Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy (S06, E10-113)

Home sweet home.

Plot Summary
Homer and Marge are having problems in bed, mostly because Homer can't get, hm, "interested" enough, as it were.  Despite attempts to fix this, the two are left as lust-less as ever.  Grampa picks up on this and offers Homer a homemade remedy to spark Homer's drive.  As soon as Homer drinks it, he perks up and gives Marge the best time in recent memory.  Afterwards, Marge suggests that Homer and Grampa take the remedy and start selling it for profit, an idea Homer has mixed feelings towards as he doesn't like spending time with his dad.

While Homer and Marge were having those bedtime troubles, once such trouble led Bart to believe an alien presence was haunting him or the house or something.  Later on he picks up a paranoia book which only furthers drive Bart into the corners of conspiracy.  As Homer and Grampa begin selling their tonic in Springfield, with good success, Bart notices that the adults around town getting back home before nightfall to engage in "secret activities".  As he and Milhouse fight over the cause of this mystery, Lisa sarcastically suggests "reverse vampires", who stalk in the day but need to sleep at night, are the cause.  The kids eventually conclude that the adults, via the Rand corporation and aliens supervised by the reverse vampires, are being forced to go to bed early to allow for a complete takeover at night.  That grim panic never does get concluded.

With the tonic selling well in Springfield, Homer and Grampa decide to sell the product in other towns, which Homer isn't looking forward to as it means long drives listening to Grampa's rants and raves.  After an unsuccessful stop, the two stumble upon an old ranch they used to live in while Homer was still a boy.  As Homer's memories from that time begin to flood back, he recalls that Grampa really never game him motivation or confidence.  Homer tries to confront Grampa about it, but Grampa angrily replies that Homer was always a screwup and didn't deserve anything nice said about him, ultimately revealing that Homer was conceived when Grampa drank some tonic, thereby making Homer "an accident".  Homer immediately goes home without Grampa, mad beyond belief.

Grampa, sorry for his words, tries to apologize to Homer but Homer refuses to acknowledge it.  To make up for lost time, Homer tries to over parent his three kids, but that only makes them tired and uncomfortable.  Grampa continues to try and sell the tonic, with Barney in Homer's place, but the attempts have no success.  Soon, Homer and Grampa go back to the old ranch separately.  Homer finds an old picture of himself meeting Santa Claus, and upon just now realizing that it was his dad posing as Santa, Homer finds warm comfort that at some point his father did care, though that warmth is because he accidentally set the picture on fire from the match he was holding, setting half the ranch on fire.  On the other side, Grampa curses the tonic for all of his problems, in tosses it into the fireplace.  As the tonic is made from alcoholic components, it explodes, causing that half of the ranch to catch on fire.  The two meet up halfway outside, both sorry that they set the house on fire.  Grampa admits Homer wasn't an accident, and after some time comes up with something positive to say about Homer: that he is happy Homer didn't become a short man.  The two reconcile and then start rolling on the grass nearby because they were both on fire.

Quick Review
This was another excellent episode for Season 6, with a lot of good character development between Homer and Grampa.  The silly "Bart is paranoid and soon all the kids are except Lisa" subplot was well done, and I liked just how well the main plot tied into that sidestory.

Final Score: 9.2