In 2020, an artist called Mr. Saturated posted images projecting how he felt the Belcher children would look 20 years down the line. He included thoughts on what they’d be doing with their lives as well.  Most startlingly, Mr. Saturated sees Louise running Bob’s Burgers, having taken over the shop from her dad.  His reasoning? “Though she’d never admit it to his face, Louise greatly admired her father and secretly enjoyed working at the restaurant with him.”  Additionally, Bob’s would become Louise’s Burgers, she’d marry Regular-Sized Rudy, and she’d ditch the pink rabbit ears for a pink trucker’s cap.

I don’t see it. I can’t imagine Louise settling for a humble life running a barely sustainable seaside burger shop.  This is the kid who in “Touch of Eval(uations)” (S12:E11) figures out that teachers suddenly are behaving nicely because they’re up for formal evaluations by their students. She then convinces her classmates to not fill out those questionnaires too quickly so the soft treatment would continue.  However, she can’t resist dinging her teacher, Miss LaBonz, once she discovers that LaBonz feels she doesn’t put in enough effort.  Of course, LaBonz recognizes Louise’s talents and wants her efforts to match her potential. I agree. Louise is the only one who uncovered the instructors’ true intentions – to butter up students for better evaluations.

But Louise does at times get motivated. Perhaps the most infamous example stems from the episode, “Art Crawl” (S1:E8). A neighbor art festival ignites Louise’s monetary lust, and she first manipulates her siblings into painting works she can sell at a stand in front of Bob’s Burgers. Later, when sales are lagging, she replaces them with Andy and Ollie, the Pesto twins, basically exploiting their labor for cash.  Now that’s motivation. Sure, Louise’s enterprise makes the Tom Sawyer fence-painting scam look like Bonehead Grifter 101, but still she shows motivation and talent.

Writing for Cartoonvibe.com, Kenny B dubs Louise a “brilliant strategist, often hatching schemes that would give seasoned con artists a run for their money.” Furthermore:

Whether she’s trying to extract money from her parents’ wallet, defend the honor of the family restaurant, or exact revenge on anyone who dares cross her path, Louise’s plans are often elaborate, well-thought-out, and hilariously flawed. With her crafty mind, she is the quintessential mix of youthful innocence and cunning intelligence.

Other students recognize her mad skills too. “Prank You for Being a Friend,” the final episode of Season 10, depicts Louise mentoring a classmate, Kaylee, instructing her on pranking.  Kaylee recognizes Louise’s advanced knowledge, and who wouldn’t want a master class from the best? All give props to Louise for her advanced chicanery and scheming nature. Loki himself might tip his helmet and offer a cheery, “What’s up?”

These incidents, and many others tempt me toward predicting that Louise will grow into a world-class grifter, not a street operator who stiffs average working people with three-card monte or who preys upon elderly folks many lowlifes target because they judge them to be soft-minded and thus vulnerable. No, Louise, once she overcomes the youthful impetuousness that hamstrings many of her intrigues, will do better than that.  She’ll devise long cons like Micheal “Mickey Bricks” Stone from the British television series, Hustle does, or maybe she’ll follow after real-life artisans much as did Lord Gordon Gordon and Victor Lustig, the man who successfully conned Al Capone and sold the Eiffel Tower – twice. Louise’s marks will have it coming. Entitled fat cats, corrupt politicians, victimizers themselves, basically, anyone who needs to be taken down a peg or two, watch out.

If I resist that temptation, however, I perceive what others detect about Louise, that she possesses honor, and that she’s fiercely protective of her family and friends, even if she often manipulates them wildly.  When discussing “Touch of Eval(uations),” Rebecca Mills of Hiddenremote.com asks an important question, going a step further than I did above:

Louise starts to feel bad about what she wrote especially after Miss LaBonz talks about how Louise needs to be motivated and that’s why she’s harsh on Louise. To make things right, Louise decides to try and steal her evaluation so Miss. LaBonz won’t be hurt but she eventually makes it better by giving her a new evaluation via the PA system. In the end, Miss LaBonz ends up getting a prize for what Louise did and the two begin to argue, showing just how much they care.

Are Bob’s Burgers finally making Louise a more mature character?

About “Prank You for Being a Friend,” AVClub.com’s Les Chappell explains how Louise’s deeper motivations activate after she learns why Kaylee wants to up her pranking game, to facilitate home-schooling for herself, which extends beyond Wagstaff being a sucky school:

The fact that she wants to get it right also gives way to another truth about Louise, that she doesn’t want it to happen if it’s going to be for the wrong reasons. When she learns that Kaylee wants to be home-schooled not just because of Wagstaff, but because she doesn’t want to be around everyone, it furthers the crack that started with season four’s “Slumber Party” and that’s kept running as recently as this season’s “Three Girls And A Little Wharfy.” The Louise of prior seasons might be willing to let this go through, but Louise has grown to the point that she can admit she enjoys the company of people outside her family. (Hell, even her stalker’s been able to break that shell.) It adds an extra level of poignancy to pulling the plug on the prank, that she subconsciously wants Kaylee to learn the same lessons she did.

I join my voice with the critics’ choir pointing out one huge fact. Over later seasons, Louise has been evolving.  But will she completely overcome her Machiavellian tendencies, not achieve Hermes-level grifting notoriety?  I speculate that if her growth continues, she’ll apply her inborn gifts for better purposes. If indeed Mr. Saturated is correct and Louise takes over her dad’s business, it won’t be business as usual. She’ll make us forget Ray Kroc ever dreamed of Big Macs or that Dave Thomas made us ask, “Where’s the beef?” Her cunning intelligence and drive for gain make her a perfect capitalist, but her developing moral sense eventually may win out, and she’ll honor her father’s legacy in ways no one could have imagined.

Wait!  I must give the final word to Kristen Schaal, the actor who has been voicing Louise since day one.  The bottom line: Schaal never wants Louise to grow up. She told Brandon Zachary and CBR.com why:

I’ve gotten this question a lot, and I’ve tried to answer it in years past where I’m like, “Oh, she’d be a blank-blank and a blank-blank.” Every time I do it, it always kinda hurts my soul because I’ve gotten this question a lot, and I’ve tried to answer it in years past where I’m like, “Oh, she’d she’s not that character yet. I mean, every child is not going to be the same person when they become an adult. So I just want to keep them [little].”

Ms. Schaal helps us realize Louise Belcher will never truly grow up. Cartoon children never do. Well, Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble did, at least into adolescence, but so what? It’s fun to speculate about where Louise will go, but it’s much more fun to enjoy her at the moment when she speaks to the child within me. Rabbit ears, forever, Mr. Saturated. Rabbit ears forever.