Stewie Kills Lois and Lois Kills Stewie

"Stewie Kills Lois" "Lois Kills Stewie"
Family Guy episode
Promotional poster of the two episodes.
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 4/5
Directed by	John Holmquist ("Stewie Kills Lois") Greg Colton ("Lois Kills Stewie")
Written by	David A. Goodman ("Stewie Kills Lois") Steve Callaghan ("Lois Kills Stewie")
Production code	5ACX17/5ACX18
Original air date	November 4, 2007 ("Stewie Kills Lois") November 11, 2007 ("Lois Kills Stewie")
Guest actors
Patrick Stewart as Avery Bullock Paula Abdul as herself Randy Jackson as himself Simon Cowell as himself

"Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie" is a two-part episode of the sixth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy, which was originally produced for the end of Season 5. Respectively, both are the fourth and fifth episode of their season, and they premiered in the United States on Fox on November 4 and 11, 2007. In the former, housewife Lois receives cruise tickets from anthropomorphic dog Brian, and invites Peter on the cruise with her. This upsets Stewie, and he ultimately appears to murder Lois while she is on the cruise, only to find out that she had survived the attack as the year passes. In the latter, Lois is able to expose Stewie as the villain that he is, but he soon accomplishes his dream of world domination.

"Stewie Kills Lois" was written by David A. Goodman and directed by John Holmquist, while "Lois Kills Stewie" was written by Steve Callaghan and directed by Greg Colton. Both episodes received relatively positive reviews for their combined story arc and cultural references. "Lois Kills Stewie" featured appearances by Patrick Stewart, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Willem Dafoe (although Dafoe did not provide his voice)^[1] and both episodes featured cameos by various recurring voice actors for the series.

Plot

"Stewie Kills Lois"

It is Lois' birthday, and Brian gives her a pair of cruise tickets with the intention of traveling with her, but she invites Peter instead. Stewie is upset at not being invited on the cruise, and concocts a plan to embarrass Lois. Brian makes Stewie realize that he has never followed through with any of his plans, and he resolves to change this. Meanwhile, Peter proves to be a frequent embarrassment to Lois. A mortified Lois walks onto the promenade to be away from Peter, but is confronted by Stewie, who has traveled to the ship by speedboat, and shoots at her, sending her overboard.

Six days pass since Stewie has killed Lois and Joe informs Peter that he has called off the search for Lois since he and his police squad cannot find her. A year passes since then, with Peter not only trying to find someone new, but also talking Joe into posing as Lois so that her death doesn't leave Chris emotionally scarred and Meg gaining more self-esteem, while Stewie indirectly reveals to Brian what he had done. Disturbed by the revelation, Brian vows to bring him to justice. Stewie realizes that keeping the evidence of his crime as souvenirs is too risky, and disposes of his gun and his drawings depicting Lois being killed. After Peter reveals that Lois' life insurance policy has recently been cashed, Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland search the Griffins' garbage and find Stewie's souvenirs. Joe is convinced that Peter is the one who killed Lois, given that Stewie inherited Peter's handwriting. At his trial in the murder, Peter is close to receiving life in prison, but Lois suddenly appears in the courtroom, and reveals that Stewie tried to kill her.

"Lois Kills Stewie"

Everyone is shocked that Stewie would try to murder Lois, but she insists that he is evil, and explains what happened; after being shot at and falling overboard, she was rescued by a reverse merman, and became employed at a fat camp and later a diner, where she found a new boyfriend in a white supremacist also visiting the diner, as she had developed amnesia. She eventually regains her memory after a blow to the head at a supremacist rally, and returns to Quahog. While Lois explains her situation, Stewie escapes, captures and restrains his family when they return home, and shoots Cleveland dead when he visits. Stewie kidnaps Brian and forces him into driving him to the CIA, where he gains access to a supercomputer and takes control of the planet's power grid, thus dominating the world.

After Stewie implements numerous draconian laws, Lois becomes angered and prepares to assassinate him in order to save the world. After taking several weapons from Stewie's secret weapons vault, she engages Stewie in a destructive battle in the Oval Office. Lois eventually gains the upper hand and prepares to shoot Stewie, but she cannot bring herself to do so, since he is her own child. Stewie takes the opportunity to disarm her and prepare to kill, but is shot dead by Peter before he can do so. They start to mourn over Stewie's dead body, but it is then revealed that much of what has happened was actually a computer simulation. Brian wonders if a hypothetical external viewer of the simulation would feel cheated by what was ultimately a "dream sequence," but Stewie argues that a computer simulation is totally different. Stewie then claims that he is not ready to kill Lois or take over the world....yet. As Brian and Stewie argue over the differences between "dream sequence" and "computer simulation," Stewie claims that it was not as bad as the finale of The Sopranos, but, as in the Sopranos finale, the scene abruptly blacks out, followed by the end credits.

Production

Actor Patrick Stewart guest starred in "Lois Kills Stewie".

"Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie" are the 102nd and 103rd episodes of Family Guy respectively. They are the fourth and fifth episodes of the sixth season of the show. "Stewie Kills Lois" was written by executive producer and former Futurama and South Park writer David A. Goodman.^[2] The episode was directed by John Holmquist.^[3] "Lois Kills Stewie" was written by recurring voice actor and future showrunner Steve Callaghan, and directed by Greg Colton.^[4] Colton and Callaghan previously worked on the season 5 episode "Whistle While Your Wife Works".

Before the airing of the episode, a 100th episode tribute special, hosted by MacFarlane, aired on Fox. The special showcases various clips of MacFarlane's favorite moments from the last 99 episodes of the show.^[5][6] It also included MacFarlane asking people questions related to Family Guy.^[7]

"Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie", along with the final five episodes of the fifth season and the first seven episodes of the sixth season, were also released on DVD under the title "Volume 6" by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Canada on October 21, 2008, five months after they had completed broadcast on television.^[8] The DVD release also features bonus material including deleted scenes, commentaries, and a 'making of' feature.^[8]

Both episodes aired before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, and were the last episodes to air before it. In November 2007, Variety reported that MacFarlane had joined the strike and refused to complete more Family Guy episodes.^[9] A spokesperson for Fox said: "Our hope is that he returns to work and completes his non-writing obligations on those episodes".^[9] Fox aired two new episodes during November 2007.^[10] The following episode, "Padre de Familia", was the first of these two episodes to air.^[11] The strike ended on February 12, 2008 and the series resumed airing regularly.^[12]

In addition to the main cast, actors Patrick Stewart and Phil LaMarr, and American Idol judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul guest starred in the episode.^[13][14] The episode also featured the recurring voices of actress Jennifer Tilly and Patrick Warburton, and writers Danny Smith and John Viener in minor appearances. Future showrunner Mark Hentemann also made some appearances.^[4]

Cultural references

When Stewie becomes disappointed that Lois did not take him on the cruise, he relates that he has not expressed it much since he saw The Lake House. Peter and Lois watch the sunset; Lois noting that she feels like Kate Winslet's character in Titanic, but Peter believes that she was portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.^[15] Leonardo DiCaprio is also referenced in the scene.^[15]

The cliffhanger ending where Lois returns to reveal Stewie as her attempted killer is a tribute to part one of the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds" with similar cliffhanger music and "To Be Continued..." title cards. Since they're both Trekkies, Seth MacFarlane and David A. Goodman had wanted to use the cliffhanger music from "The Best of Both Worlds" if they ever got up to 100 episodes of Family Guy. Paramount wouldn't give them the rights, however, so composer Ron Jones, who wrote the music for "The Best of Both Worlds" and several other episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, wrote and recorded the music heard in the episode.^[16]

While looking for Stewie, Joe and other police officers travel to the Fortress of Solitude, where the maid Consuela works for Superman.^[13] Stewie is seen participating on American Idol in a cutaway, singing "Lost in Your Eyes" before judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.^[15]

American Dad! characters Stan Smith and Avery Bullock make a crossover appearance in "Lois Kills Stewie" when Stewie hacks into the supercomputer.^[5] This crossover is extended on the Volume 6 DVD when, before the confrontation, Brian and Stewie first bump into Stan and Bullock in the restroom. The episode concludes with a reference to The Sopranos as the screen blacks out on Stewie criticizing the series' finale.^[13][15]

The news anchor, Tom Tucker, copies Dennis Miller's signature phrase from Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, saying, "Well, folks, that's the news, and I am outta here!" while drawing a circle on a paper.

"Stewie Kills Lois" features the recurring gag of the Kool-Aid Man bursting through the courtroom wall at an inopportune time, exclaiming "OH YEAH!!" after a series of people in the courtroom say "Oh no!!" in turn. The Kool-Aid Man then slowly backs out of the hole in the wall in embarrassment. This time, the judge implores the people of the court to please stop saying "Oh no!," because, as he puts it, "The f**kin' Kool-Aid guy's gonna keep showing up!!"

"Lois Kills Stewie"also mocks the varying quality of direct-to-video Disney films in general, in which a cutaway shows Jafar, the main antagonist in Aladdin, undergoing an eye exam. In addition, Lois is seen wearing John Rambo's combat outfit from Rambo III in her final battle against Stewie.

Reception

" "Blue Harvest" was a missed opportunity that succeeded only because of the source material it drew from.

Thankfully, the majority of the episodes that followed managed to thoroughly entertain, including the history-making two-part Stewie and Lois murder episodes aptly titled "Stewie Kills Lois" and "Lois Kills Stewie." Stewie fulfills his series-long fantasy of killing his mother, and does so with the type of callous violence that you'd expect for this implausible scenario. Despite the cop-out ending in the second part, the journey was worthwhile and the barrage of jokes was relentless.

Ramsey Isler, IGN^[17]

Ahsan Haque of IGN rated "Stewie Kills Lois" a 9/10, while rating "Lois Kills Stewie" a 9.4/10, saying "For the hundredth episode of Family Guy, Seth McFarlane and friends tackle the subject of one of Stewie Griffin's greatest ambitions — his not-so-secret desire to kill his mother. For the disturbed fans waiting for some form of a matricidal manifestation, you can feel comfort knowing, without spoiling too much, that the youngest Griffin absolutely means business and ensures that he doesn't fail this time around. [...] There are some tense courtroom moments, a birthday celebration with the gift of Lionel Richie, a cruise ship, machine guns, and the reappearance of the Kool Aid Man that help round out this carefully crafted and well-told cohesive storyline. With the amount of cheap manatee jokes kept to a reasonable level, this episode also manages to find an excellent balance between comedy and storytelling. It's a fantastic way to celebrate the Family Guy one-hundredth episode milestone. [...] With the writers' strike in full effect, it seems that this might be the last new episode of Family Guy we'll be seeing for a while. It's a bittersweet way to end the abruptly short season as the quality is reminiscent of the series' brilliance from the early years and it seems like the show was really starting to hit its stride for the season. Hopefully the series will be able to live up to the high bar set by this two-part classic upon its eventual return."^[13][15]

Richard Keller of TV Squad gave "Stewie Kills Lois" a much more negative review. He pointed out that the episode was hyped because before the episode aired a retrospective premiered featuring clips from the last 99 episodes, he stated that the episode was a huge disappointment. He stated that he did not find the episode funny, but rather disjointed, with little story and too many cutaway gags and flashbacks.^[6] In his review of "Lois Kills Stewie", Keller gave a much more positive review. He did mention that the end of the episode was somewhat predictable, as they had killed Cleveland and Stewie. He commented positively to some of the jokes of the episode, and in the overall he mentioned he liked the two episodes, but he was not so keen of the ending of the episode.^[18]

On her review of "Stewie Kills Lois", Genevieve Koski of the The A.V. Club rated the episode a B+. She commented that it was "a bit weird" that the show was focusing on Stewie's desire to kill Lois, since in the last couple of seasons the Stewie and Brian dynamic had taken precedence, while Lois was being more foil to Peter than Stewie. She felt that most of the cutaway humor felt familiar and that there was no real moment that would deserve any callback status in future episodes. She did praise the cliffhanger, stating that she was intrigued about how the storyline would turn out. She also praised the storyline and liked how it was able to create drama.^[5] In her review of "Lois Kills Stewie", Koski rated the episode a B, calling the end of the story a bit predictable as she thought that the deaths of Lois, Cleveland and Stewie were a one time joke. She praised and disliked some jokes and gags in the episode, including Stewie demanding praise for his macaroni picture of an owl and Lois' salvation via merman, respectively. She commented that the fight sequence was extended and highly choreographed.^[14]

"Lois Kills Stewie" was voted #9, and "Stewie Kills Lois" was voted #8 on BBC Three's list of Top Ten Family Guy Episodes.

References

1. "Exclusive: Willem Dafoe reacts to 'Family Guy' cameo: 'It was pretty cool'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
2. Goodman, David A. (2003). Futurama season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
3. "Family Guy – Stewie Kills Lois – Yahoo! TV". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
4. "Family Guy – Lois Kills Stewie – Yahoo! TV". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
5. Koski, Genevieve (2007-11-04). ""Treehouse of Horror XVIII"/"Stewie Kills Lois"/"Big Trouble in Little Langley"". AV Club. The Onion. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
6. Keller, Richard (2007-08-05). "Family Guy: Stewie Kills Lois (Part 1)". TV Squad. AOL Inc. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
7. "'American Dad' and 'Family Guy' Creator Seth MacFarlane Is Animated About Work and Play". The TV Tattler. AOL Inc. 2007-08-05. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
8. "Family Guy Volume Six DVD". Movieweb. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
9. Adalian, Josef; Schneider, Michael (2007-11-07). "Strike hitting '24', 'Family Guy' hard". Variety. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
10. Trechak, Brad (2007-11-19). "Family Guy: Padre de Familia". TV Squad. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
11. Goldman, Eric (2007-11-14). "Will a new Family Guy air Sunday?". IGN. Retrieved 2010-03-21.
12. "Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work". CNN.com. 2008-02-13. Archived from the original on 2008-04-13. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
13. Haque, Ashan (2007-11-12). "Family Guy: "Lois Kills Stewie" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
14. Koski, Genevieve (2007-11-11). ""Little Orphan Millie" / "Death Picks Cotton" / "Lois Kills Stewie" / "Haylias"". AV Club. The Onion. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
15. Haque, Ashan (2007-11-01). "Family Guy: "Stewie Kills Lois" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
16. Seth MacFarlane (October 21, 2008). Family Guy Volume 6 DVD commentary for the episode "Stewie Kills Lois" (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
17. Haque, Ashan (2008-05-13). "Family Guy: Season 6 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
18. Keller, Richard (2007-08-05). "Family Guy: Lois Kills Stewie (Part 2)". TV Squad. AOL Inc. Retrieved 2010-08-08.