After feeling unappreciated by the family, Lois taps into her villainous side and attempts to win "Best Customer" at her favorite coffee shop.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Being a good person means doing good things for the sake of doing them. If you're only doing good for the sake of a reward or gratification, then you aren't as good as you say you are. Lois calls herself a good person again and again and only wants to be validated for what she does for the family by winning "customer of the week", but her actions speak louder than words. She almost murders a barista so she could stage a rescue, she kidnaps another barista, and ties up his roommates when they catch her feeding his cat.
- Animation Age Ghetto: In-Universe, brought up by Stewie during the Griffin's Spider-Man argument, particularly in regards to animation not being taken as seriously as other forms of media (He's talking about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, by the way).Stewie: Just cuz it's an animation, people think it's not legit!
- A Day in the Limelight: For Lois. This is lampshaded by Meg, who asks if this is because they're giving Seth MacFarlane's voice a rest this week. This is followed by Peter, Stewie, and Brian nodding. Then several characters that Seth voices shows up and nod in agreement. Finally, the Kool-aid man smashes through the wall...and just nods.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lois acts nice and friendly to the baristas, even though she's mostly only doing it to win "Best Customer". When that doesn't work, she resorts to potential manslaughter, multiple kidnappings and threatening to make one of the baristas a heroin addict in a further effort to win the "award".
- Cosmetic Award: A non-video game example. Being "Customer Of The Week" only gets you a few seconds of applause and your photo on a bulletin board. Lois treats it like it's on the level of a cancer cure.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Lois' quest to be the customer of the week began because she wanted to be validated as a good person, however, as the episode progresses she becomes more and more unhinged to a point where she gets a 6-month prison sentence just so she can be "Customer of the Week".
- Engineered Heroics: One of the ways Lois tries to win "Best Customer" is to cause a barista to have an allergic reaction, then save her life. Her plan goes wrong, however.
- Epic Fail: Showing Brian is once again a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, he's arguing about why Ben Affleck's the best Batman (or at least has the best Batman body) as everyone else argues about the best Spider-Man.
- Entitled Bitch: Lois, in spades. When talking about how she deserves a little appreciation while talking to a half-listening Stewie, Stewie rebukes every single thing she says by telling her how awful she is as a person. Of course, she can't tell.
- Fandom Rivalry: An in-universe example occurs at the dinner table. The family sans Lois argue over who is the best Spider-Man. Though Brian's heard arguing Ben Affleck is the best Batman, or at least, "has the best Batman body" in his words.
- Forced Addiction: Lois kidnaps a worker at a coffeeshop when he gets close to exposing her attempt at phony heroism. She threatens to get the worker hooked on heroin if he doesn't do what she says. This is enough to get him to cooperate.
- Foreshadowing: It's established early in the episode that Lois knows nothing about allergies (or tonsils), which comes into play with her underestimating Lisa's peanut allergy.
- Gay Best Friend: One of the barista’s roommates Lois ties up is gay, his friend with who he shares an apartment is straight. They're comfortable enough with each other that they can compliment each other without any tension between them. Lois is confused that they can live together without it being a relationship.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: After her Engineered Heroics goes more and more wrong, rather than swear, Lois repeatedly says, "Oh, shaving cream."
- Here We Go Again!: By the end of the episode, Lois has served six months in prison, and on her first day out she heads into a coffee shop... which also has a "Customer of the Week" board. Lois immediately tries to win it again.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Lois is desperate to win "Customer of the Week" because she works hard for her family but they seldom show her any sort of respect, and it has given her a huge need for validation. However, it devolves into...
- It's All About Me: Lois rants in the car about how she deserves validation and the reward from the coffee shop, only for Stewie to casually point out that she's basically being an entitled bitch about it all.
- Idiot Ball: Lois does not bother to check her surroundings for witnesses nor cover her face or change her clothes before she tampers with the female barista's car; a camera was set up in the parking lot and the male barista checking the footage instantly recognizes her.
- Insistent Terminology: Lois repeatedly says she's "a good person" throughout the episode, only for several people to point out her actions don't line up with that. Even Joe when he's come to arrest her for her crimes gives only the 'charitable' interpretation that "sometimes good people do bad things".
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After serving six months in prison, Lois still tries to win "Best Customer" at another coffee shop, clearly not regretting her crimes throughout the episode.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: By the time all of Lois's underhanded actions get exposed, she's calmly washing dishes as multiple police cars make their way to the Griffin home. She's also very calm and polite when Joe comes in to arrest her.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: One of the only genuinely nice things Lois does in the episode is to donate a cup of coffee to a soldier overseas. Unfortunately, said cup of coffee gets thrown at the soldier while he's trying to disarm a bomb, causing him to be blown to pieces.
- Noodle Incident: How Peter was banned from a restaurant isn't revealed.
- Leitmotif: "Seven Notes in Black"
plays periodically throughout the episode to symbolize Lois's worsening grasp on her sanity as she tries to win "Customer of the Week". - Politically Incorrect Hero: Lois, bordering on Politically Incorrect Villain Protagonist. As well as tying up a barista to hide proof of her crimes, she sounds genuinely surprised that he's gay, just because he doesn't "act" like a stereotype. She's even more surprised that he lives with a straight guy without any issue whatsoever. To a lesser extent, when the barista mentions that he has a boyfriend (who will soon find out he's missing), Lois immediately assumes he's gay, without entertaining the idea that he could be bisexual (he is gay, but still).
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Lois just wanted to feel appreciated by her family and wants to be validated by being awarded as "Customer of the Week". When her previous attempts get her nowhere, she resorts to other actions that eventually land her in prison with a 6-month prison sentence.
- Sanity Slippage: Lois grows steadily unhinged the more determined she is to become "Best Customer," up to instigating an allergic reaction in a barista so she can save her life. When that spirals out of control, Lois goes to further extremes to hide the proof of her crimes.
- Serious Business: Lois really takes the customer of the week award far more seriously than she should, such as crying in the bathroom when she isn't chosen. By the end of the episode, her attempts to win the award have led her to commit criminal acts.
- Straight Gay: Lois is surprised to find out that one of the barista’s roommates whose apartment she broke into was gay, since he didn't look, speak or act gay. The guy is offended that she thinks being gay means he has to 'present' as gay.
- Take a Third Option: When the whole family is arguing which version of Spider-Man was the best note , which one does Brian choose? None; he prefers DC heroes like Batman.
- Twitchy Eye: Lois gets one of these when she is once again passed over as 'Customer of the Week'.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chris ends up giving Lois the idea to stage a rescue by triggering a barista's peanut allergy. It backfires spectacularly and it's all downhill from there.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Lois wants to be validated and feel like she's accomplished something, however, Stewie points out that she's only been doing the bare minimum and doing things she was expected to do as a customer.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never what happened to the third barista after the other two are in severe danger because of Lois's actions. It is implied that he eventually discovered Lois's criminal activities to his co-workers and contacted the police.
