The Sweetest Apu (S13, E19-288)

Now, see, if a guy tried this, it would be seen as creepy and/or sick.
Gotta admit though, that is pretty hot.

Plot Summary
At the Kwik-E-Mart, Apu is exhausted after Manjula brings the octuplets to the store.  The kids, plus a wife that isn't putting out, and Apu isn't feeling the best.  After they leave and Apu cleans the mess, Homer comes in to rent a beer keg for a civil war reenactment that's about to start.  About this time, the "squishee lady", Annette, comes in to refill the squishee machine, and Homer and Apu note that she may like him despite his current marital status.  After a rather inaccurate reenactment, Homer returns the now busted keg in hopes that he can get his money back.  He doesn't see Apu, but he hears giggling in a side room.  Curious, Homer takes a peek, and finds Apu makin' squishees with Annette, if you understand what I'm saying.

Homer backs away, all the way back home where Marge quickly figures out that Apu is having an affair.  Marge is particularly distraught over this, having hosted Apu and Manjula's wedding, and she and Homer decide to try and help Apu before Manjula finds out.  Homer (eventually) confronts Apu over what he saw, and Apu does feel shame over it and agrees to break up with the Annette.  However, Annette comes on to him again, and the two presumable have fun once more.  Manjula starts to catch on that something is amiss, and is able to grab security footage from the Kwik-E-Mart which shows Apu in the middle of his adultery.  Angered, she kicks Apu out.  Homer and Marge try one desperate ploy to get the two back together, but it doesn't work, and Manjula decides to file for divorce.

Manjula still has some feelings for Apu, and with the divorce lawyer she visits acting rather devilishly, she decides to hold off on divorce for now.  Marge is able to get each of the octuplets to ask for Manjula to get back with Apu, and she finally relents although she still wants Apu to suffer.  Marge comes up with an idea: create a list of rather off-the-wall tasks for Apu to complete that, once finished, will allow Apu to come back.  The tasks, which include breaking up with Annette as well as doing a rendition of My Fair Lady with the octuplets, are all eventually completed and the two reconcile with Homer watching rather creepily (again).

Quick Review
This wasn't that great of an episode.  In the now four episodes where she has had some focus, Manjula has yet to develop any sort of character quirk that would make her a funny, worthwhile character, and "Apu's arranged wife who gave birth to eight kids at once" isn't a funny character quirk.  In fact, I'd even say that her presence has limited Apu's comedic potential.  It sounds weird, I know, but really, just compare the episodes focused on just Apu with the ones that include Manjula: usually the solo-Apu episodes are much better.

There's a few other things I didn't like which kept this episode's score down.  Homer constantly backpedaling home was an okay gag, if a bit stretched out, but for him to peek into Apu and Manjula's home late at night on a ladder, and then after seeing them get it on start to hop backwards while on said ladder, well that's just stupid.  The collar-pulling gag is one of my least favorite gags and it makes several consecutive appearances in this episode as well.  Ignoring all of that, there are several jokes that do work, but it gets vastly overshadowed by everything that went wrong.

Final Score: 6.4