Peter ends up emasculated after abandoning Lois amidst a shark attack on their anniversary. Meanwhile, Stewie decides to embrace the dorm lifestyle after finding a mini fridge.
Tropes:
- Comically Missing the Point: Straddles the line between this and Dramatically Missing the Point. Instead of feeling bad or guilty, Peter tries at first to just change the subject, and then to make amends by stealing a flower vase from a memorial on the road. After Lois calls out his selfish attitude to him, Peter thinks the way to fix things is to stage a "rescue" for her.
- Department of Redundancy Department: As part of Stewie's college kid lifestyle, he claims to be attending "The University of College".
- Dirty Coward: The moment Peter sees what he thinks to be a shark fin, he proceeds to shove Lois out of the way, before taking and driving the boat away, abandoning her in the water.
- Forgotten Anniversary: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Peter forgets his anniversary once again, and has to come up with a quick plan for him and Lois; ironically, just about everyone else in their lives DOES remember.
- Gainax Ending: The episode ends with a devastated Brian finding Stewie frozen to death in a pile of snow before transitioning to a photo of him in an old photo in a parody of The Shining.
- It's All About Me: In the span of just a couple minutes, Peter abandons Lois to die from what they think is a shark, taking the boat all the way back to shore, before ditching her so he can get a hot chocolate for himself (to add insult to injury, he says that to her while she's screaming for help). To top it all off, he then takes a humiliating photo of her just so he can make a Facebook post.
- Kill It with Ice: Stewie dies at the end of the episode after he leaves the mini-fridge door open too long and freezes to death. Suffice to say, he's perfectly fine in the next episode.
- Mind Screw: While Stewie acting like a college student and even getting a roommate just because of the mini-fridge is can be chalked up to him committing to the bit, one really has to wonder where the other "University of College" students are coming from to party and how they're actually attending classes in the Griffin home. Not only that, but only Brian witnesses any of it at all. Given how the ending parodies The Shining, it's possible we're meant to infer that the mini-fridge is supernatural.
- Obsessive Hobby Episode: In a rare instance in the show when it isn't focused about Peter, Stewie acquires a mini-fridge, and proceeds to rebuild his entire life around it.
- Shark Fin of Doom: The catalyst of the conflict is kicked off by Peter and Lois spotting what they think is a shark fin headed their way, leading the former to abandon the latter to die, though it turns out to just be a dolphin. In the third act, another fin appears, though this time it is a shark.
- Shout-Out:
- The ending of the episode is a direct homage of The Shining, with Stewie taking Jack Torrance's place in an old black and white photo of a student function at the University of College.
- Peter also references Coco after stealing a road side flower display.
- Skinny Dipping: Peter takes Lois on a motorboat outing during the night, and end up jumping in the water together naked.
- Threatening Shark: Subverted, invoked, and played straight all in a single episode. The first instance it turns out to be a dolphin, not a shark; then Quagmire helps concoct a scheme where he pretends to be a shark to help redeem Peter; it comes full when Peter is knocked into the water, and is accosted by an actual shark, and has to be saved by Lois.
- Uncertain Doom: Neither Stewie's college roommate nor the other party-goers are shown frozen at the end, leaving it uncertain if they were also frozen or not. Though given the implications noted by the ending, it's entirely possible they never existed in the first place.
