'Family Guy' Season 10, Episode 5 Recap - 'Back to the Pilot'

It has been an uneven season thus far, but just when you think that "Family Guy" has nothing left in the tank, they find a way to make you believe again. "Back to the Pilot" was a delight... a self-deprecating, super-meta delight.

In a storyline so meta it puts even "Community" to shame, Brian and Stewie take a trip back to January 31st, 1999 to find out where Brian buried a tennis ball (yes it's silly, but it's a MacGuffin, folks). Those who were tuned in to Fox on that particular day might remember that "Family Guy" aired its pilot episode that very night, so it's that episode that the duo returns to.

The opportunities for humor both self-referential and self-deprecating are seemingly endless here, as Brian and Stewie note how everything is drawn differently and, in a particularly fun moment, note how Meg's voice sounds different ("She sounds like someone who is about to give up a huge opportunity").

They even note the animation error where Peter's eye goes over his nose.

Other observations include a fun bit about how the cast simply freezes whenever they go to a cut-away, and Brian and Stewie reveal that nowadays they all take a break, send some texts, and even take a smoke ("it's an Al Harrington one"). The comparisons between old Stewie and new Stewie are also great, as his character has probably changed more than any of them along the show's 10-season run.

Things only get better as we find that Brian stopped 9/11 (only one plane though?) which caused America to fall into a civil war when Bush re-formed the Confederacy following his loss in 2004. A trip to the future reveals snazzy new CGI, extremely lazy jokes (hey, at least they know it's happening) and the return of Cleveland.

That begins the endless trips to the past to stop the other versions of Brian and Stewie from doing whatever horrible thing they're about to do, resulting in an infinite string of interruptions and one big meta explosion. So much fun. In fact, I was having so much fun with this bit that I was completely welcoming to any and all 9/11 jokes thrown our way. Bravo, "Family Guy." Bravo.

So where do we go from here? Astonishingly, we've now seen easily the worst, most offensive episode of "Family Guy" ever and one of the best ones, all within two weeks of each other. Sure, "Back to the Pilot" played on a theme we've seen before, even from this show (how many times have Brian and Stewie time-traveled now?), but it did so in a fresh and inventive way, with jokes that took you by surprise.

It can't be easy to come up with something new and different every week when you're in your 10th season, which is why we've seen some unnecessary envelope-pushing from FG of late. But if this in any indication, the rest of season 10 might just turn out okay.

Cut-aways of the week:

-Cookie monster invents Facebook: B- (Not much of a joke here, but anything the Cookie Monster says is funny)

-Failed attack on the St. Louis Arch: B+ (Quick, simple, funny, new slant on 9/11 jokes that doesn't rely on being offensive)