Burning Down the Bayit

"Burning Down the Bayit" is the fifteenth episode of the tenth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. The episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on March 4, 2012 and was first in its timeslot. Overwhelmed with financial troubles, Mort asks Peter and Quagmire to help him save his pharmacy. However, things take a turn for the worse when the trio decides to burn it down to collect insurance money.

The episode title is a reference to the song "Burning Down the House", with "house" replaced by the Hebrew word bayit (בית).

This episode was written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Jerry Langford. Scott Bakula guest-starred as himself in a live-action cutaway.

Plot

After Peter hurts Quagmire when he runs over one of Brian's bones with his new riding lawnmower, they stop by Mort's pharmacy to get some antibiotics. There they find out that Mort is overwhelmed with financial troubles since Muriel died as she was able to cheat the customers successfully. They try to help out, first by suggesting he do a "buy one get one free" sale (to where, in typical stereotyping of Jewish people, Mort does not understand the words "get one free" if it's referring to him, but does when it refers to some other business), then try a flying banner advertisement, but that makes things worse and ends up killing a bus load of teenagers when it breaks from Quagmire's plane and falls on the bus. Desperate, Mort tells of how his cousin's place burned down leaving him with a large settlement. Peter and Quagmire have recollections on how insurance companies have screwed them. Quagmire has some reservations but they agree to the plot and burn down the pharmacy, taking the opportunity to do it while Joe is away at a paraplegic Cher impersonator concert.

After they successfully collect, Quagmire continues to worry and Joe seems to hang around more than they expect to discover the real reason behind the fire, which is his way of helping Mort (not realizing that they started the incident). When Joe starts to discover that things are not adding up at the fire, the guys try to distract him. As Quagmire is about to crack at the Drunken Clam, Joe arrives after finding a voice mail of Peter talking about the crime after accidentally dialing Joe with his phone in his pocket and places the group under arrest. Mort threatens to run, but refuses after seeing his old gym teacher that has been stalking him since junior high school ready to laugh at him.

The episode's title is a reference to Talking Heads' 1983 song "Burning Down the House".

At the station, Joe interrogates the guys with varying degrees of success. When he points out they are going away for the crime, they question whether or not he had ever been screwed over by an insurance company. Joe recalls that after his paralyzing accident, the insurance company refused to pay for a procedure that would have saved his legs; instead, they paid the wheelchair Joe is currently sitting on. While Joe still feels that the guys committed a crime, he erases the evidence and frees the guys. After Peter wraps things up with his family, Peter leaves to go wrap things up with his basement family where he asks if they had learned their lesson about eating an uncooked antelope.

Cultural References

The scene in which Peter and Quagmire put pills in bottles from a conveyor belt is a parody of an I Love Lucy episode. Joe and Quagmire discuss the film No Strings Attached.

Reception

The episode received mixed reviews. Kevin McFarland on The A.V. Club gave a C rating.^[1]

The TV critic gave a 38/100 rating.^[2]

In the UK, the episode was broadcast on 19 August 2012 and was followed by Killer Queen. The episode was watched by 1.15 million viewers.^[3]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: "Burning Down the Bayit"

• "Burning Down the Bayit" at TV.com