To Courier with Love (S27, E20-594)

I guess Homer "eclipsed" the competition, heh heh heh.

Plot Summary
Homer magically stumbles upon an old vintage car while cleaning out the garage.  After going on a mild tour driving it, that night he sees Marge is saddened with the burden of everyday life.  Homer wishes for a way to help Marge, and gets it when Jay Leno visits to buy Homer's vintage car - Leno being a connoisseur of such cars.  With his newfound money, Homer tells Marge that he'll take her to any place she'd like.  As she decides, Homer is visited by Leno again, who asks for the money back as the car ended up being confiscated by the police for never actually being owned by Homer.  With no extra money and Marge deciding she wants to go to Paris, Homer is in another marital bind.

Homer visits a travel agent to basically give him a trip to Paris for free.  The agent does give Homer the option of being a courier: helping the mob a client transport a package, with the trip and hotel paid for, but with the stipulation that the courier never look at the package.  Homer agrees, but it doesn't take long for him to break and decides to look in the package while on the plane.  He, and the nearby Lisa, find out a blue snake is inside, but Homer doesn't let Marge find out under the fears that the trip - and their marriage - will be ruined.

At the Paris airport, Homer meets the two French men with whom the package would be given.  However, after learning that the men plan to turn the snake into a belt, Homer and Lisa flee with the package.  As the rest of the family enjoys their time at Paris, Homer attempts to free the snake but is found by the two men and is forced to flee again.  Eventually, Homer tells Marge everything but as the two return to the hotel room they're met by the French police - who were summoned by those two men.  Under arrest for the "theft" of their snake, Homer can only watch as the police open up the package, only to find it empty.  The rest of the room is searched but no snake turns out.  Feeling tricked, the police escort the two men away, afterward it's revealed that the snake hid in Marge's hair.  Marge considers the vacation a success, and Homer returns home with gifts for his barmates - including a blue snake belt for Moe, artificial of course.

Quick Review
Much like the last episode, this one ends up being rather dull.  Some decent jokes here and there and the two French men were pretty funny, but overall the humor was too limited to really help this episode out.

Final Score: 6.4

The Devil Wears Nada (S21, E05-446)

Those are some pretty hot Carls she's got.

Plot Summary
At the nuclear plant, the supervisor of Homer, Lenny and Carl is retiring.  The trio is going to miss the guy as he let the three of them get away with a lot.  Mr. Burns finds the three and informs them he's going to simply promote one of them to supervisor, choosing the least-incompetent one of the bunch: Carl.  Homer and Lenny are initially thrilled, but Carl realizes his career potential and immediately forces the two back to work.  Carl quickly moves up the corporate ladder, and forces Homer to be his assistant or face termination.

Meanwhile, Marge and her friends get inspired by a lewd police calender and decide to do one of their own.  While the other women are alright with showing off their bodies, Marge wants to remain conservative.  Of course, Marge is also by far the hottest woman of the group so the calender photographer gets Marge drunk on wine.  Now, Marge is more than willing to show off some skin, and lots of it.  Some time later, the calenders come out, but each months only features more and more scintillating pictures of Marge.  Marge is somewhat embarrassed by this, but upon finding out that she's being generally praised for her work, Marge accepts it and gets pretty turned on as well.

So now, nights at home become complicated.  Marge wants to snuggle with Homer pretty badly, but Homer is so worn out with his new duties he falls asleep every time.  After several failed attempts, Homer finally makes time for Marge, taking her to a fancy hotel, but as the two start to get going there, Homer gets a call from Carl informing him that they're going to "Fission Week" in Paris.  Which also means no time at all for snuggling.  The next morning, Homer hastily heads for the airport to avoid Carl's wrath, while at the same time avoiding Marge's wrath, now upset she can't get the satisfaction she needs.  She throws a conveniently nearby croquet mallet which unfortunately hits Ned Flanders in the head.  Marge apologizes and, to make up for it, invites him and his boys for dinner.

In Paris, Carl gets into a relationship with an easy French woman and eventually tells Homer to extend their stay in Paris indefinitely, worrying Homer as he wants to go back to Marge eventually.  Meanwhile, with Bart and Lisa having other engagement while Rod and Todd are grounded, Marge ends up hosting dinner for just Ned alone.  Marge's whose libido is still raging from weeks of forced celibacy, starts getting turned on even more by the hunky Ned, though she's barely able to hold off on her instincts for the time being.

A short time earlier, Homer reveals to Carl over the phone that he flew back to Springfield.  Carl threatens to fire Homer if he doesn't come back, but Homer has a trump card: he knows that woman Carl's been seeing is the wife of France's President, and he'll blow open a huge scandal if Carl doesn't let him be with Marge.  Carl relents, and Homer blissfully relieves himself of his duties.  At home, Marge nearly gives in to her desires again, but sees a picture of Homer reflected in Ned's eye, and is able to restrain herself once more.  Outside, Homer arrives in time to see Marge seeing Ned off, and though he's initially suspicious, he trusts Marge and says hi to his "worst friend" before grabbing Marge and running upstairs to finally, at long last, snuggle.

Quick Review
This ends up being a good episode overall.  Homer's story provides some good entertainment throughout, especially at the beginning, while Marge's story picks up near the end, so it balances out to be one of the early season's better episodes.

Final Score: 7.6