Yellow Subterfuge

"Yellow Subterfuge" is the 7th episode of season 25 and aired on December 8, 2013.

Reception
This episode gathered 6.85 million viewers and a 3.1 million demographic rating, gaining only 70,000 and 10,000 viewers, respectively, from the previous episode "The Kid Is All Right", which aired two weeks prior.

The episode received mixed to minorly negative reviews from critics. The A.V. Club awarded it a C+ rating, reprimanding "one of the least effective B-stories in recent memory" for the inability to flesh out the Skinner/Bart story, and for the "too rushed to build the comic momentum" final story, in which Homer, Bart, and Agnes contrive to get rid of Skinner. The aforementioned final story was also praised for being "not a horrible idea", and rewarded the hilarity of Skinner's overall constant attempts to convince others he isn't powerless to prevent disaster; and concluded "while there are a fair amount of laughs along the way, "Yellow Subterfuge" is a rushed, ramshackle enterprise, livened up by some solid Skinner-work." We Got This Covered stated that "there was nothing flashy about this outing," saying that was akin to the rest of the season's episodes, and finished, reporting the episode as "another solid entry with more than a couple of laughs". TV Fanatic labelled the episode as feeling "...like a rerun, even though it was a new installment. Most of the events have taken place before and with greater comedic effect," but also praised the originality of Bart's revenge, giving 2.5 out of 5 stars overall.

Fan reaction was mixed. On NoHomers.net, this episode holds a majority rating of 3/5 stars on a fan poll. Similarly to the critics, they panned the B-plot, but were ambivalent over the main plot, some saying the episode was "the best of the season so far," but also saying it was "badly executed" and panning the Agnes death/prank scenes for being "too rushed" and saying "it could have been better"; one called it "a typical middle-of-the-road modern Simpsons episode."