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| I need to buy a house... right after I buy some lumber. |
On a lazy Saturday, Marge grows tired of sitting around and doing nothing. She convinces Homer to take her somewhere, and Homer does... to a police auction. There, Homer is able to buy a car, a hot rod to be specific, but its original owner, Snake, sees this and promises to kill Homer for buying it. Homer takes Marge on a crazy drive in it, but before long she demands he let her out. Walking home, Marge sees Lionel Hutz putting a house up for sale. Turns out, Hutz has picked up a new career in real estate. Marge realizes how good it could feel to help people find a home, and decides to take it up as well.
After passing the test with relative ease, Marge gets a job at the same real estate company Hutz works at. On the job, though, Marge's truth-telling tendencies do not aid in her attempts to sell less-than-premier homes. Though she's pleased to hear that people like her frank honesty, she then learns that sometimes one has to 'bend' the truth in order to sell homes, and furthermore if Marge isn't able to sell a home within a week she gets fired. Meanwhile, Snake sees Homer drive his car near the prison, and noticing that Homer has failed to fill the tank with premium gas, Snake has had enough, and abuses the jail's honor system to leave via a back door.
Later, Marge tries to sell a home to the Flanders, but once again her honesty prevents a sale. Near the end, the two spy a wonderful house. Marge learned earlier that this house is where a famous murder took place some time ago but has yet to be resold because of that. However, the Flanders seem unaware that its that house, and so Marge is barely able to withhold that information, and is able to sell the house to the Flanders.
However, it doesn't take long for Marge to regret her decision, and the day after the Flanders move in to the house, she visits them and tells them the truth about the house. At the same time, Snake ambushes Homer in the car, and the two get into a fight while the car is still moving. Chief Wiggum is woken up as they pass by, and gives chase. The Flanders realize that, yes, they did buy the murder house, but they're even happier than they were before, and are more than willing to stay there. At that moment, Homer and Snake crash their car into that very house, and Wiggum does the same, causing the house to collapse. Ned then gets his deposit check back from Marge, and tears it up.
With the real estate company assessed damages for the house, hot rod and police car, not to mention Marge giving back the deposit check, Hutz, who is apparently the boss at this company, fires Marge. Though Marge is sad she wasn't able to bring in even one check, Homer eases her pain by taking her to the unemployment office, and everything is okay.
Quick Review
This is a sad episode for a specific reason. This episode features the last speaking appearance of Lionel Hutz, as his voice actor Phil Hartman would die five months after this episode aired (he has one final speaking appearance as Troy McClure in Season 10). So this episode having Lionel Hutz move out of law, where he was pretty incompetent, to real estate where he seemed to be doing okay, seems like a fine send off to a character that was well liked for the six plus seasons he was around. Gil Gunderson, a rather inept real estate worker who was introduced in this episode, would have the proverbial torch passed to him as the inept lawyer in future seasons, though Gil would also be featured being inept in other things as well.
As for the episode itself, I liked it quite a bit. Homer's hot rod sidestory was brief, but Snake's antics helped make it enjoyable. The main plotline was fine, getting better when the Flanders became involved in the story, and for his final speaking appearance, Lionel Hutz was pretty good as well.
Final Score: 9.0
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