Episode Recap: Bull-E

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 third in a four part “better late than never but technically NEW” series… Season 26, Episode 21: “Bull-E”.

– Funny couch gag… GOAL!!!!!

– Willy is returning to Scotland and has found a replacement… Johnny Mathis.  Wait… all a dream.  Skinner is off to school and finishes the announcements.  Too funny when his mom chimes in to let her know if he makes a BM that day.

– At the family dinner, Marge is excited for Bart’s upcoming school dance.  Bart doesn’t want to go… it makes just standing around with your friends make you feel like a loser.  Lisa tries to cheer him up by mentioning that Krusty was on Dancing With the Stars until a panel of experts determined he wasn’t a star. Homer’s no help either.  It’s just the first time Bart will go to a horrible event just to be with girls like dances, stores and your wedding.

– Rod and Todd aren’t too happy with the way Uncle Homer treats Ned, err… Mr. Daddy.

– Now off to the Schoooooool Train and a trippy segment for Otto.  All the kiddos are dancing but Bart isn’t.  He ruins the orange drink and messes up Nelson’s mom’s fiance’s only source of income.  Bart’s happy for a fight but instead, a 5th grade girl invites Bart to dance and his puberty is started.  Enter the puberty demon.  “Enter the world of body spray, wiry hairs and wondering what boobs feel like.”

– Bart has a good time dancing and even wins the Best Dancer award.  His date offers to meet him outside but Bart is waylayed by the bullies.  Their treatment loses him the girl and he learns a life lesson too… it’s not his fault but it’s the end of them forever.

– Bart tells his mom about the bullying at dinner and Marge decides to work to change it.  If she can get them to open another register at Krogers, she can do something about bullies.  She brings a proposal to Town Hall and shows them the world’s filthiest word.  Moe thought she was gonna say (seven second bleep… I counted) but says they need bullies.  Marge suggests they “push bullying to the ground and make it cry and point and laugh at it.”  The proposal passes 319 to 1 with no discussion whatsoever… wait, 320 to zero after bullying Moleman.

– The crackdown on bullies begins aka “the unregulated power vested in us by the hastily passed bully law.”  Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney are hauled in for threatening Bart with the Annual Christmas Socking.  The arrests also include adults.  Krusty bullies the writers and gets taken in.  Apu, Bumblebee Man and Chalmers are bullies too.  Apparently Homer is using the law to report folks that bug him.

– Rod and Todd are worried Ned is being bullied by Homer.  They imagine Jesus being bullied by Roman soldiers and pray to see Homer’s non-jerkness but he only proves it by tossing Grampa into the Flanders backyard.  The boys turn in Homer. Lou has also been jailed for bullying aka writing his name on his lunch. Homer never dreamed that a law he abused could be applied to him.  He takes the perp walk outside where he just watered down the slip and slide which slips him right into the police car.

– Judge Snyder sentences Homer to 90 days treatment in a bully reeducation center… basically a prison.  Homer attends anti-bully therapy led by Dr. Raufbold.  He’s a recovered bully who shot a man to solve it.  (I love most characters voiced by Albert Brooks btw.)

The interactions between him and Homer are hysterical.  Not sure I could do them justice.  Dr. Raufbold is good at his work… he even cracks Agnes Skinner. “Everyone is woven from the colorful thread known as humiliation.”  Chalmers was humiliated by his psychologist father.  Homer’s breakthrough is that he hates Flanders because he’s better than him in every way… he’s got so much including extra hair for a mustache.  Long story short is the doc succeeds… cue the Bully Commercial.

– The doc may have forgot to mention remorse but the bullies are reformed.  Homer is treated as a hero and even gets to throw out the ball for baseball and be in a parade.  Ned catches him signing autographs and asks for Homer to say he’s sorry.  He needs to understand how he makes Ned feel, like less of a man in his son’s eyes.  Homer goes on a mission to get Ned’s forgiveness.  His solution is to crawl on his knees to beg for it.  Homer ends up waiting on his knees for a long time too.  Ned finally forgives him as he sinks into the Flanders front yard. Homer invites Flanders over for an all is forgiven brunch.  Flanders asks if he can make his famous mimosa… a little sparkling water in a glass of regular water.  STU-pendous Flanders.

– The last scene is a continuation of Otto’s schooooool train trip including The Magical School Bus and some mayhem… Otto wakes up to find he’s a foreman in a jury… who murdered who again?  THE END

That wraps up this recap transgressoreenos.  Definitely one of the funnier episodes of the season even if it did slow down a bit towards the end and finish strangely.  What did you think of the episode?  Comment below and keep on tapa-tapa-tapping away.

TTFN… Wookiee out!