Bull-E (S26, E21-573)

"Mono-d'oh" moment, this ain't.

Plot Summary
Bart is forced (somehow?) to attend a school dance.  The night of, Bart starts off bored out of his skull, but is convinced by a 5th grade girl to join in, and the two dance together so well, Bart wins a "Best Dancer" award.  Impressed, the girl tells Bart to wait for her outside.  Bart quickly rushes outside, but is immediately rushed and bullied by Jimbo and gang; his trophy is smashed and the girl, witnessing both Bart being bullied and him placing more priority to the trophy over himself, dumps him a second later.

Bart tells the family later on, and Marge finally has enough of the bully culture.  At the next town meeting, she swiftly convinces the town to enact anti-bullying measures, which initially work well as Jimbo and gang are arrested the next time they try bullying Bart.  However, for the most part, the new laws involves the police arresting anyone that they've been tipped as being bullies.  Homer uses this lazily, having people arrested for just annoying him in his daily life.  Soon, Rod and Todd Flanders realize that their father, after being bullied around by Homer earlier in the episode, is a victim of bullying as well and the two call the cops on Homer, who is arrested in short time.

Homer is sent to a bullying rehab center, where a former bully turned doctor takes several "bullies" and has them undergo psychological breakthroughs to determine why they're so upset.  Homer is no exception, he learns that he only hates Ned because Ned is basically 100% better than him.  Still, after the completion of the program, everyone in it gets hailed as a "hero" for no longer being bullies.  Homer, somehow, translates this to parades and first pitch throws, which start to annoy Ned.

Ned confronts Homer at an autograph function, and makes Homer realize that every time Homer puts Ned down, he seems like less of a person to his two sons.  Homer desperately tries to get Ned to forgive him, but Ned only reluctantly does so the following day, when the two make up and agree to have lunch together.

Quick Review
Over the previous summer, I analyzed scores for each episode matched with the people who wrote them, and determined that Tim Long is the worst of them.  Well, actually, Valentine L. Garza fared worse, but she had written just a couple of episodes at the time, and the episode she wrote this season puts her ahead of Long, probably.  The last episode Long wrote before this season was Season 25's Married to the Blob which I now claim is the worst episode in the series, it was that bad.

This episode is the first episode aired since that's written by Long, the only episode he wrote this season.  To be fair, the episode started off with some promise, there were a few decent jokes, Wiggum's escapades were good, and with the absurdity of everyone being arrested for "bullying" I was hoping for a decent conclusion / lesson with the episode.  Then I remembered, this episode was written by Tim Long.

Sure enough, the second half of this episode was an absolute disaster, starting from when Homer entered that bullying rehab center.  That entire sequence with "Dr. Raufbold" (voiced by the always-excellent Albert Brooks) was a complete drag to sit through.  From there, the episode tries to bring about an end to the Homer/Ned spat, but does so in such a hamfisted and boring way.  It almost felt like an after-school special at that point, except most after school specials have better writing than this.

The first half of the episode is this scrap heap's saving grace, its only getting this high of a score because of it.  Otherwise, the latter half of the episode is an exercise of tedium, a good example of how not to write anything.  Hey, at least there weren't that many pointless references (except the Magic School Bus one at the end to fill time!)

Final Score: 6.1

Sky Police (S26, E16-568)

In the next episode, Chief Wiggum learns about helicopters.

Plot Summary
By mistake, Chief Wiggum is sent a jetpack intended for one Clancy Wiggins.  Regardless, Wiggum happily claims the jetpack and hoards it to himself, becoming an airborne sentry, "Sky Police" as it were.  After some time, though, Wiggins - a military chief - comes in to claim his jetpack and bust Clancy Wiggum for basically stealing it.  Wiggum attempts to fly away but overuse of the jetpack, combined with military gunfire, causes the jetpack to malfunction.  As Wiggum detaches itself, the jetpack goes haywire, eventually crashing into the church, causing great damages.

With the church's act-of-god system preventing them from getting any insurance benefits, the church is left with no money to fix itself.  The six-person committee of Reverend Lovejoy, his wife Helen, Sideshow Mel, Agnes Skinner, Ned Flanders and Marge Simpson gets help, however, from an unlikely source: Apu - who needs the church up to teach people not to steal or kill (him).  He tells the group to go to the casino to get the funds using the ages-old trick of card counting - specifically keeping track of the cards in a deck and if a deck has a high enough set of cards remaining, send in someone with a big pot of money to reap the benefits.  The six do so wonderfully on the first night - in part because the group advises Marge to not tell Homer as he's prone to screw these things up.

The casino is on to the group after the first night, so Apu advises the group to don disguises for night two.  Bart and Lisa catch Marge in disguise before she leaves; she tells the two what's going on and has them promise not to tell Homer.  The second night goes wonderfully as well, and the church now has enough money for repairs.  However, Marge is stunned later to find that Homer has been taken in by the casino, who demands their money back less Homer wind up in a more battered shape.

Marge learns that the kids, worried that Marge was still out late, told Homer out of concern, and Homer rushes blindly into the casino asking about Marge - whom the casino was suspicious of - and nabs him as a hostage.  Marge tries to get Reverend Lovejoy to get the money back, but he's already used it to fix up the casino.  Realizing how dirty the church has become through the group's acts, Marge decides to go back to the basics with her faith to save Homer - by praying at the casino.  Stunned by the sight, casino-goers gawk at Marge's praying, causing casino profits to plummet.  The casino subsequently agrees to give Homer up as long as Marge agrees that her and her group never step foot in a casino again.  The incident causes Marge to think about her faith for a moment, but Homer reassures her its fine.

Quick Review
Despite the title, the sky police portion only makes up the opening gag and a credits gag.  Part of me wishes the sky police gag lasted longer, but it's probably for the best that it didn't.

The majority of the episode is focused on the card-counting story.  I must say, though, its a pretty decent episode.  Apu seemed like his old self at long last, despite the odd change to his past, and the episode didn't go off the deep end with religion until the very end when it couldn't do much to hurt the episode.

Final Score: 7.5

Bart's New Friend (S26, E11-563)

I don't see why mentally 10-year old Homer has to wear the same clothes as Bart.

Plot Summary
At the plant, Homer learns that a retiring worker was also a safety inspector for sector 7G just like him, who has spent the last several years covering up for Homer's blunders and other mistakes.  With the man's retirement, Homer realizes just how screwed he is, and decides to double his efforts to keep his job.  This leaves him busy all day and all night, leaving no time for him to spend with his family.  Marge tries to remedy this by getting tickets for the family to go to the circus, but while there Homer is outraged both by the circus' poor wifi and the fact that he had to deal with stack parking earlier.  Bart and Lisa are able to convince Homer to see one act: a hypnotist act, who - with Lisa's dishonest urging - convinces Homer to give hypnotism a shot.  The hypnotist convinces Homer he's 10 years old again, but before he can undo the hypnosis, the police barge in to arrest the hypnotist for deluding the rock and roll hall of fame committee into inducting Kiss.  The hypnotist flees, leaving Homer in his altered state of mind.

Dr. Hibbert warns the family that with hypnosis this strong, Homer must be allowed to continue believing he's exactly 10 years old, or fact permanent damage to his psyche.  Homer is subsequently forced to sleep with Bart and believes he has to go to school.  Soon, Homer and Bart become good friends who spend a lot of quality time together, though Bart is able to probe Homer somewhat late at night and learn that Homer fears growing up into someone who has to deal with a crummy job and a three-kid family.

The hypnotist is finally caught, and is ordered to snap Homer out of it before going to prison.  Feeling sorry for Homer, Bart sneaks Homer out and takes him to a (nearby?) Itchy & Scratchy land, where they have some more fun before the police catch up to them.  Realizing what has to happen, Homer bids farewell to Bart as the hypnotist restores Homer's original persona (not before Marge gets the hypnotist to make him better in bed, though).

Soon, late one night, Homer comes home after another hard day at work, but hears Bart in his room watching cartoons while eating lasagna, causing him to reminisce about "this kid" he knew who was his best friend.  Somehow, Homer can't seem to want to strangle Bart for his various wise-cracks anymore, opting instead to hug him.

Meanwhile, at an X-Men inspired jail, the hypnotist is able to trick Chief Wiggum into getting out of jail, while the newly imprisoned Wiggum gets a sudden, lol-so-randumb visit from Loki.

Quick Review
This episode was written by "comedy legend", as FOX advertised, Judd Apatow, over 20 years ago back when the show was still fresh.  Indeed, you can tell there are some parts of the episode that do not seem like it was written by your regular member of the modern writing staff (notably, the emotional stuff), while you can easily tell the parts that were added by said staff (notably, the throwaway comic book movie references at the end).

Overall, I thought this was a fine episode, with some good lines and jokes from Homer, and decent mischief from the hypnotist and Chief Wiggum (perhaps a little too much, though the end scene makes me sour for another reason).  Its one of the season's better episodes, not that it means too much.

Final Score: 7.2

Character Spotlight: Chief Wiggum

Note: This was written before the start of Season 26; any new information regarding Chief Wiggum from Season 26 on is not covered here.

Character: Clancy "Chief" Wiggum, voiced by Hank Azaria

First Episode: Homer’s Odyssey (S01, E03-003)

Occupation: Springfield’s Chief of Police

General Demeanor
Chief Wiggum is often depicted as an incompetent policeman, often unaware of most police procedures or operations (though the level of unawareness varies by episode).  In earlier episodes, Wiggum can sometimes be seen clashing with Mayor Quimby over control of emergency situations, but later episodes have often had Wiggum at odds with one of his lieutenants, Lou, as the latter is often unimpressed with Wiggum's quips or comments.  Sometimes, Wiggum is portrayed as a competent cop, but often times in these instances he's simultaneously portrayed as an ultra-strict antagonistic cop.  Wiggum is very open to bribes as well, especially from Fat Tony and his mafia, but he has been known to have some standards when it comes to what he'll accept as bribes.  He's also protective of his position as Chief of Police, not really able to deal with situations when his position or power is questioned or outright removed.

Clancy is a family man, married to a similar-looking woman named Sara, and he has an eight year old boy, the special needs child Ralph Wiggum.  While Sara is not used too often, Clancy's interactions with Ralph usually boil down to him going along with Ralph's imaginary adventures.

Wiggum's voice has softened throughout the years; the first few seasons his voice is hardened, kinda like the cops you'd find in 50s flicks or whatnot.  Later, when Clancy's oafishness character is more developed, his voice lightens up and he's hardly ever as serious in his dialogue as he previously was.

Key Character Moments
The Rise of the Simpsons
Wiggum, a background character, doesn't have much room to shine in the first couple of seasons.  Its also notable that, for a short time, Wiggum is depicted with black hair before it permanently becomes blue.

The Golden Age of the Simpsons
Chief Wiggum remains a background character, used whenever the police need to be around.  He starts to appear more often as Ralph Wiggum's character develops, though in those Ralph-focused episodes Clancy's involvement varies wildly.  Wiggum is also featured in Sideshow Bob episodes, where he's much more focused in jailing Bob than understanding anything that really happened, most notably in Brother from Another Series when Bob didn't even commit a crime.

In Season 5's Homer's Barbershop Quartet, its revealed Clancy is one of the original members of the "Be Sharps" alongside Skinner, Homer and Apu, however when a recording studio attempts to make the group big, Wiggum's low-to-average singing voice needs to go, so Homer unceremoniously dumps him and the group goes with Barney instead.  Its something Wiggum still holds a grudge for to this day.

Wiggum can sometimes be compared to Homer but in a police uniform, and the similarities really show themselves in Marge on the Lam, also Season 5.  With Marge and her friend Ruth Powers on the run because the latter stole her ex's car, Homer and Clancy ultimately go together to stop them.

Lisa on Ice has Clancy as the head coach of Bart's peewee hockey team, whose apparent biggest rival is Apu's team who acquired budding goalie Lisa Simpson.  Wiggum willingly allows prisoners to go watch the game despite only a verbal promise by Snake and others to go back.

Season 6's The Springfield Connection has Marge join the police force, where its shown the its not just Wiggum that's incompetent and corrupt - basically the entire force is as well.

Wiggum becomes a major character in Who Shot Mr. Burns?, particularly in Part 2 where he attempts to figure out who shot the old man.  Although his police work, at times, seems pretty good his leads and clues ultimately lead him to arresting Homer Simpson for the crime, though it was really his baby daughter who did it. ...

Season 7's Mother Simpson is heavy on Homer's backstory, but also reveals Wiggum's past as well, a security guard in training but dealing with terrible asthma, he was cured from it during Mona Simpson's attack on Burns' germ ward.  As thanks, he anonymously warns Homer and Mona when Burns closes in on her.

Wiggum faces his biggest crisis yet in Season 8's Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment where he is removed from his duties not only from not enforcing the newly formed prohibition laws, but actively breaking them as well.  He's replaced with the straight-laced Rex Banner, and is forced into poverty.  Homer, having just retired from being the "Beer Baron", feels pity for Wiggum and decides to let Wiggum "catch" him, a duty Banner had been tasked with completing from nearly the start.  Wiggum gets his job back and gleefully finds an opportunity to catapult Banner out of Springfield.

The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase features a supposed 'spin-off' featuring Wiggum and Seymour Skinner running a private eye agency in New Orleans along with Ralph (but not Sara).  He encounters crime lord Big Daddy and saves Ralph in the first of what was sure to be multiple encounters with Big Daddy.

 
The Fall of the Simpsons
In Season 9's This Little Wiggy, the relationship between Clancy and his son Ralph are expanded by a little bit where its revealed that Clancy actively encourages Ralph's imagination though he admits it doesn't do much towards Ralph making friends.  He's thrilled when he learns Bart is "friends" with Ralph.

Season 10's Wild Barts Can't Be Broken turns Wiggum into a major antagonist as he 'determines' a drunken rampage by Homer and his friends was actually the work of rambunctious kids and enacts a strict curfew as a response.  As a kids coalition led by (presumably) Bart and Lisa comes to a head with Clancy, the seniors citizens take over and enforce the curfew on everyone except them.

Zombie Simpsons
Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge, a Season 13 episode, showcases Wiggum's inability to control looting and such.  When Homer's start up security company does a much better job than Wiggum's police force, Mayor Quimby basically fires Wiggum and replaces him with Homer's company.

In Season 16's Pranksta Rap, Wiggum 'saves' Bart from the supposed kidnapper Kirk Van Houten, an act which rewards Wiggum with a promotion to Police Commissioner.  However, when Bart reveals the kidnapping as a ruse to hide what he actually did that night, Wiggum along with Kirk, Bart and Homer all agree to keep the ruse a secret as all their lives have been made better as a result.

Zombie Simpsons HD
In Season 21's Chief of Hearts, Wiggum and Homer become the best of friends, going through the highs and lows of said friendship.

There are more episodes these past several seasons that feature Chief Wiggum in decent amounts, but the episodes listed are ones that really focus on Wiggum and his character and/or backstory.

Must Watch Episodes That Focus on Chief Wiggum
Marge on the Lam
The Springfield Connection
Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 2
Mother Simpson

Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment

The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase

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

Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart (S23, E15-501)

The question mark really makes it a thinker.

Plot Summary
Homer, for once, is ready for Marge's birthday.  He's getting her a food processor she likes, which is endorsed by a cook she likes, and Homer is going to a new grocery store nearby where the cook will be singing stuff so he can have the cook sign Homer's present to Marge.  While at the new store, Homer meets the cook who tells Homer she'll call Marge during her live show as an added birthday bonus.

Meanwhile, Apu is there checking to see just how many people are going to this seemingly reasonable store rather than the cesspool that is the Kwik-E-Mart, and after learning most of them are okay with leaving Apu's business, he goes nuts.  At a later point, the store hires a seemingly reformed Snake, who in an ironic twist, hyuck, gets held up by Apu desperate for cash, though the experienced Snake calms Apu down.  Calmed yet defeated, Apu begins to close down his store when Manjula gives him good news: the new store is forced to shut down after its learned it was replacing chicken products with monkey meat.  Apu's business is saved and he can go back to lamenting his family.

Back to Marge's birthday, its going pretty swell.  Bart gets her a live rabbit not unlike one she had as a little girl, but Homer is thrilled to finally be ready for a birthday for once.  Homer readies for the phone call from the cook, but it never arrives.  Several hours later, Homer in frustration reveals his now ruined plan, but upon trying to angrily call the cook, he finds the phone isn't working.  Slowly, the family learns that the new rabbit ate the phone's wires just before the call was supposed to take place, and that the cook had actually called Marge several times, eventually getting so angry over supposedly being shunned she openly mocks Marge on her show.  Marge's birthday is once again ruined, and Homer pins the blame on Bart for bringing in the rabbit in the first place, shoving him into the rabbit's cage as punishment, then forcing him out when Bart enjoys himself in there.

Bart particularly doesn't like how Homer treats him here, and decides to get back at him by displaying graffiti across town with part of Homer's face with the word 'dope' underneath it.  With Milhouse his willing lacking, Bart litters the entire town with hundreds of dope tags, nearly swallowing the entire city.  The next day, Homer is unaware he's the target of the graffiti, and on TV Chief Wiggum basically taunts the vandalizer to do something even bigger.  Bart decides to do just that, but in the process he and Milhouse are confronted by four adults who reveal themselves to be "street artists", led by Shepard Fairey, an actual guy.  They convince Bart that his work is real art and that he should display it in a museum.  Bart agrees to do so, but later Milhouse's bumbling leads to Homer finally figuring out who the man in the dope graffiti is: him.

Homer can't even muster the anger to strangle Bart, simply saddened that Bart views him the way he does.  On the night of the museum unveiling, a remorseful Bart sprays Homer's car, increasing its value, and Homer makes up with his son.  However, the museum display was actually a police trap, set up by Wiggum with help from Fairey, who works with the police because he's a sellout or something, I dunno.  Marge convinces Wiggum not to arrest Bart, but Wiggum still needs to punish Bart for the act, when Homer comes up with a perfect solution: putting Bart back into the rabbit cage where he can sign autographs for his show even though its technically phony.

Quick Review
Season 23 finally has a solid episode, and that's despite the fact that there were two things working against it: the Game of Thrones couch gag that I really couldn't care less about, and the inclusion of the "street artists" whose appearances did little to improve the lackluster main plot with Bart.

However, I was happy to finally see Apu do something funny again.  Its been so long, it seems, since Apu has been involved in any Kwik-E-Mart related shenanigans, as nearly every joke involving him during the past several years has involved his less than pleasant wife and kids, and I mean 'less than pleasant' from both his point of view as well as a comedic one.  In this episode, Apu going nuts over the new store and his attempt to mug Snake were the episode's highlights and I wish the episode focused more on it than the lame graffiti storyline especially since the episode is titled after it.  Combined with some good stuff from Homer, and it is one of the season's best episodes, which is relatively not that great still.

Final Score: 7.1

Chief of Hearts (S21, E18-459)

Out of context, this is pretty screwy picture, so out of context it remains.

Plot Summary
Homer unwittingly causes a panic at a bank, and is arrested.  In court, Homer is sentenced to community service, Homer's least favorite kind of service.  Chief Wiggum is about to have Homer and a few other detainees do so work at the park, but he's feeling somewhat lonely as his wife is always "at a book club".  Wiggum notices Homer holding something; its several different Parmesan sandwiches, and Homer lets the interested Wiggum have a bite.  As thanks, Wiggum lets Homer just sit with him as the others do their service.  The two get to know one another and by the end of the day, the two become good friends.  With this, Homer also gets the enjoy the perks of being the best friend of the Chief of Police, and Wiggum shows Homer his secret spot on the outskirts of town where the two spend time peacefully.  Forced to duty, Wiggum brings Homer to an armed robbery, though, and a gunman is able to take Homer hostage.  Wiggum jumps in to save Homer, but gets shot in the chest as the robber gets away.

Wiggum falls into a coma, but Homer stays with Wiggum at the hospital until he finally awakens to the sight of his best friend.  However, Homer had been away from his family for quite a bit to tend to Clancy, and the two start bickering over whether Homer can leave for his family or stay with his ailing friend.  Some time later, Homer makes it back to the bar, but has to lie to Wiggum to do so, a lie Clancy is able to figure out.  Wiggum confronts Homer at the bar and the two get into an argument until Clancy gives up and storms off in a tantrum.

A short time later, Lou and Eddie tell Homer they can't find Clancy anywhere, but Homer knows where Clancy is.  He goes, alone, to Clancy's secret spot carrying along a bucket of chicken as an apology.  Before Clancy can say or do anything, the two spy the mafia trying to set up another counterfeit scheme, but as Clancy confronts them, he's points a chicken leg at them instead of his gun and both he and Homer are captured.  They're put inside the trunk of Fat Tony's car.  Homer and Clancy forgive each other, and Homer cheers Clancy on to find a solution out of their predicament.  Clancy forces the mafia to check the trunk, then the two are able to subdue the mafia as backup arrives.  Homer and Clancy agree to remain friends, albeit not as close as before, and Clancy lets Homer ride the police helicopter around to mess with Flanders.

Oh, while this was all happening, Bart is taken to a birthday party of some kid he doesn't know, and becomes interested in a new toy/card combo battle game.  Bart takes his toys and cards to school to battle others, but both Martin and Principal Skinner see only Bart taking out unknown materials from his backpack, and assume the worst.  He and Superintendent Chalmers inform Marge of the worst: Bart is dealing drugs.  Marge can't believe it, but when she gets home she overhears Bart and Milhouse talking about a 'fine product' (the game) out of context, and she too assumes the worst.  She goes into Bart's room digging for anything that could be drugs, but eventually Bart tells her about the battle game, clearing up her confusion.  Marge actually takes a liking to the game, which means Bart promptly gets rid of the now uncool materials.

Quick Review
After a string of poor episodes, Chief of Hearts gets the season back on track with a combo of Homer and Chief Wiggum that perhaps took way too long to make an episode of.  The sidestory with Bart's game was pretty worthless in every aspect, but the main story was excellent, both Homer and Wiggum shined as a combo and bringing in the mafia for its brief appearance made things just a little better.

Final Score: 8.0

Coming to Homerica (S20, E21-441)

So is he part Norwegian or friends with one or did one save his life or what?

Plot Summary
Krusty learns his restaurant's burger is the unhealthiest in the nation, so he decides to roll out a vegetarian option where the burger is made from barley.  It's a raving success across town... until people start getting sick from the burgers.  Its learned that the barley in the burgers are tainted, so Kent Brockman investigates in the now heavily Norwegian Ogdenville, where a farmer admits a rat got caught in the grinders and that this happens all the time, unaware that the interview is being aired live.  Immediately, Ogdenville's barley industry comes to a crashing halt and the entire town goes under.  They leave to find new opportunities, and end up in Springfield where they're willing to do construction and other unsavory jobs for people at a nominal price.

At first, Homer and the other Springfield residents are happy the Ogdenvillians are doing the crap jobs for them, but the sheer quantity of them starts to become a problem.  Hospitals are overrun with Ogdenvillians who are injured from their work.  Moe makes a killing selling them "Aqua Vit", so concentrated in alcohol Homer can't handle a single glass.  Bart injures himself trying to one-up an Ogdenville kid in skateboarding, and Homer gets fired from still being drunk on the Aqua Vit.  With the problem still growing, the town has a meeting where they decide to ban the Ogdenville immigrants.

Of course, this is near impossible to do with just Chief Wiggum and Lou on watch.  A vigilante group is formed to help, but little gets accomplished with them.  Mayor Quimby gets the idea to build a wall to keep them out, but with nobody in Springfield really capable of building a wall, the mayor agrees to let the Ogdenvillians help build the wall designed to keep them out.  During the construction, several Springfieldians take a liking to the Ogdanvillians, so much so that when the wall is complete, everyone in Springfield just stands there, not really knowing what to do.  Fortunately for them, the Ogdanvillians built a door in the wall to allow them back in easily, and both groups become fast friends again, having a big Ogdanville-style party to celebrate their friendship.

Quick Review
This episode just got weirder and weirder as it went along.  An episode featuring a typically lame jab at illegal immigration with a decidedly strange twist to make those immigrants of Norwegian descent.  Its an odd combination, one that rarely worked in this subpar episode that once again eschews comedy for the lame attempt at storytelling.

Final Score: 6.2

I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (S19, E04-404)

Remember, all those people in the background have chosen to ignore this scene.

Plot Summary
Lisa is going to be given the award for "Student of the Millennium" for some reason tomorrow, and Marge is going out of her way to make sure Homer attends the ceremony, even doing so less drunk the usual.  With Marge's urging, Homer is actually able to make it to the ceremony nearly two hours early.  Meanwhile, Marge makes a stop at the bank where, while she's there, a pair of men attempt an armed robbery.  Although Homer initially gloats over being at Lisa's thing while Marge isn't, he quickly worries when he finds out the truth.  One of the armed robbers freaks out and escapes, leaving just one guy left to leave everyone there hostage: a buggy-eyed creep named Dwight.  Marge is able to reason with Dwight, but he'll only promise to turn himself in if Marge visits him in prison.  Marge reluctantly accepts, and the situation is averted, though as Dwight is arrested he reminds Marge rather crazily to visit him.

Marge starts freaking out, though, and despite her promise to visit Dwight, she comes up with excuses and reasons to not visit him instead.  In prison, Dwight looks on with jealously as Snake gets visited by his girlfriend, Gloria (complete with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as her VA).  As Dwight realizes Marge isn't going to visit him, he gets pretty angry, and decides to break out.  News of this reaches Marge, and the police aren't in any rush to capture Dwight upon learning he'll turn himself in after finishing one piece of business.

Dwight eventually catches Marge in her car and forces her to drive to an amusement park.  As it turns out, Dwight was abandoned by his mother at this park when he was younger, so he wants Marge to recreate that day with the major difference being that Marge not leave him - not that she can as Dwight has her by gunpoint.  Chief Wiggum is coincidentally at the same park trying to have fun, but is forced to take action upon learning of the situation.  Marge and Dwight go on the viking boats - the same ride Dwight was abandoned - but when Wiggum tries to act, he gets caught inbetween the boats.  Dwight gets urged by Marge to help, but falls into the mechanisms though it does save Wiggum.  Marge does visit a healed Dwight in prison afterwards, where the two becomes as much of friends as they can comfortably be.

Quick Review
This was a pretty decent episode.  The hostage situation at the bank was the best the episode had to offer, particularly the scene with the dye packs, but the rest of the episode has its moments as well.  The odd dialogue between Krusty and Dr. Hibbert near the end dragged the episode a bit, but otherwise the episode wasn't that bad at all.

Final Score: 7.1

Stop or My Dog Will Shoot (S18, E20-398)

The design flaw here is that now, Robodog can not literally take a bite out of crime.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to a Harvest Festival, but end up getting stuck in a massive cornfield maze.  For some reason, the family splits up, and eventually Marge and the kids escape.  Homer, though, is unable to get out and he remains stuck inside for hours.  The police arrive to help, but their retrieval dog has gotten old and has given birth to puppies, so that's no help.  Instead, Bart calls over Santa's Little Helper, who had been resting in the car, to come and help.  After picking up Homer's scent, the dog is able to locate and bring out Homer.  The police are impressed with the dog's effort and invite him to be a police dog.

After some brief training, Santa's Little Helper becomes part of the force, teaming up with Lou in the K-9 unit.  As Bart begins to miss his dog, Santa's Little Helper quickly becomes overwhelmed with his new life on the force, and begins to display a more aggressive attitude to stay in the game.  The dog is able to catch and apprehend Snake after he tried to sell illegal steroids, but after incorrectly filing the paperwork, the court is forced to let Snake go.  Lou lets the dog go home for awhile to cool off, but it does little good; as Bart comes from behind to greet his dog, the dog reacts aggressively and bites Bart in the leg.

After some discussion, its decided that the dog will stay with Lou.  Homer and Marge decide to get Bart a new pet, and Bart eventually decides on a Python he calls "Strangles".  Bart takes Strangles to school for show and tell, but the python slithers away, forcing the evacuation of the school.  The police arrive with its K-9 unit, but as they go in the python slithers into the science lab, unwittingly creating a toxic gas.  The police are forced to flee the school, but its learned that Bart is still inside, looking for Strangles.  Santa's Little Helper storms in to rescue Bart.  Bart does succumb to the gas, but is rescued by Strangles and/or the dog, and Bart decides to let the dog finish saving him.  The dog is freed of its responsibilities as police dog, reuniting him with Bart, while Strangles becomes Willie's new pet, though its new role at the school is something I'm not quite sure of.

Quick Review
This ended being a pretty weak episode.  Stephen Hawking makes a quick cameo during the dog's search in the cornfield maze, and it was appreciated, but there was hardly much else to like here.  Once the dog became part of the force, it was hard to find anything worth laughing, though the bit with Snake (Jailbird) was alright.  Strangles had its moments too, but it all still made for a less-than episode.

Final Score: 6.4

Springfield Up (S18, E13-391)

Just like all billionaires, I would imagine.

Plot Summary
Declan Desmond, a supposedly noted documentary filmer, has returned to reveal he's been filming residents of Springfield since 32 years ago, first filming them when they were eight years old and filming how they've done every eight years since.  For instance, he's filmed Clancy Wiggum go from a boy with shoot 'em up dreams to a 16 year old hall monitor, to going to the police academy, then using his excellent pistol back rubs to earn him his Chief of Police title.

Desmond's documentary then focuses on young Homer, whose dreams involve becoming ultra rich and successful.  However, by the time Homer is 24, his dreams of fortune are basically shattered as he's involved in multiple odd jobs, but has found a nice gleam of hope in Marge.  At 32, Homer has now had kids (even though at 24 Homer states he never would), but promises that in eight years Homer will be so rich he'll kick Desmond's ass with a gold boot.  In the present day, much to Desmond's surprise, Homer has become a millionaire, apparently getting rich with a pen that shoots out condiments.

Desmond continues his film, focusing on Professor Frink, whose career path has left him unable to find a woman.  He goes back in time to warn his younger self and set him on a new path, but is run over before he can reach himself, probably dying.  The film then focuses on "Eleanor" whom at age eight wishes to be both a lawyer and a doctor, and accomplishes this at 24 after graduating from both Yale Law and Harvard Medical.  However, by 32 the woman has become burned out, losing her sanity and finding the comfort in booze and cats.  In the present day, the woman has become the person well known as the 'crazy cat lady'.

The film then focuses on Marge, whom at age eight is interested in photography.  This interest of hers continues into high school but by 24, Marge's photography is limited to use at some store she works at.  Still, in the present day, Marge is happy with her husband's success, when suddenly its learned that Homer's millionaire mansion is actually Mr. Burns' summer house.  It turns out Homer - gasp! - lied about his success!

Desmond tries to confront Homer about the lie back at his normal house, when Homer reveals that he's so disappointed his life is still as 'miserable' as it was eight years ago.  Desmond can't help to find such a statement odd, and after consulting Moe, invites Homer to his editing studio.  There, Desmond shows Homer footage of people across town who are actually envious of Homer's family, success and even some of his character.  Homer realizes that in his fruitless pursuit of his supposed dreams, he already has accomplished his dream: being with Marge each and every day.

Quick Review
I appreciate what the episode tried to do, presenting most of it in a documentary style, and I did find much of it interesting.  Of course, sadly, this episode still doesn't have all that much going for it in terms of comedy, so the score is lower than it probably should be, but I do like what the episode attempted to do.

Final Score: 6.8

Pranksta Rap (S16, E09-344)

Bart, excelling at something he's never shown to even wanting to do previously.

Plot Summary
Bart, suddenly into rap, wants to go to a rap concert featuring a rapper he likes in Alcatraz.  Homer initially lets Bart go if he came up with the money to buy a ticket himself.  Bart does so, but Marge stops him from going anyway.  Upset that Homer 'sold him out', Bart decides to go anyway, sneaking out through the window.  At the concert, a rather fortunate mic drop allows Bart to go on stage to rap alongside Alcatraz.  He gets a ride home with the rapper, and gets a shirt from his as well.  As he sneaks back in, he overhears Homer and Marge.  They know Bart's gone, and if its to the concert he's going to get it.  Bart comes to face two option: be an adult and admit his wrongdoing, or be a kid and worm his way out of trouble.  Bart chooses the latter, sending the two a 'letter' informing them that Bart has been kidnapped.

Bart gets help from Milhouse on a place to hide out, going to Milhouse's dad's apartment.  Chief Wiggum promises to find Bart, but is laughed away by the press because Wiggum has been so incompetent at his job.  After a dream where he gets encouraged by Barney Fife (or Don Knotts, Wiggum isn't sure if he's in character or not), Wiggum buckles down and starts to track Bart.  Bart starts to stage a phony kidnapper phone call to keep up appearances, cooking up "Chintzy Pop" oven-top popcorn in the process.  Bart is forced to hang up early as Milhouse's dad returns from his scarecrow job, but Wiggum is able to identify the Chintzy Pop noise in the background.  He goes to the Kwik-E-Mart to figure out who buys his favorite brand of popcorn, when Apu gives him the names of the only two people dumb enough to buy such crappy popcorn: Clancy Wiggum and Kirk Van Houten.  Wiggum enters Kirk's apartment, finds Bart and arrests Kirk on kidnapping charges.  Milhouse gets on Bart for what happened, and Bart decides to confess.

Wiggum, though, has been promoted to police commissioner for saving Bart.  When Bart goes to confess to Wiggum, Wiggum decides to keep it a secret between them, not just for Wiggum's sake, but Kirk's as well; Kirk's new status as well-known felon has gotten him a following of groupies who just want to do him over and over again.  Bart decides to follow along.  However, Lisa uncovers the shirt Bart got at the concert, but threw away as he began his kidnapping ploy.  Lisa goes to Homer to inform him of her suspicions, but Homer tosses the shirt into the fireplace as it turns out Homer's been paid lots of money (which he's already lost) for the movie rights to Bart's story which must be kept as true as possible.

Undeterred, Lisa gets help from Principal Skinner to uncover where Bart was the supposed night of the kidnapping.  Wiggum becomes aware of this, and gathers Homer, Bart and Kirk to figure out what to do about Lisa.  They figure out that they need to talk with whomever Bart was with that night to uphold the lie, so they go to visit Alcatraz.  However, Lisa and Skinner are already there, having seen footage of the concert which confirm's Bart was there at the right time and date.  Bart tries to convince Lisa to keep the lie going as its not hurting anyone, but Lisa sticks true to the truth.  Alcatraz notices this deadlock and decides to offer a solution: a pool party, which satisfies everyone except Lisa somewhat, but whatever.

Quick Review
Well, this episode was better than the last three, but that's not saying much.  I liked how the plot was developing during the middle of the episode with Wiggum and the cover up, but the beginning of the episode was cringeworthy to sit through, and the episode ended on such a stupid cop out (uh we don't know how to resolve this normally, so pool party time!) it really hindered this episode's quality.

Final Score: 6.5

The Wandering Juvie (S15, E16-329)

Boy, I hope Bart doesn't develop some odd fetish from this years later.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to the mall one day.  Bart learns about the wedding gift registry in one store, and decides to run a massive prank by registering himself and "Lotta Cooties" as a couple and getting people to buy presents for a fake wedding.  It seems to go off without a hitch, but Bart is caught trying to sneak away with presents by Chief Wiggum, who only accepts cash bribes.  In court, Judge Harm sentences Bart to six months of juvenile hall, this time for real.

Bart has a hard time adjusting in juvenile hall, what with everyone beating him up all the time.  Even the girl juveniles, led by a rather tough girl named Gina, give him distress.  Homer gets a job as a guard to protect Bart, but his shifts are too infrequent to do Bart any good.  One night, the hall hosts a mandatory dance on the premise that knowing how to dance reduces the chance of causing a double homicide.  Gina pairs up with Bart, the two shackled together by the Warden, but Gina eyes an escape route and makes her move, dragging Bart along for the ride, even though Bart only had two weeks left to serve.

With Gina threatening to play the victim and blame the escape all on Bart, the latter has no choice but to follow along for now.  The two get to know each other a little bit, with Gina telling Bart that once they get the shackles off she's going to hide out with her parents.  The two reach a blacksmith out in the woods who forges keys to unlock shackles, no questions asked.  Gina leaves rather forcefully, and when Bart goes to get in a last word, he sees her crying.  Turns out, Gina doesn't even have a family.  Bart tries to calm her down, but Gina snaps and attacks Bart.  Chief Wiggum finally catches up to the two, and plans to have both of them go back to jail for a long time.  Gina, in a change of heart, admits full responsibility for the escape, and so Bart is free to go (even though Bart still has a couple of weeks, but Wiggum doesn't care).  Gina goes back to juvie, but Bart brings the family to her jail cell for a taco dinner in appreciation for what she did.

Quick Review
In most of these Season 15 episodes, the funny starts off strong but dies near the end.  The comedy in this episode is more spread out, though that doesn't mean the episode is that much funnier as a result.  The episode, like most others this season, has its moments like the one bit with Homer as a guard, and Chief Wiggum had a few good moments too, but again the quantity of good jokes just isn't there anymore.

Final Score: 7.2

My Mother the Carjacker (S15, E02-315)

Not... quite the same emotional impact as the last Mona episode, I know.

Plot Summary
Marge wins a T-shirt when she sends in a hilarious newspaper clipping to Channel 6.  Homer becomes jealous and tries to do the same.  His quest for his own T-shirt drives him to delusion, looking at newspapers all evening for a funny headline, when he notices something odd about one article about a giant pizza.  The first letters in each line spell out a message for Homer to meet a person at an overpass at midnight.  Homer casually follows this message, and at midnight he's greeted by the mystery person: his mother.

Mona, still on the run from police, felt nostalgic toward Homer and decided to see him again, using 'the liberal media' to her advantage to plant that pizza story for Homer to catch.  However, their reunion is cut short when the police arrive for an unrelated reason, though they identify Mona right away.  Homer attempts to drive Mona to safety, but unwittingly drives right into the police station, and Mona is arrested, much to the glee of Mr. Burns.  During the trial, though, Homer's passionate plea to be back with his mother gets to the jury, who refuse to convict Mona, and the case is dismissed, much to the ire of Burns.

Now a free woman, Mona spends plenty of time with Homer; the two have a lot to catch up on.  Mr. Burns even invites Mona as he turns his old germ warfare building into something more positive.  However, its actually part of Burns' trap and he's able to get Mona to admit to using a phony name on federal property.  She's arrested once more, leaving Homer sad yet again.

Homer regroups, though, and is able to find and hijack the bus taking Mona to a federal prison.  Letting the other prisoners out honor system-style, Homer attempts to drive Mona to freedom.  However, with the police hot in pursuit, Mona decides to knock Homer out and toss him out the bus rather recklessly.  Moments later, Homer witnesses the bus go over a railing and into a lake, crashing, exploding and causing rocks to fall upon it, pretty much sending the message that Mona is dead.

Homer can hardly hold himself together at the funeral, and then later becomes somewhat delusional when he starts searching newspapers for a sign of Mona, believing to of found one in "IMO[next page]K".  The family tries to support Homer in his grief, nobody aware that Mona actually did leave a message in one paper, detailing how she escaped her predicament.

Quick Review
This episode was alright, mostly.  The big (second) return of Homer's mother was handled mostly well, though some of the bigger plot points really came out of nowhere (mainly Mona being arrested again as well as that rather far fetched ending).  Otherwise, the jokes were alright and the episode ends up being good though not great.

Final Score: 7.8

The Great Louse Detective (S14, E06-297)

You can tell by that face that Bob just wasn't into killing Bart.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons are invited for a free day at the spa.  There, Homer partakes in a steam room; when he's by himself, an unknown person locks Homer inside in an attempt to kill him, though Homer is able to escape in time.  He goes to the police to report the attempt on his life, and Chief Wiggum decides that in order to catch this killer, Homer needs the help of someone with the mind of a criminal.  For some reason, Wiggum chooses Bart's pal Sideshow Bob for this.

Bob agrees to help find Homer's assailant in exchange for having first pick in an upcoming prison play.  Bob is forced to wear a shock collar so he doesn't try anything silly like escaping or killing Bart.  As Bob begins to investigate by following Homer's movements, Homer crashes his car and chides a mechanic, Junior, just because.  Bob quickly learns that Homer has a lot of enemies.  To further that point, Bob sets up a dummy of Homer outside, which is attacked by said enemies, and thus Bob is no closer to figuring out the killer.  Bob does start finding clues, such as a thumbprint smudge on the spa postcard sent to the family, but as Bob advises Homer to stay out of sight, Homer learns he's been declared "King of Mardi Gras" (likely because the killer stuffed votes for him at the poll), and is forced to be out in the open for a significant period of time.

At the parade, Bob learns that the float Homer is riding was 'tuned up' by a mechanic.  Bob quickly adds up the pieces and realizes that Junior (and somehow not any other mechanic) must be the murderer.  The float Homer is on has had its brake lines cut, and sure enough the float goes down a hill.  Bob acts quickly to save Homer's life, and the two spot the murderer and give chase.  Cornering him in an alley, the murderer reveals himself to be Frank Grimes Jr., the son of Frank Grimes, who died after Homer drove him insane but apparently not before makin' babies with prostitutes.  The police arrive to arrest Junior and to tranquilize Bob, his job now done.

That night, Bart is visited by Bob, who had escaped the police, and attempts to kill Bart quickly (as per Lenny's advice earlier on), but finds that he can not kill Bart, having become accustomed to his face (singing a song stating as such).  Bob takes his leave, but not before getting shocked once or twice or several times more.

Quick Review
As far as Sideshow Bob episodes go, its the weakest entry thus far, slightly worse than Krusty Gets Busted, but as far as Season 14 episodes go its the highlight thus far.  Kinda sad to think about either way.  The episode itself had a good quantity of jokes, with Bob once again leading the humor charge.  Though, the reveal of the murderer was underwhelming, given age discrepancies of the two Grimes and the odd reference to Homer's Enemy, it just felt odd.  Still, I ended up enjoying the episode which, given how the season has gone thus far, is a compliment.

Final Score: 7.8

Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge (S13, E22-291)

Should I make a Stewie Griffin reference here?  Oh, I guess I already did.

Plot Summary
Springfield's in the middle of another massive heat wave.  Everyone is running air conditioning (except the Simpsons who continue to not have one), which is taxing the city's power.  Homer attempts to add some winter by plugging in a dancing Santa, but it proves to be a breaking point for the power grid.  The entire town loses power, which prompts a looting spree so grand nearly everyone loots while everyone gets looted, and the police aren't even close to being able to slow it down.

The next day, Lisa finds out that a looter stole her dolls, and Homer decides to investigate.  He figures out (well, moreso it lands on his lap) that Jimbo Jones took the dolls and he takes Jimbo to jail.  Realizing just how good it feels to be in a position of authority, Homer decides to start up a security team called SpringShield consisting of him, Lenny and Carl.  They do a good job, apparently, and the town feels safe again thanks to them.  Mayor Quimby attempts to defend Chief Wiggum but witnesses another act of incompetence and, in a fit of rage, removes Wiggum and puts Homer and SpringShield in charge of the city's law.

Homer and his team shut down some weird scheme by the Fat Tony mafia to substitute toy poodles with ferrets, but they get out of jail rather quickly and announce that they'll gun down Homer if he doesn't leave town by noon the next day.  Homer seeks backup, but nobody is willing to help.  Lenny and Carl even lock themselves in jail, leaving Homer all alone against several mobsters.  Noon approaches and Homer confronts them, but just before either he or the mobsters open fire, a mobster gets hit for a shot from an unknown spot.  The mafia attempt to figure out who is shooting, but they all get shot in the arm, unable to fire themselves.  Homer is glad to survive, and decides to give up his badge to the next person that comes along, coincidentally enough that person being Wiggum.  However, Wiggum insists he wasn't the mystery shooter either.  As he, Homer and Marge ponder that mystery, its revealed that, yes, it was Maggie that fired the shots with a rifle, with her parents none the wiser.

Quick Review
I'm pretty sure I said this last time, but: the ending was stupid.  Maggie held a gun for a shot she never intended to make several seasons ago in a mystery I'm fairly sure was meant to troll its participants more than anything else, and now here we are in Season 13's finale, she's a professional sniper.  I mean, what the hell is this?  Between this and the previous episode (and several other recent ones), it seems as though the writing staff have no realistic way to end episodes that feature life and death situations and instead use senseless cop-outs like "its an edgy reality show really" and "he got saved by his baby daughter who is a sniper now".  This ending just bugged me, especially since it was gaining a little steam with the inclusion of the mafia, and the episode puts a disappointing cap on what has been a disappointing season.

Final Score: 6.4

Day of the Jackanapes (S12, E13-261)

This picture of Bob laughing maniacally looks more like him being really eager.
Which he is, I guess.  Eager to commit murder!

Plot Summary
Krusty becomes annoyed over how TV has changed over the years, even more so how meddlesome network executives have gotten.  They get so meddlesome with their terrible ideas that Krusty has had enough and decides to retire, his final show airing the upcoming Friday.  Krusty also has an interview with Kent Brockman, when he reveals that he's taped over all of his old shows during an infatuation with Judge Judy, and then reveals that he feels the show hadn't gotten really funny until Sideshow Bob had been replaced with Mel.

This interview does not go unnoticed by Bob, and is so fueled with rage over Krusty's neglect he decides to go out and kill him.  Flimsy reasoning is enough for him to get paroled, and he quickly sets up shop at a storage locker to set up a master plan.  It starts with him taking a job at the Elementary School, with Skinner and Bob having a mutual disdain of Bart Simpson.  Taking on the role of morning announcement, uh, guy, Bob uses this to his advantage and announces that Bart should go unescorted to a shack out back.  Bart goes and is immediately captured by Bob, who plans to have Bart kill Krusty during Krusty's final show, using hypnotism to get Bart under his control.

The Simpsons get invites to the show (for some reason), and Bob is able to sneak his way in.  "Activating" Bart, Bob calls him over to begin the final stage of his plan: equipping Bart with belts lined with plastic explosive with Bart's hands applied with triggers to said explosive, Bob plans to have Bart hug Krusty, setting up an explosion and killing off both of them.

Having Bart go to the stage after Krusty says a particular phrase, Bob's plan is about to work without a hitch.  However, in the time it takes for Bart to actually reach the stage, Krusty reveals one single regret he's had his entire career: that his abuse of Bob while he was Krusty's sidekick was what led Bob down the path of crime.  Krusty's remorse reaches Bob, and he has a last second change of heart.  He attempts to stop the assassination, but is unable to reach the two.  Thankfully, Mr. Teeny, Krusty's show monkey, spots the plastic explosives under Bart's jacket and is able to swoop in and remove the explosives, throwing them into a room full of network executives (who survive the blast somewhat).

Krusty and Bob reconcile their differences, though Bob is once again hit for attempted murder and the episode ends with Bob trying to convince Chief Wiggum to at least get a trial before getting the guillotine.

Quick Review
This ends up to be an excellent Sideshow Bob episode.  He hadn't appeared in Mike Scully's tenure as showrunner, as he had feared that Bob's storylines had dried up, a fear that seemed somewhat true at the beginning of the episode when "Krusty doesn't think much of me" doesn't really seem like much of a motive for Bob - who had reformed only to be falsely arrested in his last major appearance - to go out and kill again.

Still, the jokes around Bob worked really well and though this episode is part of "new Simpson" territory, it can be counted among the better episodes that feature him, and its certainly one of the best episodes of Season 12.

Final Score: 9.1