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| How can a professional roofer be so likable? |
During a rather rainy night, the Simpsons' roof starts to give in, causing leaks everywhere. After Homer's half-assed attempt to circumvent fixing the roof fails, the entire family gets mad at him. Homer goes to Moe's in frustration, but comes in just as everyone there (including Stephen Hawking, who owns a local Little Caesar's now) tries to surprise Lenny with a party. Homer ends up ruining the surprise, and Carl's cake that looks like a stool, and he's kicked out of there as well. Lonely, Homer winds up going to a
The next day, with Marge still mad at Homer over the roof, she and the family leave to do various chores. Homer is by himself for only a moment when Ray walks up and the two begin on the roof. However, the two goof off, drawing the ire of Ned Flanders, forced to run off after Homer shoots nails at him. Soon, though, Ray is forced to leave, and Homer winds up falling through a weakened portion of the roof, falling asleep in the aftermath. Marge becomes increasingly frustrated with Homer not just because the roof still isn't fixed, but because Homer begins to depend on this 'Ray' she's never met, and forces Homer to buy some shingles the next day to fix the roof himself. Homer takes Bart with him to the hardware store, where Homer comes across Ray again, and the two agree to work together on the roof again. However, Ray doesn't show up, and Homer wastes the entire day sitting on the roof awaiting Ray's arrival. Marge eventually figures out that Ray is only part of Homer's imagination, and after Homer's delusions cause him to get injured Marge takes him to a mental institution.
Homer doesn't believe that Ray is imaginary, but he learns that nobody has actually seen Ray. Not that bartender, not Flanders, not even Bart. Dr. Hibbert agrees to help Homer become sane again through a series of electroshock therapies. Six weeks later, Homer is good as new, but Ray walks right up to Homer, which shocks everyone else because, hey, they all though Ray was fake. Ray begins to casually explain that all those instances of people 'not' seeing Ray was because something was blocking their sight (the eyepatch for the bartender somehow, Flanders couldn't see Ray behind the chimney). However, Bart had no such object blocking his sight, but Stephen Hawking arrives just in time to explain that a miniature black hole appeared between Bart and Ray which absorbed all of the light Ray was reflecting, thereby making it look like nothing was there from Bart's perspective. Lisa confirms its plausibility, and everyone is happy. As for why Ray didn't show up, Ray has a simple explanation, the most believable one of them all: he's a professional contractor! Still, Homer went through a lot of crap for nothing, and forces Hibbert to do something to make up for it. Soon, Homer and Ray are chilling out on the rooftop as they watch Hibbert fix the roof, talking about a certain program that aired at 9:00 on CBS on Mondays at the time.
Quick Review
I'm being honest when I say this, and the scores will back it up: this was the best episode I've seen since Season 12. It is, thus far, the best episode in Al Jean's zombie Simpsons run. Why is that? There's a few reasons. First off, the guest stars were wonderful. Ray Romano provided an excellent guest voice for Ray Magini, and even if only for a couple of lines Stephen Hawking provides great comic relief. The plot was pretty good as well, even if the explanations behind everything got kinda farfetched. This is Season 16's best episode, and I can only hope that this episode is an indicator of improved quality to come.
As an aside, this episode touts itself as the 350th episode, but the 350th episode that aired was the one previous to this one, Future-Drama. Why producers or FOX or whomever keep getting their numbers wrong, I'll never guess.
Final Score: 8.6
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