Apocalypse Cow

"Apocalypse Cow" is the seventeenth episode of Season 19. It originally aired on April 27, 2008, and guest starred Zooey Deschanel as a farm girl named Mary Spuckler.

Plot
Homer and Bart go out to Shelbyville to refill their bean bag chairs, and they see Martin plowing fields for the 4-H club. When Homer realizes no parent participation is involved he immediately signs Bart up. When Bart joins 4-H, there is a contest to raise a cow, and at the end of the summer the best cow wins a ribbon. Bart is left with the runt, while Ralph gets a cardboard cutout, and is totally unaware of how to raise a cow, but with the help of Mary, one of Cletus's kids, they name him Lou, and raise him to be very big. Eventually Lou wins the contest, but Bart doesn't realize all that means is he'll get slaughtered first. Once Lou is sent off to be slaughtered, Lisa becomes to see Bart's affection for Lou, and tries to trick him into being a vegetarian by playing mooing sounds on a CD. However it doesn't work, and instead she helps him steal Lou from the compound.

Because Bart can't take care of Lou, he gives Lou to Mary, but her father tells Bart that to them, a cow it is a token of marriage. So, Homer and Marge must break the two up. After breaking up the wedding Marge tells Bart that she had a trick up her sleeve - instead of sending Lou back to the compound, she sends Homer in a cow suit. Marge, Bart and Lisa then go to Springfield Airport where they are greated by Apu who is aboard a cargo plane to India. Lou is put on the plane where Apu promises he will be "treated like a god" and receive "the kind of medical care that in America would go to humans". In the mean time, Homer, still dressed as a cow is brought to a slaughter house. Homer, thinking it's a "laughter house", due to the restricted view from the 'eye' of the suit, goes into the slaughterhouse, and almost gets killed, but Marge saves him just in time. That evening, Bart is in bed looking at a picture of him and Lou, stating that for once, he was glad he "had a cow, man."

Reception
This episode gathered 7.69 million viewers. This episode cemented FOX in second position at 8:00, sitting only behind ' and in front of ' and .