'Am I Your Hero?'

Officially, a parent is never supposed to say he has a favourite child, because of how bringing children into the world opens up a parent's heart to make room for love he never even could have comprehended before and blah blah blah. But just as we don't love all our friends equally, surely parents must actually have favourites among their children, even if they never admit it to anyone else or even to themselves. And one of the ways Bob's Burgers is a superior example of a family sitcom is that its producers have made it pretty clear that Bob does have a favourite child, and it's Louise.

That Bob (voice of H. Jon Benjamin) and Louise (Kristen Schaal) have a special bond came up initially in the first season, when Bob and Gene (Eugene Mirman) found rare common ground with a shared love of the spaghetti western series Banjo. Though she is confused at first by her feelings, and acts out, embarrassing Bob by starting a food fight at a "conflict resolution" event he's catered, she finally admits that she's jealous Bob ditched her for Gene. (Complaining that she has nothing in common with her mother and sister, a.k.a. "Menstruation Nation," is particularly evocative.) By the end of the episode, though, it's clear that the Banjo interlude is temporary, whereas Bob and Louise's Burn Unit -- their name for their shared activity, mocking TV -- is forever. Not that we needed more proof that humans bond more closely over shared hates than shared loves. Too bad for you, sunny optimists!

The latest episode gives Louise and Bob another opportunity to cement their unique partnership. Bob is serving in the unfamiliar role of chaperone on a field trip (to the local Natural History Museum) that Linda (John Roberts) normally fills, so from the start he's uncomfortable, bored, and desperate to get as far away from Mr. Frond (David Herman) as possible. Louise is, as usual, determined to cause mayhem -- this time, by sneaking into a closed exhibit that happens to be the only one at the museum worth seeing. Bob quickly realizes that Louise is one of the two missing students and where she has to have gone; when he tries to convince her and her buddy, Regular-Sized Rudy (Brian Huskey), to rejoin the group, it takes very little effort on Louise's part to convince him to have illicit fun in the fake Amazon.

The reason Louise knows how best to appeal to her father is because she can speak to the anarchic pre-tween girl Bob is at heart. Bob has the same objection to the field trip that Louise expressed at the top of the episode -- the museum is boring by default, and will only be more so now that it's running at less than full capacity due to an employee strike -- plus the added hassle of being responsible for a bunch of slippery kids. Exploring an actually interesting exhibit, in secret, is an easy sell -- not to mention that Bob is also vulnerable to peer pressure (because, as previously stated, Louise is his peer, at least spiritually) (and who wouldn't prefer to be Louise's peer than Mr. Frond's?). It's not so much that he doesn't want to let Louise down as that he doesn't want to be shown up as a rule-following chump as opposed to a fancy-free fun-haver.

But the cutest aspect of the episode is when Louise accidentally reveals her dreams for the future -- namely, that she envisions herself running the restaurant when Gene and Tina (Dan Mintz) put him into a home. Bob seizes on this glimpse at Louise's true heart and teases her like a peer: "Oh my God, am I your hero?!" But we already know that he is, and only firms up his heroic status for her every time he gets the chance to act as irresponsible as she is.

Finally, this episode also revealed to the audience not just that Louise is still Bob's best buddy, but the only one of the Belcher kids whose conception wasn't the result of boredom on the part of their parents. Granted, she turned out to be the kid that was so much work they decided to stop after her. But still.