Episode Recap: The Marge-ian Chronicles

Hey hey friends! Don’t call it a comeback… I’ve been here for years… literally. So school has ended and I’m back and at my usual antics with another episode recap for my favorite Addicts. This episode, Season 27, Episode 16: “The Marg-ian Chronicles”, was a lot of fun because of the episode tie-in for TSTO. How cool is it that we knew more about the episode before it aired on March 13th, 2016? I love looking for things we saw before all the non-TSTO players. Anyhoo… 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. I love when there are new episodes of the Best. Show. Ever. on TV. It’s my privilege to not only watch new episodes, which I would do with or without this awesome site, but then break them down for all of you. I apologize for the delay with all of these but consider it some fun for the break where there are no new episodes. Special thanks to Robobot for covering a couple in the interim. I wish I had more time sometimes for the site but blogging doesn’t feed the kiddos so school it is.Without further ado… here’s my thoughts. If you’re not used to the style, it’s basically stream of consciousness style while I watch the episode live. Paragraph breaks usually indicate new scenes. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing about it.

To start this off for accidental clickers who just prefer the synopsis, here’s what my DVR describes this one as “After failing to talk Lisa out of volunteering for a one-way journey to Mars, Marge decides to go with her.”  Now on with the recap.

No intro… just straight to Homer sleeping in a hammock, being woke up by a leaf, and then using Flanders’ leaf blower to de-leaf the trees. (No intro means more story so already this one is looking good.)  When the blower runs out of gas and Homer goes to complain to Ned, he discovers that Flanders has a chicken coop… and has for six months. Stupid Flanders.  Now Homer can’t stand his own eggs with their yellow yolks because “Flanders has freshly pooped eggs, orange as a sunset over a field of ripe Doritos.” Marge points out that Homer never thinks about what he does have but Homer’s actually right that most people don’t. He may not live to ever teach Bart about sex but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t teach him how to steal eggs.

First lesson: chickens are known for bravery and intelligence lol. Bart and Homer each steal an egg and enjoy the goodness. “How can idiots say there’s no God when a species that evolved from dinosaurs feeds us their unfertilized babies?” The next night though their stealing is thwarted by Flanders. He’s going to enjoy finding it in his heart to forgive them for this. Flanders puts up a “please no stealing” sign which actually stops the two. Homer just steals the idea instead and gets his own coop.

Thankfully Lisa is there to stop Homer from cutting them open to scoop out the eggs and point out there are eggs already laid. The family sits down for their own delicious fresh laid delights from carbon emission reducing (or maybe increasing) urban poultry farming. Gotta be honest. I’m still laughing from Homer saying, “Now what lays bacon?” The eggs are good but Homer still thinks something is missing. They’re not as god as the stolen ones. Homer and Bart steal some potato chips from Flanders to test the idea and discover that “theft equals flavor.” They go to steal more eggs from Flanders but when their neighboreeno gives up and just allows them to take them, they insist he be outraged to improve how the eggs taste. Gotta love Flanders chasing the Simpson men around a chicken coop with a hose.

Since the Simpsons don’t need their chickens any more, Lisa finds a research facility that will raise them humanely although Marge wasn’t worried about that. They’re off into the desert to take the chickens to Exploration Incorporated. They will be used to advance the cause of science. Exploration Incorporated’s mission is to “help humanity make the next big leap.”

They plan to launch a privately funded mission to Mars. They’re pretty legit according to Homer. The answer to eyeball explosion from taking off one’s helmet is to keep the helmet on. They even have a neat video explaining their revolutionary vision. The TSTO submersible is seen in it. Lisa is inspired.

At home, Homer is not too thrilled about going to a barren lifeless rock when humanity will have their own in a few years. Lisa is “tired of nothing but bad news about the future.” I love the magazines she’s referring to (The Atlantical = Canada Builds Border Fence/Scientist American = Scientists: “Mad Max” Too Optimistic/Regional Geographic = All Frogs Gone/Times = Our Fall Plagues Preview/Rational Review = Larry The Cable President?). The mission to Mars gives her hope. Marge thinks you’d have to be Aniston sad to leave Earth and never come back and is shocked when Lisa admits she volunteered for the mission. Homer states the free mission is cheaper than college but Marge puts her foot down.

Lisa is ready to save humanity but Marge doesn’t want to be out of hugging distance from her daughter. Marge grounds her and confines Lisa to her own planet (Homer includes the moon lol). Lisa and Marge are pretty ticked at each other. Homer points out to his beautiful wife that keeping Lisa from doing something might not be the best idea as his experience has shown that women enjoy doing things totally insane. He might be right considering Marge married him. Homer thinks it’s just a little girl’s fantasy and letting her do it will only lead to her losing interest. It’s called turning into the skid. Marge should probably think harder about whether Homer has used this technique with her. Marge fakes support for Lisa and Lisa is super excited. She can now make jazz the dominant music form of Mars… “exactly where jazz belongs.” We also learn Marge once wanted to open a G rated comedy club called Gentle Jollies.

Lisa goes to the testing to become a colonist of Mars. It’s all funded by Blue Bronco Energy Drinks, Mega-Charge Batteries, Fantasy-Lunatics.com, Trudge-Rite Work Boots, Draft-Pigs.com, and Fig Glutens. Corporate partners apparently are needed for privately funded science. Everyone except Disco Stu like Fig Glutens. He has adult braces and should not have given away his dog as he’s the first applicant to be cut. The testing process is intense (even for the chickens). Professor Frink, Principal Skinner, Comic Book Guy, and Rainier Wolfcastle are among the applicants.

Back at the Simpson home, Lisa is super excited and Marge is unsure of Homer’s technique. Homer’s next step in the plan is for the whole family to try out for the mission. Lisa sees through the “mind game reverse super fake out” though and carries on more determined than ever to prove her family wrong.

One of the tests is how people handle close confinement. Looks a lot like the Mars colony in TSTO.

Homer mans the toilet in the Mars Habitat and Marge takes to the daily maintenance procedures quickly. Lisa isn’t too thrilled at how much her mom likes everything. Marge is pretty good at the space junk. Actually better at it all than Lisa is. After the Hab study is complete, the male’s monumental incompetence has “sullied and cheapened space forever” but Marge and Lisa both end up as finalists for the voyage. Marge is even better than the robotic arm. Lisa confronts her mom that she’s just trying to make Lisa quit and Marge points out that Lisa may just be jealous that her mom is better at everything. She may be a “stay at Hab space wife” but she’s going to Mars with her daughter… in ten years.

Marge and Lisa are at home venting their frustrations. Homer and Bart console them. Too funny that the male answers are “I know. I know,” “That must be really hard for you,” and “I’m so sorry you have to go through this.” Bart is impressed by that “listening to women junk” (the trick is in the nodding) while playing catch with Homer and is happy for a relationship based on physical abuse rather than psychological. Father and son hug. How can a sweet moment be so wrong on so many levels lol?

Exploration Incorporated announces that Space Colony One, a division of Pepperidge Farms, has announced the completion of their own Mars mission and, since they promised Fig Glutens that they’d be the first cookie in space, are moving up their mission by ten years. It’s leaving in a week. Eight of the ten finalists excuse themselves from the mission leaving just Marge and Lisa who are too stubborn to opt out.

Homer thinks there must be a limit to their stubbornness but he’s wrong. Mother and daughter are all strapped in a week later and off to Mars.

They bond and declare their love in the flight compartment and promptly decide they don’t want to go. Problem is they’re stuck in their restraints and mission control is set on them going. Oh no!

Not to worry though… it wasn’t a real rocket and was just there to inspire the next generation and distract people while the two founders ran away. It’s a good thing that their Blue Bronco Volkswagon Beetle wouldn’t start so they’d be around to explain it all.  All ends well even though the two almost went to Mars out of sheer stubbornness. “That’s what a mother-daughter relationship is sweetie. A series of near fatal emotional stand-offs.” And flash forward to Mars 2051 (which completely looks like a larger version of the TSTO Mars Colony) where Marge and Lisa are still fighting. This time over moving to Venus. Also a Nod-Bot who knows Homer’s three magic answers for a frustrated Lisa. The end.

Sort of. There’s one last bit with the Exploration Incorporated guys driving away in their beetle. Their next plan is to end racism. It’s bad for business and that is racism’s fatal flaw. Also other banter between the two about apps and changing the world.

I gotta say that I enjoyed this episode a ton. I love when Marge and Lisa get to be at the front of the show and this plot seemed well developed. It all makes sense and the jokes landed just right. I’m a big fan of space stuff and I give this episode two enthusiastic furry thumbs up. Also cool that this one had a TSO tie-in. What did you think of the episode? Anything in particular that struck your fancy? Did you add the items from it to your town? Sound off in the comments. I’ll be back with more recaps soon.

TTFN… Wookiee out!