After a time-traveling mission gone wrong, Stewie decides to destroy his time machine once and for all — which proves to be disastrous when Brian gets hit by a car and dies, and what's worse, the supply guy Stewie goes to for plutonium is arrested for drawing Mohammed. While the Griffins get a new dog in memory of Brian, Stewie has a hard time forgetting his canine companion.
This episode contains examples of:
- Accidental Truth: While Joe questions how the black woman hitting him with a purse knew Brian at his funeral, the woman is technically right to chide Joe on finding out who did this. The man who ran Brian down was never caught, and no one seemed to be looking into that.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: At Family Guy DVDs being packaged out of season order and being labelled as "Volumes" rather than "Seasons".
- Bittersweet Ending: After a month of grieving Brian, the Griffins decide to take in a new dog, Vinny. Stewie struggles to accept him, taking Brian's death the hardest, until Vinny bonds with him by talking about his former owner’s death. The final shot of the episode is Vinny going to sleep next to Stewie’s bed.
- The Bus Came Back: Cleveland makes an appearance at Brian's funeral along with his new wife Donna, presumably traveling all the way from Stoolbend for the funeral.
- The Cameo: Practically everyone at Brian's funeral.
- Chekhov's Gun: Stewie mentions a seemingly unassuming incident about traveling forward in time to beat the rush for new Christmas toys. Two episodes later, he and Vinny spot that exact Stewie doing that, which allows present-Stewie to borrow his return pad and go back to save Brian.
- Continuity Nod:
- While at the vet waiting on Brian's surgery, Peter talks with a chicken who had his head cut off. The chicken tells him he doesn't want to talk with him because he has a bad reputation with the chicken community, a reference to the repeated fights Peter keeps getting into with the Giant Chicken.
- Vinny asks Stewie about the vomit smell in the living room carpet, a reference to the infamous "ipecac vomiting sequence" from season 4's "Eight Simple Rules for Buying My Teenaged Daughter".
- Diabolus ex Machina: Brian's death comes out of absolutely nowhere, no jokes are said (much), and no elaboration is done on the driver who ran him over. His death is forced to be played seriously throughout the whole episode.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even Jerkasses Have Loved Ones: Stewie really shows he loves Brian (as do the rest of the Griffins).
- Everybody Cries: The Griffins are reduced to tears in Brian's final moments, and everyone except Quagmire cries when Peter gives his speech.
- Grey Rain of Depression: At Brian's funeral, sort of. It's not raining, but it is overcast, so it counts.
- Hope Spot: Not restricted to this episode, but a few future episode titles were shown to have Brian's name in them, meaning that Brian's death wasn't going to be permanent.
- Knight of Cerebus: Whoever runs over Brian definitely qualifies.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Stewie destroys his time machine to prevent any more disastrous alternate futures. Then Brian is killed in a hit-and-run and Stewie's sources run dry so he can't rebuild the time machine and save Brian.
- Odd Reaction Out: Peter gives a eulogy at Brian's funeral that moves the attendees to tears. But Quagmire, known to hate Brian's guts, is instead watching a ball game on his phone.Quagmire: Dammit, Ortiz! Stop swinging at junk!
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Stewie desperately begs Brian not to die on him.Stewie: Damn it, Brian! You can't die! We were gonna do so many things together! We were gonna become windsurfers! I was gonna be a little better than you, but we were both gonna be good!
- Riddle for the Ages: The crazy driver who ran over Brian doesn't even get a shot of their face.
- Sassy Black Woman: Joe tends to avoid funerals because he apparently always gets hit with a purse by a black woman. Sure enough, one starts swatting Joe with her purse while screaming at him stuff like "You make sure this angel child didn't die for nothing" and "You show the world why you became a cop!"
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the episode is a direct reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- To "Swan Song," the Season 8 finale of Dallas note , where Bobby Ewing is struck by a car and dies of his injuries note . Both the scene where Brian is gravely injured and the follow-up scene at the hospital – a barely coherent Brian is saying his goodbyes to the family, who are tearfully gathered around his bedside – are borrowed heavily from the ending to said Dallas episode.
- Shown Their Work: The cutaway with women voting is actually on the nose: Warren G. Harding was able to win the woman vote because he was considered very handsome.
- Spoiler Title: Pretty much.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted in the case of Brian's death but played straight about two episodes later.
- Time Skip: The episode skips forward a month after Brian’s funeral.
- Undying Loyalty: Stewie remains loyal to Brian after he dies.
- Wham Episode: Brian dies following a hit and run - and contrary to the show’s usual format, there’s no easy fix to bring him back before the end of the episode.
- You Are Not Alone: Vinny to Stewie—it's what actually convinces Stewie that Vinny might not be all bad.
