The Wife Aquatic
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"The Wife Aquatic"
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Episode Information
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"The Wife Aquatic" is the tenth episode of season 18 of The Simpsons and the three-hundred and eighty-eighth episode overall. It originally aired on January 7, 2007. The episode was written by Kevin Curran and directed by Lance Kramer. It guest stars Sab Shimono as the Gruff Japanese sailor and Maurice LaMarche as the oceanographer.
Contents
Synopsis
- "Marge reminisces of the time in her childhood she traveled to a special place called Barnacle Bay, but when she is taken there by Homer, they find the island is very poor, but despite this, they stay on the island, however all turns sour when Homer goes fishing and is trapped in the middle of the storm, with no raft - but Bart instead."
Plot
The Simpson family goes to Springfield Park to see a silent film shown by Ned Flanders; Dunderhead Deputies in Farmyard Follies. In the film, Officer Joe tries to arrest Italian Pete until Joe ends up killing himself. Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney dislike the film so they throw the provided snacks, which were radishes, at the projector, causing the film reel to break. Patty and Selma then bring out their home movies to show on the projector instead. The movie they show is of a vacation they took as children to Barnacle Bay, which Marge remembers fondly. After seeing how Marge reacted to the film, Homer had it burned onto VHS for her. Then he decided to put it onto her iPod so she could watch it wherever she went. However, Homer had no idea how to do this so he took the whole family to Barnacle Bay instead.
As the ferry approaches Barnacle Bay, the family smells the fog and thinks it smells horrible. When they get to the island, they find that it's no longer how it used to be and had fallen into complete disarray. Marge went to the pier to find the carousel she loved to ride on had been vandalized and was a wreck. Upset by this, the family walks through the town where they are approached by employees of a Candy Shoppe. After Homer gets his arm caramelized, the family walks along the marina where they see The Rotting Pelican, captained by Jack. Marge asks Jack what happened to the town and Jack explains that the town used to thrive off of Yum-Yum Fish, but they were no longer found very much in the waters around the island. Lisa suggested that may have been because of overfishing.
When Homer sees how sad Marge is, he gets the Candy Shoppe employees together to fix up the carousel and plans a fireworks display for Marge. Marge is excited to see the carousel repaired and rides it, not knowing that Bart and Lisa were operating it by turning it underneath the pier. To top off the night, Homer starts his fireworks display, but one of the embers sets fire to the boardwalk and burns it down. Homer is then lynched by the town and strung up like a fish. He is then made to join The Rotting Pelican as a fisherman to repay his debt to the town.
Aboard the ship, the crew starts by failing to catch anything of note except some Slarg Fish. When it comes to Homer's turn to cook food for the crew, he thought it was Opposite Day and beer-battered the hooks and baited the shrimp meal instead. The hooks then started getting pulled and the crew found that the Yum-Yum Fish had been attracted to the beer-batter and were getting caught. Meanwhile, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie go to the Barnacle Bay Oceanographic Institute where an oceanographer reveals that a huge storm is coming in. The storm hits The Rotting Pelican and starts to damage the boat. When the crew go to get the lifeboat, they find that Bart had smuggled aboard in the lifeboat box. The crew then gathers together in the cabin where they see a giant wave coming towards them. After the ship sinks, the crew is thought to be dead.
At the church in Barnacle Bay, a memorial service is held for the dead crew. Marge is horrified to learn that Bart was also aboard the ship. As she mourns, the crew of the ship comes into the church. Homer reveals that the crew was saved by a Japanese fishing vessel and then brought back to safety. Jack decides to take the townspeople to get more Yum-Yum Fish now that they know they're out there, but Lisa convinces him not to as he should have learned a lesson about overfishing. Instead, Jack and the townspeople become lumberjacks and cut down the trees that cover the island.
Production
The idea for the episode was pitched by Kevin Curran who came up with the idea of Marge loving the holiday location and the overfishing of the Yum-Yum Fish.[1] At the time of animating the episode, a lot of the crew were working on The Simpsons Movie, so the newer animators had to work on the episode.[2]
George Clooney was asked to guest star in the episode, due to his appearance in the film The Perfect Storm, but he turned it down.[1]
Reception
Dan Iverson of IGN gave the episode a 7.8 rating. Iverson said that the episode "wasn't the best episode of the season" but did have a "concrete storyline and some decent humor".[3]
"The Wife Aquatic" was nominated for a 2007 Environmental Media Award in Best Television Episodic Comedy, but it lost to "Robbed a Stoner Blind" from My Name Is Earl.[4]
As of March 2023, the episode has a 6.5 rating on IMDb.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jean, Al (2007). Commentary for "The Wife Aquatic", in The Simpsons: The Complete Eighteenth Season.
- ↑ Kramer, Lance (2007). Commentary for "The Wife Aquatic", in The Simpsons: The Complete Eighteenth Season.
- ↑ IGN - "The Simpsons: "The Wife Aquatic" Review"
- ↑ Environmental Media Association - "17th Annual Environmental Media Awards" (archived on Wayback Machine)
- ↑ IMDb - "The Wife Aquatic"
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