Thursday, March 21, 2013

Worst Episode Ever (S12, E11-259)

His eyes shoot out concussive tears.
Plot Summary
After Bart 'earns' $50, he and Milhouse decide to splurge.  Down to their last $10, they go to the comic book shop to buy Radioactive Man #1000, but it costs $25.  While there, they see a woman attempt to sell 'junk' to the owner.  He sees several rare Star Wars memorabilia, but realizing the woman is a sap, offers $5 for it.  She's about to accept, but Bart and Milhouse intervene and tell the woman she's about to get ripped off.  She leaves, and as revenge for costing him various goods, the comic book guy bans Bart and Milhouse from the store for life.

The timing couldn't be worse, as special effects wizard Tom Savini is doing an act at the store.  Homer tries to sneak the two in, but he tips comic book guy off, and the boys are left looking from the outside.  Savini and comic book guy become at odds during the show, and Savini uses his effects to humiliate his sarcastic opponent.  Comic book guy (who I'll just call CBG from here on) can't handle it all, and suffers a heart attack.  At the hospital, CBG is advised to avoid stress, but with the stressful job of owning a comic book shop his main source of income, he has no choice but to ask somebody for help.  As Bart and Milhouse were the two who called the ambulance, and CBG has no friends to ask for help, the two boys ends up running the store.

Although the two enter the venture as "partners", as usual Bart becomes the head of the operation.  Milhouse becomes the lackey, but one day as Bart is out, a businessman appears and successfully gets Milhouse to acquire 2000 copies of "Biclops", a hero that coincidentally looks and acts like Milhouse.  Bart and Milhouse come to blows over this, and start fighting.  The fight ends up revealing a secret room full of pirated video tapes of top secrets or hidden endings or embarrassing moments, mostly top secrets.

Meanwhile, CBG goes to a meeting to help make friends, but before he can, he's interrupted by Agnes Skinner.  The two exchange verbal flares, but somehow their insulting demeanors turn each other on, and they become a hot couple, 'hot' not being the right word to use here.

The boys have fun watching the secret videos but realize they can make a hefty profit showing other kids the videos for $5 a kid.  The plan works well to start, but the police bust in and stop the operation.  They learn CBG owns the videos and go to arrest him, though when they do they catch him in the act of making out with Agnes, making the arrest harder than usual.  Though the comic book shop is barred off for awhile, Bart and Milhouse are glad they got past their differences.

Quick Review
The opening act of the episode was alright, and when it focused on Bart and Milhouse later on it was fine as well, especially with the secret videos.  The bits with CBG and Agnes bugged me, though.  Other than the fact that they're both mean-spirited characters there is really nothing that would suggest that pairing could be a thing, and yet there it was.  I really didn't need to see them making out either.  It soured what was otherwise an above-average episode.

Final Score: 7.4

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