Life of Brian
Directed By: Todd Holland
Written By: Jason Katims
Brian gets the spotlight (and the voiceover) in this episode. Sharon tries to set him up with Delia Fisher (Senta Moses), who works with her on yearbook and the school paper, and though Brian is awkward about it, he's smitten enough to arrange to go with Delia to the World Happiness dance Sharon's in charge of. However, Angela ends up asking if she can tag along with them, and so Brian ends up worming his way out of the date. In the meantime, Rickie becomes attracted to Corey Halfrick (Adam Biesk), another student, but it turns out Corey's not interested.
Elsewhere, Graham wallpapers his and Patty's bedroom, and Patty pushes him to sign up for a continuing education course in cooking.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Patty and Graham have a good laugh over Angela's reaction when Brian told her Delia wasn't going to the dance with them, and Patty rightly predicts the two will have an awful time.
- Call-Back: Rayanne tells Rickie she's ten days sober, and claims later because of this, her counselor thinks it wouldn't be good for her to go to the dance, even though she had said earlier her counselor thought she should go.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Brian's mother is a behavioral psychologist, while his father is a Freudian psychiatrist, and because of their differing viewpoints, they do a poor job of raising Brian.
- Description Cut: In a voiceover, Brian imagines that the Chase family are a normal family that laugh a lot. The next scene is Danielle yelling loudly because Patty is doing a poor job braiding her hair.
- Foreshadowing: The cooking class Patty signs Graham up for will become a major part of the rest of the season.
- Gilligan Cut: Brian tells himself he's never going to show up at Angela's house with some lame excuse. Cut to Brian telling Graham he's there because he needs to get an atlas Angela borrowed from him. In March.
- High-School Dance: The World Happiness dance Sharon is in charge of.
- Hypocrite: Brian feels this way about Angela when she calls him heartless (in voiceover, he says, "I mean, the fact that she called me 'heartless' - that's just really good. That's excellent. I mean, how ironic can you get without puking?") after he fact she felt she had to tag along with him and Delia to the dance. Angela does have a Heel Realization and apologizes to Brian later.
- It's a Long Story: When Corey asks why Rayanne isn't coming to the dance, Rickie tells him, "It's kind of a long story."
- Love Epiphany: Subverted - when Sharon is watching Kyle watching Delia and Rickie on the dance floor, she realizes she's no longer in love with him.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Because of Brian's obsession with Angela, when she asks Brian if she can come along with him and Delia to the dance, he breaks it off with Delia, even though Delia is interested in him and Angela isn't. Lampshaded in his voiceover about it:Of all the stupid things I've said - which are, like, countless - I've never wanted to take something back more than that one.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Angela says she understands about Rickie, Rayanne and Corey, Rickie tries to protest:Rickie: No, you don't understand. I mean, you don't understand because...you don't. You couldn't-
Angela: Oh, you're right, Rickie. I couldn't possibly understand having an obsession for a person I have zero hope of ever becoming involved with. - Shout-Out:
- Patty reminds Graham the wallpaper he's replacing had been there through the entire Bush administration.
- The song Rickie and Delia dance to is "What is Love" by Haddaway.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Delia seems a lot like Gina, down to the fact she works with Sharon on the paper, Sharon is trying to set her up with him, and has comes off as a Genki Girl.
