Episode Family Guy Season 9, Episode 12 - 'The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair' Recap
by Andy Neuenschwander
As Peter once said, "That's right, folks. It's gonna be a Meg episode." This week's ep revisited the "Meg has a crush" theme that we saw when she became infatuated with Brian, only this time she has the hots for Joe. If an entire episode devoted to Joe and Meg sounds weird…you're right. It is.
The two lack the wacky energy that usually carries this show, so "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair" ends up being a bit slow as a result. Mila Kunis (voicing Meg) and Patrick Warburton (voicing Joe) make up for the slow parts with some pretty hilarious voice work…there's a kind of mumblecore conversationalist tone that we haven't heard much of in "Family Guy" before…maybe this is what happens when you have scenes that Seth McFarlane isn't a part of.
The episode is saved somewhat by the "Evil Stewie" storyline, as Stewie creates an evil clone of himself that runs amok, causing some rather bloody chaos. "Family Guy" might have never been this violent before, perhaps with the exception of the episode where Brian owes Stewie money.
The real bummer with this week's ep, though, is the amount of recycled material: not only is the Meg plot basically a re-hash of the episode with Meg and Brian, but we're also treated to the second consecutive "which one do I shoot" moment in an episode (you might remember a short one from "German Guy"), which marks the third time the gag has been used in the series (an early episode has a cut-away to a moment with Lois choosing between two Peters).
However, there were a couple of moments that made up for it: Patrick Stewart is always welcome in pretty much anything, and Jennifer Tilly had some great lines as Bonnie, a previously under-used character. The Kool-Aid gag was a nice revisit of a "Family Guy" favorite, though that could be considered recycled material as well.
The outcome here is a pretty strange episode, capped off by that "Thriller" reference that's simultaneously funny and terrifying.
Interestingly, "Family Guy" seems to be moving away from their trademark cut-aways, which might have reached an all-time high last season and even became self-referential. This episode had only three, and one of them was questionable as a true cut-away. Is "Family Guy" changing styles? We'll have to keep an eye out. From here on in, I will be listing all cut-aways at the end of each FG recap.
"Family Guy" Cut-Away list for "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair":
Peter takes care of the old lady ("I Stole Meg's cut-away!")
Peter prank calls Joe
Evil Stewie kills the Kool-Aid man