The episode starts off in pleasant territory with Stan actually worrying more about Steve’s F than Steve himself. Stan panics that grades are all that his son has and if he stops being a good student, who knows what dark path his life could go down. This leads to Stan more or less commandeering Steve’s next history project, using his CIA pull and power to guarantee that Steve brings in an A, at whatever the cost.

Watching Steve and Stan out of sync throughout the episode consistently delivers laughs. There are some particularly strong moments like Stan confusing Charles Lindbergh with a contestant from The Bachelor. Whether it’s just smart dialogue like this, or absurd dives in reality like Francine’s Laugh In-esque “Oh Mama!” jokes, there’s a lot to be happy about here. In fact, the “Oh Mama!” joke is good, but then the twisted tangent it follows, becoming a riff on Francine’s fear of Candyman pushes it into classic territory.

As Stan and Steve work to deliver the best possible project on Charles Lindbergh, Stan pulls out all the stops, recruiting Vin Diesel and turning the report into a big-budget film. The startling scope that Stan is operating at here to keep his son’s GPA intact is funny stuff, but it also allows Roger to pop up as a union gaffer by the name of Cheese. The idea that Roger is lending a hand as Cheese when he wouldn’t before is great Roger-logic (Rogic), too. It’s great to watch him bitching about past movie experiences while constantly breaking lights around set. This persona of Roger’s, like most of this episode, just feels really natural.

Stan’s fear and passion ends up getting so out of hand that he’s stolen the real Spirit of St. Louis and Steve’s audience in the end isn’t a classroom, but a movie theater with a fancy gala premiere. Along the way Steve naturally wants to make edits to history to tell a more pleasing story that’s conducive to an A, which is also a satisfying direction for things to go. His vision is the best sort of disaster. Right from the elaborate Dreamsmith Entertainment logo that kicks off the blockbuster, all of this material lands. Whether it’s outlandish lies that Lindbergh invents the airplane, the elaborate deaths in any of the Vin Diesel-led action set pieces, or the use of Sugar Ray’s “I Just Wanna Fly” to close out the film. Stan and Steve coming to a head over all of this would already work well as a plot, but the fact that this also parallels Lindbergh’s own story about being able to fly solo is actually some pretty slick storytelling.