World Wharf II: The Wharfening (or How Bob Saves/Destroys the Town – Part II)

"World Wharf II: The Wharfening (or How Bob Saves/Destroys the Town – Part II)" is the 22nd episode and season finale of the fourth season of the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers and the overall 67th episode, and is written by Lizzie Molyneux and Wendy Molyneux and directed by Jennifer Coyle. It aired on Fox in the United States on May 18, 2014.^[1]

Plot

Felix ties Bob and Calvin in one of the posts underneath Wonder Wharf—right beneath the carousel—intending to let them drown when the tide comes in. Back at the restaurant, Linda mopes about the loss of the opportunity by not getting another restaurant as Felix had previously promised. Linda, Teddy, and the kids then realize that Bob has been missing for hours without contact.

They receive a multi-media message from Bob's phone, which Tina identifies as Mr. Fischoeder's buttocks, accidentally taken when Bob was trying to call them to ask for help. Linda then deduces that Bob and Mr. Fischoeder are probably just drunk. Bob attempts to text and call them again but the phone falls into the water. Linda and the rest try to break the almost unrecognizable text, and start genuinely worrying about Bob. They look for him all over town until they end up at Wonder Wharf, where they see the guilt-ridden Felix. A sound from a nearby horror house (which was heard in Bob's attempted phone call) leads Linda and the kids to believe that Bob is being held captive under the pier.

Felix starts to feel guilty about his actions and goes on to save Bob and his brother. Riding a pedal boat, Felix, Linda, and the kids go where Bob and Mr. Fischoeder are tied up. The tides have gone high and Felix is about to release them when Fanny, Felix's girlfriend whom he promised her own club where she can perform, arrives and says that she will kill Bob and Calvin herself so that she could get her own nightclub. Bob momentarily distracts her by asking her to sing so that Linda can crash her pedal boat on a weak post of the pier. Linda succeeds and the weight of the carousel from above gives in. Everyone is safe, and only Fanny is sent to jail as Mr. Fischoeder covered for Felix. The Belchers go home.

Reception

Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A-, saying "Such tension is inevitable when telling a story as experimental as this, and Bob’s Burgers strains to match the show’s usual goofiness with the very real, very lethal danger Bob finds himself in. So many episodes take place entirely within the Belchers’ safe little bubble, a place where they and all the town’s other weirdos can hang out and have misadventures that only matter inasmuch as the characters believe that they do; “The Equestranauts” stands out as a particularly good recent example of that form."^[2] Robert Ham of Paste gave the episode a 9.5 out of 10, saying "The conclusion to the (not really) nail-biting cliffhanger from last week’s Bob’s Burgers didn’t pack as meaty of a comedic punch as its predecessor, a fairly understandable letdown after the high of Part 1. But I still can’t shake the small bit of disappointment that lingers, and I also wonder if my respect for the first installment of this two-part season finale would have lessened if this were an hour-long block TV rather than being portioned out. Or would I have liked tonight’s episode more?"^[3]

The episode received a 0.9 rating and was watched by a total of 1.95 million people. This made it the fourth most watched show on Animation Domination that night, losing to American Dad!, The Simpsons and Family Guy with 3.88 million.^[4]

References