Lois Kills Stewie
| "Lois Kills Stewie" |
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"Lois Kills Stewie" is the conclusion of the two-part "100th Episode" story arc of the FOX animated television series Family Guy (Part 1 being "Stewie Kills Lois"), and also features cameos with characters from American Dad!, another animated comedy series created and produced by Seth MacFarlane. The arc sees Stewie returning to his old, sinister ambitions, with this part focusing on Stewie's attempts at world domination. Guest starring are American Idol judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson as themselves, and Patrick Stewart as American Dad! character Avery Bullock.
10.4 million viewers tuned in to this episode, making it the fourth most-watched episode since 2005 behind "Stewie Kills Lois" (10.5 million), "Blue Harvest" (10.7 million), and "North by North Quahog" (11.9 million).
Plot Summary
The previous episode left off with Lois returning to Quahog after her presumed death. Peter, greatly relieved, asks Lois what happened to her. Lois responds by restating the fact that Stewie tried to kill her. The others are confused, stating that Stewie is only a baby. Lois, however, insists that Stewie is evil and begins to recount what happened to her. She starts by stating that Stewie shot her aboard the cruise ship that fateful night one year ago, causing her to fall overboard. As she was sinking to what could have been her watery grave, she was rescued by a merman who brought her to the surface, healed her bullet wounds and swam her to shore. By the time she regained consciousness, Lois found herself suffering from amnesia with absolutely no recollection about her life before.
Completely lost, Lois wandered aimlessly through the country, eventually discovering she was in North Carolina. There she found herself at a fat camp where she was hired as a counselor. Some months later at a diner, she hooked up with a seemingly nice man named Derek to who, after getting to know her, decided to introduce her to his friends. It turned out that he and his friends were part of a group of neo-Nazis, and he was taking Lois to a convention. At the meeting, when Lois began to speak out against their views, an enraged attendee threw a glass bottle at her head. The impact of the bottle caused her to completely regain her memory, and she rushed back to Quahog to where she is now.
As soon as she finishes her story, everyone realizes that Stewie has escaped, so Joe initiates a manhunt to find him, though he has little success. The Griffins return home to find Stewie armed with a gun, who knows that his crime is no longer a secret and takes them hostage. Sometime later, when Cleveland walks into the house in a casual, friendly manner to check on them, Stewie shoots him in the chest and kills him in front of the horrified family. Believing that neither the police nor the press would ever overlook the disappearance of a black man, Stewie forces Brian to drive him somewhere important, having tied the family to chairs in the living room.
After 14 hours, the Griffins realize that Stewie forgot to tie Chris' arms down to his chair, so they get him to untie them all. They then begin searching his room for clues as to where he is currently heading. In doing so, Lois accidentally discovers his secret cache of weapons and other devices.
It is then revealed that Stewie's destination is the CIA Headquarters. Posing themselves as agents, Stewie takes Brian with him to the CIA’s supercomputer, where he takes control of the planet's power grid and causes a worldwide blackout. Two agents (who turn out to be Stan Smith and Avery Bullock from the show American Dad!) intervene, but Stewie threatens to rid the world of energy permanently if they don't follow his commands. Finding themselves helpless against him, the CIA fulfills his request: to name him "President of the World."
His plans at taking over the world having finally come to fruition, Stewie begins establishing new oppressive laws (with a reluctant Brian as his personal secretary), which are broadcast across the planet from the White House. Unable to bear seeing any more people suffering, an enraged Lois declares that she must put an end to Stewie’s reign of terror. She then arms herself with various weapons from Stewie's reserve, clad in black, and sets out to assassinate her baby.
Lois crashes through the window in the Oval Office at the White House and confronts Stewie. Having armed himself with his own arsenal of weapons, Stewie fights back. Mother and son clash in a drawn-out, violent and destructive battle, though Lois gains the upper hand and prepares to shoot and kill Stewie. After being spurred on by Stewie, however, Lois realizes that she could never kill her own baby, even if he is evil, and lowers her weapon. Stewie capitalizes on this situation and swipes the gun from Lois and is about to finish her off, but Peter arrives and shoots Stewie in the chest and head, killing him and saving Lois. Peter and Lois look over Stewie's mangled corpse and hold each other in a moment of silence, showing mixed feelings of sorrow for their son's death, relief for the end of the horror, and respect for a worthy adversary. The words "SIMULATION OVER" then pop up on the screen.
The scene then zooms out to Stewie in his room, who is wearing a special helmet and sitting in a strange chair-like device; it turns out that most of the events from the past two episodes were in fact a computer simulation and didn't actually happen. Brian comes into Stewie's room with postcards from Peter and Lois (who are still on the cruise, which is reportedly going well) and discovers Stewie sitting in the simulator. Stewie explains to Brian that after he told him he would never kill Lois, he went through the simulation to see how killing Lois and taking over the world would plan out for him if he left at that moment. Since things did not turn out well for Stewie, he then states to Brian that he may not be ready for fulfilling either of these desires ... yet.
Brian then points out that if (hypothetically) someone had watched the events of the simulation from beginning to end, they would be disappointed to learn that it never actually happened. Stewie argues that most people would have enjoyed the ride and would not care about the ending, but Brian disagrees and walks away. Stewie then points out that "at least it didn't end like The Sopranos where it cut to black in mid-sen---" and like that show's final episode, the episode ends abruptly when the screen turns black as Stewie is talking.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (November 2007) |
- While in the Oval Office, Lois shoots at Stewie with the mini gun and simultaneously hits the portraits of Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, while avoiding Bill Clinton's portrait. Then, after Stewie escapes from the line of fire, Lois doubles back to completely obliterate the portrait of George W. Bush. This is a reference to creator Seth McFarlane's open dislike of the President. Incidentally, the portrait of Clinton is nude, a recurring joke in the series.
- Despite the title of the episode, Peter killed Stewie, which is non-canon.
- Before intending to shoot Lois at the end, Stewie reveals that he might had something to do with the death of Mr. Weed in "Mr. Saturday Knight" in season three, when he says "say hello to Cleveland from me... and Mr. Weed!!"
- This is the final episode of the season to be overseen by Seth Mcfarlane until the close of the 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike
Cultural References
 | This article may contain minor, trivial or unrelated fictional references. |
- When Lois talks about derek, this could have been referencing Derek Vinyard from American History X
- While searching for Stewie, Joe and the other police officers visit Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Also, the maid that appeared in the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air" is seen.
- Stewie auditions for American Idol in a cutaway, where he sings Debbie Gibson's "Lost in Your Eyes" horribly off-key and is turned down. When Simon Cowell insults him, he actually foreshadows Stewie's fate by saying, "Stewie, you shouldn't actually be alive, you sniveling, little creep. I hate you so much, I want to shoot you in your face." Simon and the other judges, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, are voiced as themselves.
- While Peter and his family are tied up in the living room, they pass the time by thinking of false rumors they could spread about celebrities. Peter suggests they claim Rob Schneider pays migrant workers from Home Depot to come to his house and choke him; Rob is featured later in the episode with migrants in his house.
- When Lois and Peter temporarily switch bodies, Peter sings the theme to Green Acres while playing with Lois' breasts.
- A homicidal Willem Dafoe is shown to have lived under Stewie's bed.
- The Microsoft Office Assistant Clippy appears while Stewie is working on the CIA computer.
- Two American Dad! characters, Stan Smith and Avery Bullock, cameo in this episode.
- When Stewie is showing Brian his new laws, he mentions that he is banning Disney Direct-to-DVD-sequels and shows Brian a DVD copy of Aladdin 4: Jafar May Need Glasses. This parodies Disney's releases of Direct to DVD sequels to previous films that have no purpose or do not further the original story.
- When Lois is getting weapons from Stewie's secret room, she gets a Minigun that The Terminator gets in the underground cave in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Gary Larson created a presidential portrait for Stewie, which depicts him with a chicken in the same style as The Far Side.
- The violent shootout between Stewie and Lois is similar to that in the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
- The scene in which Stewie and Lois fly towards each other while firing their guns in bullet time is a reference to The Matrix.
- Stewie tells Lois to "Say hello to Cleveland for me. Oh, and Mr. Weed", the latter of which died in the episode "Mr. Saturday Knight".
- When Peter shoots Stewie in the head, he says "it's just been revoked", which is a nod to the end of Lethal Weapon 2, and as Brian points out, makes no sense in this context. Peter then retorts "I'll have what she's having", a famous tag line said in When Harry Met Sally.
- Brian argues that the simulation is similar to a dream sequence. This is a reference to a common theme in some TV shows like Dallas and the entire series of Newhart.
- Stewie says "Well, at least it didn't end like The Sopranos when it just cut to black mid-sen--", and then the screen cuts to black in mid-sentence and the episode ends, referencing the abrupt finale for that series. The credit screen that follows are also done in the same style. He made this same reference at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.