Bob’s Burgers: Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth! is Linda’s story

The family almost always comes first in Bob’s Burgers. That’s not to say there isn’t any meddling going on.

While it might seem unlikely, Linda Belcher is one of those moms who can’t help but get involved. Maybe it’s because of her love of singing and drama, but she will get involved if there’s a reason for her to. Looking back at the series, it’s been a trend for Linda.

Regardless, we rarely see her meddle in Louise’s affairs. On the whole, Louise is essentially a tiny criminal mastermind, and having someone like Linda involved doesn’t always bode well.

For this week’s episode though, Linda’s meddling might become the key to a mystery being teased in the preview for “Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth!” Before getting started, there will be spoilers from the episode from this point on.

Here’s what happened on the Bob’s Burgers episode, “Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth!”

The episode begins with Linda and the kids going to school together since Linda is a parent volunteer and she overhears Louise being accused of being a thief. Meanwhile, Bob and Teddy team up to create a new business card for him.

Linda confers with Tina and Gene to try and prove Louise’s innocence before she pulls Louise out of class. Linda questions her about the stolen toy and Louise repeatedly tells her that she didn’t do it so Linda decides to prove to Mr. Frond that her daughter didn’t steal the toy so she tries to eliminate suspects but all of them were all preoccupied.

Linda decides not to give up but it’s starting to look bleak when Bob notices a magazine in Louise’s room with a dogeared page featuring the toy. She confronts Louise during lunch and she keeps proclaiming her innocence which is fine until Linda finds out from Regular-Sized Rudy that Louise has another locker. Linda searches in Louise’s secret locker and finds the toy but Louise explains that she doesn’t use the locker anymore.

We find out that the school secretary is the one who took it because the toy hits kids in the butter beans and she ends up breaking it but Louise comes up with a master plan to make sure everything works out.

”Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth!” is a look at Linda as a character.

Bob’s Burgers rarely focuses on Louise and Linda but when they do, the episodes are rare gems yet this one felt less about Louise and more about Linda. While Louise did play a pretty large role in the story, “Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth!” felt more like a character study for Linda than anyone else featured.

While Linda has always been ride-or-die for her kids, it doesn’t feel like any episode has shown her being so conflicted. She waffles throughout the episode on whether she should believe Louise or not. With all the signs pointing to Louise being guilty, she doesn’t even steer too close to believing one way or another.

Even though Linda and Louise don’t have the closest relationship, it’s episodes like these where we see how much Linda will do for her kids. It might not always be the right thing, but in the end, Linda was just trying to protect Louise. Plus at the end of the day, Linda knows her kids well and it shows.

As far as episodes go, I feel like this could have been a solid Mother’s Day episode, but I’m going to cross my fingers that we get another Linda-centric episode before season 13 ends. This episode might not be the most memorable, but it was a lot of fun.

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

What did you think of “Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth!?” Do you think this episode is a good representation of Linda? Share in the comments!