Original air date: 8/15/2001 (produced in 2000)
Production code: 2ACX-21
It's Peter and Lois' wedding anniversary, but Peter decides to ditch being together with her in order to go to an exclusive golf course. While leaving his family occupied with an extensive scavenger hunt, Peter is suddenly struck by lightning and has a near-death experience which involves meeting Death himself, ending up on a trip through time to rediscover his love for his wife and save their marriage.
"Death Lives" contains examples of...
- Already Met Everyone: Before this episode aired, the show implied that Peter (and by extension the rest of the Griffins) met Quagmire and Cleveland as neighbors, but this episode shows that they had all previously met while helping to escort Peter back to Rhode Island.Quagmire: So long, I hope you find your girl!
Peter: Thanks, Quagmire! Hope I live next door to you some day! - An Aesop: Death at first claims that Peter is required to find a revelation from his Near-Death Experience in order to return to his body. However, once Peter starts to get on his nerves, Death threatens to send him back prematurely to his surely doomed marriage, but Peter manages to tag on a little longer by deciding to help him on a personal favor. After completing his own journey in remembering how he and Lois came to be married, he finally gets his revelation and figures out to solve his relationship with Lois.
- Angry Guard Dog: When a young Peter finally makes it back to the Pewterschmidt residence, he ends up running into one of these and ends up climbing up the vines into the window to escape.
- As Himself: Peter Frampton voices himself, sought after by Death on Peter's request to play a solo version of "Baby, I Love Your Way" for Lois.
- Basement-Dweller: This episode reveals that Death still lives with his overbearing mom. He's annoyed by her and wishes "that dad was still dead", but he doesn't seem to get how embarrassing it is to bring up when trying to talk with girls at the beach.
- Breakfast in Bed: Peter places a tray of breakfast over a sleeping Lois, along with the first clue to a phony Scavenger Hunt to keep her busy while he spends their anniversary golfing. Seconds after Peter leaves, Lois rolls over in her sleep, spilling the contents everywhere.
- The Bus Came Back: Death is a major character in the episode, whose last substantial role was in "Death is a Bitch" (though he also appeared for a brief Cutaway Gag in "Wasted Talent"). His and Peter's first line to each other draws attention to this:Peter/Death: You again!?
- Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Peter's very first interaction with his soon-to-be father-in-law, Carter, proved to be so awkward and unimpressive for the latter that Carter knocked Peter out with a statuette, had his servants roll him up on a carpet, then had Peter dumped out into the middle of the ocean via helicopter.
- Captain Oblivious:
- A young Peter and Lois make out on the street, and aside from hearing Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way", they completely fail to give any mind to the fact they just caused a tanker truck to swerve, crash, and explode right next to them. Even the present-day Peter and Death don't seem to give it much thought.
- Later, Peter hitches a ride with Cleveland back to Rhode Island, but as they pass through South Carolina, they end up being chased by the Ku Klux Klan. Peter assumes they're being chased by ghosts.
- Dem Bones: Played for Laughs when Death finally has it with Peter and the two get in a fight. Peter accidentally rips Death's bone arm off, but Death still manages to poke at Peter's eyes, to which Peter starts hitting him with it. After Amy shows up to break up the fight, Death casually reattaches it back into its proper socket.
- Epic Fail: One Cutaway Gag shows the results of Peter attempting to change Stewie's diaper. The diaper ends up in the lamp socket and the lightbulb ends up where Stewie's diaper should be.Stewie: Lois, he's done it again!
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Parodied; when Death first tries to talk to Amy at the pet store she works at, ALL the animals — dogs, cats, and birds — go utterly ballistic at him to the point where Amy can't hear him.
- Fingore: One of Peter's previous last-minute anniversary gifts to Lois was his own thumb (which he tried passing off as something he got off eBay). Even he realized it was a huge mistake.
- I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: While flashing back to Peter and Lois' youth in the 70's, Death recognizes his past self at the scene, and is pretty embarrassed by the fact he was one of these, with tie-dye robes and an afro.
- Mental Time Travel: Death is revealed to have this power in the episode, allowing him to take Peter on a trip down his own memory lane without interfering. Compare this to "Meet the Quagmires" two seasons later, where his Time Travel is more literal and past events can change the present.
- Near-Death Experience: Peter experiences one after being struck by lightning, prompting his encounter with Death. After some soul-searching and a journey through time, he manages to return back to the land of the living.
- Nightmare Face: We don't get a direct look at it, but during the middle of a conversation, Peter puts down Death's hood and screams in terror — the most the audience sees is the back of a maggot-infested skull with a snake slithering through it — then puts it back up and casually resumes his sentence without missing a beat (and then pukes offscreen once they finish the exchange).
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: While at Barrington, Peter accidentally bonks a guy in the head with a golf ball while he's in the middle of a phone call. It ends up causing a commotion at the stock market.Businessman 1: The fed is going to be lowering, so get your money out of T-bills and put it all into— (gets hit in the head with a stray ball and goes cross-eyed) Waffles, tasty waffles, with lots of syrup!
Businessman 2: Waffles! Buy waffles! (crowd of investors goes nuts to put stocks in waffles) - Obnoxious In-Laws: This episode establishes that Carter Pewterschmidt's hostile animosity with Peter was near-instantaneous. To wit, their first meeting has him club Peter in the head, then taken out to be dumped in the middle of the ocean buck naked.
- Pensieve Flashback: How Peter and Death observe Peter's flashbacks.
- Potty Failure: Apparently Peter according to Death."Oh, and, uh, by the way, when the lightning hit you, you soiled yourself! Enjoy."
- Scavenger Hunt: The B-plot for the episode centers around Lois and the kids participating in a clue-seeking one arranged by Peter, ostensibly to celebrate their anniversary but in actuality just to distract them as he goes golfing (and then having his journey with Death). The locations of the clues they seek out are nuts, from the top of a greased flagpole, to a greyhound in the middle of the race, to the underground sewer.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: The episode reveals that Carter offered Peter a million dollars in a last-ditch attempt to get him to stay away from Lois. Peter instantly ripped up the check because their love is just that strong.
- Too Dumb to Live: Narrowly subverted by technicality. As Peter continues golfing during a storm, a lightning bolt hits a huge tree next to him. He wisely realizes it's dangerously close to falling over... then less than wisely tries to wrap his belt around it and pull it towards him, though he doesn't manage to get it to move and gives up. Then another bolt of lightning comes down, hitting him instead.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Much of the episode shows how Peter first hit it off with Lois and the trials he went through to eventually be with her. It also shows how he first met Quagmire and Cleveland before they became neighbors.
