Four Little Words

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“Four Little Words”
American Dad! episode

Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 15
Written by	David Zuckerman
Production no.	2AJN18
Original airdate	April 1, 2007
Newspaper Headline	Childhood obesity up, pedophilia down.
Season 2 episodes
American Dad - Season 2 September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007
Camp Refoogee The American Dad After School Special Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option Lincoln Lover Dungeons and Wagons Iced, Iced Babies Of Ice and Men Irregarding Steve The Best Christmas Story Never Bush Comes to Dinner American Dream Factory A.T. The Abusive Terrestrial Black Mystery Month An Apocalypse to Remember Four Little Words When a Stan Loves a Woman I Can't Stan You The Magnificent Steven Joint Custody

← Season 1	Season 3 →
List of American Dad! episodes

"Four Little Words" is a second season episode of the animated series American Dad!.

[edit] Plot

Deputy Director Bullock has been making everyone at the CIA work late every night, much to their annoyance, the employees believe this is because his wife is being held hostage in Fallujah, and thus he has nothing worth going home to. Stan's co-worker a force him to find a woman for Bullock (due to putting their left index fingers to their noses), and he suggests Francine set him up with her friend Melinda. She reluctantly agrees, but says that if it does not work, "I told you..." Before she can finish, Stan creates a distraction, then explains to Klaus that he hates hearing Francine say "I told you so," at least four times and thus he is dedicated to making sure that the date is a success.

The two double-date with Bullock and Melinda, but leave early, as the two seem to be getting along very well. However, later that night Bullock calls Stan, having accidentally killed Melinda when she came up on him and he thought she was a terrorist and he snapped her neck. Stan quickly helps bury the body and cover up the crime. At home, Francine---who is very hung over and can only half-remember the events of the previous night---wants to talk to Melinda about the date, but Stan claims that the two women had a big fight and Melinda does not want to talk to her. Francine nevertheless tries to meet Melinda, but cannot find her at home. When she says that she plans to contact the police if Melinda does not turn up, Bullock says that he will "get her off the trail."

Stan soon realizes (after a midget assassin attacks him when he is moving Francine's car, which was his idea at the beginning of the episode and Bullock though it was stupid) that Bullock intends to murder her. Bullock tells Stan that there is no other way---either she must be killed, or Stan would have to admit to her that she was right and hear the four dreaded words. Stan devises a new solution---he claims that he has tracked Melinda down, and he and Francine go to a bar to meet her. He then drugs Francine's drink, and arranges it so that when she wakes up the next morning, she is holding a bloody knife near Melinda's dead body. Francine, horrified that she killed Melinda, at first wants to turn herself into the police; Stan dissuades her, but she leaves and moves to India, explaining that to amend for her crime she feels the need to help others and find redemption.

After a month without Francine, Stan---now having to make dinner for the family---warns Roger at one point not to touch a hot pan, but he does anyway. When he drops the hot food Stan begins to say "I told you so," but Roger admits his mistake before Stan has a chance. Stan, shocked by the ability to do this pre-emptive strike, realizes that he can admit his mistake to Francine. He flies to India, where Francine has taken a job teaching children in a poor village, and has adopted an orphaned child named Sanjen. Stan admits what happened and expects instant forgiveness; Francine, however, is of course furious, and demands to know how Stan can expect to fix everything that happened, in particular how she can now give up the baby she has adopted. Stan then comes up with a plan---they give the child to Bullock, who declares that since he now has to watch "Avery Jr.," late nights at the office are out. Francine returns home, though she remains furious at Stan for lying to her and making her think she killed her friend just so he wouldn't hear Francine say those four words.

A subplot involves Roger---after hearing a child and mother in the park talking about him being "deformed" for not having a nose---getting a fake latex nose resembling that of Kevin Bacon. It works so well that people are convinced Roger actually is Kevin Bacon. He then goes around pretending to be Bacon, and getting free stuff; he then begins to take advantage of it, and when Steve and Hayley try to get him to stop he argues with them and acts like a jerk. He then pretends to see the error of his ways; however, the two learn that he simply decided to stop using the nose because he was caught on tape in a hit-and-run accident, for which the real Kevin Bacon is arrested.

[edit] Cultural references

Many of Roger's moves in his dancing montage were taken directly from Footloose which starred Kevin Bacon.
Francine's adoption of an Indian baby is a reference to celebrities such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie adopting kids from foreign nations.
The way Stan disposes of the body in a wood chipper is similar to the way Peter Stormare's character disposes of Steve Buscemi's in Fargo.
During Bullock's flashback of what happened on his date with Melinda, several subtitles are shown on the screen in the form of the subtitles shown on Blind Date.

[edit] Trivia

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