The 60th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 5, 2008.
"The One That Got Away" received positive reviews from critics and was viewed by 6.85 million viewers in its original airing.
The episode features guest performances of Diane Delano, John DiMaggio and J.K. Simmons.
Roger begins to destroy Sidney's life by ruining his employment and telling lies to Huffman's girlfriend Judy Panawits, resulting in her breaking off the relationship.
In a flashback from four days earlier, Sidney wakes up in bed feeling hungover, despite refraining from alcohol.
Glad of the distraction, Roger attempts to escape but is stopped when he is confronted by his Sidney persona in the mirror.
But after the theft was discovered and Judy was fired, Roger's guilt forced the personality split, causing him to live as "clean" Sidney during the day, and his normal self at night.
Chris and Matt McKenna came up with the storyline via their "obsession" with The Big Lebowski, imagining how funny it would be if someone urinated on Roger's rug and then he had to figure out who had come after him.
"[2] The original story for the episode was that Roger would wake up in Shanghai and in trouble, caused by an evil persona.
The episode finished third in total viewership among the shows in the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox.
However, he praised the episode for being "great, albeit slightly imperfect" and "surprisingly solid" to be a Roger-centric story.
He gave the episode a B rating, the best grade of the night, beating the Family Guy, King of the Hill and The Simpsons.
Volume 4 DVD set, Thomas Spurlin of DVD Talk, wrote that the episode, alongside "Spring Break-Up" and "Escape from Pearl Bailey", "deliver[s] laughs [...] along with offering bizarrely compelling stories in their compact time.