Death Is a Bitch

Plot summary

Lois finds a lump on Peter's chest and worries that the lump could mean cancer, prompting Peter to see a doctor. Before his medical test results come in, Peter treats the time he has as if he were dying, setting up a yard sale for life insurance and even trying to buy himself a casket. When the results do come, the lump is revealed to be a benign fatty corpuscle. Peter decides to take a new outlook on life, but does not want to pay the hospital bill, so he declares himself deceased on the insurance form.

While the family celebrates the good news, Death shows up at his house to collect Peter. Despite Lois' protests, Death manages to get Peter to come with him. After a tearful farewell, Peter leaves with Death, but not before trying to make one last getaway. Death pursues him, but slips on a frozen puddle of ice, spraining his ankle.

Lois suggests that Death should stay at their house while his ankle heals so that she can persuade him to spare Peter, who then realizes that as long as Death is incapacitated, everyone is immortal. Death warns Peter to say nothing about the fact that no one can die while he is injured, but Peter instead uses the knowledge of his invulnerability to jump from the One Financial Plaza building, and live (conning his drinking buddies out of money); drink over 300 beers without succumbing to alcohol poisoning, and then proceeds to harass a group of bikers. The men get annoyed by Peter's comments and shoot him several times, but Peter does not die. Cleveland is then hit by a bullet; the patrons, realizing their invulnerability, then start shooting each other and laugh.

Back at the Griffin house, Stewie attempts to speed up Death's recovery after successfully killing Lois, only to learn that Lois is invulnerable to death. Lois then manages to convince Death to let Peter live. After Peter returns home and Lois tells him the news, Death learns of Peter's actions after watching a news report with Peter being interviewed.

Outraged, Death allows Peter to redeem himself by having him take over his job in order to prove to people they can still die. Peter is charged with killing the kids from Dawson's Creek who are on a crowded passenger plane. He cannot bring himself to do it, however, and instead unwittingly kills the airplane's two pilots, proving people are not immortal, and forcing actress Karen Black to land the plane. Though Death initially rats out Peter for not doing what he said, Lois points out that because of Peter people now know the rules of death still apply. The Griffins and Death, whose ankle has healed, then part on good terms, though the family is greatly troubled as before Death leaves, he jokes with them saying "I'll be back. Really, really soon".

Reception

In his 2008 review, Ahsan Haque of IGN, rating the episode an 8.7/10, called "Death is a Bitch" "extremely enjoyable", and said that it features "plenty of memorable random jokes". He called the character of Death the highlight of the episode.