Family Guy Changes Peter’s Past With Major Retcon

Family Guy has been going for some major shake ups in the newest season of the long running animated series, and the newest episode probably takes the biggest swing yet with a major change to Peter’s past. On the outside looking in, Family Guy might seem like it doesn’t really pay attention to any long running canon or character changes. Given its status as an animated sitcom, any major changes are usually reverted back to status quo at the end of an episode. It’s usually fairly isolated, but Family Guy doesn’t mind bringing up older elements or changing things for a good joke or story.

That’s the case with the latest episode of Family Guy Season 23, which ends up revealing that Peter can’t actually throw things. It turns out that because he learned how to throw from raccoons, it left him with a rather weak throwing arm that he tries to get out of showing others. But with Peter throwing many things on screen in the past, this is clearly a massive change to his past and as a character. Which, hilariously, is also addressed in the episode itself.

Family Guy Season 23 Changes Peter’s Past

In the Family Guy Season 23 episode, “Pitch Imperfect,” it’s revealed that Peter can’t throw. Instead, he has such a weak pitching arm that he becomes the object of ridicule for the entire town. Soon he explains why to Quagmire and the others as he actually learned from raccoons. In a new look at his past, his father was always too tired from work to teach him. His only friends were day raccoons (which Peter asserts are the “most social” of raccoons), and they actually taught him how to throw. It ended up being a weak throw for humans, but he was a star among raccoons at the time. So as a result, Peter avoids situations where he has to throw in public.

Soon after, Joe questions Peter on this change to his character by referencing not only the many times that Peter and his son Chris had played catch before, but also when he went to Red Sox Fantasy Camp (in the Season 15 episode, “Peter’s Lost Youth). It’s here that Peter explains that it was a stunt double, who’s actually the person who dresses like him in real life, “That was my stunt double. He’s the fat guy who dresses up like me at Comic Con. He wants to interview me, as me, and I’m just like, ‘Dude, no.’”

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But What Does This Mean for Peter’s Future?

Now this big retcon usually wouldn’t be a big deal in a series like Family Guy where its timeline and characters are fluid, but these direct addresses to the changes to his past reveal that those behind the scenes are expecting fans to pay attention. It is jokingly revealed that Peter’s raccoon friends might not be the real truth considering how much rabies he’s suffered from as a kid, but then the episode further ties into past adventures later with Meg.

There’s a moment where Meg teaches Peter how to throw, and it uses all of her previous sports expertise to help it happen. There are even direct references to other past episodes like when Meg mentions her basketball team (Season 21’s “White Meg Can’t Jump”) and when she went to the Olympics (Season 17’s “Griffin Winter Games”). It’s played off as Peter and Lois not knowing she’s into sports, but it’s also a way to further cement this as an episode that cares about continuity overall. So it looks like this change to Peter’s past is going to be sticking around if Family Guy is taking everything else about the timeline seriously.