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Just when you think Homer’s worst troubles would be the trauma of losing a John Travolta-shaped potato chip, an extreme twist in the plot turns the episode very dark. The image of Homer’s accident is quite frightening, and the line about how Ralph will always be seeing it in his dreams would be extremely sad, if it weren’t Ralph saying it. His character is a long-standing enigma, with mysteries buried deep within his shallow understandings. The idea that he knows about Homer’s trip to Hell and back ties in with some of his other visions from past seasons. But Ralph, as the epitome of innocent childhood discovery, is equally useful delivering a punchline no one else could pull off.
Production-wise, the installment is worthy of a landmark episode. The animation to Lizzo’s song is an extreme departure from the standard, adding whimsical flow to the movement in particular. The artwork in general makes for some very classy comic cinematography, though I still prefer my Simpsons more raggedly rendered. The sequence in Hell is an extremely detailed, gag-filled trip further into Homer’s subconscious. It has all the usual suspects, plus Frank Grimes.
Homer skips the five stages of grief for the seven deadly sins, and takes the highway to hell, only slowing to wait in line for his eternal-burning-in-a-river-of-blood punishment. The gag about waiting in line, along with having to walk with his father-in-law, as proof of being truly in hell fits perfectly with Homer’s character. Homer’s learning that “other people have points” is an old adage, repurposed one too many times. At least his number on line is 666.
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The exchange program between Heaven and Hell is a masterful morsel of cultural commentary: New sins for old on an express train with two stops. Shakespeare is newly charged with using blackface in Othello, but his admission of never having written his own works is the kind of confession which would have gotten him condemned with laughter all the way back to 1989. It is a tried-and-true traditional recurring through line in The Simpsons’ version of Hell, like Richard Nixon having to be reminded of “all those things he did” to be sentenced there.
Marge’s dad, Clancy Bouvier, becomes a villain, scapegoat, and a canon-killer, which is the major problem for this reviewer. It is good to get a fuller picture of the Bouvier family matriarch, especially as he chokes down a check-cashing scam appetizer in hell, but it throws so much of the Simpson family’s past into order when it’s always been about chaos. The only possible clue we may have gotten to this came from the very first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” In that Christmas extravaganza, we see that Marge does indeed hide a jar of money in her hair, but the family still has to rely on Santa’s Little Helper to lose his way into their hearts, because they couldn’t afford anything else.
The retroactive safety net negates so much about the Simpsons background. From struggling in the bowling alley to underperforming at the nuclear plant, to whatever Homer is doing now, the nearness of financial collapse is a driving force for the show. Taking it away with a trust fund stipend spoils that. It does explain a lot, but it shouldn’t. I hope this is all in Homer’s subconscious and not new canon. This is two weeks in a row The Simpsons has erased family history. It is disconcerting. Marge’s excuse for hiding the money is also a copout. Homer’s epiphany, identifying through Lisa’s future loser boyfriend, is similarly weak.
