Episode Recap: The Kids Are All Fight

Hey y’all…

So Season 26 of The Simpsons ended on 17 May… Boooo! Of course, here on the site we love to give you episode recaps for all those who can’t watch the show or those who like our crazy summaries of all the goodness and then real life happens and a certain walking carpet falls behind on doing his recaps… Booo-urns! But wait, two boos? No more new Simpsons and I’m behind on four episode reviews… how to spin this into something good?

(LIGHT BULB)

I know… since there will be many weeks without any new Simpsons… I can just write the reviews and then space them out for my favorite readers so in a makes sense to a Wookiee sort of way, there ARE new Simpsons episodes for everyone (just offset by a 5 or 6 week period in the space-time continuum)… GENIUS!!! (pats self on fuzzy back)

That’s my complicated explanation for these recaps coming a wee bit late. It’s all serendipity. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the first in a four part “better late than never but technically NEW” series… Season 26, Episode 19: “The Kids Are All Fight”.

– looks like the writers decided to revisit an old couch gag… The Game of Life. No college, get married, unexpected pregnancy x3, bad job, lose hair, gain weight, descent into alcoholism, second mortgage, third heart attack, car reposseseed, sit on couch and don’t forget Grampa. Yup sounds like normal life.

– Homer is actually paying his tab at Moe’s but Moe forgot how to use the register. Homer finds a lot of old junk in his suit: a Playbill from Wiggum & the Sea Captain in The Sunshine Boys, a citation for indecent snowman building, a matchbook from Selma & Bob Terwilleger’s wedding (Together in Love Forever lol), a yamukah from the wedding of Selma & Disco Stu, a lit stick of TNT AND an undeveloped roll of film. Too bad all the photo development places have been knocked down or turned into deer blinds. Circuit Circus is also now a deer sanctuary.

– Turns out Moe can develop it. “This bar is so poorly lit it’s legally a dark room. And the best part is, Duff is chemically indistinguishable from developing fluid.” The whole family decides to go to Moe’s to pick up their prints and get a sneak peak into the “long forgotten world of six years ago.” Moe warns Marge that Bart and Lisa “were fighting like Creationists and common sense” when they were age 4 and 2. The fight photos were hilarious.

– Woo hoo… time for the flashback. A tragic story like the fact they can’t stop making Planet of the Apes movies according to Bart.

– The story begins with the president being the president and popular music being all the rage. Bart and Lisa are fighting at story time in the Springfield Library. It’s why they started going to story time at the Kwik-E-Mart. Bart states he’s mean to his sister because his bed scares him. Woo hoo, the return of the clown bed originally from “Lisa’s First Word” (S4:E10). Can’t sleep, clown’ll eat me Alissa.

– Just that bed alone makes this episode awesome. Bart draws it and writes no no no the next morning lol. Lisa steals his mini golf pencil which was originally hers. The sibling feuding continues… gotta love a speak and spell spouting vowels as Bart hits Lisa. Also Homer strangling Bart with a nod to Kurbrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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– Things got so bad, Marge loses sleep. Bart and Lisa even fight in their sleep. Homer and Marge take the kids to a therapist but the problem is one is smart and good and the other is dim and evil. Any guess which is which? Seriously laughing at the trust exercise with the therapist ditching the family.

– Ned with an awesome mullet offers to go take Marge and Homer to brunch while Grandma Flanders watches the kids. “Hello Joe” lady! When I first saw Grandma when I was a wee kiddo, I thought it was so cool she said my name in the show.

– The kids get babysat by the 100-year-old lady, shock her by saying hell’s bells and Homer and Marge decide to play hooky from brunch and snuggle instead. Nothing sexier than roleplaying as a seagull and boardwalk trash can, right?

– Aaaahhhh… Grandma Flanders is dead! Bart and Lisa run home but their parents are otherwise engaged. Ooohh… ice cream truck! Bart heads of on his three-wheeler while Lisa is in her little red kiddie car. There’s your origins for the new stuff my friends. They see strangers ahead so Bart decides to go someplace safer… the middle of the street. Oh rad… Ralphie as a wee one too… wonder how he got off that cargo ship?

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– Really nice to see and hear Maude Flanders in an episode. Homer and Marge finally showed up at brunch and discover dead Grandma Flanders and their missing kiddos. Leave it to the competent Springfield Police to find them. Wiggum is interviewing Ol Gil… focus on the cuffs Gil.

– Bart is learning not to argue with bullies but before little Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney can use their teaching fists, Lisa saves Bart by fake crying. With her smarts and his Barts they make a great team.

– Homer and Marge are still trying to find their kids. Homer hasn’t found them yet but did decide Maggie would be a good name if they ever have another kid. It sounds good when hollering it. Marge turns to her last resort and calls a psychic hotline but only gets Selma covering for a friend hit by a car who never saw it coming.

– Bart and Lisa head to where Grampa and his friends the monsters live aka the Retirement Castle. All the old folks seen from the viewpoint of children is great. Grampa doesn’t help much by falling asleep.

– Homer goes to Moe’s to convince his childless loser barfly friends to help him find his kids. Somehow shooting a pizza was supposed to help.

– Bart and Lisa ask Milhouse for help but both him and Kirk are sidelined by cartoons. I don’t know if it’s just me but 4-year-old Milly is too adorable.

– The Simpson kids are scared away by a big dog aka the funny Chihuahua that appears in episodes periodically [see “Bart’s Comet” (S6:E14)].The two find themselves at the top of a giant hill. Only one thing to do… push your sister down it and then rescue her. Lisa’s car may have been destroyed but oh well. Lisa and Bart decide not to fight anymore.

– Homer’s still looking… no kids in the Krusty Burger ball pit… the Kwik-E-Mart only has their faces on milk cartons and Social Services is a bad place to look for your lost children. Marge and Homer feel despondent at the end of the day but find Bart and Lisa on top of the Springfield Tire Fire. He saves them with superhuman strength and flings them via tree right onto Bart’s scary clown bed across town. The bed is trashed and ooohhh… ice cream truck.

– So Bart and Lisa stopped fighting, Maggie was born and Marge converted the room she grew her weed in into a room for Maggie.

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– The last scene lets us know Seinfeld style that Grandma Flanders didn’t die, well she did later by Ned’s singing but anyhoo. Homer and the kids are in Moe’s. 6 years ago they were fighting, now they are playing pool in a bar. I agree with Moe… you’re the father of the year Homer.

So that’s the episode. Not a super complicated script but I really loved this one. Flashback episodes are so fun and I think this one was handled rather nicely. Super cool too to see things I already had in my game in the episode. What did you think of it? Like flashbacks or wish it was a current/future story? Sound off below and keep on tapping in the free world.

TTFN… Wookiee out!