"The quiet ones snap the loudest." Meg's wrath may have been excessive, but it was only after being treated like crap and then locked up in prison.
Don't mess with someone who got out of prison. Connie and her goons choosing to mock Meg ended very badly for them.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Luke really a misguided criminal, or is he more dangerous than we were led to believe? Meg's story tells us the former, but a three-year sentence makes one question things.
Better on DVD: While it's nothing new for Family Guy to include scenes on the DVD versions of their episodes that were rejected by the censors, there are not one but two scenes here that somewhat hurt the plot when removed. When Lois forbids Meg from seeing Luke, there was an extra scene of her admitting that she too dated convicts and was apparently manipulated into sneaking drugs for them during visits, which gives her reasoning some more credence. Later, when Meg harbors Luke after his jailbreak, it was nighttime and they were together for no longer than five minutes on the TV version. On DVD, he came to her in the middle of the day, Brian and Peter find out about it much later on, and Meg was providing food to and having sex with Luke the whole time he was there. Therefore, it made more sense for Meg to get arrested for harboring than it did on TV. In addition, the Griffins clearly felt a little bad for Meg unable to be with Luke in this version, making them slightly more sympathetic. Presumably, the reason these scenes were cut was either because of time constraints or drug mentions and offscreen sex (respectively).
Meg's extremely violent revenge was not supposed to be a good thing, but due to her status as the Butt-Monkey of the series, many fans have praised that she was actually better as a hardened thug because it meant that she learned how to stand up for herself and punish her abusers (e.g. Peter and the bullies).
Meg doesn't let Brian forget that it's his fault she got arrested. In the climax, Brian is forced to eat his words from earlier when reminding Meg that Luke is waiting for her after forty years in prison. Meg retorts that she doesn't need Luke anymore, or anyone, and Brian wanted them broken up anyway. Brian gets a Jerkass Realization and talks her down using his magazine.
Heartwarming Moments: Brian stops Meg from robbing Mort Goldman's pharmacy by reading his kind Teen People article he wrote about her, describing her as "far sweeter and kinder than the typical American girl." Meg is moved by this and reverts back to her old self.
Jerkass Woobie: Meg is even more of a woobie in this episode, since she is constantly abused and bullied by almost everyone around her and has to spend a few months in jail. Her new, violent personality is born out of desire for revenge, rather than her wanting to be a jerk.
