Review: American Dad! “The Enlightenment Of Ragi-baba”

Clearly, someone with a man-bun wrote this week’s episode of American Dad!

Spoilers Below

Roger has a near mental breakdown after being rejected from his modeling agent for any more work. To help coax his depression, Hayley introduces Roger to meditating. It doesn’t take long, but Roger becomes “Ragi-baba”. “Ragi-baba” decides to purchase the meditation facilities and takes over all of the classes. Hayley is annoyed because this meditation facility is her place of sanctuary and she’s afraid Roger is going to ruin it. On local talk show Morning Mimosa, Hayley calls out “Ragi-baba” for his bullshit causing the spiritual guru to go into retreat. While still being depressed, Roger decides to turn his retreat into a cult and threatens to kill all his followers with poison-punch. When Hayley finds out, Roger traps her, but Hayley is able to convince Roger to let her down and truly teach him all about meditation. During their session, the two achieve nirvana which gets boring causing Roger to convince Hayley that he’s done with the meditation business and the two head home.

Meanwhile, Francine wants to try sushi with Stan and Steve. The guys end up loving their first sushi-eating experience so much that the sushi chef, aka Haruki, invites them to come by the following day and learn how to be a chef. Unfortunately, Haruki opts to ignore his son Hisashi whom just wants to learn his father’s secrets and eventually gives his restaurant to Stan and Steve after they’ve mastered the art of making sushi. Francine returns from getting her walkman fixed and is PISSED!

Our Take

Oh Jesus H. Christ, if this week’s episode wasn’t clearly written by hippies possibly from Brooklyn NYC, then I don’t know what. Between mediation, the joys of running a sushi restaurant, and what I’m pretty sure was a Tame Impala song playing while Roger and Hayley were achieving Nirvana. Talk about the bus driving right onto pretentiousness turnpike only to get two tropes we’ve seen a dozen times. What’s next? Is next week’s episode all about Stan learning the joys of a man-bun?