‘Family Guy’: Brian Marries Casey Wilson’s Jess

Brian finally got married in the Family Guy season 17 premiere, but it’s not going to be an easy relationship. His wife Jess, voiced by guest star Casey Wilson, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Ahead of the season premiere, showrunners Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin said the marriage won’t last because of Jess’ condition. It forces the newlyweds to rush through married life as quickly as possible.

At the start of the episode, Brian and Jess bonded at a bar because they are both “grumpy and bitter at the same time.” Jess told Brian she has cancer, but still agreed to go home with her.

After going to the hospital, Jess cried about all the things she feared she could not do before she died. One of those was getting married, so Brian proposed to her on the spot. She said yes, and the two were married later in the episode. Their marriage was thought to only last 10 days, but then her doctor jumped in and said she will live.

The marriage turned out to be a disaster for Jess, who became obsessed with eating and cats. Her mother even moved into the apartment, making Brian’s life more miserable. While eating nachos, Jess started choking and Brian could not save her in time. The episode ends at Jess’ funeral, where Brian remembers he never even knew her last name.

But then, Jess comes back to life! Brian starts crying like a Peanuts character and the episode ends.

“Fans should not tattoo Brian’s wife on their body,” Appel told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s battling an illness and she confides that she’s upset that she’ll never know so many things in her life — including being married — and Brian says, ‘I can change that.’ They meet in a very touching way. As is always the case with marriage, nothing is surprising after the vows.”

Despite the challenges ahead, Jess has a happy and enthusiastic outlook on life, Sulkin added, which might just seem a little strange to Brian.

Brian’s marriage to Jess will continue in the second episode of the season.

This season is also scheduled to include another two-part arch that skewers President Donald Trump.

According to EW, the episode will see Peter Griffin go completely grey, which earns him more respect. He then becomes a local news commentator who has no clue what he is talking about, and his performance impresses Trump. The president goes onto name Peter as his new press secretary.

Once in Washington, Ivanka Trump becomes friends with Meg, who also earns some unwanted and uncomfortable attention from the president.

“We’re just playing to what Trump has already confessed to, say, on a bus,” Sulkin said, referring to the infamous Access Hollywood tape. “And he has an encounter like that with Meg.”

This later gets Trump on Peter’s bad side, and Peter has an epic fist-fight with Trump.

Sulkin said Fox surprisingly had no problem with the episode, even after reading the script.

“Something that helped is just that Trump continued to be so preposterous on a daily basis that it really made it seem like this was an episode that we had to do,” Sulkin told EW. “It wasn’t something where we were going to be besmirching of the office of the president of the United States because, you know, he’s doing that for us.”

This season will also feature one last tribute to the late Adam West, who voiced Quahog’s mayor. Brian tries to get the town’s high school named after West and runs to replace him. Brian thinks he will be unopposed at first, until Quagmire decides to run. West makes one final appearance in the episode, which proves no one can replace West.

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

Photo credit: Fox