the rest are being held for Fall 2024
• Is El Cantito from Kitchen Nightmares still open?
• Bob’s Burgers: The (Raccoon) King and I was a busy episode for all
• Bob’s Burgers skipping Thanksgiving this year: Here are 4 can’t-miss holiday episodes to rewatch
• Is Love Bites from Kitchen Nightmares still open?

Louise comes up with a plan to use Rudy’s cousin, Mandy to get Logan and his friends out. Mandy starts pelting them with snowballs and they give up after she keeps pelting them with snowballs. The kids and their friends are having fun until they bring their friend Cameron who hits Mandy with snowballs and she leaves with the rest of them following her.

After hearing Teddy talk about plowing, Louise asks him to help them get revenge on Logan and his friends. She convinces him to plow all the snow off the hill and later that night, Teddy calls, freaking out and she calls back to check on him. He confirms that he did the plan but it ends up snowing overnight so it didn’t matter.

The next morning, the Belcher kids go to the hill to sled no matter what. Louise’s sled falls down the hill and she tries to go up against them. She falls down and before she can get up, Logan and his friends try to hit her. Tina and Gene go down to protect her until Mandy and the rest of the varsity teams get there to take down Logan. They all run away beside Logan who uses Louise as a human shield. Louise pushes Logan on her sled to save him as a gesture of goodwill but still gets her revenge when he gets hit regardless.

At the restaurant, Linda comes up from the basement with her knitting supplies and decides to make scarves for the kids. Despite Christmas being 2 days away, she starts knitting the scarves and daydreams about having her own knit-cracker. Bob tries to help Linda and it turns out that he’s better than she is.

In bed, Bob and Linda compare their scarves even though Bob’s is a lot better. During the night, Linda has a nightmare about the knit-cracker and wakes up to finish working on her one scarf while Bob already has one finished and might work on another. The two of them decide to give them the scarves to the kids as a gift from Linda’s mom instead. The episode ends with the kids getting their scarves and them fighting over the one Linda made.

As noted in my previous recaps, Bob’s Burgers has been featuring two plotlines for most of season 9. Usually, they make an expectation for holiday episodes but not for “Better Off Sled.” Thankfully, this week’s two plotlines were both given equal amounts of attention and had the interconnected theme of Christmas.

The plotline with the kids was the stronger of the two. It’s rare to see the kids having a snow day and enjoying their time together so that was awesome. Despite featuring all of the kids, this episode leaned more towards Louise and how far she’ll go for revenge. In the end, she does have some goodwill towards men but also doesn’t show any mercy.

Bringing Logan back was a nice touch, too. Mandy is likely a throwaway character but it was cool to see more of Rudy’s family. As for the Bob and Linda plotline, it was adorable to watch the two of them go back and forth about their scarves. The sequences with the “knit-cracker” was a delightful re-imagining of the classic Nutcracker tale. The episode was truly made when the kids fought over Linda’s scarf.

In terms of Christmas episodes, this was on the quieter side. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s just not as exciting or funny as the previous ones. The episode doesn’t focus entirely Christmas but still has a wintery theme. It makes for a unique companion to the previous year’s entries. Overall, “Better Off Sled” was a great episode to air right before the show goes on hiatus.

I give “Better Off Sled” an A-.

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

What did you think of “Better Off Sled?” What’s your favorite Christmas-themed episode of Bob’s Burgers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!