WMG / Family Guy Life Of Brian

An extra set of theories about events related to "Life of Brian". A number of these are now jossed due to Brian's revival in "Christmas Guy".

Vinny is a convenient reincarnation of Brian.

He's only pretending to be an old dog who's been around the block, but when Brian died he was reborn in the body of another puppy, only savvier and smarter and less prickly than Brian had been. This is his second chance, he's like the older and more sensible Brian before he became a mouthpiece for Seth's political views.

• This would why Vinny never shows up after Brian is revived.

Stewie finds a way to fix his time machine and save Brian

Not much of a stretch since Brian is appearing in an upcoming episode so obviously he gets brought back at some point. My theory is that Stewie will reverse engineer the return-pad(which he forgot to destroy along with the time machine) so he can travel back in time. He's about to use it to save Brian, but hesitates when he realizes in doing so will mean that he won't meet Vinny, Vinny convinces him to go back for Brian and says he knows he and Stewie will meet again. So Stewie travels back in time and saves Brian after some more time-travel craziness, and in the final scene , Brian and Stewie run into Vinny (with his owner Leo still alive due to Stewie changing the past) at the park and he soon befriends them both

• JOSSED. Stewie revives Brian not by fixing the time machine, but finding his past self in the present and taking his time pad instead.

Quagmire is Brian's killer.

Considering that he can't stand Brian and is the only one not paying attention to his funeral, he may be the driver or paid someone to do it. If one of the Griffins discovered this, they'll call him out and stated that he went too far in-universe. Perhaps, even Peter and Lois will be horrified and say that Quagmire's not so different from Jeff.

• Alternatively (or in addition), Quagmire will become Stewie's Arch-Enemy.
• At the very least, I still think they should call him out for his behaviour at the funeral.
• Now that Brian's back, we might have an attempted murder, thanks to Brian being Genre Savvy to avoid it. A murder mystery will follow.
• Peter did kill Quagmire's cat, James, a few seasons back. So killing his dog in return may have doubled as revenge.
  • An alternative theory on the same theme. Remember Quagmire's other cat, Princepessa? Last seen in "Roads to Vegas", where Brian hires a hitman to kill her off. It is possible Quagmire found out who the hitman was working for and decided to avenge the death of his cat.
• Or, after killing Jeff with his car, Quagmire developed an interest to kill more of his enemies this way, starting with Brian.
  • If someone told Quagmire that he's not so different from Jeff, it may trigger his Berserk Button to attack them as well.

Quagmire isn't the killer

.If for no other reason than he'd be the most obvious suspect and doesn't want to risk being caught out, despite his hatred.

• Also he's one of Peter's closest friends and generally gets along well with the other Griffins. This is what ultimately prevents him from truly wanting to kill Brian, as that would damage his relationship with the rest of the family.

Quagmire will be framed for Brian's death

In a series of events similar to "Stewie Kills Lois", friends and/or Stewie will discover evidence which makes it seem Quagmire was the one who ran over Brian and call the authorities. But Peter refuses to believe one of his closest friends would betray him like this, so he sets off to find the true killer and clear Quagmire's name.

• The real killer could be one of his enemies. Maybe one of the women he bedded and left.

If Quagmire wasn't the murderer, it was...

• Vinny: On a drunken bender, Provoked by grief for the recently deceased Leo.
  • Alternatively, It was because Vinny was rushing a dying Leo to the hospital.
• Brian/Stewie from the future: After learning that something terrible would happen to Brian in the future, and killing him beforehand was a more humane option.
  • Alternatively, it is Brian who is responsible for the bad future (either directly, or indirectly through his existence in that time).
  • That DID look like Brian's car.
• Cleveland Brown Jr.: The same person who killed original Cleveland Jr. and planned to do the same with Tim.
• A squirrel: Karmic retribution for the squirrel that Brian ran over in the second Viewer Mail episode.
• Penelope: She threatened to kill Brian before, but was stopped by Stewie.
• The owner of the dog Brian killed in "Dog Gone": He/she found out and decided to return the favor.
• Cruella De Vil: Through her rage and frustration, she threatened to run over the first dog she saw as a last resort plan to make a fur coat. She meant to come back for the body, but the Griffins already took him to the vet.
• It may just be Harsher in Hindsight, but Peter Griffin was "interviewed" in Top Gear magazine for the month of December, just before Brian's death. The picture illustrates him reading said issue of Top Gear magazine, while driving and not looking at the road, while Hammond, Clarkson, and May look on in horror from the back seat. The proof is here.
  • This cannot be true, for the following incredibly complicated and obscure reason: the car is the wrong color.

The Brian-centric titles are about Vinny.

They'll be changed to be about Vinny, having been made to look like they're about Brian to avoid spoiling his death. Either that, or the episodes deal with the fallout of his death. (One episode could be about Dylan returning.)

• JOSSED. Brian's death was undone in "Christmas Guy".

Another character will be killed off and Brian will be brought back

. Some of the upcoming episodes do seem to be about Brian, unless they're actually about Vinny and the titles were changed, but go with this for now. Killing Brian was a fake-out. He's not going to be dead permanently; he will be brought back and a different member of the main cast will be killed.

• It could be Meg. Being a way too obvious choice, the only way to set us off track would be to kill someone else first. Someone nobody expected to die off (*cough* Brian).
  • Eh, personally my money's on Chris. It makes more sense from a writing and comedy standpoint. As it stands, Chris is just a younger version of Peter and doesn't bring anything new to the show. Meg is a Butt-Monkey, but that's her role on the show. Treating her like crap is used as comedy.
• Partially confirmed. Brian did come back to life, but no word on if someone else will die for real. Still possible—-Chris and Meg are pretty much useless, and considering how much it hype it gave a show that to many, has been dead for years...

Brian

will come back as a ghost.Given that supernatural elements exist in the Family Guy universe, it's possible. Ghost Brian could be utilized to help people transition over to Vinnie, yet still not technically cop-out with his death and appease the fan's desire to see him again. Perhaps he'll act as a spiritual advisor helping Stewie deal with survivor's guilt, and generally trying to fix the Big, Screwed-Up Family that the Griffins have become. It would help redeem Brian both from whatever pieces of the scrappy heap he still stands on and turn him from a dick to a full-fledged nice guy in a supernatural form of Character Development. Plus there's a whole lot of Flat-Earth Atheist jokes when you're a ghost. Which leads me to my next theory...

• JOSSED. Brian was prevented from ever dying in the Christmas Guy episode.

The next Brian and Stewie episode will take place in the afterlife.

It'll be called "Road to Heaven". The plot will be that Stewie, feeling depressed over Brian's death, decides to tour throughout the afterlife to bring him back. Because let's face it, how awesome would it be to see Stewie Griffin traverse Heaven and Hell? Bonus points if it's inspired by The Divine Comedy.

• JOSSED. Brian's death was prevented in the Christmas Guy episode.

Brian will return as if nothing has happened and this will be lampshaded in universe

Brian will reappear in after a few episodes and Stewie will say "so we're just going to forget the fact you died, we went to your funeral and replaced you with another dog?", to which Brian will say "Yup" and the episode will end. Or at the end of the episode, Peter will turn to the camera and say "we brought Brian back."

• The season finale "Brian the Closer" will reveal just how Stewie was able to resurrect him, who Brian's murderer was, and what happens to Vinny.
  • JOSSED. Brian was saved from being hit by the car in the Christmas Guy episode.

Ernie the Giant Chicken killed Brian

Think about it. The Giant Chicken got tired of losing those long battles with Peter, and was thinking of a way to get back. He then got an idea - he decided to hurt Peter not physically, but emotionally. How so? By killing a member of his family. So the Giant Chicken watched the Griffins, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. And when that opportunity came, He drove his car and deliberately ran over Brian, resulting in the latter's death. Brian's death was no accident - it was an act of revenge towards Peter.

• If he did kill Brian, he better get ready for a serious beatdown from Peter. This may even kill him.
  • If Ernie is killed off, who will replace him? I know. A giant squirrel who would occasionally beat on Vinny (for character development).

Brian will come back in the Christmas episode.

In the episode coming up, called "Christmas guy", the description is about Stewie plotting to get the one thing he wants for Christmas, most likely Brian's revival. There are 2 ways this could work:

• In Life of Brian, the episode where Brian dies, there was a canon cutaway gag with Stewie saying he time traveled forward in time to Christmas to get end of the year toys early. So, Present Stewie could wait until the Christmas guy episode and then go and find his past self who travelled into the future and warn him about what would happen to Brian, so he could save him, since his time machine was still intact. Or.......
• Stewie could always ask Santa Claus for the components required to make a new time machine, and go back in time to save Brian himself.
  • CONFIRMED (closer to the first theory). Stewie found his past self and, with the help of Vinny, retrieved his return pad and saved Brian.

Brian killed himself.

No idea why, but if you watch the now infamous scene where he's hit by the car, notice the type of car it is. It's a Prius, just like the car Brian himself owns.

• Perhaps he was killed by a Brian from another time.
• Or the machine that cloned an evil Stewie also cloned an evil Brian.
• I figure the same thing, since it's very odd that they didn't reveal the killer or use a generic car model. Maybe he has to kill himself to prevent a time paradox.
• Brian used time travel to kill himself in order to make sure he'd stay dead. After "Brian and Stewie", Stewie knows Brian has suicidal thoughts and even planned for this. He could easily stop Brian from a normal headshot, or time-travel. Solution? Plan an elaborate enough murder/suicide(murdercide?) that it would leave Stewie Out-Gambitted. The lack of the material to make a new time machine? Brian got that guy arrested for drawing Mohammed, or got him to draw it(probably in some dare). Brian didn't just plan to have sex with a Native American woman, but tell her and the rest on how to use the guns. Thus, it would motivate Stewie to destroy the time machine. "Back to the Pilot" was an aborted suicide plan; Brian likely was trying to enrage the Enfante Terrible Pilot!Stewie to kill him. He changed his mind because he just realised "hey, I can do something much better like stop 9/11 and make America a better place!". Stewie saving Brian made Brian happy because the sheer skill used in rescuing him showed people cared about his life."

Snoopy killed Brian

Why you may ask? Because he didn't take too kindly on Brian having a similar appearance to him, tried to publish a book just like him, and there was also the fact they he dressed up like him once. He also tried to have him shot as a "Runner" in Logan's Run.

Brian's return will be gradual.

Obviously, he has to come back. However, to give his death some meaning, he'll spend some time as a recurring character (think of Agent Mulder in the latter seasons of the X-Files), having decided to Walk the Earth, popping up for important episodes, while Vinny remains the main family dog. Then, after several seasons, the Status Quo will be returned.

• JOSSED. He returns just two episodes after "Life of Brian".

Grief over Brian's death

Will cause Stewie to go back to his original evil persona. A running theory is that Brian's friendship was part of what mellowed Stewie out. With Brian gone, Stewie will have a Start of Darkness when he tracks down and brutally kills the driver. Followed by one of the most epic scenes in television history.

Stewie: (In a stoic tone) Victory is mine.

• Somewhat true. Stewie's grief causes him to blow up half the neighbourhood, but he doesn't even realize what it's over.

Brian's death

will turn out to be All Just a Dream.I'm kind of surprised nobody's pointed this out yet but the circumstances of Brian's death are remarkably similar to the "death" of Bobby Ewing on Dallas (both of them getting hit by a car, then dying in the hospital after telling their families they love them). It seems pretty likely that they'll keep Vinnie around for a few episodes (or possibly even an entire season) before pulling The Reveal the same way Dallas did, essentially doing one of the longest Shout Outs in television history.

• Somewhat JOSSED. Brian returned in the Christmas Guy episode, but there's a theory the whole season could turn out to be a dream.

Brian's killer will never be caught

Considering how Genre Savvy the characters are, they'll probably Break the Fourth Wall, saying that audience would stop caring about it.

Mayor West was killed off along with Brian

During Brian's funeral, Mayor West said to everyone "None of you people came to my funeral." before revealing he was a ghost by fading away. And he hasn't been seen again until "Mom's the Word" ^note except in the anthology episode "Grimm Job".

• A new theory: Mayor West was the one who ran over Brian (no idea why), followed by a crash which would lead to his own demise. Everyone found out he was the murderer and that's why they didn't come to his funeral.
• Even if "Christmas Guy" undid these deaths, it is possible that Stewie also somehow saved Mayor West by saving Brian.

Brian isn't dead, He's Just Hiding

Some fans debate that Brian somehow faked his death and claim seeing him at his own funeral (although it was actually Jasper).

• But still, maybe Brian decided to pursue a new dream, which could only be accomplished if he were to leave the Griffins. So he swapped himself with a duplicate (like a clone or a Brian from another dimension), who would later be hit by that car, in fact driven by our own Brian. After this act, he would change his identity to further diminish the chances of anyone finding him.
• It makes sense. Being a dog, he couldn't just run away, otherwise they would put up Lost Dog posters and search for him.
  • JOSSED. Brian's death was retconned in the Christmas Guy episode.

Death will eventually come to collect another member of the family, prompting Brian to make a Heroic Sacrifice

Stewie's prevention of Brian's death will require an invoking of Balancing Death's Books in an upcoming episode. Bonus points if Stewie is the one Death tries to take with him, instead of Chris or Peter.

The car that killed Brian will return

It seems that whoever was driving that car was deliberately trying to kill America's favourite Martini-sipping pooch. To add more drama, we never got to see the driver. It only makes sense that in another episode (perhaps "Brian the Closer"), the car will come back to kill Brian or try, finally revealing who the driver is and the reason for this heinous act.

Brian will be killed again, but it will be different.

Thanks to Future Stewie having Set Right What Once Went Wrong, Brian knows that he was hit by a car. While he doesn't know if it was intentional, Brian doesn't want to risk it. His solution? Plan methods of resurrecting him! For example, he could put down all the times Stewie has travelled into the future, so when Present Stewie and Past Stewie interact, Present Stewie can warn him. This could lead to, as some suspect, they figure out that they have a murder case on their hands, and plan to go back in time to catch the criminal when planning it. As others suggest, Quagmire is the likeliest culprit. Having him as the murderer would help get rid of him and possibly even making Quagmire Stewie's new arch-enemy.

Vinny will reintroduced into the cast

His time as the Griffin's dog was just to test the waters so to speak. He'll become the pet for Cleveland's family instead.

• Second theory JOSSED. The Browns are back in Quahog and Vinny isn't their pet.
  • NOT YET, at least.

Vinny was hired by Quagmire to kill Brian

Quagmire probably hates Brian enough for him to die, but didn't want to do the job himself, seeing as it may risk the trust that the Griffins place in him. So he hires a hitman (Vinny) to run Brian over. Then he pays Vinny to convince the Griffins into adopting him, so as to fill the void left by Brian's death and to help them move on.

• When Vinny first meets the Griffins, he is somehow aware that they are looking for a new dog. In "Christmas Guy", Vinny also says that he knows several things about Brian and even managed to pull off his famous "whose leg do I have to hump to get a martini" quote. This suggests he isn't what he seems.
  • Given how Vinny helps save Brian, this is either jossed or Vinny regretting what he did.
  • The second theory isn't entirely impossible.

Dog Stewie from "Road the the Multiverse" killed Brian

Following the death of Human Brian (also a hit-and-run), a broken-hearted Dog Stewie wanted to return the favor. The first attempt to run over Brian was foiled when Stewie saved Brian from his fate. So it is obvious that Stewie will become a target to get to Brian (it could involve Brian making a Heroic Sacrifice to save Stewie from the incoming car).

Seth MacFarlane killed Brian

• He somehow got into the Family Guy universe and murdered Brian so that his show could have the highest publicity and possibly get an Emmy for the episode's dramatic scenes.
  • He will return to try to kill him again, and the episode will be heavily hyped up with claims that someone will actually be killed off forever and ever this time and will never, ever, EVER come back. He will be mortally wounded, his identity will be unmasked, he will cryptically explain his actions in his dying moments and the brief video memorial moment that reveals his name will include a request to the viewers to stop clapping.

Brian will die again, this time permanently

Ever since his revival, fans have complained that Brian has become an even bigger douche than before (in moments such as taking advantage of his son, and knowingly giving herpes to an oblivious Stewie and Chris). This is being done to make Brian as unlikeable as possible; so fans will lose every bit of sympathy left for him. So it won't be a big deal when he is killed off again. A number of fans are even starting to miss Vinny too.

• And maybe Stewie will kill him. After reminding him that the only reason Brian is alive is because of him, Brian will continue to douche it up until Stewie decides that he doesn't deserve to live, and kills him quick and clean. Just to hammer it in, he'll then work out how to make the missing part of his time machine, then go back in time and stop himself from rescuing Brian to get rid of his and Chris' herpes.

Brian's death was more insidious than we thought.

Contrary to the above theory where they're making Brian unlikeable to kill him off, they killed him into the first place to get away with it! By killing off Brian in a brutal fashion, they'd make us sad that he's gone and we'd want them back, especially by adding Vinny. Their thought process was to abuse our concern and thus we'd tolerate Brian being a dick. There's a possibility this might go back further than we thought: ever since the "The Reason You Suck" Speech delivered by Quagmire, they've been beating Brian down. What if that's part of trying to make the jerky, glorified Brian they adore seem like the lesser evil-and everything since "Jerome is the New Black" was part of this plan.

If Brian were to die a second time, it will correlate to "Stewie Is Enceinte"

The episode in question is slated to be about Stewie being pregnant with Brian's baby. Assuming the baby will be a puppy, he will be Brian's replacement when his father dies (most likely in an episode afterwards).

Brian's death, revival and they hype surrounding it was a thinly veiled cry for help from Seth Mac Farlane.

As stated above, there are a few theories pointing to the possibility of Mac Farlane having some form of clinical depression as evidenced with his Author Avatar showing occasional suicidal tendencies. In "Life Of Brian," said character is brutally killed in an effort to wring the viewer for every drop of empathy they might have left for him, and his revival comes with the moral "Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash", which could just as easily be interpreted as "You'll all be sorry when I'm gone!"

Brian would've/will die prematurely anyway.

The movie showed Brian in Heaven after getting into garbage and eating some chocolate. While it could just be how Heaven works, Brian isn't any older looking there than now- and if he ate chocolate, it wouldn't be a natural death. All getting run over did was shave off a year or so- so Death's statement of seeing them very soon is still very accurate.

Stan Smith killed Brian.

He's had an experience with time travel, and the CIA has a time machine. At some point they became aware of Brian and Stewie screwing around with time travel, especially after "Back to the Pilot." To prevent history from being changed, the CIA first framed Stewie's supplier with a drawing of Mohammed. They would've just gone to Brian's house and smash the machine, but Stewie managed to do it for them. Finally, to prevent them ever trying to rebuild a time machine, they hired Stan to run Brian over. Why? Stan has experience with the field of time travel, and admits that his favourite dog is Brian Griffin, so there's plausible deniability.

So why wasn't Stewie targeted? Simply put, they didn't think a baby was responsible for building a time machine. Having brain-switching technology, Brian's intellect and personality could be explained as a consequence of brain-switching tech instead of the actual reason(being part of an animated sitcom.) There hasn't been any example of brain switching with babies(one can hope), so they never noticed. "Stewie" could just be Brian's code name. Once they found where he lived, they decided that the opinionated ultra-liberal was the most likely to not only invent a time machine, and use it against them. So they ran him over.

Brian's killer is his future self.

Now let me explain. Ever since Brian was brought back in "Christmas Guy", he's done some pretty horrendous things, mainly giving herpes to his supposed best friend Stewie. Now, at some point in the future, I think Brian will do something so horrible that it will leave him with immense guilt, which will then prompt him to go back in time and kill himself in the past. (Still have to wonder where the hell the car he's driving came from, though.) So yeah, he's basically committed suicide by way of temporal paradox.

Brian's killer is his past self.

Inverse of the above while avoiding a nasty paradox. Since Season 8 Brian has demonstrated a suicide plan, however he couldn't go through with pulling the trigger on himself. Fearing the immediate pain and loss of consciousness, he decided to target his future self as it would allow the cognitive dissonance to go through with it. It didn't work, and disturbed at the thought of offing himself he went back to the past/present and drank himself into a stupor, not remembering what happened and as such not being prepared. When Stewie saved him the past Brian still drank it away, just over the confusion and realization that if he would've saved him like that, literal murder-suicide was a bad idea.

Al Qaeda killed Brian.

They wanted revenge on Stewie for the time he kicked their ass. It's rather coincidental that the guy Stewie needs for his time machine parts died for drawing Mohammed when Brian died. If Al Qaeda was involved, that's no coincidence-they needed to make sure Stewie had no way of saving his friend. Targeting Brian instead of Stewie was Revenge by Proxy, and they used terrorist connections to hire someone to kill Brian. They haven't tried again because the assassin couldn't risk being caught working with Al Qaeda.

Brian's killer is not only still at large, but is now plotting to go after Stewie too

Stewie manages to save Brian from the unseen killer's first attempt. Little do they know that he/she has other plans in the making. They have to reveal who was inside that car!

James Woods was the one who killed Brian.

James has had it out with the Griffins forever (mostly Peter, but to some extent, Brian as well) and would do anything to make them miserable. Well, what would make the family more miserable than killing off a beloved family pet? Now while Brian's death wasn't an accident, James wasn't planning on killing Brian, he just happened to be driving down Spooner Street when Stewie and Brian were playing street hockey. But once he saw Brian, he decided to floor it and made road pizza of him in the most gruesome, violent way possible.

"Life of Brian" takes place in an alternate future

Taking place after the events of "Cat Fight", where Brian's actions lead to Quagmire's cat cafe being shut down and subsequently all of his cats dying. What happened in our timeline was the two finally making up and ending their rivalry. But in this alternate timeline, the rivalry reaches a breaking point where Quagmire's hatred reaches homicidal levels and he (either personally or with an accomplice) decides to get Brian out of his life in the only way possible.

Meta theory-The Family Guy writers are withholding who ran over Brian on purpose.

It's possible that because they were going to undo it later in the same season, they didn't have any culprit thought out. But maybe they did. Why never reveal it? Well afterwards no-one's gonna really care about "Life of Brian" as we all know he comes back, so they might as well squeeze some traction out of the episode. And they do so by never revealing in hopes fans continue to speculate. That, or they like trolling the audience.

Seth MacFarlane intended for Brian to be killed off permanently, but the executives insisted otherwise

Seth is no longer involved with the show's writing and may have wanted to express his departure by killing off his Author Avatar and bring real change to the show. But because Family Guy is a Cash-Cow Franchise, the executives didn't want to risk change for the sake of money, so they settled on a compromise: bring Brian back just two episodes later but warp his character so severely that he no longer feels like the same Brian the show started with.

Why Quagmire showed up at Brian's funeral despite his hatred of him

The Griffins and/or Ida insisted he come because it would mean so much to them. He agreed only on the condition that he doesn't pay heed to Brian's eulogy. Maybe he had a few words himself, not good words per se, but words nonetheless.

Brian's killer will randomly and briefly be revealed in an episode

Considering what the show has become, is it really much of a stretch to assume there will be a scene where a character just casually admits they were the one responsible for running over Brian? And then it gets completely glossed over as another quick gag.