Homer the Smithers (S07, E17-145)

How many nightmares has Burns had with this guy in them?

Plot Summary
After hosting his employees at a drag racing function, Mr. Burns retires to his car afterwards.  Upon sending Smithers to retrieve a smaller foam hand, a drunken Lenny approaches him, terrifying the old man beyond belief.  Smithers eventually returns to escort Lenny away, but not being there at the start haunts Smithers.  Smithers tries to make it up the following morning, but another mistake further pushes him in the pits of despair.  Burns insists Smithers take a vacation, much to Waylon's horror.  Needing to find a replacement while he's gone, Smithers tries to find someone who would be too incompetent to outshine Smithers, and as such he picks Homer Simpson.

Apparently there are 2800 duties Smithers performs for the otherwise self-incapable Burns, from brushing his teeth, to lying to congress and notably stopping his 122-year old mother from calling and berating Burns (the two aren't on good terms, to say the least).  As Smithers takes his leave, Homer finds himself overwhelmed with everything he has to do for Burns, and the old man takes notices of Homer's tomfoolery, noting out loud to Smithers during phone calls of Homer's incompetence, right in front of Homer.  Becoming sleep deprived combined with the abuse lashed out by Burns, Homer finally snaps and punches Burns square in the jaw.

Freaking out over the possibility of having killed him, Homer flees back to his house.  He collects himself, and returns to Burns' office.  While Burns did survive the attack, he does have a black eye and is now deathly scared of Homer, shooing him off at every opportunity.  Though Homer tries to reconcile by making Burns coffee, Burns refuses and makes the coffee on his own in a painstaking attempt.  Burns then insists on driving himself home, upon which he realizes that, hey, doing things for yourself isn't so bad after all.  In rather short time, Burns is able to make coffee and shred incriminating documents with ease.  As Homer wonders if there's anything left for him to do now, Burns thanks Homer, as Homer's brutal attack helped Burns learn to be self-reliant.  Just then, Smithers returns, stunned at seeing Burns thank Homer.  Sure enough, Burns no longer 'needs' Smithers, and fires him on the spot.

Smithers tries to get a job elsewhere, but nothing is panning out.  Desperate, Smithers applies for the bottom of the barrel, rock-bottom job others have contemplated in their darkest hour: guarding Barney so that he doesn't raid the Duff beer truck at midnight.  Homer intervenes just in time, and convinces Smithers to get his old job back, though Smithers asks Homer to help him out.  Smithers is fairly sure that as capable as Burns has become, he still wouldn't be able to deal with his own mother, and sets up a ploy where he 'saves' Burns from his mother's ramblings.  However, Homer botches the call and his poor attempts at acting don't fool Burns, and as Burns quickly learns that Smithers is behind the scheme, Smithers finally has enough of Homer, and gets into a fight with him.  Burns tries to stop the fight, but nothing he does works, and crawls on top of a large bear figure to avoid getting hit.  However, Homer is knocked back by a clever ploy of Smithers, and backs into the bear, causing it to crash into the window, sending it - and Burns - down three stories outside.

Burns survives this as well, though is rather injured from the fall.  Smithers regains his job to nurture the broken Burns back to health, and though Burns has Smithers 'deal' with Homer for his second violent act, Smithers instead sends a gift basket thanking Homer for getting his job back.

Quick Review
Homer the Smithers is the best episode of the season thus far.  Everything about this episode really works well.  From things as silly as Lenny's "attack" to Smithers' vacation preferences, to Homer's attempts at cooking breakfast, this episode has a lot of good going for it, with no real gaps that drag it down at all.  Its another highlight of this stellar golden age of Simpsons.

Final Score: 10