Jack's Back (American Dad!)

"Jack's Back (American Dad!)"

"Jack's Back" is the thirteenth episode of the fifth season and the seventieth overall episode of the animated comedy series American Dad!. It aired on Fox in the United States on March 15, 2009, and is written by David Zuckerman and directed by Rodney Clouden.

In the episode, Steve signs Stan up for a father-son bike tournament, but the plan veers off-track when Stan admits that his father never taught him how to ride a bike. Determined to make things better, Steve helps reconcile Stan with his convict father. Meanwhile, Hayley needs internship credit for school, so Roger hires her to bartend at his makeshift bar in the attic

Plot

The episode starts with Steve signing himself and his father up for a bicycle racing tournament, in which Stan refuses to participate. It is revealed that Stan never learned to ride a bike, mostly because his father did not want to spend father-son time with him. As a result, Stan grew up more effeminate in his actions and did not know how to do certain things (such as riding bicycles or fishing).

When Steve finds out about this, he decides to reunite Stan with his father and lures him to the jail where Jack, Stan's father, is passing his last sentence. After Stan and Jack reconcile, Stan paroles his dad until the next trial and brings him home to the Smith family. However, Stan is still uncertain about willing to trust Jack, especially since he was not there for him when Stan was growing up. Eager to reunite his father with his grandfather, Steve suggests all three of them go camping. After Stan discovers that Jack is using Steve to appeal to him, so that he would provide a character reference for Jack during the trial, Stan gets mad and provokes Jack until Steve himself interferes, threatening to leave the house forever. Later the same night, Steve shares his thoughts with his grandpa, wishing to run away. Jack seconds the thought and they steal Francine's car. During this time, Steve starts to find a father figure in his grandfather, which makes Jack feel guilty as he knows that he is not the person Steve thinks he is.

Confessing that Stan was right about him all along, Jack decides to appear at his trial instead of running away. At the same time, he suggests Steve should get back home and spend the time with Stan because he still might need his own father as a father figure. When Stan finds out about this, he rushes to the courthouse in order to speak on Jack's behalf, but his car breaks down, leaving Stan with no other choice but to ride his bike to the courthouse, suppressing his fear. Stan arrives too late and Jack is sentenced to five more years of prison. Steve consoles Stan by saying that he is a good son after all, and Stan passes a kick in the groin received from Jack as a father's gesture against weakness over to Steve.

The episode also involves a struggle between Hayley and Roger. Hayley is looking for an employer to host her internship for college. Roger's bar turns out to be a good place to work at, but Roger soon begins making it hard for Hayley, dressing as the owner of the bar and treating Hayley badly, as well as refusing to sign Hayley's form for the internship. When Klaus advises her to play along in order to get his signature, Hayley invents the character of Constance Mathers, a government worker pressing charges against Roger for his negligence of Hayley's work-related demands and his refusal to sign Hayley's internship attestation. Roger gets back at Hayley by dressing as a member of the Armenian mafia who "killed" Constance after being hired as a mercenary by Roger himself. Hayley then dresses as the matriarch of the Armenian mafia to get back at him once again. A set of parody dress-outs follows, eventually ending with Roger dressing as Hayley who in turn dresses as Roger, then tricks Roger into signing the attestation as "Roger Smith" as an attempt to forge his own signature, which successfully achieves her plan.

Reception

Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club gave the episode an B+, saying "Stan's unwavering commitment to ousting his failure of a father was amusing to watch, and so was the odd B-story between Hayley and Roger; Hayley needs an internship for her business class, and Roger agrees to take her on at the bar, forcing her to clean out rat feces and other terrible jobs. Hayley pretends to be a bureau inspector to set Roger straight, and thus begins an elaborate costume-off between the two—mafia kingpins, the kingest of king pins, an undercover agent, etc. As long as they were going to have Roger do his thing with multiple personalities, I'm glad the show decided to take it to the extreme, and let another family member play along for a change."

The episode was watched by a total of 5.88 million people, this made it the third most watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating King of the Hill but losing to 'The Simpsons Family Guy with 7.29 million.