Quagmire meets an avid dog lover, and pretends Brian is his dog in an attempt to win her over. Meanwhile, Chris helps Stewie track down the culprit who stole his Halloween candy.
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: Brian and Quagmire had apparently resolved their ongoing feud in "Cat Fight", though within a short period together as part of the plan, they are quickly acting rude and critical towards each other again, with Brian even admitting he only took part in the scheme to spitefully watch everything fall apart for Quagmire.
- Although the fact that at the end, Quagmire only gets his revenge by making Brian read Sheamus' screenplay instead of another verbal (or physical) beatdown, does show that he IS more lenient towards Brian and that they still do have a little respect for each other.
- Artistic License – History: Brian urinates on the grave of William Henry Hoover, who is credited with inventing the vacuum cleaner. James Murray Spangler actually invented the vacuum cleaner and sold the patent to Hoover.
- Comically Small Bribe: Brian agrees to pretend to be Quagmire's dog for only six tennis balls.
- Complexity Addiction: Chris takes Stewie to his backyard tree to hide his candy by using a mysterious van. He states its because they couldn't risk being seen; though Chris was leading Stewie along so he and Peter can steal his candy.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Quagmire convinces Seamus to ask Brian to read his ridiculously long screenplay as payback for the latter's Kick the Dog moments towards Quagmire throughout the episode.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A rare inversion. After making Quagmire's life a living hell just out of spite, Brian's so-called "punishment" has him forced to read Seamus' bloated screenplay.
- Fair-Weather Foe: Quagmire might hate Brian, but he's certainly not above begging Brian for help to get a girl.
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Quagmire lies several times all so he and Carrie can still stay together. After being unable to maintain his lies, he eventually comes clean about all of it, ending his relationship with Carrie.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Brian invokes this in order to screw with Quagmire.
- Halloween Episode: The subplot is about Chris and Stewie finding the thief who stole the latter's candy. The start of the episode also has various characters dressed up for Halloween.
- Hypocrite: Despite his vehement dislike of Brian's pretentiousness and unctuous demeanour, this episode shows that Quagmire isn't above going to the same lows to get what he wants. Brian quite expectedly savours every moment.
- Hypocritical Humor: Quagmire is sure Brian will ruin the whole act in front of Carrie, only for Quagmire to nervously mangle through even thinking up a fake name for Brian.
- I Got a Rock: Quagmire gives out fruit for Halloween. In an inversion of the usual reason for doing this, it's not because he dislikes giving out candy, but because fruit has lots of sugar in it.Quagmire: There's a lot of sugar in an apple. If you saw the numbers, you'd be shocked!
- Innocently Insensitive: While Brian exacerbates it, Quagmire's relationship with with Carrie falls downhill due to her fanatical fondness for dogs, overstacking Quagmire's house with dozens of them and being utterly oblivious to the misery they cause him.
- Introverted Cat Person: Comes back to haunt Quagmire in this episode. While he has personal reasons for hating Brian, it is made clear that he just hates dogs indiscriminately due to being rambunctious and clingy compared to his cozy affection for cats.
- Jerkass: Brian, who makes Quagmire's new life with Carrie a living hell just to watch him "crash and burn".
- Jerkass Has a Point: As cruel as Brian is about the charade, he does point out from the get-go that it's a dumb scheme for the sake of a quick fling and in all likeliness Quagmire will quickly get tired of the sex and move on anyway, something Quagmire rudely rebuffs as just Brian being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All again.
- Karma Houdini:
- Aside from being forced to read Seamus' ridiculously long screenplay, Brian doesn't receive any adequate punishment for making Quagmire's life a living hell with Carrie's dogs or ruining his and Carrie's relationship.
- Also, Peter and Chris get away with stealing the rest of Stewie's candy.
- Kick the Dog: Brian sets up events to get Quagmire with Carrie, just so he can watch it all fall apart. After Quagmire and Carrie end their relationship after a engagement party due to Carrie's many dogs, Brian smugly gloats about Quagmire's failure with Carrie.
- Liar Revealed: Eventually, after a stampede of dogs ruins the party, Quagmire is forced to admit that he doesn't like dogs after all, and that he's not really Brian's owner. Furious at being lied to, Carrie breaks up with him.
- Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Inverted; though Quagmire tries to hide his cat affiliation from dog lover Carrie.
- Rule of Three: When Quagmire implores Brian to be his dog in order to please his new girlfriend, Brian smugly does three pretentious things while gloating his head off.
- Shipper with an Agenda: A particularly cruel variation with Brian, who deliberately sets up dog-loving Carrie with Quagmire, who dislikes dogs, out of spite.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is taken from the book and movie of the same name.
- Mayor West dresses as Borat.
- Lois is dressed as Marge Simpson for Halloween and even imitates her distinctive voice.
- Meg is dressed as Robin Buckley from Stranger Things.
- Peter is dressed as Matt Foley, but claims this is a coincidence. Then he makes a reference to Chris Farley and his drug overdose death.
- Stewie mentions and Peter re-enacts the Robert Redford smiling and nodding meme from Jeremiah Johnson.
