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| Glenn Close cameo'd Mona's voice here, but it sounds way different. |
The Simpsons are invited to Milhouse's birthday party, the latest in a line of lavish, extravagent, and expensive kid birthday parties. Homer has enough of this, and makes it a mission to ruin each kid's lavish party so that such parties can return to the basics (ideally before one of his kid's next birthdays). However, big birthday corporations catch Homer and force an ultimatum: either give up his crusade AND be the host of a similarly magical birthday party for Rod Flanders, or none of his kids will have birthday parties - of any kind - ever again. Homer reluctantly agrees, hosting the party at a Flight Museum.
At the museum, several World War II vets, who served in the Air Force, recognize Grampa Simpson, but notice how poorly Homer treats his own father. The five vets decide to change Homer's ways, by beating him up, forcing him to spend time with Abe, and then forcing Homer - at gunpoint - to hug his father. Somehow, this works, and Homer and Abe are closer than ever.
Meanwhile, Milhouse's Dutch cousin Annika is in town who looks like a hot girl with Milhouse's face, and Bart takes a liking to her, especially after she introduces him to e-cigarettes, technically legal in whatever state they're in. As the two (and Milhouse) spend time together, the two (except Milhouse) continue smoking e-cigs... and Marge catches Bart in the act. Suddenly, Annika is forced to return to the Netherlands, and Bart seeks advice on how to express his feelings for her.
Grampa decides to help out by telling a story of him back in the 50s when he cleared turtles off of runways at an Air Force base. At a nearby bar, he takes a liking to a cocktail waitress, "Sunny", but realizes she prefers the company of men capable of feats like breaking the sound barrier in a plane. The next day, Abe decides to hijack a new jet model and, somehow, is able to break the sound barrier with it. Abe successfully woos the waitress, who turns out to be Homer's mother Mona, and its remarked that Mona didn't seem so "Sunny" until after she left Abe. Grampa's point, then, is that with a grand gesture, you can make any woman like you, even if she's not a good fit, but that love won't last if you try to keep up that charade.
With that advice, Bart catches Annika at the airport and, in a grand gesture, tells Annika how he feels about her: that he doesn't like her, or her attitude towards most things, and especially the e-cigs that he had been storing in his backpack. With that settled, Bart returns to hanging out with just the one lame Van Houten, and with the Air Force vets' job done, Homer cooks Grampa a thick steak... which has to be condensed into e-cig vapor as that's the only way remaining in which Grampa can consume food, apparently.
Quick Review
This was an odd, disjointed episode. The birthday party opening had some good things going for it, and the stuff with the Air Force vets had potential as well. Unfortunately, that subplot kinda died out rather suddenly, with the focus then shifting towards Bart and Annika, which was a pretty boring plot. Grampa's story about how he met Mona was okay, but it was nothing special.
This ends up being a subpar episode brought down mostly by a fractured plot and the unfunny use of Annika.
Final Score: 6.3
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