The Scorpion's Tale (S22, E15-479)

It's like I'm watching modern Family Guy!

Plot Summary
The school takes a field trip to "Satan's Anvil", a desert-like location, Lisa wanders off from the group only to fall right in front of a pair of scorpions.  She backpedals into a field of flowers, where she notices the scorpions have become docile.  Realizing the flower is behind it, Lisa takes the two scorpions along with a flower back with her.  On the way back, she and Bart notice Grampa getting kicked out of the retirement home on account of him being way too cranky, and the two realize where he's going to go next: the Simpson home where Grampa's crankiness annoys all.

Lisa is eventually able to synthesize a fluid from the flower which has the same calming effect on the scorpions.  Homer decides to see if it works as a stain remover and, upon learning it does, decides to try out the liquid on angry Grampa.  He sneaks it into the old man's morning coffee, which has an immediate impact.  Grampa is actually happy, joyous, full of glee.  Lisa quickly suspects the cause, and despite Grampa openly admitting its better for everyone if he keeps taking the fluid, Lisa refuses to let her grandfather be drugged and flushes away the only vial of fluid available.

Homer takes Grampa to the bar, the latter having since regained his grumble.  As Homer laments that he can't make more formula as Lisa won't tell him which flower it is, an odd German man overhears the dilemma and offers help.  He runs a pharmaceutical company, and is able to extract a drop of Grampa's sweat with the formula within, and promises to isolate the drug, and isolate it he does.  While the man promises to have the drug undergo vigorous testing, he gives Grampa a large bottle full of pills for the drug, warning him, Homer and Bart not to let the drug fall into the wrong hands, because it could be sold in the black market.

Bart quickly gets his hands working, and grabs plenty of the pills to sells across town to people fed up with their cranky old folks, like Principal Skinner and Smithers.  Soon, all the seniors across town are docile.  At home, Lisa apologizes to Grampa for her previous behavior as she's glad Grampa can be happy.  Everything seems to be good... until Grampa's eyes fall out of his socket.  Lisa quickly theorizes that a side effect of the flower's solution is that it lubricates the eye sockets so greatly, the eyeballs can simply slide right out.  When Bart admits he's sold plenty of the drug to other seniors, the family is forced to tell the German what has happened.  While the guy is initially willing to let things be, his company's credo just won't let him.  He confronts a happy mob of seniors, all with their eye sockets loosened, telling them he has no choice but to destroy all traces of the drug.  With the seniors coming back to their senses, and Homer putting some kind of moronic display which ruins his car, Grampa rallies the other cranky seniors to remind the younger generations why they're so awful.  They quickly fix Homer's car (which the episode implies Homer had planned), and Lisa struggles to come up with a moral to this odd, odd story.

Quick Review
This episode, after a rather slow start with that boring segment at Satan's Anvil, picks up rather well when Grampa get put into the story.  Grampa is usually a solid source of comedy for me, and angry Grampa provides a fairly strong level of comedy, and even when he becomes docile the comedy is still pretty decent.  The episode takes a dive once the first set of eyeballs pop out in what seems like an out of place occurrence that reminds me more of the shock humor seen in other programs.  As such, the episode ends on a rough note, but overall it still makes for a decent episode if mostly because of Grampa.

Final Score: 7.1

Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (S03, E11-046)

You will never be giddy in the land of chocolate. ;_;

Plot Summary
Roughly translated as "Burns sells the power plant", the episode pretty much is about that.  Finding himself depressed, Burns wishes he had more time to do this and that, and laments that his work at the plant limits those opportunities.  Soon, rumors that Burns wants to sell the plant spread, with Smithers casually telling Homer that he believes Burns wouldn't sell it for less than $100 million.  Shortly thereafter, Homer gets a call from a "stockbroker", who gets Homer to agree to sell his stock for $25, even though the stock rises so much from the rumors that Homer could've gotten around $5000 instead, a mistake he and the family soon realize.

Before that point, though, Homer meets up with German investors interested in buying the plant at the bar (Homer having spent his $25 on fancy beer), and he tells them what he heard from Smithers: that Burns won't buy for less than $100 million.  Shocked yet determined, the next day the Germans give Burns that offer, which Burns happily accepts.  With the Germans taking over the plant, fear sets it as everyone at the plant worries they'll lose their job from the takeover.

The Germans, however, are quite friendly to the workers, and plan on having discussions with them all to determine who to lay off.  They also notice a few safety concerns thereabout, and with Homer's discussions with the Germans derailing into some kind of thing involving the land of chocolate, Homer ends up being the only one laid off.

Burns is enjoying his newfound freedom, and one night he and Smithers decide to take in local culture at Moe's.  Homer is there poorly trying to fend off depression, and when Burns tries to get friendly with Homer, Homer tells Burns off, reminding the old man that money won't love you back, etc. etc.  Alarmed that he is no longer feared, Burns is determined to repurchase the plant.  Meanwhile, the Germans have found that power plant to be a death trap with safety violations all over, with repair costs equalling about another $100 million.  Burns comes in just in time to repurchase the plant and, upon learning the Germans are desperate the sell, is able to buy the plant for only $50 million.  With the plant his again, Burns has Homer rehired, under the whole "keep your enemies closer" mantra, which suits Homer just fine.

Quick Review
Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk is a classic.  Tons of laughs to be had throughout, including the antics of the Germans, Burns, Homer, or even Bart in the latter portion where his prank call to Moe seems to of backfired when Marge asks him to go to Moe's to retrieve Homer.  The best part of the episode, and one of the classic moments of the series, is during Homer's talk with the Germans, where he brings up the candy machine in some vain attempt to save face, and the Germans reply "We understand Homer, after all, we come from the land of chocolate", and Homer on cue imagines himself within the land of chocolate, a sequence which takes up 10 minutes apparently.  That sequence pushes the episode over the top, and becomes the first "10" rated episode in the series.

Final Score: 10