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| Why haven't you started mountain climbing yet, look how easy it is! |
Homer's weight and inactivity comes back to haunt him one Sunday, as the family is invited to a church picnic. The kids set up a game of capture the flag, and as Rod Flanders is able to convince his dad to play, Bart does the same with his dad. Bart and Homer come up with a ploy to win the game, and it works as Homer grabs the flag, but gets too tired and collapses just before achieving victory. The other kids realize Homer won't be getting back up and pelt him with deviled eggs.
Bart shows massive disappointment in Homer, and Homer vows to change that, deciding to lose weight though Marge is skeptical. Sure enough, Homer struggles to even jog from his house to the Flanders' house, but his energy is renewed as he remembers its for Bart's sake. Homer makes a stop at the Kwik-E-Mart, looking for something healthy, and sees a new item: Powersauce, an energy bar that harnesses the power of apples apparently. Homer decides to buy it, then back on his jog he sees a gym. There he meets Rainier Wolfcastle, and he helps Homer work out. In two month's time, Homer is much, much more fit than he was before.
Homer reveals his results to the family, who are more than impressed. Homer also reveals that his diet pretty much consists of Powersauce bars and nothing else. One day at the gym, a pair of representatives from Powersauce go up to Wolfcastle, who sponsors the product, hoping he'll climb the Springfield Murderhorn, a large mountain of considerable height and danger where no man has reached its top, for the sake of promotion. Rainier declines, but Bart claims his dad could do it because he eats nothing but the bar. The two Powersauce guys realize the marketing potential, and agree to have Homer climb the mountain, Homer only agreeing to do so to make Bart proud.
Preparing for the climb, Homer is warned by Grampa, who reveals he tried to climb the mountain when he was young. He was accompanied by a man named McAllister, but supposedly McAllister betrayed Abe and pushed him off the mountain to his death (which of course isn't true). Homer ignores Grampa, like usual. An event is held to support Homer as he begins his climb. The Powersauce guys send along two Sherpas to help Homer with his climb. However, its learned that the Sherpas drag Homer's sleeping body further up to increase his chances of success. The plan backfires, as Homer wakes up in one instance and upon learning the scheme, fires the Sherpas. Homer then calls the Powersauce guys to state that he'll finish the climb solo, much to the horror of the Powersauce guys.
The climb leaves Homer delirious, and he starts to hallucinate. Still, he climbs, and he thinks he's reached the top, but there's still a bit more to go. Homer gives up, and takes shelter in a cave. There, he finds a frozen body, that of McAllister, who in his diary notes that it was Abe that was the betrayer, and even tried to bite McAllister. Homer is saddened that both his dad and Bart's dad (him) are disgraces, and plants a "Simpson" flag at where he is in concession. Upon planting the flag, Homer inadvertently causes the mountain to split in such as way where the tip of the mountain breaks off, leaving Homer standing on what is now the new top of the mountain. Homer slides back down on McAllister's corpse to safety and tries to show Bart the flag, but its since flown off. Still, Bart is proud of Homer though Homer also forgot his wallet at the summit.
Quick Review
This was another good episode with some good moments in it. The two celebrity-voiced Powersauce guys, while not the first instance of the "corporate shills making a mess of things by not understanding basic empathy" character in the show, still reminds me of what's to come as the overabundance of that character type has yet to occur. Homer's path to weight loss, the McBain bit at the beginning of the episode, and Grampa's involvement were some of the highlights of the episode.
Final Score: 8.8
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