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| Homer and Burns sharing a body seems awfully familiar... |
After a quick intro featuring Kang and Kodos cooking the Simpsons to impress their boss, the show begins in earnest.
The Ned Zone
In an attempt to get his Frisbee off the rooftop (even though it wasn't there), Homer accidentally throws a bowling bowl on Ned Flanders' head. While the act fortunately annihilated a brain tumor in Ned, it has also given him a strange power: he's foresees Dr. Hibbert's death, which occurs just moments later. It happens again a short time later when Ned attempts to help Hans Moleman. Ned begins to fear his newfound curse, but Homer wants to give it a spin as well. Ned obliges, but foresees himself shooting Homer in the back three times. Horrified, Ned decides to move away, but not before Homer tries to taunt Ned into shooting him. Ned is able to stop himself, and believes he's beaten fate.
Ned hugs Homer in celebration, but now foresees Homer pressing a core meltdown button, killing everyone. Homer refuses to stay home for the day, as its Lenny's birthday and there'll be ice cream cake at the plant. Ned rushes to the plant to stop Homer, but inadvertently eggs Homer into pressing the core meltdown button, which Homer is doing very slowly. Desperate, Ned grabs the gun of a sleeping guard and shoots Homer in the back three times. Homer collapses near the button, his tongue eventually resting on it, blowing the town sky high. In heaven, Marge chides Homer for killing everyone under the premise that he did it to escape cleaning the garage, which is too bad for Homer because the garage is in heaven as well.
Individual Score: +0.7
Four Beheadings and a Funeral
1890's London is paralyzed by the "Mutton-Chop Murderer", who goes around stabbing ladies of the night. Inspector Wiggum (Clancy) is baffled by this, when he's met by ace detective Eliza Simpson and her partner Dr. Bartley (Lisa and Bart, obviously). As Wiggum eats some eel pie, a woman (Marge) appears to show the three a weapon the murderer dropped when he ran off after being spotted. The weapon is part of a set of blades called the "Seven Swords of Osiris", and the detectives go to find who sold the weapon. They go to the shop whose owner (comic book guy) notes he did sell the item, and goes to retrieve a book detailing who bought it, but is murdered in the process by the same sword. Looking into the book, the two learn that a C. Ebenezer Burns bought the weapon, and go to see him at an opium house.
Burns reveals he did buy the entire set, but then sold them for opium. The detectives learn that he sold them to a "fat man with sideburns", and the two see one such man nearby (Homer). They chase after him, but the man is tackled by Wiggum, whose at the opium house for Ralph's sake. The detectives believe they've closed the case, but learn to their horror that another wench has been murdered by the sword just now. The detective detects a stench on the sword this time, and learns a vital clue. The day of Homer's execution arrives, but Eliza is able to intervene and out the true Mutton-Chop Murderer: Inspector Wiggum, whose eel pie scent marked the sword and his mutton chops had been hiding within his hat. Wiggum makes a break for it in a hot-air balloon, but its taken out by 19th century Kang and Kodos. Its then revealed that the whole sequence was just Ralph in an opium-induced hallucination, but Clancy reveals that the two are still part of it as they fly off in some kind of fantasy land.
Individual Score: +0.0
In the Belly of the Boss
At a science expo, Professor Frink reveals he's created a massive pill containing enough ingredient to keep one healthy for a lifetime, and showcases a shrinking ray which can reduce the pill's size for consumption. Maggie, believing the ingredients to be playing balls, makes a break for it and enters the pill just before it begins to shrink. Mr. Burns jumps in to take the pill for his health when everyone learns that Maggie has been swallowed as well. In short time, Frink reveals he can help save the baby, by shrinking the Simpsons and a ship down to size and have them enter Burns' ship to retrieve the baby.
After some wacky adventures within Burns' body, they are finally able to retrieve Maggie. However, she now makes the ship too heavy to move, and another member of the family is forced to stay behind in Burns' body: Homer, the cause of said adventures. The family leaves Burns' body and Frink attempts to prepare them to rescue Homer, but Homer's body enlarges on its own, and now he is stuck within Burns' wrinkly skin, though both men quickly get used to one another.
Individual Score: +0.5
Quick Review
After Treehouse of Horror XIV, I was relieved to see the Halloween series get back on track. Unfortunately, the fifteenth installment flies right off the rails again. The Mutton-Chop Murderer segment was the worst anthology segment I've seen yet; the plot left little room for actual jokes, and the way it ended was just stupid. The other two stories had their moments but neither couldn't salvage the episode, making this, up to now, the worst Treehouse of Horror yet.
Final Score: 6.4
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