When Flanders Failed (S03, E03-038)

Homer, enjoying his wishbone victory whilst enjoying a hamburger.

Plot Summary
Flanders invites a lot of people to a barbecue of his, including the Simpsons.  Its there that he announces he's quitting the pharmaceutical industry and is going to try his hand at running a store for left-handed people.  Later that day, Flanders asks Homer how he thinks of the idea, which Homer replies is a stupid one.  Maude comes in and has the two pull at a wishbone.  Homer tries to come up with cool ideas for a wish, but when Ned rushes him, Homer comes up with the wish that Ned's business flops and goes out of business (after deciding that Ned flat-out dying was too far).  Homer wins the wishbone tug of war, and laughs heartily at its implications, though the Flanders' don't really understand why.

In a subplot, Marge is concerned about Bart's weight, so Bart convinces Marge to have him take karate lessons after watching a commercial.  However, Bart's interest in karate quickly drops when the first class involves reading Sun Tzu's Art of War.  So, Bart keeps ditching classes to play at the arcade.  When asked by Marge what he learned, Bart claims he learned the "Touch of Death" (taken from one of the games he played), and spends some time threatening Lisa with said touch in order to get her to obey.  However, this plan backfires when Jimbo and his bully friends mess with Lisa, taking her saxophone in the process, and she gets Bart to fight them back believing he had learned some karate.  Bart gets beaten up, however, and Lisa laments over how two wrongs made a right in this instance.

While Homer was dropping Bart off for those "lessons", he would check in on Flanders' business, only to see it floundering, only getting publicity because Flanders would validate parking tickets without purchase.  During Homer's day he comes across many people who could use left-handed itemry, but Homer declines to tell them about Ned's shop despite the opportunities to.  Quickly, Flanders finds himself having to see off his possessions (and Homer taking full advantage by buying them for dirt cheap), and having to face debt collectors.  Homer is enjoying all of this, until he sees Flanders' shop going out of business.  Feeling bad, Homer goes to return Ned's $300 grill that Homer got for only $20, to find out that Ned has just lost his house.  Believing it to be his fault because of the wishbone thing, Homer sets out to make things right.

After telling Ned to reopen his store tomorrow, a move Ned figures to be pointless, Homer makes a series of calls, and soon the whole town, or parts of it, learn about Ned's left-handed store.  Ned returns to the store the next day to find it packed full of left-handed patrons ready and willing to spend for his merchandise.  One such person, Mr. Burns, is delighted to of found left-handed can openers, and also opts to purchase a car with a left-handed stick that Ned had displayed in the shop.  With the car's purchase, Ned's house and business are saved, and he and Homer consider one another friends.

Quick Review
In the continuation of the development of Ned Flanders' character, we learn that he - and what seems like several key members of Springfield - are left handed.  In addition, we see that Homer's willingness to like and help Ned is somewhat inversely proportion to how successful Homer perceives Flanders to be at a given moment.  In the end, Homer's gesture help the two become friends, a fact that only holds true about half the time in future episodes.

This was a good episode, a bit lacking on the laughs, but I still enjoyed it as it did end on a warm note, and Bart's antics were fun to watch as well.  I'm rating it a bit low here because the quantity of jokes just wasn't there, but be sure of this: it was a good episode.

Final Score: 7.4