A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream
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"A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream"
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Episode Information
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"A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream" is the second episode of season 35 of The Simpsons and the seven-hundred and fifty-second episode overall. It originally aired on October 8, 2023. The episode was written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Matthew Faughnan. It guest stars Kerry Washington as Rayshelle Peyton.
Contents
Synopsis[edit]
- "Marge feels an overwhelming dread of the empty nest."
Plot[edit]
Marge is at the grocery store when she sees a bubble gun at the checkouts. She buys it and arrives home, where a young Bart rushes out to see her. Bart tells Marge that he was waiting at the window for her to get home and when they get into the house, Lisa tells Marge that she drew a picture of her, which was drawn in pudding. Lisa throws a tantrum when Marge suggests cleaning the pudding up and then Homer and Marge take Bart and Lisa outside to play bubbles. Marge then gets sad when she realizes that this memory is slipping away, and Bart floats up into the sky in a bubble and pops. Marge then wakes up from the dream, feeling sick from food poisoning. Homer and Marge discuss how this happened and Marge remembers that she got drunk at a restaurant and then ate hot dogs from some street vendor, which is why she got food poisoning.
Marge falls back asleep and dreams of Bart's first day at school. When she realizes that Bart forgot his jacket, Marge goes into the classroom after him, but ends up in a clothing store instead. When Marge goes looking for Bart, she finds a teenage Bart playing video games, who gets annoyed that Marge disturbed him. Homer's voice then tells Marge that she's in a dream, and Marge enters the next part of the dream, where Homer is an otter playing a didgeridoo. Marge realizes that her dream is one of the dreams that she can control, and Lisa shows up to explain what "lucid dreaming" is to Marge. Marge then goes back through her memories of the previous day to figure out why she decided to get drunk. She remembers taking a splinter out of Bart's hand, and realizing that his hands are now bigger than hers. She then remembers meeting with Ms. Peyton to discuss the end of the school year and Bart moving onto fifth grade. Ms. Peyton then tells Marge that Bart's childhood will be over when he enters fifth grade, which horrifies Marge. In a therapists office, Marge discusses her dream with the therapist, who turns out to be a young Lisa. Marge then realizes that she's still dreaming and remembers that the school Bounce-A-Thon will be happening.
Marge wakes up and goes downstairs to tell everyone that even though she's sick, she's going to the Bounce-A-Thon. Homer was preparing snacks for the event, but blew up the rice cooker doing so. The burned rice, which Homer then covered in egg nog, made Marge sick again. Upstairs, Homer tells Marge that she should stay home and asks Homer to get a picture of Bart and Lisa giving a thumbs up when they cross the finish line during the event. Bart tells Marge that he doesn't want to do a thumbs up as he wants to do something funny for the picture instead. Marge gets upset, but then falls asleep again. This dream, she and Homer get chased by a bear but Marge stops it, knowing what the dream is really about. Lisa tries to make Marge feel better, but then Homer mentions that the same thing will happen to Lisa and Maggie too when they get older. Marge then dreams that she's running through the house, finding nothing but empty bedrooms. The house then starts falling apart, leaving Marge in the rubble. Homer tries again to make Marge feel better, but then she sees that Bart is at the playground. Marge tries to tell Bart to ride the springy duck but Bart just spends time on his phone instead, which leaves Marge upset and causes an explosion.
Dream Homer, who is now a dog, tells Marge to look back at when she told everyone that she'll still make it to the Bounce-A-Thon. After ignoring Bart in this memory, Marge sees that Lisa was excited that Marge would be there and was practicing her thumbs up pose for the picture. This makes Marge happy, despite thinking that next year Lisa will hate the Bounce-A-Thon too. Chief Wiggum then shows up in the dream and tells Marge to not be negative. Marge wakes up from the dream and rushes to get ready to go to the Bounce-A-Thon. After throwing up in the car, Marge takes an electric scooter to the school and arrives just as Lisa is doing her race. Marge pushes through the crowd and tries to take a photo, but passes out due to the food smells making her sicker.
Marge wakes up in the medical tent and finds that she only managed to get a blurry picture. Ms. Peyton talks to Marge and Marge realizes that the things Ms. Peyton told her about Bart's childhood being over were just a dream. Marge leaves the medical tent and gets ready for Bart's race. As Bart crosses the finish line, he uses two balloons to make it seem like he had a big butt. This makes the Simpsons all laugh and Bart is happy to hear that Marge liked it. Bart and Marge then go to the dunk tank where Coach Krupt was in, so that Bart could dunk him.
Reception[edit]
"A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream" was nominated for a 2024 Writers Guild of America award in Animation.[1]
Gallery[edit]
References[edit]
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Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream". |
