It's a Trap!

"It's a Trap!"

"It's a Trap!" is an hour-long episode of the Fox animated series Family Guy, and the sequel episode to the Star Wars parodies "Blue Harvest" and "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", which all make up the series Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy.

The episode was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and David A. Goodman and directed by Peter Shin. It retells the story of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as "Blue Harvest" did with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and "Something, Something, Something Dark Side" did with Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, recasting characters from Family Guy into roles from the film. The release of this film completes the parody remakes of the original Star Wars trilogy.

Plot

After a power outage, Peter sighs as the Griffin family reluctantly ready themselves for the story of Return of the Jedi. Rather than set up the plot, the opening Star Wars crawl expresses creator Seth MacFarlane's distaste for the studio insisting he conclude the trilogy. MacFarlane's text continues with the disclaimer that this third installment is not as funny as the previous episodes.

Darth Vader (Stewie Griffin) arrives on the new, partially constructed Death Star complaining that his flight had to make a stopover in Atlanta. Imperial Officer Moff (Roger from American Dad) informs him that the new Death Star no longer has the design flaws of the first Death Star except for an exposed energy core that could destroy the entire space station if fired upon. Vader warns Moff that they should fix that problem before the Emperor (Carter Pewterschmidt) arrives for a visit.

Meanwhile, R2-D2 (Cleveland Brown) and C-3PO (Glenn Quagmire) visits Jabba the Hut's (Joe Swanson) palace in order to initiate a plan to save Han Solo (Peter Griffin) who was captured and frozen in carbonite. After a brief round of double dutch, the two droids sneak into the palace by convincing the door guard (Consuela the housekeeper) into abandoning her post in order to look for Jabba's escaped cat. They approach Jabba and play a message from Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin). Luke requests Han's release, and in exchange Luke will allow Jabba to keep the two droids. Knowing Jabba would deny Luke's request, but still keep the droids, Princess Leia (Lois Griffin) continues with the original plan by sneaking into the palace disguised as a bounty hunter. She unfreezes Han but is quickly captured, outfitted provocatively, and shackled by Jabba's side. Han is thrown into a prison cell with Chewbacca (Brian Griffin).

Luke arrives at the palace and attempts to bargain for the release of his friends. Jabba opens a trap door and Luke falls into a pit where he must battle a rancor beast (Rush Limbaugh). Luke kills the rancor by collapsing an iron gate on its head. Despite Luke's victory, Jabba orders Luke and his friends to be dropped into a pit and eaten by the Sarlaac monster (Meg Griffin). During the execution ceremony, Luke gives Jabba one last chance to release him and his friends. When Jabba refuses, Luke initiates an assault on Jabba's crew with the help of Lando (Mort Goldman), disguised as one of Jabba's henchmen. Many of Jabba's men are knocked into the Sarlaac including Boba Fett (Giant Chicken), the bounty hunter that originally captured Han. Distracted by the carnage, Leia chokes Jabba using her slave chains while her fellow rebels commandeer a transport ship. Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, R2 and 3PO all fly to safety. Luke and R2 then fly to Dagobah to meet with Yoda (Carl the convenience store clerk) while the others rejoin the rebel fleet.

Luke wishes to complete the Jedi training, but a dying Yoda explains the final part of training is to face Vader. In his dying words, Yoda reveals that Luke has a sibling. The spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert the Pervert) appears to Luke and further explains that his sibling is Princess Leia.

The rebels begin planning an assault on the new Death Star. Admiral Ackbar (Klaus from American Dad) explains that the plan will be the same as the last time they destroyed the Death Star, except now they must first destroy a shield generator located on the forest moon of Endor. Back on the Death Star, the Emperor has just arrived. Vader informs him that he suspects the rebels are about to attack. The Emperor is aware of this attack and claims it is part of his plan to turn Luke to the Dark Side.

In order to land on the forest moon, Han uses a stolen Imperial ship and old access code to sneak past the Empire's blockade. Vader allows them passage onto the moon, knowing Luke is aboard the ship. When they reach the moon's surface, the rebels are spotted by Imperial soldiers. The soldiers attempt to retreat to warn others of the rebel attack, but Luke and Leia stop them in an elaborate bicycle chase sequence. Separated from the others, Leia is befriended by an Ewok (Tim from The Cleveland Show).

Luke, Han, Chewie and the droids fall into an Ewok trap while searching for Leia. They are captured and brought to the village where Leia is being housed. The Ewoks believe C3PO is a god and begin to worship him. Luke tells Leia they are siblings, but Leia claims to have already known that.

Following Yoda's advice, Luke willfully meets with Vader. Vader tries to convince Luke to turn to the Dark Side. Luke refuses but is delighted to find out they are having tacos for dinner. The two meet with the Emperor where he reveals that Luke's friends are walking into a trap on the forest moon. When this revelation fails to anger Luke, the Emperor begins mocking actor Seth Green, also known as the voice of Chris Griffin. Luke becomes enraged and begins dueling with Vader.

Back on the forest moon, Han leads the rebels to the shield generator but are ambushed. The Ewoks help the rebels escape from the Imperial troops and destroy the shield generator. Meanwhile, Lando leads the attack on the Death Star.

Luke finally subdues Vader after much antagonizing. But Luke refuses to execute him and join the Dark Side at the Emperor's request. The Emperor incapacitates Luke with his powerful Force Lightning. Because Luke asks Vader politely for help, Vader gathers his strength and kills the distracted Emperor. Vader and Luke flee the Death Star before Lando and his crew blow it up. While escaping, Luke accidentally breaks Vader's neck while trying to remove his helmet.

Everyone rendezvous back at the Ewok village to celebrate the rebels victory over the Galactic Empire. While the Ewoks kill the wounded Imperials, Vader's spirit accuses Luke of murdering him.

The Griffin's power comes back on just as Peter concludes the story. The family then bickers when Chris presents the opinion that Seth MacFarlane is overrated.

Cultural references

• A child gets his tongue stuck to Han's (Peter's) buttocks while he's frozen in carbonite as a result of triple-dog dare by Jabba. This is a reference to A Christmas Story.
• Leia (Lois) briefly talks about incest to Luke (Chris) and then introduces to a Conway Twitty performance, a la Hee Haw, as "Darth Twitty". A live-action footage of Twitty is shown for a couple seconds with the Darth Vader helmet superimposed onto his head.
• A laugh track plays when Jabba the Hutt (Joe) speaks gibberish with the subtitles of him saying "Joey Buttafuoco's pants". This is similar to a line from How I Met Your Mother, when Barney Stinson said he disliked Buttafuoco's pants he wore in 2005. It is also a reference to Top 10 from The Late Show with David Letterman.
• Jabba the Hutt's lines includes Mila Kunis, and the chorus of Lady Marmalade.
• Pee-wee Herman loses his bike in the forest chase scene and later retrieves his bike back, referencing the plot of the movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure
• Darth Vader (Stewie) and Darth Sidious (Carter) provoke Luke by criticizing actor Seth Green and his career. Green is the voice actor for Chris Griffin, who plays Luke in this episode. In a similar fashion, Seth MacFarlane is criticized by Chris, Lois and Meg at the end of the episode while Peter, Stewie and Brian (all voiced by MacFarlane) praise him.
• Footage of Judge Smails from Caddyshack is used after a lengthy gag before Han (Peter), Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewbecca escaped.
• C-3PO (Quagmire) comically recites the lyrics from the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for the Ewoks.
• After R2-D2 (Cleveland) cuts the net that the Ewoks set up as a trap, C-3P0 states that the Ewoks think of him as a god. Han then states that he is Sum 41 and begins to sing "All The Small Things" by Blink-182. Luke points out to Han that he's singing a different band's song, and that Sum 41 are the band that "married" Avril Lavigne, with Han replying that it would have sucked either way.
• During the assault on the Death Star, Lando (Mort Goldman) calls upon the USS Enterprise for help with the approaching fighters. Captain Jean-Luc Picard refuses the request as he and his crew are having afternoon tea.
• When Darth Sidious (Carter) fire the Death Star 2 for the first time, the laser killed Will Robinson who was with Dr. Smith and the Robot from Lost in Space.
• An Ewok tells Leia that he can smell that she is about to start her period in a reference to Anchorman (Bears can smell menstruation)
• During the Battle of Endor, one of the crew in the cockpit of an AT-ST is seen singing along with Ray Charles' song Mess Around while smoking and playing air instruments. The likeness of the character singing the song is of actor John Candy, who's character, Del Griffith, acts and performs the very similar scene in John Hughes' 1987 film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Background

It was announced in March 2009 that the cast of the show had read through an early draft of the script under the working title, "Episode VI: The Great Muppet Caper". The second working title, "We Have a Bad Feeling About This," was a reference to the recurring catchphrase that is used in the Star Wars films. The settled-upon title is a reference to the line by Admiral Ackbar in the film, which became an Internet meme.

In addition to the Family Guy characters, the episode will also feature Roger and Klaus from American Dad! as an Imperial officer and Admiral Ackbar and the bears from The Cleveland Show as the Ewoks. A recent trailer for the episode reveals that Rallo, also from The Cleveland Show, will appear as Nien Nunb. Series creator Seth MacFarlane has confirmed that Meg will portray the Sarlacc, and Joe will portray Jabba.

The episode features voice cameos from Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn reprising their roles of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Lieutenant Commander Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Adam West, Carrie Fisher and Rush Limbaugh as the Rancor.

Production

The episode was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and David A. Goodman and directed by Peter Shin, in his first episode since the fourth season. A preview of the reading of the episode can be seen on the "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" DVD extras.

BD/DVD release

Both the BD and DVD versions, titled Family Guy Presents: It's a Trap!, were released on region A and region 1, respectively, on December 21, 2010, Region 4, on December 22, 2010, and in Region 2 on December 27, 2010.

External links

• It's a Trap! at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode