Ratjo

The Cleveland Show, S04E13

Cleveland was tasked to kill a rat in the house, but he kept it as a pet and lied about it to make his family stay away longer. Cleveland had to make a tough decision about his new pet when it bit Donna and it wasn't clear if the rat had rabies or not.  Rallo also got obsessed with a suitcase Junior was carrying and found his step-brother was involved in real espionage.

Although Cleveland acted like his usual self and lied to get some time away from his family, I liked that he got found out quicker than most cases. Also, his lies were sort of necessary this time because Domna wouldn't have let him keep his new rat friend. It was a little cute that Cleveland befriended the rat, but it was weird how he carried himself with the rat at his side. For example, he was walking his rat in nothing but an open robe with a rope tied to it. Not to mention that he looked like he had just woken up and not showered in days--he looked so ghetto. I don't know why his love for the rat encouraged his slovenly behavior. Like it's bad enough having a rat as a pet without living in your own filth. That was the one aspect of Cleveland's new friendship that I didn't like.

It was messed up that Cleveland's pet bit Donna, possibly giving her rabies, and Cleveland took so long to chose her over the rat. Yeah, it was sad he had to kill the pet he had always wanted as a child, but that was his wife. He is so damn cold sometimes.  Donna was being a bit of a bitch ordering him around while she was hanging with her mother, but that's not a reason to gamble with her life like that.

My favorite part of this story was when they took the rat to the woods and it started attacking them in a rabies-induced frenzy.  It totally reminded me of Stephen King's Cujo.  The two of them were trapped in the car just like that lady and boy in the movie. I loved that because instead of a pretty scary dog, it was a little rat keeping them there. Under normal situations it shouldn't have been able to  harass them so badly. It even crawled into the car via the exhaust pipe--that was crazy!  I almost wished that Donna's mother hadn't shown up and killed the rat. I enjoyed how ridiculous Cleveland and Donna looked while screaming and running from a little animal (not to say I wouldn't freak out being attacked by a rat, rabid or not).

In Rallo and Junior's story, I liked how obsessed Rallo was with spy movies.  That was so typically of a little kid.  He was really annoying the hell our of Junior.  It takes a lot to get Junior pissed, so I liked seeing that for a change.  But once Junior started carrying the suitcase to get back at him or whatever, Rallo stopped being such a nuisance and just worked on cracking Junior's mystery.  I would have liked that better if it wasn't a fake coupon that acted as a pass card to Junior's secret organization.  That was unexpected, but not entirely amusing to me.  I mean, it was a little disturbing, making Junior seem like the kind of dangerous person who abducts people and murders neighbors.  I would have enjoyed it better if the two of them battled in an exaggerated fantasy setting as pretend spies.  In the way it did end, Rallo just got terrified. Wasn't much to laugh about that.

This episode was okay.  I did like that Cleveland's lies this time didn't feel completely selfish.  He was trying to prolong the life of his new pet.  The best part was the rat suddenly attacking him and Donna.  It turned into a good movie spoof.  Rallo and Junior had the potential to turn their spy games into something funny, but it fell flat for me when Junior made the games real and more sinister.  It was a slightly interesting twist, but I'd rather watch the two boys being silly any other day.