Funeral for a Fiend (S19, E08-408)

Anything is better when done as a family!

Plot Summary
Going out to a hardware store to buy batteries, Homer ends up buying a TiVo instead.  Marge becomes obsessed with the TiVo and its ability to skip any and all commercials, and watches commerical-free programming thanks to it all day, every day.  Marge starts to get a bit worn out, and hallucinates that Keith Olbermann is chiding her for skipping commercials all the time, and she's eventually convinced in her weakened state to actually watch the commercials.  One such commercial is for the opening of a new barbecue restaurant, and the Simpsons are convinced to attend its grand opening.

Once there, though, the restaurant has no customers and its insides are barren.  The owner, seen in the commercial, reveals himself to actually be... Sideshow Bob!  After somehow tying up the family all by himself, Bob tells the Simpsons about what he's been doing since they narrowly escaped his last vengeance plot.  Bob and his wife and son flee to England to find work, but Bob is eventually able to smuggle himself over to America to set up the restaurant plot.  He plans to have the restaurant catch fire by having a defective laptop battery set off boxes of dynamite.  However, Lisa is able to foil this plot by catching Bob misquote Shakespeare, forcing him to double check his quotes on the laptop just as its battery explodes on him.  Bob is essentially subdued, and all is supposedly well.

At the trial, though, Bob's parents attend.  His mother is a top notch classical actress, while his father is a top notch doctor.  Bob pleads not guilty for reason of insanity, claiming that Bart's continued foiling has driven him to madness.  His father goes up to the stand to note that Bob suffers from a heart condition as well, and Bob reminds everyone that Bart has done bad things to them as well.  Bart tries to defend himself, but Bob pulls out a vial of nitroglycerin.  As people panic thinking its explosive, Bart snatches the vial and throws it away.  However, the vial was actually the medicine for Bob's heart condition, and he suddenly collapses and dies on the spot.  Bart is justifiably noted as the reason for Bob's death, and becomes hated across town.

Bob's funeral is huge, attended by all sorts of people including Krusty, other clowns, and his extended family (parents, wife and son, brother).  Bart, though, isn't grieving, and with people still mad at him, he just storms off from the funeral.  Later, nearby, Bart is met by Bob's brother, Cecil, who eventually convinces Bart to give Bob his last respects before he gets cremated.  Bart finally visit Bob's casket, fit to accommodate Bob's large feet, with nobody else around.  It works perfectly, as Bob pops out of the casket alive and ready to kill Bart, tossing him into the casket so he'll get cremated instead.  Bob's entire family is also there to enjoy the slaughter, though Bob is less than pleased to enjoy the moment with glory-hog Cecil.

Lisa suddenly realizes the plot after a visit from a clue-giving Milhouse, and get her family to the funeral home.  Lisa realizes that this was Bob's scheme from the start; he actually wanted to be captured at the restaurant, that because his mother is a classical actress there's no way Bob could mess up a Shakespeare quote, and Bob's father helped simulate death for Bob to complete the ruse of his death.  The family arrives at the home and stops Bob's plot just in time, freeing Bart from the coffin.  The police arrive to arrest the Terwilliger family for their parts in the scheme.  Bob goes mad in prison, which the other family members as well as their cellmate Snake just have to deal with again.

Quick Review
Its definitely a step up from the disaster that was The Italian Bob, but this episode is far from the high bar of quality set by Sideshow Bob episodes from Seasons 3 to 12.  Bringing back Cecil was a nice touch, and the introduction of his parents were okay as well, but the episode was hampered by the somewhat faulty leaps in logic (his mother was a classical actress, that means Bob can never mess up Shakespeare quotes), combined with Lisa's gloatful attitude everytime she stops Bob throughout the episode.  Its about as good as Season 19 can put out, but its not as good as it could've been.

As an aside, when Bob goes mad at the end of the episode, he 'imagines' that the Simpsons are celebrating the 10th time Bob's plot has been foiled.  Indeed, this is the 10th episode focused on Sideshow Bob.  However, in two previous occasions, it was Bob foiling the plot of another person (Cecil in Season 8, 'lil Grimey in Season 14, though Bob did try to kill Bart at the very end of that episode).  Moreover, while Bart was the reason Bob's first three plots failed, Bart hasn't been the main factor for Bob's failures since.  It has either been Lisa, Krusty, or even Bob himself.  Just noting, is all.

Final Score: 7.4

Brother from Another Series (S08, E16-169)

I'm surprised there was never an episode where Bob tries to kill Wiggum.

Plot Summary
Bart freaks out when seeing Sideshow Bob on the TV during a prison show, but despite that it turns out Bob has reformed during his latest stay in jail, and Reverend Lovejoy has helped Bob enroll in a work release program.  The person willing to help Bob out?  Bob's brother, Cecil, who had been estranged from Bob for some time but is willing to take Bob on for his work.  Though the town is furious over Bob's release, he's able to calm them by explaining that everyone should get a second chance (never mind that Bob's had several already).  Bart, however, is still suspicious.

At Cecil's apartment, Bob learns he'll be supervising the construction of a dam just outside Springfield.  As Bob notes Cecil's rather superior demeanor, he realizes that Cecil is still angry over an incident years ago that led to the estrangement.  Cecil, as it turns out, was a big fan of Krusty the Klown and wanted to be his sidekick since he was 5.  He got his big shot one day, with Bob having driven him to an audition, however Cecil messes it up and as Krusty demonstrates how to do the 'pie gag' right by having one sent Bob's way, Bob's reaction to getting hit is apparently so funny they hire Bob on the spot.  Though Cecil may still be a bit resentful over those events, he's still willing to allow Bob to work for him.

Bob's frustrations quickly mount, however.  The workers Cecil has given Bob to construct the dam are nothing but slack-jawed yokels, and Bart constantly hounds Bob wherever he goes.  Bob catches Bart (along with Lisa) snooping in a dumpster, and takes them home, claiming he won't be held responsible should he catch them again.  Regardless, Bart and Lisa head to the dam to find clues.  Bart finds a suitcase full of money, but just then Bob enters the scene.  The two escape to an inner room of the dam, where they expose Bob's supposed embezzlement.  While Bob claims he hasn't seen that money before, Cecil enters the scene.  He is the one behind the embezzlement, creating a faulty dam that he's going to blow up, which will be blamed on Bob while Cecil walks away with millions of dollars (also he plans to blow up Bob and the kids in the dam).

With the kids now finding themselves unable to foil Cecil's plan, much to Bob's displeasure, he leads the kids to an escape route.  As Bob and Lisa attempt to disarm the bomb, Bart confronts Cecil, causing him to lose his money.  Cecil is able to grab Bart, though, and toss him off the cliff.  Heroically, Bob uses the dynamite as a rope to grab Bart, then cuts the wire to prevent Cecil from activating it.  Bob and Bart fall, but 'land' on a well-placed pipe.  Bart helps Bob off of it onto a nearby stanchion, essentially saving Bob's life, and the two make amends.

The police arrive to arrest Cecil, but Chief Wiggum arrives, and absolutely refuses to believe Bob wasn't responsible, eventually talking his way into having Bob arrested for 'resisting arrest' despite Bob, Lisa, Lou the cop and even Cecil proclaiming Bob's innocence.  In frustration (and on Cecil's clever tip), Bob accidentally yells out that people will pay for this, thereby establishing himself as a villain later on.  The dam does crumble, though the damage remains minimal.  Though Wiggum theorizes that Cecil and Bob could concoct one hell of a scheme in prison, the two merely just bicker.

Quick Review
I thought this episode was interesting already in the voice casting.  Kelsey Grammer, of course, voices Bob, but also plays Frasier Crane in both Cheers and the spinoff Frasier.  In the latter, Frasier's brother is played by David Hyde Pierce who, in this episode, voices Bob's brother Cecil.  To further show the Frasier connection, the first commercial bump featured a quick bit about the show so that the audience could get that, yes, this episode has the Crane brothers from Frasier as the Terwilliger brothers on the Simpsons.  Well, I found that interesting, anyway.

I found that dynamic between the two to be a strength for this episode, as the dry wit shared between the two I found funny from time to time.  Bart's role in the episode, the slack-jawed yokels, and Chief Wiggum's deductive reasoning all help make this episode one of Season 8's best and one of the best Sideshow Bob episodes around.

Final Score: 10