Better on Paper
When Stan discovers anonymous love letters written to Francine, he worries that this secret admirer could threaten their relationship.
Season: 18 Episode: 06
Total Episode Count: 350
Prod. no.: HAJN10
First Aired: May 8, 2023
Featuring: Stan, Francine
Also Appearing: Steve, Hayley, Jeff, Klaus, Roger, Bullock, Dr. Weitzman, Jackson, Duper, Dick, Jenny, Susie
Musical Numbers: A Romantic Appliance, The Shaving Song
Director: Joe Daniello
Writers: Alisha Ketry
Storyboarders: Anthony Jensen, Eliana Sellitto
Roger's Disguise: Pool BBQ Summer Outift from "The Three Fs"
Plot:
While playing hide and seek with Roger, Stan finds a box of old love letters for Francine. When he confronts her about them, she tells them that she only keeps on them around to prove to her future grandkids that their grandma was hot back in the day. However, Stan gathers the rest of the family and threatens to divorce Francine unless they can prove that none of her former paramours are still a threat. Most are immediately ruled out, but there is a series of anonymous poetic letters on CIA stationary that causes great concern. When Bullock needs an agent for a mission in the jungle, Stan suggests that they need poetic prowess and offers to test the employees. While making copies of his tests, he finds the same stationary in Bullock's printer and believes him to be the mysterious suitor. To confirm their suspicions, they try to put Bullock and Francine in a situation alone together to see how they react. The family tries to stage an accident in front of a motel but instead sends both of them to the hospital where Stan matches them up. When they recover and find out what he has been up to, Bullock explains that the letters are actually from Stan. He goes on to explain that because of the nature of their dangerous missions, all agents have their romantic lobes removed, and he's placed them in various items around his office as a source of power, with Stan's being placed inside of the copy machine.
Stan wants to take the printer with them to rekindle his romantic side, but Francine has reservations until it asks her out for dinner. They enjoy a wonderful night out, but the next day, the printer sends Francine a message that he is not responding for Stan, but for itself and wants her to run away with it, but Stan dismisses this as part of his own personality. However, the printer begins actively trying to murder Stan so Francine gets rid of it. Stan wants to cancel their date because he doesn't have his poetic crutch, but Francine talks him into it. He employs the family to help him write poetry in the machine's place, but they lack it's ability. He decides to run with one Hayley wrote, but completely stumbles through dinner.
Meanwhile, Bullock drops off Dr. Weitzman after a bender to help the doctor forget about his girlfriend leaving him. He finds the copying machine who flirts with him. They appear at the same dinner with Stan and Francine, with the doctor having built a robot body for the machine. However, it wants to dump the doctor and go out with Francine now that it has full control over its body. Even though Stan thinks he's outmatched, Francine rejects the printer, so it brings in an army of goons that it created. They lock Stan and Dr. Weitzman in a freezer. As Stan bemoans his lack of romance, the doctor perks him up. Francine presses the copier to how their relationship could possibly work so it sends one of its goons to get the doctor to give it a realistic dick, but before he can act, Stan breaks out of the freezer and destroys the copier with a knife. In its final message, the copy machine prints out a note to Stan congratulating him on finding his romantic side as one of the former goons flirts with the doctor.
As Francine presents Stan with the knife he used to destroy the copy machine as a memento to his romantic side, Stan opens the knife drawer and finally finds Roger, who'd been hidden for weeks.
Previous Episode /// Better on Paper \\\ Next Episode