6x17 The Horse Rider-er

9.8/10. Man, when this episode is firing on all cylinders it's like nothing else on television. Tina is such an inherently hilarious, yet soulful character. Her indomitable spirit, despite the fact that her horse somewhat hated her was both sad and amusing. Though I can't say I've ever had the same affection for horses that Tina does, it's very relatable to be a young kid who's very much excited and looking forward to something, and finding that the reality doesn't quite match your imagination. Tina's perseverance despite that, and her state of denial about how horse camp were going walked the line between pathos and comedy perfectly. Her interacctions with Jericho, her imaginary horse, hewed more toward the comedy side of things, with their wacky relationship and imagined origin story, but even that came back in force at the end with her "exhibition."

The B-story about "Restaurant Camp" was a little more compressed, but still full of great laughs, and even some nice heart with the kids realizing that they actually really enjoyed camp. The pretense of having to put on a show to get "Old Man Belcher" to keep the camp open, just like in the camp movies Linda was basing this on was perfect, and it gave us a lot of great Linda moments like her pointing out how much fun the kids were having "floor canoeing" or referring to Tina as "the good one."

And my god, I laughed and laughed and laughed here. The C-story of Teddy not being able to handle Bob's deep fryer not working is the usual bit of Teddy-based delight. Little details like Plop knocking over Tina's picture or running right past her when she was lost were great visual comedy moments. And even the briefest of brief bits like Jocelyn's mom sounding exactly like her, or the horse camp instructor not having a good analogy for getting on a horse were great. Instant classic.