Save the Clam

"Save the Clam" is the 20th episode of the eleventh season and the 207th overall episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It aired on Fox in the United States on May 5, 2013, and is written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Brian Iles. The episode's plot revolves around Peter and his friends trying to save Quahog’s local bar, The Drunken Clam, from being closed down after the owner Horace is killed in a freak accident during a ball game.

Plot
During a Drunken Clam softball game against Mort's team Goldman's Pharmacy, Jerome is brought in as a player for Mort's team. To win the game, Horace attempts to strike Jerome out. Unfortunately for Horace, Jerome hits the ball so hard it accidentally flies into Horace's face and fractures his skull, killing him. During the funeral, Jerome expresses to Peter how awful he feels about it; noting that Horace was a good bartender and a good guy, and wishing there was something he could do. Peter tells Jerome that he knows he didn't mean to kill Horace. After the funeral, the guys go to drink at The Drunken Clam to pay respects to Horace only to find the bar has been foreclosed. The guys are forced to drink at Peter's house, but after Lois objects, they sneak back into the Clam for a night of drinking. The next morning, they find the Clam is about to be demolished and Peter demands they stop as he claims ownership of the bar. During the stand-off, Jerome suddenly appears and he reveals that he used his sports earnings from playing lacrosse (which is also his brother's name) to buy The Drunken Clam so he can keep it open to redeem himself for what he did and honor Horace's legacy. The trio find the Drunken Clam modified by Jerome and then they are relegated to a space on the floor near a pile of garbage since there are three black guys in their usual booth.

In a sub plot, during Horace's funeral; Meg has to use the bathroom and stumbles into an embalming session. Her lack of squeamishness impresses the undertaker and he offers her a job. Soon, Chris shows up after being locked out of the house without a key and plays with the deceased bodies to Meg's annoyance. When she goes to dress the body of Mr. Dugan, she finds it is missing and discovers that Chris stole the body, using it to get into "R" rated movies until it fell apart in a swimming pool. Unable to find Dugan's body parts, Chris poses as Dugan during the funeral despite having itchy testicles. As they progress, they learn from Dugan's wife, Helen, that the deceased face is to be donated for a transplant to a woman who lost her face in a freak chimpanzee accident. Chris becomes furious at Meg for the loss of his own face, now unable to frown due to the transplant.

Reception
The episode received a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.79 million viewers. This made it the second most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line-up that night, beating The Simpsons and Bob's Burgers but losing to American Dad!. The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, saying "That’s a pretty standard way to appreciate anything that Family Guy does these days, tuning out the deliberately provocative jokes as though they're comments made by an older relative at Thanksgiving who gets a pass because they 'grew up in a different time.' Family Guy doesn't have that excuse, so when the material doesn't work because it trades in lazy stereotypes, it hurts the episode. Still, I laughed more this week at the remaining bits than I have in a few months." Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode three out of five stars, saying "This was a rather pedestrian episode of the show, not a classic but not terrible. If your DVR didn't record it, you didn't miss much."