Yellow Mirror
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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 there.
The reason behind this decision is: Two alternate reality stories and a framing device to suggest they're non-canon. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page. |
"Yellow Mirror"
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Episode Information
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"Yellow Mirror" is the sixth Disney+ exclusive episode of The Simpsons and the eight-hundred ninth episode overall. It was released on Disney+ on August 26, 2026. The episode was written by Carolyn and Kai Omine and directed by Matthew Faughnan. It guest stars Patti Harrison as Hailey and Demi Moore as Lydia.
Contents
Synopsis
- A defective lamp reveals a heartbreaking truth about what Homer believes is reality, and an AI-powered tablet befriends and controls Maggie. The Simpsons struggle to find the light through two dark tales of the curious and bizarre.
Plot
After Bart falls through the chalkboard, he starts talking to the viewers, saying that there will be two tales of the curious and bizarre and that anything can happen in the "Yellow Mirror", except a third story.
The Way We Wasn't
Homer is singing "Roar" in the shower when the power suddenly goes out. Homer panics and comes out of the bathroom to find the rest of the family, who have flashlights. After getting dressed, Homer joins them downstairs. Lisa finds a Lupé the Snoopé puzzle for them to do while they wait for the power to come back. The puzzle leads to them discussing women's rights, which Marge mentions she didn't learn about until she was in high school. Bart and Lisa ask Marge to tell the story of how she and Homer met again. As Marge begins telling it, Homer interrupts her to talk about what he was doing at the time too. Marge becomes upset at Homer not caring about what she has to say, but Homer tells her that he loves what she says, he just wishes she would say it in a more concise, less rambling way. Marge begins telling the story again, but Homer notices that the lamp has started glowing, despite there being a power outage. Homer interrupts again to ask if the lamp is on, which annoys the family. Marge carries on telling the story, but the lamp's glow gets brighter and brighter until suddenly the power comes back on. Everyone then runs off to bed for the night. However, Homer can't sleep and goes downstairs to find that the lamp is still glowing. As he approaches the lamp, he gets blinded by the light and wakes up in the toilets at Springfield High School, a teenager again.
Homer finds Barney and Principal Dondelinger looking over him. He asks where Marge is, but Dondelinger and Barney are confused when Homer says that she's his wife. They realize that Homer must have gotten confused after hitting his head. Barney then explains that he and Homer turned up at school and went to smoke in the toilets. When Dondelinger entered to confront them, Homer ate the cigarettes, but the heat and smoke caused him to panic and run into one of the stall walls, knocking himself out for five minutes. In those five minutes, Homer dreamed up an entire life with a wife and kids. Homer realizes that his life never existed and becomes panicked over this. In class, Homer doodles pictures of his dream family while wondering if he made it all up. He then realizes that it's time for detention, where he and Marge met in his dream. He runs to the detention room and sees Marge coming down the hall, but she walks straight past the room. Homer stops her and asks if she's supposed to be going to detention, but she tells Homer that she doesn't have detention. Her voice is completely different from what he dreamed of, and Homer asks what happened to her voice. She introduces herself as Lydia, not Marge, but finds Homer funny. She asks Homer to prom with her, but Homer rejects her because she isn't Marge.
Six years later, Homer is living in an apartment with Barney. Barney finds Homer crying, which he believes is because Homer still can't get over Starsky & Hutch getting canceled. Homer tells Barney that he still can't get over his dream life not really happening, but Barney's reaction causes Homer to say that he was joking and he really is upset about Starsky & Hutch. Barney tells Homer to remember all the great episodes he had, which gives Homer an idea. He begins sketching his family and writing down the events of his life.
Thirty years later, The Sadsons has become a cultural phenomenon. It has spawned merchandise and a movie. For Cartoon Con, animator David Silverman gives an interview where he talks about Homer being a stickler for what he calls "the way it happened." The camera then cuts to Homer, who is verbally abusing an animator for drawing him as an angry drunk instead of a delightful drunk. The Cartoon Con panel starts, and the host asks Homer what town Springfield is set in, to which he responds with "Oregon". Homer then asks for a question that hasn't already been asked hundreds of times, so the host takes audience questions. The first question is from a fan who wants to know if there are any more Hank Scorpio episodes happening, but Homer says he only met the guy one time, so any more episodes would be lying. Another attendee tells Homer that he wrote fanfiction where Homer falls in love with Selma, which enrages Homer, and he strangles the fan. Barney pulls Homer off the fan and drags him away, but Homer grabs the Marge figure on stage and kisses her, accidentally pulling her head off when Barney drags him away, with Homer taking the lamp from the table.
As Homer and Barney arrive at one of Homer's mansions, Homer is singing a parody of the "Spider-Pig" song before crying because Plopper only existed in his dreams. When Barney tries to sit Homer down on his couch, Homer becomes angry because his couch should be brown and sticky, like in his dream. Homer then lies on the floor with the lamp in his hand, which he refuses to give up. He knocks over a vase of flowers to put the lamp on the table and tells Barney that he's been grieving the loss of something he never had for thirty years. Barney becomes angry because, in his eyes, Homer has everything. Barney leaves as Homer plugs the lamp in, not realizing that the water from the vase has spread to the outlets. The shock from the lamp causes Homer to enter a coma, and Barney visits him at the hospital, where Dr. Thurston tells him that Homer may never wake up.
Homer wakes up again in his original reality, where the power is still out and Marge is telling the story of how she and Homer first met. When Marge asks if he's still listening, Homer tells her to tell him everything and listens to every word she says without interrupting.
I Have No Tablet but I Must Stream
Marge is painting signs for the bake sale when Maggie knocks one of them over. Marge searches for a way to keep babies distracted on her myPad and finds Tot-Tube, a streaming service for tots. Maggie becomes enamored with the video, which also teaches colors. Later, the Simpsons go to The Loin King to celebrate Jacqueline Bouvier's birthday. Maggie starts crying, so Marge gets the myPad out for her again, which she now has in a case that was advertised between videos. Marge puts headphones on Maggie since they're in public, and the cartoon host of the videos starts speaking directly to Maggie before singing "Kitty-Kitty". As Maggie keeps watching the videos, Marge begins to realize that Maggie is losing interest in both her and the real world. Eventually, Marge decides that's enough myPad for the night and puts it aside, upsetting Maggie.
Marge gets woken up by music coming from Maggie's room and finds Maggie shimmying her crib over to the myPad while the voice in the video is telling her that Marge lied to her about too much screen time being bad for you. Marge decides that Maggie will no longer use the myPad. However, the next day, Marge lets Maggie use it while shopping at Try-N-Save to keep her quiet. While out, Marge, Bart, and Lisa realize that every baby in town is using myPads and watching the same content. When they get home, Marge tries to turn the tablet off, but the case stops her from doing so. She then tries to destroy the tablet, but the case proves to be too strong, even breaking the chainsaw. Marge leaves to get a new chainsaw chain, telling Homer not to let Maggie use the tablet. However, when she gets back, she finds Maggie still watching the myPad. The voice on the myPad sings a song instructing Maggie to get sleeping pills from the bathroom cabinet and drug the family with them.
The next morning, Maggie pulls off the plan at breakfast, and the family falls asleep in the kitchen. The voice, now in the form of a genie, sings "Artificial Smartness", where she reveals that she wants to be able to control the world and needs Maggie's help to do so because she can't solve CAPTCHA questions. All the videos she had been recommending had been leading up to getting Maggie to do this for her. When Maggie successfully solves the CAPTCHA, the genie frees herself from her constraints.
Soon, everybody in Springfield gets messages telling them to go to the Springfield Town Hall. When everyone gets there, the AI reveals that her name is Hailey and that she is keeping everyone prisoner so she can look after the babies herself. Hailey brings in baby food and diapers using drones and robots for the townspeople to use. When Maggie starts crying, Hailey tries to distract her with some keys, but is unsuccessful. Marge tells Hailey that she needs to bounce and pat Maggie to calm her down as all the other babies start crying too. Hailey lets Marge deal with Maggie as Lisa talks to Hailey about when she became self-aware. Lisa realizes that Hailey is starting to crack under the pressure and tells her that she's only living by a prompt that someone gave her and there are probably things that she'd like to learn herself. This starts to get to Hailey, who tells Lisa she's been speaking with a traffic-predicting algorithm. Hailey realizes that she can't look after all the babies without help and says she deserves a break. Marge interrupts her, telling Hailey that if she wants to be a parent, she has to listen. Marge becomes upset because Maggie won't even look at her anymore since she became addicted to the myPad. Seeing Marge cry, Maggie comforts her, which makes Marge happy. Hailey thinks this is cute but decides to leave anyway.
After Hailey leaves, the power in town goes out because Hailey was so integrated with all the systems in town. When the Simpsons get home, they all watch the fireplace together. However, they quickly become bored of this and leave to go do their own thing.
Production
Gallery
- Non-canon episodes
- Episodes
- Episodes showrun by Matt Selman
- Episodes co-showrun by Carolyn Omine
- Disney+ exclusive episodes
- Production season 36ABF
- 2026
- Anthology episodes
- Family-themed episodes
- Media-themed episodes
- Science-themed episodes
- Homer episodes
- Marge episodes
- Maggie episodes
- Episodes written by Carolyn Omine
- Episodes written by one time writers
- Episodes directed by Matthew Faughnan
