Mathlete's Feat (S26, E22-574)

Oh yeah, they wore hats for some reason.  I dare you to care.

Plot Summary
Lisa and the rest of Springfield Elementary's math team competes in a local competition against Waverly Hills but gets blown out in every sense of the phrase, except the literal one.  The three judges of the competition, the three college nerds Homer once befriended, and who have since struck it rich thanks to a popular phone app they developed, decide to help their old elementary school by upgrading its tech to modern times.  However, Skinner uses a power strip that isn't a surge protector to plug in all of the new servers and such, causing a quick overload of electricity, effectively shutting down everything.

With the school now with no technology or power, Lisa finds a sudden interest in Groundskeeper Willie's odd, (supposedly) ancient Scottish measurements for science while he's doing yardwork.  Soon, Lisa proposes the "Waldorf" method of education, which proposes students can learn without the use of any educational materials by making everything more hands on with what's available, "winging it", as it were.  Everyone in school gets to liking it pretty quick and more resistant stalwarts such as Homer give in soon enough.

For being the one to introduce it to Lisa and subsequently everyone else, Willie gets named coach of the math team.  Soon, Willie witnesses Bart throw one egg, and believing it to be a perfectly calculated throw, he makes Bart captain of the team.  Soon, the Springfield math teams gets its rematch against Waverly Hills, and with their new methods of math and Bart's last second save, the team earns the win thanks to, basically, lower standards.  Afterward, Willie reveals that his methods are not based on science but (supposedly) an old Scottish way to hang sheep thieves and such.

Quick Review
Wow, what a mess of an episode.  First of all, the plot is short; the episode starts with a very lengthy couch gag featuring Rick & Morty, which lasted over two minutes.  There was another half-minute of filler at the end with the Simpsons playing hillbilly music for no apparent reason, detached from the rest of the episode.  The main episode was quite short.

It was also very bad, the worst episode of the season.  I can even make a claim that its one of the ten worst in the series thus far; it scored low enough to do so.  I was worried that, when previews suggested plenty of heavy math jokes, that they'd be too tryhard to be funny.  Well, there weren't that many math jokes, and they weren't too bad, some were pretty clever, but otherwise most of the comedy in the episode was sorely lacking in delivery, and humor.

The plot, as brief as it was, could barely hold itself together.  The first part of the episode was mostly references and "hey look at all this tech, we're tech-savy are we cool yet".  The middle portion was just dull and the last portion just dragged on in what felt like nothing more that simple plot progression.  Last episode was half of a disaster, this episode is definitely a full one.

Final Score: 4.0

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

Let's Go Fly a Coot (S26, E20-572)

Glenn Close cameo'd Mona's voice here, but it sounds way different.

Plot Summary
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

The Kids are All Fight (S26, E19-571)

One action doesn't really quite equal the other here.

Plot Summary
Homer finds an old roll of film in his suit jacket, and Moe offers to develop it.  He returns the photos to the family, which turns out to be nothing but four year old Bart and two year old Lisa fighting each other.  Homer and Marge start to remember life with the two kids six years ago, and recall that, yeah, those two kids always fought with one another.  Constantly.

One day, the Flanders' invite Homer and Marge to brunch, Ned offering to let his Grandma Flanders babysit the kids.  However, Bart and Lisa scare Grandma Flanders to death with their religious ignorance.  Fearful of what they did, the two run back home.  While Homer and Marge delayed going to the brunch to have a quick "snuggle time", they still don't hear the kids trying to get back inside.  The two instead hear an ice cream truck and give chase.

Following the brunch, Homer and Marge learn their kids have run off and are presumed missing, going through every effort to find them.  Meanwhile, young Bart and young Lisa start to build a dynamic where Lisa's smarts and Bart's, hm, "ingenuity", work in tandem to help them survive.  That still doesn't stop them from being hostile towards one another, but after Bart nearly lets Lisa crash into a tree, Lisa officially gives up and just lets Bart win all arguments.  Later, Homer and Marge finally find and rescue the two kids who found themselves ontop the tire fire.  The two kids' new dynamic of tolerance survives to this day, and Homer is credited (by Moe) to be a competent parent.

Quick Review
Well, this episode tried to be funny.  There were jokes, a good amount of them.  Many of them weren't funny.  Some were very unfunny.  There were a few references.  Two specifically, Grandma Flanders and Bart's clown bed, were from Lisa's First Word and the episode seems to try to act as a continuation of that flashback story.

This episode also really tries hard to establish itself as some kind of canon, from deliberately avoiding framing itself in any period of time, to making a note of Homer's "first" chokehold of Bart, to the seemingly first meetings between the two kids and the likes of Milhouse, the bullies, and so on.  It seems really forced, in short.

A lot of it really seemed unnatural as well.  I know I've never been much of a stickler for continuity, but two year old Lisa in this episode seemed far more intelligent than three year old Lisa did in Lisa's Sax.  There was a lot of dialogue that didn't really "fit" with any of the characters in either time period either.  The entire time watching this episode, I felt there was something completely "off" about how this episode presents itself.  I don't know if its the try-hard mentality of it, the fact that so many jokes were awful, or what.  This was a pretty awful episode, even by this season's standards, and while its better than the last two flashback episodes, its by no real means any improvement, either.

Final Score: 5.8

Peeping Mom (S26, E18-570)

Pictured is Marge, half-assing her stealth clothing.

Plot Summary
Marge sees the aftermath of an incident where someone stole a bulldozer and bulldozed over several buildings.  Chief Wiggum has pinned the crime on Bart despite no motive, evidence and so on.  He gives Bart over to Marge hoping she can get him to squeal, but Bart denies everything, including even knowing about the bulldozer.  At her wits end, Marge decides to keep constant watch over Bart until he confesses his wrongdoing in the bulldozer incident.

Marge follows Bart to school, to Milhouse's secret area, and tails him even at night when Bart tries to escape for some solitude.  However, Bart continues to deny any and all involvement.  During the night time chase, Marge tries one last time to get Bart to confess, but he still won't crack.  Marge officially gives up, and leaves Bart to himself.

Meanwhile, Flanders gets a new dog, nicknamed Baz, who takes an immediate liking to Homer, much to the dismay of both Flanders and Santa's Little Helper.  Flanders wonders if the dog he had quickly grown to love should just go to stay with Homer instead.  Homer, however, realizes Baz only sees Homer as a playmate, another dog, and that Flanders is the best choice to be the dog's owner.

Bart reveals to Milhouse a new scheme of his, where - during the 50th anniversary of the "SPRINGFIELD" sign outside town - he plans to pull down several of the letters (using the bulldozer he indeed stole) to make it instead spell "FIE".  Marge shows no interest at all in this.  There, Bart is readying the bulldozer but notices that Marge packed some fried chicken before he left.  Growing a small conscience, Bart changes his plan at the last second to make the sign instead spell "FD" which the townspeople interpret as a tribute to the Fire Department.  Bart finds Marge and tells her he did indeed take the bulldozer, which an eavesdropping Chief Wiggum overhears, giving him enough reason to arrest Bart, but Marge forgives Bart I guess.  The episode ends with Santa's Little Helper (who made up with Homer) and Baz becoming acquaintances.

Quick Review
This episode starts out pretty well but the comedy dies out near the end.  The dog subplot was the same, it started off with promise but ended on a whimper.  Mainly, I didn't think the conclusions of either plot were really all that well written both for comedic effect nor for storytelling purposes.  The plot set itself up well, but it crashed kinda hard from there.

I also kinda think the episode could've worked better if Bart hadn't stolen the bulldozer.  I felt like as though the first half of the episode was setting it up to where Bart was actually innocent and that Marge was gonna look silly for being so persistent over nothing.  Not that I expect that alternative to of been written well either, but having Bart actually be the one to steal the bulldozer kinda makes the first, funnier half of the episode pointless filler.  I guess that irritates me a little.

Final Score: 7.0

Waiting for Duffman (S26, E17-569)

There's just something so... lifeless... about this whole episode.

Plot Summary
During a cycling function, Duffman injures his hip severely enough that he requires hip replacement surgery.  This forces the current Duffman, Barry, to retire, and Duff to hold a televised competition to find its next Duffman.  Homer decides to enter not (just) to be able to drink free beer, but also to earn some recognition that can be put on his obituary.  In the contest, Homer does well, but winds up as the runner-up.  Luckily for him, the winner has a tattoo of a competing beer brand, and with the winner being disqualified as a result, Homer ends up earning the title of Duffman.

However, Homer is injected with a computer chip that supposedly prevents him from consuming alcohol, as being Duffman is an always-sober endeavor.  Homer tries to drink a little bit of beer to check, but finds the chip really does work.  Regardless, Homer carries on his duties as Duffman admirably, and Duff finds its profits soaring as the public seemingly loves a man who looks worse than them selling them beer.  Homer, however, comes to find that Duff, and beer in general, actually brings ruin to people and the town, something he can only grasp now that he's been sober for so long.

At a racetrack, Homer uses his power as Duffman to have only non-alcoholic beer served, to prove that people can still have fun regardless of  the alcoholic content of their beverage.  Still, people don't like to be tricked into drinking non-alcoholic beer, and a mob forms to take Homer out.  The head of Duffman forces Homer to drink a regular beer to get the crowd off him, telling Homer that the "chip" was a ruse and Homer fell to the simple power of suggestion.  Disgruntled by that news, Homer drinks the beer to avoid the public lynching, and immediately reverts to his old self.  Still, Homer relishes in now being considered a "has been", while a healthy Barry is given back his mantle as Duffman.

Quick Review
This episode was pretty boring for much of the latter portion.  It started off pretty decently, but once it got into the Duffman antics the comedy just wasn't there.  The plot was fairly dry, and there was hardly anything remotely funny to redeem this episode.  The t-shirt cannon reference still stings 15 years later, by the way.

Sorry, Sam Simon, I wish you had a better episode dedicated to you. :(

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

The Princess Guide (S26, E15-567)

Nothing like depressing books to help a depressed man live life!

Plot Summary
Mr. Burns' nuclear plant still hasn't recovered from the damage done by Elon Musk three episodes ago.  As such, Mr. Burns welcomes a Nigerian king (for real) to set up an uranium deal.  Burns admits that if the deal doesn't happen, Burns will be forced to sell his things and move to the south Pacific with Smithers, something Smithers imagines to be rather pleasant, and thus subsequently hopes the uranium deal fails.

The king requests that Burns hire a bodyguard for his princess daughter who traveled with him, and Burns decides to hire Homer, seeing Homer treat Lisa well during "take your daughter to work day". Knowing of Homer's incompetence, Smithers agrees with Burns' choice hoping that Homer's involvement will secure the deal's failure.  That night, Homer is persuaded by the princess to go out, and thus Homer takes her out to the only place he ever goes out to at night: Moe's.  Moe learns of the princess' origin, then in a panic immediately takes Homer to a room in the back to explain that, some time previous, he got scammed by a Nigerian prince (not for real), and that this lady may be related to him.  As Homer tries to talk Moe out of it, they both learn the princess has left on her own.

Homer goes out to look for her, but gets arrested under the (for once, mistaken) notion of being publicly drunk.  The princess, however, immediately goes back to the bar to talk with Moe some more, alone.  Moe, at first, tries to discern whether or not the scam prince is actually her brother, but as the two continue to talk, those pretenses are dropped, and a connection between the two is made. As the princess decides to sleep at the bar for the night, Moe drops his quest and is happy to of made a lady friend.  The next day, the two go on a montage of sightseeing, but Homer catches up and demands Moe give her up.  Moe runs off with her, but the princess admits she needs to go back.  She kisses Moe on the forehead before she leaves, but is caught by a paparazzo, who takes a picture that quickly virals on the web, catching the eye of the Nigerian king, who becomes so upset with Burns he decides to end negotiations, all going to Smithers' plan.

Later, all parties involved meet in Burns' office, where the princess admits the kiss happened, but it was not a romantic kiss, but rather, well, a platonic one.  Moe understands and is still happy she's otherwise okay with him, while Homer convinces the king to forgive his daughter and go through with the uranium deal, shattering Smithers' hopes.  Later, the princess is forced to field questions from the press, which Moe helps defuse, and the two exchange gifts before she leaves for Nigeria.

Quick Review
This was your average Season 26 episode (i.e. not good), but it was kinda weird in how it operated.  There were several Family Guy-tier cutaway gags and the story with the Nigerian princess wasn't all that funny.  Most of the humor came from Moe and Mr. Burns, though the odd subplot with Smithers' hoping for the deal to fail so that Burns will retire with him was just out of place in the episode, kinda felt forced.

Some other notes: Jon Lovitz cameo'd as the paparazzo, and Richard Branson guest starred as Burns' annoying neighbor.  I don't know who Richard Branson was before this episode, and I have already forgotten who he is already.  The episode also paid a quick tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy, who guest-starred in two episodes.

Final Score: 6.6

My Fare Lady (S26, E14-566)

Not even Lenny is immune to the cruelties of today's modern old ladies.

Plot Summary
Marge has a busy day ahead, needing to drive the kids everywhere.  Homer is aware that his help is needed for this mundane task, so he quietly escapes and is able to get a drink into his system at Moe's before Marge can do anything to stop him.  Undeterred, Marge is able to drive her kids to every needed destination that day.  While filling up at a gas station, she meets someone who turns out to be an Uber driver "a social media-based ride-share service", using a large smile on his car's grill to indicate his service.  Realizing she, too, can be paid for driving people around, Marge decides to opt in as a driver herself.

Meanwhile, Moe has in his possession a ticket to a theatre show, but can't leave the bar unattended on a Saturday night.  Homer agrees to take his place, but while Moe is gone, Homer, Lenny and Carl decide to find ways to get Moe some profit.  They set up a "ladies night", where ladies drink free under the premise that guys will also come in to court these ladies and spend money on drinks, thus profit.  Unfortunately for them, only ladies show up.  Not only are they giving up alcohol for massive losses, but the ladies start fighting amongst themselves, turning the bar into a nearly unsalvageable mess by the time Moe returns.

With the bar in ruins, Moe needs a new source of income.  The three men who helped ruin Moe tell him to apply for the nuclear plant's open janitorial position, which he does successfully.  There, Moe is able to shoo away some health inspectors.  Impressed, Mr. Burns promotes Moe to supervisor of Sector 7G, where Homer is stationed.  I should say "was", as Moe notices all of Homer's mistakes there, and decides to reposition him as Mr. Burns' flower waterer, opting to not just fire Homer because they're friends.  Soon, Homer as well as Lenny and Carl find that Moe is a huge jerk when he's not serving the three of them beer.

Marge's new life as a makeshift cabbie is immediately exhausting as she fulfills the zany requests of her customers.  Cab drivers across Springfield quickly gain notice of this, and Marge in particular.  One night, Marge picks up a depressed Moe.  The two (over a song) discuss their problems and both agree that they should each quit their new jobs.  Marge is confronted by the alliance of cab drivers for taking their business, but Moe shoos them away.  Marge officially quits her new job, and Moe uses what I presume is his earnings from the nuclear plant to rebuild his bar, so that Homer and his friends can go back to tolerating Moe once more.

Quick Review
This episode is slightly better than the last couple, but that's not saying much.  Neither plot was particularly humorous.  Marge's storyline which despite the episode title was only a subplot didn't have much going for it other than a couple of unimpressive visual gags while the main storyline with Moe had some potential but didn't really do anything to laugh much about.  The bit with the cab drivers seemed like a missed opportunity as well.  Another disappointment from this season.

This is, apparently, the first and subsequently only episode in which Bart has no lines to speak.  565 previous episode Bart had at least one thing to say.  In this episode, though there were a couple of instance he could've said something, he doesn't even appear after Marge agrees to be a chauffeur.

Final Score: 6.7

Walking Big & Tall (S26, E13-565)

I kinda capped this randomly, but Selma can't believe what she's seeing right now.

Plot Summary
It's learned that Springfield's anthem is no different than the anthem of most other cities, thanks to former mayor Hans Moleman who "wrote" the song 30 years ago.  Mayor Quimby allows Lisa to write up a new anthem, and she enlists Bart to help with lyrics.  In short time, the two are able to come up with a new anthem focused on what Springfield hasn't screwed up on, and premieres it in a theatre.  During this, Homer has trouble fitting into his seat, and after the conclusion of what turns out to be a hit anthem, Homer is unable to get up during the standing ovation.  He gives another effort to do so but it turns disastrous as he pulls up the entire row of seats with him, causing mockery and other related damages.

The next morning, Marge tells Homer to go to a support group called "Over-Feeders Anonymous", but Homer accidentally enters a room full of similarly large people who take pride in over-eating known as "Big is Beautiful".  The group is led by a wheelchair-bound man named "Albert" who easily convinces Homer to take pride in his girth, including directly to Marge.  Soon, the group stages a protest against a store for promoting thinness, and the entire group is arrested.  Marge attempts to bail Homer out, but insults the group while doing so, forcing Homer to choose between staying in jail with his new food-positive friends or his diet-conscious wife.  Predictably, Homer chooses the former.

Bart and Lisa decide to come up with a new song to change Homer's mind (though Bart only proposed the idea to avoid talking to Marge further), but the two are unable to come up with anything.  Albert leads another fat pride protest at the town square, where Marge tries to reason with Homer again, but with Lisa and Bart arguing over their failure and Homer arguing that America's greatest leader was also wheelchair bound (Professor X, of course), Marge basically gives up.  Insulted that he is considered "wheelchair bound", Albert defiantly stands up to show that he is not ashamed of who he is.   Then he suffers a heart attack and dies.  After the funeral, Homer learns some lessons: first to never be proud of anything again, and to continue yo-yoing his weight from now until eternity.

Quick Review
This episode was not that funny.  Not a whole lot of jokes, well, funny jokes anyway.  There were a lot of meta references as well, but nothing worth laughing about.  The main plotline about the fat acceptance group had many lows and while the opening bit with the anthem wasn't a particular strong point the rest of the episode made no effort to improve upon it.  Another weak episode.

Final Score: 6.1

The Musk Who Fell to Earth (S26, E12-564)

Ironically, the Miami Dolphin's helmet logo no longer wears a helmet.  Good research, writers!

Plot Summary
After some inconsequential shenanigans with an eagle, the Simpsons are visited by a small spaceship (which incinerates the eagle).  Coming out of the ship is Elon Musk, whom Lisa immediately identifies as a well-renowned inventor and entrepreneur.  Elon is apparently in a slump and is traveling around the world in his spaceship looking for ideas.  Soon, he finds inspiration in Homer's random thoughts.  Homer takes Elon to the nuclear plant, and gives suggestions to Mr. Burns.  Burns strikes a deal with Musk to forcefully pump more electricity into Springfield, thus potentially increasing Burns' profits while Musk demands no monetary compensation.  Smithers is highly suspicious of Musk, but Burns pays no mind to him and carries on.  Meanwhile, Homer and Elon become good, good friends.

Soon, Springfield becomes somewhat of a "city of tomorrow" type place with self-driving cars everywhere and such.  Soon, Burns is ready to have Elon announce the plant's quarterly report, only to be stunned to learn that the plant lost $50 million.  Turns out, Elon is just your average "ideas guy" who just wants to "save the planet", caring not one iota about finances or money.  Having lost so much money, Burns is forced to layoff most of the nuclear plant, including Homer.

Springfield falls into a deep depression as a result, and Homer realizes it may be time for Musk to move on, getting advice on breaking up from the person who knows best: Marge.  Making it more awkward is Elon saving Homer's life during a botched assassination attempted by aged snipers hired by a vengeful Burns.  Even so, Homer tells Elon he doesn't want to be with him anymore, and Elon is prompted to leave town, realizing that the world just isn't ready for his ideas yet, but he has a hard time forgetting his short time being with Homer, and his last final idea: the dolphin in the Miami Dolphins' helmet logo is also wearing a helmet.

Quick Review
Al Jean stated that he didn't want this episode to be a "kiss-ass" episode to Musk, kinda like what happened with Lisa Goes Gaga, and wanted to poke fun at Musk's ego and whatnot, but you'd have a hard time convincing me that was the case.

Much, much of this episode was spent portraying Musk as your perfect image of a visionary whose only fault is being unable to deal with money, and even then he goes a mini-tangent about wanting to rid the world of financial systems, with a straight face of course.  From the moment he landed in the Simpsons' backyard in his own personal spaceship to the very last minute of the episode, the entire time was basically the Elon Musk propaganda half-hour and while I can't really deny some of the work he's done (though PayPal is not that great, come on), that's no reason for the episode to just gush over him like they did.

The episode lacked in jokes and humor, and most of the humor that there was did not come from or was related to anything regarding Musk.  Musk's lines were oddly delivered throughout and any "humor" derived from him wasn't that good.  You'll see the score below, and it probably should be lower to be honest, but this is not a good episode in any capacity.

Final Score: 6.1

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

The Man Who Came to Be Dinner (S26, E10-562)

Remember: this isn't a Halloween episode.  This is a regular episode about an "ordinary family".

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to a facsimile of Disneyland, but despite going to every attraction it offers, they simply do not have any fun.  However, the family does glimpse one last attraction that is unlisted on the park map: a place called "Rocket to Your Doom".  The Simpsons, the only family to even notice this "attraction", go in, only to be whisked away in an actual spaceship, and be flown away from Earth.  Turns out, its the Rigelians, in a non-Halloween setting, who wish to bring the Simpsons to their homeworld for reasons yet to be explained.

As the family arrives on the planet, they're given a quick tour of the planet and its supposed culture, but are then sent to a local zoo as an exhibit, and then told a short time later that one of them will be sacrificed as food.  Given the choice to decide, the family agrees Homer should be that sacrifice.  Its part of a grand celebration, but just before it begins, Homer is whisked away by a teleporter beam.

His rescuers, the Rigelian equivalent of hippies, celebrate their rescue operation with a dance, and offer Homer a one-person spaceship with which to return home, but Homer couldn't leave without his family and opts to go save him.  Rigelian law dictates that with Homer gone, the rest of the family becomes the sacrifice, and when Homer returns, Rigelian law dictates the whole family becomes the sacrifice anyway.

This time, the Rigelian Queen comes to take the first bite - a section of Homer's ass that had been sliced off.  However, as the Queen learns the hard way, it turns out the Simpsons are actually poisonous, thanks to their diets (including Lisa's, whose more "natural" diet isn't any better), information the Rigelians didn't bother to look into until after the fact.  Now considered inedible, and the Queen having died, the Simpsons are allowed to return home with their memories of the experience to slowly fade as though this experience never happened.  On the spaceship home, the Simpsons get a call from Grampa, who tracked them down only to complain at them, and the family decides to reroute their ship elsewhere.

Quick Review
This was not a decent episode by any stretch of the imagination.  This episode, which was originally planned to be the Season 24 finale, was held back about a season and a half because its script was being considered for use in a second Simpsons movie.  That would explain the somewhat rushed, nonsensical pace of the plot as well as the absurdity of it, but given how bad it was I'm somewhat glad it's stuck as a forgettable Season 26 episode instead of a stand alone movie.

Ignoring the plot, the episode relies too much on references for comedy, especially meta references like the chip-eating bit from Deep Space Homer.  Just about all of the humor in regards to the Rigelians just wasn't funny, and the whole episode just feels like something that would've been better pitched as a Futurama episode, but would've been turned down - even during the short-lived Comedy Central era.

I wasn't expecting much from this episode, and the episode didn't even meet that.

Final Score: 4.1

I Won't Be Home for Christmas (S26, E09-561)

The spirit of Christmas is... somewhere in here I think.

Plot Summary
It's Christmas Eve, and Homer needs to go home to spend the night with his family.  However, on the way back Homer is tricked and subsequently guilt-tripped by Moe to spend the evening at the bar instead.  Homer unwittingly stays there until nearly midnight, when he realizes his grave error and rushes home.  Too late, as Marge goes off on Homer, telling him that he isn't welcomed home for Christmas.

Homer tries to go back to Moe's, but the bar is now closed.  Moe is inside singing karaoke by himself, when he notices Homer left his wallet on a stool.  Meanwhile, forced to wander around, Homer attempts to buy a quick literally-last-second gift for Marge but can't as most shops have closed up.  Homer tries to spend some time at a movie theatre, but isn't pathetic enough to spend Christmas Eve alone at the movies, and leaves but not before giving up his food to one of the other lonely patrons.  He finds Flanders out selling left-handed wares and, given Ned's most recent loss, Homer decides to buy something from Ned out of support.  Homer is happy to help others, but is still pretty miserable himself.

Moe goes to the Simpson house presumably to return the wallet, but also confesses to Marge that he intentionally kept Homer at the bar all night.  Marge is very relieved that Homer isn't 100% at fault, and tries to call him, but gets no response, and thus she and the kids go out to find him, which is an adventure in itself.

Someone dressed as a nutcracker tries to shoo Homer away from sleeping on a public bench, but takes pity on Homer by taking him to a post-Christmas party at the mall full of mall Santas and other reject mascots.  Marge is tipped off on this, and finds Homer to present herself as a makeup present (I guess?).  Homer is happy and comes to learn a lesson after the night's events: the best place to get drunk is at home.

Quick Review
This was a weird episode.  Was it trying to be humorous?  I can't actually say yes to this question.  Was it trying to provide some kind of social commentary?  If it was, it did so very poorly.  It was an odd mishmash of smaller storylines that try to keep together a very thin premise, with not that many jokes to keep things entertaining.

Also some continuity notes: this marks the first episode to note Ned's post-Edna life as well as feature the comic book guy's new wife, Kumiko, from that episode I don't like.  Between this, a few references to older episodes, and making it a point to note a Frozen reference was coming up for the couch gag, the episode tried to make up for what I guess would be a surreal storyline by throwing in references everywhere, which we all know by now does not make for comedy.

Final Score: 6.1

Covercraft (S26, E08-560)

Sideshow Mel's family, nothing more than a quick gag.  Sure was worth the wait.

Plot Summary
A dispute between Moe and the owner of the next door music shop ends with both of them going to jail and their businesses closed down.  This forces Lisa to go to the "big corporation" music store for her needs.  Homer takes her there and quickly becomes the target of opportunistic salesmen.  They get him playing the bass guitar and as Homer finds that he's actually good at it, the salesman sell him that plus tons of accessories, the combinations of which cause low-pitched chaos at home.  Marge complains about this to her circle of friends, who then admit they have similar problems with their husbands.  Marge then realizes that the husbands can form their own band, and thus only bother one wife at a time.

The husband crew consists of Homer at bass, Kirk van Houten at piano, Dr. Hibbert at drums, and Reverend Lovejoy at guitar.  After learning they all have the same taste in music, the four quickly gel and jam.  Soon after that, Apu arrives to be the group's singer, and reveals that, due to his time at the Kwik-E-Mart, he has developed the voice of the lead singer from the group Sungazer to maintain his sanity listening to the group's songs nonstop at the store.  With this voice added in, the group decides to become a cover band, dedicated to their craft, thus the name Covercraft.  The group gets a gig at the Springfield Cabbage Festival, but Apu is nervous.  Homer convinces Apu to believe that he's at the Kwik-E-Mart with nobody around, handing Apu his work uniform to help with the setting, and with that mindset Apu helps Covercraft become a popular cover band in Springfield.

Soon, Sungazer - whose lead singer passed away - decides to make Apu their singer for their tour, and Apu gleefully accepts.  Homer becomes envious of Apu's supposed success, and out of panic disbands the remains of Covercraft.  Still, Apu sends the Simpson family tickets and backstage passes to Sungazer's concert in Springfield.  Homer 'realizes' that Apu couldn't of gotten this far without Homer's advice and goes backstage to steal back Apu's uniform.  Forced to hide, Homer witnesses Sungazer treating Apu like crap thanks to a harsh contract Apu signed.  Realizing Apu does not, in fact, have it good, Homer drops his anger and helps Apu enact a little revenge of his own by ordering in a buffet of Kwik-E-Mart quality hot dogs for Sungazer.  They quickly become ill, and Apu takes the opportunity to have Covercraft perform the concert instead.  The police figure out the hot dog scheme, though, and Apu and Homer are arrested in due time.

Quick Review
This episode was pretty boring, I felt.  Not a lot of jokes, but not a lot of "bad" things either.  The focus was clearly on music, and the few attempts at comedy (the opening bit with Moe and the music shop owner, for instance), had a few misses that held the episode back.

Final Score: 6.0

Blazed and Confused (S26, E07-559)

Ever notice how "someone gets high" sequences are always these trippy,
random sequences of nonsense?  Its gotten very predictable in recent years.

Plot Summary
In an effort to keep concerned parents off guard, Springfield's schools sometimes swap their worst teachers to other schools, being unable to just fire them because they all quickly earned tenure.  This time around, Springfield Elementary gets the worst of the bunch: Jack Lassen.  Assigned to Bart's 4th grade class, Lassen quickly showcases his brutality, making a mockery out of Nelson and responding to Bart's otherwise lame "prank" by shaving his head indiscriminately.  As this onslaught continues, Bart and Milhouse decide to find someway to embarrass Lassen so badly he has no choice but to quit or be fired.

Learning that Lassen might try to hook up with Ms. Hoover, Bart swiftly sets up a fake Ms. Hoover account on social media, which Lassen falls for by "friending" it.  Bart and Milhouse notice on Lassen's profile that he's really into Burning Man Blazing Guy.  Quick research shows that, for the upcoming event, Lassen has been chosen to light the Guy in the ever-important ceremony.  The two decide they must sabotage the event to embarrass Lassen.  Meanwhile, Homer is in hot water after he failed to reserve a camp site for Marge and the family for the weekend, and everything seems to be booked.  Bart bails Homer out by telling him about Blazing guy, and Homer quickly goes for it, taking the family to Blazing Guy.

There, while Lisa loves the free expression and Homer likes the craziness in general, a very hesitant Marge finally eases up, considerably, when she tries "adult" tea, while Bart and Milhouse come up with the plan to douse the Blazing Guy with fire retardant from a safety station.  The night of the ceremony, the boys' ploy works as Lassen is unable to ignite the structure.  Lassen notices the two boys and quickly realizes what's happened, and grabs a nearby flamethrower in a raged attempt to burn them.  Homer rushes in to save them, crashing into and toppling the Blazing Guy in the process, leaving Lassen stunned and the boys free to escape.  Later, Lassen's recorded outburst is evidence enough to finally be fired from his job as teacher, but Lassen finds a new calling as a prison guard, where he's unable to convince Sideshow Bob to kill Bart with him out of vengeful greed, or something.

Quick Review
To be honest, this was slightly better than what I was expecting.

The last time I watched an episode that following a pleasantly strong episode, I had to dish out the worst score I've ever given an episode.  What's more, the premise of the episode reminds me strongly of Homerpalooza, which, to me, was by far Season 7's worst episode.  Say what you will about this, but I've never liked it when the show tries to tackle underground or counter-culture themes like in that episode or in this episode.

That whole aspect, combined with a somewhat unfunny main premise ("the teacher is a jerk, I'm gonna get back at him") really leaves this episode with nowhere to go.  Even so, it did just enough to where I can't say it would be the worst this season has to offer.  Small victories, I guess.

Final Score: 6.6

Simpsorama (S26, E06-558)

Imagine if Homer learned robots needed alcohol to function.  Would he yearn to be a
robot for that perk, or would he lament that in order to be "drunk" as a robot, he'd
have to NOT drink?  Thankfully, Homer's ultimate conundrum will never be.

Plot Summary
In a seemingly unrelated open, the elementary school is setting up a time capsule, and an otherwise unprepared Bart puts a half-eaten sandwich, which he blows his nose into, into it.  The capsule is then buried right above nuclear waste.

That night, an odd electrical storm coincides with something falling nearby, which the Simpson family believes to be space satellite junk.  That night, however, Homer and Marge hear someone downstairs drinking heavily, and its not Homer.  Homer and Bart go into the basement to find out the cause, and the culprit reveals himself: Futurama's Bender!  After lethargically and flimsily proving he's from the future, Homer decides to befriend the robot by taking him out for beer and bowling.  Lisa, of course, is skeptical about Bender's presence and takes the robot to Professor Frink, who realizes that Bender will remember his reasons for coming to the past after a system reboot, and he does: to kill Homer Simpson.

However, Bender can't kill his new friend, which prompts a holographic message to come from out of his shiny metal ass, its Leela, who is angry that Bender hasn't killed Homer yet, as its revealed that the New New York of the year 3014 is being overrun by man-eating rabbits, who have Homer's DNA plastered on them.  Leela decides to go to the past via an internal time machine built in Bender to kill Homer herself, with Fry and Professor Farnsworth tagging along, but Bender stops her.  Lisa and Frink convince the future crew to hold off on killing Homer until it can be determined how the rabbits came to be in the first place.  As Homer takes Bender, Fry and Leela back to his house, the professors and Lisa find a second DNA strand on the killer rabbits, belonging to Marge.

Farnsworth figures out that the rabbits are actually spawned from one of Homer and Marge's children.  Just then, Bender gets a holographic news report that the rabbits have begun to mutate into demonic little creatures with a strong resemblance to Bart.  Bart then recalls the sandwich he put into the time capsule probably mixing with the nuclear waste (and a rabbit's foot Milhouse put in) to create those monstrosities.  Realizing they came back too late in the past to kill anyone, the Planet Express crew team up with the Simpsons to retrieve and put an end to Bart's mutating sandwich.  Before they can, however, they get another report from the future, this time via Amy, that the Barts have found their way to the time machine and have begun destroying it.  Just then, a portal within Bender opens up, sucking in the Planet Express crew save Bender, and the Simpson family save Maggie.

Bender decides to spend time with Maggie by using his knowledge of horse race results to win some quick money.  Meanwhile, in the year 3014, its agreed that while Fry and Homer, of all people, fix the time machine, everyone else will work on ridding New New York of the Bart demons.  Lisa leads the way by corralling the Barts using the things she knows Bart hates into the Madison Cube Garden, which Farnsworth then picks up and throws into space, ending the threat.  As New New York rebuilds, Fry and Homer somehow successfully fix the time machine, and the Simpsons are sucked back into their own time.  Bender is back at the Simpson house, and Maggie is both safe and a little richer.  Lisa wonders how Bender will go back to the future now that everything has concluded, and Bender states he'll do it the ol' fashioned way: by shutting down and laying dormant for 1000 years.  Homer drags the robot to the basement for storage, but not before giving the robot one more beer for the road.

Meanwhile, Madison Cube Garden lands on Omicron Persei 8, and while the demon Barts prove a delicious snack for Emperor Lrrr, it ruins a meeting with the Rigelians, upsetting Lrrr's wife Ndnd.

Quick Review
This marks the second straight season with at least one 8+ rated episode, and the last two such episodes were both shameless crossovers.

I think the reason why this episode (as well as the similarly good Brick Like Me) fare so well is because these episode stick the basics: good jokes.  These types of episodes could easily derail into simple "look at this" reference borefests, but thankfully it didn't happen in the lego episode, and it didn't happen here.

The use of the Futurama cast was, I guess, okay.  Most of the action from the Futurama side came from Bender, with Farnsworth (my personal favorite) and Leela had solid airtime as well.  Fry didn't get that much, unfortunately, and everyone else was limited to a single line or so (which Zoidberg was well aware of).  Its been awhile since I've even watched Futurama, let alone Comedy Central Futurama, so I can't say how "intact" each character was for this episode but for the most part, I don't have any complaints.

As I've said, the jokes are plentiful and for the most part very funny.  The Futurama side of things was the episode's strong point, the Simpsons-only humor had its moments but was otherwise not that impressive, and again features a little too much "know it all" Lisa for my liking.  Still, this is by far the best episode of the season, and has the highest score of any episode since Treehouse of Horror XX.  I liked it that much.

Final Score: 8.3

Opposites A-Frack (S26, E05-557)

This scene implies their emotions while they were having sex.  Thanks, I guess.

Plot Summary
Marge's sisters come to stay at the house as they returned from vacation early and their apartment is still being cleaned of black moss.  Homer is not ready to deal with this, but quickly realizes an out: he sees his kids coughing as his sisters-in-law smoke near them and makes the valid assertion that the two must either stop smoking in the house or be kicked out for the sake of the children.  The two agree, and Homer - knowing the two will break at some point - installs smoke alarms everywhere to stop the two from smoking in secret.  What's worse, its raining outside and electronic cigarettes just don't cut it for them.  The two find apparent salvation, however, when they see the bathroom has no smoke alarms.  The two rush in and lock the door and make every effort to avoid being caught, including turning on the faucet to muffle noise.  However, when they ignite their lighter, the bathroom explodes, and the two are caught.  As Homer sends the two to where smokers like them belong - the dog racing track - Marge and Lisa notice that the water is literally on fire.

Lisa quickly investigates that this is likely the result of "fracking", a controversial method of mining for natural gas that has the adverse side effect of polluting water supplies with the gas.  Bart and Lisa locate a suspicious building nearby that's masquerading as a women's basketball hall of fame that's actually a fracking operation run by Mr. Burns.  As he quickly shoos the two away, Lisa decides to call upon one of her liberal heroes in congress that she hopes will put the fracking operation to an end: Maxine Lombard, a democratic assemblywoman (voiced by Jane Fonda).  Quickly, Maxine stages a hearing against Burns for the fracking operation and orders it shut down.  Angered, Burns confronts Maxine in her office, when suddenly their passions overlap and the two just have sex right there in the office.

The two realize they enjoy each other's, hm, "company", but business is business and Burns needs to get the fracking operation back up.  He learns that he can do so if he can have the mineral rights of the land signed over to him by every resident in the area, and calls upon the likable Homer to convince everyone to do so.  Burns also asks Homer for relationship advice, and Homer notes that if she's getting in the way of his business priorities then perhaps he should harden his heart and move on.  Meanwhile, nobody is particularly willing to sign it over, until Homer points out that Mr. Burns will give each person $5000 to do it, at which point everyone signs over their rights... except for Marge who remains against the operation because she literally saw her water on fire.  With her support unobtainable, the measure is lost and Burns' operation can not continue.  Maxine comes to gloat while presenting him another opportunity to "fool around", but an angry, hardened Burns casts her aside and declares their "relationship" over.

Homer is similarly upset with Marge over ruining his newfound career as a propagandist (even though the water was actually on fire), and goes to hang out with Burns to talk about their relatively similar romantic situations.  Just then, Burns' mansions starts to get torn down as part of a revenge-related redevelopment project that plans to turn the mansion into several pro-liberal projects at once.  Further angered, Burns takes Homer back to the fracking base and immediately resumes the operation, much more severely than before.  Marge convinces Homer to stop following Burns by once again reminding him their water was literally on fire, and Homer uses this to his advantage by igniting hose water to melt and destroy the fracking apparatus.  His operation ruined, Burns is aghast that Homer has made up with Marge despite there being nothing in common between them.  Maxine - who is probably a bit forgiving considering she won - convinces Burns that love continues on their sheer passion, which the two of them still have.  Some time later, the two are in bed talking about mundane things, their passion gone but they remain a couple.

Quick Review
This episode fared a lot better than what I was expecting.  Let's review: the writer had written three previous episodes, all of which I found to be awful episodes.  Season 26 has gotten off to a poor start as well, and worse yet this episode was rife with political commentary and jokes.  That all could've easily combined to make yet another disastrous episode.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case.  The opening act with Patty and Selma was excellent and put the episode on the right foot, and the political jokes weren't too bad, and Lisa was less annoying than she usually is in these kinds of episodes.  Overall, I can say this episode wasn't bad, somehow.

Final Score: 7.3

Treehouse of Horror XXV (S26, E04-556)

Ghost Simpsons vs Zombie Simpsons; whoever wins, we all lose.

Plot Summary
School is Hell
Bart is in detention again for his various pranks, all by himself.  Trying to pass the time, he comes across a dust-covered desk with runes on it.  He gets Lisa to help decipher the runes, which state that those who read it get sent to hell.  Upon reading those words, well, the two are snatched and brought to hell, specifically a school in hell.  Bart comes to find out that the school is actually perfect for him as he learns how to torture and manipulate matters in the shadows.  Lisa eventually finds a way out, but afterwards Bart pleads with his parents to go to the school in hell instead.  The two agree after consulting the school's two-headed principal, and Bart quickly finds himself on the path to success.  He even aces his final exam: torturing Homer, who in his decapitated state is overjoyed when Bart graduates.
Individual Score: +0.5

A Clockwork Yellow
I'm assuming its a full-blown parody of A Clockwork Orange, not having seen the source material.  Anyway, a hooligan gang consisting of versions of Moe, Lenny, Carl and Homer are forced to break up when Homer fall in love with a version of Marge and settles down.  Years later, a now meek Moe finds himself under attack by a younger hooligan group, and he yearns for the past.  He visits Homer who agrees to go on one last run alongside Lenny and Carl - who happen to be policemen.  The four agree to do a home invasion and raids the Burns Manor, but rush into a very odd costume party.  Burns sics his guests on the four and a brawl ensues featuring several Stanley Kubrick references, which is Moe's happiest moment in years.  Its not Kubrick's, who dislikes how the bit turned out in an editing room.
Individual Score: -0.1 (yes, minus)

The Others
The Simpson house seems to be haunted, especially with blood writing and mysterious frosty chocolate milkshakes and endless Married with Children.  The family lures out the source, and out comes the ghosts of the Simpson family circa 1987, complete with animations and differently pitched voices!  Ghost Marge finds herself attracted to modern Homer, as he is nowhere near as strict as ghost Homer.  Modern Marge finds herself jealous over Homer's newfound ghost-lust, and kills herself to get Homer to notice her again.  With two ghost Marges over him, Homer is suddenly attacked and killed by his ghost self.  Hijinks cause Bart and Lisa to die, whose bodies along with a dead Maggie are dragged away by a hungry Willie.  As the two sides begin to bicker, and limbo-resident Dr. Marvin Monroe doing little to salvage the situation, the two Marges force modern Homer to choose between them.  While Homer likes that 1987 Marge is willing to put up with him, modern Marge has, and Homer picks modern Marge on that merit.  The next morning, as the two families eat breakfast, modern Lisa worries that if two different Simpsons could exists, what could stop marketing companies from making millions more.  Quickly, other versions of the Simpsons family arrive at the house.
Individual Score: +0.7

Quick Review
A new low in Treehouse of Horror.

The first segment was a slow starter but it picked up at the end.  The final segment, the nostalgia callback that it was, had its moments and it was pretty decent overall.  The Clockwork Yellow bit, which I guess which just an homage to everything Stanley Kubrick (?), I did not find funny at all.  I have come to realize that I abhor episodes that are just nothing more than references (see: Married to the Blob from last season), and this segment was nothing but.  It also hurt that, not being a Kubrick fan at all, I didn't even get most of the references, and the funniest joke in the bit was comic book guy noting he is no longer able to keep up with the references.  The middle segment alone ruined this episode.  The worst bit in Treehouse of Horror history makes this the worst Treehouse of Horror in history.

Final Score: 6.1

Super Franchise Me (S26, E03-555)

"Lets take this person who makes good sandwiches and have her instead
run a business while letting other people make sandwiches using
company-prepared food." - Standard business logic.

Plot Summary
Flanders notices Homer sapping away at his electricity.  A huge ferris wheel in Homer's backyard seems like a big culprit, but not the only one: Homer also has a freezer - Ned's freezer - full of meat for an emergency.  Still, Ned takes back his freezer, leaving Homer with a lot of thawing meat.  Marge promises to cook it all and turn it into sandwiches, an all-night task but she accomplishes it.  However, she finds that Bart and even Lisa have been taking a lot of the meat sandwiches, which she learns the two have done so to trade around at school.  Marge goes to the school to see for herself, when she's immediately met by a representative from a major sandwich chain who offers Marge a chance to open up a sandwich shop under hopes of financial stability, which Marge gladly accepts.

Marge opens up her chain but quickly needs employees to help.  She hires Shauna, the squeaky-voiced teen and Gil to help, but has to fire Shauna for stealing money (and she seduces the squeaky-voiced teen to leave alongside her), and Gil for being incompetent.  Instead, Marge has her family help out with the business and, eventually, all five members of the core family help the chain turn a profit.  Then, of course, they see an "Express" version of the same sandwich chain being built across the street.

This chain, ran by Cletus and his extended family, attracts all of Marge's customers simply because of its "Express" attachment.  Marge also sees her family worn down from the experience.  After going to Moe's to drink her sorrows away, Moe gives her an idea to get out of her contract.  The next day, after Marge's pleas to the company's reps yield nothing, she sets up a fake lawsuit situation - with Homer getting hot coffee and also syringes into his crotch, and is able to convince the rep to give Marge back her original investment so she can handle the supposed lawsuit herself.  The rep agrees, and the status quo is restored.  A quick short of caveman Homer hunting a sloth to make a sandwich is shown at the end because the main episode wasn't long enough and they didn't feel like making a three-minute couch gag this time.

Quick Review
Meh, the episode.  Some decent jokes, overall boring premise and plot, the worst use of Mr. Burns I've seen in some time.  Not much else to say.

Final Score: 6.8