
Airdate: April 28, 2019
Production code: HACX-15
After watching an interview with reporter Trisha Takanawa, who is promoting her new book about the philosophy of decluttering as a way to reach inner peace and order in life, Lois becomes completely obsessed with the idea, eventually culminating in not only throwing out every single object in the Griffin home, but also her entire family.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch:
- After Lois gets everyone to declutter their rooms, she has an epiphany that Peter doesn't kindle joy for her and kicks him out. However, rather than the rest of the episode being about their ailing marriage, Lois just goes off the deep end with decluttering by kicking out the rest of the family and making the house into a featureless white void.
- At the end of the episode, Peter compares the living room to the living room in the video for John Lennon's "Imagine"; we then cut to Peter and Lois dressed as John Lennon and Yoko Ono playing "Imagine" to the tune of "Camptown Races", because they can't afford the real song.
- Berserk Button: Don't make a mess around Lois, otherwise, she'll kick you out for GOOD!
- Continuity Porn: Short, but it's there. Among the things Peter gets rid of (and later hides in a warehouse lot) are the broken vinyl of Surfin' Bird and the cardboard cutout of Kathy. It's like the things he threw away are the things used for his gags and cutaways.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: This is what kicks off the plot; Lois becomes obsessed with decluttering after reading a book on the concept in a desperate attempt at finding joy in her boring, empty life. This predictably fails, and just puts even more emphasis on how miserable she is.
- Driven to Suicide: Subverted. Lois wasn't going to jump off the bridge; she just wanted to get away from the empty house to think. Peter's weight and running on the flimsy bridge is what caused Lois to fall off.
- Frustrated Overhead Scribble: Chris becomes so frustrated by Lois's newfound obsession with removing anything she considers "clutter" from the house that a scribble appears over his head in the shape of a thought bubble. Lois is not only aware of the scribble but accuses Chris of further cluttering up the house with it. Chris then gets so angry that his head turns into a 1930s work whistle, which doesn't even phase Lois.
- Get Out!: At the peak of her decluttering spree Lois kicks the family out of the house.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Downplayed; Tricia Takanawa as a stand-in for Marie Kondo is Japanese as well, but she says she conceived her "Throw it Away" philosophy after climbing "Asia Mountain".
- It's All About Me: Lois displays this during her Sanity Slippage, throwing away other people's things because they don't bring her joy.
- Lulled Themselves to Sleep: Subverted, while staying at Quagmire's house during Lois' decluttering phase, Peter interrupts a ménage á trois by asking Quagmire to read him Clifford the Big Red Dog. Not only does Peter doze off, the two women Quagmire slept with do also.
- Manchild: When Peter can't sleep, he pesters Quagmire into reading him a Clifford story and insists on lying in bed with him while doing so. To compound Quagmire's problem, reading the story puts the two women he was with to sleep as well.
- Oh, Crap!: Stewie when he realizes Peter is about to pull out his old vinyl record of Surfin' Bird from "I Dream of Jesus".Brian: Peter, that's like your 50th bag. What could possibly be in there?Peter: Oh, have you not heard?Stewie: BRIAN, NO!
- Overly Long Gag: The "my house that I paid for" scene.
- Please Keep Your Hat On: As part of her decluttering spree, Lois takes off Chris and Meg's hats. They come off like Lego headpieces, to Lois' shock.
- Roommate Drama: Peter briefly shacks up with Quagmire, but his various antics quickly wear thin on the man (to include watching Dunkirk at full volume during the night and harassing Quagmire into reading him a bedtime story), who promptly throws him out.
- Sanity Slippage: Lois becomes more and more unstable as the episode goes on, eventually throwing everything out of the house, including her family, and renders the entire interior of the house a white void.
- Shout-Out:
- When Stewie's time machine transports everyone to the future, Chris is replaced with Bender.
- While chasing after Lois, Peter is reminded of Rocky and Cliffhanger.
- Brian parodies Shaft with an ode to former President William Howard Taft. Doubles as a Shout Out to Hamilton.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Lois made Chris so angry that his head turned into a work whistle, yet for whatever reason, Lois was too furious to even be scared or surprised by it.
- Voodoo Doll: When Meg is sorting her things, she finds her voodoo doll of Lois and decides to throw it away, because it never worked. However, it suddenly starts working, so she decides to keep it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The family gets mad at Lois for her decluttering phase; Lois gets mad at the family because they got mad at her. It's later turned into a supportive thing when the Griffins realize that Lois is in serious, emotional distress.
- White Void Room: The end result of Lois' obsessive decluttering is the interior of the house being rendered featureless, hollow, and white.
