Episode Recap: Cue Detective

How are my fellow Halloween tappers doing?

Wookiee taking a break from the THOH goodness to pop in with another episode recap for y’all. One of the features we like to have on this site is recaps of new Simpsons episodes for all our friends who can’t watch them immediately or like our silly reviews of them. In rare from, I’m actually still caught up with episode recaps for Season 27 and while I can’t promise this will last, I’m excited for new episodes that I get to write about for my favorite readers.  This one is in my usual stream of consciousness format. Without further ado… here’s my thoughts on Season 27, Episode 2: “Cue Detective”.

– Whoa… no intro at all… right to the safety video being cancelled at Springfield Elementary and Skinner showing Dr. Doolittle to the kids? Even weirder than that sentence is the fact that it’s actually the live action movie! So strange and basically a fail Simpsons writers. I get what you were trying to do but it’s just too disjointed. Rather than stretch out this commentary, the whole point of this was the gag for Nelson to say “that movie was so bad it actually stinks” which leads to the fact that Bart AND Lisa stink. There was some funny parts like “The running time is now!” lol and the students booing the FOX logo.

– Stinksons! Stinksons! Even the power plant workers call Homer that at work. The smell is coming from the Simpson family’s disgusting shower. Thank goodness Marge has been saving money in hibernating Bender in the basement. (Nice call back to “Simpsorama” (S26:E6) writers!)

– Homer is off to buy a new washer… nothing could go wrong, right? I laughed hard at the family wearing Addict clothes. Any of us own tiger-striped pants? Who’s wedding dress is that? Of course, Homer gets waylayed from Exit 35 Appliances by the smell of smoked meat coming from a roadside BBQ stand.

– The smoker is shaped like a hive. It was made from a meteor, a gift from the heavens, the perfect smoker… and it’s for sale! I could probably watch this over and over… I just love the sound of Edward James Olmos’ voice. What’s Homer to do?

– Instead of de-stinking his children, Homer buys the smoker and Marge is mad until she tastes the delicious food Homer can make with the Hive.

– In no time, Homer is making BBQ for the whole town and then no one worries about our favorite yellow family’s smell. A week later, Scotty Boom, a Chew Network chef, interrupts a neighborhood BBQ  and challenges Homer to an eat down.

– Only problem is someone steals the smoker… and Homer eats meat that can talk to him. Wiggum and the Springfield PD show up but Homer might just have to face the fact that his new cooker is gone. Homer just lays about in depression.

– Bart and Lisa decide to track down the smoker to fix their dad’s funk. Santa’s Little Helper leads them to their first clue… natural peanut butter.  Favorite part of this is Lisa commending SLH’s smarts and him getting his head stuck in the jar.  I don’t know why, but this tickled my funny bone something fierce.

– And Scotty Boom is a NYC d-bag as he defeats a Maine family in a Chowder Eat Down. It’s a good thing I have friends from New York who prove this stereotype wrong. Problem is I have pals who prove it too lol.

– Lisa and Bart head to the only store that sells all natural peanut butter… The Raw Barn (Most Quinoa Now Weevil-Free). The acai berry may have been trumped by the goji berry as nature’s superfood and the clerks may seem disdainful with enormous gauged ears and tattoos, but Lisa knows how to talk to people like them. Or not. Bart succeeds by tugging on the clerk’s “ridiculous flesh hoops.” They find out Nelson bought peanut butter by watching the security footage from the store.

– Nelson is playing Clash of Castles (sound familiar?) But his game is updated way too far… “upgrades like that cost gems and gems cost cash”, “Expensive cash.” Nelson tries to say he doesn’t use gems and that he’s a grinder but it seems suspicious when he twirls the Simpson kids on the merry go round and runs off. I don’t know about you but I was thinking about TSTO both times I watched this lol.

– The dizzy kids follow Nelson to a junk yard, Scrap City (Proud Sponsor of the Springfield Jewish Hockey League Scrap City Scrappers). If you watch this, you can spot the monorail in the rubble so you know I was one happy fuzzball. Nelson is meeting with a mystery kid and getting cash in return for the Hive. The kids try to rescue the smoker but it’s too hot and the unidentified person takes off with the smoker.

– Now the kids just lay around on the floor with Homer but Marge isn’t about this. She insists on Homer going to the competition. Hilarious line: “Buddhism is just quitting in yoga pants.” Marge doesn’t let up though. She has a Live Strong bracelet and gets the family to head to the Springfield Barbecue Festival.

– Marge takes the reigns in the Eat Down (edited to be dramatic). Unfortunately Marge’s “never give up brisket” isn’t enough to defeat Scotty. Well, when Scotty’s meat has grill marks like Homer’s smoker… he is banned from the Chew Network and the Simpsons win, so I guess it doesn’t matter that Marge put every spice she had in her meat.

– Lisa points out that the win was way too easy. When they hear the same ring tone from the mystery person in the scrap yard, they’re off to discover the culprit. Bart chases the kid down (Lisa was stopped by an avalanche of rib bones… “Aahh… I’m covered in death!”) and they discover the smoker was stolen by Scotty Boom’s son. His dad was always too busy with his career so he destroyed it so he could spend more time. He met Nelson through Clash of Castles.  In another all too easy moment, Scotty forgives his son’ and they bond over being New Yorkers. Homer is reunited with his smoker and all ends well. Another funny line when Homer burns himself on the grill that’s never been cooled: “You’re always so much hotter than I think you’re gonna be.”

– The last little bit with Marge trading the smoker for a washing machine, Nelson marrying Shauna, Road Warrior Springfielder’s led by a scraggly Ralph eating from the Hive and then being attacked by razorback hogs and then bee aliens of the future finally getting their smoker back was a funny little way to tie off the whole thing. I’m happy the kids can get rid of the whole Stinkson worry.

Kind of a weird episode with a fairly simple plot. I dug Edward James Olmos as the barbecue guy. His appearances as the Lion King-esque face cloud were some of the funniest of the episode. There were definitely some funny bits among the strange bits and the other stuff. If I had to give the episode a grade, it’d get a B minus/C plus in the pantheon of episodes. Of course, compared to the series premiere, it’s an A. All in all, it gives me hope for the rest of Season 27. Did you get to see the episode? What did you think of it? Anything in the show you want to see in the game? Sound off below and keep on tapa-tapa-tapping in the free world. Hope Halloween is treating you well.

TTFN… Wookiee out!