Difference between revisions of "The Blunder Years"

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"The Blunder Years"

Episode Information Showrunner: [[{{{showrunner}}}]]

""Wait a minute! I remember falling in the mud, but I don't think that's why I've been screaming.""

―Homer Simpson

"The Blunder Years" is the fifth episode of Season 13, which originally aired on December 9th, 2001. The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Steven Dean Moore. Paul Newman, Joe Mantegna and Judith Owen guest starred. The episode title is a play on the television show, The Wonder Years, while Homer's flashbacks are parodies of the movie, Stand By Me.

A restaurant hypnotist causes Homer to relive a traumatic childhood experience where, upon swimming in a quarry, he found a dead body. That dead body turned out to be Waylon Smithers' father, Waylon Smithers Sr., who had disappeared twenty-five years earlier under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, Marge fancies Chad Sexington, the man who appears on the packaging of Burly paper towels.

Plot

Marge accidentally bought Burley paper towels and was going to return them when she "falls in love" with the lumberjack on them and finds that they're super absorbent. Homer becomes jealous and goes to Ned Flanders house to call her. He says "Hello, I'm Chad Sexington, the lumberjack from Burley paper towels." He also says he's going to come for dinner, so Homer gets Barney to come dressed up like him. Marge is humiliated once she realizes it is just a prank, but goes with Homer, and the kids to a fancy restaurant.

When a hypnotist tells Homer he is a twelve year old boy, he starts screaming. The next day Lenny and Carl bring him home from work because his screaming continued. Every one including Moe says he must be screaming because of a repressed memory. Marge makes Homer some memory (Yaqui) tea. After he drinks it, he remembers Lenny, Carl, Moe, and himself going to the quarry swimming hole. Homer was the only one dumb enough to jump in and found it was now a mud puddle. Wondering why the water was not coming out he loosened the blockage and the water came out along with a decaying corpse that ended up in his lap.

In the present, the Simpsons visit the quarry, leaving the others behind. They find Chief Wiggum there and when Marge throws the Burley paper towels in, it absorbs the water where they find the corpse is now a skeleton. They go into the drainpipe and discover a hatch to Mr. Burns' office. Chief Wiggum accuses him of murder, but then Mr. Burns shows a movie proving his innocence. It shows that the body was Waylon Smithers Sr., who died in a nuclear accident to save the town and his son. When Waylon Smithers Jr. sees the movie, he finds out the truth of how his father died, a hero. When the Simpsons get back to there house, the next day Moe Szyslak comes over with clues, and Marge and Homer humor him.