Difference between revisions of "Homer's Crossing"

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"Homer's Crossing"

Episode Information Episode number: 751 Season number: S35 E1 Production code: OABF18 Original airdate: October 1, 2023 Showrunner: [[Matt Selman Co-runner: Tim Long]] Written by: Cesar Mazariegos Directed by: Steven Dean Moore

"Homer's Crossing" is the first episode of season 35 of The Simpsons and the seven-hundred and fifty-first episode overall. It originally aired on October 1, 2023. The episode was written by Cesar Mazariegos and directed by Steven Dean Moore.

Synopsis

"Feeling worthless at work, Homer volunteers to be a school crossing guard. But when his safety squad receives too much funding, the crossing guards become a force to be feared."

Plot

Flexulon the barbarian is fighting against trolls. When he thinks he's killed the last of them, another one attacks him. Flexulon is pushed to the edge of a cliff before he jumps off and rides off on a Pegasus. This all turns out to be a hallucination by Otto, who had eaten a whole tray of acid brownies. Otto then drives off in the school bus and goes missing. An emergency PTA meeting is called where Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner tell the parents that they'll either have to drive the kids to school or let them walk. The parents choose to let the kids walk to school, and Homer accidentally agrees to become a crossing guard for the school.

At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a code blue breaks out in Sector 7-G. Lenny, Carl, Charlie, and Mr. Burns set to work trying to defuse the situation whilst Homer looks to his console, which isn't doing anything. Homer then finds out that his console isn't even plugged in and everyone just lets him think he's doing work. That night, Homer complains about work to Marge and chooses to stay in bed the next day, until Marge reminds him that he has to be a crossing guard. On his first day on the job, Homer is laughed at by the kids after his butt gets stuck in his chair. However, when he sees Barney's car rushing towards Ralph, Homer dives into the road and saves Ralph's life, becoming a local hero.

Kent Brockman reports on Homer's heroics and Homer becomes popular with the kids. Mayor Quimby also sees the news and decides to fund the crossing guards so that Homer's actually getting paid for his work. Homer becomes the chief of the crossing guards then hires more to help out. However, Homer quickly starts throwing his new-found power around, giving Chief Wiggum a warning for crossing the road without his permission. Meanwhile, Moe's Tavern becomes a hangout for crossing guards only. When Principal Skinner shows up to tell Homer that the next day is going to be science fair, bake sale, and picture day, he is chased out of the bar because he's not a crossing guard.

At school the next day, there's gridlock and riots as the crossing guards couldn't handle the influx of people and cars. This eventually leads to an explosion of "elephant toothpaste" as several chemicals intended for the science fair mix up. The damage done to the town is huge and Homer is made to defend himself at the Town Hall, where he puts the blame on not having enough money for the crossing guards. The townspeople get behind him and Quimby agrees to give them as much money as they want, despite the protests of Chief Wiggum. Having even more power gets to Homer as he demands a free meal at Brunchhausen by Loxy, threatening the waitress, {{ap|Francine|Homer's Crossing]]. Homer then gets the crossing guards kitted out with weaponry and SWAT gear, which leads to them putting the townspeople in danger. When Quimby decides to cut their budget by 1.5%, Homer puts out a smear advert against Quimby. When Homer shows Marge the comments he got about the advert, Marge reads multiple death threats against Quimby and realizes that Homer's putting him in danger. Just then, Homer's chair is thrown through the window by Chief Wiggum and Homer and Wiggum decide to have a confrontation at the most dangerous place in town, the six-way intersection.

Homer's crossing guards and Wiggum's police square off at the intersection when I.C.E., the TSA, parking enforcers, and the overzealous neighborhood watch all show up. The five groups all confront each other, with the lifeguards also showing up but getting ignored because it's a "land argument". As Homer gets ready to start the fight, Otto hits him with the school bus, having returned to town. When Otto asks if he's going to be arrested, Wiggum tells him that he won't be. Homer wakes up in hospital where Lisa tells him that she hopes he learned a lesson. Homer then imagines his family as nails and himself as a hammer as he decides that he must hammer the nails.

Production

An earlier draft of the episode had a second fantasy scene where Flexulon professes his love to a jungle queen, who turned out to be the Crazy Cat Lady. She and Otto then shrugged it off and ran off together. However, this scene ended up getting cut.^[1] Another scene changed had the family go to a security expo to spend the crossing guard budget. The scene included the family seeing a fashion show for "Fasc-Fashion". However, the producers thought that an expo seemed more like an act 1 location, not act 3. The SWAT Topic catalogue is the last remnant of that idea.^[2]

• 

  The cut security expo scene

Gallery

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Homer's Crossing".