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"You Only Move Twice"

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

"You Only Move Twice" is the second episode of season 8 and aired on November 3, 1996. The episode was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Mike B. Anderson. Albert Brooks guest stars as Hank Scorpio.

The episode title is a reference to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, and many elements of the episode parody the Bond films, with a character modeled after Bond making a brief appearance. Setting the second and third acts in a new town, Cypress Creek, required the animators to create entirely new layouts and background designs. Albert Brooks, in his fourth appearance on The Simpsons, guest stars as the voice of Hank Scorpio, who is one of the most popular one-time characters in the entire series. The episode was very well received by critics. IGN named "You Only Move Twice" the best episode of the eighth season and Albert Brooks as one of the best guest stars in the history of the show.

Synopsis

"Homer moves the family to a new town after he receives a better job offer, at a better nuclear power plant, but Homer is oblivious to the fact that his new boss is a Super Villain who is out to rule the world."

Plot

One fine sunny morning, Mr. Smithers is walking to work when a mysterious black car pulls up. The woman inside asks if Smithers would like a job at Globex Corporation, but he refuses. When Homer accepts the job at Globex Corporation in Cypress Creek, the family decide to move there, because the house is starting to fall apart. When they arrive at Cypress Creek, Homer meets his new boss and takes to him really well, and starts to enjoy his new lifestyle. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the rest of the family. Marge is unable to do any work at all since the house machines do it for her and descends into alcoholism. Bart gets put in the Remedial Class at school that he hates more than his normal class, and Lisa is allergic to all the area's plant life.

Back at work, Homer fails to realize that his boss is in fact an evil genius bent on world domination. But Homer enjoys his work and soon becomes a very competent manager. He even tackles a loafer (at least that's what he thinks) at Hank's office. However, his family tells him that they want to move back to Springfield. Stuck with a difficult choice, Homer decides to visit his boss in his office. Homer arrives in the middle of an assault (to which he is totally oblivious) by government forces on Hank's fortress.

After a conversation with Hank, and while the firefight is still raging, Homer reluctantly decides to resign. When the Simpsons return to Springfield, they find out that Hank Scorpio has seized the East Coast. Homer then picks up a letter saying that Hank Scorpio has given him a farewell gift. "It's not the Dallas Cowboys but it's a start". He soon finds out he now owns the Denver Broncos, though he is slightly disappointed (Earlier in the episode, Homer and Hank had discussed long-cherished dreams and Homer told Hank that his dream was to own the much more successful Dallas Cowboys).

On his way to work Waylon Smithers is offered a job at the Globex Corporation. When he refuses, the offer is passed down to Homer, the next-longest-employed individual at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He accepts the job and informs his family that the new job pays better and provides free health-care for the family, but involves moving to Cypress Creek. Homer tells Marge that by accepting a new higher paying job, he is one step closer to his dream of one day owning the Dallas Cowboys. The Simpson family initially opposes the move, but after they watch a promotional video about the planned community, they agree that it is much better than Springfield. After looking at the mortgage and deciding that selling the house won't cover it, they abandon their house and leave town.

Shortly after the family arrive at their new house in Cypress Creek, they meet Homer's new boss, Hank Scorpio, who is very amiable and seems like the perfect boss. After giving Homer a tour of the company, Scorpio tells him that his job is to motivate the employees in the nuclear division. Homer gets an instant liking to his new boss when Scorpio becomes the first person who does not ridicule Homer when he tells hum about his dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys. Meanwhile, Bart starts school, but he finds that his new class is far above the standards of Springfield Elementary. When his teacher discovers that Bart cannot read cursive writing he places him in a remedial class, much to Bart's shock. Lisa goes for a nature walk and discovers that she is allergic to all of the plants around Cypress Creek. Marge tries to go about her daily chores, but the house everything automatically. This ends up depressing her to the pint where Marge starts drinking wine to cope. However, Homer does an excellent job motivating his team in the nuclear division, which makes his family very proud of him.

Despite his success, Homer notices that his team members are starting to get overworked. He decides that the solution is to get them hammocks and visits Scorpio to ask where he can purchase some. Scorpio begins to tell Homer of "the Hammock district", but he is interrupted by some urgent business. It turns out that Scorpio is a criminal mastermind formulating a plot to take over the East Coast of the United States with a doomsday device, as he turns to a screen and threatens the United States Security Council by declaring that he has got hold of the doomsday device and that they have 72 hours to meet his demand of gold. To prove his intent, he blows up the 59th Street Bridge. Despite being in the same room, Homer appears oblivious to Scorpio's nefarious plan as he was looking outside the window.

Later, Scorpio has managed to capture a secret agent named Mr. Bont. Scorpio intends to have Bont killed with a laser, but Bont uses a coin to free himself from his restraints before attempting to flee. However, Homer, who is unaware of events, easily knocks him down, allowing Scorpio's soldiers to shoot the agent. A proud Scorpio happily thanks Homer for a job well done and tells him his house will get an extra floor. At dinner, Homer proudly tells of his successes as work, but discovers that his family hates Cypress Creek and want to go back to Springfield. At first, Homer is opposed to this, saying that he has been doing a great job for the first time in his life, but nobody else is happy. Dejected, Homer decides to visit Scorpio back at Globex Headquarters. His visit coincides with an assault by the U.S. military, but Homer still remains oblivious to what is taking place. He finds Scorpio, explains his situation, and asks what to do. Scorpio initially tells Homer to abandon his family and continue working for him. After much debate he finally advises Homer that he should do what is best for is family.

The next day, the family returns to Springfield, as Scorpio succeeds in his plot and seizes control of the East Coast. Homer, who previously confided to Scorpio his dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys, expresses disappointment when he instead discovers the Denver Broncos practicing ineptly on his front lawn as a present from his former boss. He reads a letter from Scorpio thanking him for his hard work and wishing that owning the Denver Broncos will eventually lead to Homer owning the Dallas Cowboys. Marge tells Homer that the Denver Broncos is a good football team while Homer sighs and tells Marge that she doesn't understand football at all.

Production

There was originally another short storyline involving Grampa. After he was left behind in Springfield, receives recorded greeting phone calls. The plot went on for four sequences, all of which were cut from the episode for time but later included in the DVD release.^[1]

Cypress Creek was called "Emerald Caverns" during production of the episode but the name was changed because the writers felt that "Cypress Creek" had more of a "Silicon Valley" feel to it.^[1]

The original concept for the episode came from a story idea by Greg Daniels, and the writing staff came up with three major concepts. The first involves the Simpson family moving out of Springfield, which the writers initially hoped would fool the audience into thinking it was a permanent move. As a result, they tried to work in as many characters as they could during the first act of the episode to make it seem that the family really was leaving. The second involved Homer getting a new job for the employee-friendly boss in contrast to the tyrannical Mr. Burns. The third was the Homer's new boss would be a supervillain resembling Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This element was meant to be in the background and Homer would be ignorant to it.

Reception

"You Only Move Twice" is very popular with fans with Hank Scorpio being named the most popular Albert Brooks character. Albert Brooks was named most popular guest star in 2006 by IGN with Scorpio being named his most popular character.^[2] The episode is one of the highest rated on IMDb with a 9.3/10 rating.

In its original broadcast, "You Only Move Twice" finished 50th in ratings for the week of October 28 - November 3, 1996, with a Nielsen rating of 8.5, equivalent to approximately 8.2 million viewing households.

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "You Only Move Twice".