Stewie Kills Lois

Infobox Television episode
Title =Stewie Kills Lois
Series =Family Guy


Caption =Promotional poster for "Stewie Kills Lois".
Season =6
Episode =4
Airdate =November 4, 2007
Production =5ACX17
Writer =David A. Goodman
Director =John Holmquist
Guests =
Episode list =List of Family Guy episodes
Season list = Infobox_Family_Guy_Season_6
Prev =Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air
Next =Lois Kills Stewie (2)

"Stewie Kills Lois" is the first part of a two-part episode of "Family Guy" that aired on November 4, 2007. This, along with the following episode "Lois Kills Stewie", re-aired February 10, 2008 together as a 1-hour special. [For Press Release [http://foxflash.com/div.php/main/page?aID=1z4&ID=74] ] This episode is promoted as the 100th episode of the series, as they do not count the episodes that made up "", and they count the hour-long "Blue Harvest" as two episodes. 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.

Plot

The Griffins are celebrating Lois' birthday at a diner, giving her some rather meager gifts except for Brian, gives Lois a pair of tickets for a cruise. This upsets everyone else, since he went over the agreed $20 limit, though Lois tells Peter he is invited to come (Brian, of course, intended the trip to be for Lois and himself). On the day of their departure, Stewie prepares to board the ship, thinking he will go as well, until Brian explains that he has not been invited. Unfortunately for Lois, Peter's careless antics begin to irritate her, such as when they are barred from the poop deck when Peter poops there, claiming the name was mislaeding.

Back at home, Stewie is furious that Lois didn't let him come on the trip and begins concocting a "diabolical plan to humiliate her". Brian begins offering some erotic suggestions such as whipping her with a riding crop, and Stewie realizes he's not taking him seriously. Brian points out that he'd never go through with any of his plans, but rather keep complaining about it and return to his infantile routines when Lois returns. Stewie realizes that Brian is right, but he convinces himself that this time, Lois is a dead woman.

During dinner with the ship's captain, Peter tells a completely inappropriate story of when Lois nearly aborted Meg's pregnancy. Humiliated, Lois gets into an argument with Peter and storms out of their cabin. Meanwhile, Stewie heads toward the ship via speedboat, stows aboard and finds Lois alone. In an overly-dramatic scene, Stewie pulls out a machine gun on his confused mother and shoots her, sending her falling over the side of the ship. Certain now that he finally killed Lois, Stewie runs away laughing maniacally until he falls down and hurts his elbow, and he begins crying for his mother until he realizes, "Oh yeah, that's right."

Stewie returns home and feels he's pulled off the perfect crime, especially when no one, not even his worried family, suspects foul play. Without any leads to Lois' disappearance, Joe tells Peter that the search has been called off, and that Lois has been declared dead. A year later, Peter begins dating other people (with little success; his latest dates were with a stick figure, and even with Joe's wife Bonnie), Chris believes through Peter that Lois is merely away at a health spa and will be moving to Europe afterwards (the last time he saw her, it was actually Joe in disguise), and life begins to look up for Meg now that she's the new woman of the house. Noting this, Stewie recalls to Brian about the night Lois was murdered, and mockingly denying any involvement. Realizing that Stewie had actually killed Lois, Brian swears to bring Stewie to justice.

At the Drunken Clam, Peter pays a check with his newly paid-off life insurance policy on Lois, just before he and Lois had their argument on the cruise ship. Joe, Cleveland and Quagmire begin to suspect that Peter killed Lois. Back at home, Brian begins searching for evidence that Stewie was on the ship, revealing he found the receipt for Stewie's speedboat. Stewie decides to play things safe and throws in the trash his gun and several pictures of Lois' death scenarios he drew, having intended to keep them as tokens of his success. Joe and the others then come to search the garbage and, upon finding the pictures and the gun, reluctantly conclude that Peter was indeed the killer; noticing this, Stewie realizes that he is off the hook. Before Stewie climbs back into his room, he sees Herbert who tells him to call Chris. Herbert plays an old song on his victrola and holds it up.

Peter is brought into the police station where he is interrogated by Joe and a developmentally disabled cop, and is informed that things don't look good for him. Peter is then taken to court, with the Performance Artist as his lawyer, who doesn't seem to do anything beyond merely greeting everyone. Lois' father is called to the stand and shows a renactment of Peter killing Lois, with himself as Peter and an Asian hooker (whom he actually shoots when asking for her tip) as Lois. Chris is asked if he remembers Peter doing anything bad; all he can recall is when Peter wiped his finger on Meg's head after picking his nose. Peter is then brought up to the stand, and he admits that he is a drinker, and that he would strike Lois in front of the kids to display his authority, and that if he had a gun and he and the prosecutor were on a boat, he'd kill him. Peter is found guilty; as Peter and his family (and lawyer) say, "Oh no!", the Kool-Aid Man bursts through the wall and says, "Oh yeah!", before stepping out of the room in awkward silence, directly mimicking the same scenario in the pilot episode. Before the judge can sentence Peter to life in prison, a mysterious figure enters into the room; it is Lois, very much alive. Reuniting with the others, Lois points Stewie out as the one who tried to kill her. To be continued...

Cultural references

* 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 the season cliffhangers as seen ""', but more specifically the third season finale and fourth season premiere episode entitled "",cite news|last=Dehnart|first=Andy|title='Family Guy' is no cheap 'Simpsons' knockoff|publisher=MSNBC.com|date=2007-11-05|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21627779/|accessdate=2007-11-05] 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 redesignated Locutus of Borg. 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 the second album of the "Next Generation" soundtracks. Executive producer David A. Goodman, who happened to write this episode, is a major "Star Trek" fan and paid tribute to the 20th anniversary of the series with this parody. Seth MacFarlane is likewise an avid Trekkie and claims "The Next Generation" as his favorite "Star Trek" series. Patrick Stewart, who played Picard, guest starred in the following 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.
* The Kool-Aid Man bursts through the wall saying, "Oh, yeah!" after the Griffins say, "Oh, no!" one by one before awkwardly backing out of the room, in direct reference to the pilot; in fact, the judge asks everyone to stop saying "Oh, no!" in the courtroom for that very reason.
* When Brian is sitting on the couch the television returns to the show "Harrison Ford telling random people he wants his family back", which is a reference to the film Firewall.
* Quagmire mentions Bernie Goetz, the "subway vigilante" and says he used to talk about him when he was a standup comedian.

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. [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a01166353d9380009 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. [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a0116635c5c370013 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. [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a01166368f8ad0022 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). [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a01166370aace0027 Clip.]
* Peter's abortion story about Meg is longer in the Adult Swim airing. [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a011663569bab000e 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. [http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a011663785c6a0036 Clip.]

Trivia

* This was the last episode to air with Seth MacFarlane's permission before the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Part 2 was broadcast the next week, and later the rest of the episodes up to "McStroke" were broadcast without MacFarlane's consent.
* 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 music at the end of the episode in the original broadcast is identical to the music used in the episode , which was also composed by Ron Jones. In subsequent airings, a similar synthesizer version replaces it. The font from the series is also used for the end credits of this episode.
* A rerun of this episode was intentionally aired on Mother's Day of 2008 (May 11).cite news | title = Breaking News - FOX UNLEASHES A MAY SWEEPS TO REMEMBER | publisher = TheFutonCritic | date = 2008-04-15 | url = http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20080415fox01 | accessdate=2008-04-15]

References to previous episodes

*Peter's abortion story at the captain's table may be a reference to the incident he briefly mentioned in "Dammit Janet".
*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.
*In previous episodes, Peter has mentioned that his astrological sign is a Cancer (since he was born in July) yet in this episode, he says he is a Leo.

References