Treehouse of Horror V

"For the next half-hour, we will control what you see and hear. You are about to experience the terror and foul horror of... The Simpsons Halloween Special."

- Bart

"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of the sixth season, and the fifth installment in the Treehouse of Horror Series.

Act I: "The Shinning"
In a parody of the Stanley Kubrick 1980 horror classic The Shining, the family gets invited to Mr. Burns' summer cottage to look after it while he goes away. On the way, Homer is forced to drive all the way back home to lock the front door to the house. And on the second drive, he is again forced to turn around to go and lock the back door to the house. On the third drive, Lisa points out that they left Grampa behind—Homer does not comply and keeps driving. Upon arriving, Mr. Burns takes them on a tour of the house. He tells them the long, colorful history of the house. It was built on an ancient Indian Burial Ground (like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining), and was the setting of Satanic rituals, witch burnings, and five John Denver Christmas specials. An elevator opens up and blood spills out all over the entire floor (like in The Shining), prompting Mr. Burns to say "Hmm, that's odd. Usually, the blood gets off at the second floor". While outside, Bart cuts a shortcut in the hedgemaze with a hedgetrimmer, and annoys Willie and reads his thoughts. Willie tells him that he has the shinning and says he should use it to call him if his dad starts to go loopy. Mr. Burns and Smithers cut the power cable and take all the beer away. Smithers comments that this may have been the cause of the previous caretakers to go insane and kill their families, but Mr. Burns simply bets that he owes Smithers a Coke if it happens this time again. The absence of television and beer causes Homer to go insane. He tries to occupy himself, telling the family that he might "go check out that axe collection", causing Lisa to ask Marge if he's gonna kill them, she replies",I don't know. We're just gonna have to wait and see". Homer goes to the bar where Moe, as a ghost, tells him he'll give him a beer if he murders his family. Homer is at first uncontent at murdering his family and questions Moe, who replies that they'd be much happier as ghosts. Homer points out that Moe doesn't look so happy, and he dishonestly replies that he is very happy",La-la, la-la, la-la-la, see? Now waste your family and I'll give you a beer!" Marge goes downstairs to check on him, and discovers a typewriter with paper in it ("What he's typed will be a window into his madness".). Marge reads it (" 'Feelin' fine'. Whew, that's a relief".), and then lightning lights up the room to reveal that Homer has written "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the lounge. Homer then bursts through a door and tries to attack Marge. She defends herself with a bat as he chases her up the stairs. Homer falls down the stairs after seeing his reflection in a mirror and Marge locks him in the dry food cellar.

Homer is unwillingly released by Moe and a band of demons (including Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and Pinhead). While the family is eating dinner, Homer chops down a door with an axe ("Heeeere's Johnny!"), but the room was empty. He chops into another room ("Daaavid Letterman!"), but it was just Grandpa. And then into the right room with a stopwatch in his hand ("I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Marley Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley! All this and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 Minutes!"), the family flees to escape the rampaging Homer. After Marge contacts the police (the crooked cop, Chief Wiggum) to no avail, Bart uses his shinning to call Willie to help. Willie immediately comes to their aid, only to get an axe in the back by Homer. Homer picks up a different axe from the collection hanging on the wall and chases the family outside into the snow and is ready to kill them until Lisa finds Willie's mini-TV in the snow. Homer immediately drops the axe to watch Kent Brockmen on Channel 6 News. The return of television brings back his sanity. He calls his family to sit in the snow with him to "bask in television's warm, glowing, warming glow" and they freeze while watching. However, Bart tells Homer to change the channel when the announcer informs them that the upcoming programming will be The Tony Awards, hosted by Tyne Daly and Hal Linden, Homer replies, "Can't. Frozen,". As a theme plays, they all scream in terror, and Homer says, "Urge to kill rising."

Act II: "Time and Punishment"
Homer is sitting down at the table, eating breakfast with the family, commenting that despite his troubles, he feels that he is a really lucky guy sitting down with them in their cozy home in this beautiful free country. Lisa destroys the mood by screaming, "Dad! Your hand is jammed in the toaster!" Homer panics and runs aroung frantically trying to get it off. He succeeds and throws it across the room, he sighs heavily in relief, and slumps down against the fridge. Bart cries, "Dad, it's in there again!" causing another panic to get it off. Homer attempts to fix it using the tools in the basement. The next morning, he takes it for a test-toast. The modifications to the toaster turn it into a time machine, and Homer is sucked into the time-space continuim. Homer states he's the first non-Brazilian person to travel back in time, but then he meets up with Sherman and Mr. Peabody from The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, and they both correct him on being the second. Homer travels back to the time of the dinosaurs, and realizes that touching anything will impact the future.

When he accidentally kills a mosquito, he returns to find that Flanders is the unquestioned lord and master of the world. After escaping his "Re-Neducation" (a process that includes a glass of warm milk, a lie down, and a total frontal lobotomy), he goes back to the time of the dinosaurs in hopes to change the future, and ends up accidentally sitting on a fish ("Oh, I wish, I wish I hadn't killed that fish".). He returns only to find that Bart and Lisa are giants that mistake him for a bug that "looks a lot like Dad", they then try to smash him. His third attempt to change the past succeeds in him wiping out all the dinosaurs by sneezing on a T-Rex, who in turn sneezes on another dinosaur, which also sneezes on another dinosaur and so on, and they all drop dead. Before returning to the future, Homer says grimly",This is gonna cost me". He returns to the future in the basement. He goes upstairs to see a large, fancy kitchen, he scans the room to see his family, who are all dressed elegantly. Homer, at first oblivious, cries, "D'oh! I mean, hey". Bart presents him with the morning paper, addressing him as "Father, dear". and Lisa asks if they're taking the new Lexus to Patty and Selma's funeral. Homer counts out the perfections in his life, exclaiming, "Whoo-hoo! I hit the jackpot!" As he sits down, he asks Marge, very kindly, to pass him a donut. Marge replies",What's a donut?" Homer screams uncontrollably and runs back to the basement and the sound of the time machine zapping is heard. After he is gone, donuts begin to fall from the sky and Marge says, "It's raining again", implying that the rain in this universe is donuts.

Homer returns to his basement to discover Groundskeeper Willie in his kitchen. Willie says, "You're still not in your own world, Homer. I can get you home, but you have to do exactly as I--[screams]" he fall to the floor, showing that Maggie has killed him with an axe. Maggie takes out her pacifier and says in James Earl Jones's voice, "This is indeed a disturbing universe". Homer returns to the dinosaur era. Holding a club, he yells, "Don't touch anything? I'll touch whatever I feel like!" and destroys anything in the past that he can before returning to the future. The family's house in the future ends up changing multiple times. First it changes to an igloo, then to a caveman house, then to a McDonald's, then to an underwater house, then to a giant shoe, then to Sphinx with Bart's head, where Kang and Kodos make their brief appearance, watching from their spaceship. Kang comments that Homer is totally unprepared for the effects of time travel, they both laugh at Homer's suffering. Homer finally stops and returns to the present. He returns to the kitchen and asks Marge several questions: his name, the color of the sky, and what of donuts. Marge answers them all accurately. Homer, now satisfied, sits down to eat with the family. Everything appears to not be what it seems when the family start eating a breakfast with lizard tongues. Homer decides it is close enough.

Act III: "Nightmare Cafeteria"
At the start of a school day, before Mrs. Krabappel gets to the classroom, the students are taking the opportunity for some horseplay. Bart suggests that they face their desks backward before Mrs. Krabappel arrives, and his classmates all support the idea. But when Mrs. Krabappel arrives, only Bart's desk is facing backward. He is then sent to detention for being disobedient. A disgruntled Bart then heads to the Detention Room. Principal Skinner intercepts him and tells him he needs to spend his detention in the lunchroom, as the Detention Room is dangerously overcrowded. In the lunchroom, Principal Skinner bemoans the state of the Detention Room and Lunchlady Dora complains that because of Springfield Elementary's budget cuts, she is forced to serve Grade F Meat. They agree that it would be nice if there was a common solution to both of their problems. As Lunchlady Dora passes by Jimbo Jones, he trips her and accidentally spills green stew on himself. Skinner begins to threaten Jimbo, but then samples the spilled stew, finds it tasty, and gets an idea: he orders Jimbo to assist Lunchlady Dora. In the kitchen, Jimbo is heard cleaning a giant pot and complaining about meat tenderizer being spilled on him; the pot's lid is then closed on him. Later, the school's faculty are all eating hamburgers in the Teacher's Lounge. The teachers enjoy the burgers, and Mrs. Krabappel asks where the food came from. Skinner indirectly tells the staff that Jimbo was ground into hamburger meat and served for lunch. Mrs. Krabappel is at first shocked, but then lets out a "HA!". Back in the cafeteria, the students are served "Sloppy Jimbos" and Bart notices that Jimbo himself is nowhere to be seen. Üter, fond of the Sloppy Jimbos, cuts in line for another one. Principal Skinner walks up to Üter and tells him that eating a lot of Sloppy Jimbos is causing him to become fat, soft, and tender, and then sends him to detention for cutting in line. The school later has an "Oktoberfest" event, and Lisa comments to Bart that it's odd that Üter has disappeared and the school is suddenly serving a new dish called "Üterbraten". Skinner overhears her statement and tries to reassure her and Bart, but accidentally reveals that Üter has been killed and served as lunch. Bart and Lisa, panic-stricken, run home and tell Marge that students are being cooked in the school cafeteria. She tells them she cannot always fight their battles and instructs them to head back to school and face the issue themselves. Bart and Lisa reluctantly return to school. Mrs. Krabappel, now grotesquely obese from eating so many students, tells her class, consisting only of Wendell, Ralph, Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa, that the classes have all been merged into a single one, because so many students are in "permanent detention". Wendell quivers and accidentally drops his pencil, and Mrs. Krabappel gleefully sends him to detention. She then reads a book called The Joy of Cooking Milhouse. Milhouse, shocked, notices the book. He then suggests to Bart and Lisa that they should escape, because one of them will be murdered next.

The trio then sneak out of the classroom and into the hallway. Bart peeks inside of the Detention Room and notices students are either locked in small cages or walking free-range in the playground. Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse are then caught out by Lunchlady Dora, who approaches them with a spinning eggbeater. Groundskeeper Willie then appears in the hallway, saying that he will rescue them, but is quickly hit in the back with an axe by Principal Skinner. Skinner, Ms. Hoover, Mrs. Krabappel, and Lunchlady Dora then herd the three students into a room with a wooden ledge above a giant food processor. Skinner turns it on and pulls its lever to the "Gooify" setting. At the end of the ledge, Bart tells Lisa and Milhouse that something will save them. Milhouse then trips and falls into the food processor. Bart confidently states that something will save him and Lisa, but the teachers close in and Bart and Lisa simultaneously fall into the food processor, screaming.

Epilogue
Bart screams and wakes up to find out it was all a dream. Marge reassures him that there's nothing to worry about except the mysterious fog that turns people inside out. The fog then seeps in through the window and does just that. The family and Willie all begin to do a musical number (to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line) about being turned inside out. At the end, Santa's Little Helper drags Bart offstage by his intestines.

Production
The episode premiered on October 30, 1994, and was directed by Jim Reardon. The writers were Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath, David Cohen and Bob Kushell. James Earl Jones guest-stars as the voice of an alternate universe Maggie, in his second appearance in a Simpsons Halloween episode.

David Mirkin deliberately placed more graphic violence in the episode due to complaints about excessive violence in the show. The episode features a recurring joke in every story where Groundskeeper Willie is struck in the back with an axe when trying to help someone.

Gallery
Treehouse of Horror V