Airdate: March 2, 2008
Peter and Lois have been having marital troubles lately, with Peter preferring to hang out with his friends rather than go on quiet outings with his wife. Brian, meanwhile, has won a literary contest and has been invites to accept an award at Martha's Vineyard. He decides to invite Peter and Lois in hopes of easing their marital stress. When they arrive, Peter quickly enjoys himself getting drunk and spending even less time with Lois. Lois finally snaps at Peter when he misses Brian's acceptance speech and arrives right after completely intoxicated.
Since Peter has already made plans for himself, Lois decides to spend the day with Brian and they have a wonderful time together. As they get ready to spend the evening together in her room, Brian starts having fantasies about declaring his love for her and kissing her. That night, Brian tries to keep himself together, but he loses it and attempts to kiss Lois. An angered Lois then kicks him out. When Lois tells Peter what happened the next morning, he confronts Brian at a bar, where Brian calls him out, telling him he's not good enough for Lois, with Peter calling Brian out for not having any long-term relationships with women he dates. The argument quickly escalates into an all-out brawl between the two, but Nathan Lane (whom Peter had accidentally married) breaks the fight up. Peter and Brian reconcile and they promise each other not to let Lois come between their friendship again. Later, Brian comes to apologize to Lois and she says that even though she does have feelings for him, she chooses to remain faithful to Peter.
Meanwhile, while Peter, Lois and Brian are away, Herbert is hired to babysit the kids and as usual, he tries to advance onto Chris. While he reads Chris a bedtime story, Chris finally asks if Herbert's a pedophile (though the episode ends before the viewer gets a "yes" or "no" answer).
"Play It Again, Brian" contains examples of (YMMV goes here):
- Alternate Animal Affection: Averted. When Brian tries to kiss Lois, he does it the way a human would. . . which looks awkward because of his nose.
- Bait-and-Switch: Herbert is shown coming on to Chris asking if he can scrub him during his bath. Meg ends up doing it.Herbert: Aw, rats!
- Bar Brawl: Peter and Brian get into one after their argument about their respective relationships goes too far.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Brian and Peter are both correct in that they take advantage, take for granted, or straight-up abuse their significant others in one way or another.
- Brick Joke: Peter mentions a drunken shenanigan where he married Nathan Lane (not knowing gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts). Lane later appears to break up Peter and Brian's fight.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Lois spends the night with Brian after reading a note from Peter saying he's going to get some new pants after crapping his old ones laughing while watching Three's Company.
- Call-Back: The Gregory Peck joke from "Saving Private Brian" reappears while Lois and Brian are watching Roman Holiday.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Lois and Brian's day together, with "As Time Goes By" playing.
- Famous for Being First: A Cutaway Gag is triggered when Chris congratulates Brian for winning a poetry contest, saying it's as great an achievement as "the first chemotherapy patient to figure out the handkerchief look".
- Food Slap: Brian throws his drink at Peter when he calls Brian out on his inability to sustain a relationship. This is what kicks off their fight.
- Groin Attack: Brian gives Peter one during their brawl.
- Jerkass: Peter acts incredibly thoughtless towards Lois, repeatedly bailing on her to hang out with his friends. He also ditches Brian's award ceremony to get drunk, then tells Brian that he's terrible at keeping relationships going, and mocks him for being unable to get his ex to take him back. Both Lois and Brian call Peter out for his selfishness.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Brian after he tried to kiss Lois, even calling himself a rapist.Brian: I'm no better than Kobe Bryant or Mike Tyson or Reagan.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Peter and Brian give one to each other during their brawl.
- Nature Is Not Nice: Invoked in the nature documentary that Peter watches, entitled Damn, Nature! You Scary!
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Brian gives one to Peter for being selfish and negligent to his own wife.
- Recursive Canon: Lois and Brian win a Stewie doll at a carnival.
- Shout-Out:
- In a street painting, Lois and Brian are caricatured as Jane Jetson and Snoopy.
- Stewie mentions that he carved "Brooks was here" in Lois' birth canal.
- "Aw rats!"
- "Was he bigger than me?"
- The Tag: During the credits, the Evil Monkey comes out of the closet, but when he notices Herbert sleeping, he slowly backs away into the closet.
- Take That!:Lois: How about we just order room service and watch a couple of bad movies?Brian: Yeah, that does sound like fun. I'll go rent Vanilla Sky.Lois: I said a bad movie, not an abortion.
- Peter tells Brian that he can't hold on to a girlfriend, comparing Jillian to Lou Ferrigno.
- During the scene in which Peter and Lois enter their hotel room on Martha's Vineyard, Lois states that she feels like one of the Kennedys.
- After Brian attacked Lois, he says he's no better than Kobe Bryant or Mike Tyson or Ronald Reagan, all of whom were accused of rape at one time.
- Triumphant Reprise: "The Spirit of Massachusetts" was earlier heard in a Cutaway Gag parodying Massachusetts tourism commercials and at the end, is sung as a Crowd Song.
- Wham Line: The episode ends with Chris asking Herbert this while he was busy babysitting him.Chris: ...Are you a pedophile?
