MIND OVER MURDER

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'“Mind Over Murder”' is an episode of ''Family Guy'' from season one. It guest-stars Alex Rocco as the masculine woman and Leslie Uggams as herself.

Contents

Plot summary

Understanding Stewie

Notes

Cultural references

References

Plot summary

Stewie is in terrible pain from teething and cannot find comfort anywhere. When Lois tells him that his pain will ultimately pass, it gives him the idea to build a machine that will move time forward to the point where his teething will have already stopped. Meanwhile, Peter drives Chris to his soccer game, where he gets into a fight with another parent who insulted Chris for his playing ability. He punches the parent, who Peter then realizes is not a man, as he had assumed, but rather a masculine-looking pregnant woman.
Peter is put under house arrest for assault and soon finds that he misses his friends. He decides to build a bar in his basement so that his friends can come to visit and hang out with him. It isn’t long before the basement bar becomes a local hotspot. When Lois discovers this, she’s upset, but then she gets a chance to sing on stage before an adoring crowd. As she savors the spotlight over the next few days, Peter becomes increasingly uncomfortable with all the attention she’s getting, especially from the male patrons.
Meanwhile, Stewie’s time machine plans are discovered, causing him to panic about the breach of security. In a clear move to protect the plans, he uses the machine to go back in time before his plans were actually found. But he reverses time just as Peter is having an epiphany about how poorly he treats Lois and seconds before the basement bar goes up in flames. Stewie even manages to back time up to before Chris’s soccer game, successfully avoiding the whole altercation between Peter and the pregnant soccer mom. But, unfortunately, his teething pain is still with him.

Understanding Stewie

★ The family’s ability to understand Stewie is questioned once again here. At the point where Stewie draws the time machine, Stewie yells “Burn in Hell” towards Lois. Lois says “Hell. Hell has fire.” Lois must have understood Stewie to have said that.

Notes

★ In the Disc 1 Season 1 of the DVD on the back of the cover it says that Meg is the singer at Peter’s bar, not Lois.

Cultural references

★ Pawtucket Ale and its mascot, Pawtucket Pat, are a take off on Samuel Adams. a popular brand of beer in New England, and recently elsewhere.

★ The opening scene of a man eating “Mintos” before shooting another man at the theater parodies the candy, Mentos (its commercial, jingle, and the candy itself), and the assassination of American President Abraham Lincoln.

★ The show cut to after Peter complained about “shows running together” while he was under house arrest was ''Homicide: Life on Sesame Street'', a combination reference to '', a crime drama, and the famed children’s television show ''Sesame Street''.

★ Peter’s flashback about laundry depicts him falling into Narnia and meeting Mr. Tumnus (from C.S. Lewis’s ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe''), who is stealing socks.

★ The first song that Lois sings at Ye Old Pube is “You’ll Never Know.” Later she sings “Steam Heat” from ''The Pajama Game'', ''Don't Rain on My Parade'' from Funny Girl, and Al Jolson's ''You Made Me Love You''.

★ Stewie’s time travel device uses a "flux capacitor" like the DeLorean in ''Back to the Future''.

★ Peter says he’s like Tim Allen because he has a criminal record and builds stuff. The latter is a reference to ''Home Improvement''.

★ Stewie’s line “Shake me like a British nanny!” refers to Louise Woodward, a British nanny who was convicted of killing an eight month old baby by shaking him.

★ When one of Lois’ piano students makes an error, Stewie yells to him “E-flat, Salieri!” referring to a composer who was a rival of Mozart.

★ When Peter is under house arrest and running around in his house, the computer monitoring Peter reflects the popular game, Pong.

★ Peter has a vision of the Pawtucket Patriot from his beer bottle label and opens a bar in his basement, a nod to ''Field of Dreams''.

★ At one point Peter mistakes Leslie Uggams for Lola Falana.

References

★ Callaghan, Steve. “Mind Over Murder.” ''Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. 26–29.

★ Delarte, Alonso. “Nitpicking Family Guy: Season 1.” ''Bob’s Poetry Magazine'' March 2005: 10–12. http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs02Mr.pdf