Whistler's Father (S29, E03-621)

Recap: Maggie inherits Grampa's ability to whistle exceptionally and becomes a baby diva before she even hits it big.  Meanwhile, the mafia asks the style-'conscious' Marge to 'redecorate' the old post office into a whore house.

Review: Overall, its a dull episode.  A few jokes worked, a few jokes didn't.  Maggie's plotline was borderline ridiculous which didn't help matters.  Episode could've fared better with more mafia gags as they were the best part of the episode.  Better than the other two episodes of this season, of course that's not saying much.

Final Score: 6.2

Smart and Smarter (S15, E13-326)

This episode contends Maggie is just a tiny Lisa with firearms experience.

Plot Summary
When the family goes out for pancakes, Homer practically dares himself into having Maggie enrolled into a pre-nursery school.  The process of having a student accepted is simple: have Simon Cowell be impressed with the kid, which he isn't upon learning Maggie can't even talk.  Later, Lisa decides to help Maggie learn, when she learns that Maggie really is gifted.  They go back to Cowell and this time Maggie is able to display her intelligence.  Maggie's IQ is stated as 167, which is even higher than Lisa's 159, which really bugs Lisa immensely.

Lisa comes to realize that she is no longer the 'smart' kid, and decides to adopt a new persona, but attempts at doing so fail miserably.  Incensed, a jealous Lisa attempts to teach Maggie the wrong information, but Marge catches Lisa and chides her for it.  After having a nightmare, Lisa decides she can't stay in the same house as Maggie anymore, and runs away.  Lisa ends up at a museum, and decides to hide out there.  Her family tasks the police with finding Lisa, and they do actually find some of Lisa's stuff at the museum but aren't able to find Lisa herself.

The family decides to go to the museum to find Lisa, investigating a giant model of the human body where Lisa's belongings were located.  However, Maggie gets a hold of the model's digestive controls, and accidentally sends the other three Simpsons inside.  She's told that the red "Evacuate" button will free them, but Maggie is unable to discern what that means.  Lisa returns just in time to see this, and is able to help cue Maggie in on what color red is, and she presses the button just in time to free the family.

Later, Cowell goes to the house to inform everyone that Maggie is, in fact, not gifted; she actually picked up subconscious clues from Lisa during the testing that helped her answer most of the questions.  Lisa and Maggie share a closer bond, but not too close as Maggie's saxophone abilities scare Lisa just a bit too much.

Quick Review
Meh, it was an average episode.  Simon Cowell's appearance was actually pretty good for the most part, and his appearance during the credits had its moments as well.  The main plot, well, the only plot of the episode didn't have that much going for it in terms of comedy, but the episode holds up okay otherwise.

Final Score: 7.0

Moe Baby Blues (S14, E22-313)

Nobody pulls off 'creep' like Moe.

Plot Summary
The entire town, it seems, congregate to Springfield's botanical garden to witness the blooming of a rare, giant flower.  At the bar, Moe is unaware of this but sees on the news that all of his customers are at the garden, so he decides to go as well.  However, his presence at the garden puts the area one over the allowed capacity, and so Moe is asked to leave.  The flower bloom, but shoots out a rather toxic pollen which forces everyone to flee.  With traffic jamming along a bridge, Homer accidentally crashes his car against the one in front of him.  In an odd series of events, Maggie's safety belt breaks and she flies out through the car's sun roof as it crashes.  Meanwhile, Moe is also at the bridge, preparing to jump to a pathetic death, when Maggie literally falls right into his arms.  The people stuck on the bridge witness this, and Moe is declared a hero.

Some morning later, Moe goes to the Simpson house to see Maggie.  With Homer late for work, Marge is forced to have Moe take care of Maggie for a bit to tend to the latest round of Grampa's senility.  Upon returning, Marge finds that Maggie has taken quite a liking to Moe, and vice-versa and so Moe becomes the go-to babysitter for Maggie.  Moe does a lot of stuff for Maggie, even reenacting the first Godfather movie for her.  However, in typical fashion, Moe gets a little too close to Maggie for her parents' liking; Homer is upset that Moe has become her father figure instead of him, and Marge is starting to get upset that Moe has learned more things about Maggie than she has.  It comes to a head one late night, when the two learn that Moe has both a video camera and a baby monitor in Maggie's room and rushes to Maggie's side when she's crying.  Homer forces Moe out, and tells him to stay away from Maggie.

Moe once again battles through depression afterward.  A night later, Maggie overhears some mobsters discussing a hit.  To cheer up Louie, Fat Tony does the gag with the orange peel from The Godfather.  Maggie recognizes the bit from when Moe did it, and mistakes Fat Tony for Moe.  As the mafia take their leave, Maggie exits her room through the open window and gives chase.  Marge finds out a short time later, and Homer quickly concludes that Moe must've taken her.  One police sting later, it turns out that Moe is innocent, but Homer and Marge decide to let Moe help them find their baby.  At the house, Moe finding a discarded orange peel and realizes what has happened.

Maggie chases the mobster to a restaurant, where Fat Tony and his gang engage in a standstill against another mob, with Maggie caught inbetween.  Moe, Homer and Marge arrive just in time to see this, and Moe decides to enter the restaurant to grab Maggie, openly describing his sob story to the mobsters, bringing them to tears.  Afterward, though Moe makes no effort to get his babysitting 'job' back, Homer does agree to bring Maggie around whenever the two meet up (or something to that effect, anyway).

Quick Review
This episode is a strong finish to what has been a very disappointing season.  Moe episodes can be hit or miss, but somehow an episode focused on him as well as Maggie works out just fine.  It helps that Fat Tony and his gang are involved, as they usually give an episode a nice boost of comedy, but otherwise the episode contains plenty of jokes and hilarity to make it one of the better episodes of the season.

Final Score: 8.1

Rosebud (S05, E04-085)

"Mmmm... 64 slices of American cheese..."

It was his sled.

Plot Summary
Mr. Burns has a dream one night - perhaps a nightmare - where he remembers his time as a young child, playing with his beloved teddy bear Bobo, when suddenly a "twisted, loveless billionaire" pulls up and offers "Happy" Burns a chance to live with him instead of his natural, seemingly poor parents.  The choice is obvious, and the young lad goes off with the billionaire, leaving behind his bear, his parents and his brother George Burns.

The memory of Bobo depresses Burns in the current day, leading up to his next birthday.  Homer is chosen to be a stand up comic at the mandatory party (as Burns noticed people laughing at his antics, though they were just laughing at Homer having coat hangers stuck in his back and ass).  With Burns already despondent over the bear, Homer's crude attempts at a roast only anger him further.  Homer gets conked on the head, and the party is violently ended.

As Marge asks Bart to get a bag of ice for Homer's head, we see the journey of Bobo the bear since Burns let him go.  Melting snow allows it to access a river, and it flows right into the hands of Charles Lindbergh just before his flight over the Atlantic in 1927.  Upon reaching Paris, he throws the bear in celebration, right into the hands of Adolf Hitler.  In 1945, in the days leading up to his death, Hitler blames the bear for what has happened, and tosses it aside.  Apparently its picked up by American forces, as in 1957 its ontop an American submarine... as it submerges near the north pole.  It freezes at that point, and in 1993 the present day its recovered by men mining for ice (not aware of other methods to acquire ice).  They aren't aware the bear is in its shipment, and it ends up in a bag of ice at the Kwik-E-Mart, which Bart purchases.  Finding the bear, which is now worn and damaged, he just gives it to Maggie, who quickly cherishes it.

Burns makes the search for his bear public, and Homer (eventually) realizes that Maggie has possession of it.  The family agrees to give the bear to Burns in exchange for some good money, but when Homer tries to take the bear from Maggie, she refuses, and starts crying once Homer succeeds in giving Burns the bear.  Not willing to see Maggie so sad, Homer cancels the deal, giving Maggie Bobo back and earning Burns' wrath.  After a pair of attempts to steal the bear fail miserably, Burns decides to just make Homer's life miserable.  Soon, he takes control of all of Springfield's TV and prevents any alcohol from entering town in hopes to not just break Homer, but the rest of the TV-and-beer-loving town as well.  Sure enough, an angry mob breaks into the Simpsons house to grab the bear for Burns but, much like Homer before them, are quickly disgusted with themselves when they realize they just stole from a baby, and give Maggie the bear back.

With that plan having failed, Burns has Smithers beg for the bear, but Homer reiterates that its Maggie's bear.  Frustrated, Burns goes to Maggie herself to get the bear, being unable to rip it from Maggie's grasp.  Defeated, Burns finally allows Maggie to keep it under the promise that she not lose it like he did, but in an act of kindness Maggie decides to let Burns have Bobo after all (with the family now receiving no financial reward, of course).  Happy, Burns promises to never lose Bobo again, until glimpses into the far future reveal that even as a head-in-a-jar cyborg he still loses the bear every century or so.

Quick Review
Rosebud is yet another excellent episode in a streak of many.  There were plenty of great moments in this episode, especially the bits when Burns and Smithers try to steal the bear (via a poorly readied zip line and then using suction cups in the ceiling only to be permanently stalled when Homer enters the kitchen to eat cheese all night), and that sitcom Burns and Smithers act out while Burns has control of TV.  It all pans out to be another superb entry to this season.

Final Score: 9.3