Family Guy: Five Ways Brian Griffin Could Return

With Internet petitions making the rounds and fans pointing hysterically at future episodes in which his character was set to appear, Brian Griffin–seemingly killed on last night’s episode of the Fox animated sitcom Family Guy–will almost certainly be back sooner or later.Or at least we all assume.But how will they do it? There are actually quite a few options, given the strange and absurd nature of the series. But we collected up our five most likely candidates for how and why Brian Griffin will rejoin the land of the living and the cast of Family Guy. Let us know in the comments if you have any of your own.Or, you know, if you’re upset that we spoiled an episode that came out more than 24 hours ago and that everyone else on the Internet has already spoiled. We love those comments, too.Stewie Rebuilds the Time MachineThis one is the most obvious, even if it’s pretty dull from a story point of view. I mean, if he built it once, he should be able to build it again, right? And what’s there, really stopping him? The best they have is that some of the parts aren’t available anymore? The dude who made A TIME MACHINE can’t find a workaround…or, you know, get the parts on Amazon?In the immediate wake of Brian’s death, this was everyone’s prediction on Twitter. By the end of the episode, though, other ideas started to take hold as it seemed clear the writers were resistant to just hitting reset.Christmas Episode Fan TheoryA pretty convincing fan theory started circulating online shortly after last night’s episode. To wit, there was a scene in which Stewie went to the near future to buy himself a not-yet-released toy for Christmas. You can see it below, and then we’ll discuss.