
And Good lord, Stan’s facial reconstruction surgery of Hayley is one of the most brutal, gruesome sequences that the show has ever done (and that includes Francine’s “ acid face” and Roger’s “ elbow drop head explosion”). Not only does it veer off into an unexpected revenge fantasy where an incognito Hayley and Klaus team up to blow up Stan’s mural, but it also succeeds in how surprising it is, too.

The final act deserves all the credit in the world. “The Mural of the Story’s” first half may play things relatively safe, but then the episode really goes off the rails in the best way possible. It’s an incredibly Stan thing to do, but crazy things happen when you get between a man and his mural. Rather than accept this responsibility, Stan allows the town to rebel against Hayley and turn her into a pariah instead of letting the blame fall on him. However, the episode takes a much more interesting direction where Stan finishes the mural an act into the episode, but the only problem is that he’s turned the art into a complete travesty. Another basic take on this premise would have positioned Hayley as the one who vandalized the mural in the first place, which would easily give her and Stan conflict. A simpler episode would see Hayley and Stan work together on the mural for the bulk of the runtime and learn to appreciate each other more in the process. “The Mural of the Story” owes a lot to its breakneck pace and how much it manages to contain to its story. In spite of Stan’s negligent methods, Hayley is still proud of his gung ho initiative on the matter. Stan left to his own devices on this project is honestly a good sign as it means that there are less heads for him to butt against. It doesn’t take long for Stan’s task force to gets whittled down to a one-man job after he blows the project’s entire budget on a business lunch at Benihana’s. Unfortunately, with Stan in charge of the task force it seems unlikely that he’ll let someone like Harriet Tubman make their way onto this inspirational piece of art.
#American dad roger elbow drop how to#
When the topic of renovation comes up, Hayley has plenty of ideas on how to make the mural more diverse and actually representative of America’s changing ideals.

Stan is terrified of the idea that the community could be overrun with more Hayleys in the future, so he pushes hard for a Mural Restoration Task Force. If Langley Falls’ beloved art is left in shambles, then future generations will never learn of its message. Stan is quick to co-opt Hayley’s apathy into the fire that’s necessary to fix the mural. It’s a piece of history that very much fits the jumbled ideas of the community and it’s not hard to imagine Stan shouting out “loyntegresty” when the time arrives for a slogan.
#American dad roger elbow drop series#
While this mural has never shown up in the series before, it’s still easy to picture Langley Falls when they first put it up. Whether the painting motivated individuals to never give up or merely posed as the backdrop for their first hand job, everyone has a special mural memory. Stan reminds everyone that this mural is a symbol of what the town is capable of and what it should aspire towards.

Stan proudly takes his fight to city hall where he’s pleased to learn that the rest of Langley Falls is just as broken up over the mural as he is.
