Marge in Chains (S04, E21-080)

"History's greatest monster", now with a new do!

Plot Summary
As the episode begins, Homer and some others purchase an orange juice maker, one shown on TV by Dr. Nick, and is high in demand despite being obviously inefficient.  In an Osaka shipping plant for the juicer, a worker has the flu, which carries into the juicer packages, later infecting the people who ordered them.  Soon, Springfield is plagued by the "Osaka Flu", including some of the Simpson family.  Marge finds herself stressed out and overworked trying to cater to her sick family, and Grampa as well.  At the Kwik-E-Mart, she had put a bottle of bourbon (for Grampa) into her coat pocket and forget to have it paid for; upon leaving the store she is found out and is arrested for shoplifting.

With Apu unwilling to drop the charges as per store policy, Homer and Marge get Lionel Hutz to defend them in court.  Unfortunately for them, the odds are stacked against them as Hutz has had trouble with Judge Snyder in the past (kinda running over his dog, except replace "kinda" with "repeatedly" and "dog" with "son").  What's more, as news about Marge's arrest spreads, so do rumors about her, giving off the notion that she's crooked.  At the trial, the gossipy Helen Lovejoy conveys as much, and though Hutz actually does a good job at discrediting Apu, he later blows it by giving his closing statement while wearing no pants.  Marge is sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Almost instantly the family struggles without Marge.  With neither the kids nor Homer able to wash dishes or clean clothes, the house begins to fall apart, becoming a huge mess.  Marge's impact isn't truly felt, though, until the bake sale when several customers learn that they can't purchase any delicious marshmallow squares because it was Marge that baked them.  The loss of those squares, $15, was exactly the amount needed for the bake sale to have enough money to purchase an Abraham Lincoln statue.  Instead, with the smaller amount of money, the town buys a Jimmy Carter statue instead, which causes an angry riot of course.  Soon, though, Marge's 30 days are up and she returns home with a crowd happy she's back and sorry she left.  They make it up to her by giving her a statue, though its just the Carter statue modified to have Marge's hair.

Quick Review
Marge in Chains, like pretty much all of Season 4, is an excellent episode.  The bits with the flu at the episode's start were done well, everything involving Lionel Hutz was comedic excellence, and the town rioting over the Jimmy Carter statue - and the events leading up to it - were well done as well.

Final Score: 9.5