Summary
“Who’s Brian Now?” finds Brian disillusioned with the Griffins after he discovers he may have a more hoity-toity literary history.
This recap of Family Guy season 19, episode 16, “Who’s Brian Now?”, contains spoilers.
You can’t choose your family, so the saying goes, but that’s not strictly true for Brian Griffin. “Who’s Brian Now?”, the latest episode of Family Guy, forces him to confront this dilemma after he discovers he’s microchipped to another family with the kind of intellect and expansive library that Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, and Stewie could only dream of. But is having copies of 1984 and Pride and Prejudice really that important?
Family Guy season 19, episode 16 fronts as a Peter-centric episode for a while. It opens with Peter discovering his barber has passed away and having a breakdown about who’s going to cut his hair henceforth, a storyline that The Big Bang Theory already did. Nevertheless, he agrees to a new barber and the next morning he reveals long, luscious, somehow sentient locks, which completely alter his personality and lifestyle. He tries to bid on a container, and then he moves out to a secluded cabin by a still so that he can brew moonshine, which is where “Who’s Brian Now?” pivots.
After getting drunk on Peter’s moonshine and wandering into the woods when the police arrive, Brian passes out watching Alex Jones videos and wakes up in the pound, where he’s told that his microchip — which he didn’t know he had — is registered with his original family, the Hendersons. He goes to see them and they’re the kind of cultured boffins he probably sees himself as, which makes life at home with the Griffins somewhat difficult. Frustrated with their stupidity, he leaves and moves in with the Hendersons, who want to call him Ishmael and make him eat from a bowl.
It’s obvious where this is going and Family Guy season 19, episode 16 holds few surprises. But it has its share of decent gags and doesn’t feel hampered by trying to be too edgy or work around too high-concept a premise. Eventually, having had enough, Peter breaks into the Hendersons’ house and roundhouse kicks them both in the face Road House style, which does land him in court, but he’s found innocent by a jury of Patrick Swayzes. Now that’s justice.
