Herpe the Love Sore

"Herpe the Love Sore" is the sixteenth episode of the twelfth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the 226th episode overall. It aired on Fox in the United States on April 6, 2014, and is written by Andrew Goldberg and directed by Greg Colton.^[1] In the episode, Brian gives Stewie herpes. Meanwhile, Peter and his friends fight to rescue their favorite booth in the Clam after she is captured by another group of men.

Plot

Peter gets a package at his door addressed to Quagmire. Lois tries to tell him to take it next door, but he opens it to find a whip inside. Though it rightfully belonged to Quagmire, he fools around with it in various ways, like trying to whip a cigarette in Meg's mouth, whipping it to Devo's "Whip It", and visiting Cleveland's house with it after Cleveland receives a heads up text from Joe, warning him about it.

Upon arrival at the Drunken Clam, Peter, Quagmire, and Joe discover that a group of tough looking guys are sitting at their booth. When attempting to reclaim her with one of the tough men knocking down the stuff from Quagmire's mail that Peter had in his possession, the tough guys order them to go away causing them to leave sheepishly. This forces Peter, Quagmire, and Joe to sit at the bar making them uncomfortable where they are unable to see the television correctly. Word of their submission to the tough guys somehow gets out to all of Quahog. A male aircrew member refuses to follow Quagmire's orders and prefers to take orders from the co-pilot. Bonnie will not have sex with Joe causing him to call his male nurse Elton to carry him to the couch in the matter of An Officer and a Gentleman as he puts on a naval officer's cap in a role reversal. Chris usurps Peter's position as the man of the house and has the entire family sit in Papasan Chairs.

Meanwhile, after watching the film The Outlaw Josey Wales where the characters become blood brothers (after watching a scene where Clint Eastwood swaps blood with an Indian chief), Stewie pressures a hesitant Brian about becoming blood brothers themselves. The next morning, Stewie discovers that he has herpes. When confronting Brian about this, Brian reveals that he has had herpes all along under his fur and knew about it when he and Stewie became blood brothers, but is indifferent about the situation. Stewie tries to hide his herpes at school with a fake beard, but when his teacher removes the beard, the classroom freaks out and runs away from him, making Stewie mopy and depressed. While Stewie is watching the TV show Bryan Cranston Sneezes, Chris comes to him and reveals that he and Brian too have become blood brothers and has gotten herpes from him and Brian has also concealed it from him. Chris and Stewie then plot their revenge. The duo ruin a date Brian is on by informing his date named Jenna of his herpes. Jenna leaves as Brian tells them that her father is rich as they see Jenna take off in a golden rocket.

When Lois catches news of this as Peter begins acting wimpy around Meg who is not doing what Peter tells her to do, she demands that Peter and his friends stand up to the brutes. Quagmire is at first reluctant to tag along, but eventually goes along when Peter and Joe arrive to rescue their booth. After a brutal fight, the brutes once again demand they leave. Peter refuses to give up and goes into a tirade about life events that went on while sitting at his booth like his children being conceived in the booth, when he was in the booth when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, when he was in the booth when 9/11 happened, and was in the booth when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. The brutes reveal that they are soldiers who are only visiting Quahog and will be deployed to Afghanistan, which earns them applause from the Drunken Clam's patrons where Seamus uses Mort's head to salute them. Peter, Quagmire, and Joe are put down once again as Mayor Adam West declares this day in honor of the three soldiers and not Peter, Quagmire, and Joe. After the crowd leaves with the soldiers, Peter complains about having to root for Afghanistan now.

After Chris and Stewie hack Brian's Facebook account, Brian demands that the duo cease. After giving Chris permission to drive his Prius where Chris goes beyond the block, Stewie states that Chris' room is now empty. Stewie also tells Brian that he feels betrayed by him when the dog did not reveal the herpes before they became blood brothers. This prompts Brian to apologize for lying, because he was self-conscious about the herpes and Stewie forgives him. Although Stewie is going to live with the herpes for the rest of his life, Brian tells him that it would only be bad during stressful times. A cutaway shows a future Stewie at a job interview, having chronic herpes on his face.

Reception

Eric Thurm of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C- saying "Throughout these reviews, I’ve often noted (probably excessively) that for a while now, the best part of Family Guy has been the relationship between Stewie and Brian. This is probably not a very controversial opinion, much as a lot of things about the show have attempted to stir the pot in the past few weeks and years. Tonight, Family Guy leans hard on the Brian-Stewie relationship and silly, unnecessarily “shocking” sources of comedy as Brian gives Stewie herpes, something that manages to be a totally run-of-the-mill, boring installment of the show."^[2]

The episode received a 2.3 rating in the 18–49 years old demographic and was watched by a total of 4.77 million people. This made it the most watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating American Dad!, Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons.^[3]

References