- “Ahh! Please don't 'get' me.”— Jen to Gene Belcher
"Land of the Loft" is the seventh episode in Season 10, being the one-hundred-and-seventy-ninth episode overall.
Plot[]
Bob and Linda challenge themselves and attend a loft party on a stormy night, while the kids challenge their babysitter, Jen, and face the storm in an ice cream truck.
Synopsis[]
On a rainy evening at the restaurant, Bob prepares a to-go order for a couple he wants to impress, Becket and Maya, an “artsy smartsy couple” as a jealous Teddy describes them. While Teddy complains about them coming in to eat and becoming friends while ignoring how it describes him, then feeling threatened when Linda says they want to be friend-friends, the two walk in. They describe their experience driving up the coast for a chairless fried clams place that was closed and how they learned to blow glass on the way back. The two say they love Bob’s burgers while Linda exclaims who she loves them, and they invite Bob and Linda to a party that night in the artist lofts known as the Hubcap building. Bob and Linda however decide not to, as the party starts at 10 that night, but are given the address in case.
Later that night, Bob and Linda are watching the weather when the kids enter. The kids are going stir crazy from being inside from the continual rain the last week and future week, and proceed to demonstrate a new game they made up, “Throw Louise”. Despite their parent’s telling them not to, Tina throws Louise into Gene’s arms, causing them to fall over and hit the coffee table and spill Linda’s wine glass, which was the end of the last bottle, and tells them to go to bed. Bob and Linda watch The Earl grey Murders, a British detective show they’ve started, but find it boring without wine. Linda says that rather than watching another show, they should go out and do something fun, and go to Maya and Becket’s party. They call Jen, who agrees to babysit despite the last minute and late night nature. After Jen arrives and unlocks with a spare key, Bob and Linda tell the kids to go to bed while trying to stay awake, and head to the loft party after stopping at a gas station so Linda can use the bathroom and they can get snacks.
At home, Jen tells the kids to go to bed, but they get distracted and excited by an ice cream truck parked outside their place. But Jen tells them that the truck is her hot cousin’s, which she had to drive to the job, and there is no ice cream due to it being winter. But Tina, who is no longer bound by responsibility as a babysitter and wants to live like a kid, tells them they can still see the inside of an ice cream truck, and Jen agrees to show them the truck so they will go to bed.
Bob and Linda arrive at the loft, which is full of trendy people and hipsters, and Maya and Becket are glad they showed up. As they gladly drink strong whiskey from mason jars, they are happy at being at a grown-up party.
In the truck, the kids are disappointed that there is no ice cream, but refuse to go upstairs and ask Jen to play the music that’s with the truck, while Louise and Gene find power in using the truck’s microphone to annoy passerby’s. Tina convinces a nervous Jen to drive them around in the truck.
At the party, Bob and Linda are concerned that they are boring, given the number of interesting people at the people (such as those who make edible biodegrade ukuleles, and urban building ranchers, as Becket having his own whiskey while looking young at 49, to Bob’s annoyance), and decide to take a taxi home (due to drinking so much whiskey), but Becket tells them to stay for the performance circle that everyone invited performs in, and while saying that that it’s not mandatory also state that no one has ever not done it. A slightly drunk Linda tells them that they will perform, claiming she and Bob can sing despite Bob’s protests.
As Jen and the kids drive around on an empty street, the truck starts skidding on the ice, as the rain has stopped but the puddles have frozen over. After stopping on a curb, the kids decide they need to go home before they get in trouble as well as freeze, but Jen is unable to drive out of the ice.
At the party, Bob and Linda stay in the kitchen to talk, with Bob pointing out they cannot sing and Linda saying she didn’t want to be the boring people. Bob fails at singing practice, and tries to leave, but they forget their coats and are spotted grabbing the coats, as their turn is almost there.
The kids and Jen are huddled in the truck, it is 11:30, while their parents would be home around midnight, and it is too cold to walk home, so they stay and hope the roads thaw.
At the party, Bob and Linda are increasingly nervous, given how good everyone else is there (form playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” on an accordion on to painting while holding ones breath).
In the truck, the weather has gotten worse, white ice on the windows, and Louise admits defeat that they need to call their parents. Jen calls and leaves a voicemail which only tells them the street they are on. Later, as they huddle, Jen suggests they could walk to where her hot cousin works, which is not too far from there, and they can wait for Bob and Linda.
At the party, Bob and Linda’s turn happens, and their fears about being unable to sing come true, and they stop, with Linda apologizing and saying they’re not interesting and should just go home before realizing she needs to check her phone. She hears the voicemail and tells Bob about how Jen and the kids skidded off the road on Channel Street (to the confusion of one partygoer who thinks it’s a play). They head out into the icy night and slip on ice before trying to poorly skate on the sidewalk ice to find the kids.
Jen and the kids arrive at her cousin’s workplace, which turns out to be the strip club Pickles. After Tina mistakes a male stripper for a police officer, and the kids are spotted inside the club, Dave, Jen’s cousin who works as the sleeveless pilot at the club lets them stay in the back room to wait as Jen calls their parents.
As Bob and Linda skate on the sidewalk, Maya and Becket follow them, wanting to help find the kids and felling bad for pressuring the two to perform and embarrassing themselves. Linda gets a call from Jen at Pickles. The four arrive and meet the kids in the back dressing room, with Bob irritated at Jen about her babysitting performance. Tina says it wasn’t mostly Jen’s fault. Linda thanks Maya and Becket for helping, saying they wanted to be spontaneous and fun and interesting as them but could not keep up with them. Maya points out they are interesting, as their kids drove an ice cream truck to a strip club and now they are all there, which is more interesting than anything she thought they would do that night. Bob and Linda refuse to do something like this the next week but all agree to a 5-6 pm dinner, and Bob and Linda decide to wait out the weather there than go back to the loft for body painting. But the kids are still grounded (to Tina’s delight as she thinks they cannot leave the strip club).
Videos[]
References[]
External links[]
- "Land of the Loft" on IMDb
- "Land of the Loft" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Land of the Loft" script via Springfield! Springfield!
- "Land of the Loft" review at The A.V. Club
- "Land of the Loft" at the US Copyright Database