“In which Stan’s ‘Imaginary Friend’ comes to collect a debt”

When Stan selfishly runs out alone again, Francine is left alone in the house until a mysterious stranger, Hank Henderson, barges his way in, demanding to speak to Jack Smith. After he finds out Jack is dead, he reveals that Jack promised to pay him to pretend to be Stan’s imaginary friend which of course he never got paid. Instead of getting rid of him, Francine pays him to pretend to be Stan’s imaginary friend again so that he’ll start treating her right. Things start out fine but soon Francine can’t get rid of him because he threatens to expose her lie to Stan.

Francine eventually convinces Stan to get rid of him. Stan takes that quite literally and tosses Henderson out of a plane where lands on Francine’s car. This causes Francine to have a crisis feeling that she was responsible for his death. However, with help from CIA agent/softball coach Coach Cathy, Francine realizes that she couldn’t have predicted his death. Of course, once Stan gets home, it’s revealed that Coach Cathy is a figment of Francine’s imagination.

Meanwhile, Klaus thinks he has a shot with Danuta again after her boyfriend gets killed. He feels needs a new bowl to impress her. Not being impressed with the store bowls and upon discovering that Jeff is a glass blower, he demands Jeff make him a new one to impress Danuta. Klaus’ demand for perfection causes him to show up to his date in a bowl which is boiling hot. He passes out, imagining that he melts through the core of the earth. Upon waking up in the restaurant, Jeff reveals that Danuta broke her jaw on the burger she ordered.

Stray Obervations

• “Jeff, you could blow me…” Haley:*snicker* “…a new fish bowl”
• “Danuta, come to the center of the Earth with me!”
• This one felt kind of like “Naked to the Limit” in terms of pretending real people are imaginary friends.
• Very light on Steve and Roger, where Roger probably could have escalated the imaginary friend situation, given his prior experience (as noted)

Thoughts: This one was fine. I liked the Klaus/Danuta stuff and the final Coach Kathy reveal was funny. But I think the main plot was not crazy enough. Henderson was just kind of there; he didn’t really do anything.