Meet the Quagmires

"Meet the Quagmires"

"Meet the Quagmires" is a Season 5 finale episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy.

Plot summary

Peter, lamenting being attached while his single friends are able to enjoy "going wild", wishes to go back in time and enjoy being single again. Death, who came the Drunken Clam for what turned out to be a false alarm, grants Peter's wish by sending him back to 1984. Instead of going out on a date with 18-year-old Lois Pewterschmidt, Peter goes to the bar with Cleveland and has fun, and makes out with Molly Ringwald.

Returning to the present, Peter discovers that he's changed his past; he and Molly have been married for 20 years, and Lois was married to Quagmire. Peter asks Death to return him to the past so he can undo his mistake. While there, Peter keeps screwing up the critical moment and asking Death to restart it, until Death says he won't do it anymore. Peter and Brian (who's been sent into the past with Peter) sneak into the country club dance to prevent the kiss that caused Lois to fall in love with Quagmire. After Lois tells Peter that he'd had his chance and blown it, Peter almost gives up, but then punches out Quagmire and kisses Lois, showing her how much he loves her.

Afterwards, Peter comes back to 2007 to find that his life was now just the way it was originally — except that Roger from American Dad! now seems to be living with them.

The plot is based on the plot from Back to the Future Part II (1989) and elements of Back to the Future (1985), making it the fifth parody Family Guy has done of the trilogy to date.

Notes

• This episode adds to the story of Peter & Lois' courtship, as told in the episodes "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater" and "Death Lives."

• The Giant Chicken appears again in the past in this episode. It turns out Peter accidentally hit him in the '80s. Additionally, this was the fourth time he appeared in an episode, and first episode he's been in where he has not had a fight with Peter.

• Roger from American Dad appears near the end of this episode, asking if there are any more Pecan Sandies, which is a reference to the American Dad pilot episode where Roger gets mad at Francine for forgetting to pick up Pecan Sandies.

• This is the first episode of 2007 not to feature Herbert the Pedophile or to feature a subplot.

• A radio advertisement on May 20, 2007, for this episode played a clip in which Peter responded to Brian's theory, stating that it was "as ridiculous as the theory of evolution," but when it aired on FOX, the "ridiculous theory of evolution" was replaced with the "ridiculous theory of why Tom Cruise runs in all of his movies," which led to a clip of Tom Cruise running from a gay duplicate of himself who appeared in a thought bubble.

• This episode is also very similar to the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "Tapestry", in which Captain Picard is given the choice of returning to his past to alter a specific event. As with Peter's actions, Picard's changes ultimately unraveling his life (hence the title, 'Tapestry'), forcing him to once again travel to the past and recreate the original event.

• Many references are made to past Family Guy episodes. This episode states that in 1984, Peter worked as a towel boy for the Newport Country Club. This was first mentioned in the episode "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater." Also in this episode, Cleveland drives a van with Hot Chocolate written on the side. Cleveland is first seen driving this van in the episode "Death Lives."

Cultural references

• Quagmire references the entrance to Hogwarts (from Harry Potter) when telling the guys about the fourth hole that women allegedly have.

• Mike Wallace has been a new correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes since its debut.

• The time-travel effects are like those in the TV series Quantum Leap.

• Brian names three rock bands when he asks Lois if he could Wham his Oingo Boingo into her Velvet Underground.

• In "alternate 2007", Al Gore is President of the United States, and killed Osama bin Laden (who apparently was hiding in the cast of MADtv) with his bare hands. Dick Cheney shot Antonin Scalia, Tucker Carlson and Karl Rove in a hunting accident; and flying cars powered by vegetable oil have become commonplace. Also in "alternate 2007", Al Gore's universal health care has made people live longer and his "Zero Tolerance Gun Control" and "better, well-funded education" has rid the streets of crime. Meanwhile, Chevy Chase now hosts The Tonight Show rather than Jay Leno.

• The way Brian explains how they altered time features the same music and almost the exact dialogue from when Doc explained the same thing to Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II (1989).

• The Drunken Clam was called St. Elmo's Clam in 1984 (an obvious homage to the movie St. Elmo's Fire), although that movie did not come out until 1985.

• A poster of Sixteen Candles appears on the wall of Peter and Molly Ringwald's living room. Molly starred in the movie. Judd Nelson appears as a guy who sleeps at Peter and Molly's house once or twice a week. He stared in The Breakfast Club with Molly.

• Another reference to Back to the Future is during the dance. The entire scene is virtually parallel to the "Enchantment Under The Sea Dance" feature in BTTF, with Brian parodying Marty, Peter parodying George McFly, Lois parodying Lorraine Baines, and Quagmire parodying Dixon, a bully who cut in between George and Lorraine in BTTF. The picture that Brian holds of Chris, Meg, and Stewie, is also a direct parody of the picture of Marty and his brother and sister. The way Marvin calls his cousin Rick Astley and lets him listen to Brian's performance is also a parody of BTTF.

• The opening credits of The Jetsons is referenced in which George drops his family off at their designated places. When he pulls out money for Jane, his wife, and she instead grabs his wallet and drops out the ship, he pulls her back and tells her he pulled the single bill out for her. Later, Jane falls from the sky, prompting Death's return.

• When Brian mentions to Peter that simply killing a butterfly could change so much in the future, this is a reference to Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder (or the movie loosely based on it, The Butterfly Effect), where the same situation happened.

• In the arcade in 1984, Peter plays an arcade version of Menstrual Ms. Pac Man (a parody of Ms. Pac Man).

• When Peter is at the nightclub with Cleveland, he is dancing to the theme song from Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F. The song was Brian's ring tone in the Season 5 episode "Whistle While Your Wife Works." In addition, Cleveland is wearing the same clothes as Michael Jackson in Thriller.

• The scene with Lois wearing a black bikini and diving in the pool is an homage to a scene with Cindy Morgan in Caddyshack

• The scene in which Brian and Peter are crawling through the airduct and Peter says, "Now I know what a TV dinner feels like," is a direct reference to the movie Die Hard.

• The song that Brian sings during the dance is Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". The scene suggests Brian inspired the song that would come out in 1987, similar to Marty McFly inspiring "Johnny B. Goode."

• The changes in both people and scenery is like the movie The Butterfly Effect

Goofs

• Brian is shown playing the guitar with the band near the end of the episode, but when he takes his hands off the guitar to look at the photograph, guitar music is still heard playing.

• Towards the end, where Peter punches Quagmire, Quagmire falls to the ground. When Lois and Peter are dancing, Quagmire has disappeared