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| That passion. That dedication. That effort. |
Its date night for Homer and Marge, but Homer is forced to stay late at work. When Homer eventually gets home they don't have much time left in the night, and the movie they planned on seeing has Ben Affleck in it, so that's a no go either. Driving around, the two spot a skating rink they could spend time at, but upon entering they find that the skating rink is closed. Upon further inspection, they find a group of people playing the ever obscure sport of curling. Principal Skinner and his mother are both there as well, and they invite Homer and Marge to give it a try. With Homer's bowling experience and Marge's sweeping experience, the two decide to give it a try and quickly fall in love with the sport.
Some months pass, and the two have become experienced curlers. Skinner stops by to let them know that they've been invited to the Olympic curling trials for mixed demonstration curling. At the event, it becomes apparent that Homer's poor curling throws are made up for Marge's godly sweeping abilities, and with her able to make up for any of Homer's mistakes, they and the Skinners become the U.S. representatives for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
While all this is happening, Lisa gets tricked into becoming addicted to Olympic pin collecting. Soon, Lisa spies a rare pin she must have, but running low on funds she gives the guy her pearl necklace instead. While in Vancouver, Bart sees Lisa playing her sax on the street for money and sees just how addicted to pin collecting she's gotten: her entire dress is made out of pins. Bart helps her break her addiction by giving up her pins, then creates a fake pin made partly from Homer's driver's license face to give to the vendor as "Fatoff", the newly created mascot pin for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The vendor falls in love with it and gives Bart the pearls.
At the Olympics, Agnes tries to convince Marge to kick Homer off the team, but she refuses to do so, citing that curling has helped their marriage tremendously. Homer overhears this but doesn't really do anything particular to improve his skill. In the semi-final match, Homer makes another poor throw, but Marge is able to sweep like no one has ever swept before to get the rock in the middle, but separates her right shoulder in the process. The team makes the gold medal match, but with Marge's new injury they'll have no chance of winning against the rather bleak Swedish team.
The family starts to pack up when Homer notices Marge is very capable with her left hand. She reveals to Homer that she's really left-handed and that she pretended to be right handed to avoid looking unusual. However, Homer realizes this means she can still sweep, and the two quickly prevent Skinner from signing a concession form so that the gold medal match can be played. Sure enough, with Marge now sweeping with her main hand, the United States wins its only medal of the Olympics: mixed demonstration curling gold. During the ceremony, Homer and Marge admit this has been one pretty good date night.
Quick Review
Well, this was a weird episode. For the most part, it seemed like an advertisement for curling, though the version that was shown in this episode isn't even the same type as the curling often broadcasted in the real Olympics. As this was mostly an advertisement for a lesser-known version of curling, the opportunity for comedy was limited and while Lisa's pin story actually helps the episode quite a bit, the main story would be really forgettable if it couldn't be remembered as "that curling episode".
Final Score: 6.4
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