They Slug Horses, Don't They?

General

Trivia

Gallery

Gags

"They Slug Horses, Don't They?"
Season	15
Episode	8
Overall	284
Prod. Code	DASA21
Cast
Starring	H. Jon Benjamin Dan Mintz Eugene Mirman Larry Murphy John Roberts Kristen Schaal
Also Starring	Kurt Braunohler Mary Holland Megan Mullally
Crew
Written by	Nora Smith
Directed by	Bernard Derriman
Broadcast Details
Premiered	December 8, 2024
Viewers	1.027 Million
Episode Chronology
Previous	"Boogie Days"
Next	"Dog Christmas Day After Afternoon"

“	I guess what I'm trying to say is being sisters can be weird, to be so close but sometimes feel a million miles away from each other. I... Just try not to drift too far, okay?	”
	— Gayle Genarro to Tina & Louise Belcher

"They Slug Horses, Don't They?" is the eighth episode in Season 15, being the two-hundred-and-eighty-fourth episode overall.

Plot

Tina and Louise get into an argument that escalates across several graphic "apology" cards.

Full story

Chapter One: Louise

The Belcher kids watch another reboot of The Equestranauts as Louise goes through her Burobu collection. Louise questions why the show is about selling picnic supplies now instead of superheroes. The Equestranauts greet their new employee, Helen Oats, and Gene points out Tina bought a figure of her. Tina's siblings recall how excited she was when the package arrived, and Tina explains that Helen Oats is like her hero. Linda comes to the living room and asks her kids to help set the table, and only Tina is willing to help. Louise makes an excuse she has to tend to her Burobu items, pointing out Slug Army Knife.

Louise goes to her room to have her Burobu figures fight the Saltan Army, salt shakers with eyebrows and eyes stuck on them. She designates Slug Army Knife as the general and decides that he needs a steed. Louise makes sure Tina is busy in the kitchen and sneaks into her room to take Helen Oats. She tapes Slug Army Knife onto Tina's figure and begins her battle. Tina knocks on Louise's door, and Louise opens it slightly so that Tina can ask her if she has seen Helen Oats. Tina notices her horse figure and forces herself into Louise's room. Tina scolds her little sister for taking Helen Oats, telling her that she breaks everything. Tina lists multiple things that Louise took from her, each one Louise defends, and Tina calls her sister a brat. Louise insults her sister, calling her figure, her show, and her boring. When Tina snatches Helen Oats from Louise, it breaks from the tail.

The Belchers are all in the living room. Louise refuses to apologize to Tina despite her mom demanding that she do so. Linda brings up an idea from a parenting blog that Louise should make an apology card. She forces her kid to make one, telling her she'll be grounded otherwise.

Louise angrily makes a card in her room, deciding to make a comic about how Tina got the tail to break on purpose. She draws Tina as Helen Oats in The Equestranauts show, recovering from her tail breaking, who claims that the person who caused it was her archnemesis, Slug Army Knife, which Louise portrays as herself. Meeting with the Equestranauts, Helen Oats tells them that the Cosmic Council will expel Slug Army Knife into the space pod, Uranus Esgroundedum, and into space. Helen Oats goes to the bathroom to fix her tail, and she encounters Slug Army Knife. However, Helen Oats is confident as Slug Army Knife is now a fugitive. However, Slug Army Knife reveals she can transform herself and morphs into Helen Oats, duct-taping her in the bathroom as she goes to the Cosmic Council. Slug Army Knife meets while transformed as Helen Oats with its members, which Bob and Linda represent, and confesses that she framed Slug Army Knife. Slug Army Knife tells them they should expel her in the space pod instead and gives the location of the real Helen Oats. Louise finishes her card by ejecting Helen Oats from the planet in the Uranus Esgroundedum.

Chapter Two: Tina

Tina is in her room, trying to reattach Helen Oats's tail. She recalls how Louise called her boring as she remembers moments when they were younger, starting when Louise was a baby. Every moment, Louise reacted negatively to being around Tina or would be uninterested. In the last scene, her mom assures Tina that Louise will eventually appreciate her. Suddenly, Louise comes to Tina, informing her that she has her apology card ready. Initially unaware of what Louise made, Tina thanks Louise, and Linda gets Bob and Gene to witness them forgive each other. As Tina is about to apologize to Louise for calling her a brat, she examines Louise's comic, realizing that Louise is accusing Tina of breaking Helen Oat's tail on purpose. A satisfied Louise goes back into her room as Tina declares that she'll also make an "I'm Sorry card" for her, and they both slam their doors.

Tina gets out her supplies and begins with Helen Oats being duct-taped in the bathroom. Helen Oats frees herself and the Equestranauts that Slug Army Knife also restrained. The Equestranauts warn Helen Oats that she will have to go through Burobu territory to get to the Cosmic Council, which gives Helen Oats an idea to make a disguise. The disguise backfires, so Helen Oats fights her way through every slug in her way. She gets to the Cosmic Council and faces Slug Army Knife, still transformed, just leaving her meeting with the councilors. Helen Oats presses a hoof hard on Slug Army Knife's tail, threatening that she'll be breaking her tail off if she doesn't confess to the councilors. Unlike Louise's card, Tina's card ends with Slug Army Knife getting ejected in the Uranus Esgroundedum.

Tina comes out of her room and sees Louise brushing her teeth in the bathroom. Louise slams the door when she sees her sister, and Tina goes into Louise's room to deliver her apology card. She also steals Slug Army Knife from Louise.

Chapter Three: Gayle (Aunt Gayle)

The chapter starts with a flashback of Linda and Gayle as children, with Gayle peeking into Linda's room as she collages. Linda discovers this and calls out Gloria, telling her about Gayle's behavior again. Linda shoos her sister away, calling her "creepy." Gayle goes to her room but gets an idea to transform one of Linda's collages while Linda is asleep. When Linda wakes up, she discovers Gayle's creation in her room and cries for their mom but reflects on what Gayle made.

In the present, Gayle comes to the Belchers to babysit the kids. Linda reveals that she and Bob have to go to a parent-teacher event and that Tina and Louise are in conflict. Linda and Gayle reflect on the Scarelli sisters, two sisters they remember from high school who were initially very close until the younger sister ruined the older one's car, pushing them to live far apart from each other. Bob and Linda leave as Gayle assures them about Tina and Louise. However, Gayle and Gene witness Louise trying to force herself into Tina's room to get her Slug Army Knife figure back. Gayle starts freaking out until she gets her nieces and nephew into the living room with her.

To try to resolve their disagreement, Gayle tries to accomplish what she does when her cats are angry with each other. Tina and Louise start shouting at each other as Gene tries to find some string they can play with, like how Gayle does with her cats. Gayle's methods achieve little, and Tina and Louise decide they will both act like strangers to each other from now on. They both return to their rooms as Gayle worries they'll become the Scarelli sisters.

Chapter Four: The Fourth Chapter

Tina and Louise are both lying in their beds, annoyed, as Gayle tries to locate something in Bob and Linda's room. After finding it, she and Gene try to get the two sisters out of their rooms. They're initially unresponsive until Gene gets the idea to have him and Gayle loudly play with spoons while singing to get them out. They all go to Bob and Linda's room, and Gayle shows them the collage of herself and Linda she made when they were kids that Linda kept. Gayle explains what brought her to make it and tries to relate it to Tina and Louise's sibling relationship. She pleads with them not to drift too far.

Realizing that their parents are home and that it's late, she gets her nieces and her nephew to return to their rooms. In her room, Tina takes out Slug Army Knife and looks at it while looking at her Helen Oats figure. Louise takes a piece of paper out from her nightstand and looks at it, then takes out her supplies to make another card.

Helen Oats and Slug Army Knife are both in separate Uranus Esgroundedum pods, and the councilors explain that everyone is tired of their fight. The councilor representing Linda explains that they chained up the space pod's controls as the pods eject them from the planet away from each other. Helen Oats and Slug Army Knife both bitterly look at each other as they get further away, though their expressions turn sad. Slug Army Knife pulls out something Tina made when Louise was born that Louise took out from her nightstand before working on her final card: the drawing of them holding hands with "Sisters" written at the top. Helen Oats and Slug Army Knife turn into Tina and Louise as they continue to drift apart, with Louise still holding up Tina's artwork. Tina and Louise force themselves on their pod's controls, moving their Uranus Esgroundedums to each other. Simultaneously, the real Tina tapes Slug Army Knife back onto Helen Oats as the real Louise finishes her apology card. When their pods reach each other, Tina and Louise come out of their rooms. Tina has Slug Army Knife and Helen Oats for Louise, and Louise has an apology card for Tina.

Videos

Louise “Apologizes” for Breaking Tina’s Toy… - Bob’s Burgers

External links

• "They Slug Horses, Don't They?" on IMDb
• "They Slug Horses, Don't They?" press release via The Futon Critic
• "They Slug Horses, Don't They?" script via Springfield! Springfield!