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Recap / American Dad S 5 E 3 One Little Word

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Release Date: October 19, 2008

Stan is finally given the opportunity to become Bullock's personal assistant after Stan's coworker refuses to stand in line to get Bullock opera tickets due to personal issues.


Tropes:

  • Actor Allusion: A huge one for Patrick Stewart. Bullock calls his personal assistant "Number One," which is what Picard called Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Miriam Bullock was held hostage for so long she ended up getting brainwashed into an anti-American terrorist. The Smiths have to break her out of it so Bullock will take her back.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Roger decides to bond with AJ by showing off his favorite glass spider, but warns the literal baby to be careful and not break it, and AJ does just that. Roger’s responds by putting AJ in a car and dump him in a lake. Good thing Stan puts a stop to it.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Zigzagged. Miriam gets away with shooting Bullock in the knee once she finds out he was cheating on her with Coco even after Miriam was rescued. While Francine's horrified and tells Stan it's okay to help his boss this time, the episode makes it clear that Bullock brought this on himself due to all his unreasonable demands, his rampant cheating, and the fact Miriam was held hostage and brainwashed for several years because of his refusal to negotiate with terrorists to get her freed sooner.
  • Entitled Bastard: Even if you aren't his Number One, Bullock expects others to cater to his whims at all times, regardless of their own situations.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Roger is stopped from killing the infant AJ by Stan over AJ breaking the leg off Roger's glass Daddy Long Legs. As Stan leaves with AJ, Roger has a rare moment of reflection and decides to think about what he almost did.
  • Extreme Doormat: Stan keeps catering to Bullock to become his personal assistant, constantly ditching Francine in the process. In the end, he does manage to tell him off... after Bullock gets shot in the leg and needs an ambulance.
  • Fat Bastard: Coco, a thoroughly unpleasant and overweight skank who has no problem forcing Stan to do what she wants by threatening to call Bullock.
  • Honor Before Reason: Invoked. When Stan lies to Francine about saying no to Bullock, he says he told him he loved his wife more than he needed his job.
  • Hourglass Plot: To the similarly-named episode "Four Little Words". In that episode, Stan went out of his way to prevent Francine from saying something he doesn't want to hear ("I told you so", to be exact). In this episode, Francine does everything she can to get Stan to say something he doesn't want to say (specifically, telling his boss "No").
  • Laser-Guided Karma: After letting his wife be held hostage for years to the point she'd been brainwashed, cheating on her repeatedly, making unreasonable demands of Stan, and dumping AJ on Francine, Bullock ends the episode with Miriam shooting him in the leg when she learns about his affair with Coco and Stan leaving him to bleed out from the wound.
  • Manchild: Lampshaded by Francine, who says Roger is behaving like a four-year-old.
    Roger: Four and a half!
  • Never My Fault: Roger shows off his glass spider to AJ and warns him that it’s extremely fragile, forgetting that he is only a baby. AJ promptly grabs the glass spider and breaks off a leg, to which Roger responds by nearly killing him. Stan luckily saves AJ and calls out Roger over his half-assed excuse of AJ "starting it".
  • Noodle Incident: When Stan lies about having wanted a threeway with Francine and Coco, Francine reminds him they already discussed this.
    Francine: Did you even try to contact Scarlett Johansen?!
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Bullock's wife finds out about his affair and accuses him of doing it whilst she was a hostage. Bullock, panicking and desperate to calm her down, says exactly the wrong thing by telling her he met Coco after she'd come home as a brainwashed terrorist. Stan immediately winces at the poor choice of words.
  • Papa Wolf: Stan immediately leaps to AJ's rescue when Roger attempts to drown him.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Roger tries to kill baby AJ by shoving the latter in the ocean while inside a car for accidentally breaking his glass spider.

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