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Context Recap / FamilyGuyS2E5LoveThyTrophy

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1'''Original air date:''' 3/14/2000 ''(produced in 1999)''
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3'''Production code:''' 1ACX-13
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5Peter and the neighbors fight over a trophy they won for a parade float. Meanwhile, Meg takes a job as a pancake house waitress to get a Prada bag by posing as a single teenage mother with a crack-addicted baby so she can get more tips from sympathetic diners.
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8!!Tropes included in "Love Thy Trophy" include:
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10* AbortedArc: As Meg considers getting a job at Flappy Jack's to buy a Prada bag herself, Stewie thinks about going into employment himself to finance his evil plans. This is never brought up again after Stewie develops a pancake addiction.
11* AppleOfDiscord:
12** Ownership for the trophy from the float contest drives a wedge between the residents of Spooner Street. In the end, it turns out Brian stole and buried it, sparking the whole plot.
13** Stewie attempts this on the foster kids by explaining how poorly their various countries of origin get along with each other, making them cry. When Peter comes in through the chimney claiming to be Santa Claus, they are all in disagreement about Santa's ethnicity, and start fighting.
14* BaitAndSwitch: Peter recalls the time Quagmire figured out how to get them free Cinemax. The cutaway starts out at the cable wires, but instead of splicing in, we see Peter, Quagmire, and Cleveland beating up the installer and demanding free cable.
15* BrickJoke: Joe remarking that he's the only one in the group that actually pays for cable. Later, Peter says the cable company found out what they did, and he accuses Joe of ratting them out.
16* CharacterisationClickMoment: According to a "making of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''" special on DVD, Creator/SethMacFarlane cites this episode as the one that solidified Quagmire's "heartless sex maniac" persona. More specifically, the scene where he sleeps with the social worker and, after she asked him what he does for a living, he asks her, "Why are you still here?"
17* ChimneyEntry: Peter is on a rescue mission to free Stewie from his foster parents. He enters their home through the chimney and causes a bit of a racket, disturbing Stewie's new foster siblings.
18* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
19** After Meg comes clean about her lies to being a teenage mother Peter is shocked at the fact that she's a teenager and Lois knew.
20** Stewie's foster parents thoroughly mistake his demands for pancakes as demanding for crack in slang.
21** The floats ahead of Team Spooner Street got the ''Who's the Boss'' suggestion wrong. One has Tony walking in on Mona instead of Angela. The next has Tony giving Jonathan a bath.
22--->'''Tom Tucker''': Well, that's just plain wrong.
23* ADayInTheLimelight: This is the first episode to give Meg a starring role, albeit in the B-plot.
24* DehumanizingInsult: The foster children say these to one another during a fight while Peter escapes with Stewie.
25* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: An agent steps in and takes Stewie away from his family after overhearing Meg milking sympathy from her customers for tips at waitressing with a fake story of being a single mom with Stewie as her crack baby. She ''did'' interview the neighbors but neglected to ''confirm'' Meg was actually the mother and the stories were true.
26* {{Determinator}}: Peter's compliment to Quagmire, that he never gives up trying to woo the ladies.
27* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the first appearance of Cleveland Jr. He's depicted as a skinny, hyperactive MotorMouth, which is the opposite of his depiction on ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''.
28* EmbarrassingAlibi: When Spooner Street discove that the trophy has been stolen, Peter is quick to be accused, but he has an alibi.
29-->'''Peter''': I couldn't have stolen it. Last night I was stealing Joe's ladder so I could steal the trophy tonight.\
30[[{{Beat}} (Everyone stares in disapproval)]]\
31'''Peter:''' What? It's a ladder. He can't use it. It's like taking a watch off a dead guy.
32* FawltyTowersPlot: Meg got hired at the diner because Flappy and his manager thought Stewie was her child. She proceeds to run with it to get the job and then milks it for tip money. She tells further lies (such as Stewie being addicted to crack) to get even more money, only for a woman from child services to later overhear all this and investigate the Griffin household. It gets worse when she interviews the neighbors, who are so mad about the missing trophy that they gladly lie about what kind of people Peter and Lois are.
33* FailedASpotCheck: While ransacking Quagmire's house, Peter's so busy looking for the trophy that he fails to notice all the pictures of his wife Lois that Quagmire has taped up on the closet door.
34* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: While trying to get a job as a waitress, the owners of Flappy's pancake house believe Meg to being an unwed teenage mother of Stewie, who unbeknownst to them is really her baby brother. Meg however, doesn't correct their mistake and confirms to them that he's her son (for her financial gain) causing Stewie to have a SpitTake upon hearing this.
35* GivingThemTheStrip: Played for laughs. When Peter tries to take Stewie back, the foster parents point a gun at him, and [[HumanShield he shields himself with Stewie]]. Stewie tells them, "Don't shoot!", then takes off his overalls, leaving them in Peter's hands. He then runs away and says, "Now shoot!".
36* GRatedDrug: Meg might have lied about Stewie being addicted to crack but he is seemingly addicted to the pancakes served at the diner she's working in. Complete with withdrawal like symptoms like fevers, chills and hallucinations.
37* {{Hypocrite}}: Brian chastises Peter and the others for letting a trophy come between their friendships. The ending reveals that he was the one who took the trophy and caused them to be at each other's throats.
38* HypocriticalHeartwarming: At the end of the episode, Peter offers a decidedly backhanded toast to his friends:
39-->'''Peter''': To our neighbors! They may be Black, crippled, and a heartless sex hound--but if they ever moved out, some ''smelly Hawaiians'' might move in.
40* InnocentInnuendo:
41--> '''Diane Simmons''': Welcome to the 83rd annual Quahog Harvest Festival Parade. Are you as excited as I am, Tom? \
42'''Tom Tucker''': Are you kidding, Diane? I've got wood!... (holds up a clipboard)and clipped onto it is a list of this year's float entries.
43* InstantTasteAddiction: Stewie becomes addicted to pancakes after a single taste while Meg lies by claiming him to be a crack-addicted baby who eats dog food, all to milk more money out of sympathetic customers to buy an expensive Prada bag. Later, when social services take control, they assume the "pancakes" he keeps clamoring for mean some kind of hard drug.
44* InstantlyProvenWrong: When officials from the DepartmentOfChildDisservices come to take Stewie away, Lois is enraged and wants to disprove the claims which is immediately torpedoed by Peter's action off-screen.
45-->'''Lois''': How dare you! This is a wonderful home!\
46''(cue a gunshot going off in the distance)''\
47'''Peter''' (shouting off-screen): Quagmire, you rat bastard! Come near my fence again, and that'll be your head!
48* JerkassBall: Meg gets this pretty hard, using Stewie as a faux crack-addict baby to try and get a Prada purse (though she does end up giving it up so Stewie can be returned).
49* KarmaHoudini: Brian stole and buried the trophy in the backyard and set off everyone being at each other's throats. No one finds out, Brian gets away with, and then he kills Rod Serling just before the end credits.
50* LampshadedTheObscureReference: The theme for the Quahog Harvest Festival Parade is "The episode of ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' where Tony sees Angela naked in the shower". Lois and Cleveland both think it's too esoteric.
51* LaserGuidedKarma: Downplayed. Meg lies and claims to be Stewie's mother, while also claiming him to be a crack-addicted baby who eats dog food, all to milk more money out of sympathetic customers and buy a $1100 Prada bag. In the end, she's forced to give the purse up so they can get Stewie back, but considering that she contributed toward tearing the family apart for her own selfish gain, it's safe to say that she got off easy.
52* LesserOfTwoEvils: When Peter breaks into the foster house, an overjoyed Stewie refers to him as this.
53* MistakenForGay: Part of the plan to get Stewie out of the foster home is for Joe and Cleveland to pretend to be selling books door-to-door. The husband is certain one of them is a homosexual, which Joe and Cleveland can only react to with a confused look to each other.
54* MustacheVandalism: When Peter breaks into Joe's house to look for the stolen trophy, he takes a moment to draw mustaches on a picture of Joe, Bonnie, and Kevin. Moments later, while in Cleveland's house, he draws mustaches on Loretta and Cleveland Jr., but pauses when he gets to Cleveland because he already has a mustache. [[InvertedTrope He decides to erase Cleveland's mustache instead.]]
55* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The neighbors are genuinely horrified when their MaliciousSlander about the Griffins gets Stewie taken away by social services. Lois and Peter are furious until they are reminded their petty rivalry over the trophy caused all this bad blood in the first place, pulling this trope on them in turn.
56* ThePowerOfFriendship: All friends contribute to the rescue of Stewie.
57* {{Pun}}: When Quagmire is hitting on a woman at a bar and asking her sign, he says, "Well I ''know'' you're not a Virgo!"
58* RansackedRoom: Peter ransacks the homes of his neighbors in search of the trophy, a fate that falls to his own house as well.
59* RussianRoulette: Peter suggests this in order to decide who gets the trophy, but gets the rules backwards.
60-->'''Peter:''' Three bullets, last guy standin' keeps the trophy. ''[puts gun to his head]'' Me first! No, no, no, no, wait a minute. This is crazy. ''[offers gun to Quagmire]'' '''''You''''' first.
61* ShaggyDogStory: Meg's whole storyline of getting her own Prada bag gets undone when it's traded to get Stewie back.
62* ShoutOut:
63** Creator/CharltonHeston says, [[Film/TheTenCommandments1956 "Let my pigeons go!"]]
64** The A-plot about formerly-close neighbors devolving into lies, petty squabbling, and outright violence over a small issue references ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', specifically the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "The Shelter." To further the parody, Creator/RodSerling appears twice to deliver his standard opening and closing narration, only to be interrupted both times (the first by the adults, and the second by Brian braining him with a shovel).
65** To Stewie's pancake addiction-related hallucinations ending with him screaming and seeing a Exorcist-head twisting baby from ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}''.
66* SickAndWrong: One of the entries for the parade float is Tony bathing Jonathan. Tom Tucker declares, "That's just plain wrong."
67* SkewedPriorities: Everyone of the neighbors would rather self-destruct their friendships and compete with each other over a little gold clam trophy than admit to their faults over their actions getting Stewie taken away by Child Services. Brian calls them out on it.
68** Meg would rather have an $1100 dollar Prada bag than to have her baby brother back safe and sound. Her financial greed and lies about being an unwed teen parent to a crack-addicted baby eventually gets Stewie taken by Child Services.
69* SpiesInAVan: The wives serve as MissionControl from a white van during Stewie's rescue.
70* StereotypeReactionGag: Each of the foster kids react to the other with this, causing a fight to break out between them.
71* StopBeingStereotypical: The foster kids try to define how Santa Claus looks based on their respective cultures and eventually turn racist insults on each other.
72* SuicideDare: Stewie in disgust to his new kind foster siblings.
73-->'''Stewie''': I've got a better idea. Let's go play "swallow the stuff under the sink."
74* TakeThat: Stewie claims to have spent his "munitions budget" on an insipid Rugrats VHS.
75* TeenPregnancy: People at Flappy's pancake house automatically believe Meg to be this as she has Stewie with her during the interview. Meg goes along with it to milk off the extra profits.
76* TrashTalk: The Griffins, Browns, Swansons, and Quagmire resort to this during the argument.
77-->'''Peter:''' Oh, it's on now!
78* TwistEnding: The ending reveals that it was Brian who stole the trophy as he's relishing in it before burying it again in the yard.
79* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The A-plot is about the adults of Spooner Street arguing over the Golden Clam, while the B-plot is Meg getting a job at Flappy's Diner and claiming Stewie is a crack-addicted baby to exploit customers for tips. The storylines converge when a social services worker at the diner overhears Meg's plight and investigates Spooner Street, only to find the warring families trying to kill each other. She promptly takes Stewie away to a foster home.
80* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: It was mostly Meg's fault that Stewie got taken away by social services by lying just to get her hands on some money to buy a $1100 Prada bag. The bickering Spooner Street neighbors only made things worse.
81* YouWillBeSpared: As a result of how good the pancakes are.
82-->'''Stewie:''' Flappy, good news! I've decided not to kill you!

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