MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*
This fifth-season episode is one of the more interesting in the "Bundy bonding" department. Contrary to the majority of episodes, this time Al doesn't suffer any major violence or humiliation, and the torment Bud suffers results from his mother giving him a form of humiliation that even husband Al never suffers.
The Al-Kelly relationship takes center stage this time. For the previous four seasons, it's been clear that Kelly is often just as parasitic as both Peg and Bud-- stealing Al's money, putting him in deadly situations, et al. He in turn frequently ignores her, which, as this episode explicitly claims, causes her to seek out casual hookups in the hope that he'll pay her attention and forbid her skanky activities. And Al does at least keep Kelly from messing around in his house, thrashing any boyfriend he catches her with. Of course, this seems more like Al protecting his own domicile, for the sake of his ego, than protecting his daughter to teach her good sense. Not that Kelly humps dozens of guys purely because of daddy issues. Clearly, she just likes sex, and being a hot girl she, unlike Bud, can get laid almost any time she pleases. But in "One," she gets fed up with Al beating up her dates and moves to an apartment. Given Al's many claims of wanting to be free of his whole family, "One Down Two to Go" ought to be his sentiments. Yet a small part of him still likes the idea of being a dad to his daughter, even though he knows the daughter is a lascivious moron. A lot of this sentiment is also driven by Al's egotistical beliefs about his self-image. Yet, when he might be better off doing nothing, Al brings Kelly back home-- albeit to the same status quo that made her leave in the first place. (Actually, Bud puts into Kelly's empty head the idea of demanding her own autonomy at home, which is probably a good reason for her to forget the whole thing.)
Bud pays a heavy price for his encouraging Kelly to leave. As long as Peg has two kids at home, she's able to indulge her own ego and imagine herself as being just as young and attractive as when she snared Al. But once Kelly leaves, Peg-- for the only time in the series, I believe-- becomes intensely invested in Bud's upbringing. She starts smother-mothering him, treating her high school-age son as if he's a small boy-- hugging him over and over, feeding him mashed bananas, and bathing him. She does these things only to feed her fantasy of being young again, and it's one of the few times that the confident Peg seems pathetically needy. In contrast to the co-dependent relationship between Al and Kelly, Peg and Bud usually just ignore each other. In 1990, Peg's temporary psychosis would have strongly resembled those of true smother-mothers like PSYCHO's Norma Bates, seeking to compensate for the lack of sexual gratification by fussing over a growing son. Strangely, Peg isn't nearly as bothered by not getting any action from her husband-- she can always use her deprivation as a weapon to flay Al with-- but the idea that she's not young anymore, and thus not deserving of sexual attention, moves her to quasi-molest her son. But once Kelly's back in the house, Peg's psychosis disappears, because she can once more think herself a young thirty-something. Though Bud doesn't say so, one might imagine that Bud's being tormented by his sister-- from rude remarks to full-on slapstick violence-- is far preferable to being entirely neutered by his mother turning him into a pre-sexual child.
ADDENDUM: I should add that even though both Al and Peg are negligent to both of their kids, they often show favoritism to Kelly because both parents think of themselves as having been "cool kids" in school, and having another cool kid strokes their egos. Bud, the bookish son who often can't get a date, is a nerd and thus they show him statistically greater indifference. That said, on rare occasions Al shows slight concern for Bud's welfare depending on the situation, while Peg almost never shows any sign of caring if he lives or dies.
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