The Bob Next Door (S21, E22-463)

New face, same old maniacal laugh.

Plot Summary
Springfield is broke (again), and Mayor Quimby enacts multiple measures to help the town save money, one of which is to let low-level convicts go free.  As the Simpson's other next door neighbors move away to prosperous ol' Detroit, someone else quickly moves into the house.  Bart goes to greet him but learns in horror that this new neighbor sounds exactly like Sideshow Bob.  The family tries to convince Bart that the new neighbor, Walt Warren, isn't Bob.  First of all, his feet are normal sized.  Second, he seems like the nicest guy around.  Bart still isn't convinced, so Marge takes Bart to the prison where Bob is held and shows Bart that Bob is still in his cell.  Bob, though, is a bit crazed, writing "Bart Simpson Will Die" all over the wall and unable to speak properly with a marker stuck in his mouth.  Still, that seemed to do the trick, but that night Bob is able to escape from prison.  Regardless, the next day Bart feels much better.

Walt tries to reconcile with Bart by taking him to the baseball game, which Bart agrees to.  A short time later, Homer and Marge are stunned as Bob pops in through the window.  He's quickly subdued, but he tells Homer and Marge he's the real Walt Warren.  Meanwhile, "Walt" drives right by the baseball stadium and reveals he actually is Sideshow Bob to Bart, having folded his feet in half to fit normal size shoes.  Both men reveal to their respective Simpsons that Walt was due an early release, but Bob had been reading up on plastic surgery, and was able to knock Walt out.  Bob then snuck Walt over to the prison infirmary where Bob was able to cut out and swap both of their faces.  Bob was let go as Walt, given tons of money that the guards invested wisely for him, and bought the house next to the Simpsons.  Walt, now stuck in Bob's face, hadn't gotten used to it enough to speak, and so tried to warn Bart by writing "Bart Simpson Will Die" on the wall, but that message wasn't properly received.

The other Simpsons along with the real Walt bust into Bob's house and learn Bob is heading towards the 'five corners'.  A waitress along the way falls in love with Bob posing as Walt, and tries to throw off Homer and the family to protect him, though the real Walt isn't buying it.  Bob reveals to a now tied up Bart that by shooting him at the five corners, he'll fire his gun in one state, the bullet will pass through two others, and Bart will get hit in a 4th state, and no state law can handle all of that.  Bart tries to outsmart Bob by jumping to the state Bob is in, but Bob eventually decides to just shoot Bart and lie about the plan later.  Walt, however, jumps in to save Bart but a bee had gotten underneath Walt's new face and he too is subdued.  Bob has both of them at gunpoint, but just then Chief Wiggum arrives.  Bart never got over his suspicions of Bob and asked the Chief to follow Walt after Bart was invited to the game.  Bob tries to jump to another state but soon police from the other four states arrives, and Bob is eventually captured by one of them and taken to jail.  Later, the Simpsons once again welcome a new neighbor, but to Homer's dismay its Ned Flanders' cousin Ted and the combo of diddlies and doodlies drive Homer mad.

Quick Review
Well, this episode has a decent amount of humor, but I have to admit as far as intelligent plans go, Bob's had better.  Whether it's Bob going out of his way to not look like himself, even folding his feet, only to just let himself sound like Bob anyway, or just up and stealing some other guy's face to escape prison, or the plan to shoot Bart across several states - well that last one was pretty clever but for the most part there wasn't a whole lot to decipher like there was even in the previous Bob episode.  Anyway, those are personal grips, its still a pretty decent Bob episode.

Final Score: 7.4