Original Air Date: December 15, 2013
In this Christmas Episode, Peter tries to get Lois' father, Carter, into the spirit while Stewie finds a way to get Brian back and prevent his death.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Bus Came Back: Averted, as Stewie prevents Brian from dying.
- Call-Back: A one-off cutaway from "Life of Brian" depicting Stewie jumping forward in time to get a Christmas toy early becomes very important to the plot.
- Comic-Book Time: Lampshaded by Stewie:Lois: It's Stewie's first Christmas.Stewie: Again?
- Confidentiality Betrayal: After finding out that the Christmas display in the Quahog mall is canceled, a security guard tells Peter and Lois that he's just a small cog in this operation. Chris then quips to Peter that he's not the only one with a small cog, to which Peter and Lois respond "I told you that in confidence, Chris!" They then look at each other in shock.
- Deconstructive Parody: The cutaway to "Home Alone with intelligent robbers" is one to "Home Alone" Antics - the criminals aren’t bumbling oafs, so Kevin’s traps are either ineffective or outright avoided. Furthermore, the 7 year old protagonist is swiftly dealt with (See Would Hurt a Child below) by the professional criminals the moment he reveals himself.
- Funny Background Event: See Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
- Greedy Jew: Invoked by Peter to resolve the Carter plotline - simply suggesting to Carter that his cancellation of the mall’s Christmas Carnival is making people think he’s Jewish is enough to get him to do a 180 on the matter.
- The Grinch: Carter hates Christmas for an unknown reason.
- Groin Attack: Brian gets from Stewie after being saved by Future Stewie.
- Half Way Plot Switch: The first half has Peter teaching Carter the holiday spirit; once that is resolved, the second half being about Stewie getting Brian back.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Of sorts. Stewie travels back in time to save Brian from being hit by a car, but in doing so erases his timeline, and consequently himself, from existence.
- "Home Alone" Antics: Parodied in a cutaway gag, showing what would happen if the robbers in the original film were smart.
- Informed Ability: "Competent Robbers" just do a lot of stupid actions, which would get them caught very quickly in real life. (In addition to receiving a much worse sentence, for killing a child)
- Negative Continuity: Peter reappears in this episode, alive and well, despite shooting himself at the end of the previous episode, "In Harmony's Way".
- Nosebleed: Chris gets one after becoming too overwhelmed with excitement at the carnival. Lois points this out and tells him to calm down.
- Ret-Gone: Due to his actions, future Stewie gets erased from existence for saving Brian, leaving only Brian with the knowledge of what would have happened.
- Sequel Episode: Big time. This continues the arc from "Life of Brian".
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Stewie going back in time to save Brian from getting run over by the car.
- Shout-Out: The Home Alone cutaway features several of the traps from the original film, but with the caveat that competent robbers aren’t going to behave like the Wet Bandits did, so the absurdity of the traps (And really, the film in general) is deconstructed.
- Stock Audio Clip: Stewie's line "Brian, look out!" is directly ripped from "Life of Brian".
- Stupid Evil: Even though Robbers are supposed to be "competents", they do things like not cover their faces, don't wear gloves, and kill a child in cold blood (Which is considered much worse than robbery) with an unsilenced weapon.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Vinnie. He only appeared for less than 2 and a half episodes, and after the end of this one, he's only appeared again once, three seasons later.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Stewie in the first half. After Brian's death in "Life of Brian", he definitely is a potential Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
- Later inverted, as this Stewie is retconned from the Family Guy canon at the end of the episode, and the "real" one shows how much he takes Brian for granted by giving him a groin attack.
- Would Hurt a Child: The robbers of the Home Alone Cutaway Gag put a bullet in the kid's head the moment they get a clear shot.
