God, The Devil, and Bob 1.5 - Neighbor's Keeper

Plot: While Donna struggles with self-doubt over returning to college, God tasks Bob with saving the marriage of the Bickmans across the street, after their most recent public shouting match. A task Bob has no idea how to accomplish, and tries to avoid until God takes TV from him. Which is really when the Devil should have swooped in and offered a premium cable package in exchange for Bob's soul, but missed opportunities.

This drives Bob to take the direct approach: Knocking on the door and telling Stacy Bickman to stop committing adultery, which causes her to start bawling on the front lawn. Soon though, Bob has become a confidant, helping Stacy when she starts wanting to sleep with other guys. Naturally, he's ignoring Donna through all this. The Devil makes a play to get Bob all fired up (or sauced) and convinced he missed out on all sorts of sexual conquests because he got tied down with Donna, and then dumps him on Stacy's door. Bob manages to resist the urge to do something stupid, and is feeling pretty good, but he still hasn't "fixed" the marriage. And it finally occurs to him he should perhaps get the husband involved in this. Which requires handcuffs, but has at least temporarily produced results.

Quote of the Episode: God - 'You have more talents than you know, Bob.' Bob - 'No, I don't. I can rebuild a V-8, I know pig Latin. After that, the list drops off pretty fast.'

Smeck Smacks: 0 (9 overall).

Other: There were a lot of quotes in this one I considered using. One was God essentially complaining that people think he's unknowable because they don't listen when he makes clear requests. He doesn't explain what we do when the requests contradict each other, I guess we're supposed to figure it out. Anyway, point was, he made that complaint while helping himself to more of Bob's Pop-Tarts, so I appreciated the nod to his previously established love for toaster pastries.

That conversation also taught us God was nearly married once. I thought this was a reference to an episode we haven't reached yet, but no, he meant Julie Newmar. Sure God, you were gonna marry Julie Newmar. You and at least 4 million other delusional men and women.

Stacy's husband names his fists. He named them Butch and Lupe, which is just awful. Stacy should divorce him and sleep with as many people as she wants based on that alone. Actually, there's one moment where she admits to Bob she feels she can only express affection sexually. Which is kind of sad, that she feels words or other actions won't be believed. Or does she think those other things are hollow?

Bob does eventually realize that he's ignoring Donna the way Stacy was also being ignored, and actually helps her pinpoint the cause of her anxiety over picking a major. That she felt this was her one shot to make this choice, and she was afraid of making the wrong one. Which was the fear the Devil tried to play on in Bob, how many women he might have missed out on because he and Donna ended up together. Remarkably insightful for Bob. Granted, it was 50-50, since his fallback answer for her anxiety was PMS.

The episode opened on the Devil and God bowling, God for Grace Temple Beth Shalom St. Mary's Royal Oaks Buddhists, and the Devil for Microsoft. Although I didn't see any other teammates. Hardly matters, God bowls nothing but strikes, and the Devil was getting stuck with 7-10 splits. It's hard for me not to think God was cheating. We found out last week with the croquet game he plays to win. Plus, he was being so mock-supportive. "Oh, I really thought you were going to pick up the spare." That would just be infuriating to deal with.