| “ | Wait, are you in our grade? | ” |
— Jocelyn to Bob Belcher
| ||
"Ex MachTina" is the eighth episode in Season 7, being the one-hundred-and-fifteenth episode overall.
Plot[]
When Tina hurts her ankle, she is left with no choice but to telecommute to school. After enrolling in a program that allows her to send a robot version of herself to class, Tina finds herself having an unexpected breakthrough with Jimmy, Jr. Meanwhile, Bob buys a banjo and searches for the perfect moment to play it.
Full story[]
At Wagstaff, Tina is walking in the hallways with her siblings, Tina in an awkward gait due to wearing platform espadrilles. Louise notes that she can barely walk in them, but Tina doesn't care because that weekend is the Eight Grade Beach bonfire, and she wants to get Jimmy Jr.'s attention by being closer to his eye level. They talk to Jimmy Jr. and Zeke, with Tina trying to hint to Jimmy Jr. about going to the bonfire together as a couple, but he is not completely interested and walks off. Tina tries to hold her head up but then falls over. In the nurse's office, Nurse Liz tells her that her left ankle is badly sprained.
At the restaurant, Bob returns from donating clothes at the thrift store (which is where they had previously bought the clothes in the first place) and brings home a banjo case he bought there. Linda is excited to see what is inside, only to be disappointed that it is a banjo. Bob intends to learn to play it and use it in "banjo moments," to Linda's confusion. After some silence, he takes the banjo back in the kitchen with him.
At Wagstaff, Tina now has crutches and a cast around her ankle, and is at her locker when Mr. Frond approaches having heard the news, calling it "fantastic." He tells her that a tech company recently approached the school looking to donate a robot for a student to use in a robotic mobility pilot program (Or "RMMP" pronounced "rump" to Tina's intrigue), as a way for mobility-impaired students to attend school without going. Tina is a perfect test candidate, and Frond wants to use the program to fill out his resumé vs. just being the beach bonfire chaperone. The company cans et Tian up the next day, who finds out from Frond that she is to put her arms over the crutches, not through them.
At Wagstaff, the robot is being set up in Frond's office, an eye-level screen with a camera and wheels underneath, while at the Belcher home, Tina, Bob and Linda are looking at a laptop which provides a camera for Tina to see and have her face displayed on the screen, and a joystick to move the robot. Tina misinterprets the technician's instructions to "rotate left" by rotating herself at first. Frond whispers to apologize that "a smarter kid didn't get injured," but the Belchers hear him. Linda whispers about injuring Frond, who can also hear them, and Bob has to point out each end has mics. Tina then tries using the joystick, but ends up pinning the technician's leg against the wall with the robot's wheels. Later in the hallway, Tina, now using the robot, talks to her siblings before Jimmy Jr., Zeke, Tammy and Jocelyn show up. She tries talking to Jimmy Jr. while Zeke reveals deep anti-robot sentiments and Tammy and Jocelyn are dismissive. Tina-bot then takes Gene and Louise, who hold onto the screen's poles, to class.
At the restaurant, Teddy compliments how Bob looks with the banjo, and asks him to play something. Bob soon plays expertly and Teddy calls in a crowd to watch him. Just then, Bob breaks out of his daydream, still trying to figure out the notes, taking a long time between each one.
At Wagstaff, Tina controls the robot through the hallways, crashing into several people and a locker, before the robot's wheels are stuck on the threshold of some doors, just as everyone heads to class. Stuck, Mr. Branca suddenly sees the robot, but due to not seeing the screen with Tina on it, nor able to hear her through his headphones, mistakes the robot for an AV cart and puts in the AV supply closet. Tina waits a while for someone to come looking for the robot, but nothing happens until jimmy Jr. enters the closet shouting about his dad and dancing. Tina hears him and the two talk through the robot's cameras. Jimmy Jr. explains he had a fight with his father about having to go to speech therapy instead of dance club, and needed a place to dance his feelings out. Tian explains about Mr. Branca, and the two start bonding over how they are ignored, with Jimmy Jr. noting how much easier it is to talk to Tina through the robot. The bell rings for P.E., but Jimmy Jr. wonders if they should ditch class and talk. Tina happily agrees.
The two talk for hours and miss fifth period in the AV closet, before the laptop gives Tina a warning that the robot is at 3 percent battery, and Jimmy Jr. has to walk it to the charging station. Later at the Belcher home, Gene and Louise have arrived from school, and Tina talks about how being a robot isn't so bad. Lousie and gene want to take the robot for a test drive on her laptop, now that school is out. Tina points out that she's the only one allowed to use the robot and refuses, which the two seem to accept. That night, however, they take the laptop and joystick while Tina is asleep. They set up in Gene's room, and use the robot to explore the school after hours, but are spotted by Yuli the security guard. With some quick thinking, they prop one of Gene's robot toys up to the camera and his megaphone to alter their voices, to trick him into thinking the robot is a new robot security guard and supervisor. Once Yuli falls for it, they get him to go to the cafeteria to get peanut butter cookies to slide into their locker doors.
In bed, Bob tries taking out the banjo to try and play again for a "banjo moment," but Linda shoots him down. After she shuts off the lights, he keeps trying to get the banjo out, but Linda is still awake each time.
At school, Jimmy jr. asks tina-bot to come into the AV closet with him for a secret that he's not even told Zeke about. In the closet, Jimmy Jr. shows Tina poems about all he's going through in his life, and got the idea to put poems and music together. Tina asks if it's like songs, but Jimmy Jr. calls them "musoems." He sings several out to her, but they are unfinished, one or two sentences, and off-key. Linda walks into Tina's room with lunch, but Tina is annoyed at her not knocking. Linda says hello to Jimmy Jr., then notes that the room smells funny and asks how long it has been since Tina left it, who shouts at her to leave. Jimmy Jr. and Tina have fun together with the robot during school hours such as spinning the robot to "dance," while Gene and Louise use the nights to pull pranks such as moving classroom chairs into spelling "FART" and racing around milk cartons in the cafeteria.
At lunch at Wagstaff one day, Jimmy Jr. is eating lunch with Tina-bot while Tammy, Jocelyn and Zeke watch from another table. Zeke thinks the robot has Jimmy Jr. "wrapped around" her wheels, while Tammy and Jocelyn think Tina is using AI on Jimmy Jr. (which they think stands for "As if"). Jimmy Jr. later arrives at the Belcher apartment with Tina's homework, and Tina rushes as fast she can in the cast to meet him. But their talking in real life feels awkward, and when Tina asks about his musoems, he leaves. Linda watched the exchange, while Bob tries bring out his banjo again, to Linda and Tina's disgust.
The next morning, Tina notices her robot's battery should be fully charged but is only at 20 percent, due to Louise and Gene using it to stuff 20 basketballs into Ms. LaBonz's supply closet. They run into Jimmy Jr., who has decided to perform his musoems at the bonfire, but wants Tina there as his date. Tina is taken aback, but when he expresses surprise at her bringing up her crutches, she asks if he means her or the robot. He says the robot, but that doesn't think of Tina as a robot, but "almost a real person." Tina reluctantly accepts.
Later in the hallway, Tina-bot and her siblings are going to class, with tina a bit upset at how Jimmy Jr. likes her more as a robot but trying to hide it. She thinks the important thing is she is going to the bonfire, her image and voice, before wondering how to get the robot to the beach, as it's not allowed to leave the school. Gene and Louise offer to help.
At the restaurant, Teddy asks where the banjo is, and Bob admits he's thinking of taking it back to the store. Teddy is relieved, and asks to eat there instead of getting his burger to go, and outright tells Bob he is terrible at the banjo, to Bob's annoyance.
In Tina's room, she is on the robot's laptop again when Linda comes in asking about the situation, in general confused about Tina being at home while the robot and Jimmy Jr. go to the beach. She admits that the "virtual robot date' may be unhealthy, but Tina is agitated, saying she is in a relationship now, and that she has stopped changing her socks and underwear, and that it does smell funny in there. Linda tells her it cannot last and at some point Tina will need to step out from behind the robot, and will need to go back to school the following week, unless her other ankle is twisted or something. Tina briefly contemplates twisting her right ankle before Linda tells her not to in order to keep the "wackadoodle" situation going. Tina is mad at her calling it "wackadoodle" before getting ready by checking the robot's battery level and joystick while dressing above the shoulders, as Linda awkwardly leaves.
Later that night, Louise is in control of the robot, leading it to the doors out, when Yuli stops them. He called the main office and found out there is no robot security guard supervisor, and accuses the robot of lying. Louise thinks fast and claims that the robot was laid off with the program canceled, and using Yuli's sympathy for the story of being recycled to get him to help open the front door to get out. Yuli gets the robot out and onto the sidewalk, where it begins rolling toward the beach.
Tina-bot manages to get to the beach, where the bonfire is going on. Jimmy Jr. greets her, while Zeke feels that the time is now "screentime" and Tammy says that no motorized vehicles are allowed on the beach but Louise makes a remark about Tammy being "trash" on the beach. Just then, Mr. Frond asks what the robot is doing there, and eventually agrees as long as the robot stays away from fire, water, and sand. Linda and Bob come in to watch, when Jimmy Junior tells Tina that it is time for the musoems, which. He is nervous about is glad Tina is there, and kisses the camera, the Belcher family's shock. Tina slumps down in her chair, and slaps away the joystick.
At the bonfire, Jimmy Junior gets his musoems ready, which he starts doing. But they are not well-received, instead getting awkward silence from the others. He looks at the robot, but Tina is not there on screen, Instead, she walks up to the bonfire, on her crutches, and says while it is awkward in real life, he can still have her support. As Jimmy junior reads more, the Belchers watch from the sidewalk near the beach, and Bob realizes it is a banjo moment. He gets the banjo out of the car, not having returned it yet, and takes it down to the bonfire, playing along as Jr. reads more. After Jimmy Jr. finishes, he and Tina kiss, to Bob's awkward reaction. Zeke tells the robot he respects it for stepping in at the right moment but still has to throw it in the ocean, as Frond tries to stop him.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Ex MachTina" on IMDb
- "Ex MachTina" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Ex MachTina" script via Springfield! Springfield!