The Bob Next Door
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- "The sum total is the greatest murder since Snape killed Dumbledore!"
- ―Sideshow Bob
"The Bob Next Door" is the twenty-second episode of Season 21. It aired on May 16, 2010. The episode was written by John Frink and directed by Nancy Kruse. Kelsey Grammer reprises his role as Sideshow Bob.
Contents
Synopsis
Bart becomes convinced that his new neighbor, Walt, is his archenemy, Sideshow Bob, disguised and back for revenge. But when Marge tries to convince Bart otherwise by taking him to the state penitentiary, a disturbing truth is revealed, leading to danger for the spiky-haired boy.
Plot
Springfield is suffering from an economic crisis so massive that the Quimby Administration could no longer hide it by cooking the books and fudging the numbers. Mayor Quimby enacts cost-cutting measures such as stopping the service of removing dead animals from the road, drastically shortening the school day at Springfield Elementary School (to the extent that the only "school time" was the bus ride over to the School Building), and ordering Springfield Penitentiary to release prisoners convicted of minor offenses. The Springfield Police Department is also affected by the cutbacks, being forced to allow low-level criminals to get away with crimes, due to lacking the resources -- and especially the funding -- to go after them.
Many citizens move because of the cutbacks, and a house next to the Simpsons' goes on the market. Homer decides he wants to buy the house because of the smell of cookies coming from it, but someone's beaten him to it. The Simpsons have a new neighbor, Walt Warren, who closed the deal on the house while Homer was filling out the loan paperwork. Also, at least one of the banks in the world that received Homer's loans, the Iceland National Bank, closed down due to not having enough money, causing the populace to want to kill Homer Simpson.
Marge and Lisa watch movers (and Walt himself) carrying personal possessions into the house, and conclude that Walt is a lover of Hybrid cars, antique furniture, and koi ponds. Bart goes over to introduce himself, "Bart Simpson-style". Walt greets him by saying,"Hello, Bart." Bart immediately recognizes Walt's voice as Sideshow Bob's voice and runs off screaming.
At home, Bart tries to convince the rest of the family that Walt is really Bob. Marge and Homer attempt to reassure him that "a lot of people sound like Sideshow Bob, like Frasier on Cheers, Frasier on Frasier, and Lt. Commander Tom Dodge on Down Periscope". Bart decides to unmask Walt as Bob. He first tries singing Gilbert & Sullivan music, knowing that Bob has a fondness for it and figuring that he won't be able to resist joining in. When that doesn't work (and Walt says he likes country music instead), Bart sneaks into Walt's house looking for proof but gets caught by Marge. In order to put an end to Bart's paranoia, Marge decides to take Bart to Springfield Penitentary to show him that Sideshow Bob remains in jail. Bart and Marge see Sideshow Bob in his cell, wearing a straitjacket and writing "Bart Simpson Will Die" all over the walls with a red pen held in his teeth, which satisfies Bart for the moment.
The next morning, Walt asks Bart if he would go with him to see a baseball game, the Isotopes play against the Spokane Cascades. Bart accepts the invitation and asks Marge if he can go. Marge asks him if he cleaned his room and lets him go anyway because she'll have something to do while he's gone. Bart gets into Walt's Hybrid and they start driving to the stadium. When Walt doesn't make the turn off of the freeway to Springfield Stadium, Bart suspects that something's up. Then Walt says that Bart was right all along; he really is Sideshow Bob! To prove it, "Walt" takes off his shoes and unfolds his long feet, undeniable proof that he is Bob. Bob is relieved to finally be able to stop acting like Walt, and be able to sing all the Gilbert & Sullivan music he damn well pleases!
Meanwhile, at the Springfield Penitentary, "Bob" swallows his red pen and passes out. The guard rushes in to make sure he is okay and "Bob" spits the pen out of his mouth and it hits the guard in the eye, temporarrily blinding him. "Bob" pulls the guard's taser off him with his teeth and stuns him with it. He heads outside the prison and, after avoiding the attack hounds (one of which mistakes Bob's hair for a bush and pees on him), makes it over the prison wall. "Bob" goes to the Simpsons' house. He appears in the kitchen window where Marge soaks him with a hose and Homer closes the window on his neck, "Bob" tells them that he's the real Walt. To prove it to them, Walt takes off his shoes and shows them his short feet. They release him and they all head over to Bob's house. In the bedroom, they find dozens of pictures of Bart with knives in them, effigies of Bart being hanged and drowned in an aquarium, and so on. Lisa finds a brochure of The Five Corners, the only point in the U.S.A. where five states meet, with the notation "KILL BART HERE" handwritten in red. Walt and the Simpsons then head for The Five Corners.
Bob tells Bart how he escaped from prison: He had heard that prisoners convicted of minor offenses were going to be released, and his cellmate Walt was a minor offender and fortuitously had the same build and facial structure as he did. Just before the release took place, Bob knocked Walt out, and switched their faces in the prison hospital, and then simply walked out posing as Walt when the minor offenders were set free. He then used the proceeds from Walt's investments (which had done very well during his incarceration) to buy the house next door to the Simpsons.
Bob stops at a diner, and a waitress falls for Bob as Walt. She removes what she thinks is a loose thread on his jacket, but it's really one of the stiches from the face transplant. All of the sutures come undone, revealing that his face has been sewn on. Bob then runs away, taking Bart with him. Shortly after this, the Simpson family and Walt arrive at the diner, describe Bob to the waitress, and ask her where they went. She tells them that Bob was headed for Mexico, and accidentally unmasks Walt as also having a sewn-on, transplanted face. The Simpsons believe her and go to Mexico, but Walt, sensing that the waitress is attracted to Bob, knows this is not true and heads for Five Corners instead.
Bob arrives at The Five Corners and has himself and Bart stand in two of the states at the meeting point. He then tells Bart of his plan to kill him: Bob will stand in one state; reach into a second state and shoot his gun; have the bullet travel through a third state; hit Bart in a fourth state; and Bart will fall dead in the fifth state (although this is not possible, as the bullet would have to curve around to acctually kill Bart). Because no single portion of the sequence is illegal, none of the five states will be able to prosecute him for Bart's murder. Bob brags about his plan, saying that "the sum total is the greatest murder since Snape killed Dumbledore!" Bart complains about Bob ruining the ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as he never got to that part in the book (despite it being four years old) because he is a slow reader. Bart then jumps to the same state Bob's standing in, pointing out that if Bob shoots him in the same state, he'll go to jail. They both do several rounds of hopping between the different states, until Bob steps on a rake that flies up and hits him in the face. He then becomes so frustrated that he decides to just shoot Bart and get it done with, regardless of jurisdiction, and tell people that he did the plan.
Walt arrives in the nick of time and and wrestles the gun away from Bob. Walt tells Bob to take off his face and give it back to him, but unfortunately he has a bee under Bob's transplanted face, which distracts him and leaves Bob an opening to take the gun back. Bob then grants Walt the privilege of choosing which state he shoots him in. Walt says "Hawaii" and Bob revokes his choosing privilege. Before he can shoot either Bob or Walt, Chief Wiggum arrives with Eddie and Lou from Springfield's state to arrest Bob, revealing that Bart wasn't really convinced that Bob was Walt. After Bart alerted them before he left with Bob, the police then were able to track them because Bob's Hybrid is secretly monitored by the government (like all Hybrids). Bob compliments Wiggum, before jumping to another state (and out of Wiggum's jurisdiction). However, law enforcement officials from the other four states arrive, cutting off Bob's escape. Bob is arrested and taken away, and the rest of the Simpsons return from Mexico, where Homer has been having misadventures such as arguing with a cook over "How do you say 'taco' in Mexican?"
Back in the Simpsons' neighborhood, Walt's former house is vacant, but only temporarily. A distant Flanders relative called Ted Flanders moves into the house, and he and Ned start a conversation laced with "Flanders-isms", talking to each other from across the Simpsons' front yard. This drives Homer crazy and he yells at them both to shut up.
Production
"The Bob Next Door" was written by long-term writer John Frink and directed by Nancy Kruse, her second director's credit for Season 21 after "The Devil Wears Nada." The episode features the return of recurring guest voice Kelsey Grammer as the Bart-hating murderer, Sideshow Bob, making it his 12th and final vocal appearance to date. According to executive producer Al Jean, "The Bob Next Door" was slated to air on January 14, 2010, along with "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" and "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice", but was instead moved to May 16 for an unknown reason.
Reception
The episode was viewed by an estimated 6.258 million households, making it one of the highest rated shows that evening, after Family Guy.
