Review: American Dad “Where the Wild Boars Are”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Worried that Haley may be starting to see him as a child, Jeff runs into the woods and finds an old man who teaches him how to be a man. But this man has a surprise connection to someone Jeff knows!
OUR TAKE
It’s the first Jeff focused episode of this current era! We’ve been pretty spoiled for Jeff episodes since he and Haley got married, with them initially being the more surreal stories among the family, though even as lately as last season they’ve really been more about his insecurities as a husband to Haley. This one is no exception to that, this time being scared about Haley seeing him as someone not very manly, and not helped by Klaus pushing ideas about getting cuckolded into his head, but that’s Klaus for you. This leads to him running into the woods and meeting Bing, a strange but well dressed old man in the woods, who Jeff helps escape a nearly fatal slip in the shower. In exchange, Bing teaches Jeff to be a man, which is cool at first, until he finds out that Bing used to be a hit man, and only retired because his last target got away, and that target…was Tuttle. Yeah, we’re referencing another old plot point from the show, though this time it’s only a handful of seasons back and not like fifteen, in this case being about the episode where Stan blabbed about Tuttle being in witness protection. I guess Bing never got the memo that they were done going after him?
Regardless, this episode is another highlight about what makes Jeff a likable character. He often shows he is eager to improve, not just for his wife Haley, but for those who encourage him to do so. Even without dipping into his bad relationship with his own father, we know Jeff really struggles due to how…well, kinda dumb he is, but he’s also very kind and trusting, which is what makes the betrayal by Bing so hurtful when they were getting along so well. But in a surprising, and almost out of character, bit of ingenuity, Jeff actually manages to outsmart a former mafia hitman and even leaves him to die. Which I guess is manly? Bing is strangely proud of him for doing it as he does it so I suppose that’s okay. Oh yeah, and this was framed with a flashforward to Jeff and everyone being really old and Jeff owning a winery, which was kind of funny. And let’s not forget Roger’s B plot of trying to get people to bang in his shed on his pee soaked mattress, which was slightly less so. A good episode, but sadly the last we’ll be getting for at least a couple weeks, as there are no more new episodes listed for the foreseeable future, probably because the rest of the shows just finished their seasons. But don’t you worry Dadders, We’ve still got another half a dozen or so episodes to go in the season and we’ll be back with more American Dad when it comes to us.
