Tina is hoping that the school will choose her theme for the school dance, which she wants to go to with Jimmy Junior. The school picks her theme, which has Tina feeling excited. She asks Louise and Gene to cover for her at the restaurant while she works on the dance committee. In return, she'll have to clean the restaurant bathroom every day for the next week. She agrees reluctantly. Making things even worse, Jimmy Junior keeps ignoring her. Gretchen asks Teddy to go to her sister's wedding with her, but he's busy and declines. Linda offers to be a matchmaker for her. Jimmy Junior tells Tina that he isn't going to the dance, and she storms off.
Tina keeps on walking until she stumbles into a goose in the park, and she ends up venting to it. The goose, named Bruce, starts following her. A man in the park informs her that Bruce has gotten attached to her. She decides to ditch the dance committee and talk to Bruce the next day as well. Gretchen goes on a date with someone from online, and Linda has to keep intervening to keep her form embarrassing herself. Tina reveals to the family that she quit dance committee. In the succeeding days, Tina continues to spend time with Bruce and Gretchen continues to mess up dates. Louise and Gene end up having to clean the bathroom because of Tina's adventures with Bruce. They confront her that night, and Tina starts flipping out. The family discovers that Tina has become obsessed with Bruce and they decide to get her to the dance to try and sway her away from Bruce.
Louise and Gene beg Jimmy Junior to fix things with Tina. He reveals that he won't go to the dance because he injured his butt, and he's too hurt to dance. Linda logs onto Gretchen's online dating account, posing as Gretchen asking a guy to go the wedding with her. Bob warns her that it's an awful idea, but she goes through with it. Gene and Louise trap Bruce to keep him away from Tina. When Tina searches for him, he's nowhere to be found. Gretchen confronts Linda about the message she sent, and she tells her that they aren't friends anymore. Louise and Gene tell Tina to go to the dance, but Bruce escapes and follows them. Jimmy Junior admits to Tina that he hurt his butt, but Tina doesn't care. All she cares about is Bruce, who bursts through the door. He ends up flying and getting stuck when his friendship bracelet is caught in a screw.
Frond calls animal control about Bruce despite's Tina's demands not do. Linda tells Gretchen that she's sorry she tried to change her, and offers to go to the wedding with her. Gretchen agrees and the reconcile. Jimmy Junior climbs the bleachers to save Bruce, and he's able to save him, only after getting attacked a bit. Tina and Bruce go their separate ways, and Bruce even finds a new friend, one that's actually a goose.
Wrap-Up:
This was an incredibly sweet and heartwarming episode that was also very, very funny. This show is so great at blending sweet and goofy together, and this episode is one of the best examples of that. Tina's heartbreak due to her rejection by Jimmy Junior had me feeling so bad for her, and her weird friendship/obsession with Bruce was delightfully quirky and incredibly sweet. Well, until Tina started talking about her duck/human hybrid babies, then it became hilarious. The Tina storyline was very well-written, and it had a strong beginning, middle and end. Nothing in it felt out of place and the conclusion felt natural. It was well developed and the emotional conclusion (which, as always in this show, was broken up by humor) felt earned. The storyline with Gretchen and Linda also felt very well-developed for a B-plot, and wasn't half-baked like some of this season's B-plots have been. It provided the episode with some of its funniest moments, and helped make this episode truly the best of the season, and one of the best episodes I've seen of any show in recent months.
Score: 10/10
Grade: A+