Episode Recap: “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” (S28:E4)

Wookiee taking a break from schoolwork again to keep up with episode recaps. I know I haven’t been around a ton but at a minimum, my goal is to keep these current. 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 and 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. It’s also nice to have a break from essays, reading, and brain-sucking tedium from time to time. In order to give yiu something Halloweeny this weekend (haha, I said weeny), I decided to delay this recap by a week. Mideterms might have also had something to do with it lol.  I stuck to the stream of consciousness format for this. Basically I watch the episode once for my enjoyment and then a couple more times slowly to catch as much as I can while jotting down notes. Without further ado… here’s my thoughts on Season 28, Episode 4 “Treehouse of Horror XXVII.”

To start this off for accidental clickers who just prefer the synopsis, here’s what an anonymous user on idmb wrote for the episode:

“Mr. Burns initiates a contest in which the children of Springfield battle each other; Lisa’s imaginary friend becomes jealous of her real friends; Moe tells Bart that the bar patrons are really covert agents.”

Now on with the random recap observations of yours truly… fair warning, this is SPOILER heavy.

Oh Halloween… the time every year where we get a new Treehouse of Horror episode to enjoy. This iteration of the three-part spooky episode starts off with the family Christmas tree shopping on Halloween “because in America, everything’s way too early” just like Homer’s Ivanka 2028 button. Homer is dressed as a trash can, Marge an ice cream cone, Bart as a pterodactyl, and Lisa as a recycling bin. The cutenesss award goes to Maggie though for her Charlie Chaplin costume. Former Felons Christmas Tree Lot, We Deiver To Your House. Snake will make sure your tree fits in the car even if it’s Moelman’s gremlin and he has to shoot the top off. Once inside the lot, the gates shut and they are confronted with Sideshow Bob, “one of you guys” (either Kang or Kodos), and the ghost of Frank Grimes.

Too funny that Homer does the usual thing of not knowing who Grimey is. “Evil geniuses who somehow lost every battle we’ve had with Homer Simpson.” The Furious Four. Named so because the Leprechaun is also there for mayhem. Bob monologues and puts Maggie to sleep and Kang or Kodos’ screeching Awwwww is awesome. Of course, the leprechaun instigates dancing before revenge and while the furious four Riverdance, Maggie pops up with a Clockwork Orange eyelash and sword and slices through the bad guys. Grimes of course doesn’tdie since he’s a ghost. “Will nobody stop these people?” Bring on a screen showing 600 episodes of The Simpsons. “In hell they make you watch them all in a row.” NOTE: Hell is apparently Thanksgiving 2016.

Right after this we get an awesome couch gag called Planet of the Couches (If you don’t have VR glasses, you miss nothing). Think montage of the classic 1968 apes movie but couches instead. The Simpsons couch helps the family escape from their Homo Reclinus cage. Lard Lad replaces Lady Liberty on the beach and then Homer knocks out their rescuer so they can sit and watch the ocean.

Bring on the first segment… a Hunger Games spoof… “Dry Hard.” Springfield is stuck in a Chicago Cubs proportion drought. Tortoise water, dry slosh ‘n’ splashes, and pee-soaked baby diapers are the realities in this dystopian future where Burns holds the keys to the town’s water supply and flaunts his supply awfully on a big screen in front of everyone. He sponsors “a no holds barred battle to the death among our cutest children” to help take the citizens minds off their troubles. I agree with Carl, “what sickos want to see ugly kids die?” Kids from the different neighborhoods of Springfield (Nevergreen Terrace, Despair Heights, Thirsty Pines, and Dusty Springfield) will all compete and the winner gets “a day of aquatic fun at (Burns’) personal reservoir.” Burns 80s dance in the water is great. He gets water while Disco Stu licks Barney’s tear and Moe bathes himself with a dog’s tongue. Lisa is one of the competitor’s and Marge loads her up with a suit of weapons.

Marge also gives herself a Hunger Games hairdo courtesy of a shotgun misfire. Homer shows up as Lisa’s coach (love him drinking Logan’s Rum and Amstel Blight). His name is Homish. He’s like the mentor from a hundred different movies and is able to “sober up in the middle with no difficulty just like real alcoholics.” The games begin and Ralph (Choo-Choo Chump) goes first. Next, two heartthrobs named Peta (two sunken dreamboats) courtesy of Homish. End of Part I.

Part Two of the Games parody has Lisa cacawing and Homish is caught in a trap and surrounded by Milhouse, Martin, Nelson, Uter, and Rod & Todd. Uter’s stuka helmet and the Flanderseses as Crusaders makes me laugh. Also Baby Gerald but he’s “plucked too soon” when his shotgun backfires. Lisa convinces the kids and the town they don’t have to kill each other. Poor Wendell though. With their “new fighting skills” they “can topple Burns.” Ned proposes using the ballot box instead and Barney thinks Flanders noggin is just what they need… to mount on a spike of his Plow King truck. Barney frees the kids, Milhouse shoots an arrow through Nelson (“right in the back like the coward I am”), and the Springfieldianites head to the reservoir Mad Max: Fury Road style. This portion gets big furry thumbs up from me. They blow a hole in the reservoir wall and release all the town’s water which is not a good idea since it all just soaks into the ground. Just when they think they’re doomed though it starts to rain. Yay. End of Part Two. And Part Three with a massive flood and Part Four with an ice age. At least we see Burns dead and Ralph gets to be a god in this reality, right?

The next segment is titled “BFF R.I.P.” Lisa is playing hide and seek with Janey who dies in a freak lawn mower accident. At the funeral, Sherri and Terri find Lisa interesting now and offer to be Lisa’s new best friends and have a headstone topple onto them. At least we learn that S & T have older twin brothers named Jerry and Larry and their parents are Barry and Mary and get “light remarks from comedian Drew Carey” who thought he was “doing a Microsoft event.”

At the discount grief counselor (I wish this building was part of the THOH event), Lisa is being consoled by Miss Mancuso-Gluckman who says to think of her as Lisa’s best friend and promptly has a “It Gets Better” poster break her neck. So many people have been offed around Lisa she has he own wing of the cemetery and is under suspicion from the police.

Wiggum and the boys search her room and find sparkle nail polish which was found at all the crime scenes. Lisa only wore it with her imaginary friend Rachel though. Lisa played with her since she had no real friends but outgrew her. The “only invisible killer” that Wiggum “believes in is God” though. On the bus to school, none of the kids want to sit by Lisa except Milhouse. Rachel finally appears and offs Milly with double wrap Saran wrap. Rachel claims to come from Lisa’s brain where her darkest thoughts live like driving an SUV with a deer mounted on the front as Lisa runs over Buddha and saxomophones. Lisa is arrested for the murder. Milhouse’s face stuck in plastic wrap is great. In jail, Rachel shows up to gossip with her BFF and discovers that Marge is why Lisa moved on. Oh no, now she’s gonna hurt Lisa’s mom and ghost away in a message that says “Txt me.” Lisa doesn’t know what to do but thankfully Bart pops up through a manhole in the cell. Convenient but funny since Bart just claims to be there because he’s been delivering “little bags to guys inside.” While he explains, Snake asks Bart to keep it down while he’s trying to shiv Wiggum. Also funny how Wiggum’s last call is to tell Ralph won’t be home for dinner, which meal that is (“the end of the day”), and that the “end of the day is when the sun goes down,” and mercifully, Snake offs Wiggum before he has to explain more… “oh, thank you.”

At the Simpsons home, Rachel tosses a knife at Marge but Snowball saves her life. Bart and Lisa escape in a bin of used prison harmonicas (so much druel) and Bart convinces Lisa to imagine a motorcycle to get them out of there. Her imagination is powerful enough for the motorcycle and a pink basket for Bart to sit in with a Girl Power helmet. Even better, “it runs on pony smiles.” Lisa arrives in time to keep Rachel from bashing Marge with an iron. Rachel just wants to kill everyone Lisa loves (Homer, Marge, Maggie, a tree, and Princess the pony). Interesting that Bart isn’t in that imagining.

Best part in Rachel’s evil plan is that people will blame Lisa since no one can see her. Well, except for Drunken Homer who is drinking Logan’s Rum again. Rachel goes to choke Homer with fireplace tongs and Homer calls on his childhood imaginary friend to save him, Sergeant Sausage, who tries to dissuade Rachel by explaining the role of imaginary friends. Rachel doesn’t “take orders from a hot dog” and put the sausage in the microwave without cutting slits in him first. Boom goes the imaginary hot dog.

Rachel is back to murderism but Lisa ends up stopping her with her imagination and turns Rachel into the worst thing she can imagine, her mother who also is married to a dentist. Lisa’s imagination is powerful especially the silly notion of Homer ever paying for college. End scene with Homer eating Sergeant Sausage out of the microwave even if he can never die. “Get in my stomach.”

The final segment is the promised James Bond spoof entitled “Moefinger.” Bart is running from Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney and is cornered in the back room of Moe’s. “Violence never solved anything.” “Don’t use math on us.” (lol) The bullies plan to kill Bart and “book the funeral in a huge church so it looks empty.” Moe shows up but quickly finishes the bullies with a beer glass, coaster, and his apron. Way to kill three thirteen-year-olds Moe. The bartender takes Bart past Lady Duff bottles, a keg, and lots and lots of boxes of pickled eggs to a secret door under the pool table accessed via the Love Tester (it had extra levels below Cold Fish of Lifeless Slug, Yale Teaching Assistant, and Secret Lair). All the technology brought to you by “Halloween show money.” There’s a whole underground base below Moe’s where it turns out all the barflies are secretly “covert agents helping to save the world.” The organization has had their eye on Bart ever since Homer died jogging. Yes Bart, I wouldn’t have believed that story either. He was killed by their greatest nemesis and it is time for Bart to take his place. Moe has been “pretending to be the idiot bartender while actually I’m this super genius guy.” Bart agrees to avenge his father and is introduced to Q. Well, a pool cue which is his weapon. He meets other agents besides Lenny, Carl, and Sam… Old-Fashioned (Gil) and Rob Roy (Willie). Moe’s codename is Toilet Gin. They get a transmission from their leader, High Ball, who does “an amazing Michael Caine impression right from the Mapple Store. They’ve “learned of a plot to buy up all of the world’s beer.” The name of the adversary is Remoh Industries and have bought Duff Stadium and are throwing a free concert.

Okay, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on here but let’s go with it. At Duff Stadium, there’s free admission and wine for A Steely Dan concert with no hidden agenda. Moe, Barney, Old-Fashioned, Rob Roy, and Bart head to the locked office of the bad guy. The door is secured with cutting age fingerprint technology easily thwarted by bashing it with a toolbox. Inside, they come face to face with Dr. Evil, errr, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, errr, Homer who got his cool scar from the evil cat he strokes.

Homer “cornered the world beer supply” so he can trash Earth’s landmarks (White House, Mount Rushmore, Taj Mahal, and London respectively) and celebrate afterwards in his Project Vulcan After-Party. The agents are ready to stop him but Homer is ready to escape with his fatso boost rocket pack and make them go though “an army of jazz-rock aficionados ages fifty and up.” As Steely Dan plays music (“Deacon Blues, no Royal Scam, no Babylon Sisters”) , the barfly agents have to fight the “lovers of studio perfectionism.” Homer drugged the concessions so they’ll do what he says. Note: those all are really Steely Dan songs. Bring on the bloody battle with Bart offing Disco Stu, Sideshow Mel, Wolfcastle, Helen Lovejoy, Jasper, Skinner, and eviscerating Nelson.

It all ends with just Homer and Bart surrounded by carnage and Steely Dan still hasn’t gotten to the beginning of the song. Bart wants to have a new beginning with his dad or not since he stabs him in the back as he hugs him all for “another semester of automatics As.” End spoof with High Ball back at the Mapple store and the James Bond montage all about 600 episodes of the show. It goes and goes.

So there you go friends. The latest three part Halloween episode. Here;s a recap video that was on Fox’s YouTube page. It’s just stuff from the last segment.

And here’s a voting segment they did for the 600th episode. Fair Warning, it’s political and if you are a Trump fan, it might tick you off.

Man I love when the show socks it to current events. But that;s not the point of this recap. While I didn’t hate this episode, I  would rate it somewhere on the lower scale, like ooooh or aaaah. There were funny parts but it all just sort of was thrown together. I think the original story in the middle was possibly the best but I did like the Hunger Games stuff. The Bond-esque one was just gratuitous and pointless and seemed all for the song at the end. Meh. The opening stuff was great though. Definitely not the worst episode ever. For that you have to watch Season 27 Episode 1. I’ve watched THOH XXVII four times now and didn’t want to turn it off. I guess that’s saying something. What did you think of it? Sound off below with your comments and happy Halloween tapping friends. I’ll be back next week with another recap, maybe two. Apologies again for the delay in this one.

TTFN… Wookiee out!