Friends Without Benefits

"Friends Without Benefits" is the seventh episode of the eleventh season and the 195th overall episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on December 9, 2012, and is written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and directed by Jerry Langford. The episode focuses on Meg, who has become infatuated with a popular male student, only to find out he's in love with Chris.

Plot

While at the cafeteria with her friends Patty, Esther, and Ruth, at school, Meg confides her infatuation with a popular boy at school, Kent Lastname (Chris Cox). Esther suggests that she ask Kent out, yet Meg admits that she fears certain rejection.

Meanwhile, the next morning, Brian and Stewie read Meg's diary, which confirms her long-term obsession with the boy. As Meg walks down the street, daydreaming about Kent, she causes Mayor Adam West to drive into a tree. Mayor Adam West is alright as he had arrived at a nest when he traded jobs with a bird. She realizes that she cannot go on without Kent, and successfully asks him out. When he turns up at the Griffins' house, Kent shows himself to be particularly friendly to Chris. After the date, Meg tries to kiss him. Kent however had no idea that Meg thought they were on a date and then reveals to Meg that he is gay. To add insult to injury, he admits that he has feelings for her brother, Chris.

In a small side plot, Stewie mishears Kent mentioning Meg's "brother" and believes Kent is interested in himself rather than Chris. The next day, Meg is in tears, and Brian is not able to avoid her by keeping silent as Peter and Lois are, so he reluctantly listens to her story about Kent. Questioning him further, she admits to Brian that Kent has feelings for Chris. Brian suggests Kent may be confused about his sexuality.

As Kent pursues an oblivious Chris, Meg decides that if she cannot have Kent, then Chris being with him is the next best thing. She asks Chris to sleep with Kent, and when he refuses, she attempts to drug Chris into having sex with him. She tells Kent Chris is gay and to come to Chris' room, with Chris "pretending" to be asleep, as he is not open about his sexuality. After Chris shows Meg a photo he has been keeping of the two of them for years, she decides not to drug Chris and instead pours the drug into a plant which falls over and is subsequently raped by another plant. However, she forgets to tell Kent, and, later that night, Kent shows up at Chris' room expecting a submissive Chris, but instead discovers Chris is straight. Chris confronts Meg, now forced to reveal her plan. Both boys are extremely horrified and Kent, deeming Meg a complete psycho and wanting nothing to do with her, angrily leaves and a seductive Stewie is left angered, however he accidentally eats the drug after he mistakes it for candy and is raped by the plant as a result. Meg is unhappy and Brian talks to her about it, reassuring her that all it will take is one drunk man impregnating her and refusing to have an abortion, and she'll have trapped her mate for life. Stewie comes in stating that his bottom was affected by poison ivy not knowing he was raped.

Reception

The episode received a 2.9 rating and was watched by a total of 5.64 million people, this made it the second most watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating The Cleveland Show and Bob's Burgers but losing to The Simpsons with 7.44 million.^[1] The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, saying "Maybe it’s the high from 'The Simpsons' referencing this little web site tonight, or maybe it’s how great that episode of 'Bob’s Burgers' was—but the phrase of the night for the Fox animated lineup is 'a rising tide raises all ships.' Meg-centric episodes have been reliably disastrous in the post-revival seasons of 'Family Guy', and of last season’s crop, only 'Leggo My Meg-O' worked for me, and mostly because it devoted much of the time to Brian and Stewie. (The other two, 'Seahorse Seashell Party' and 'Quagmire and Meg' were complete misses.) But 'Friends Without Benefits' is the funniest Meg-centric episode in years, surrounding a typically cruel plot with some great cutaways, one-liners, and running gags, temporarily masking the long-standing problems with the show."^[2]

Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode two and a half stars out of five, saying "Maybe the series is making intentional strides towards occasionally being a disturbing display of the lack of humanity that can be seen from Quahog’s residents. But it often just falls flat because the show is generally so misanthropic that even more ‘serious’ affairs just come off as not being funny, rather than poignant in any way. There were some funny moments in this one, as collected on our Family Guy quotes page, but overall, the less said about it, the better."^[3]

References