I agree-this episode was BRILLIANT! Not only the best of this season, but the best since Stilts, and that was the best since If Boys Were Girls back in mid-season 4. Episodes this great are rare and precious. I didn't really think about it during the ep, but you're right, in it way it's another extremely innovate episode, like the Pilot was, and Bowling, and a few others mixed in there as well. This one will certainly go down as a classic. It was edited so well, and it was odd how Dewey sort of seemed to be everywhere. I liked how every subplot was linked together, and yet still separate. It's great the way they come together at the end, and how little everyone else knew about what the others will doing.
I have to point out the minor continuity problem that this is in fact Hal and Lois' 21st anniversary, not their 22nd (source: Hal Sleepwalks), but Hal thought Francis turned 21 when he turned 20, so I'll downplay it as a mistake on Hal's part.
I've sort of gotten use to expecting phenominal episodes but with minor continuity problems this season. The new writers really have breathed new life into the series, though. I am extremely impressed.
We also were able to discover that Francis is still out of a job. It's possible that he had a summer job at that camp for, uhh, "special" kids (source: Buseys Take a Hostage) but this episode takes us forward to April (Hal and Lois' anniversary) which means he hasn't had a job for a good six-eight months. I wonder what Piama is doing. At the beginning of the episode, it was shocking to hear his marriage was breaking up.
This was definitely the most dramatic episode since Reese Joins the Army. But dramatic in a different way. In Reese Joins the Army, I was too anxious to laugh, but in this episode, I found myself gripping the seat and laughing at the same time. The episode was brilliantly written and edited, and it probably wasn't too easy to shoot either.