Production code: 2ACX-18
Lois becomes a black belt while working out the aggression she feels toward the tourists who flock to Quahog during autumn.
This episode contains examples of:
- Acquainted with Emergency Services: Quagmire's window slams on his junk and he calls 911 for assistance. Based on his line "It's in a window this time," it appears that he's a frequent caller.
- Author's Retaliation: Peter expresses his frustration with Fox. Lois warns him that he shouldn't, but Peter scoffs, "What're they gonna do, cut our budget?" He then walks to the kitchen... with only one animation frame with very rough movement.
- Big Brother Bully: Inverted; Chris, the younger brother, draws pictures of Meg with a pig's body.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: After the family has their big fight scene, the family contemplates what even provoked the violence in their system they just spent getting out, which Lois hypothesizes is the violent TV they watch. Peter takes it a step further and shames the network that allows such "junk" on the air, which Lois advises against, to which Peter responds incredulously by saying "What are they gonna do? Cut our budget?" The final few seconds of the episode ends with extremely Limited Animation.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Though Peter is obviously overwhelmed by Lois’s Taijutsu skills near the end of their fight, he doesn’t go down without a few good hits here and there.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Stewie hits Peter in the head with a baseball bat simply because he was eating his graham crackers.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Surprisingly downplayed: After winning a tijutsu match, Lois demands sex from Peter and doesn't care if he's unwilling to consent or not. While Peter's awkward, scarred behavior in the morning is played somewhat for laughs, Brian expresses immediate concern when Peter explains what happened. Said behavior inadvertently provokes Stewie into smacking Peter in the head with a baseball bat, in turn causing Lois to realize that her aggression was negatively impacting her family.
- Dramatic Irony: Lois and Peter believe Stewie striking the latter to be the first violent thing he's ever done and that he only did this because Lois practised martial arts. Anyone who's watched one episode of the series so far will know that Stewie always had ideas of inflicting harm on others without outside influence, and very often has acted on it.
- Fake High: While under the influence of Brian’s “mood-enhancing pills,” the Griffins imitate South African mbube group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
- Faux Horrific: The characters reaction to the New Yorkers’ arrival in the cold open.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: Bonnie feels her baby kicking and invites Peter to feel it. Because she had been taking taijutsu lessons, the unborn child gives Peter one hell of a kick to the face.Peter: Oh, you are freakin' dead, kid!
- Halfway Plot Switch: Twice! The episode goes from being about New York tourists invading Quahog to Lois becoming more aggressive after getting a black belt to the Griffin family dealing with their mutually repressed anger.
- Hates Being Touched: Chris says this to Meg after she shoves him for defending their dad and they fight.
- Hypocritical Humor: "Nobody walks all over my wife because I won't let 'em" "Peter..." "Quiet, men are talking"
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Stewie knocks Peter out with a baseball bat, Lois comes to the horrible realization that she brought violence into the family with her taijutsu and immediately meets up with a family therapist.
- Never My Fault: Though the above trope is later subverted as when the therapist asks where the violence is coming from and Peter says it's from Lois, she tries to pass the blame on him.Lois: Now, just a minute! The whole reason I started fighting is because of you. I felt weak. You never listen to me. You undermine me in front of the kids. And besides, you're not exactly Father of the Year yourself.
- Noodle Incident: When Peter holds a "Fight the ass kicking wife stand" Lois says she's not a sideshow attraction anymore. Then it shows a clip of Lois as a feral cave person bouncing on a trampoline chanting "Me likey bouncy!". Later at the Drunken Clam, Peter offers to take her to the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. Lois starts chanting "Me likey breadsticks!" before getting herself under control.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is an obvious reference to Lethal Weapon.
- Peter says in one line that "Brothers and sisters fighting is as natural as a white man's dialog in a Spike Lee movie," followed by a cutaway specifically referencing Do the Right Thing.
- Lois at one points comments that she's cutting loose, just like "Julie Andrews in that movie where she shows her breasts." The following gag is not of S.O.B., but Mary Poppins.
- "Come one, come all! She floats like a butterfly, stings like when I pee!"
- At the bar, Peter says “Krypton sucks,” and a few of the characters that Lois fights off at the Drunken Clam are General Zod, Ursa, and Non. She even sends them flying off into the Phantom Zone.
- At one point, Peter calls Lois' sensei Ralph Macchio, no doubt a reference to his role in The Karate Kid (1984).
- During her Training Montage, Lois is shown trying and failing to kick a football being held down by Lucy von Pelt.
- Once she prepares to fight her sensei, Lois' Pre-Asskicking One-Liner is "spin the wheel, raggedy man!"
- "Ooh, look at me! I'm insane! I'm Martin Lawrence on a bender!"
- The part where Lois grabs Peter’s crotch and says “This is mine! This is where my babies come from!” is a reference to a real incident that happened between O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson when they were still married.
- Peter calls Lois “Martin Mull” because of her bleaching the facial hair in her upper lip. Mull is notable for sporting a blond upper lip mustache and has guest-starred in the show in "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'".
- While the family lists derogatory terms for a fat person, Stewie shouts “country virtuoso Roy Clark.”
- In Stewie’s fantasy radio program, he interviews deceased variety show host Ed Sullivan and then imitates a commercial for the board game Operation.
- Peter watches a fictitious sequel to the film Speed 2: Cruise Control, titled Speed 3: Glacier of Doom.
- Spiteful Spit: Peter's "letter" to work out his feelings about Lois only consists of a "Dear Lois" and him spitting on the paper. He tries to conjure up a "P.S." in the form of a loogie, but is interrupted by Brian.
- Take That!: The plot gets kicked off by the arrival of New Yorkers, derisively called "leafers", arriving to Rhode Island in droves to see the autumn leaves. The episode pulls no punches in showing how obnoxious the New England-native writing team thinks they are. In a more pointed jab:Peter: Look at the garbage those damn leafers dumped on our lawn! New York Post, New York Magazine, the New York Mets...
- While voicing the “man-eating tree,” Peter claims he ate “insane New York anchorman Dan Rather” and “asexual former Mayor Ed Koch.”
- Cleveland says that protesters at the Million Man March set fire to their port-a-potties.
- Peter says that brothers and sisters fighting is as natural as the white guy’s dialogue in a Spike Lee movie. Cue a scene of a black guy trying to order a slice of pizza, while the white guy behind the counter snarls and growls like a rabid dog.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Lois believes Stewie's anger outburst to being this after he hits Peter with a baseball bat and assaults a psychologist. They obviously don't give any mind to how deep the rabbit hole goes.Psychologist: Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, does Stewart have a history of aggression?
Lois: No, no. Hitting Peter is the first violent thing he's ever done!
Stewie: (from a distance) Technically, the first act of violence was that time bomb I left ticking in your uterus before I came out. Happy 50th birthday, Lois. - Violence Really Is the Answer: After countless anger management techniques, the Griffin family snaps and resolve their anger by beating each other up.
- Zany Scheme: Peter claims that his plan to get rid of the New York tourists who come during the fall is so brilliant that his brain would explode just by thinking about it. However, the following scene shows him behaving as silly as usual.
