Spoilers Below

Francine has to find something that Steve is good at or he won’t ever get into college. After a bunch of soul-searching the concerned mother discovers Steve is great at spelling and enters him into the National Spelling Bee. Unfortunately, Akiko Yoshida is also in the competition and this causes the mothers of the respected kids to start getting into a verbal tussle. That said, Akiko seems to take a liking to Steve which complicates things even further. When Francine finds about the budding love birds, she kidnaps Akiko and puts her in a cell in the basement while Steve is convinced that the young Yoshida was just screwing around with him. On the day of the competition, the Smith duo leave, and with the powers of Nintendo, Francine is able to break into the house, free her daughter, and get her back to the Spelling Bee on time. After a rousing sword fight between the mothers, we find out that Akiko and Steve make it to the finals, but they both fall for each other again and the Bee essentially becomes a double-forfeit.

Meanwhile, Roger and Stan are trying to get Francine to forget about Jeff being beamed up into space and decide to help her confront each of the stages of grief. Thankfully, after some ninja darts she realizes that its all the guys’ fault that her husband is no longer there and as a result grabs Roger’s shuttlecock.

Francine is turning into a really strong character for American Dad. I’m not sure what it is, but her actor Wendy Schaal has such a subtle but cynical delivery that delivers when she is the focal point. Its a lot funnier and a bit of a refresher than her and Stan just going at it every episode, and we don’t always get it and I think next season I’d love to see her character grow. This week, she crosses swords with the Yoshidas of whom provide a nice change of pace. Mrs. Yoshida is a lot of fun and I think she could be a character that expands quite a bit in seasons to come. The Roger and Stan story was kind of a let down, although it was pretty cool to see some sort of arc forming with Jeff being lost in space. What could that lead to?? Could we eventually travel to Roger’s home world to rescue the son of a bitch?? I’m not sure, but Francine helped get this one cooking in all the right ways.

(8.5 out of 10)