Every Man's Dream
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This episode 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 dreams within dreams eventually being revealed to be a story told by Hannah Horvath's tattoos. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page. |
"Every Man's Dream"
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Episode Information
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"Every Man's Dream" is the first episode of season 27 of The Simpsons and the five-hundred and seventy-fifth episode overall. It originally aired on September 27, 2015. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Matthew Nastuk. It guest stars Lena Dunham as Candace and Hannah Horvath, Allison Williams as Candace's friend 3, Zosia Mamet as Candace's friend 2, Jemima Kirke as Candace's friend 1, Laura Ingraham as Janet Zilowitz and Adam Driver as Adam Sackler.
Contents
Synopsis
- "Homer is diagnosed with narcolepsy — but instead of returning home with his prescription medication — he returns home drunk. He and Marge visit a marriage counselor and have a trial separation, during which Homer begins dating a 20-something."
Plot
At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer sleeps through a meltdown. When he goes to hospital afterwards, Dr. Hibbert diagnoses Homer with narcolepsy, an illness which causes Homer to sleep frequently. Homer starts to use narcolepsy to get out of everything that he would have to put effort in, until he needs to pick up his prescription. Homer goes to Oedipus Rx to get his prescription, but there are several old people in front of him who take too long. Homer then falls asleep on the floor before he goes to Moe's Tavern, without the medication.
Marge gets annoyed at Homer when he returns and the two of them go to Dr. Zilowitz as she's the only therapist they hadn't been to yet. Dr. Zilowitz suggests that they try a trial separation, which they reluctantly agree to. Homer starts living at the power plant and eventually starts to get happier as he knows that Marge always takes him back. Lenny and Carl then reveal to Homer that Marge changed her relationship status to "it's complicated". When Homer's getting drunk at Moe's, he gets a call from the pharmacy and goes to pick up his prescription. Candace flirts with Homer and the two of them go out on a date. Homer gets drunk and high on his medication and he and Candace sleep together. The next morning, Homer is horrified and calls Marge. Selma answers the phone and tells Homer that Marge is on a date with someone else. Homer then decides to carry on dating Candace.
Homer continues to date Candace, meeting up with her friends and going to Moe's together. Eventually, Candace wants Homer to meet her father. They go to The Gilded Truffle where they meet Roger. Roger tells Homer not to worry about the age difference as he is also dating someone much younger than him, Marge. Homer is shocked at this revelation but decides to try and stay calm through the meal. After the meal, Roger proposes to Marge and she accepts. Candace then gets mad and tells her father that she and Homer will also get married and she's already pregnant.
This revelation shocks Homer who then wakes up in Dr. Zilowitz's office. Dr. Zilowitz says that she would never suggest a separation and Homer realizes that it was all a dream. He and Marge decide to work things out and Homer stops drinking for all of March. With Homer's love, Lisa had stopped eating meat and Maggie started talking. As Maggie sings, Homer realizes that something was wrong and woke up again in a bar with Candace. Homer realizes that this was actually reality and runs home to see Marge. However, he sees that the family is eating a meal with Roger so he breaks down outside the house. Lisa comes out and tells Homer that he'll always have her, before she goes back in to play chess with Roger.
Marge then wakes up, revealing that everything was part of her dream, and takes Homer to Dr. Zilowitz again. As Dr. Zilowitz is about to give them a solution to their marriage, it's revealed that the therapy is actually a tattoo on Hannah Horvath's back, meaning "don't get drunk in Brooklyn".
Production
The episode idea came from J. Stewart Burns who was divorced. The producers wanted to "explore the real things you go through when a marriage is falling apart". The producers intended the lesson of the episode to be that nobody has an answer of what to do when a marriage is falling apart.[1]
When Spacemen 3 were approached about using the song "Big City" in the episode, Peter Kember said that he "couldn't imagine a sweeter use of that track in this context" and they approved the use of the song.[2]
Reception
In its initial airing, the episode received a 1.5 rating and was watched by a total of 3.28 million people.[3]
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C-. Perkins says that the episode "botches every one" of its plot points and says that the episode throws "the whole thing away with a series of handwaves so perfunctory as to render the entire episode not only thoroughly lousy, but completely inconsequential."[4]
Jesse Schedeen of IGN gives the episode a 4.2/10. He said that "the episode was locked into a downward slide" after the first act. He also feels that Homer using narcolepsy as an excuse for his laziness was a bad reason for Homer and Marge to split up. He also said that the "episode wasn't just redundant, it operated on flimsy logic".[5]
As of May 2022, the episode has a 5.2 rating on IMDb.[6]
International airdates
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Gallery
References
- ↑ The Hollywood Reporter - "'Simpsons' Showrunner Debunks Divorce, Critiques Celebrity Breakup Obsession"
- ↑ Pitchfork - "Spacemen 3's "Big City (Everybody I Know Can be Found Here)" Featured on "The Simpsons""
- ↑ TVbytheNumbers - "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Bob's Burgers' Adjusted Down, '60 Minutes' Adjusted Up + 'Sunday Night Football'" (archived on Wayback Machine)
- ↑ The A.V. Club - "The Simpsons premiere threatens Marge and Homer's marriage, our good will"
- ↑ IGN - "The Simpsons: "Every Man's Dream" Review"
- ↑ IMDb - "Every Man's Dream"
- ↑ Vsetv.com
Promo videos
Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Every Man's Dream". |