Homerland (S25, E01-531)

Seeing all of the Seth MacFarlane characters in yellow skin - except the normal
looking black characters - really looks freaky, lets never see this again, please.

Plot Summary
After setting up what will be an episode full of references to some other show, Homer along with Lenny and Carl head off to Boise for the annual Nuclear Convention.  That night, the three are ready to get into all sorts of shenanigans.  Three days later, though, only Lenny and Carl return to Springfield, with Lenny telling the Simpson family at the airport he's not even sure if Homer is still alive.  Some time later, though, Homer does come back, stating that he overslept and simply missed his flight home.  As the family welcomes him back, Homer starts remembering what appears to be him getting captured and tortured, and then recalls a mission that involves seemingly blowing the plant up and killing, well, Bart anyway.

Homer's behavior has changed as well.  Homer won't eat pork, and he won't drink beer.  He becomes a much better lover, though, so Marge is all-in on these changes.  However, Lisa becomes highly suspicious and starts snooping.  She overhears Chief Wiggum tell Apu that he received intel that someone has been 'turned' and may be planning a terrorist plot.  Returning home, Lisa spies Homer in the garage, praying towards Mecca and looking at blueprints to the nuclear plant.  With Marge fully okay with Homer's new behavior, Lisa decides to call the FBI for help, and gets a hold of Annie Crawford, who is some kind of messed up or something (I haven't watched the show the episode is referencing, so whatever).

Crawford sneaks into the Simpson home one night and up and tells Homer she's watching him.  Still, the next day Homer goes to the nuclear plant bringing in an odd object hidden under a sheet.  Homer gets into the plant's operations center is about to hook up what seems to be a nuclear bomb, but Lisa arrives to stop him, telling him her suspicions.  Homer, though, reveals all of Lisa's suspicions are mere coincidence: Homer did oversleep at the convention and he did miss his flight, but he wasn't captured, he had to hitch a ride with a group of hippies.  Those hippies showed Homer that pigs aren't happy when they die, thus his pork ban.  They also detoxed him and gave him a mat to help remind him to remain sober, which he needs to kneel in order to read - thus why Lisa thought he was praying.  As for the 'bomb', its actually simply a containing holding spoiled milk and raw chicken, materials Homer plans on seeping through the plant's air conditioning to make the whole place become unworkable - as the hippies also told him the evils of nuclear power.  As the police and the FBI agent arrive to arrest Homer, Lisa becomes inspired and is able to finish Homer's mission.  As it turns out, though, the plant's air conditioning isn't function which in itself is a federal offense.  Mr. Burns is arrested and the plant is shut down, so Homer's mission succeeds anyway.  In a status-quo restorer, Homer sees a bottle of beer glide down on a parachute, operated by the ever-crafty Moe, and takes it as a sign to start drinking and eating pork again.

Quick Review
Season 25 starts off with a pretty decent episode that, for me, is hurt by the heavy influence of the show Homeland.  The comedy really picks up in the middle of the episode with Homer's suspicious behavior, along with the usual comedy stylings of Chief Wiggum, but again the inclusion of all the Homeland stuff didn't do anything for me and hurt the episode's quality.

So, looking forward to the rest of the season, I'm a bit conflicted.  The episode had some good humor in it, but the referencing of modern TV programming has never done the show any good.  I can certainly hope for the former but chances are the latter (and only the latter) is far more likely.

Final Score: 7.8