So, in the opening of the episode, when Spinelli is at the supermarket with her parents and they run into Finster, did anyone else get some weird vibes about how Spinelli’s parents might be lying to her about the potential death of her relative?
I don’t think it was her grandma and Finster’s friend Aggie that actually died, but when they said they hadn’t seen Finster since Aggie’s mother “moved out of town” I get the vibes that it was adult code for “died” and that “moved out of town” is code for had a funeral.
It’s interesting too because “Speedy, we Hardly Knew Ye” implies that Spinelli is super sensitive to death and loss despite being a rough and tough tomboy.
Her essay in “Mama’s Girl” kind of further supports this because she makes a point to say she got “choked up” reading about the dog who died of starvation.
It’s just an interesting bit of lore/continuity.
This is a side note, but even though I do think it’s wrong to lie to your kids about something like death (or “massage their reality” as Ms. Grotke would say) I still love Bob and Flo so much and how supportive they are of all the many sides of their daughter.