Episode Recap: Let’s Go Fly a Coot

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 second in a four part “better late than never but technically NEW” series… Season 26, Episode 20: “Let’s Go Fly a Coot”.

– Short intro with Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie as penguins floating on an ice couch… enter Homer the walrus to eat them lol

– It all begins with Milhouse’s b-day party complete with a squishee station serving Milhouse Berry Blast, a Milly bounce house and water slide.  Kids birthday parties have gotten out of control with puffy seat chairs, swag bags, petting zoos and face painting.  We see Kirk posting a sign saying the home is for sale to pay for the party.

– “This birthday party arms race is unsustainable.”  Homer goes on a mission to destroy other parties.  He steals the petting zoos, replaces the pinata candy with rice cakes, impersonates Krusty and sucks out all the helium.  Epic birthday fails courtesy of Homer.

– Big Birthday shows up to make Homer pay for meddling with the primal forces of nurture.  Birthday is the only thing America does… “elaborate children’s catillions with enormous inedible cakes out from whence Yale graduates pop.”  “The quarks and bosons of your soul… BIRTHDAY!”  Homer is blacklisted by Big Birthday.  No more parties for Bart and Lisa… now they have to stay their same age forever lol.  Homer can only make it up by throwing a magical event for Rod Flanders.  He does it too with skywriting and a venue at the Springfield Museum of Flight including an appearance by a B-17 nicknamed LuLu complete with WWII veterans.

– Turns out Grampa knows the aircrew.  The pilot’s name is Mach Ridley. Grampa said he was in the Army and the Navy which is the kind of mix up that happened when he was in the Marines.  Turns out Grampa was in the Air Force too.  The senior aviators wanted to make sure the children got a chance to meet one of the lovely ladies that brought freedom to the world.

– Turns out planes and boats are always named after women “because they need a a lot of upkeep and a firm hand behind the controls”… Lisa knew there was a sexist joke behind it.  The airmen want to hang out with Grampa even if Homer thinks he can’t handle that much excitement.  Grampa just wants to reminisce about the day’s nurses kissed you instead of beating you.  The airmen aren’t too thrilled with the way Homer treats his pops… like the way they treated POWs when the Red Cross wasn’t looking.

– Bart and Milhouse are flying a drone (no terrorists) and mess up Roddy’s birthday wish.  Now he’ll never grow up and marry his Daddy.  Enter attractive girl who during the pan up, resembles Milhouse?  Meet Milly’s cousin from the Netherlands… Annika.  She smokes e-cigarettes and Bart tries one.

– Abe’s old Air Force buddies show up to defend him at the Simpsons home.

– Bart and Milhouse are hanging out with Annika.  She asks Bart to run down to the Kwik-E-art to get cartridges for her e-cig.  She convinces him with the promise of a kiss which doesn’t sound so great when Milhouse tells him that’s what it’d be like to nuzzle him.  At the KEM, turns out e-cigs aren’t illegal for children.  It’s not kid stuff but does come in bubble gum, strawberry shortcake and watermelon dream flavors.

– Favorite line of the episode: “Homer, you’re late!  In the Air Force, when we showed up late, people died.  When we showed up on time, other people died.  The right people.”  Mach, Abe and Homer hang out together.

– The best way to get to know each other is to share a rugged activity.  They decide on driving to see a movie with a handicap seat and companion chair… The Exhaustible 3: Arthritis Will Unite Us.  At the movie, Homer and Abe see a preview about a movie set in a dystopian future that appears to be teasing on Terminator and The Postman.  Homer goes on to list tons of movies set in dystopian futures which lasts until 20 minutes after the movie is over.  They end up seeing the next showing which has Wolfcastle as a elder action hero requesting a hip replacement lol.

– Abe has to go to the bathroom in the middle of  the second try and Mach convinces Homer he can only prove he loves his Dad by making sure he doesn’t become disoriented by the knobless faucet.  Grampa’s too cold to trigger the infrared.  Homer ends up missing the movie.  Mach then takes Homer to a WWII club to set him straight once and for all.  Homer admits he loves his Dad and hugs him.

– Milly, Bart and Annika are playing butt games, something called spiderpukin.  He vapes with her but gets caught by his Mom.  We even see Maggie vaping up. Marge is none too happy that it’s still legal in their state.  Meanwhile, Homer and Grampa share a beer just like they did after Homer’s first merit badge… basketry.

– Marge tells her hubby that Bart is smoking e-cigs to impress a girl. Grampa knows a story to fix it.  It includes his time in the Air Force and competing for a love interest.  Grampa’s job was to keep desert turtles off the runway. At the Chafing Chaps Riding Club, Abe was into a cocktail waitress named Sunny.  Abe overhears Mach saying the test plane was a death trap.  Abe wasn’t sure if he was trying to impress a girl or if the government tested too much LSD on him the other night, but he took the plane out for a flight.  The end result was a rainbow of ice crystals, Abe breaking the sound barrier and then some, and the plane disintegrating around him.  Abe ends up getting the girl too… Homer’s mom Mona.

– So the moral of the story is to make a grand gesture to get a girl but be yourself. Bart is off to make a grand gesture before Annika leaves the country.  He catches her before she clears security and lets her know he really doesn’t like her.  She only complains about everything.  Bart gives her back all his e-cigs and she puts on the striped stockings of shame.  Also a reveal that Kirk and LuAnn Van Houten are cousins and Milly has a forked tongue.

– The last scene is with the silver haired aviators leaving to go to an air show in Reno.  Homer promises his dad a thick steak but Grampa says he can’t chew it. Easily fixed by blending it, then evaporating it and packing it into an e-cig so Grampa can enjoy it.  THE END

So there’s your story.  Bart begins using an E-cigarette to impress Milhouse’s cousin Annika and the the family learns about Grampa’s days in the U.S. Air Force.  I dig that Glenn Close returned to voice Mona Simpson.  Also interesting that the voice of Annika Van Houten is named Carice van Houten.  I dig seeing the Air Force in an episode and enjoyed the flashbacks to Grampa’s service.  Not so keen on the e-cig storyline but it wasn’t too bad.  All in all a good one.  As a bonus for me, my own Grampa was a B-17 pilot so I definitely enjoyed that.

What did you think of the episode?  Wonder how Grampa served in all the branches of the military?  Satisfied to know now why all the Van Houtens look the same?  Sound off and stay classy my friends.

TTFN… Wookiee out!