Passenger Fatty-Seven

"Passenger Fatty-Seven" is the tenth episode of the fifteenth season of the animated sitcom Family Guy, and the 279th episode overall. It aired on Fox in the United States on January 8, 2017, and is written by Alex Carter and directed by Greg Colton. The story follows Quagmire flying his friends to San Francisco, and as they go home, they are soon ambushed by a group of terrorists hijacking their plane, causing Quagmire to perform his pilot skills to the test.

This episode was dedicated in memory of cast member Carrie Fisher, who died on December 27, 2016 after going into cardiac arrest while on a flight to Los Angeles on December 23, 2016. A slide showing her picture with the words "In Loving Memory" on top and "Carrie Fisher 1956–2016" below was shown before the start of the episode.

Plot

At the Drunken Clam, Glenn Quagmire meets with Peter Griffin, Cleveland Brown and Joe Swanson and tells them that he can get a discount for friends and family and bring them along on a trip, so they plan on going to San Francisco. They steal a cab meant for Lois who was originally going to a timeshare hosted by Donna Tubbs' sister Janet with Donna and Bonnie Swanson. As Peter unknowingly grabbed Lois's suitcase, Lois finds a sex doll resembling her in the suitcase as Lois commented that Peter was "bringing her" in the suitcase. When they arrive in San Francisco, they do random stuff like riding Segways and getting 'lesbian' haircuts while checking out the sights and Peter even sits on Stephen Curry's lap.

When the trip ends, Quagmire gives them a tour of the plane where they soon accuse Quagmire of goofing off while the plane was on autopilot which he claims to use while taking breaks. Quagmire takes offense to that and kicks them out of the cockpit. While flying, the plane gets hijacked by terrorists from an unidentified Eastern European country who jam the frequency. The terrorists explain that they are going to punish America for supporting the other side of the unidentified Eastern European country in the civil war (implied it is Ukraine and the civil war is likely the War in Donbass). This hijacking is covered on the news by Tom Tucker and is watched by the Griffins, the Swansons, the Browns and Ida Quagmire.

Quagmire refuses to allow the terrorists entry to the cockpit, even when Peter is threatened at gun point. Joe and Cleveland decide to take matters into their own hands by going down to the cargo hold and retrieve a gun from Joe's bag. One of the terrorists discovers this and heads down to the basement with Peter as a human shield. Joe opens the landing gear, but Peter gets caught with the terrorist and they have a fight on the landing gear. Just as the two are about to make peace, Cleveland manages to hit the terrorist off as he falls to the river below.

When the trio go back up and knock out the remaining terrorists, they are hailed as heroes. When Quagmire comes out to congratulate them and informs everyone that the plane will land in Nevada, an additional terrorist posing as a businessman hijacks the plane where he plans to crash it into Las Vegas. Before the plan is carried out, Quagmire uses a barrel roll to subdue the terrorist. Unfortunately, Quagmire got angry at the passengers for not following the "Please Fasten Seatbelt" light that was turned on. "Oh come on doesn't anyone pay attention to the sign?". However, fighter jets appear unaware that the hijackers have been taken care of. The plane is shot in its right wing, but a determined Quagmire manages to land the plane in a large lake and keep everyone safe.

As the passengers are tended to and the remaining terrorists are arrested by the FBI, Peter, Cleveland, and Joe thank Quagmire for saving them and apologize for judging his flight actions. Just then, a military plane comes with the guys' respective families to reunite with them. Peter and Chris have a chat about some of the charges Chris found on Peter's card from their time in San Francisco and suggest he keeps some of his purchases private. When the different families plan to head back to Quahog and put this entire thing behind them, Peter breaks the fourth wall and claims to the audience "Oh, yeah, in case we didn't say, this was Spirit Airlines."

Cultural references

When first mentioning San Francisco, Peter mentions that it is the city in the films Milk and And the Band Played On. In San Francisco, after Peter and his friends get lesbian haircuts, the song "Come to My Window" by Melissa Etheridge plays. Under the Tuscan Sun is the in-flight movie when they return to Quahog. In the cockpit, Quagmire has a 10,000-piece Lego Hogwarts he has put together while the plane is on autopilot. Joe breaks Quagmire's miniature Dumbledore, whom he calls Gandalf.

Peter mentions his remake of Inside Out, which stars Chris as Joy, Meg as Sadness, Stewie as Anger, Lois as Disgust and Peter as Poo. After the plane has been hijacked, Peter asks the mom behind him – who told him to stop watching Game of Thrones on his laptop – if he is still the worst person on the plane. Joe says, "Get off my plane!" in a reference to the film Air Force One. Lois imagines their lives if Peter, Quagmire, Joe and Cleveland don't come back, and envisions herself, Bonnie, Donna and Ida as The Golden Girls while the theme song, "Thank You for Being a Friend," plays.

The episode's title is a play on the film Passenger 57.

Reception

The episode received an audience of 4.00 million viewers, an increase from the previous episode,^[1] and making it the third most-watched show of the night, behind Son of Zorn and The Simpsons.^[2]

Jake Beamer of Bubbleblabber gave the episode a 9/10.^[3]

References

External links

• "Passenger Fatty-Seven" on IMDb
• "Passenger Fatty-Seven" at TV.com