Dateless on Valentine's Day, Brian meets another talking dog (a female show-dog named Ellie). While Lois and Peter try convincing Chris his Valentines version of Santa isn't real.
Tropes:
- Artistic License: Professional dog breeding is not at all like it's depicted here, though it's likely done for comedy/drama for the sake of the episode. Among the inaccuracies:
- Ellie's owners plan to breed her to whichever dog wins Best in Show, regardless of whether that dog is the same breed as her or not. note
- The act of breeding takes place right after the show.
- When Brian can't perform, he's immediately replaced by the runner-up. Not by Ellie's owners, either, but by the show staff.
- Best Her to Bed Her: Ellie's owners will only allow her to have sex with the winner of the dog show, which motivates Brian to become a show dog.
- Birds of a Feather: Ellie is a female talking dog who shares similar interests with Brian, which is what made him infatuated with her.
- Boy Meets Girl: Brian with Ellie. The title even references the trope by name.
- Cassandra Truth: When Peter and Lois tell Chris that Arthur Valentine isn't real, he refuses to believe it.
- Coming-Out Story: Parodied in the cutaway regarding Scott the waiter where he reveals his homosexuality to Peter and Lois. Peter does not take it well.
- Character Death: Joe's Mom.
- Continuity Nod: Though possibly on accident, Lois' method of killing Arthur Valentine was eerily similar to Brian's death in "Life of Brian." Both instances involved the victim being hit by a car, in that exact location, on the road just outside the house.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lois reveals to a catatonic Chris that she ran over a jaywalker, and she constantly talks and asks questions to keep herself from thinking about it.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Stewie applauded his own jokes with a training clicker, but refused to congratulate himself for a joke about 9/11.
- Extreme Omnivore: There's an extensive list of non-food items that Peter's eaten.Billy Joel: [singing] Lots of Legos, rubber bands, Web-Shooting Spider Man, an old pet rock, an antique clock, a tub of red Play-Doh, colored pencils, lots of nickles, half a jar of Vlasic pickles, banjo strings, chicken wings, a single by Cee-Lo.
- Friendless Background: According to Peter and Lois, Chris' preschool-classmates found him to be really weird, at least partly because he takes his shirt off when he pees. This made him extremely sad and depressed and it's the reason his parents came up with the whole "Arthur Valentine" thing.
- Fun with Homophones: The German Shepherd bit.
- Furry Reminder: Brian remembers too late that chocolate is poisonous to dogs.
- Gainax Ending: This episode literally admits to not having an ending, by throwing in a self-referential musical number instead of doing anything to resolve its two plotlines.
- Hypocrite: Brian was desperate to win the dog show just so he could breed with Ellie, yet in "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", he refused to do dog tricks in another dog show, even though the prize money could have bought the family a new air conditioner, which they needed.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Brian and Stewie say they were supposed to be on one of the 9/11 planes. This is a reference to Seth MacFarlane (who voices both Stewie and Brian) who was supposed to be on American Airlines Flight 11 but missed the flight.
- Manchild: Chris acted like a five year old over Arthur Valentine. Even if he did still believe in his existence, he wouldn't go around putting bowls of tuna under his bed every year, or whatever it is he was doing.
- Moment Killer: Quagmire. He had an all-access pass to anything sexual and ruins Brian's moment with Ellie as the two are forced to part.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lois killed a jaywalker.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Lois killed Arthur Valentine, all she did was wear a blonde wig over her red hair.
- Performance Anxiety: Brian gets this when he has to mate with Ellie in front of the judges
- Shout-Out: It's possible that "Arthur Valentine" is a reference to the Valentine's Day themed Arthur children's book, "Arthur's Valentine".
- Sudden Musical Ending: Featuring Billy Joel singing his Family Guy rendition of 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.
- Syndication Title: This episode was originally called "Brian Dates a Bitch", but the censors must have thought it was too obscene to present as the main title.
- Take That!: Chris makes a comment about The Walking Dead (2010) after thinking that Arthur Valentine has come back as a zombie.Chris: I've seen the walking dead before! I have to kill you and then talk about it for the next five and a half hours!
- Too Dumb to Live: As previously stated, Brian ate a box of chocolate (which is poisonous to dogs) and had to be rushed to the vet to get his stomach pumped.
- Valentine's Day Episodes: Family Guy's second Valentine's Day episode since "Valentine's Day in Quahog".
- We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies:
- After Peter gets his stomach pumped, Billy Joel shows up to sing a song listing all the non-foods they found in Peter’s digestive tract.
- The episode ends with Billy Joel returning and singing a brief recap of the episode’s events, with all the characters joining in to make up for the lack of a proper ending.
