Review: American Dad “West to Mexico”

Nothing but sand, which is there.

Overview (SPOILERS BELOW)

Arizona Desert, 1870. Four horses trample through the desolate sands, finding a solitary farm. As the farmer pulls from his well and drinks of its water, he recognizes the group galloping towards him: The Bullock Gang. There is brief resistance and hypothetical vengeance sworn, but in less than a minute the family is wiped out. The gang rides off, leaving death in their wake.

Roger, a constantly coughing and companion coveting bounty hunter, searches for Stan, accused of killing his general in the Civil War. Stan himself, with no direction, is arriving in Arizona from Mexico today with Haley, who is off to live with her uncle at his faaaaaarrrr…uh oh. Well, ending up in a bar, Stan meets the Old West versions of Francine, Stan, and Klaus, along with getting his ass beat by the Bullock Gang. Nonetheless, his act of…I want to say bravery(?) inspires the bar folk, taking him to Lewis as a barber to recover. Turns out Stan saved Lewis from being sold back into slavery and came to Arizona to find him, but now has to watch out for Roger. Luckily his injuries hide his identity for the time being until Roger coughs blood onto the poster in JUST the right way to see through it and takes him away. Lewis, Francine and the rest vow to rescue him.

Haley tries to make sense of why her family was killed (not helped by this version of Jeff taking her to an opium den) when Bullock finds her and takes her back to the farm to dig her own grave and die. Stan bonds a bit with Roger on the ride there and confesses his general only died from senility, and that he never truly was a man of action like he wanted to be. Roger, however, is simply jealous of how he managed to connect with people in town despite this while he himself has no friends. Arriving at the farm, Roger gives him the chance to take action and save Haley from Bullock. Facing off in a duel, Roger uses his established super speed to place the gang in front of the bullets but takes the shot meant for Stan. He tells Stan to dress him in his old army uniform, collect the bounty and take the people, who in another life are his closest friends and family, off east. And after a few stumbles, they…get completely turned around. But it was a nice effort.

OUR TAKE

This is the first time this show has done a what-if episode (as in having the characters become completely different versions of themselves with basically only their names and basic personality traits in common) that wasn’t spy related, and to that end, I think it works pretty well. I’d bet money that this is going to turn out to be some sort of Western film parody I don’t recognize because I was born in the Bush 41 administration, but for now, this is a pretty great original story that happens to star characters from American Dad. In what I have to say is a considerable restraint for the show, pretty much every character thread is treated sincerely with a few anachronistic gags here or there. And also interesting is that these new versions are explorations of things the regular versions are still yearning to be or do. Stan is still someone who means well but can’t always act on things when he wants. Roger is still someone desperately searching for companionship while feeling isolated, Jeff is still a dead-ender stoner, and so on. In all honesty, I was expecting and kind of hoping this would be a payoff to Stan’s offhand comment a few episodes back about quitting the CIA, and Roger was a hunter sent by Bullock to get Stan back or kill him, but this is definitely a much better option. A good way to sign off till next season…which at this rate will probably be in a couple of months.