"Road to India" is the twentieth episode and season finale of the fourteenth season of the animated sitcom Family Guy, and the 269th episode overall. It aired on Fox in the United States on May 22, 2016, and is written by Danny Smith and directed by Greg Colton. The episode is the eighth and to date final in the series of Road to... episodes.
In the episode, Brian and Stewie travel to India after the former becomes besotted with a tech support worker. Meanwhile, Peter goes to play bingo with Joe, and alienates his friend by becoming overly competitive at the pastime.
Plot
Brian's computer freezes up and he calls technical support for assistance, where he becomes attracted to an employee named Padma and begins telling her lies to impress her. When Brian wishes to start a relationship with Padma, Stewie tells him that it is doomed since she is in India. Nonetheless, Brian travels to India to meet her, accompanied by Stewie. They go to tech support and find Padma. After spending time together, she invites him and Stewie to her family's home.
When they arrive, Brian and Stewie find that she is arranged to be married to a man named Dhiraj, much to Brian's surprise. Padma unexpectedly calls off the marriage by expressing her love for Brian, which makes her family upset, especially her father who had already paid a large dowry. Brian works to make money to pay back the dowry. He and Stewie first start by doing a roadside service that extracts tapeworms from people through snake charming, before Brian goes on Kaun Banega Crorepati to acquire the money; this ends badly when Brian is asked his first question by Anil Kapoor on the subject of cricket and gets it wrong, losing the game. When Brian meets up with Padma, he learns that her father did not need the dowry money back as her younger sister married Dhiraj, but that Padma does not want to marry him because of his lack of knowledge on India and the fact that they have very little in common. Brian is furious at being rejected after travelling such a long distance for her, but she tells him that she will always love him, because by travelling all the way to India for her, he saved her from a lifetime of unhappiness. She kisses him on the cheek just before she leaves. Brian tries to tell a disagreeing Stewie that it was the journey that mattered.
Meanwhile, Joe visits the Griffins and invites Peter to bingo night at an elderly parlor. Peter is reluctant, but Lois convinces him to go. At the parlor, Peter discovers that Joe is called "The Big Cheese" due to being the popular player there. Peter is not having fun, but to his surprise, he wins the first game. Peter's winning goes to his head, and he gets competitive while wearing clothing that makes him look high and mighty, eventually becoming the new Bingo Captain, much to Joe's dismay. Joe tells Peter that he only brought him there to have fun, and refuses to come to bingo, to Peter's indifference, but Lois expresses disapproval. When Peter goes to the parlor, Lois and Joe try to convince him to come home. When he stands his ground, Lois calls Chris and Meg to annoy Peter when he is playing, so he gives up and heads home.
The episode ends with Anil Kapoor, the Indian audience, Padma and her family, the Griffin family, Joe, and minor characters singing and dancing the closing musical number while dressed in Indian clothing. When Brian joins in on the musical number, he is attacked and mauled by a Bengal tiger as Stewie orders everyone to keep dancing.
Production
"Road to India" is the eighth episode of the series' Road to... hallmark which air through various seasons of the show. The episode was directed by Greg Colton, who previously directed the Road to... episodes "Road to Germany", "Road to the Multiverse", "Road to the North Pole" and "Roads to Vegas". It was written by Family Guy veteran Danny Smith. "Road to India" is Smith's second writing credit for a Road to... episode, after "Road to the North Pole".
Cultural references
English playwright William Shakespeare is seen taking a walk in one of the cutaways, receiving homophobic abuse for wearing a ruff. In another, Peter competes in a "Tori Spelling Bee", spelling disparaging words about the actress. The wedding of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow is seen in another cutaway, where the minister concludes the service by saying "I now pronounce you pretentious and terrible". Peter explains that he is speaking incoherently after drinking four Ensure health drinks.