‘Family Guy’: Brian’s Wife Jess Dies in New Episode

A week after marrying guest star Casey Wilson’s Jess, Brian’s wife died in the second episode of Family Guy‘s 17th season.

During last week’s episode, “Married With Cancer,” Brian became friends with Jess, who he met at a bar. They connected over their “grumpy” dispositions, and Jess quickly admitted she had cancer. However, Brian still decided to go home with her.

Brian later accompanied Jess to the hospital, where she listed off all the things she wanted to do before she died, and that included getting married. Since Brian figured the marriage would only last 10 days, Brian accepted.

Just after exchanging vows, Jess’ doctor arrived at the church to share some stunning news: Jess is going to live! This was a nightmare situation for Brian, but even he could not fathom how miserable his life would become. Jess started overeating and packed their apartment with cats. Her mother even moved.

Later on, Jess and Brian went to a restaurant, where she choked on nachos. Brian moved way too slowly and she died… or so they thought. At the funeral, she suddenly came back to life!

In this week’s episode, “Dead Dog Walking,” Peter suggested Brian let himself go and the married couple start trying to kill themselves. After getting tired of their ill-fated attempts, they eventually agreed to work things out. The show then went to a commercial break.

When Family Guy came back, the Griffin family was suddenly sitting in their black funeral clothes. It turns out that Jess died off-screen during the commercial break. After two episodes of Brian’s life becoming a nightmare, everything appeared to be back to normal.

Before the premiere, showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin told Entertainment Weekly that fans should not get attached to Brian and Jess’ marriage because it was not going to last.

Oddly enough, Wilson jokingly told TVLine she hopes Jess comes back. Characters have come back from worse fates on television.

“I feel like crazier things have happened than a character coming back to life,” Wilson said. “So why can’t Jess? I mean, she already did once, but why can’t she again? I feel like everyone is going to think, ‘Jess, we hardly knew ye.’”

Although she hopes to come back, Wilson said she is “at peace” with how her character turned out.

“This show always makes me laugh so hard. It’s one of those shows you always hope you’ll get to do, like The Simpsons, so I was fine to play a character who would soon be deceased,” she said.

New episodes of Family Guy air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

Photo credit: Fox