- Release Date: February 11, 2007
After having a fight with Steve, Roger meets a young boy named Henry, though their friendship quickly turns abusive. Meanwhile, Stan and Francine try to save their favorite drink, Mr. PiBB.
Tropes:
- Abuse Discretion Shot: Henry gets mad at Roger for wanting to go home after playing. Roger backs up into a garden shed, while Henry follows him. In the next scene, Roger has a black eye.
- Adults Are Useless: Henry's mom does nothing to stop him from abusing Roger, although this is explained by her being an apathetic chain smoker.
- Brick Joke: Roger mentions the song he sang about losing his friendship with Steve while playing with Henry.
- Call-Back: Mr. PiBB is established as Stan and Francine's favorite soda. In "American Dream Factory," Stan paid the illegal immigrants in Mr. PiBB.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Though this episode somewhat parodies the topic of Domestic Abuse, none of the abuse itself is Played for Laughs.
- Chekhov's Gun: Steve's science project. When Roger ruins it, it prompts Steve to say he's done with "having an alien." At the end of the episode, Steve uses his project to create smoke effects for the PiBBmobile.
- Children Are Innocent: Severely downplayed. Henry is manipulative, violent, and abusive towards Roger, but he's easily fooled into thinking that the PiBBmobile is actually a spaceship.
- Comically Missing the Point: Steve tries to convince Roger to leave Henry by saying it sounds just like the Lifetime movie with Daphne Zuniga, and tries to remind him what happened to her. Roger's response is a horrified realization that "she ended up on ABC Family."
- Cool Car: The PiBBmobile, which resembles a giant soda can.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Henry is an Expy for Elliot, the kid from E.T. While Elliot is a kind boy who wants to protect E.T., Henry is an abusive brat who is willing to rat Roger out if he abandons him.
- The Dog Bites Back: Roger gives Henry a well-deserved Groin Attack when he decides to leave him for good.
- Domestic Abuse: Played for Drama. Henry quickly becomes controlling and violent towards Roger, who shows the typical signs of denial.
- Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult: Averted. Henry's mistreatment of Roger, including giving him a black eye, is rightly portrayed as a horrible act of abuse.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Played straight. As mentioned below, Hayley's abusive treatment of Jeff is played for laughs.
- Easy Sex Change: Bob, the Mr. PiBB tour guide, casually remarks they'll be having a sex change operation and will be living as a woman.
- Enfant Terrible: Henry starts as an adorable kid, but soon turns into an abusive monster.
- Foreshadowing: At the beginning of the episode, Roger tries to get Steve interested in a Lifetime movie about an abusive relationship. Steve later references this movie while trying to convince him to leave Henry.
- Freudian Excuse: It's implied that Henry's abusive ways are a result from being neglected by his mother, who outright tells Henry to play outside in the dark after he asked her to help him make a bird-house.
- Gilligan Cut:
- Stan drives Francine to the Mr. PiBB factory, their usual kiss-and-make-up spot. She firmly says she's not forgiving him. Then we cut to the two making out in the lobby.
- Roger calls Steve while trapped in the bathroom, crying that Henry is coming to beat him. As Steve is about to run out of the house, Roger calls him back and says everything's fine.
- Groin Attack: Roger does this to Henry as payback for all the abuse.
- Hate Sink: Henry. He's made to be a despicable and spiteful brat who relentlessly abused Roger, who did not deserve any of it. When Steve tried to get Roger back, Henry outright threatened to rat the Smiths out to the CIA for harboring an alien. His behavior towards Roger and Roger's denial is also highly reminiscent of a real-life domestic abuse scenario, which makes Henry even more hateful.
- Hypocritical Humor: Hayley talks to Steve about how hard it can be for someone to get out of an abusive relationship, only to then throw a coffee mug at Jeff when he asks if he can come out of the pantry.
- Knight of Cerebus: Henry. Once he shows his true colors to Roger, the episode takes a much more dark and serious turn.
- Lack of Empathy: Roger tells Henry that he's dying, to which he gives a rather cold "Cool!"
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Stan and Francine routinely have sex in the lobby of the Mr. PiBB factory, to the point that even the executives know about them.
- Never My Fault: Henry regularly blames extenuating circumstances for his abuse of Roger, at one point blaming hypoglycemia for it. Steve points out that this isn't an excuse.
- Noodle Incident: The beginning of Stan and Francine's plot has Francine pissed off at Stan for saying that she looked like a pig a week prior.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Roger says this to Henry at the end, word for word.
- Product Placement: Parodied. Mr. PiBB is central to Stan and Francine's subplot. The real Mr. Pibb even shows up to tell them about the new PiBB Xtra, holding up a can to the camera as though he's advertising it.
- Rank Up: Henry yells at Roger for not appreciating that, while playing submarine, he promoted him from cook to lieutenant.
- Real After All: During the tour of the Mr. PiBB, Stan and Francine wonder if there is a real Mr. Pibb who adds "a dash of magic" to every bottle. When they're confronted by the PiBB executives, it turns out there really is a Mr. Pibb, who was brought out of the retirement home to talk sense into Stan and Francine.
- Shout-Out: Roger's disguise as he goes out drinking is similar to that of Ron Burgundy, even mentioning that he's a local midday news anchor.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After being convinced that the PiBBmobile is a spaceship, Henry thinks that Roger was taking Steve with him to his home planet. Steve quickly rolls with it.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mr. PiBB is this for Stan and Francine.Stan: Ah, Mr. PiBB, the cornerstone of our love. Delicious, refreshing, and totally lacking in pretension.Francine: He's not one of those "Doctor" sodas, putting on airs and flashing around his Ivy League diploma.Stan: No, Mr. PiBB earns his paycheck. He's the kind of soda I'd like to have a beer with.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Stan and Francine's plot to save Mr. PiBB is separate from Steve and Roger's, but at the end of the episode, Steve and Hayley disguise the PiBBmobile as a spaceship to get Roger away from Henry.
- Very Special Episode: Parodied. This episode is this to Domestic Abuse, and while this is played straight, it also serves as a variation.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The title and plot are taken from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with a twist in that the relationship between the kid and the alien becomes abusive. Henry even shares his name with the child actor who played Elliot.
