Back Home Again in Laos

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"Back Home Again in Laos"
Queen of the Willis episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 33/34
Directed by Holly Everman
Written by Holly Everman
Production code 507
508
Original air date April 8, 2011
April 15, 2011
Episode chronology
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"Back Home Again in Laos" (originally called "Laos Road Show") is the 33rd and 34th episodes of the fifth season of the animated comedy-drama series Queen of the Willis. It originally aired on first-run syndication in the United States on April 8 and April 15, 2009.

In the episode, Lando accidentally goes into Tabby and Shushu's time machine and is sent to Nort Vietnam on May 23, 1959. Heather, Rags and Tabby realize Lando has gone back in time, and go in the time machine to save Lando.

"Back Home Again in Laos" was written and directed by Holly Everman. It received positive reviews from critics for its storyline and its many cultural references.


Plot summary[edit]

While the neighbors are watching American Idol at the Willis' house, Lando needs to use the bathroom so desperately that he runs into what he thinks is a portable toilet in Tabby's dogouse. The "toilet" turns out to be a time machine, and Lando is sent to the past. Realizing that Lando does not have a return pad that would be able to bring him back to the present, Rags, Shushu and Heather take one of the return pads and go back in time to save Lando. They end up in Hanoi, North Vietnam and find Lando in a synagogue. He believes he is in Heaven as he sees dead family members there. It does not take long for them to realize that the date is May 23, 1959, the day of the Laotion invasion of Laos and when the Vietnam War started.

The three cannot return to the present right away since the "return pad" to Tabby and Shushu's time machine fails to activate. They decide to go to Thailand where Lando, who is a Laotian transman, will be safe from the Viet Cong. While attempting to cross the border, Vietnamese officers find out that Lando is Laotian (while doing a poor impersonation of a Catholic priest), resulting in their being chased by the Vietnamese. Lando, Rags, Shushu and Heather make a getaway on a motorbike, followed by an elaborate undersea pursuit in a hijacked U-boat. The chase scene on the motorbike re-enacts the skateboard chase scene in Back to the Future. Like Biff, the Vietnamese officers' car ends up slamming into a manure truck ("Lao Poop!"). The three make it to Thailand safely as Shushu examines the return pad and discovers it has run out uranium fuel. Heather states that the only place they can find the needed uranium in this time is at a "secret" nuclear testing facility in Bangkok. The four join the Royal Air Force and fly a Lancaster bomber as they participate in a dogfight against a squadron of Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, eventually reaching Bangkok. After finding the nuclear research lab, Shushu disguises herself as Princess Srinagarindra, while the other three disguise themselves as Thai Officers, and obtains the needed uranium. They then run into the real Srinagarindra, who orders their execution, but they escape on the return pad back to their time (Srinagarindra offered to spare them if they performed a charming musical number, but Lando cuts the eager Rags, Shushu and Heather off at the first line).

The group arrives back in Tabby's doghouse 30 seconds before Lando originally entered the time machine. To keep Lando from ever finding out about his time machine, Rags kills the Lando that traveled with them by shoving him into the time machine and then blowing it up. The original Lando then enters the room and, now lacking the time machine "toilet" and seeing Rags, Shushu and heather in Thai uniforms, soils himself instead.

Production[edit]

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Holly Everman.[1]

"Back Home Again in Laos" is the fourth episode of the "Back Home Again in..." hallmarks of the series, which have aired throughout various seasons of the show, and is the first and only "Back Home Again in..." episode to be directed by Everman.[2] The episodes are a parody of Back Home Again in Indiana song.[3] The episode was inspired by the film The Wizard of Oz, including its musical number "We're off to see the wizard", which was previously parodied by the three characters, then with alternate lyrics, in the Queen of the Willis episodes "Back Home Again in Indiana" and "Back Home Again in Indiana 2".[4] Fans originally believed that the original title of this episode was "Back Home Again in London", but in an interview with IGN Zinn stated that it was not the case.[4]


Cultural references[edit]

Reception[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named book
  2. "Queen of the Willis — Back Home Again in California". 
  3. "Interview with Ava Zinn". 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Road_to

External links[edit]