Stewie Kills Lois

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Stewie Kills Lois
Family Guy episode

Promotional Poster for "Stewie Kills Lois."
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 4
Written by David A. Goodman
Directed by John Holmquist
Production no. 5ACX17
Original airdate November 4, 2007
Season 6 episodes
Family Guy - Season 6
September 23, 2007 – May 4, 2008
  1. Blue Harvest
  2. Movin' Out (Brian's Song)
  3. Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air
  4. Stewie Kills Lois (1)
  5. Lois Kills Stewie (2)
  6. Padre de Familia
  7. Peter's Daughter
  8. McStroke
  9. Back to the Woods
  10. Play It Again, Brian
  11. The Former Life of Brian
  12. Long John Peter

Season 5 Season 7
List of Family Guy episodes

"Stewie Kills Lois" is part one of the two-part "100th Episode" story arc of the FOX animated television series Family Guy (Part 2 being Lois Kills Stewie). It was scheduled as the 100th episode,[1] preceded by the Family Guy 100th Episode Celebration, a clip show episode hosted by Seth MacFarlane.[2] This episode re-aired February 10, 2008 alongside its following part as a 1-hour special.[3] Its title appears to be an ironic play on the season 5 premiere episode "Stewie Loves Lois;" in fact, this episode was intended to air as the finale of season 5, but production on this episode was not completed in time.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The episode opens with the family at a dinner celebrating Lois' birthday; the family gives her mediocre gifts. To their displeasure, Brian gives Lois a pair of tickets for a cruise, which she assumes are for her and Peter (Brian, of course, intended otherwise). Lois and Peter take the trip alone, not even taking Stewie. This greatly upsets Stewie and, as soon as he returns home, he begins to plot a diabolical plan to humiliate Lois out of revenge for leaving him behind, which he intends to carry out as soon as Lois returns. Brian scoffs, noting that Stewie has never followed through with any of his diabolical plans before, and is completely skeptical that he will do so this time. Stewie realizes that Brian is right, but swears that this time Lois is a dead woman, so he decides to take immediate action.

Lois mere moments before her attempted murder by Stewie
Lois mere moments before her attempted murder by Stewie

Meanwhile, on the ship, Peter proves to be a continual embarrassment to Lois: he defecates on the poop deck (the name of which he claims is misleading), thinks it was Phillip Seymour Hoffman (not Kate Winslet) who was the lead in Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, and tells a story at the captain's table about how they almost aborted the fetus that would become Meg. Humiliated, Lois has a falling out with Peter. At this time, Stewie, who has made his way onto the ship via speedboat, finds and confronts Lois. Lois, who had gone outside to mull over her frustration with Peter, is completely astonished to see him, wondering how he came on board without her knowing. To add to her shock, Stewie pulls out an Uzi submachine gun and, after a brief moment of tension, opens fire. Lois' chest is graphically riddled with bullets and she falls overboard, her body plunging and sinking deep into the ocean's abyss--Stewie is ecstatic that he has finally killed his mother.

Six days later, Lois is considered missing and Stewie is elated to discover that no one suspects foul play as the other Griffins begin to worry. Since she has been missing for so long, Joe tells a distressed Peter that the search for her has been called off and he must now accept the fact that Lois is gone.

A year passes and, during this time, the Griffins have managed to move on with their lives: Peter begins dating other people (such as a stick figure and even Bonnie, each with little success), Chris has been led to believe that Lois is merely away at a health spa, and Meg, as Stewie states, has really begun to flourish after Lois' murder. Brian restates that her death was an accident, but Stewie counters by saying that was what everyone was led to believe. Greatly disturbed by this revelation, Brian asks Stewie if he killed Lois; Stewie just mockingly denies it. Brian realizes that he actually carried out his plan, and vows to find evidence and bring him to justice.

At the Drunken Clam, Peter mentions to his friends that his wife's life insurance has finally paid out. Before leaving the bar he casually casts suspicion on himself by noting that he took out the policy while they were on the ship, just after having secretly wished she were dead after their fight. Incidentally, Stewie realizes that keeping evidence of his crime as mementos is too risky with Brian snooping around, and throws into the trash his drawings depicting Lois getting killed in various ways and his gun. Joe and the others search the trash and find these items just after Stewie disposes of them. This proves serendipitous however, as Joe and the others think that Peter made them, and are forced to accept Peter as the killer. Noticing the coincidence, Stewie discovers that this means he's likely going to get away with murdering his mother.

Family Guy's officially celebrated 100th episode
Family Guy's officially celebrated 100th episode

Peter is brought into the police station for questioning where Joe reluctantly informs Peter that he is the prime suspect for Lois' murder and that things look bleak for him. At his trial, Meg and Chris begin to believe he killed their mother. Brian, however, convinces them to not judge him too quickly and that he is innocent, though Stewie attempts to convince them otherwise. Lois' father, Carter, testifies against Peter, presenting a video recreation of the crime in which he plays Peter and an Asian prostitute (who is actually shot and killed by Carter in the video) plays Lois. Next, Chris is brought to the stand and asked to recall anything bad Peter did; Chris responds by telling the court of a time Peter picked his nose and wiped his finger on Meg's hat. Finally, Peter is brought to the stand and denies killing Lois, stating that he loves his wife. However, the prosecutor manages to get Peter to reveal things that would make it seem obvious as to why he would kill her, albeit perhaps unintentionally (such as drinking, striking her periodically, and being aggressive in nature).

Towards the end of the trial, Peter is found guilty of murder in the first degree (as Peter and his friends and family despair, the Kool-Aid Man jumps in as he did in the pilot episode, frustrating the judge). He is almost sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. But before the judge can bang his gavel to make the sentence official, a mysterious figure barges into the room--the court is stunned to discover it is none other than Lois herself, very much alive. The Griffins are greatly relieved and overjoyed to find she is safe and that Peter didn't kill her after all. After happily reuniting with her family, Lois goes on to say that someone else did indeed try to kill her. When Peter asks her if she remembers who it was, Lois responds to the entire court, pointing to her incredulous infant son, "It was Stewie!". The episode ends, setting the stage for the next episode.

[edit] Notes

  • This was the last episode to air before the writers' strike. Part 2 was broadcast the next week, and later the rest of the episodes up to "McStroke" were broadcast.
  • The simulation begins at the captain's table when Peter and Lois were eating; this would seem logical as the simulation otherwise wouldn't have really known that Stewie would find Lois outside after the incident that happened at dinner and her subsequent argument with Peter.
  • The characters in the courtroom who seem to support Peter's innocence (one way or another) are marked with worried expressions on their faces just before Lois barges into the room; they are Peter himself, the Performance Artist (his lawyer), Brian, Meg, Chris, Cleveland, Quagmire, and Mort.
  • The Asian hooker that plays Lois in Carter's dramatization is the same one from the episode "Peter's Got Woods".
  • In the scene where Stewie tells Brian that Lois' "death" was actually (attempted) murder, Stewie's head vertically rotates just like it did in the episode "North by North Quahog"; this time, however, his head gets stuck in that position.
  • The music at the end of the episode in the original broadcast is identical to the music used in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Best of Both Worlds: Part I, which was also composed by Ron Jones. In subsequent airings, a similar synthesizer version replaces it.
  • The font used at the end of the episode was the font from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • A rerun of this episode was intentionally aired on Mother's Day of 2008 (May 11).[4]

[edit] Censorship

  • When the family complains at Brian for making them look bad for buying Lois cruise tickets, Stewie originally calls him a "dick", while in the FOX version, Stewie calls him a "fink".
  • While responding to Stewie's rant about what he will do to Lois when she returns from the cruise, in the Adult Swim version, Brian adds a line referring to watching her "go to town on herself" while grabbing her breast. In the FOX version, Brian stops after suggesting that Stewie smack Lois with a riding crop. Along with it, the FOX line about stuffing a brassiere in Lois's mouth was originally "underwear" on the Adult Swim version. Clip. (None of these clips will work if you're outside of the United States)
  • In the Adult Swim version, after Lois calls Peter gay and leaves after their argument, Peter retaliates by saying that "Pleasuring a man with a socked foot one time does not make a person gay.", which was removed from the Fox version. Clip.
  • On Adult Swim, when Peter is telling Brian how his dates went, he mentions that he also went on a date where he read that the woman was a Cancer, but she was actually a cancer patient.
  • On the part after Stewie says he can hear Meg upstairs (now that his head is turned 90 degrees vertically), the FOX version shows Meg outside her room in her normal clothes with a pack of hot dogs saying "I'm gonna pretend you're the New York Knicks!" before running inside. On Adult Swim, the line is the same, but the scene shows Meg sitting on her bed in her pajamas while "Afternoon Delight" is playing in the background. Clip
  • Stewie fantasizes about going to the carnival with a grown, muscular Rupert (as in "Stewie Loves Lois"). In the Fox version, Stewie asks Rupert if he wants to ride the "tea bags", and, realizing his mistake, quickly corrects himself by saying "tea cups". In the Adult Swim version, Stewie lets a few seconds pass, then asks Rupert if he wants to ride the tea bags again (referencing a blatantly homosexual fantasy as opposed to a simple wording slip-up). Clip.
  • Peter's abortion story about Meg is longer in the Adult Swim airing. Clip.
  • On Adult Swim, after the jury watches Carter's video, he says that Lois (referring to the hooker that plays her) claimed she would give Carter an over-under for $60. This was cut from the Fox airing. Clip.

[edit] Cultural references

  • The promotional poster for this episode is a parody of Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
  • Fox's promo for the episode feature a synopsis set in the style to the Gilligan's Island theme.
  • At the end of his newscast, Tom Tucker scribbles on his paper and throws his arm into the air while saying, "That's the news, and I am outta here." This was Dennis Miller's trademark sign-off for "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live.
  • When Stewie is overheard thinking to himself, he mentions "Pigs in Space", which was a recurring skit on The Muppet Show.
  • The style of the episode's closing is a parody of Star Trek: The Next Generation's season cliffhangers, specifically its third season cliffhanger titled "The Best of Both Worlds",[5] commonly cited as one of the greatest cliffhangers in TV history. Lois's emergence from the bright white light accompanied by eerie synthesized voices corresponds to Captain Jean-Luc Picard being revealed to the Enterprise-D crew as having been assimilated by the Borg and renamed Locutus. The music of the two cliffhangers is close to identical, which is appropriate given that both were scored by the same composer, Ron Jones, whose music for "The Best of Both Worlds" was widely praised and released as an album. Executive producer and writer of the episode David A. Goodman is a major Star Trek fan and paid tribute to the 20th anniversary of the series with this parody. Patrick Stewart, who played Picard, guest starred in the next episode as his American Dad! character, Avery Bullock.
  • The stick figure that Peter dates is similar to the ones in the Kingdom of Loathing.
  • The Captain telling them of his journey seeing the "northern lights" of which the experience was like seeing God is meant to be a parody of Lord Asriel from the His Dark Materials trilogy who at the beginning of the first story in the series talks about going north and seeing lights that were not like anything normal at all.

[edit] Reception

10.5 million viewers tuned into this episode, making it the third most-watched episode since 2005 behind "Blue Harvest" (10.7 million) and "North by North Quahog" (11.9 million).

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Stewie Kills Lois" is the 104th separate half-hour episode, but was advertised as 100th because the three episodes that made up Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story are not included in Fox's official episode count. Fox also counts the hour long episode "Blue Harvest" as two separate episodes.
  2. ^ Fox Broadcasting Company (2007-10-08). "“Family Guy” celebrates 100 freakin’ sweet episodes with special retrospective Sunday, November 4, on Fox". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-13. “The FAMILY GUY tribute special celebrates ... by taking a look back at some of the funniest moments, satirical spoofs and music numbers of the past 100 episodes.... In the 100th episode, Lois and Peter go on a cruise, leaving Stewie...”
  3. ^ For Press Release [1]
  4. ^ "Breaking News - FOX UNLEASHES A MAY SWEEPS TO REMEMBER", TheFutonCritic, 2008-04-15. Retrieved on 2008-04-15. 
  5. ^ Dehnart, Andy. "'Family Guy' is no cheap 'Simpsons' knockoff", MSNBC.com, 2007-11-05. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air
Family Guy Episodes Followed by
Lois Kills Stewie (2)”
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