Bob’s Burgers recap: Will Tina ever get a new enemy?

Even though the rest of the world is ready for Christmas, Bob’s Burgers isn’t. Rather, the show isn’t giving us a Christmas episode yet. Even so, it’s nice to see that the Belchers are still getting into shenanigans despite having a somewhat unorthodox Thanksgiving celebration.

Heading into this week, it’s another consistent Bob’s Burgers episode before the show has a small hiatus and then we see them celebrate Christmas. As exciting as holiday episodes are, the series is also known for its character-driven stories, too. In particular, the show does an excellent job of focusing on Tina for a majority of character-driven episodes.

At times, Tina can be pretty off-putting, but most of the time, she’s incredibly funny and awkward as most of us were as teenagers. As a character, Tina is definitely one of the more well-liked in the Belcher family. While she might not be everyone’s favorite character in the series, it’s clear the show knows how to utilize her, and thankfully, they’ve started to branch out a little bit.

If you haven’t watched “FOMO You Didn’t,” there will be spoilers from Bob’s Burgers episode. If you have watched, be sure to let us know your favorite character-driven episode the show has produced.

Here’s a short recap of Bob’s Burgers episode, “FOMO You Didn’t.”

The episode begins with Linda aggressively cleaning for a special visitor while Tina begins taking pictures of everyone in the family for her school project. Tina explains that she’s afraid she’s missing out on the fun because Tammy, Zeke, Jimmy Jr., and Jocelyn are skipping class but she decides she wants to take things seriously so she won’t be on the “D-Train.” Tina decides to enlist the help of her friend, Susmita although her mind keeps going back to the group skipping class.

Tina starts to get help from Susmita the following day but she once again gets distracted by the ones who are skipping. The teacher eventually finds out what’s going on and decides to threaten the class while Tina tries to keep her focus. It’s all going great until Tammy comes in and sees that Tina is going to use a picture of them ditching as her entry for the class.

At first, it seems like Tammy’s going to let it go as Tammy decides to invite Tina and Susmita for after-school slushies. Tammy is late so Susmita figures out that Tammy’s going to the darkroom to destroy Tina’s photo. Tina, Susmita, Louise, and Gene are too late as Tammy already cut the picture up before they got there. Tina feels discouraged but Louise suggests she tape the negative back together. The episode ends with Tina explaining to Susmita she had more fun with her than spending time with the others while embarrassing Tammy and getting a compliment from her teacher.

Will we ever see Tina face-off with someone else other than Tammy?

After watching the episode, there were a few questions to ponder especially with Tina. For once, it was nice to see Tina paired up with someone who is actually a friend. Even so, we once again saw her face off against Tammy. As an enemy, Tammy can be pretty horrible to Tina but as previously mentioned, things can get a little stale so when will we see Tina get a new enemy within the series?

Looking back at the series, Tina hasn’t had nearly as many enemies as Louise or even, Bob. We always see her paired with Tammy. While Tammy can be annoying at times, it does feel a little bit stale. Not only does Tina always end up getting hurt somehow but Tammy never feels any remorse for what she does to Tina. She’s frankly such an annoying and off-putting character that it would be nice to give Tina any enemy with some substance.

In comparison, Louise has enemies such as Logan and Millie who are occasionally friends but always end up being a thorn in Louise’s side. As for Bob, he’s got Jimmy Pesto and Hugo who are the biggest paints for him. However, their enemies bring something new to the table and show a different side of each of these characters.

For Tina, it always ends up with her either getting hurt or in trouble for something Tammy did or caused Tina to do. It’s frankly annoying and it’s time for the show to change it up. “FOMO You Didn’t” felt incredibly predictable and we all knew Tammy was going to sabotage Tina. In the end, the episode felt like a carbon copy of what we’ve seen in the past and it’s frustrating.

There’s no doubt the Bob’s Burgers writers can come up with something better so it’s time they decide to squash the Tina-Tammy feud for now. While it won’t have to be dead, it would be nice to see them take a backseat. Maybe the show can introduce a character who Tina immediately dislikes or feature someone who tries to be a friend but Tina can’t stand. There are so many different avenues for Bob’s Burgers writers to go down for this one.

Maybe it’s a matter of my own opinion, but Tina and Tammy are boring. Season 12 of the show has already featured two plotlines with Tina and Tammy at odds. Either way, hopefully, the rest of the series doesn’t focus much on their feud. Rather, it would be nice to see Tina have an enemy who goes toe-to-toe with her rather than is petty for no reason.

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

Do you think Tina and Tammy are used too much? Be sure to let us know in the comments.