Da Boom

"Da Boom"

“Da Boom” is the post-apocalyptic tenth episode of the FOX animated series Family Guy. This was the 10th episode of Family Guy to be aired. Since the episode directly contradicts every postmillenial episode, it is never considered canon. This is explained at the end of the episode, when it is revealed to be a dream by Pamela Ewing (played by Victoria Principal) from the TV series Dallas. This is also the first episode that aired with Mila Kunis as the voice of Meg, though it was the sixth produced.

This episode marks the first appearance of Ernie the Giant Chicken (who is unnamed in this episode). The fight is started by Peter after he tries to use an expired coupon that the chicken gives him outside a restaurant. While the story in "Da Boom" is outside the continuity of the series, Peter's feud with the Giant Chicken became a running gag seen in regular episodes.

Plot summary

A man in a chicken suit warns Peter about the dangers of Y2K. Peter locks his family up in their basement on December 31, 1999. A nuclear holocaust occurs at the stroke of midnight, destroying much of the world and mutating or injuring many of the surviving citizens of Quahog. The Griffins remain free from mutations but Joe is melted into his driveway, while Quagmire and Cleveland have merged.

When food runs out (Peter ate a years worth of de-hydrated food pellets and takes a sip of water), the family travels to Natick, Massachusetts, in hopes that the Twinkie (spelled "Twinkee" on the show) factory survived. On the way, Stewie is exposed to nuclear waste and soon mutates into an octopus-like creature. He later lays eggs. Upon their arrival at Natick, they establish a town, dubbed New Quahog. Their starting food supply is the twinkee factory that was protected by a rock formation. Because it was Peter who knew about the factory's existence and led everyone else here, he is permitted to become the head of the town's government. Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland join him to form a ruling council. Despite their advice, Peter makes several disastrous mistakes, most notably by giving the citizens careers by having them draw one out of a hat. The last straw is when Peter tears up the city's water irrigation system in order to use its pipes to make guns, outraging the citizens.

Peter is eventually kicked out of the town he founded, and his family follows him, deciding where they should go next: a Carvel factory in Framingham, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, the citizens burn the guns while Stewie’s spawn hatch. They attack the citizens, some of whom comment on the irony of the situation.

The episode ends in a live-action parody of a famous episode of Dallas, where Pamela Barnes Ewing wakes to find her husband Bobby in the shower. She tells him about the episode, which was apparently a dream, thus retconning the entire episode. This parodies the famous Dallas shower scene, where an entire previous season of Dallas was retconned as a dream. Although after she tells him about the dream, he says "What's Family Guy?"

Cultural References

Upon finding the Twinkie factory intact and loaded with boxes of Twinkies, Peter says "There are no words. They should've sent a poet." The exact line is spoken by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact as she travels through space. When Peter and Ernie the Giant Chicken fight in the office building, the sequence is similar to the barroom fight scene in The Parallax View.

When the family arrives at the derelict city of Natick, Stewie losing hope mutters "Game over, man. Game over!" which is a line spoken by Bill Paxton as Hudson in the 1986 film Aliens.

References

• Delarte, Alonso. “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 2.” Bob’s Poetry Magazine May 2005: 8–10. http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02My.pdf

External links

• Template:FGwiki
• Da Boom at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode