The Yellow Badge of Cowardge (S25, E22-552)

He is an open target.  The Germans could fire right at him no problem.
Great, its nice to know the writers don't know how to act like cowards, either!

Plot Summary
In a tale narrated by Lisa for no apparent/good reason, its the last day of school and so the school is holding final day festivities outside.  The last event, the main event, is a race around school, an event Milhouse has specifically trained for, showing Bart his new secret six pack that he developed just for this race.  Martin spies this from afar and uses the opportunity to place a bet with Jimbo and pals that Milhouse will win the race despite the official odds against him.  Sure enough, Milhouse's training starts to pay off, and he takes the lead.  Worried he'll be in the red with a Milhouse win, Jimbo tasks Nelson of stopping Milhouse in the part of the race track that goes through the secluded path in the forest and beat Milhouse.  Nelson does just that and starts beating up the new dejected Milhouse.  Bart, in second place, runs by and sees what's happening, but reluctantly decides not to do anything to maintain his lead in the race.  Bart ends up winning, and Milhouse winds up with traumatic amnesia, unable to recall what happened in the forest at all, to Bart's slight relief.

Meanwhile, Homer is disgusted upon learning the city won't be holding a 4th of July fireworks celebration due to budget cuts.  Homer eventually decides he'll host a fireworks brigade of his own, recalling the joy he had as a kid during fireworks shows as he couldn't hear his parents argue during said time.  He came to admire the man working the fireworks show, and kept his business card for all these years.  The fireworks engineer is now retired, but Homer is able to convince him to do one more show for the town, so the two team up to acquire and prepare fireworks.

Bart begins to feel guilt and regret for his actions during the race.  For some reason, the entire town honors Bart for his school race victory, where Bart attempts to set the record straight by bringing Milhouse on stage, but is unable to go through with the truth.  Just then, Kearney shoots a rubber band which hits Milhouse right in the head, causing him to remember the beating - and that Bart ran off like a coward.  The town turns on Bart and boos him away.  Bart tries to get advice from Grampa on his supposed cowardice, where Grampa and the other seniors admit its only because of their cowardice that they've been able to live as long as they have despite the night terrors they have to sometimes deal with, and Bart has to now deal with.

On the 4th of July, Homer and the elder fireworks engineer have prepared a show on the lake, but the two get into an argument over when to start the show and then on which date America was actually liberated.  The argument causes the fireworks float to tip over, aiming the fireworks at the crowd.  A missed shot by Kearney hits the sequence start button, and the fireworks begins to fire up.  Bart gets the opportunity to hijack an armored van somehow, but in an effort to make things up with Milhouse, decides to take his friend with him.  Just as the fireworks begin to fire, Bart drives the van up in front of the crowd to shield them from the rockets, essentially saving them.  The crowd wonders who was behind the heroics, when Bart pushes Milhouse out in front of the crowd, leading everyone to believe he was the hero.  The crowd gathers around to celebrate their hero Milhouse, as well as their coward Bart for whatever reason.  In any case, Bart can sleep soundly again.

Quick Review
This episode scored better than I thought it would, especially after its slow beginning.  There were some pretty decent jokes, and Homer's sidestory was good as well.  Its a decent way to end the season.

Final Score: 7.0

Pay Pal (S25, E21-551)

Why does she even try to be conspicuous?

Plot Summary
At a street social, Marge befriends a British man who invites Marge to a couples party in a few days.  Marge is reluctant to go given how often Homer ruins things, but after hearing Lisa talk about how unnecessary friends are, Marge decides to take Homer and go to the party.  However, her fears are realized when Homer quickly ruins what was going to be a fun murder mystery dinner, and the two are quickly kicked out of the party.

Afterward, Marge concedes and comes to the realization that she'll never have much of a social life, but promises that Lisa at least will make a true friend.  She along with Homer attempts to invite everyone Lisa's ever known to a party, but only one kid shows up so its abruptly aborted.  Soon, though, Lisa befriends a girl from the other second grade class, sharing many of Lisa's interests, including jazz and veggie smoothies.  These arouse Bart's suspicions, so he goes and investigates, tailing the girl to a Krusty Burger and witnesses a deal going down.  He sells Lisa photos of this transaction, and Lisa learns from the photos that Marge had been paying the girl to be her friend.

Marge doesn't know what to do now, but is advised by Grampa that she wasn't completely wrong in her actions, as Grampa had been paying Lenny and Carl to be Homer's friends since they were kids (something Grampa later reveals to Homer isn't true).  Marge goes to talk to Lisa upstairs, but after Lisa bluntly tells her off, Marge begins to cry.  Hurting her mother's feelings starts to cheer Lisa up, the realization of which causes Lisa to cry as well.  The two make up, and Lisa makes her forgiveness Marge's mother's day present.  Later, Lisa tries to make amends with her paid pal, but when the girl reveals not only that she isn't vegetarian, but also likes horse meat, Lisa isn't even going to try to make that work.

Quick Review
This episode isn't anything special.  Rather, this episode seemed kinda disjointed at times, shifting from Marge's friend dilemma quickly over to Lisa's friend dilemma and doesn't really do a good job of resolving either conflict.  I enjoyed the part of the episode featuring Homer and Bart, but the main plot, whatever consisted of one here, just wasn't all that funny.

Final Score: 6.6

Brick Like Me (S25, E20-550)

He can't handle all of this co-branding!

Plot Summary
After Homer wakes up from a nightmare to determine whether its "selling out" or "co-branding", he goes out to buy Lisa a gift on a seemingly normal day in a seemingly normal Springfield... except everything and everyone is made out of legos Lego Brand Bricks, where everything fits in and no one ever gets hurt.  Homer initially suspects something is amiss when he attempts to buy a Princess brick-building playset from the comic book guy, where he has a vision of him building that same set with Lisa, actually enjoying doing so, and as their more familiar fleshy forms.  This freaks Homer out and he runs off, but he continues to see certain images, objects, and people as animations rather than bricks.

Meanwhile, Milhouse brings a skunk to show and tell, which runs off.  He and Bart chase it to the basement where it enters a small hole.  The two remove bricks from the wall to retrieve it, but after they co-erce Willie to bust it open, the entire school collapses in a sea of bricks.  As punishment, Principal Skinner forces Bart to rebuild the school brick by brick.  Bart attempts to rebuild it in his own image, but Skinner catches him and forces him to rebuild the school properly, and multiple times over as Skinner possesses multiple sets of the school to build.

Homer's delusions reach critical mass when his hand become fleshy and finger-y, for all to see.  Knowing now that he's not really going crazy, Homer takes Marge back to the comic book shop to come in contact again with the Princess brick set.  Upon doing so, Homer has an extended vision of the animated world.  Here, Homer and Lisa continue to have genuine fun building things with toy bricks, even building a model Springfield, when the two learn of a brick convention coming up.  The two decide to go, but later Homer overhears Lisa with several older girls who invite Lisa to the premiere of a Hunger Survival Games movie, of which the girls are fans.  Homer reluctantly allows Lisa to see the movie, but realizes that his fun time with Lisa has come to an end and that he no longer fits in her world.  Going to the brick convention alone with the model Springfield, Homer begins to wish he could be in a world of bricks, where everything fits in and nobody ever gets hurt.  Its there where comic book guy's massive brick model of the H-Survival Games lead character falls on Homer, knocking him out.

Back in brick Springfield, brick Homer realizes this reality is one he conjured up so that he can spend an infinite amount of time with Lisa.  Ecstatic with this revelation, Homer happily allows the brick world to continue, uncaring about returning to reality.  However, after playing with Lisa for a short time, Homer then realizes that, with things as they are, he'll never grow old and enjoy the relevant benefits, or see Lisa grow up and have memories of her that could be cherished.  Homer realizes his mistake and runs back to the comic book guy's shop to find the Princess brick set - the key to the world - and return things to normal.

However, the comic book guy apparently represents the part in Homer's psyche that wants things to remain in fantasyland, and quickly sets up a fortress around his shop with reinforcements to stop Homer.  Homer calls out for help, and quickly Bart arrives, having built a lego-mech of some sort thanks to all the experience he had building schools.  Bart wipes out the reinforcements and topples the fortress.  Homer is able to find the brick set and becomes fleshy again.  He thanks brick Marge for her support, and comes back to reality.  Lisa is the first person he sees upon coming to, who decided to go to the brick convention after all, but Homer retains his lesson from his dream and tells Lisa to spend time with her friends so she can grow up.

Quick Review
I figured this episode could go one of two ways.  As a complete and utter bow down to the glory that is Lego media these days, I had feared this episode would be a mish-mash of Lego antics and branding that just wouldn't make even a competent episode.  Thankfully, oh so thankfully, the episode's plot, borrowed from the movie or not, was full of quality jokes that made good use of the Lego, hm, 'universe', and it was also a mildly touching Homer and Lisa story that features none of the poor writing that often plagues Lisa-heavy episodes.  I must say I am pleasantly surprised with this episode, and its one of the season's best.

Final Score: 8.1

What to Expect When Bart's Expecting (S25, E19-549)

This was a 'gag' at the end of the episode.  My reaction: what

Plot Summary
Bartenders across Springfield increase their dwindling revenue for a night by hosting a superhero costume affair which basically boils down to more drinking for much more money.  The shenanigans leave Homer in a particularly hungover state the following morning.

Bart, meanwhile, is forced to go to art class and has particular disdain for the joyful and positive art teacher, Mrs. Trunch.  He gets an idea from Shauna (who is revealed to be Superintendent Chalmer's daughter, whatever) to use voodoo to get rid of Trunch.  Bart follows this advice and after visiting a witch doctor or some sort, he teams up with Milhouse to place a voodoo hex on Trunch, in an attempt to give her a "tummy ache".  The next day, Bart smugly reveals his ploy to the class, but is stunned not only when Trunch comes to class, but also reveals that she does have a specific "tummy ache", but because she's pregnant.  Word quickly spreads that Bart was the one to cause the pregnancy.

Punished, I guess, for what he did, Bart is soon met by a couple having trouble conceiving.  Having heard of what Bart "did" and hoping for a miracle, they ask Bart to use his voodoo on them.  Bart eventually does so, and a few weeks later, the lady of the couple is pregnant and they attribute that fact to Bart.  Soon, Bart starts up a business of using voodoo to hex couples into getting pregnant, until Homer realizes the ploy and confronts Bart over it.  The two don't have long to get into an argument over it, as the two are soon captured by Fat Tony's gang.

Fat Tony demands Bart use his "ability" to breed his horse with a thoroughbred, threatening to kill him and Homer if they fail to get the horses to conceive by morning.  As Bart shares his frustrations over how Homer's poor parenting somehow led to this specific situation, Homer realizes two things: the thoroughbred is gay, and that there's a second male steed in the shack.  The second male, a former Duff Clydesdale whom Homer kinda idolized as a kid, is used by Homer to breed with the female through a musical number, and by morning a pony is on the way, saving Homer and Bart.  The Simpsons visit the horse family a year later to see how they're doing, I guess.

Quick Review
This was a pretty weak episode.  Not a lot of it was funny.  The beginning sequence seemed like an excuse for the writers to let out their inner comic-book geek again (BOY THAT WATCHMEN REFERENCE SURE WAS FUNNY, AGAIN), and aside from a few decent jokes here and there the rest of the episode was a bit of a chore to watch.  Even the use of Fat Tony and his gang, usually a strong source of humor for me, wasn't utilized very well, and the musical number wasn't that funny either.  Really, the score its getting is better than what it should be getting, but that's mainly because nothing about the episode was particularly awful.

Final Score: 6.5

Days of Future Future (S25, E18-548)

Bart, sampling various failed sketches for "Fry's girlfriend for an episode".

Plot Summary
Homer's bad eating habits catch up to him and he dies.  At his funeral, a grieving mass becomes relieved when Professor Frink reveals he's saved Homer's memory and brain patterns, and has transferred them into a new body, essentially getting a second chance at life.  When that body dies the same day, Frink presents a second clone of Homer, and thus a cycle of Homer dying and 'reviving' over and over again starts up, a cycle that lasts 30 years.

Now 30 years in the future, Homer dies again, and in the now ho-hum ceremony Frink reveals that all of his clone bodies have been used up, and Homer is now forced to live on in a flash drive as data.  Marge quickly becomes sick of this nonsense and after an hour of dealing with Homer bopping around screens at home, she kicks Homer out to live with her deadbeat son, Bart.

With this episode essentially being a sequel or, more likely, an alternate version of Holidays of Future Past, Bart's shattered relationship with Jenda is revisited, with Bart living in the no-longer-in-use elementary school and Jenda having custody of their two kids.  Lisa is also having marital problems with Milhouse, as Lisa's charity work at the zombie shelter makes it hard for the two to see each other.  Making matters worse for Bart, Jenda is now seeing Jerry, some kind of alien, and Bart's attempt to find a new woman in life is met with self sabotage.  Milhouse tries to confront Lisa at the zombie shelter, but his racism towards zombies causes one to bite him, turning him undead.  Meanwhile, Bart sees a clinic where people can have their memories altered to help them move on from unfavorable experiences.  Bart requests to get help moving on from Jenda, and the worker there is more than happy to oblige.

From there, Bart has no trouble talking to, and having sex with, multitudes of women of various ages, races, and alien species.  The next time Bart meets with Jenda, Jenda quickly falls back in love with Bart and his newfound optimism, but when they attempt to get back together, things fall apart again quickly.  Meanwhile, Milhouse has become a zombie, but is receiving shots to cure him from it, which will take a couple of weeks to complete.  However, zombie Milhouse is more aggressive and alpha than living Milhouse, which really turns Lisa on and she faces a dilemma as to whether she should keep the brand new dead Milhouse, and return to the alive yet wimpy one.

At Moe's bar, Bart and Lisa meet up to discuss their respective problems when they learn Marge is behind them.  She tells them that once they've made their choice in life romantically they should do anything they can to stick to it.  Then she electrocutes herself so that she can join Homer in the virtual world for a brief moment before the two supposedly turn themselves off, I guess?  Resolute, Lisa decides to have Milhouse finish his cure while Bart decides to break off from Jenda again once and for all.

Suddenly, Bart wakes up, having just finished up his memory alteration, with everything he experienced past that point being a dream used to help cope with his new change (a plot point used from a Futurama episode).  Bart feels great, though, and returns home to find Homer in a new robot body with a personality upgrade, and Milhouse still a zombie because the idea of a zombie cure existed only in his dream.

Quick Review
With the oddness that is this episode, it turns out to be really boring.  Not a whole lot of material turns out to be all that funny, and the zaniness factor coating what is a triple-threat marriage episode makes for a worthless combination for humor.  Its one of the season's weaker episodes and, amazingly, the weakest flash-forward episode of the few that exist.

Final Score: 6.0

Luca$ (S25, E17-547)

This is like Lisa's "watchin' mah stories" and Bart's "ah wash
mahself with a rag on a stick" all in one.  Except not as good.

Plot Summary
Lisa sees a kid at school trying to eat a whole pizza but failing.  Learning that the kid, Lucas, is trying (and failing) to become a competitive eater, Lisa can't help but feel somewhat sorry for him, and gains a desire to hopefully change him.  Lucas, whose "competitive eater" name is Luca$ (Luca-dollar), comes over to the Simpson house to hang out with Lisa.  His vacant, glutenous nature quickly gains the mockery of Patty and Selma, who inform Marge that Lisa must be interested in Lucas because he acts a lot like Homer and that, because daughters marry their fathers apparently, she may end up marrying that fat slob because her father is also one.  This worries Marge immensely.

Meanwhile, Bart returns to his treehouse to find the criminal Snake hiding out.  Somewhat unwilling to let Snake stay in his treehouse, Bart is forced to make a choice when Chief Wiggum arrives to ask Bart about Snake's whereabouts.  Bart decides to mislead Wiggum, and thus saves Snake's skin.  As thanks, Bart starts getting gift after gift, presumably from Snake stealing it and leaving it for Bart to find.  He and Milhouse are okay with this until Snake steals Milhouse's tablet.  Out for revenge, Milhouse rats Snake out to the police somehow, and Snake is set to be executed under a 'four balls and you walk.. to the chair!' policy.  Bart is able to come to Snake's rescue at jail and helps Snake free again, and Snake promises he won't need Bart's help again as the next time he's out, he's committing suicide by cop.

Marge expresses her concerns about Lisa to Homer as carefully as she can, but Homer is still slighted by the implied insult that she doesn't want Lisa to end up with someone like him.  Still, Homer takes up Marge's suggestion of taking Lisa out to dinner to somehow improve her standards in men, but remains hurt over Marge's words.  At the dinner, Marge arrives to apologize to Homer, and while Homer is still upset over the words, Marge makes it up to him by dressing up in a sexy dress, so Homer is okay now.  Homer finishes up his dinner with Lisa, and with Lucas giving up one crazy dream for another, Lisa may have given up on him.

Quick Review
The plot sounds awful, and the Minecraft reference of an opening was cringe to the max, but the episode as a whole was still pretty decent when it came to comedy and jokes.  I'm a bit surprised between this episode and the last one that despite terrible premises, the episodes have still fared okay.  I hate to use this phrase because every time I use it the next episode is always awful, and the next episode, "Days of Future Future" sounds really awful, but this might be a sign the show is on a rebound, as the jokes are still decent enough to overcome bad writing.  I'm going to regret saying that next week, just you wait.

Final Score: 7.1

You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee (S25, E16-546)

Looks like Homer has the NFL referee's lifestyle down.

Plot Summary
After a failed history demonstration at school goes awry, Superintendent Chalmers tells Principal Skinner to figure out who the kids actually see as their heroes, with Skinner needing to get a sponsor for the school to acquire the necessary funding to set up a "my hero" contest at the school.  At the contest, Lisa thinks she's a shoo-in to win with her report on her hero Marie Curie.  However, Martin Prince gets to present before her, and Curie is also his hero.  With the originality of her presentation lost, Lisa runs off in tears.  Consulting the nearby Bart, Lisa gets the last-ditch idea from him to use Homer as her hero.  Composing herself, Lisa goes up and talks about the various times Homer had been a good father to her, including being a steadfast and honest soccer referee that one time.  The speech is a hit, and Lisa ties with Martin for the win, which means the school keeps the prize money.

Afterward, Lisa's speech goes viral on the internet, garnering the attention of top soccer officials, who needs Homer's honesty and incorruptibility for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, given how many referees and top soccer officials have been corrupted by money.  Inspired by Lisa's words, Homer accepts the offer and the Simpsons head to Brazil (again).

As Marge works on her Portuguese, Homer begins to ref World Cup matches, and does so admirably.  Soon enough, a group of gangsters attempt to bribe Homer with food and money, but he turns them down, still holding Lisa's words strong within him.  This is shattered, though, when Bart reveals he wasn't her first choice as her hero.  Devastated, Homer reluctantly agrees to fix the World Cup final in favor of Brazil.  Lisa confronts Homer before the match, and tells Homer that while it was true he wasn't her first choice, his actions afterward have truly made him the hero she always hoped he would be.  His honesty renewed, Homer calls the World Cup fairly despite heavy Brazilian diving, and the Germans win the World Cup.  The gangsters find Homer to kill him for breaking the deal, and not even Marge's newfound Portuguese fluency will stop them.  However, the mother of the lead gangster steps in and forces them to leave Homer alone, after Lisa switched seats with her on the plane so she could watch HBO.  With that resolved, the Simpsons enjoy the rest of their time in Brazil.

Quick Review
This turned out to be a lot better than I expected.  Granted, I expected it to compete for "10 Worst Episodes" territory but, for once, my fears were unfounded.  The subplot was the school was pretty good, I felt, and set a good pace for the episode.  Of course, many episode before this do the same only to fall apart at the end.  That sort of happened here, but not too much.  Going in, I figured there'd be a lot of time wasted showcasing how great soccer is, and 'look at this, see how cool it is', stuff like that.  Thankfully that was kept to the barest of minimums with even a recurring diving joke thrown in.  (I'm aware this makes it sound like I'm not a fan of soccer and, outside of the World Cup ironically, I'm really not.)  Overall, this is one of the season's better episodes with only a few missteps, but far fewer than what I thought there'd be.

Final Score: 7.5

The War of Art (S25, E15-545)

I could make a rock or stone pun here, but I figure I could be boulder (or not).

Plot Summary
Lisa, for some reason, really wants a pet guinea pig to call her own.  Eventually, Homer and Marge relent and allow Lisa to get one.  Predictably, Lisa loses track of it and it gets into the wall, eventually busting through the wall, and the boat painting that hangs over the couch.  Marge is devastated over the loss, but Homer decides to take her to someplace where they can get a replacement work of art for cheap: a yard sale.  Specifically, the Van Houten's yard sale, where they find a piece of art Kirk had acquired during the time he was separated from Luann, which they buy for $20.  Later, after taking off the chrome frame from the painting, Lisa finds out the painting was made by a semi-famous artist, and after appraising it they learn its worth at least $80,000.

Marge is more than happy to split that money with the previous owners, the Van Houtens, but Homer is against the idea, under the "finders keepers" mentality.  Their arguments as to whether to tell the Van Houtens about it is overheard by Milhouse who had come over, and their attempts to buy Milhouse's silence fails when he cracks and tells his parents anyway.  Kirk and Luann confront Homer and Marge over it, and Homer in particular is defiant, unwilling to share the painting or its profits.  The Van Houtens take their complaints to the media, whose news story creates a divide in town between those who want the painting to go back to the Van Houtens and those who want the Simpsons to keep what they earn.  Finally, the painting goes up for auction with Homer's intention to keep every cent, however a complication arises: a former girlfriend of Kirk's during his separation interrupts the proceedings to claim ownership of the painting, as she says Kirk stole it and thus has never been owned by him or the Simpsons.

Unaware that Kirk had been with anyone during the separation, Luann gets so upset at Kirk that they, well, separate.  With Marge officially tired of the ordeal, and with Homer for his part in what's happened, Homer decides to go to the place where Kirk claims he bought the painting to prove as such: Isla Verde.  He and Lisa find the restaurant that sold the painting to Kirk, and they confirm it was Kirk that made the purchase.  However, before Homer can celebrate for too long, an old man nearby makes the claim that he, not the semi-famous artist, made the painting in question.  He takes Homer and Lisa back to his house, which contains a view shown in the painting, and reveals he's a professional forger, and that the painting Homer technically owns is, in fact, a worthless forgery.  Lisa is of course appalled at all this, but the old man doesn't care as he knows his forgeries still bring people happiness from looking at his works of art.  With his potential money gone, Homer instead asks the forger to make a few more as a favor.  Later, Kirk makes up with Luann by presenting her a painting of the Van Houten family, and Homer gives Marge a painting as well: a replica of the boat painting that hanged above the couch for so long and can now do so again.

Quick Review
Well, I liked the episode for the most part.  Homer was mostly in top form for humor, though the episode does take the typical late dive as it went into more exposition.  That keeps the episode from being rated higher than it is, but I did get some good laughs out of it, especially early.

Final Score: 7.2

The Winter of His Content (S25, E14-544)

At long last Grampa can be proud of his son.

Plot Summary
The Springfield Retirement Castle is forced to close down due to several health violations.  As Homer and Marge go to take Grampa home, Marge notices two other old men with nowhere to go: Jasper and the "Old Jewish Man".  Feeling sorry for them, Marge lets them come home with them and Grampa.  Naturally, Homer and Marge have difficulty taking care of the three old men and their various needs.  Homer is nearing a breaking point but is encouraged by Lisa to be nicer to them at the very least.  Homer takes Lisa's advice to heart and decides to spend time with the old men.  Upon doing so, he comes to realize that with 6 AM breakfast, mall walking that counts as exercise, among other things, the old man lifestyle can actually be really great.  As such, Homer does everything possible to become an old man, which bothers Marge immensely.

Meanwhile, at school, its learned Nelson is forced to wear his mom's old panties, being unable to afford his own.  As kids laugh at Nelson, Bart decides to stand up for Nelson, revealing he, too, wears hand-me-down underwear.  Afterward, Nelson is extremely grateful to Bart, so much so that he takes Bart to a bully hideout where Jimbo and pals make Bart an honorary bully.  Later, they decide to attend a bully convention out of town, but while there a rather radical bully hits the leader of the bully congregation with Bart's slingshot, pinning the blame on Bart.

Bart and the bullies find a way to escape the wrath of the bully congregate, with Nelson sacrificing himself for the cause, but the radical bully and his gang chase the four all the way back to Springfield, setting up a possible beatdown.  Homer and the old men chance upon this, and with the old men unwilling (and/or possibly unable) to help, Homer realizes he's still a bit too young to consider himself old and rushes in to punch away the radical bully and his gang, saving Bart and the others.

Quick Review
The episode started off strong, as I really enjoyed the old man and Homer storyline.  I didn't expect the Bart sidestory to take over the latter portion of the episode, though, and considering how weak that subplot was it really brought the episode down.  The episode also ended in a rather sudden, awkward manner that didn't work at all.  This episode had some potential that just fell apart when it shifted away from that potential.

Final Score: 7.1

The Man Who Grew Too Much (S25, E13-543)

Seems like Bob grafted the DNA of modern Simpsons into his genes.

Plot Summary
Its Taco Tuesday at school, and Lisa (who is upset school isn't challenging her, again) notices that, yet again, barely anybody used vegetables for their tacos.  She also notices Lunchlady Doris put them away for next week, told by Doris that those vegetables have been genetically enhanced to last awhile.  Concerned, Lisa investigates the health and safety risks of genetically modified foods and eventually comes to the conclusion that its okay, encouraging the town to go all in on the stuff.  The genetically altered food revolution is being headed by the Monsarno corporation, who invites Lisa and her family to their headquarters for a tour.  There, they get a chance to meet the head scientist - Sideshow Bob!

Bob explains that after the last time he tried anything (referenced by his face falling off), his latest stay in prison was driving him further insane.  Monsarno stepped in, offering Bob the chance to be their guinea pig for experiments.  Bob happily agreed and, somehow, he quickly rose up the ranks in the company to be its head scientist - though he's still chained to a prison block.  As Bob intelligently laments Bart's tomfoolery in his office, Lisa finds a connection between her and Bob, an intellectual connection.  She later meets up with Bob to help him with his experiments and the two seem to be getting along quite well.

Meanwhile, Marge is tasked by the church to have teens take an abstinence pledge, but is having a lot of trouble getting those teens to commit.  Frustrated, she brings Homer along and with the image of a guy like Homer making love, the teens become more than happy to pledge.

Bob is given a free hour at the museum alongside Lisa, though still chained to his block.  A falling piece of artwork nearly crushes Lisa but Bob steps in to withstand the blow.  Given how heavy the item is, Lisa is stunned Bob took it so well, but realizes that Bob has actually modified himself with the DNA of multiple animals and people.  Bob admits that his museum visit today was to acquire more DNA from historical figures to enhance his strength and smarts.  The ever suspicious Bart steps in to save Lisa, and an angered Bob gives chase.

The chase ends up over the Springfield dam, where the enhanced Bob finally catches them.  Just then, Homer and Marge reach the three, and Marge decides to stop Bob by sicking her abstinence-pledged teens on him, most of whom have become sexually frustrated.  Bob fends them off rather uncivilly, causing Lisa to call Bob out on his behavior.  Regretful, Bob decides to jump off the dam rather than live on as he has become, much to Lisa's sadness.  However, Bob survives the fall because he can now breathe underwater, and he takes his leave.

In one final scene, Ned remembers taking tango lessons with Edna (which was why he couldn't do teen abstinence this time), and is saddened alongside Nelson that Edna is now gone.

Quick Review
So, at this point, I'm fairly sure they've run out of ideas for Sideshow Bob episodes.  His character does vary sometimes in terms of the motivation behind his plans, but between the last episode where he cuts off his own face and this one where he becomes a genetic freak of nature, I'm not liking these developments.

The episode itself has its moments, nothing specifically noteworthy, but a few of Bob's lines were good.  The Marge subplot wasn't particularly good but it wasn't bad either though it mixed it with the main storyline somewhat awkwardly.  Overall, its a decent episode, but as a Bob episode its only really better than The Italian Bob, and it takes no effort to be better than that episode.

As a note, this is the final episode to feature Edna Krabappel as the episode notes that she has likely passed away.  I think the late Marcia Wallace does voice her two lines here, which makes this the last episode to feature Marcia as a guest voice.

Final Score: 7.2

Diggs (S25, E12-542)

Barely even chewed it.  Surprised Bart didn't croak.  ...sorry.

Plot Summary
At church, Bart actually feels bad when told of a story of an Indonesian boy who acts like him that has since become ill.  Bart pleads with Homer to give him money to donate to the boy's well being, and Homer does give Bart $20 for that purpose, but Homer insists Bart pay him back as soon as possible.  Almost instantly, Homer continuously bugs Bart to get his money back.  Desperate for money, Bart decides to let other kids at school feed him whatever for money.  Eventually, Jimbo tells Bart he'll pay $20 if Bart eats a dissection frog from the science lab.  Bart's need for the money outweighs every other concern and Bart quickly, and without regard, gulps down that frog.  Bart earns the $20, but gets sick right away as the frog was filled with poisonous formaldehyde.  Homer gets back his $20 (which at this point he'd forgotten about), but now has a hospital bill of $4000 to worry about.

Well enough to leave the hospital, Bart's return to school is less than joyous, as the other kids in school no longer want to associate with "that kid who ate the frog", something Lisa had warned Bart about earlier.  Not even Milhouse wants to deal with Bart now, especially since Milhouse would've given Bart the $20 anyway.  Worse yet, now Bart is about to be attacked by Jimbo and his gang even though it was Jimbo who set Bart up.  However, the three are shooed off by a falcon and its caretaker, an older boy named Diggby, or Diggs for short.  Bart quickly befriends Diggs, who is a rather eccentric fellow, and the two begin to spend time training and playing with Diggs' falcon.  One day, though, Diggs, out of nowhere, attempts a stunt by jumping out of a tree, injuring himself in the process.

At the hospital, Bart learns that Diggs was really hoping he'd start flying and that perhaps the ability to is something humans have simply forgotten.  Bart is then led out not just by Dr. Hibbert, but by a second doctor, who plans on transferring Diggs to what Bart later learns is a mental institution.  Doubting that Diggs could actually be crazy, Bart is shocked to find Diggs back at the school, who was given a one-day pass to leave the institution so he could compete in a falconry competition.  The two attend, but Diggs instead enlists Bart's help to release all of the falcons at the competition so they can fly free.  With that plan successful, Diggs is aware he probably won't be able to leave the institution again, and bids farewell to Bart.  Feeling alone for a moment, Bart is met by Milhouse, who feels bad for ditching Bart earlier on, and the two renew their friendship.

Quick Review
This episode was your typical "start strong, finish poorly" fare that plagues many episode.  The whole arc involving Bart getting money to pay off/shut up Homer was an excellent start to the episode, but once the focus shifted to Diggs (voiced by Daniel Radcliffe) and the falconry stuff, the episode loses a lot of humor.  Add in just enough Lisa to be irritating, and the episode is mostly disappointing, especially after a good start.

Final Score: 6.6

Specs and the City (S25, E11-541)

Behold!  The sex of tomorrow... today!

Plot Summary
In December, Mr. Burns somehow becomes 'nice' to his employees by giving them a decent Christmas gift: glasses that look and operate somewhat like Google Glass because that's the hip new thing the writers probably liked 10 months ago when writing this episode, but aren't called that here because of copyrights I guess, so I'm just gonna call them Googles.

Anyway, Burns predictably has a sinister plot behind this: all of the Googles have been rigged with surveillance cameras so that Burns can keep an eye on everyone at all times.  Still, the employees all love the Googles, Homer especially.  Bringing his Google antics home, Homer begins to annoy Marge with his overuse of the Googles, even interfering with their snuggle time.  That's the last straw for Marge, and Homer regrets what he's done.  To make up for it, he gives up his Googles to anybody in the family who would have them.  Surprisingly, Marge is the one who claims them, stating that for once, she gets to keep the neat fun thing.

Soon, though, Homer regrets giving up his Googles, and goes to Mr. Burns office to plead for another pair.  Burns isn't around, though, and Homer notices the surveillance system his boss set up.  Homer is intrigued with all of his co-workers activities, but takes notice with the monitor for him - as its the camera currently focused on his former Googles that Marge is now wearing.

After a couple of 'false alarms' for cheating, and Homer successfully warding off an incompetent Burns, Homer watches Marge go to a clinic for therapy.  Stunned, Homer goes to Moe's for advice, and the barkeep tells Homer to confront Marge, but do so in an 'accidental' manner to avoid her wrath, doing so by setting up an appointment to the same therapist right after Marge.  Homer believes this to be a good idea, and does just that.  However, at the office, Homer sees Marge (she doesn't see him), and is ready to make a move, but realizes that Marge actually, really, needs the therapy as she's a wreck just before but a ball of joyous happiness after.  Thus, Homer leaves her be, and goes home to reap the benefits of a post-therapy Marge.

While this is all happening, Bart is being forced by his school to give Valentine's Day cards to everyone in class, citing the pampered state of today's kids and such.  However, Bart refuses to give a card to Nelson, given that Nelson's a bully and all.  Slighted, Nelson forces Bart to give him a card anyway, or face his wrath.  Frustrated, Bart eventually gives Nelson a "I fear you" card, stating his true feelings towards Nelson, which the young man takes to heart.

Quick Review
Well, after the last episode and given the previews for this one, this turned out better than what I expected.  Its not a great episode by any means, with not too many good jokes and the side plot was too short to be of any worth, but this wasn't a bad episode, either.

Final Score: 7.0

Married to the Blob (S25, E10-540)

I don't even want to make a caption for this, even though I just did.

Note: this episode shares the title with a Treehouse of Horror XVII story.

Plot Summary
After Bart and Milhouse read a comic detailing the 'death' of Radioactive Man, the two quickly learn the new #1 issue of the reborn Radioactive Man is gonna be sold in a midnight function.  Homer takes the two to the comic book shop to buy the book, last in line.  Just before he can buy the book, the comic book guy (loving all the money he's getting from the book's sales) is visited by that super hipster who may or may not own a comic book shop of his own anymore.  The guy, whose name I never bothered or cared to learn, is now married to his super hipster girlfriend, news that just stuns ol' Jeff Albertson.  Bothering him still, he recalls Homer is also married despite his physical deficiencies.  As Jeff is visited by a vision of Stan Lee (as the two witness the real one stealing his comic books) to turn his love life around, he is visited by a young Japanese woman who quickly reveals she understands and tolerates him and his attitudes.

Smitten, Jeff asks the girl, Kumiko, on a date.  Recalling Homer also has a hot wife, Jeff asks Homer for help and both Homer and Marge decide to help the comic book guy out.  During their first date, Kumiko reveals she's very okay with Jeff's insulting nature, and love begins to blossom for them both with Kumiko deciding to move in to the comic book guy's shop's basement.  Trouble brews, though, when Homer meets Kumiko's father, who isn't happy that Kumiko is seeing such a fat nerd.  Homer unwittingly reveals where Kumiko is staying and the old man quickly takes Kumiko away, breaking Jeff's heart.

Marge gets upset with Homer for basically being at fault here, and demands Homer do something about it.  Homer finds Kumiko's father and the two go drinking at a Japanese bar where the two end up drinking snake rice wine, getting hammered from it.  The two share a hallucination of classic Japanese animations where Kumiko's father realizes he's been ignoring his daughter's feelings and decides to let Kumiko stay with Jeff.  A short time thereafter, Jeff and Kumiko get married with Stan Lee heading the wedding and, all of a sudden, Jeff doesn't quite feel the need to be attached to comic books anymore.

(Not-so) Quick Review
Wow.  Just... just wow.  I didn't think it would happen, but it finally did.

This is a bad episode in every way.  First of all, there isn't much comedy, I mean, actually good comedy.  Stan Lee's appearance was actually pretty good, and its a shame he had to cameo in such a bad episode, but he's the episode's lone highlight.

Otherwise, the entire episode is just nothing but references.  Comic book references, 'modern Japan' references, Japanese anime references, the episode is filled to the brim with them, and that's what they were: just references.  Nothing about them was made to be funny, it was just 'hey look, its comic book references, and hey here's stuff from Miyazaki, isn't that funny? aren't we clever?' nonsense.

Just one episode ago, I was giving praise to Steal This Episode for taking everything this season has done well and making what was the best episode in years.  I had a feeling just last week that my hope towards the rest of this season was misguided, and boy, was it.  This episode, Married to the Blob, takes everything wrong with the show from the past several seasons and condenses it into 20+ minutes of cringe-worthy references and dialogue, creating what I believe is the worst episode in the series.

Yes, even worse than Alone Again, Natura-Diddly.  That episode I never believed could be 'bottomed' in awfulness not just because of how unfunny it was, but because of what that episode did, in killing off a character.  Married to the Blob didn't kill anyone off, and the new canon of Jeff Albertson being married to a Japanese girl isn't bad at all.  That's how unfunny this episode was, and that was with a decent Stan Lee cameo.

When I heard this episode's premise, I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't expecting this.  I could barely get through the entire episode.  I can't even use the supposedly famous words of the comic book guy to sum up this episode, so instead I'll just say: its even worse than killing off Maude Flanders.

Final Score: 2.8

Steal This Episode (S25, E09-539)

What's with the hair, Channing Tatum?  "Based on a true story", my ass.

Plot Summary
It's Monday, and Homer is ready for some water-cooler talk.  However, the talk all across the plant is about the latest Radioactive Man movie, and it seems like Homer is the only one who hasn't seen it yet, and he tries his damnest to avoid getting the movie spoiled before he can see it and talk about it.  He and the family go to the movies to watch the film, but a 3D film for two adults, three children and a senior exceeds $70, and Radioactive Man-based advertising that isn't the actual film leaves Homer feeling broke and confused.  He rants about how bad the movie-going experience has gotten while in the theatre and is promptly thrown out before he can see it.

Seeing Homer depressed later on, Bart decides to help his dad out by introducing him to the world of internet piracy.  With a few clicks and a decent internet connection I presume (methods FOX refuses to let be known even though its pretty obvious at this point), Bart quickly provides Homer with an illegally obtained copy of the Radioactive Man movie.  After watching it, Homer is impressed with the process.  The next day, Homer goes to tell his co-workers about the movie, but they've all since moved on to a James Bond movie for discussion.  This time around, though, Homer is ready, and lets Lenny and Carl join him to watch a pirated copy of the latest movie at his house.  With the three thoroughly enjoying the movie, Homer is inspired and decides to host movie nights in his backyard, inviting people from across town to watch his illegally obtained material.

Marge finally catches wind of what Homer is doing, and how he's doing it, and is aghast in shame as she's seen one illegally downloaded movie already.  Unwilling to take part any longer, she sends a letter along with a check to a movie studio, but the head of said studio realizes he just got a name of a movie pirate and alerts the feds.  In short time, the rather expansive movie piracy department finds and arrests Homer for his supposed misdeeds, with Homer stunned that someone would turn him in for simply sharing his love of illegal content.  Marge realizes what's happened and feels massive guilt for what she has unwittingly done.

On the bus ride to prison, Homer is attacked by other prisoners when they learn of Homer's heinous crime, causing it to tip over and crash.  Homer is able to return home, and Lisa is quickly able to come up with somewhere he can legally hide: the Swedish consulate because, you see, the Swedes don't care about movie piracy or the legal ramifications thereof, you see.

As the feds fail to convince the Swedes to give up Homer, Marge confesses she sent the initial letter that got Homer in trouble.  Homer, stunned by this, gives up hope and gives himself up to the feds.  In court, the movie industry is trying to take Homer down hard, but with Marge's encouragement Homer decides to stand up for himself and his actions one last time.  The movie bigwigs there, including Judd Apatow, realize Homer's story is just like your sample movie blockbuster, and decide not just to drop the charges against him, but make Homer's tale of movie piracy into its own movie.  Homer gladly accepts and, somewhat predictably, gets upset when he learns other townspeople are trying to watch an illegally obtained copy of his movie now that he has a stake in its profits.  Bart and Lisa, in the episode's conclusion, try to find a moral to the story but admit that pretty much everyone involved is being a thief in some way, so whatever.

Quick Review
I really liked this episode, its the best episode I've watched in several seasons.  There are a lot of jokes that worked well early on, and thankfully the episode keeps the pointless movie references to a minimal, allowing the episode to really shine.  Things slow down at the end when Apatow and several other movie celebrities get involved, but the episode did so well up to that point they couldn't even ruin it.  The stance on piracy was mostly pro-piracy, I believe, but the more important thing was that the episode wasn't heavy-handed in its message (well, mostly), and it kept things at a 'parody' level of entertainment.  It really was the best episode in quite awhile, like as though it took the good will this season has shown so far and really displayed it all in one go.  It gives me probably misplaced hope for the rest of the season.

Final Score: 8.2

White Christmas Blues (S25, E08-538)

Ten straight sequences of 24 'movies' worth of references.  It hurt to watch.

Plot Summary
Its Christmas time, however it plans to be one of the hottest in record across the entire country: not even Alaska is slated to get any snow.  Despite that, the following morning Springfield does get some snow, if only because its a byproduct of fumes from the nuclear plant and fumes from the tire fire.  Still, Springfield becomes the only place in America to feature snow and, thus, becomes a major tourist attraction, giving every vendor and businessman in Springfield to massive raise prices to gouge those tourists.

The gouging is too much for Marge to handle, unable to afford most Christmas things this year as a result.  Bummed, Marge is met by a family of tourists who need a place to stay with the hotels fully booked.  Needing the money, Marge decides to let them and a few other families stay for the holiday season.  While courteous at first, Marge becomes more and more incensed by the guest's constant complaints and their singing of songs past the first verse, eventually going off on them.

Meanwhile, Lisa gets inspired by an well thought out sermon from Reverend Lovejoy and decides to buy Bart a thoughtful present for Christmas, opting not to go to any store featuring items Bart would like, but some other store.  On Christmas morning, Bart was able to get Lisa the perfect gift, but is upset when he learns Lisa gave him a book for Christmas.  That night, Bart starts to burn the book outside, stunning Lisa until Bart tells her she only got him that book to make herself feel better.

The following day, Lisa realizes Bart was right, and bought him a new present: an e-reader that can also use apps, and the two make up.  The guests are getting ready to leave as well, but Marge apologizes for her earlier behavior, though she still can't stand their off-verse singing.

Quick Review
This Christmas episode starts off decently enough but once the tourists start pouring in the episode's plot starts to get rather disjointed and the comedy suffers as a result.  Lisa's side story really didn't have much going for it at all, and Marge's story was only marginally better.  The episode peaked early on and struggled to stay afloat afterwards.  Also, there was a sequence in the middle of the episode which was nothing but bad movie references for a good fifteen seconds, that was just awful, easily the worst part of the episode.

Final Score: 7.1

Yellow Subterfuge (S25, E07-537)

Nothing is more fun for a mother than making her son believe she's dead!

Plot Summary
Principal Skinner, dreaming himself to be some kind of big shot, announces to the school that he will be hosting a special field trip: on board a nuclear submarine.  However, the field trip is forcibly limited to just a few students, whom Skinner will decide on based on students' behavior from this point forward.  Essentially on a clean slate, Bart decides to be on his best behavior so that he can get on that sub, despite both his family not believing in him and Skinner being very strict with taking students off "the list" for things as simple as letting gum fall on the floor.

Bart's determination hits a snag when the bus stalls on the way to school.  Fearing he'll be late and thus scratched off the list, Bart gets out and makes a mad dash to school.  He arrives just in time, but unfortunately runs in with muddy feet, giving Skinner enough reason to scratch Bart off his list.  Bart tries to get on the sub in other ways, first via a prank and later by good ol' fashioned sucking up, but Skinner leaves Bart off the field trip list regardless, leaving Bart to watch the submarine sink into the ocean depths.

Homer arrives in time to see Bart in distress and decides to help the boy enact some revenge.  The next morning, Skinner wakes up in his home to find his mother seemingly stabbed dead on the kitchen floor.  Homer and Bart conveniently arrive at his house to 'see' the scene and the two 'promise' to help Skinner out, though its obviously a ploy devised by Homer and Bart, with Agnes gladly helping out.  The two convince Skinner that letting the likes of Chief Wiggum figure the scene out is tantamount to suicide, and that leaving town is the only option, dressing him up as the disguised "Dick Fiddler" and seeing Skinner off on a bus.  Homer and Bart return home, mission accomplished, however Skinner is there, finding himself unable to flee so easily.  He's ready to take the blame for his 'crime', even admitting that deep down inside he wanted his mother to die anyway.  Marge has enough, and blows Bart's scheme, and Agnes comes in to reveal to Skinner that not only is she still alive, but she heard his admission and plans on being even meaner to him as a punishment.

Meanwhile, Krusty is broke (again), and Lisa witnesses repo men take his stuff away.  Lisa convinces Krusty to license his show globally so that other people can act like Krusty in their respective countries, and Krusty can earn some of each show's profits.  Krusty agrees to do so, and is able to get 75% of each international show's profits for each person to act like a regional Krusty.  Soon, though, each Krusty gains their share of fame, so much so that the original Krusty becomes the least popular of them all.  Those regional Krustys demand the original let them keep more of their earnings, but Krusty tries to appease them instead by promising to appear on each of their shows, which due to Krusty's lack of popularity, only drives them to chase him out away from wherever he is.

Quick Review
This was a pretty good episode, all things considered.  The couch gag wasn't stupidly long, the focus on Principal Skinner (and Krusty, less so) worked well for the most part, and I enjoyed Homer and Bart's role in the episode.  The only downer I felt the episode produced was the Jamaican Krusty bit, complete with a Jamaican "Itchum and Scratchum" thing that wasn't all that good, but that's a minor complaint for what was otherwise a decent episode.

Final Score: 7.6

The Kid is All Right (S25, E06-536)

I still remember when Bill Clinton was cool.  ...no I don't, I'm lying.

Plot Summary
After forgoing the opening sequence for a lengthy homage/reference to the Disney short Music Land, the episode begins with Lisa being, once again, depressed because she is, once again, alone.  However, once again, Lisa finds a glimmering ray of hope when she befriends, once again, the new kid in school, fellow 2nd grader Isabel Gutierrez who shares Lisa's love of literature.  The two team up to do a school report on Franklin Roosevelt when Lisa notices Isabel's portion is a rather conservative take on the otherwise well-liked President.  Lisa learns that Isabel is a rather hardcore Republican, shocking even more so to her given Isabel's Latin heritage.

Lisa talks it over with Marge who tells Lisa that Isabel is likely just going through a phase, like Marge did back in the 80s.  Back at school, Lisa learns Isabel's mother told her daughter that Lisa is going through a 'liberal phase'.  Despite their political divide, Lisa and Isabel decide to forgo all that and remain friends.  That is, until the upcoming class president elections.  As Lisa decides to run for the position she learns she'll be going up against - yep - Isabel.  This garners the attention of the Republican party (Mr. Burns, mostly), who desperately need a Hispanic voice like Isabel in their stead, but Isabel refuses their outright help, so the Republicans decide to help Isabel out "behind the scenes", mainly filling the school with pro-Isabel propaganda to hurt Lisa's campaign.

Desperate Lisa, once again, turns to Bart for help.  Bart gets Lisa's campaign back on track, but as Bart shows Lisa a captured video of Isabel falling off a training wheeled bike, Lisa (once again) backs off the 'dark path' and decides to simply run against Isabel fair and square.  In a debate, Lisa tries to tell the audience about the simplicity of being a liberal, and that those ideals were in place during America's best times.  Lisa has a dream a short time later where she's visited by the ghosts of other democrats who lost big in elections, indicating Lisa is gonna be next in line despite her big speech.

In the final debate, though, Isabel decides to, again, eschew politics and decrees that even if Lisa wins, it'd be no big loss for her because Lisa's her friend and that the race for class president shouldn't be politically charged anyway.  Lisa shares the sentiment, but Isabel ends up winning anyway.  Later, Milhouse reveals that an exit poll shows that 53% of the class would vote for a liberal candidate, just not Lisa.  Lisa is content with that.  In 2056, Lisa and Isabel are, once again, against one another, this time for what I assume is President of the United States, and an elderly Homer is proudly watching alongside his Music Land parody self.

Quick Review
I have really mixed feelings about this episode.  There were some really good jokes and bits in the episode that I felt worked really well, and that if those bits were the only elements within, the episode could've gotten the highest score I would've given in several seasons.

However, there's just so much that goes wrong, too.  The opening sequence was tough to sit through, for starters.  And then, of course, the episode is heavy with the political themes, thankfully it wasn't anything too bad, though moments when Lisa and/or Isabel would clamor on about the greatness of their specific ideology I couldn't help but cringe.  With no side plot to possibly help out, I'm left with an episode that, while having some good moments, is just too far dragged down by its political elements to be worth giving a good score to.

Final Score: 6.3

Labor Pains (S25, E05-535)

Such dirty thoughts, and with his girl right there too.

Plot Summary
Homer goes to a poker game at Carl's apartment one night, telling Marge he's going to be working late instead.  After exploiting Lenny's reflective shades to win the night, Homer quits while he's ahead.  Upon taking the elevator, a pregnant woman steps in as she's going through convulsions.  As luck would have it, the power goes out in the elevator, leaving Homer and the pregnant woman (and an unseen, uncaring third person) trapped.  The woman, who hasn't seen her boyfriend in months, starts going into labor, and Homer recalls his past experiences to the best of his ability to help deliver the baby.  The woman, Gretchen, decides to name the baby after Homer.

After a poker night where the others find out Homer's been exploiting Lenny's reflective shades, Homer realizes that Gretchen lives in the apartment right next to Carl's, and pays her and Homer Jr. a visit.  With nobody else around to help take care of the baby, Homer agrees to help Gretchen look after Homer Jr.  Homer devotes more and more time to the baby, which draws some suspicions from Marge, especially when she catches Homer buying tons of baby supplies at the store knowing full well he doesn't do that for Maggie.  Aware that Homer's been playing poker rather than go to work, Marge visits Carl's apartment but doesn't find Homer there.  However, she does hear Homer in the next apartment over and sees him playing with the baby, assuming the worst.

Homer quickly clears up the confusion, telling Marge about the elevator delivery (and the third man is around to confirm the story), and Marge does allow Homer to spend more time with the baby.  Homer tries to make amends by taking the baby along with his own three kids to the zoo.  However, Maggie and Homer Jr. just do not get along in the dual-stroller, and Homer Jr. slips out and pushes Maggie away.  Maggie ends up stopping herself, but Marge is there to witness this and decides enough is enough and forces Homer to stop seeing Homer Jr.  Homer relents, and prepares himself to never see the baby again.  Upon returning to Gretchen's apartment, it turns out Gretchen's boyfriend has returned, because he had spent the last few months in the military.  Homer gives the baby back to his real father and departs in a sad state.  Upon returning home, Homer is met by Maggie, who is willing to forgive her father for spending more time with that other baby, and Homer gladly embraces Maggie's forgiveness (these are things that actually happen).

In the sidestory, Lisa for some reason takes up an interest in, as she calls it, American football, and goes to a game with Milhouse (whose father is working as a peanut vendor at the stadium).  There, the cheerleading squad brings Lisa down to be an honorary junior cheerleader or something and Lisa fully enjoys the moment.  Afterwards, though, Lisa learns that the cheerleaders get paid very little for what they do and for how badly they're exploited.  She's able to rally the cheerleaders into going on strike until they get a raise and/or better benefits.  With apparently no other attractive women in town left to replace the cheerleaders, the team's owner is left with no other option but to cave in and give the cheerleaders a raise - at the expense of the peanut vendor's salary of course.

Quick Review
I enjoyed this episode more than I probably should have, really.  I mean, the episode's basic premise sounds pretty boring and having a Lisa-heavy sidestory never makes for good times, either.  Still, there were quite a few jokes and gags that worked in the episode for both storylines and there wasn't really anything that dragged the episode down any.  It's about as good an episode as one can expect nowadays though of course its nothing special.

Final Score: 7.5

Yolo (S25, E04-534)

Homer's storyline got kinda Looney Tunes, no, Merry Melodies at the end.

Plot Summary
As Homer and Marge wait for Milhouse to be picked up after spending the day with Bart, they notice Kirk Van Houten arriving in a new car, dressed like he doesn't care about anything.  Turns out, Kirk is now living by the "yolo" philosophy - you only live once, after all.  Marge and Homer mock Kirk later on, but as Marge openly states how happy she is that Homer is fine with living his boring old life day after day, Homer starts to get depressed that his life is, ignoring most episodes, boring.

Meanwhile, Principal Skinner is rocked when the local news finds rampant cheating being done by students at the school.  At a teachers-parents meeting Skinner is left unable to come up with any answers, but Lisa is able to come up with a simple solution: an honor system, where students vow not just to cheat on tests, but to also turn anybody in they catch cheating.  Lisa is able to trick students like Nelson and Martin into signing up for the system, and it seems like its an early success, with cheating now at all time lows.

Marge sees Homer sadly looking over some old letters - it turns out in 5th grade Homer had a pen pal from Spain he occasionally wrote to.  Tired of seeing Homer so depressed, Marge decides to contact the pen pal and have him cheer Homer up.  Soon, Eduardo, Homer's pen pal, arrives in Springfield to help Homer out.  It seems Eduardo lives by a similar "you only live once" philosophy and agrees to help Homer live out as many childhood dreams that he listed that are feasible.  After doing several, including riding a fire truck and portraying pirates in a play, it seems like the job is done, except for one last thing: gliding through the air like his childhood hero Rocky the squirrel.  Eduardo is somewhat hesitant to go through with this, but Homer wants no regrets, so the two ultimately get into a plain and glide-enabled jumpsuits to do just that.

After a push from Eduardo, Homer is in the air though he's having trouble getting stable.  Soon, with Eduardo's help, Homer is able to get it together and glide through the skies.  Nearby, Lisa learns Bart has still been cheating, and confronts him but Bart knows that Lisa won't turn him in, as that would mean Lisa's shiny new honor system actually failed.  Lisa goes mad from the dilemma, but some time later comes up with a solution: force Bart to turn himself in instead.  Homer, meanwhile, has now flown into Springfield itself and unfortunately glides right into the town's tallest building, causing him to fall.  He recovers, but hits the building again, forcing him to fall for sure this time.  During this, Lisa tries to get Bart to turn himself in, but Bart agrees to only do so if he's given a sign from God.  Moments later, Homer falls right on top of Bart.  Bart agrees to turn himself in, keeping Lisa's honor system working, and Homer is glad Eduardo was able to help him live a full life.

Quick Review
How long was "yolo" mainstream popular again?  Like, a month?  A couple of weeks?  It was a flash-in-the-pan twitter meme, but yet someone decided it would be a good idea to write an episode centered around the idea even though by the time it aired, everyone would be sick of "yolo" to the point of derision.  You'd think lessons would be learned, but alas that would be too good to be true.

The episode itself is alright.  The brief appearance of the Jon Lovitz-voiced Llewellyn Sinclair was appreciated and a few of the gags were pretty decent.  The cheating subplot was the funnier of the storylines, and it a big reason why the episode scored as well as it did.  The main plot with Homer and Eduardo was mostly boring, centering around a minute-long fad, and did nothing to really make this episode any funnier.

Final Score: 7.1

Four Regrettings and a Funeral (S25, E03-533)

Somehow, I doubt it.

Plot Summary
At the funeral of a well-loved yet never-seen person, Reverend Lovejoy admits that even this beloved person had regrets.  This leaves several people in the congregation thinking about their regrets: Marge begins to worry if listening to Kiss albums during her first pregnancy led to Bart's current behavior (and Joe Namath regrets sitting behind Bart during his latest prank); Kent Brockman regrets sticking around to do local news rather than go national; Homer really regrets selling his Apple stock back in 2001 to buy a bowling ball; and Mr. Burns (rich in part of buying Homer's Apple stock) regrets letting a woman he loved get away.

As Marge continues to blame herself for Bart's demeanor, Burns tells Smithers about the story of him and Lyla, the previously mentioned woman who would've married Burns had he agreed to be nice to others for five minutes a day.  Burns refused, of course, so Lyla broke up with him promising to marry a man as nice as Burns is evil.  Nearby, Kent Brockman is met by Rachel Maddow, who was once Kent's co-anchor some decades ago.  Both had become sick of the inane nature of local news, Rachel especially so.  She decided to leave town to join a cable news network, but Kent stayed behind.  In the present day, Burns learns from a private eye that Lyla is still alive, but has since become a devout Buddhist and decides to pursue her.  Meanwhile, Kent goes to New York to join a big time news network, choosing Fox News because its the only one that's, sadly, doing well.  After seeing just a taste of Fox News' practices, though, Kent decides otherwise and goes back to Springfield.

Homer decides to return his bowling ball, but learns the bowling ball store is soon to become another Apple store.  Meanwhile, Bart rigs a laundry basket with dozens of balloons and begins to float into the air, unable to get down and starts drifting across town.  Burns, meanwhile, has reunited with Lyla who is more than willing to forgo her oaths for a one night stand.  Burns, though, takes a long time to "prepare himself" in the bathroom and upon return to Lyla, Burns finds out that Lyla passed away while waiting, causing the old man to have further regrets but Smithers recommends Burns honor Lyla by doing the one thing she had asked him to do: be nice to others for five+ minutes.

Kent Brockman returns just in time to see Bart floating around, and quickly sets up a news report about it.  Marge finally catches wind and finds Bart near town hall with the police readying incompetent, inaccurate snipers to try and take the balloons out.  Marge continues to lament what she did during pregnancy, but Chief Wiggum tells Marge that wouldn't of made a difference as his wife listened to Mozart and Churchill speeches during her pregnancy and they ended up with Ralph anyway.  Just then, Professor Frink arrives with a solution to the dilemma - fire a cannonball at just the correct angle and distance for it to land in the basket, giving it enough weight to descend.  However, the town no longer possesses any cannonballs, but Homer arrives with just the thing: his bowling ball.  The plan does end up working, as the ball lands safely in the basket and the basket lands on the ground.  Marge notes that regrets don't matter, as long as you're with your family every choice you've made is the right one.  Meanwhile, after Bart's story goes national, Kent relishes in the attention, but no longer regrets staying in local news.

Quick Review
This episode, which began with a tribute to Marcia Wallace and then a painfully long Hobbit reference of a couch gag, was not good.  While the bulk of the episode remained pointless reference-free for the most part, the episode made the mistake of prioritizing storytelling over comedy.  Fitting in what was four different subplots over a broad "regrets" theme left little room for any good jokes or memorable moments to really exist.  What's left is an episode that spends time really praising Apple (at least its not "Mapple"), takes a couple of quick shots at news media and spends a few minutes on a lost-love story that had very little going for it.  The episode was just too much of a mess to be any decent.  Kind of a crummy episode to dedicate to Wallace's memory, but what can you do?

Final Score: 5.7