Love

Love
	Season 2, Episode 2
	#12
Air date	November 20, 2006
Written by	Dino Stamatopoulos;
Directed by	Scott Adsit;
	Episode Guide
Previous; God's Image	Next; Satan
	Season Guide
01 God's Image	11 Praying
02 Love	12 Repression
03 Satan	13 Turn The Other Cheek
04 Elemental Orel	14 Geniusis
05 Offensiveness	15 Courtship
06 God's Blunders	16 School Pageant
07 Pleasure	17 Presents For God
08 The Lord's Prayer	18 Orel's Movie Premiere
09 Holy Visage	19 Nature Part 1
10 Be Fruitful and Multiply	20 Nature Part 2

Orel befriends a stray dog and Bloberta allows Orel to keep him. After a while, the two grow very attached and Orel becomes worried that he's loving his dog Bartholomew more than Jesus. Bartholomew quickly spreads enough love around Moralton that the adults become furious.

Plot[]

While at the park with his family, Orel plays catchball with God. Suddenly, he finds a stray dog who immediately takes an attachment to Orel. After being permitted to keep him as a pet, Orel names him Bartholomew (despite the fact that dog barks out „Jesus!”) and the two become inseparable. The dog becomes very popular around town: children would rather play with him than on Principal Fakey’s new Jesus–themed playground and upon seeing him, Susie Figurelli has her psychosomatic illness cured. Both Fakey and Potterswheel are enraged by Bartholomew.

Reverend Putty delivers a sermon, announcing that God wants the faithful to “love Jesus more than anything else in the world” and gets mad about children apparently paying more attention to Bartholomew than to himself. Orel takes the message to heart.

Some time later Orel and Doughy are preparing for their Bible meeting, but Orel can’t find his lucky Bible. Bartholomew realizes it’s been taken by Shapey; he retrieves it and brings it to Orel and he, overjoyed, hugs the dog and declares to love him more than anything else in the world. Right then, he realizes that means he loves the dog more than Jesus and develops an internal conflict.

Just as he stumbles across the part where Jesus is betrayed, Doughy, whom Orel told of his problem earlier, arrives with a group of adults. They convince Orel to give up Bartholomew and the puppy is led away to euthanasia at Potterswheel’s hands, carrying a cross–shaped stick iron.

After feeling sad, Orel perks up realizing that they'll see each other in Heaven. This realization is dashed by his mother who informs him that because animals have no soul, they can't go to either Heaven or Hell and are only meant to be eaten. It ends with Bloberta boiling a lobster who shrieks with agony, attracting Clay, who is excited about dinner, hearing the screams of the boiling lobster: "Something sounds delicious!"

Characters[]

Minor appearances[]

First appearances[]

Notes[]

During the credits, Orel animates Jesus playing with a dog and God kills the dog by smashing it with his fist.
These lines represent ignorant Americans who use words they don't know the meanings of. Animals by definition own a soul (animus).

Episode tie-Ins[]

Grounded: Bartholomew is heard during Orel's second near-death experience