After Peter comes home from soiling himself at work, he's hit with devastating news: his mother, Thelma, is dead from a stroke. And things get worse when Peter befriends Thelma's friend Evelyn (voiced by golden age Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall, in what would be her final role before she died months later), who hits on him. Meanwhile, Stewie worries about death, and after visiting several religions, Brian drives Stewie to suicide after he tells them that because of his atheism, Brian believes that there is no afterlife and once someone dies, that's it.
Tropes associated with this episode include:
- Artistic License – Religion: Catholics are mocked for believing in salvation by faith alone, which is more of a Protestant concept. note If Catholics believed that, they wouldn't have confessions.
- The Character Died With Her: In-universe. The revelation that Thelma Griffin is deceased, the storyline coming after the death of her voice actress, Phyllis Diller.
- Death Seeker: Stewie for most of the episode, after finding out that there's seemingly no afterlife and that life is "just sitting there waiting for death".
- The Ditz: Until this episode, Peter thought that ducks were magic.
- I Reject Your Reality: A
Deleted Scene has Peter giving a speech to Lois that advises her to invoke this trope.Peter: Well, you see, Lois, the key in life is to lie to yourself about reality. Smile through everything. All the bad things, well you just pile them down until they come back in the form of...I dunno, rage? - Karma Houdini: Osama bin Laden, as seen in a cutaway gag. He gets to go to heaven because he accepted Jesus as his lord and savior.
- Noodle Incident: Some of the incidents under Thought They Knew Already qualify. Also, Peter claims he was a dragon when he was 8 and has some odd footprints that indicate he might be telling the truth.
- Potty Emergency: A big one when Peter is at work, due to him eating raw cookie dough (he thought it was a raisin sausage). He fails to reach the bathroom in time, partly due to all his co-workers getting in his way in the hallway.
- Shout-Out: To the Airplane! scene where Rex fights his way through a throng of religious missionaries when Peter rushes to the bathroom before he soils himself.
- Suicide as Comedy: Stewie tries to hang himself, Suicide by Cop, and throwing a toaster in a bathtub respectively. The rope fails to kill Stewie because his misshapen head won't allow the rope to fully fit around his neck. The cop happens to be Joe, who is actively hoping Stewie will kill him instead. The toaster merely transforms Stewie into a superhero.
- Take That!: "Buddhism is an Asian religion that also has a significant following of annoying white people."
- Thought They Knew Already: When Peter comes home after soiling himself at work, he sees his friends and family gathered in the living room waiting for him. He jumps to the conclusion that they're there to make fun of him, so he decides to get things out of the way and reveal a number of embarrassing or outright horrifying secrets about himself because he assumed that everyone else already found out about them.Peter: Oh, I see. Oh, you're all here because you heard the news! Well, fine! Peter Griffin crapped himself at work! Happy?
Lois: Peter-
Peter: No, no, Lois, l-let's get it all out! I'm sure you also heard that someone walked into my office while I was sucking on my own toes! And do I go fast-walking in nurse's shoes every Saturday in the park? Yes, I do!
Joe: Peter, we're not here because of any of that.
Peter: Okay, I know what this is about: somebody saw me holding hands with a guy in Quizno's this morning! Alright! And was I involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing? A little bit!
Quagmire: No, Peter, you're not getting it.
Peter: Okay, we'll go deeper! Yeah, I was swindled by that cat who said he was from the future! Turns out, he was just a present-day cat with a smooth sales pitch!
Meg: Dad, you don't understand.
Peter: Oh, I understand. I understand I've made hundreds of deadly enemies by shouting racial taunts up at the jailhouse windows! Oh, and another thing: raise your hand if you think ducks are magic! [raises his hand] And up it goes! Peter's the only one!
