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| After the revelation at the end of Unnormal Activity, its no wonder Marge always picks Homer. |
Some time ago, during the Mayan dynasty, the Mayans attempt to prolong the apocalypse by providing a nice, fat sacrifice. Mayan Homer realizes he's that sacrifice, but Mayan Marge helps him escape by tricking Mayan Moe into putting a bag over his head, then tricking the other Mayans by having Mayan Moe be the sacrifice instead. The Mayans quickly learn of their mistake, but then they learn that the end of the world won't happen until 2012, so they're mostly relieved. Fast forward to 2012, and the Mayan Gods awaken to wreck and eventually destroy the planet.
The Greatest Story Ever Holed
Lisa successfully lobbies to have a Particle Accelerator built instead of a baseball stadium, and when the Accelerator produces no results, everyone hates Lisa for wasting time and money. A short time later, though, the Accelerator creates a miniature black hole when no one is around. It finds a way out of the Accelerator, and into the open where Lisa finds it. Seeing Ralph and Nelson gets sucked in, she realizes she needs to keep it from destroying everything, and is able to lead it to the basement of her house. The rest of the family learns of it, but Lisa strongly urges the family not to throw anything into the black hole, or it will get bigger.
Still, Marge can't resist putting old grease in there, and Bart doesn't like his homework, so Mrs. Krabappel goes in. Some time later, the black hole becomes much bigger, and Lisa looks at Marge and Bart, but the real reason is because Homer started up a business where he allows others to throw their crap within. Suddenly, the black hole becomes large enough to swallow the house whole just after the family escapes. People, who had arrived for Homer's business, throw their crap in too, but as Lisa tries to stop them, an errant fly ball sneaks it, causing the black hole to expand greatly, sucking in basically everything including most of the Simpson family. Maggie is able to hold out, but her pacifier gets sucked in. The black hole becomes satisfied by it, and quickly shrinks into nothing as it sucks away at the pacifier. Maggie, at least, is saved. On the other end, the family and most everything else lands on an alien planet whose residents have treated the garbage thrown in as treasure and gifts, and Marge keeps Homer from blurting out the truth.
Individual Score: +0.5
Unnormal Activity
Homer begins recording a video as he notices strange, other-worldly things happening in the house. That night, loud noises are heard downstairs, and Homer arrives to see the living room in shreds. Marge insists she doesn't know what's going on, looking rather suspicious, but Homer doesn't catch on. Some time later, Homer sets up cameras all over the house, but on the sixth night, Marge particularly acts creepy which Homer, again, doesn't really notice or care. Chief Wiggum confirms that an ongoing fire in the living room is, in fact, hellfire, which troubles Marge. On the fifteenth night, Maggie is seemingly about to be taken away when Marge intervenes. It turns out this is the work of a demon - who looks like and is similarly evil to Moe, but not as much. The demon reveals that 30 years ago, Patty and Selma called him in a Satanic ritual out of boredom, and Marge made a deal back then to spare her sisters, but the demon agreed to return to claim her favorite child: Maggie. Homer decides to step in, asking the demon to spare Maggie if he did something for it instead. The demon agrees, and has Homer do a three-way with the two of them and a third demon, but the demon isn't aware that Homer is apparently a demon himself in the bed.
Individual Score: +0.8
Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure
Bart is upset that issue #100 of Radioactive Man is $200. Comic book guy taunts Bart by saying that if he wants to pay the original price of 25 cents, he should go back to 1974 when the comic was first published. Bart leaves, then miraculously Professor Frink arrives in a time machine car, having successfully invented time travel. Frink, for some reason, gives Bart the keys to the car in hopes that nobody will steal it, and of course Bart steals it, going back to 1974 to buy the comic for cheap.
After reading the underwhelming comic, Bart overhears a younger Homer trying to defend himself. Bart has walked right by the high school just as Homer and Barney get detention for smoking. Bart decides to just go up and reveal who he is to young Homer, who chokes him for revealing a dismal future. At that moment, he sees Marge for the first time he's aware of, but Marge is unwilling to even be near Homer as she sees him choking that young boy. As Homer and Marge get into an argument, Bart realizes that if they never hook up, he won't exist. He pulls up a picture of him to confirm that, however the picture reveals that Bart will be rich in the altered future - or at least be able to take a picture in front of a rich guy's house. Taking the odds, Bart tells the young Marge to stay away from Homer, then flees from an angry Homer back to the time machine so he can go back to the present, though young Homer is able to hide himself in the trunk just before it leaves.
Bart comes back and checks out his new life. It turns out Marge married Artie Ziff, who remains successful in this universe, and "Bartie Ziff" and his younger sisters have picked up Artie's hair and mannerisms, as well as a butler in Nelson. Young Homer, after being mostly marveled by the future, snoops on Bartie, but he's met by current Homer, who may or may not be aware of what's happened to the present. The two decide to team up to take out Artie and Bartie, using the time machine Bartie has abandoned to gather up more Homers. The army of Homers confront Artie and Bartie, but the two are able to easily defeat all of them. Just then, Marge comes out to see what's going on, and looks upon the pile of defeated Homers with pity. She comes to realize that she's always loved Homer - and every incarnation thereof - and leaves Artie for them, though she quickly learns its not easy being with over a dozen different Homers.
Individual Score: +1.0
Quick Review
This episode got better as it went along, and is much improved from the dismal 22nd installment of the Halloween series. The Back to the Future parody was pretty good, especially with the twist that Bart was better off by breaking up his parents. Jon Lovitz return to provide the voice of successful alternate future Artie Ziff and once again he provides an excellent guest spot. The black hole story wasn't anything special, but the demon story in the middle was decent enough for a few good laughs.
Final Score: 7.4
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