Franny's Life Is Her Own Business

American Dad, S08E07

Francine found out that the fireman who had saved her from a well 35 years ago wasn't dead as everyone had thought.  She attempted to adapt him back into society.  Stan and Roger also tried to start up a male stripper shoe business, but their investment money was dependent on killing someone.

I was sort of annoyed that Terry and Greg were such assholes about trying to get Francine on their show.  They were pissed that she avoided them, and yet they clearly wanted to embarass her on TV.  I mean, they have an idea of what Francine has been doing with her life, so I have little faith that they were trying to do good.  I really hated them in this episode.  Sure, you could blame Steve and the others, but they seriously thought they were trying to help Francine.

Then I was annoyed at the rest of the people with such high expectations for Francine.  Henry was a firefighter--it's pretty much a given that he's going to save lives.  Why should any person he save, even if he dies, be responsible for living an incredible life?   It was such bullshit.  I just kept hoping Francine would come to the conclusion that she didn't have to feel guilty and didn't have to impress anyone with her life's accomplishments except herself.

I was sort of glad to see that Henry wanted to go back into the well (even if he ironically died after diving back in) because seeing him bite off a woman's nose, punch and kill a bird in midair, and nearly rape Klaus made me think that Francine would have been infinitely better off never having found him in the first place.   I mean, maybe it would have been nice if she could have returned the favor by getting his life back on track, but when you think about it, Henry living in a well for thirty-plus years would have never realistically gotten back into society (not without some intense therapy or something).  I didn't want to see what other disgusting things he was going to do next.  He just needed to go (not die, though).

The side story with Stan and Roger was pretty uneventful.  They only tried once to kill Hideki's wife and then found out their idea had already been stolen.  It all happened pretty much in what seemed one breath.  I was expecting something much more different.  There were, however, two interesting things from that story.  The first was seeing Roger hosting that Japanese game show:

I kept wondering what Roger was saying, but after listening a few times, I figured that he was just saying gibberish (or super fast and badly pronounced Japanese or something).  When seeing this, I was sort of reminded of the ridiculous shows I would happen upon while flipping through TV in Japan. 

The second thing I thought was interesting was that Stan and Roger were having coffee later at a place called "Coughy's Coffee."  I don't know why but that made me chuckle.  I think that's a pretty good name for a coffee shop.

In general, I don't think I liked this episode that much.  I would have much rather Roger and Stan's story had been extended and the "Baby Franny" story had been the side story.  I feel like lots of times I would switch the main and side story.  However, I'm just glad they didn't do another Christmas story.  Almost every one they've shown has been really violent and crazy.  I'd much rather be angry about a story like this than see another insane holiday episode.