'Family Guy' officially brought Brian back in recent episode (definitely saw that coming)

Well, we sure have been jerked around with all of this Brian leaving Family Guy stuff. Three weeks ago we learned that the lovable character would no longer be on the show, and then the rumors started. Will he? Won't he? Well he's back and appeared in the episode last night. We really should have known better than to even question it.

As Seth MacFarlane so eloquently put it on Twitter after the episode aired: "I mean, you didn't really think we'd kill off Brian, did you? Jesus, we'd have to be f---ing high."

Yeah the whole thing just really didn't add up from the get go. In the pretty abstract episode, Stewie spots his past self in a toy store while on a holiday shopping trip. That version of Stewie, as it turns out, traveled into the future before his time machine broke, but he happened have a time machine return pad in his backpack. Lucky break. That would have come in handy for Marty McFly.

It's a bit confusing, but current-day Stewie goes back in time and arrives just as Brian is about to be hit by the car that killed him. Instead of being hit, Stewie pushes the pup away from the coming car and saves his live. This turn of events brings Stewie and Brian back to the real present-time and erases the tragic events entirely.

Cartoons sure are convenient for this kind of thing.

In another tweet from MacFarlane explains the moral of the story behind all of the shenanigans surrounding Brian's pseudo-departure.

And thus endeth our warm, fuzzy holiday lesson: Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash.

— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) December 16, 2013