Reviewing "Treehouse of Horror XXXIV"

As I said before in an earlier story, I love "Treehouse of Horror," the Halloween-themed episode of The Simpsons. Usually, the episode airs on the week of Halloween, with a pair of occurrences where ToH actually aired on the actual holiday. However, there have been a few times where the episode actually aired on the first Sunday of November, usually due to Fox's World Series coverage. The episode was actually moved to mid-October as a result, but this year's episode did hit the month of November.

Per usual, this year's Treehouse of Horror has three separate segments, and they are as follows:

Wild Barts Can't Be Token

The first segment, "Wild Barts Can't Be Token" (named after one of my favorite episodes, "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken," from Season 10), featured Mayor Quimby conducting the permanent closing of an art museum, while announcing that they're only going digital. All of the paintings will be digitized, but in true fashion, Homer and Bart decide to mess with the art digitizer, with the latter placing himself inside. Homer presses the button, and Bart disappears, only to appear inside Homer's phone.

Yep. Bart is a NFT, and quite a valuable one as well. This later draws the appearances of Kylie Jenner, Rob Gronkowski, and Jimmy Fallon (with Kylie being the only actual celebrity voice). They send Marge inside the NFT train to save Bart, but upon entering, she sees that she's only worth about a few cents. After accidentally destroying an NFT, her value increases, and it's at that moment that Marge sees that killing NFTs will increase her value and get her to Bart. Several slaughtered NFTs later, Marge reaches Bart, who has no desire to leave; meanwhile, Homer is offered a big time deal for Bart by Mr. Burns: $300 million to buy Bart.

We see Homer press the sell button, but Bart is actually rescued. As Lisa revealed, Homer sold himself, but as he was enjoying life as an NFT, he sees that the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) feeling is gone, and his worth plummeted faster than the San Jose Sharks' goal differential this season. That's one thing I know for sure: out of the entire family, the weirdest and most messed up shit always happens to either Homer or Bart on these ToH episodes.

EI8HT

Ohhh, this was epic! So the second segment, "EI8HT," actually began with a clip from episode 5.02, "Cape Feare" (one of my all time favorites). For those of you who recall, "Cape Feare" was the series' third Sideshow Bob episode, and marked the first of his many attempts to eliminate Bart. The scene we see is the moment where Bob performs the entire score from HMS Pinafore, and in the episode, it's his undoing. However, in this moment, the game is changed. Bob realizes that Bart's tricking him, and it's followed by Bob killing Bart as Lisa screams in horror.

All of this took place on October 7, 1993 (the day the episode aired), and in the segment, it's 30 years later, and Lisa is a criminal psychiatrist being approached by police officer Nelson, regarding a murder case. The victim is Rod Flanders, but later on, more bodies pop up. Montague Prince (Martin's brother), Dermott Spuckler (Cletus and Brandine's son), and Sherri Mackleberry--all murdered. Each body has the same message: identifying each one as "the first."

We see Lisa visiting an elderly Sideshow Bob (who looks a hell of a lot like Larry Fine), who taunts Lisa regarding killing Bart. Lisa doesn't get answers from Bob, but inadvertently gets one from Terri Mackleberry during Sherri's funeral, as Terri mentioned that Sherri was born first. That was it. All of the victims were first born children, just like Bart was, and after this, Lisa and Nelson went to an abandoned slaughterhouse for more clues, but Nelson ends up killed, and Lisa enters a room that resembled the one she had at age 8. She later sees security video of herself killing Nelson, which shocks Lisa before she is arrested by a trio of familiar cops: Dolph, Kearney, and Jimbo.

We later see Bob being escorted to his cell, where he sees a surprising new cellmate. Care to take a guess at who it is?

So yeah, it's Lisa, and yes, she committed the murders. She used the most gruesome methods so she could be place in a cell with Bob, and she revealed she had help. The officer who sent Bob to his cell with Lisa? None other than baby sibling Maggie--all grown up, and still with her pacifier. As we also see, Lisa has multiple personality disorder, with her more docile side referred to as "Professor Lisa" by the now dominant and psychotic persona. With everything revealed, Lisa now enacts the final piece of her diabolical plan: killing Bob, while Maggie overhears the carnage, as well as HMS Pinafore's score playing on a record.

Oh man, where do I start? So they give us a flashback to one of my favorite episodes, we get Kelsey Grammer (who is also doing the Frasier reboot) back as Sideshow Bob, the segment is shown as an homage to Silence of the Lambs (though it can also be an homage to a number of crime dramas with strong female leads), and the game-winning goal comes in the form of Lisa Simpson as a sadistic, bloodthirsty, and immensely maniacal murderess! Epic! That last part shows that even Matt Groening creates villainesses that Lifetime should be giving us.

Lout Break

The third and last segment was titled, "Lout Break," and it began with Homer eating donuts on company time (must be a day with a "Y" in it). He's being scolded by Smithers, but as Homer rants about rules and people having common sense, he drops his donuts, and as Homer chases after it, the tasty pastry collects all sorts of debris and nuclear waste, yet that doesn't deter Homer from devouring the donut. As Homer sleeps, that chemically induced donut gives him a lot of trouble--not the first time a donut's plagued Homer in a "Treehouse of Horror" episode.

Homer belches in Ned Flanders' face as he tries to steal his paper, and while at church, Ned undergoes (yet another) strange transformation. His belly expands, his hairline recedes, and his IQ plummets big time. That's right, Ned has become Homer, or a clone of him, and once he belches, everyone at the church becomes Homer clones. As they all leave the church, there's one clone who looks very familiar, hence my reason for the capture above. That clone in the pink blazer is clearly an animated version of Homer's longtime voice actor, Dan Castellaneta.

So Springfield is flooded with Homers, and regarding the children, they are taken by Dr. Frink, who informed the trio about the virus and that they're the only ones immune to it. They need Homer's DNA to save humanity, but after being informed about everything, Homer decides he wants to leave things as is, as no one cares about rules and is doing what they want. It's at this moment that Frink reveals the latest Homer clone: Marge. This was done to get Homer to change his mind, but this leads him to double down and be turned on by Marge's appearance. After Frink's failures lead him to attempt to order a mass destruction of society, he ends up accidentally exposed by Homer's back scratcher, and the virus gets him too.

The segment (and episode overall) ends with the Homers singing and enjoying life, quite a wonderful ending to a ToH episode. I loved this segment because it was basically a reboot of another ToH segment, "Send in the Clones," the one where Homer's hammock creates all sorts of clones of himself. This reminds me of another reason why I loved the segment: it ended much better than the original.

"Treehouse of Horror XXXIV" aired on November 5, 2023, serving as the fifth episode of The Simpsons' 35th season. This one is definitely one to remember; the blasts from the past, the references, and the plot-twist villainesses. "Treehouse of Horror" remains an epic staple on television, and this year's installment continues to prove that statement to be true.

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