POST-EPISODE DISCUSSION: S09E19 'Simpson Tide'

This episode was cowritten by Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia, two writers who had only worked on one other Simpsons episode.

It starts with a chained Homer on trial by a civilization of donuts.

He appears unfazed by their sugar filled outrage.

Until a gigantic donut is unleashed to be his executioner. This opening scene has dramatic angles and framing, which is going to be a reoccurring feature of the episode.

Homer wakes to find that it was all a dream as Lenny invites him to the breakroom to get donuts. On showing up, Homer, Lenny, and Carl find only one donut left in the box. Homer proposes to expose the donut to radiation in order to make it big. This immediately cuts to the cataphoric aftermath, with Homer quickly found out as the cause, and fired by Mr. Burns.

In a slump, Homer watches TV at home and catches an advertisement for the US Naval Reserve, "America's 17th line of defense, between the Mississippi National Guard and the League Of Women Voters."

Homer decides to join up, and when Barney, Moe, and Apu hear about it they make the snap choice to come with. There's a great quick gag with Moe having to go to his backroom to shut down illegal Russian roulette gambling before he heads out. Another in a string of reoccurring jokes about all kinds of oddball illicit activities happening in the back of the bar.

Homer arrives for Navy boot camp, and in about a minute and a half stuffed full of jokes he gets to graduation.

In a truncated b-story, Millhouse gets an earring, setting off a trend in Springfield elementary of all the kids wanting earrings. Bart goes to the mall and gets his ear pierced right before the shop gets turned into a Starbucks. The "Starbucks is taking over everything" joke is funny, but really a reminder that this is a late 90s episode.

Homer is then immediately off to a Navy wargame on a nuclear submarine. Before leaving Homer disapproves of Bart's earring, and in a fit Bart gives it to him. The Captain takes an uncanny liking to Homer, interpreting his stupidity as either clever humor or deep insight.

In a quick turn of events, the Captain leaves Homer in temporary command while he checks on a torpedo tube malfunction, which ends up with him trapped inside the tube. Meanwhile Homer sees an enemy wargame submarine on the sonar.

He orders a torpedo fired, launching the Captain at the enemy.

This leads to a gag where the men on the enemy submarine realize they've been hit by an officer and the Captain orders "return fire in kind."

Before that happens however, Homer move his submarine away and then orders a return to port, nearly making it before randomly ordering a blind change in course.

This change has the submarine heading towards Russia, and with no communication the Navy assumes Homer is defecting and sends ships to intercept him. At the UN, the Russian representative reveals that he's actually the Soviet Union representative in what has become the most famous joke of the episode.

Homer's submarine is hit by depth charges and springs a pinhole leak, leaving it unable to move or surface. Homer remembers he has Bart's earring and uses it to plug the leak.

Then he orders the submarine to surface, finding it surrounded by multiple navies.

Homer explains in multiple languages, including penguin, that it's his first day on the job, which makes everyone stand down.

At the later court martial, everyone presiding over it is themselves embroiled in a sandal forcing them to leave to court, and ending with Homer off the hook.

This episode has an extremely high density of jokes. My summary had to skim past so many great quick ones. On the other hand it does feel a little disjointed, which is a result of such a large idea of getting Homer into the Navy and in command of a submarine. There was a lot of ground to get through, which turned this into almost an entirely Homer centric episode. Bart's plotline really wasn't anything more than a couple of scenes with conflict to get the earring Homer needed at the end. Marge and Lisa have a few reaction lines but nothing actually going on in the episode. This isn't a criticism as much as a noting of the different feel and focus this episode has compared to a more grounded one. The animation and especially lighting throughout the episode was great. Lots of appropriately dramatic angles. Any time Moe was seen at his sonar screen he was bathed in green lightning which was appreciated effort. Even the brief shot of the inside of the enemy submarine is colored with appropriate red lighting.

Discuss any of your own thoughts on the episode.

Next Wednesday: S05E20. 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much'