Sibling Rivalry (Family Guy)

Plot

After a false alarm pregnancy scare, Peter Griffin reluctantly agrees to a vasectomy. Worried he might want more kids later, he decides to store some sperm beforehand. At the sperm bank, he accidentally ruins every sample on site and swaps them with his own. A lesbian couple later uses one of his samples to have a child, a boy named Bertram who makes his debut in the episode "Emission Impossible." Bertram immediately challenges Stewie for control of the playground. The two face off using F-117 Nighthawks and AH-1 Cobra helicopters, exchanging heavy gunfire. The aerial battle ends in a draw, so Bertram switches to biological warfare. He uses Stewie’s new girlfriend to give Stewie chickenpox. Once Stewie recovers, he furiously confronts Bertram for a sword fight in the play area. Stewie wins by disarming him. That night, Stewie is seen digging a hole with Christopher Moltisanti, but it turns out to be for a young tree. When Christopher asks what happened to Bertram, Stewie says Bertram admitted defeat and ran away, prompting Christopher to call Bertram a mook.

Meanwhile, Peter’s sex drive vanishes after the vasectomy, frustrating Lois, who turns to food for comfort. When Peter mocks her slight weight gain, she deliberately packs on more pounds out of spite. Her growing appetite makes her obese, which ironically reignites their sex life. Peter starts feeding Lois huge amounts of food to make her even larger. Eventually, Lois’s heart fails during sex, and she is rushed to the hospital. Doctors remove all the excess fat, returning her to her normal size. Lois admits that eating isn’t a good way to solve problems, and Peter says he loves her no matter her size. However, he is later caught kissing the removed fat in a storage closet.

Production

The song that plays after Lois discovers her pregnancy test is negative was co-written by Alec Sulkin and Alex Borstein, with professional studio singers providing the vocals. Walter Murphy handled the orchestrations, which Seth MacFarlane praised as "wonderful." A cutaway gag where Peter bets Lois he can beat her in a race to Boston was trimmed from the broadcast to shorten the episode. During the slow-motion race, a Shania Twain song plays on the car radio; Dan Povenmire noted on the DVD commentary that he often catches flak for adding brief, expensive music cues. The episode’s reference to Scrat from the Ice Age films came about through an agreement between the producers of both franchises. The writing team debated whether to include Bertram, a character who hadn’t appeared in years. One unused scene had Stewie searching for Waldo in an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog and telling Brian, "Oh, turn to the next page. I bet they put him in someone's utility pocket," but it was cut because it wasn’t considered funny enough. Originally, Peter’s prison performance of "Milkshake" was meant to be done naked, with him pushing his nipples from underneath; broadcast standards forced a change, so he instead wore underpants and pushed his nipples from the side. Another cut gag involved Lois, left alone at a restaurant after Peter goes to "warn the chef of Lois' arrival," saying, "If he won't put something in me, I will," but this line never aired.

Cultural references

In a children's park, Stewie calls out, "Did ya get me my Cheez Whiz, boy," and a stranger tosses him a can, nodding to The Blues Brothers. Later, Stewie and Brian search an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue for diversity, spoofing both the Where's Wally? books and a real lawsuit over the company's hiring practices. Right before his showdown with Bertram, Stewie commands, "On my signal, unleash hell," echoing the opening of Gladiator. Five days before Ice Age: The Meltdown hit theaters, Scrat from those films tries to snatch Peter's nuts. When Stewie raids Bertram's camp, Bertram channels Darth Vader from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, sensing his enemy like Vader sensed Obi-Wan. Peter, naming his children, lists kids from Nick at Nite shows; Brian points this out, so Peter switches to Street Fighter characters. Brian calls him on it again, and Peter just rattles off colors. The Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings appears, searching for a lost contact lens. A cutaway shows Peter in jail, where inmates make him strip, squeeze his chest, and sing the chorus of Kelis's "Milkshake," possibly mimicking a post-credits scene from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story with Ben Stiller. After Bertram loses, the scene shifts to Stewie and Christopher Moltisanti from The Sopranos digging a hole. It seems meant for Bertram, but they're actually planting a tree. Stewie says Bertram admitted defeat and ran off, and Christopher calls Bertram a "mook."

Reception

The episode drew 7.95 million viewers, ranking 77th for the week. Bob Sassone of TV Squad praised one element, saying he was glad he watched because he learned how a vasectomy is performed. He described a scene where Peter, planning to freeze his sperm before the procedure, knocks over a shelf of samples and must refill them himself, calling it both hilarious and disgusting. In contrast, Geoffrey D. Roberts of Real Talk Reviews gave a negative assessment, predicting disappointment over the sibling rivalry plot between Stewie and his half-brother Bertram. He noted both characters aim to rule the universe, but found Bertram simply a whinier version of Stewie, concluding that one Stewie Griffin is already too much.