Killing Max Jets

American Dad, S08E11

Roger's rich character named Max Jets got out of jail, and his generous nature and fat pockets seemed to be the answer to the Smith family's problems.  Once Max took on a young girlfriend, he decided to cut off the family and spend his money on her.  Not wanting to live on a budget again, the Smith family conspired to get rid of the girlfriend and, if necessary, get rid of Max instead so they could inherit his fortune.

There was little doubt in my mind that when Roger brought up Max Jets that it wouldn't be Roger himself.  It's ridiculous that he's been pretending to be imprisoned for many years and had to sneak back into jail as if he'd always been there.  But for Roger that level of excessive commitment to his persona is expected by now.  The thing that's most strange to me is when Roger plays characters who are loaded.  This isn't the first time he's been someone with money to burn, yet he doesn't choose to live his life in luxury.  I guess maybe Roger is just too compelled to live as many different lives as possible and sticking with one, no matter how financially stable some of them may be, doesn't suit his lifestyle.

You would think that with all the life experience Roger has by playing some many different people with different pasts and personalities that he might have a good handle on people in general.  It doesn't seem to be the case when he was letting Gina take him for all he was worth.  Then again, perhaps Roger simply wanted to stay true to the character of Max, who might not be so keen to notice that a woman like Gina was only interested in his money.  I don't know why he would want to play someone who was so stupid, though. 

Putting aside that Max got killed by Gina (unlike Steve I wasn't too bothered by the fact he got killed because Roger has had many of his characters killed), Roger must must have thought her actions didn't matter much since he was also playing his own son, Jerry.  When Gina mentioned that she had agreed not to inherit any money from Max in the case that he died, I should have figured there was a good reason.  It did strike me as odd, but I couldn't piece it together.  I couldn't even think about Gina being sneaky when Roger was in on the plot to get his own inheritance under the noses of his murderous, yet not completely unloving family.  It just made the whole appearance of Max Jet a way for Roger to screw with them and do absolutely nothing to help with their money problem.

Therefore, the fact that all of the family wanted to try and kill Max in their own way seemed a little bit like justice.  They were being selfish since they wanted to keep all the money for themselves if they succeeded, but it's not that surprising since they were living on such meager means.  Living without much excess can make people desperate to have more.  Plus, Max had already given them a taste of the good life.  To rip that away in a quick second over someone who wasn't even family could easily turn a person toward murder.

I didn't really find anything funny, per se, with this story, but it was interesting just because you got to see the family working together to kill Roger.  In general, I like seeing them working together on a goal because they get insane and fuel each other's crazy ideas.  I didn't like that Roger was having fun making them all dance around for money that they were never going to get, but at least I wasn't aware of how involved he was in the deception.  And also Gina killed both of his characters and took all of his money in the end, so Roger was the one who got ultimately screwed.  Adding that all together, I think this was a pretty good episode.