Difference between revisions of "Treehouse of Horror XV"

Revision as of 11:23, April 14, 2024

This THOH is considered non-canon and the events featured do not relate to the series and therefore may not have actually happened/existed. The reason behind this decision is: The episode is part of the Treehouse of Horror series. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page.

"I'll bet you blew up the town just to get out of cleaning the garage! Well, the joke's on you, because the garage made it to heaven too!"

―Marge Simpson, "The Ned Zone"

"Treehouse of Horror XV" is the first episode of season 16 of The Simpsons and the three-hundred and thirty-sixth episode overall. It is also the fifteenth installment in the Treehouse of Horror series and consists of three parts. It originally aired on November 7, 2004. The episode was written by Bill Odenkirk and directed by David Silverman.

Synopsis

"In "The Ned Zone," Ned Flanders gains the power of foretelling people's deaths after suffering a head injury, and is shocked to discover that he will be the one to kill Homer. In "Four Beheadings and a Funeral," set in Victorian London, where Master Detective Eliza Simpson and her faithful sidekick, Dr. Bartley, attempt to catch The Muttonchop Murderer, a Jack the Ripper-esque serial killer. In "In the Belly of the Boss," Maggie is shrunken inside a vitamin capsule in a freak science accident and is swallowed by Mr. Burns."

Plot

Opening sequence

On Keepin' It Kodos, Kodos comes home and asks Kang if dinner is ready yet as their boss will be there any minute. Kodos then opens up the oven and sees that the Simpson family are being cooked in various ways. Whilst most of the family is fine with what is happening, Bart is in horrible pain. After the boss arrives and eats dinner, he says that he is so full he could burst. His stomach then bursts open and Bart falls out. The boss then gives Kang and Kodos a hyper-galactic promotion. When Bart is sad that he has no family anymore, Kang, Kodos, and their boss embrace Bart and tells him that he does now.

The Ned Zone

Homer is throwing a bowling ball on the roof of the house in an attempt to get his Frisbee down. After one more throw, the bowling ball bounces off the chimney and hits Ned Flanders on the head, knocking him out. Homer then finds his Frisbee on the ground. At the Springfield General Hospital, Dr. Hibbert tells Ned that he nearly died of a brain tumor, but the bowling ball knocked it out of his head. Ned and Hibbert shake hands and Ned sees a vision of Dr. Hibbert falling to his death. Hibbert then goes to open the window and Homer asks if he can get his Frisbee from the ledge. As Hibbert leans out the window, he falls to his death. After leaving the hospital, Ned panics over the vision he had. Ned then helps Moleman down from some power lines, but upon catching him, sees a vision of Moleman being eaten by alligators. Ned then drops Moleman into the sewer where he is quickly attacked by the alligators from the vision.

Homer approaches Ned and asks what's wrong, and Ned tells Homer about the visions he has. Homer gets excited and tells Ned to try him and Ned sees a vision of himself shooting Homer. To avoid this, Ned decides to move away from town so he can't shoot Homer. However, Homer doesn't believe that Ned could kill him and gets Chief Wiggum to give over his gun to try and get Ned to shoot him. Despite Homer's attempts to get Ned to shoot him, Ned throws the gun into the woodchipper and changes the future. Ned then hugs Homer, but sees a vision of Homer blowing up the entire town at the Nuclear Power Plant. Homer decides to go to the Plant anyway as it's Lenny's birthday and they're having ice cream cake.

At the Power Plant, Ned arrives and tells Homer to not press the core destruct button. Homer mishears him through the intercom and decides to press the button since Ned told him to. As he goes to do so, Ned grabs a gun from a security guard and shoots Homer through the glass. Homer stumbles backwards and forwards before landing on the console, near the button. This leaves Ned feeling relieved, until Homer rolls over, again missing the button. As Homer appears to go still, Ned is relieved again until Homer's tongue comes out, hitting the button and blowing up the Power Plant. As Homer and Ned arrive in Heaven, Marge confronts Homer and tells him the garage also made it to Heaven so he can clean it. God then gives Homer his Frisbee and takes Homer to the buffet.

Four Beheadings and a Funeral

In London in 1890, a mysterious figure approaches a harlot and eventually stabs her to death. At Scotland Yard, Inspector Wiggum, Lou and Eddie examine the body and deduce that she was a victim of the Mutton Chop Murderer. Eliza Simpson and Dr. Bartley then arrive to try and solve the case themselves. After Inspector Wiggum arrests Apu, despite the lack of evidence, Simpson and Bartley go off to solve the crime themselves. They go to the Emporium of Exotica where Comic Book Guy identifies the murder weapon as part of the Swords of Osiris, which he had sold. As he went to the back room to fetch his ledger, he is stabbed by the Mutton Chop Murderer and dies. Simpson and Bartley take the ledger and find that the swords were bought by C. Montgomery Scrooge.

Simpson and Bartley go to Mao's in the Opium District to find Burns. Burns says that he did buy the Swords, but sold them so he could buy opium. He then identifies Homer as the person he sold them to, who happened to be at Mao's at the time. Simpson and Bartley chase Homer through the opium den until he is captured by Inspector Wiggum. After leaving the den, Simpson and Bartley find another victim of the Mutton Chop Murderer and realize that Homer wasn't the culprit.

At the public execution of Homer, Simpson and Bartley take the stage to reveal that the handle of the sword used to kill the latest victim smelled like eel pie, the favorite food of Inspector Wiggum. Wiggum tries to defend himself but Lou reveals that he also has mutton chops under his hat. Wiggum says that he wanted to do a crime that even Eliza Simpson couldn't solve before he runs away and is chased by Simpson and Bartley. Wiggum gets into a hot air balloon and flies off until he is hit by a Victorian UFO piloted by Kang and Kodos. Back in Mao's, Ralph says that he had the craziest dream, but Wiggum tells him that he's still in the dream. Ralph and Inspector Wiggum then fly off in a fantasy world on a flying bed.

In the Belly of the Boss

At the New Invention Expo, Professor Frink shows off his combination of a large capsule full of medication for a lifetime and shrink ray, to shrink it down. Maggie sees the capsule full of what she thinks are toy balls and climbs into it before Frink uses the shrink ray on it. Mr. Burns swallows the pill with Maggie inside, which Marge realizes when she hears Maggie inside Burns. Professor Frink then has the Simpsons take his Bionaut ship and shrink down so they can enter Burns and rescue Maggie.

After the Simpsons are injected into Mr. Burns, they travel through Burns' bloodstream until Homer puts his foot down on the accelerator and they crash into Burns' heart. The family leaves the ship to dislodge the ship and then continue to try and find Maggie, with Homer deciding to press every button at the same time to get there "super fast". This causes an explosion within Mr. Burns. Eventually, the family gets to Maggie and saves her, but the addition of Maggie puts the ship overweight. Homer is chosen to stay behind so that the rest of the family can escape with Maggie. As Frink starts to discuss a plan to rescue Homer before he grows again, Homer grows inside Burns, leaving him pushing through Burns' skin.

The Simpsons and Burns go to The Gilded Truffle for a meal. Burns says that he's full, but Homer makes him continue to eat. Homer and Burns then get up and start to sing "I've Got You Under My Skin", with characters from each segment joining them to dance.

Production

The scenes in "The Ned Zone" where Ned sees visions of the deaths of characters are the same animations as the deaths that follow, just with filters. This is seen when the vision of Dr. Hibbert's death has him smiling, which happens in his actual death because he gives himself a shot. The explosion effect was animated by Erick Tran during a time where the show didn't have any dedicated effects animators.^[1]

During the production for "Four Beheadings and a Funeral", the producers had debates over which characters should have English accents and which shouldn't.^[2]

Reception

As of September 2023, the episode has a 7.4 rating on IMDb.^[3]

Composer Alf Clausen was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series in the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards for "Treehouse of Horror XV". However, it lost to "Pilot" from Lost.^[4]

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Treehouse of Horror XV".