Stew-Roids

"Stew-Roids"

"Stew-Roids" is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season of Family Guy. The episode aired on April 26, 2009 on FOX, and on June 28th 2009 on BBC Three, which was supposed to air "420", but was skipped for there being a Joke about Michael Jackson. The singer died on June 25 and the episode yet to be aired.

Plot

During a backyard party at the Swansons' house, Joe's baby daughter Susie takes a Barbie doll from Stewie, and beats him up when he attempts to get it back. Ashamed by the fact that his own son got beat up by a girl, Peter takes Stewie to the gym to teach him how to be a man. A man at the gym gives Peter some steroids to help Stewie, which Peter gladly accepts due to his tendency to "believe everything everyone says everywhere," and Stewie becomes incredibly strong and muscular as a result. But instead of actually using his new found strength to his advantages, he begins acting like a stereotypical macho man and begins bossing Brian around until the steroids wear off, making his skin incredibly loose and flabby. Stewie jumps out of his bedroom window to avoid Brian's wrath, his loosened skin inadvertently allowing him to glide to safety.

Meanwhile, Connie D'Amico, the most popular girl at school, has hooked up and broken up with every popular boy in school. She goes out with Chris with the intention of making him popular before breaking up with him. However, when they go out, Chris honestly falls in love with Connie, something no other boy has done with her. Connie decides to stay with Chris, but his newfound popularity goes to his head and he starts cheating on her. Heartbroken and unpopular, Connie turns to Meg, who Chris had not invited to a party at their own house, for revenge. Meg at first refuses, citing the many times Connie and her friends made fun of her and showing the self-inflicted cut wounds on her arm as proof, but changes her mind when Chris hurls a spear into her arm. With Neil Goldman's help, they publicly show a video of Chris dancing naked with lipstick, a silk cape, and his penis tucked between his legs, destroying his popularity (and parodying a scene in The Silence of the Lambs). Chris makes up for his behavior to Meg by vividly describing how wonderful it felt to be popular. The episode ends with Stewie saying, "I flew today."

Then Stewie starts to fuck Lowies in her pussy.

Reception

This episode received a 4.0/6 Nielsen Rating. 6.80 million viewers tuned in to watch the episode. Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode a score of 8.2 out of 10, calling Chris's storyline "engaging from start to finish" and praising Stewie's temporary build as a "hysterical visual," but criticizing the staleness of Meg's continued poor treatment and the overall condensed feel of Stewie's story.

Cultural References

The episode includes a number of cultural references, including the 1980s version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, a reverse version of She's All That with Connie turning Chris from a loser to a popular guy, Johnson & Johnson's "No more tears" slogan, the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, and the previously mentioned reference to Silence of the Lambs. Spike TV was also parodied. During the scene where Chris is at the party with his new found popular friends, a reference to The Goonies is made when Peter holds up a pirate coin and points out that Chris, Connie, and another party attender lead to "One Eyed Willie's treasure".

Notes

• This episode reveals that Kevin Swanson, Joe's son, died in Iraq, explaining his sudden disappearance from the show (also, in the DVD commentary for Peter's Two Dads, the creator Seth MacFarlane said that he was a very boring character).
• This episode also digs deeper into Meg Griffin's "infatuation" with Connie D'Amico asking her if she could think about her while she was in the tub after confirming that there was no chance of them being friends. This behavior coincidentally mirrors Neil's same question to her as a reward for setting up Chris. To this, Connie answered "No, You can't." to which Meg replied "I'm still gonna." when Connie was out of sight.
• The Silence of the Lambs parody is also a subtle callback to Seth Green's audition for Chris, in which he imitated Buffalo Bill to get Chris' voice.