While participating in a newly formed neighborhood watch group, Peter is arrested and charged with a hate crime.
Tropes seen in this episode include the following:
- Accidental Misnaming: Peter struggles to remember Donna's name, thinking it might be "Latisha."
- Bad Samaritan: Carter only helped Peter because he supports racism and didn't see the harm in shooting an unarmed teenager. Peter misunderstood this and thought Carter was helping him because they were family and he believed Peter's story. Carter does clear Peter's name but by slandering Cleveland Jr., portraying him as a gangster because he listened to Jay Z and shared the same surname as Chris Brown. The lawyer also gave Junior a knife then panicked when he actually held it, causing Junior to be taken out of the trial for brandishing a weapon.
- Blackface: Attempted and defied. Peter comes up with the idea of painting himself to look like a Black person to show he's not racist. The idea enrages Lois so much she starts beating Peter with a magazine before he does it.
- Call-Back: This is the second time Peter has thrown a bottle into an African American man's house. The first time was in "Jerome Is the New Black", throwing one into Jerome's house.
- Domestic Abuser: Lois' response to Peter announcing how he will paint himself brown is to attack him relentlessly with a magazine. Chris and Meg are shown witnessing this from the stairs and start pulling their hair out.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Peter's plan to paint himself brown to pretend to be black is so stupid that Lois finally snaps from all of his poor ideas and assaults him with a rolled-up magazine for it.Lois: I'm so sick of your crap! Why do you always do these stupid things?! And why do you always announce them to me BEFORE YOU DO THEM?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET A RISE OUT OF ME?! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!
- Everything Is Racist:
- Peter shooting Cleveland Jr. was painted as a hate crime by Cleveland and Donna when it was actually a result of Peter mistaking Cleveland Jr. for a home invader when he was trying to get into the house through the window.
- The writers intended to imply that Carter is a racist when Peter thinks his comment "my people," refers to the family, causing him to stumble over the sentiment.
- Hanlon's Razor:
- Despite their history together; Cleveland and Donna jump to the conclusion that Peter shot their son because of his race. In reality, Peter mistook Cleveland Jr. for a home invader and shot him after warning him twice. When Junior was silently reaching into his pocket, he was actually turning down the music he was listening to but Peter thought he was pulling out a weapon of his own.
- While not exactly idiocy on his part, he wasn't thinking much about it at the time. Cleveland Junior. was shot because Peter mistook him for a home invader breaking into Cleveland's house. In reality, Cleveland Jr. had his hood up, he didn't think to remove his earpieces when he saw Peter, and neither he nor Cleveland questioned how going through a window at night might look suspicious to an outsider.
- Peter setting fire to Cleveland's house; to the public, it looks like Peter was trying to drive Cleveland's family out of town. In reality, he came over with bourbon and cigars as a peace offering. Cleveland didn't want to forgive Peter but he insisted and tried to pass over a lit cigar but it slipped through his hands and fell in the bourbon, setting it on fire. When the bottle fell over, Peter tried to block the flames with a rag and picked it up to move it away from the house. Since the bottle was burning, Peter was clumsily juggling it until he had to throw it away which caused him to throw it into Cleveland's house. When the crowd saw him yelling "Get your family out of that house!", he was actually telling Cleveland his family is still in the house and they should be rescued before the family perishes.
- Heel Realization: Seeing Peter's willingness to be imprisoned is what makes Cleveland own up to his mistakes.
- Idiot Ball: Cleveland for telling his son to come in through the window instead of the front door, despite how obviously that would look like somebody trying to break in, in the dark.
- Jerkass Has a Point: She might be beating her husband senseless, but Lois isn't wrong that Peter going to the middle of town, stripping naked and painting himself black was an incredibly stupid idea.
- Karma Houdini:
- Cleveland's family are never punished for painting Peter as a racist and slandering him for a simple accident. The closest they get is when Carter turns the crowd on them by painting Cleveland Jr. as a gangster, which convinces Peter to help them out. Cleveland acknowledges how Peter would never have shot Cleveland Jr. on purpose and knew Peter shot him because he's stupid. The way he said it though makes it sound like he purposefully slandered him over an accident.
- Thanks to Cleveland's house rule, his son was shot by Peter and later put on trial and made to look like a criminal. Cleveland Jr. says he's going to get Peter back for shooting him which is fair considering Peter did (though accidentally) shoot him. But we also never see Cleveland Jr. call out his parents for their rather stupid rule that (accidentally) got him shot in the first place.
- Malicious Slander: Done by both sides, Cleveland and his family turned Peter's stupidity into a hate crime, then Carter turned the mob on them by portraying Cleveland Jr. as a gangster.
- Mistaken for Racist: Peter accidentally shoots Cleveland Jr., causing the Brown family to accuse him of racial bias. He only makes things worse with his failed attempts to make amends, including accidentally burning down Cleveland's house, causing Quaghog's entire black community to turn on him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Peter is sincerely upset about what he did.
- Never My Fault: Cleveland never acknowledges how his window rule might look out of context; Cleveland Jr. was forced to enter through the window because Cleveland believed it was cheaper on central heating than opening a door since the door apparently released more hot air than an open window.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: The plot involves Peter shooting Cleveland's son, so this was the outcome.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted in one case, though just barely.Donna: You wouldn't have fired that gun if he was white!
Peter: That's not true. I'll shoot anybody. Joe, give me your gun.
Joe: Here you go—hey, wait a second! - Pet the Dog: Carter helps Peter clear his name with no strings attached. However, he didn't do this out of goodness, mind you, he did it because, as mentioned above, he's racist.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Cleveland and Donna gave Peter a benefit of a doubt or a chance to properly hear him out, then the situation could have been resolved much earlier.
- Shout-Out: Curious George is parodied as "Serious George."
- The "Easy Button" is an advertising campaign for the Staples chain of office supplies stores.
- This episode was originally produced under the title "Stand Your Brown" and the plot is similar to the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon was shot by George Zimmerman, who claimed he had done so to protect himself and used a law known as "stand your ground" as his defense.
- Take That!:
- Peter is relieved when he hears that Lois has decided to watch The Good Wife without him.
Peter: (to Cleveland Jr., after just shooting him) unlike you, I just dodged a bullet.- Cleveland notes that the easiest way to make the media go away is to mention black on black crime.
- That Came Out Wrong: Peter accidentally sets Cleveland's house on fire and frantically tells him to get his family to safety. The crowd watching the incident (who saw Peter throwing the burning bottle through the window) interpret what he says as a racist attack.Peter: Round up your family and get out, or you're gonna be sorry!
- Truth in Television: Carter's plan to vindicate Peter by framing Cleveland Jr. as a wannabe gangster reflects conservative politicians' use of racial dog-whistles to exploit white middle-class fear about crime.
- Unconventional Courtroom Tactics: Peter's lawyer manages to paint Cleveland Jr. as a thug through nonsensical ramblings connecting Chris Brown and Jay-Z to Cleveland Jr.
- Waxing Lyrical: The Jay-Z lyrics that the lawyer recites are from the song "Threat".
- We Will Meet Again: Cleveland Jr. messes with Peter by suggesting he'll be evening the score one day.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Unsurprisingly, Cleveland has this attitude towards Peter for most of the episode after he shot his son (accidentally or not). Lois also had this attitude towards him for attempted black face and becomes so angry that she starts hitting him with a magazine while screaming at him.
