Mom's the Word

Lois gives Peter grief for eating an entire tube of raw cookie dough (which Peter thought was a sausage with raisins). At the Pawtucket Brewery, Peter is bored while sitting through a meeting until his stomach starts to give him trouble (as a result of the raw cookie dough and a taco he found in the parking lot) and he soils himself trying to get to the restroom while evading various people. When in the restroom, Peter is washing his pants with the toilet water. Depressed and exhausted following that incident, Peter (while wearing his shirt as pants) comes home from work to find his friends and family gathered in the living room. After a rant where he thought the incident at work had leaked out to Quahog, Lois tells him that they didn't find out about the incident and explains they found out his mother, Thelma, died of a stroke. After the service, a woman named Evelyn approaches Peter and tells him she was Thelma's closest friend and the two connect after she tells him about her husband, Walter, dying some time ago. The two begin spending much time together and Peter begins seeing her as a surrogate mother.

Peter takes Evelyn to the bar and introduces her to Joe and Quagmire. When they leave upon being obviously disturbed by her (it was also shown that Joe was saving his one time regained walking ability given to him by God for Susie's wedding as he abandons his wheelchair), Evelyn attempts to seduce Peter by kissing him. Later that night, Peter tells Lois what happened and she suggests Peter talk to Evelyn. When he confronts her, Evelyn lies and says her medicine made her act in an uncharacteristic way and the two become friends again. After spending more time with her, Peter realizes she was lying as she continues making advances towards him and immediately ends the friendship. The next day, he visits his mother's grave, where he sees Evelyn. Evelyn apologizes to Peter and explains that Peter's the first man to pay any real attention since her husband died, and she had taken advantage of that fact. Upon hearing this, Peter realizes that what happened between him and Evelyn was also partially his fault—due to missing his mom so much, he had looked to Evelyn as a replacement. Peter and Evelyn reconcile, but while they hug, Peter accidentally cracks Evelyn's spine, thus killing her. He places Evelyn on a nearby bench and immediately leaves her for the groundskeeper to handle.

Meanwhile, Stewie develops a fear of death after Brian explains to him at Thelma's funeral that everyone is going to die at some point, including Stewie himself. Brian attempts to console him by seeking out several religions and showing Stewie their beliefs on the afterlife like visiting a Jewish temple, the Quahog Buddhists Temple, and a Catholic church. Stewie is unsatisfied (even after reading several religious texts) and asks Brian what he believes happens after death. Brian, despite the fact he went to Heaven in Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure and has also met Jesus Christ in person multiple times, believes that nothing happens after someone dies (reflecting his atheist views). This leads Stewie to believe that life isn't really worth living, and he then makes several unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide: 1.) He tries hanging himself but fails due his head being too big, 2.) He tries to coerce Joe into shooting him by pretending to be an armed robber, but fails due to Joe also wanting to commit suicide and tries coercing Stewie into shooting him, and 3.) He tries the "toaster in the bathtub" trick, which gives him toast-making superpowers. During his final attempt by jumping out the window, he's stopped by Brian, who tells him that no one truly knows what happens after death and that he should seek out his reason to live. Stewie tells Brian that he has always wanted to be a singer-songwriter, but when he is about to sing to him, Brian just gives him a gun and tells Stewie to kill himself.

Eric Thurm of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+, saying "The good parts of "Mom's The Word" are more than outweighed by how tonally inconsistent it is...it’s almost impossible to pay attention to the episode as a whole, especially when the episode attempts to do something a bit weightier than the show’s normal outings." Thurm did however praise the sub-plot, saying, "the better plot spinning off is the Brian and Stewie B-plot (surprise, surprise)."[3]

The episode received a 2.2 rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and was watched by a total of 4.56 million people. This made it the most watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating Bob's Burgers and two episodes of The Simpsons.[4]

• "Mom's the Word" at IMDb
• "Mom's the Word" at TV.com