The Fat and the Furriest (S15, E05-318)

Seeing a guy cower in a field of toilets, it just takes away your will to maul.

Plot Summary
Its mother's day, and Homer learns that he and Bart 'made' the same present for Marge.  Homer goes out to buy Marge a new present, but can't find anything until Patty and Selma of all people help him find a present: a "Carnival Kitchen", which provides the culinary delights of a carnival (deep fry, cotton candy, and caramel).  Marge loves the present, and everyone loves making stuff from the machine.  That night, though, Homer sneaks into the kitchen and goes massively overboard, creating a massive ball of deep fried, caramel-soaked cotton candy.  Homer and the kids snack on it for awhile, but as Homer takes it around with him it collects dirt, ants, and other unsanitary elements, and Homer is eventually forced to throw it away.  He goes to the garbage dump to do so, but while there he's attacked by a bear.

That night, a tattered Homer returns home unwilling to talk about what happened.  However, the news shows a video of Homer cowering rather pathetically to the bear, as shot by Grant Connor, a hunter.  News of Homer's cowardice quickly spreads, and Homer's newfound arktophobia only worsens, even becoming afraid of popular advertising icon bears.  Grampa smacks Homer out of it, and tells Homer that in order to overcome his fear of bears, he needs to find the bear that scared him and beat the tar out of it.  Homer finds Connor and gets help from him on how to find and fight the bear, given a tracking device as Connor had put a tag on the bear previously somehow.  Further, Homer designs some makeshift armor for himself, without an ass plate in case he gets a little too spooked.  Marge pleads with Homer to not do this, but the next morning Homer sneaks out with Lenny, Carl and Bart to go find the bear.

Homer's armor makes Homer pretty sweaty, so he goes to the river to clean himself, Bart telling him that the radar they have isn't picking up anything.  However, the batteries in the device have been removed, and an armorless Homer is attacked by the bear yet again, this time being dragged to a cave.  Marge gets a hold of Connor and they go out to find Homer and the bear.  In the cave, Homer notices that the bear is in pain from the tag Connor put on it, and promptly removes it.  The bear is thankful, and the two now become friends, going out Yogi Bear style to steal picnic food and such.  Homer learns that he's been presumed mauled by the bear and that the bear now has a bounty on it, and decides to help the bear make its way to a nearby wildlife refuge.  However, the path of the refuge is littered with hunters hired by Connor to take the bear out.  Homer comes up with a plan: he puts the bear in his armor, which at first makes the hunters believe the bear to be Homer, but then also protects him from the gunfire, the hunters unable to hit the bear in the creases inbetween the plating.  The bear makes it to the refuge, quickly gaining an enemy in an elephant, and Marge is proud that Homer was able to save the same bear he had developed a fear of.

Quick Review
This was a pretty good episode, I felt.  Homer's fear of bears in the middle portion of the episode led to a good number of quality gags, which made it the strongest portion of the episode.  The latter portion of the episode slowed down the comedy a bit, though Homer's adventures with the bear had its moments.  It all works out to be a quality episode.

Final Score: 8.1

Much Apu About Nothing (S07, E23-151)

"Say, lets take a relaxed attitude toward work and watch
the baseball match.  The Nye Mets are my favorite squadron."

Plot Summary
"A large, bear-like animal, most likely a bear, has wandered down from the hills in search of food, or perhaps employment."  Kent Brockman states to start the episode.  The bear is quickly tranquilized, however Homer starts up a bear panic with the neighborhood and an angry mob confronts Mayor Quimby over it.  Quimby vows to stop any and all bear intrusions from now on much to the joy of the mob.  Soon, high tech bear patrols roam Springfield, but the cost of maintaining it means taxes go up ever so slightly, again enraging the town.  Finding true leadership within himself to duck this issue, Quimby rests the blame solely on illegal immigrants, and states that a vote will be held a week from now - Proposition 24 - to determine whether to deport illegal immigrants.  The mob is again appeased, and xenophobia quickly sets in town.  Homer is apart of this, even after learning that Apu is an illegal immigrant, and has no idea what to do if 24 passes.

Later, when Marge visits Apu, he tells his story.  Having been the highest ranked graduate out of a million or so at Calcutta Technical Institute, Apu is granted a visa to continue his studies in the United States, which he does.  When his visa expired, though, Apu was unwilling to leave as he had made so many friends in Springfield, and just stayed around.  Marge decides then to vote 'no' on 24.

However, it still seems 24 will be passed easily.  Desperate for an answer, Apu sees Kearney's newest fake ID and inquires him on where he got it.  Soon, Apu makes a deal with the mob for forged documents which 'prove' Apu was born in Green Bay, and Fat Tony encourages him to act American to avoid suspicion.  However Apu is neither able or willing to keep the ruse going for long, and breaks down after Homer becomes suspicious.  Seeing Apu in tears, Homer finally decides he'll vote 'no' on 24 as well, and decides to help Apu stay in America as well.

Its suggested by Bart that Apu could stay if he married a citizen, however the one person they tried, Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz (!?) McClure, didn't want to marry for once.  Then, Lisa realizes that, since Apu has been in American long enough, he can simply take the citizenship test.  However, with the test just a couple of days away, he really needs to cram.  Homer tries to teach him, but Apu remembers none of Homer's lessons, much to Apu's fortune.

Apu is able to pass the test and become an American citizen.  At a celebration, Homer encourages the crowd to vote 'no' on 24, however 24 still passes by a 95% landslide.  Still, Apu is happy he can stay in American and in fact only one person is deported following the vote: poor Groundskeeper Willie.

Quick Review
This is another one of those 'start fast, finish slow' kind of episodes.  The whole thing with the bear at the beginning was wonderfully done, and Mayor Quimby's 'leadership' was humorous as well.  Once the episode settled in on Apu and Prop 24, the jokes died down a bit but overall this episode is another strong entry for Season 7.

Final Score: 9.1