- “Hey, you got other kids, right?”— Harley to Bob Belcher
"Motor, She Boat" is the third episode in Season 10, being the one-hundred-and-seventy-fifth episode overall.
Plot[]
Tina and Bob participate in the Thundergirls father-daughter cardboard boat race and Tina tries to hide her feelings about Bob's terrible boat-building skills. Meanwhile, Linda drags Louise and Gene to a fire station open house and overstays her welcome.
Synopsis[]
At breakfast in the Belcher house, Tina arrives in her Thundergirls outfit to work with her father to build another boat for the Thundergirls Father-Daughter Cardboard Boat Race. They have done this before, but in the past their boats have sunk due to Bob’s inability to tape things together without them falling apart. Tina tries to politely broach the subject as she wants to win due to it possibly being her last race, but Bob doesn’t listen but is glad to be part of team “Tad” (Tina-Dad).
Later at the Henry Hackenbush recreational center, Karen form the national office is instructing the Thundergirls and their fathers on the cardboard boat race instructions and rules, as well as going into her nickname “Oversharin’ Karen” by going into her nickname. She explains that she is the judge of the cardboard boat race but hopes to be promoted to regional leader to help her career sand low self-esteem. The boat race only allows cardboard, tape, and glue, and does not allow motors or other gadgets for speed use. Karen leaves for the girls and dads to look over the rules as she leaves to change her shirt that has sweat stains on it. Bob and Tina notice the girls of Troop 257 who previously spied on her troop and stole their cookie customers; they were banned form the jamboree but allowed to participate in the boat race. Since the girls can hear them, they let them know and explain they are “angels” now (while giving the finger), as well that their dads are forced to wait in the back of the room and are desperate for their daughter’s attention.
At the restaurant, Mike drops off mail, with a piece that says the fire house open house is open that Saturday toLinda’s excitement but not the kid’s. In the basement, Bob arrives to help but finds Tina has already cut up the cardboard in the night, and she asks him not to tape it either,m instead to write “Tad” on the boat pieces. But her perfectionism in grabbing the marker and writing it out causes Bob to go back to the kitchen, dismayed that Tina doesn’t need his help. As Tina goes back up for a new marker, she overhears Bob talking about how she doesn’t need his help anymore and she heads back down to mess up the tape so he can come back down and help.
Saturday, the day of the race, Bob and Tina are in the lake park taking their boat to the race in an inlet on the lake. Tina is trying to ignore Bob’s copious use of duct tape and how it is not holding together when they hear Karen talking to herself about how she should sound “firm.” She explains in detail that Julianne from Thundergirls National will be there, who is in charge of hiring the new regional leader, but told Karen that she needed to work on being firm in personality (which Karen at first misunderstood to mean her abs). Troop 257 walk by and insult the “Tad” boat.
Linda takes Gene and Louise on a walk supposedly to the farmer’s market, but directs them to the fire station open house, to Gene and Louise’s horror as they see it for little kids, not for their age. At the lake, Troop 257’s boats all pass inspection and they take them to the starting point as their dads sit over on a picnic table. Karen inspects the Tad boat, and notices a lot of tape but passes it, but when they pick it up, the boat starts falling apart. Suddenly, Rena from Troop 257 cries out for help, causing everyone to run over. She is high up in a tree, saying a story that a squirrels tole her sash and went up it and now she is stuck high, so Karen climbs up the tree to get her down. As Bob keeps talking about how it could happen and the squirrel’s side, Tina’s frustration finally explodes in an angry outburst at her father about how the boat is ruined and poorly constructed and she should never have let him help, telling him to sit with the “sad dads” at the picnic table before storming off to cool off.
At the fire station, Linda is excited while Louise and Gene are not, especially after getting hats and stickers, and are unable to leave. In the woods, Tina stumbles the other members of Troop 257 with two of Patty’s boat, but one with a motor on it. They see her, and at first are ready ti kill her to silence her, but Patty says they are caught and Tina should go tell Karen about their cheating. Tina is surprised by this given their usual nature, but heads off to tell Karen. Karen manages to get Rena down as Tina comes to tell her about the second boat with the motor. Karen says t hey are in big trouble but says they should wait until after he race to punish them as Julianne is not there to see them punished. At the fire house, on a tour the kids are not happy to be on, they meet the fire captain. Tina runs to the other troop members and tries to explain how Troop 257 are cheating but they dismiss her as being jealous due to her boat falling apart as well as how angry she was yelling at her dad. As Bob sits at the sad dad table, Tina takes him aside to tell him and how no one believed her since they thought she was jealous. Bob believes her, and notes that Karen said she was trying to prove she was firm, and the two figure out Karen wants to bust Troop 257 for cheating in front of Julianne because she knew it would happen and she is in fact working with Troop 257. Tina points out that Troop 257 is crazy enough to do something like that, and the two make up before going to switch the boats.
At the fire house, Linda is still excited and starts taking pictures of other kids with their happy smiles. The fire captain notes to Louise and green that he’s seen this before, with parents wanting to turn back the clock and tells them while he cannot fake an emergency call, the station staff can turn on the truck lights and pull out of the driveway to do a loop so they can tell her her it’s an emergency call, to the kid’s approval. At the lake, the race is about to begin when the dads of Troop 257 call out to everyone; they are now up in the tree. It turns out bob copied Rena’s plan for a distraction (since the fathers were desperate for their daughter’s attention, they went along), while he and Tina take Patty’s boat with the motor and move it to swap it with the non-motor boat. The Troop 257 leader Bethany however emerges from the woods having peed on a tree, and asks them what they are doing with Patty’s boat. They explain what is happening, and she agrees to help. If Karen gets promoted to regional leader busting 257, she can give them the bets cookie routes, which Bethany thinks they are obsessed with instead of other Thundergirls activities like basket weaving and tie dye. Bob is not sure why Karen is okay with the cheating in the first place, and Bethany realizes Karen is being blackmailed: she overheard the girls say that the previous year, at the cookie pickup, they got Karen talking enough to reveal that she kept a lost pug instead of returning it to it so newer, even dying it to hide its original appearance. The three take the boat to the race start.
At the fire station, an emergency call comes in, which the captain keeps insisting to Louise and Gene is not an act. As the trucks leave, Linda wants to wait but the kids refuse. At the boat race, Tina is in the Tad boat, and says to Bob it may hold. Julianne is now there and calls for the race to start. As the girls row, Patty tries to activate the motor on her boat but finds it not working, with Rena saying they can still in trouble with an unused motor. Tina and Patty race neck and neck, with Patty winning first and Tina winning second, to Bob’s excitement. As Patty flips over her boat and is surprised the motor is not present, Julianne gives her the first place trophy, only for Karen to come in with her prepared words about busting her with a motor, only to find there is no motor. She still tries to assume there is a motor on the boat and assumes a firm voice to bust Patty. Julianne however is just confused at whatever is happening, and says hat it is making her strongly consider other candidates for regional leader (as well as informing Karen she has greasy spots on her nipples, which she says is lip balm from chafing after carrying Rena down the tree). Tina congratulates Patty on winning without cheating, who figures out she switched her boat. Patty’s father is happy for her as she just wants to leaves and refuses a hug (so he hugs Bob instead).
Linda and the kids walk back to the restaurant, apologizing for dragging them to the open house, and saying she missed the old days but they outgrew it, before realizing they’re holding her hands, to her delight. They arrive at the same time as Bob and Tina, who proudly displays her second place medal. Bob whoever releases that since they were at the open house, no one was working at the restaurant that morning. Linda insists that they all hold hands outside the restaurant.
Videos[]
References[]
External links[]
- "Motor, She Boat" on IMDb
- "Motor, She Boat" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Motor, She Boat" script via Springfield! Springfield!
- "Motor, She Boat" review at The A.V. Club
- "Motor, She Boat" at the US Copyright Database