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

$pringfield (S05, E10-091)

"I said hop in."

(Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)

Plot Summary
Springfield is in dismal shape, which is nothing new.  What is new is that the town is holding a meeting to do something about it.  Principal Skinner suggests the town bring in legalized gambling, an idea that gain traction (not so much the part about profits going to public schools).  Mr. Burns agrees to build a casino, and even Marge thinks a casino would be good for the economy.  Soon, Burns builds his casino (and becomes a delusional shut-in afterwards) while Homer is relocated from the nuclear plant to the casino to work as a blackjack dealer.

As the town enjoys the casino, Bart gets kicked out for being underage, and gets back at, well, one of the workers who taunts him, by creating a casino of his own in his treehouse, inviting all of his friends and at one point stealing Robert Goulet away from the real casino.  Marge visits Homer at his new job and afterwards she finds a quarter on the ground.  She plops it into a slot machine, and wins four more quarters!  Marge is content with this result at first, but soon finds herself unable to stop.

With Lisa needing a costume of Florida for a play about the 50 states, Marge is nowhere to be found, leaving Homer in charge.  Initial protests about Marge spending time at the casino is forgone when Marge hands Homer $60 worth of quarters she won the night before.  However, after an unfortunate bogeyman-related scare, Marge realizes she's been spending too much time at the casino and promises to get started on Lisa's costume.  Yet, she's back at the casino and Lisa is forced to ask for Homer's help in making it.  When it predictably turns out poorly, Lisa's sadness proves a final straw for Homer, who deems Marge to be under the clutches of "Gamblor", and goes to fetch her from its neon claws.

Hastily, Homer causes havoc in the casino while looking for Marge, and upon finding her eventually lets her know that she let Lisa down.  Realizing what has occurred, Marge admits she has a gambling problem, though Homer is not willing to pay any money to get professional help while at the same time is willing to rub her new imperfection in her face on their way out.

Quick Review
There were a few things about this episode I didn't like, particularly the Rain Man reference, but there were quite a few excellent bits this episode had for it, like the Gamblor line or Burns' descent into some kind of madness, or Ralph's "I'm Idaho" line at the play.  It averages out to what still is a great episode but a bit lackluster compared to other episodes this season.

Final Score: 8.3