In which Stan and Francine get heated…

The Stan/Francine marriage dynamic is one that feels well explored because it’s one that has been done on American Dad’s contemporaries, such as The Simpsons and Family Guy. However, often times they’ll throw a curve because Francine is often the more wild one of the two. She is often willing to go outside her comfort zone.

Stan and Francine are enjoying a nice walk in Langley when Stan sees the fire station is having an open house. He rushes to it because he always dreamed of being a firefighter. He is generally obnoxious of course and rude to the kids enjoying the fire station. But he forgets to buy a raffle ticket to the “be a firefighter” contest. He’s shock when Francine wins, who doesn’t even care about it. Stan is at first elated but becomes dejected when he realizes he’s just the guy who drives the truck to Trader Joe’s.

When Francine sees Stan at Trader Joe’s, she decides to help build his confidence by starting a fire. Stan puts it out but Francine discovers she’s entranced by the fire and decides to start setting fires all over town. Stan becomes the investigator and discovers some clues but still decides to step down. However, he discovers that Francine is behind it. He and the other firefighters rush to the fire station because they believe that’s her next target. However, Stan realizes that the dumpster factory is actually her target. That’s because that’s where she and Stan had their wedding after their original venue bumped them for Ray Romano.

Stan apologizes to Francine and they escape the fire, but not before Stan is horribly burned by the fire.

Over in the B-Plot Roger becomes a knife thrower. He puts on a show in the attic which does not go well. He tries again, with Steve as a reluctant assistant. Roger succeeds this time and encourages the audience to throws knives at him in celebration. This ends with Roger being severely injured.

Stray Observations

• Francine calls pyromaniacs “Friends of the Flame” or “Firef*ckers”
• One of the houses that’s set on fire is the Griffin house.
• Reginald the Koala shows up after a long absence but has nothing to do or say
• Various callbacks in the barn scene include the painting of Francine’s genitals, falling down a well as a child, when she becomes a bodybuilder.

Thoughts: Decent episode, all little haphazard how they tied it all together at the end. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of the Stan/Francine dynamic. The Roger B-plot was good for some laughs as well.