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| Bongo, doing his best trick: bailing Homer out of crap. |
An accident leaves the Springfield Retirement home in ruins, and Grampa is forced to live with his son again, much to the Simpsons' chagrin. Homer "breaks his back" just as they leave to help Grampa pack, and gets to stay home, alone, for some time. Homer passes the time by getting addicted to a game, ignoring the dog's pleas for a walk. Later, Marge and the family returns with Grampa and his stuff, and Bart learns in horror that the dog has gone missing.
As the family starts their search, Bart and Lisa realize Homer is relatively unfazed by the dog's disappearance. When they find the dog inside a pantry shelf near the sink, everyone is happy the dog is alright, except for the lethargic Homer. Homer admits he's never been much of a dog person, but Grampa reminds Homer of a "Bongo", bringing back memories Homer didn't want to recall. As Homer runs off in tears, Grampa decides to tell the rest of the family about Bongo.
Bongo was Abe and Mona's dog when Homer was born, but Homer became really attached to Bongo as he grew older, especially after Mona left. The two would do everything together and Homer considered Bongo his best friend. However, things begin to turn sour when, during a nuclear plant kids fundraiser, Burns runs afoul of young Homer and Bongo, with the latter biting Burns in the hand. Abe quickly helps the two flee as Burns demands the dog meet its death. With no other options, Abe takes Homer and Bongo to a "crazy" woman who owns a ranch a bit out of town, and Abe has no choice but to tell Homer he's leaving Bongo with her, letting Homer leave his Itchy & Scratchy sweater with Bongo as a memento. Homer, though, becomes immensely upset with Abe for doing it, and his relationship with his father becomes irreparably damaged. Meanwhile, Abe is confronted by Burns again and, with no dog for Burns to slay, Abe agrees to do demeaning work for Burns, who basically turns Abe into the crazy old man he is today.
As the family sheds tears over the story, Homer returns to tell his version of the story, which doesn't work out right, but Homer does decide to tell a part of the story Grampa doesn't know about: a few months later Homer snuck over to the ranch to retrieve Bongo, however before he revealed himself, he sees Bongo having fun with his new owner. Homer realizes that Bongo was happy without him, and from then on believes dogs to be unfaithful, traitorous mutts. Grampa, though, shows Homer a Christmas photo of an older Bongo, years later, still favoring Homer's then-tattered sweater. Homer realizes that Bongo still loved Homer, and that Homer had essentially resented dogs, also his father, for no good reason. Homer makes up with Grampa, and at some point the dog as well as that night the two elder Simpson men are asleep with the dog on the couch, where Homer is dreaming he and Santa's Little Helper are enjoying time at a park populated by his younger self and Bongo, among others.
As the episode ran short again (likely because there was no opening), a minute is taken by Mr. Burns to explain the fiscal cliff and how he, like all other rich people, are devastated after the results of the 2012 election. He tries to offer new ideas on immigration, but boy that doesn't work out for him at all.
Quick Review
Man, this episode got to me. Its actually kinda similar to the Futurama episode Jurassic Bark. Okay, not really, but a key theme is shared between this episode and that one: a dog who continues to love his former human friend even as it got older without him around. Jurassic Bark was emotionally powerful for that reason, and so was this episode. Unlike Jurassic Bark, which was pretty funny, this episode, well, it has its moments to be sure, but its nothing spectacular, and the bit with the fiscal cliff at the end kinda ruins the emotional ending the episode had going for it (which might be why it wasn't part of later re-airings). Still, its nice to see an episode such as this as even if the show continues to struggles bringing on the laughs, it can still at least jerk a few tears.
Final Score: 7.5
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