Black Widower (S03, E21-056)

When your wife is sleeping, you can laugh maniacally all you want.

Plot Summary
Selma's attempts at avoiding crippling loneliness have her trying out prison inmates, and guess who the inmate is!  It's Sideshow Bob!  As the Simpsons alongside Patty invite the two over for dinner (though the Simpsons didn't know who Selma's date was until he arrived), Bart finds himself rather antagonistic against Bob, remembering full well how Bob got into prison in the first place.

As Bob explains during that dinner, it is true that Bob was full of anger after going to jail, angry at Krusty for his lowball, abusive form of entertainment, and angry at Bart for being responsible for sending Bob to jail.  However, he received a letter for Selma due to a prison pen-pal arrangement, and the two quickly fall in love, soothing Bob's heart.  Bob, having served his time in jail, makes a bold move and proposes to Selma at the dinner table.  Despite Bart's objections, Selma agrees to be married.

As Bob is able to make up with Krusty on a telethon, Bart remains skeptical of Bob and his intentions.  Meanwhile, as wedding preparations are underway, Bart is around to hear very interesting factoids: Selma, as a kid, had a bottle rocket shoot up into her nose, destroying her senses of taste and smell.  In addition, Selma "bought stock in a mace company just before society crumbled".  The night before the wedding, a conflict occurs between the two: it seems Bob can't stomach Patty & Selma's favorite show: MacGyver, which devastates Selma.  Homer, of all people, comes up with a solution: Bob takes a brisk walk or heads to a bar during MacGyver, then return upon the episode's conclusion.  The two reconcile, and the wedding goes as planned, though afterward as Selma is sleeping Bob lets on his plan to kill Selma.  Bart learns a few more interesting things: that Selma is only going to smoke after dinner and after MacGyver, and in a later moment that Bob has gone out of his way to procure a fireplace at their hotel.

As Patty visits the Simpsons just in time for MacGyver, Bart realizes Bob's plot, claiming that Selma has only one hour to live.  At the hotel, Bob turns up the gas, leaves Selma's cigarettes nearby and goes on his walk while Selma watches MacGyver.  An hour later, as Bob is enjoying a drink, the room explodes, and Bob returns in a pleasant mood, only to find Bart sitting where Selma's corpse was supposed to be, and Selma both alive and willing to separate.  With the cops on the scene, Bart explains that he figured out Bob was going to blow Selma up.  Selma explained earlier that she lost her sense of smell, which means she can't smell gas.  Furthermore, she always has a smoke after a viewing of MacGyver, and Bob found a way to not be around during that show's airing.  All he needed now was a fireplace to allow enough gas to flow and create the explosion.  Bart tries to explain this to Homer, but after four failed attempts explains it to Marge instead, and they were able to stop the explosion just in time.  Though, the only reason why the room exploded later on was because Chief Wiggum threw a match in the room after lighting a victory cigar.  The cops arrest Bob, and everyone praises Bart's mistrust.

Quick Review
Black Widower is an excellent return of Sideshow Bob's character, and again does Kelsey Grammar voice him wonderfully.  The episode itself doesn't have the quantity of hilarity some of the other Season 3 episodes contained, but it still had plenty to laugh over and is a great resumption of the Sideshow Bob story, whatever that is.

Final Score: 8.9