I was pretty excited to see this episode, after it was quietly scuttled last year. Fox was planning one of those nights where the same thing happens to all the shows (like "blackout night" on NBC in the 1990's). In this case, a hurricane which managed to hit Stoolbend, Quahog, and Langley Falls in that order. (I guess The Simpsons didn't want to play. I guess that makes sense; the two shows have been feuding for years now.)

Unfortunately, Hurricane Night was scheduled to air just a few nights after a swarm of tornadoes devastated the South. Fox quietly shifted their schedule around, slotted in a bunch of re-runs, and never said another word. I was afraid the episode would be gone forever, perhaps only to see the light of day on a future DVD collection. I even scoured the torrent sites, but no one had a copy.

As with so many things, the reality of the episode couldn't quite live up to the hype I had built up around it. The biggest thing this episode did was remind me how unwelcome last season's earnestness really was. Meg finally decides to take a stand for herself, and opens a can of verbal whoop-ass on all the other family members, and everyone ends up weeping and feeling terrible for how badly they treat Meg.

But then of course you can't just have this big change, without undoing it somehow so that the continuity of future episodes doesn't end up disjointed. In this case, Meg decides that hating her is the one thing that keeps the entire family together, so she agrees to play the whipping boy, and takes it back, and makes everyone hate her again. Could you hear my teeth grinding from all the way over there?

Also, Brian decided to take some shrooms to ride out the storm. And went on a long bad hallucinogenic trip, which was by definition both incoherent and irrelevant to the show. Plus some "Reefer Madness" style fear tactics, when he cuts off his ear for some garbled reason. Is this really the same show that aired the wonderful musical number, "Everything's Better With A Bag of Weed"?

Most Offensive Moment: G.I. Jose, the Great Mexican Hero

Biggest Relief: That they didn't do another Star Wars episode, like every other "power outage" scenario in the past.

Best Quote: 

Chris: "You're the one who keeps cooking broccoli and Brussels sprouts! It's like an Irish bar fight down there!"

Honorable mention: Peter's "Dad noises" and rendition of the opening chase music from Indiana Jones.