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Lois Patrice Griffin (née Pewterschmidt) is the wife of Peter Griffin and mother of Meg, Chris and Stewie Griffin. Lois lives at 31 Spooner Street with her family and also Brian, the anthropomorphic family dog.

Lois is voiced by Alex Borstein. At the time series creator Seth MacFarlane approached her for a role on the show, she was doing a live stage show in Los Angeles, playing a redhead mother in a sketch. The voice style was modeled after one of her cousins' voice.[1]

Biography

Born Lois Pewterschmidt, she was brought up in an extremely wealthy household with her sister, Carol. They also have a long-lost older brother, Patrick, who was sent to a mental asylum after he became a serial killer. She met Peter when he was employed as a towel boy by her aunt. Her rich father, Carter Pewterschmidt, cannot stand Peter and makes rude comments at every chance he gets. Peter seems to unintentionally do his absolute best to be a thorn in her side. Lois is currently a full-time-mom and also a taught piano in the early years on the side.

Age

Lois' last named age is 43, but she celebrated an unspecified birthday in "Regarding Carter". She is reportedly two years younger than Peter as claimed in "Let's Go to the Hop". However, this is slightly skewed by both Lois and Peter being 18 in "Meet the Quagmires" although only Brian's exclamation that she is 18 supports this.

Personality

Though initially appearing to be a typical doting house wife and ideal mother, Lois has many dark aspects to her and in some cases be worse than her husband, except without the excuse of mild retardation.

Lois appears to have a taste for Sadomasochism (S&M), dressing as a dominatrix in "Let's Go to the Hop", putting out a lit cigarette on her arm in "Breaking Out is Hard to Do", asking Peter to put his finger in a bullet hole and twist it when he accidentally shot her in "Barely Legal" and directing Peter to kick her breasts in "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag". Several times Lois has forced Peter to have intercourse with her, yet she sees nothing wrong with this as she believes men can not be forced to have sex.

She has made it clear several times that she never wanted to be a mother. In "A Fish out of Water" when her and Meg go on spring break, during the awkward car ride she tells Meg that she took birth control but taking antibiotics made it not work, evidently causing Meg's birth. In "Peter's Daughter" she instructs Meg on how to have a miscarriage. Chris was also said to be the result of a broken condom in "Emission Impossible", with the resulting lawsuit paying for the Griffin's house.

Her one-year-old baby Stewie was very much intent on killing her, though it lessened out over the seasons. Her relationship with Meg is a complicated one. She has a way of being supportive and destructive at the same time. When being hurtful, she is extremely caustic. Lois does show a slightly kinder side toward Meg in "Call Girl" when she refers to Meg by her real name while dismissing Chris and Stewie as "dummy and big-head." She is also genuinely saddened by Meg's apparent death in "Better Off Meg".

However, in most episodes, she has a more non-caring personality and will often show absolutely no emotion or interest in some very emotional situations, and in other cases draw pleasure from others misery. Some examples being when Meg was upset about not being invited to a party hosted by Chris in "Stew-Roids", she just gives up, gives her daughter some pills and a Sylvia Plath novel, walks out stating "whatever happens, happens". Meg even stated she loved her in "Peter's Daughter", only for Lois to not even respond. When Brian was leaving in "Quagmire's Dad", she doesn't even look away from the television to state her goodbyes. Later in that episode when Quagmire was stating that his father wants a sex change operation, she leaves the room while stating "have fun at the circus." She also has occasionally laughed at Brian such as when he unknowingly had sex with Quagmire's father and did not bother to tell him why they were laughing at him in the same episode. When Brian needed dental surgery in "Brian the Closer" after having all of his teeth knocked out by Peter, she refused to allow good "people money" to be spent on him. In "Jungle Love", she also purposely drew attention to Chris so that he could be hazed on his first day of high school. And she gave Meg a school lunch in "Stew-Roids" consisting of nothing but food waste and a picture of herself eating a chicken leg.

Sexual Orientation

Although she admitted to only having a bisexual affair in college in "Partial Terms of Endearment", there have been hints throughout the entire series showing Lois' latent bisexuality even if she does not actively pursue it currently:

  • In "Stewie B. Goode", when Peter is doing his 'Grind my Gears' bit, Lois says "Women are such teases. that's why I went back to men."
  • In "Brian Sings and Swings", Lois shared a kiss with one of Meg's lesbian friends to teach Meg how to kiss a girl.
  • In "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" she told Meg and her friends at Meg's slumber party that she used to practice French kissing with her friends.
  • In "Stew-Roids" she lustfully rubbed sunscreen on Bonnie's lower back.
  • In the premiere episode of The Cleveland Show, Cleveland asks Lois and Bonnie to make out. The two act awkward for about 5 seconds before passionately making out, thus shocking Joe, Peter, Brian and Quagmire and pleasing Cleveland.
  • She has a fantasy of running away with Esperanza, a Target cashier, in "Prescription Heroine".

Possible Death

The age of 50 seems to be ominous for Lois. In "Lethal Weapons", Stewie reveals that his first violent act was leaving a time bomb in Lois's uterus, followed by the quote "Happy 50th Birthday, Lois."

In "Quagmire's Baby", it is revealed that Chris nearly cut Lois in half and dragged out almost all of her organs with him. Her body had to be completely rearranged and the doctors said she would be lucky if she lived to 50.

She was depicted as having lived to old age in "Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure", the third segment of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, apparently nullifying these events. She also reached old age in "Rich Old Stewie".

In "Petarded", one scene shows Lois' brain tumor. Peter also reveals in "Turkey Guys" that Lois had a stroke that inhibited her from saying "Jack Robinson."

Notes

Relatives

See: List of Griffin and Pewterschmidt ancestors, Griffin Family

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