Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you checked your sensitivity at the gate for this one! The episode innocently begins with Francine having some suspicions regarding Stan’s new female work friend, Diane. The issue is a lot clearer to Francine after she ends up having a summit on the topic with Sharon, Caroline, and Connie (Britton), her best friends/war council. When it comes to matters like Stan spending too much time with a new woman at work, these three are irreplaceable. The episode does some particularly smart work in regard to this material. Francine is able to get guidance from her “friends,” but we also learn that these people are just entirely hallucinations in Francine’s drunken head. It’s a twist that also jives with the series’ history that Francine is relatively friend-less and alone in this world. She’d probably be a whole lot less cagey if she had Connie Britton to bounce revenge plans off of. This isn’t just a gag for a laugh though, but rather a support system that Francine constantly returns to (and eventually grows out of) over the course of the episode. Klaus also happens to shine in his limited moments with Francine, but still manages to give himself more of a presence than Steve or Hayley this week. The whiplash nature of this storytelling puts Francine in a rather interesting place with this episode being a lot more about figuring her out than Stan needing to quit a new, silly habit. This story continues to play with misdirection right up until its resolution and while it’s no surprise that Stan and Francine’s status quo hasn’t been upended, it’s still satisfying right up until the end. Stan is also left in a broken puddle at the end of this episode, questioning why he loved slot car racing so much in the first place. So, kudos there. The rest of the episode is dominated with the very satisfying Roger storyline. It’s the perfectly simple, ego-driven plots that are always the best for Roger. His latest persona has taken up employment as a flight attendant, but because he’s a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, the bulk of his duties revolve around how funny his airplane patter is for the passengers This is also just one of those American Dad episodes with very funny dialogue that helps elevate a fairly normal installment into something higher. Elements like Stan’s constantly ripping pants (and his following instructions of what to do next), Snot’s stand-up routine, Klaus on steroids, or any of the background characters this week all excel. Very little dialogue is wasted in this one and it being easy for the material to pop so well when the episode’s digging into these characters’ basest traits. I also laughed far too hard when Roger and Francine’s stories ending up intersecting at the airport, but before they’re allowed to intermingle Roger shuts up a pleading Steve and tells him that Francine’s storyline doesn’t concern them. Neither of “Whole Slotta Love’s” stories feel like they’re dragging. There is more than enough to keep this entry moving and entertaining. Even though Roger’s storyline ended virtually how I predicted that it would (minus the carnage), that doesn’t stop it from being satisfying. If anything, it acts as a testament to how well defined this character is by now. The final moments of his story are basically a Joker plotline ripped from Batman and put on screen, which is a fit that works so well I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before. “Whole Slotta Love” doesn’t reinvent American Dad or do anything particularly crazy, but it also doesn’t need to. It acts as a great example of what typical, normal entries of this show should look like. Also, don’t forget to keep following the show’s airplane safety and gun leverage guidelines for air travel!
