Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Bob’s Burgers Season 15 Episode 14.Shopfront puns. Burgers of the day. Outrageous problems. There is all of that and more in Bob’s Burgers, which has grown into a wholesome show centering on the Belcher family. Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) is one of the best TV dads. There are wacky adventures from the mundane in underrated episodes where the kids hatch a plan to skip running a mile for school and Linda (John Roberts) gets stuck in an essential oil pyramid scheme. Then there is the supporting cast filling out Ocean Avenue, the Wonder Wharf, and beyond, with comedic legends behind the voices and queer representation of the characters.
Bob’s Burgers can serve many laughs every couple of minutes, but the show is at its best when it gets creepy. Seasonal episodes for Halloween can be relied upon to have spookifying plots and place the Belchers in situations that can feel scary. However, that creepy tone doesn’t have to be kept to these Halloween entries. “The Place Beyond the Pinecones” is a recent episode in Season 15 that is a great example of the show still knowing how to spread horror sauce onto a juicy patty, without getting too dark when one of the Belchers gets lost in the woods.
“The Place Beyond the Pinecones” Is a Creepy Episode of ‘Bob’s Burgers’
The returning batch of episodes of Bob’s Burgers Season 15 is rolling out over the summer. “The Place Beyond the Pinecones” is among them, for what starts as a typical story for fans. Something goes wrong and absurdity follows. Tina (Dan Mintz) and troops of Thundergirls go for a wilderness retreat where they are sent on a scavenger hunt to locate the prized golden pinecone. Which so happens to be highly flammable from the gold paint, so, as the leaders explain, the quicker it’s found the better. The trip already puts Tina in an uncomfortable position when she is tasked to follow a rival troop that is infamous for cheating. The discomfort isn’t going away. Tina soon gets lost with two other Thundergirls, and they find shelter in a mysterious secluded house.
Donna Dane’s Etiquette Camp for Good Girls is in the middle of the woods. The women in charge invite them in only for Tina to realize not everything is quite right. Inside, the Thundergirls and herself pass by a dining room where young girls sit around a table holding paper masks in front of their faces, with a big grin drawn on each. Should any of the girls at this etiquette camp act out even in small ways like a giggle, they are reprimanded by putting a “quiet stone” in their mouths. It’s almost a jump scare when Bob’s Burgers lets the viewers peek into that dining room. Stranded at the house with rival Thundergirls and with the women in charge not letting them leave, Tina tries to remain calm, but she has every right to freak out.
Although October is typically when the animated sitcom releases a horror-themed episode, Bob’s Burgers doesn’t always limit itself to the month of jack-o’-lanterns and trick-or-treating. Going back to the early years of the show’s run, Season 3’s “The Belchies” has a nightmare-inducing bloated figure made of taffy at the abandoned factory the kids and their friends trespass in a search for treasure in an homage to The Goonies (1985). To calm the nerves is Cyndi Lauper, who performs a parody version of her Goonies song for the end credits to make sure the taffy figure isn’t the last thing you remember. Season 4 would get darker with a holiday episode where there is little Yuletide cheer.
The Non-Halloween Episodes of ‘Bob’s Burgers’
“Christmas in the Car” finds the family on an isolated road to find a Christmas tree and soon gets chased by a menacing candy cane truck. Season 5’s “Housetrap” is another moody excursion for the family, again taking them away from the restaurant and apartment. When Teddy (Larry Murphy) spreads himself too thin with his availability, Linda swiftly offers to help him by checking on a beach house before a storm hits. The whole family is eager to visit the glamorous waterfront home. It’s not long until circumstances take a turn. The Belchers have to wait out the fierce storm while stuck inside with the owner, Helen (Kaitlin Olson), after her sudden arrival, who Linda believes might have killed her husband.
The gloomy animation of the storm is atmospheric, much like the winter night in Season 4. “The Place Beyond the Pinecones” is more like this Season 5 episode in how it presents the possible danger up front. Seeing the smile on Helen’s face disappear once she finds out Linda’s accusation changes the mood, just like the strange behavior Tina notices at the all-girls etiquette camp. It’s subtle but then escalates. Helen forces Linda onto the widow’s walk during the storm where the apparent murder took place, and the women in charge of the camp tie down Tina and the Thundergirls to chairs to hold them in a locked room.
Tension builds as skeletons in the closet get uncovered, yet none of these episodes have an actual skeleton like in The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022). It’s a feel-good musical, but there is also a cold case Louise (Kristen Schaal) accidentally discovers. Exploring a sinkhole leads to a skeleton falling on her and dropping a tooth into her mouth for a genuine gross-out scene. Originally, the show’s concept involved cannibalism and Bob’s Burgers never fully let go of that darkness. What makes “The Place Beyond the Pinecones” different from these creepy episodes and the movie is how little viewers see the other Belcher members.
This Season 15 Episode of ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Isolates Tina From Her Family
This is a Tina-centric story, minus two quick cutaways to see what the rest of the Belchers are up to at home to relieve some tension. By doing this, it emphasizes the seclusion the eldest Belcher child finds herself at a camp that is unsettling without a slasher lurking outside. Tina will have to use her Thundergirl training and instincts to help herself. The golden pinecone Tina had found has a flammable, full-circle moment when Tina uses it as a distraction to help the other troop girls. Similar to “Christmas in the Car” or “Housetrap,” this one pulls back from getting far too creepy with a joke to avoid having viewers contemplate the fate of the campers. They won’t escape with Tina — because their parents are picking them up.
The show’s weird humor works well in uplifting the loving support within the family, but it also helps to balance the darker plots in episodes like “The Place Beyond the Pinecones.” Halloween comes once a year, but horror-themed episodes of Bob’s Burgers are not always fixed to a calendar date. Whenever the sitcom gets creepy, it gets you wondering how deep in trouble the Belchers will get and how they will get out of it.
All episodes of Bob’s Burgers can be streamed on Hulu in the U.S.
