This season has seen a surprising amount of Stan and Hailey stories, with this one sort of tying them all together with it ultimately coming down to Stan accepting Hailey for who she is, rather than some Stan-ified version of herself. In order for Stan to confront Bullock over the danger that he’s put himself and his daughter in, he inexplicably has to best him in a DJ battle in a premise that is simultaneously ludicrous, but also makes sense in the twisted world of this show. This episode is all about following dreams and chasing spontaneity rather than embracing a plan and “controlled” life.

While the episode is already having fun with the world of DJing, there’s a nice bit of commentary on what Stan—and older generations, by proxy—think DJing is, versus what Hailey and millennials think of the “career” now. These varied perceptions of the field ultimately also come down to the idea of planning versus improvisation in some very nice symmetry that brings all this back together.

This season finale also decides to put Jeff in the spotlight for the B-story of the final half hour, a decision that I’m always on board with. Jeff’s been neither neglected nor embraced this season. He’s hardly taking up the focus that say, Klaus has, this year, but he hasn’t been “forgotten” like he has during past years, either. Hell, this season even saw the lovable stoner returning from space!

When I spoke to American Dad’s showrunner and co-creator, Matt Weitzman, he revealed the fact that the show’s “current Jeff” is actually an alien will be something that will eventually come into play. While “Standard Deviation” doesn’t dip into this territory (something to look forward to in season 13, I suppose!), it still manages to be a highly pleasant adventure with Jeff.

I’m sure that many people’s favorite Jeff moments are the ones that revolve around him being super high (with the show still managing to be creative in this area), so the fact that his storyline here is one involving copious amounts of drugs should hopefully be information that comes across as exciting rather than reductive. Rather than pot, Jeff’s on the hallucinogenic tea train, which transports him to a world where he’s the master of an elusive instrument called the turin. Naturally Jeff becomes determined to realize these powers outside of a drug state.