Homer Goes to Prep School

"Homer Goes to Prep School" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons ' 24th season. It first aired on January 6, 2013.

Plot
Marge takes the family to the Smart Tykes where Homer plays with Bart and Lisa, but after he gets tired of them, he visits the other fathers in the café. Meanwhile a kid escapes and the alarm locks them all in. The mothers remain calm, but the fathers have an outbreak and Rainer Wolfcastle throws Homer through the door so they can escape. The door gets broken and Homer is on the ground while the fathers run over him, and he gets scared and stays home for eight months. Homer is on his way to work, but are still scared and visit Moe's instead where he meets Lloyd who shows him what will happen in the future. Homer decides to follow Lloyd. Lloyd takes Homer to Springfield Preppers who say that they can help him survive the future, but he must do everything in secret. Homer tries to hide what he's doing, but Bart discovers him and they watch disaster movies together. Homer visits the Preppers headquarters where they tell him that the world will soon go under. They give him the keys to the camp and asks him to prepare for the apocalypse.

Homer packs everything he deems necessary for the apocalypse, but when Marge discovers that several items of food are missing, he tells her about the Preppers. Homer is at work and watching movies that will prepare him for the apocalypse and he forgets his duties and starts an EMP that knocks out all electronics. Springfield falls into chaos and Homer's requested to take his family to the camp. At the camp Marge tells him that she did not think they would leave their friends and old life, when she married him he had a good heart. They have a meeting at the camp where they decide that they must be prepared to kill the people who are coming who are not prepared. At night Homer starts feeling guilty and he decides to take the family back to Springfield with their stock of goods. The other members of the camp discovers that when the alarm starts and starts chasing the Simpsons. The family manage to get to Springfield, where they discover that the world has not ended, and everything has returned to normal. They find out that the electronics have come back and only the city of Springfield became affected. Lloyd says that this non-disaster is a catastrophe and Marge asks him if he is disappointed the world didn't end, just so he could be proven right. Lloyd says it is not that, but in the new world he was to be their new leader. The other members then tell that they planned seal him in a cave, rather than let that happen. Lisa tells them that she is glad they're stuck with civilization, and she think we will stay that way for a long, long time. Unbeknownst to them, an asteroid is nearing Earth, with monsters onboard who are talking about being ready to eat as many brains they want in ten minutes.

Reception
The episode gathered 9.65 million viewers, likely due to a strong lead-in from Sunday Night Football on FOX, which ran the show late by 3 minutes.

Production
On January 9, 2012, the storyboard, the animatic and the full color images of two scenes from the episode were posted on Pinterest.