Clear and Present Ginger

"" is the eighteenth episode in Season 12, being the two-hundred-and-thirty-fourth episode overall.
==Plot==
Linda has a big day planned when her friend, Ginger, comes to visit. Meanwhile, Bob and the kids help Nat with her Limo competition.
==Synopsis==
At the restaurant, Linda is on the phone with Gayle, who has bought a new couch after letting her cats pee on the old one, and is now worried that the new foldout couch is going to eat her. Linda makes up an excuse to not go and check by saying the kids have homework and a test on Saturday the next day before saying that burgers are burning. The other Belchers are surprised, and Linda says she cannot go because her friend Ginger is coming to stay with them. Ginger lives 90 minutes away, and they will gossip and Ginger will stay over for brunch. Tina asks why her mother doesn’t invite Gayle, but Linda likes the “Linda-Ginger combo” as it is. 
Just then, Nat shows up and is greeted by the Belchers. She is carrying a box of costumes with her, for the Limo-vitational. Linda is confused, and bob explains that it is a limo relay race that night which he and the kids are helping Nat with, and Linda remembers, though she thinks it is raising money for people who cannot afford limo rides before Nat tells her it’s for the children’s hospital. Louise hope that it is a fats dangerous race, but Nat explains that it is more a wacky relay race, with the drivers picking up three rounds of passengers with a specific challenge added. 
Which brings them back to the costumes: Bob will be a “fancy businessman”, in a white suit jacket which makes Louise think is more “midlevel cocaine dealer”; Gene and Louise will be the old ladies with requisite gray wigs and floral dresses; and Tina is the prom queen, in a blue dress with shoulder padding. Tina immediately starts fantasizing about going to prom, and how jimmy Jr will be her prom date. Nat says they will know more about the challenges that night. Linda is more excited about hanging out with Ginger the whole night, even getting a “blowout” in her hair form Gretchen (really just Gretchen waving her hand fats when her blow dryer broke). Nat also has had her hair done, as she invited a woman she has gone out with twice and her daughter to the relay race, and wants to win to impress her. Nat leaves to drop her lizards off at the groomers and tells them she will meet them at 7 at the Bog Harbor Speedway. 
Later in the apartment, Gene and Louise are dressed in their old lady costumes while Linda puts out a spread of cheese cubes, fruits, crackers, carrots and wine on the coffee table along with flowers. Linda says she likes making it nice for Ginger, and slaps Gene’s hand away when he tries for some cheese and crackers. Bob comes in with his white suit, to Linda’s approval, while Louise says he’s “like a gorgeous albino sausage.” Tina comes in in her dress, excited even though it is not a real prom night, and asks Bob for the emergency phone so she can pretend to be a “prom teen”, and also text Jimmy Jr, to which Bob reluctantly agrees and goes for the phone, only for Tina to already have it. The four leave as Linda starts trying to sing her ‘Ginger song.”
Later that evening, Linda is waiting for Ginger, and gets bored and also realizes her armpits are sweaty, so she heads off for deodorant. 
At the speedway, Nat greets the Belchers to the biggest night in limo racing (and the only night in limo racing). Nat tells them about the woman in the stands, Peggy, and her teen daughter are there, and tells the family to not look at them; naturally, the Belchers all turn to stare at them while Gene waggles his fingers. Nat wants to win the relays so Peggy falls in love with her and they possibly get married; she also points out an announcer who will say what challenge they will have before the races start. She offers the Belchers ziplocked hot dogs for energy. Tina checks the phone for a response from Jimmy Jr to any of the texts that she sent on the drive over, and finds none, causing her to nervously send one more set of prom texts. 
Linda is still waiting for Ginger when the phone rings. She answers, and Ginger is on the other end, explaining her car broke down and , after rejecting Linda’s idea for getting there by pushing the car downhill, says they will have to do it another time. Linda is disappointed, and decides to call Gayle while she is at it, but has to tell Gayle not to glue her couch shut.
At the racetrack, the announcer gives the first challenge: “Keep that Coffee Off Me”, whereby the drivers have to take a businessperson, who will be holding a briefcase in one hand and a huge cup of coffee is the other, with the first to arrive at the “conference room” without staining the provided white suits first winning. The drivers and passengers get in their limos, with Bob noting how hot the coffee is and Nat nonchalantly telling him it will burn his penis if he spills it. Bob is nervous as he finds out they have to weave through traffic cones.
At the apartment, Linda opens the door for Gayle, who swears her couch was making a lip-licking sound. Gayle asks about the Saturday tests the kids are supposedly taking, and Linda says that bob is out night-tutoring them. Gayle accepts some wine and thinks the spread on the coffee table is for her, which Linda plays along with. Gayle takes off her shoes, as she has a foot fungus all the way up to her ankles, and begins rubbing her feet on the rug before Linda stops her with an herb cracker. Gayle hates the cracker, and her idea of gossip is saying there are manufacturer rebates with a new Toyota truck. The doorbell rings, and it is Gretchen, to Linda’s surprise. Gretchen says Linda left a bag of fudge at the salon, and after trying them for drugs but figuring they were regular food, Gretchen came by to return them. Gretchen is about to leave to try and drink at a bar she was banned from, when Linda suggests she stay as they have wine. Gretchen agrees, as she hasn’t eaten yet.
At the racetrack, Bob and Nat are declared the winners of round one as, aside from bob’s pit stains, the suit is clean. Tina is still nervous that Jimmy Jr hasn’t replied to her texts, while Louise subtly notes how obsessed Tina is with the dance that’s in three years. The announcer begins round two: “Flight of the Living Wed”, whereby the drivers have to take two old ladies to the “airport” to their godson’s wedding, but there is a zombie apocalypse on the way. Passengers will have to shoot standee cutouts of zombies from the moonroof using squirt guns, with whoever takes out the most zombies standees winning. The race begins and Louise even states she feels real joy.
In the living room, Gretchen notes the fancy wine Linda put out, and Linda geos to get Gretchen a mug (as the latter bites on wine glasses to break them). In the kitchen, Linda is noting the night didn’t go as expected and she will have to deep-clean Gayle’s foot fungus out of the apartment, but at least the two or kind of fun. Just then, the phone rings, and Ginger tells Linda that her car was started and fixed, so she can come over in 45 minutes. Linda is happy then unsure once off the phone, at first thinking that all of them can hang out, but once Gretchen demands her mug soon, and Gayle asks for Vaseline as skin keeps falling off her feet, she decides she needs to send the two home.
Linda tells them that the phone call was the ‘wine company” saying the pinot grigio was recalled due to being poisoned, but Gayle just shrugs it off (as she wants to “get off of liquids”), and Gretchen says she can handle poison. Linda tries giving them the cheap red wine she has, and they will feel ready to leave. Gayle however suggests they prank-call places like when they were little (using the formula “Is there a john there? A Big John? Because we have diarrhea), but Linda says they cannot since everyone now has caller I.D. Gretchen however brings up that they can use star-six-seven (*-6-7) on the phone to hide their number, as she uses it to call ex-boyfriends without them knowing it is her. Gayle does the first call, to Gretchen’s gym, using the diarrhea call. The three laugh, and Linda does the next one.
Bob is excited that Gene and Louise might win, but surprised that Tina is not into the whole zombie-apocalypse thing as he expected. Tina is still looking at the phone and Bob asks if she is too worried about Jimmy Jr not texting her back. Tina thinks she is worrying the right amount, and that the dress has her thinking about prom and hoping Jimmy Jr would be excited about prom, as he is the “go-to” date, but soon she is panicking that he’s not excited and what if nobody asks her to prom. The announcer begins the third round: “Prom in 60 seconds”. The scenario is that the prom queen found out the prom king has stood her up and she is all alone; the prom queens must run down the track and hide behind a trash can in their lane, then wait for their driver to parallel park between tiny spaces marked by cones, then collect the “prom queens’ and carry them back to the limos. The thought of being alone on prom and the whole situation is too much for a hyperventilating Tina, who after the event starts, screams and runs past the trash can, off the track and into the women’s restroom. 
At the apartment, the three are laughing at prank-calling Reggie, but when Linda realizes the time, tries to call it a night, Gretchen and Gayle protest. Linda says she has not gotten diarrhea and pretends to run to the bathroom and tells the others to let themselves out. In the kitchen, the phone rings and Linda picks it up. It is Ginger and she tells her she will see her soon before hanging up. Just then Linda turns around and sees Gayle staring right at her. Gayle asks who it was, and realizes it was Ginger, and that’s why Linda was trying to get them out. Linda stammers to deny, but Gretchen overhears and is angry too. Gayle realizes that none of the food and wine was for them, and accuses that Linda probably doesn’t think Gayle’s couch is trying to eat her. Gretchen too is angry, realizing this is why she couldn’t have any of the “good wine”. Linda tries to explain that Ginger is “Special”, which only infuriates the two more at how Linda seems to dismiss them and leave for Gretchen’s apartment to drink. The two leave after tripping down the stairs and then Gayle’s head getting accidentally hit by the door, while Linda sees what a mess she’s made.
Linda feels guilty about the two hating her, having only wanted to see Ginger, and wanted to spend the night on their own, and if she just used Gretchen and Gayle. As she applies more deodorant, Linda thinks to herself that while ginger cares for her, Gretchen and Gayle were actually there for her, and they had fun, and she leaves to find Gayle and Gretchen.
At the racetrack, Bob talks to a distraught Tina through the women’s restroom door, asking if she is okay as she says she can live in the speedway bathroom. Bob says he knows she is worried about prom three years from now, when Nat runs over with Gene and Louise to ask Tina’s status. Bob says she is okay but not coming out of the bathroom. Bob turns to the door and says that Tina could wind up without a prom date, upsetting her before he can finish. He says that he really doubts it, as if she is this excited about prom in three years, then she will have a good time, with or without a date. He further says that she probably will have a date, as she is beautiful and smart and fun, but if she doesn’t have a date, she will still have a good time, having a dress, dancing, probably a little alcohol (although he says she shouldn’t) and she will look at the prom floor and thinks she doesn’t have to see any of her classmates again; that she will have fun because she is. 
Tina finally comes out of the bathroom and asks if she ruined the race; Nat says no, as she already parallel parked between the cones and everyone else has been failing for the minutes they were dealing with Tina. Nat carries Tina to the limo, meaning she own the event, with Peggy and her daughter cheering among others. Louise has adrenaline at helping the win and offers to slap bob in the face, which he accepts.
Linda arrives at Gretchen’s apartment, and knocks, with Gretchen answering the door. Gretchen insults her as “Ginger’s friend”, but Linda is allowed to come in. The two are still mad at her, and she accepts they are allowed to be, and she admits she was so focused on Ginger coming over that she didn’t see the friends in front of her, and instead made them feel bad, apologizing. Linda tells Gretchen and Gayle they are great friends, and just because she likes spending time with ginger alone doesn’t mean they’re not special to her too, especially with Gayle as they are family. She also brings out a bottle of “the good wine”, but tells Gretchen to get four mugs. The doorbell rings, and Linda explains she left a note for Ginger to meet them there. Gretchen answers the door for Ginger in fencing gear (as she was drunkenly go to fence Gayle instead).
On the drive home, Louise suggests that it is early and they could find another limo race. The emergency phone rings, and Tina answers. It is Jimmy Jr, who only just saw the texts and apologizes for missing prom, thinking it was actually that night and that he must have not paid attention during announcements. He is relieved to find out it is not for three years, and he and Tina say good night, with Tina at first forgetting to hang up. At a stoplight, the four look over and see Linda and the others leaving a bar, with Linda holding a fencing sword, to Bob’s shock. 
==Videos==
Clear And Present Ginger End Credits Song - Season 12 Ep. 18 - BOB'S BURGERS
==External links==
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Category:Episodes
Category:BASA Episodes
Category:Season 12 Episodes
Category:2022 Episodes
Category:Episodes Written by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux
Category:Episodes Directed by Chris Song