‘Family Guy’: Alex Borstein on the Shocking Lois & Stewie Moment 27 Years in the Making

[WARNING: The article below contains MAJOR spoilers for Family Guy Season 24 Episode 1, “Edible Arrangement”]

On Sunday, February 15, fans of Family Guy were rewarded with a moment that was 27 years in the making. In the landmark 450th episode, longtime viewers of the adult animated comedy witnessed a significant milestone as, for the first time in the series, Lois Patrice Griffin (Alex Borstein) understood every word spoken by her infant, Stewart Gilligan Griffin (Seth MacFarlane).

Yes, she was highly inebriated at the time, but being loaded on marijuana edibles aside, it was a monumental occasion for all.

The long-running gag of Stewie’s incomprehensible speech had been a defining element of the show since its debut, making the revelation both a nostalgic payoff and a playful turning point in the Griffin family dynamic. The episode, “Edible Arrangement,” finally allows Lois to understand Stewie, a talent previously held only by certain members of the Griffin family, including Brian, Chris, and Meg (MacFarlane, Seth Green, and Mila Kunis).

As a result, the two have an honest conversation about Lois and her marriage to Peter (also MacFarlane), her relationship with her children, and why Stewie wanted to commit matricide in the show’s early episodes. The episode goes surprisingly deep yet maintains the series’ signature macabre humor.

To understand the full force of this occasion, its implications, and what it means for the characters involved, TV Insider sat down with the voice of Lois (and occasional show scribe and producer) Alex Borstein to chat about the episode.

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This episode lets Lois and Stewie truly hear each other for the first time. How did it feel getting to play this version of Lois that audiences have wanted to see forever?

Alex Borstein: Amazing. I’ll tell you, we had such a cool experience when we did PaleyFest back in the summer. God, we read this live, and it was so well received. And it was the first time we’re acting. It’s like real scenes, real thoughts. The whole show kind of slows down for a bit, and there’s an actual deep connection and a bond that happens between these two characters. So it was really, really fun, and it’s really funny. I hope people love it as much as I do.

In this episode, Lois admits she married Peter at 19 when she was naive and didn’t know much about life. Did that confession change how you see Lois, or is she saying what we all know?

It’s funny how it gets so deep and so real. So many of us started working on this show when we were 19 or 20. We were so young, and a lot of us have grown up together. So it’s very funny to me to see the characters have these words of wisdom after so many years.

I think what’s fun about animation and what’s fun about this show is the way that Peter can turn into a helicopter in one episode, and then you go back, and no one remembers it. That’s what’s fun. It’s not going to permanently alter the future and the hilarity that can ensue because it’s animation. Anything goes. You can erase what you’ve done, or you can continue to use it and keep it as a touchstone.

I think that’s what’s great about animation. I don’t know that you could do this in a live-action show. You’d kind of be held to the knowledge that came out. You’d have to forever include it in the future, and you don’t have to do that in animation, which is great.

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Did you find this version of Lois freeing?

She’s not shrill, right? She’s chill. She’s kicked back. Her tone is different. Her speech pattern is different. So, yeah, it was really fun. It was getting to explore this different side of this character.

Not to get too deep, man, but even when she’s chilling with Stewie, they both have this moment where he even explained to her, “I wanted to kill you in the beginning because you were a part of me, and you upset me because I was how weak you were.” It got to the real core.

I have a 17-year-old son, and this gets to the core of some of that: what is going on in that relationship, and where the tension comes from. And I love it. I love that we could do that after 27 years since we premiered; that we can explore these kinds of things. There’s always something new that we’re learning about these characters, which is, I think, amazing.

After 450 episodes, are you still discovering new corners of Lois? Does a script like this remind you there are parts of Lois you’ve never dug into before?

Yes. And this opens a door, too. Seeing how well this episode came out, I think it will allow us to pull back layers. And of course, we’re still going to have our fart jokes and our poop jokes. We’re not going to abandon what makes us all laugh, like eight-year-olds, but it peels back a new layer and opens new possibilities for stories.

Are you bummed that Lois and Stewie don’t remember their bonding experience at the end of the show, and they won’t be able to evolve? Or, as you said, is it just par for the course with a cartoon, because fans want to keep the family dynamic the same?

I think that’s the beauty of animation, being able to reset. But that’s not to say we can’t revisit it. That’s what’s great. We could have the two of them drop some acid next time. It can become an annual thing for them.

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Is there a common misconception that fans have about Lois that you would like to clear up after 450 episodes?

I don’t know that I have to clear it up, because it’s not on me. So many of our fans have grown up with us that I think the perception of her has changed, just in people getting older and realizing, “Oh, when I was a teenager, and I started watching this, I thought she was just a wet blanket.” And as the viewers get older, they realize, “Oh, this b*tch has to hold everything together. She is the backbone. This is the one who has to remember everything. This is the one who carries the mental load and the physical load of the entire goddamn family, and it’s a miracle she’s even functioning.”

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So I don’t even know if I have to do that clearing up. I think people learn that. But if this was a live-action sitcom, and I was playing a mother for this many years on a sitcom, I don’t know how enjoyable that would be for me. I think I would feel like I was just a heavy… but I have the ability to have these insane fantasies. She’s been homicidal, she’s had affairs, and she’s now partied with her youngest. So it’s a gift, really, to have this ability to do it as an animated character, because otherwise it might get old.

Early on, Lois was often positioned as the moral center of the family. Over time, she’s become sharper, darker, and more disillusioned. When do you think that shift really began for her?

Probably when I started writing for the show… God, I’m trying to think of when it began… There’s [moments] that have ebbed and flowed in both directions. Very early on, Lois and Peter would have their role sexual role playing with Spider-Man, and they would be more prone to drop everything. Lois would be watering the lawn and drop the hose, and they’d run upstairs for some filthy role-playing sex. Then that slowed down, as it does in a natural marriage. We have come full circle back to that.

So I feel like it’s come and gone throughout. But again, as we’ve all gotten older, the writers in the writers’ room start to bring some of your own experiences to each story and each script. I remember reading one of the scripts that I didn’t have anything to do with writing, and one of the bits was Lois getting ready for bed in the bathroom. And it was clearly the men in the room had come up with this bit, because it was from their perspective of, “Why does it take my wife three hours of prep time before going to bed?” It’s balms and salves and lotions and a neck cream and putting the hair up… It was very funny to me, the other side of the observation that I’m not even aware of.

I think what I alluded to before that, about how much [Lois] has to carry and how Peter is clearly a comedic version of men, but it all stems from truth. It’s how a lot of women feel like they’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Men are allowed to screw off. They have a man cave. Why? Why are they allotted some special place in the house? Or why is the garage yours? So I think just the reality of so much of the stuff that we goofed on, things that Seth envisioned as a 25-year-old, were quite prophetic. In my experience, mom does have to hold down a lot of it. Mom has to grow up a lot quicker.

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What’s the Lois-centric episode you are proudest of?

This one. And I’m not just saying that because it’s the premiere. I think this is my new favorite episode.

Also very early on, when Lois turned the basement into a bar, and she sang “Steam Heat,” that was really fun. But this really is a favorite. Not just because I have a lot of lines, but it’s different. It’s such a unique departure to have her and Stewie have an adventure as a two-hander, and how real it gets. So I hope everyone else likes it as much as I do. And it’s premiering on my birthday, which just seems so perfect!

Family Guy, Season 24, Sundays, 8/7c and 9:30/8:30c, Fox and the next day on Hulu