- "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"
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| Episode Information
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[[Category:Episodes showrun by
Mike Scully]]
"The Blunder Years" is the fifth episode of season 13 of The Simpsons and the 274th episode overall. It originally aired December 9, 2001. The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The guest stars are Paul Newman: himself, Joe Mantegna: Fat Tony, and Judith Owen: herself.
Synopsis
- "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 turns out to be Waylon Smithers, Jr.' father, Waylon Smithers, Sr., who 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 they're super absorbent. Homer becomes jealous and goes to Ned Flanders's house to call her. He says he's Chad Sexington, the lumberjack from Burley paper towels, and he's going to come for dinner, so Marge prepares the house for his arrival, only to find out "Chad"'s actually Barney in disguise. Marge is humiliated once she realizes it's just a prank, but Lisa encourages Homer and Bart to make it up to her with Homer taking them all to a posh restaurant.
At the restaurant, Mesmerino, a famous hypnotist, performs various acts of hypnosis (including making Professor Frink a make-out master), and, when Mesmerino approaches Waylon Smithers, Jr. and tells him it's nice to see a young man take his father out for a night of hypnotism before he dies, Smithers mysteriously replies he has no father; he died years ago. Dauntless, Mesmerino approaches Homer and hypnotizes him into "turning into" various people. However, when he turns Homer into his twelve-year-old self during summer, he begins screaming hysterically, still is screaming all the way home, and even screams when he's asleep. The next day, Lenny and Carl bring him home from work because his screaming continued. Lisa says he's screaming because of a repressed memory. Marge makes Homer some Yaqui tea to unlock his suppressed memory. After he drinks it, he remembers Lenny, Carl, Moe, and him going to the quarry swimming hole, but, along the way, they're terrorized by a young Fat Tony and his cronies, who menace them but are scared off by Moe, who, after the story's end, reveals himself to be in the living room with Carl, Lenny, and the Simpsons. When Lisa asks why he's there, Moe tells her he has more clues as to what happened, so, having drank the tea, he remembers when they reached a swimming hole near the power plant, Homer was the only one dumb enough to jump in and found it was now a mud puddle. Wondering why the water wasn't coming out, he loosened the blockage, and the water came out, along with a decaying corpse which ended up in his lap.
In the present, the Simpsons visit the quarry, leaving the others behind. They find Chief Wiggum, who tells the family he thought they were lost hikers, and, when Marge throws the Burley paper towels in, they absorb the water where the crew finds 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 Mr. Burns shows a movie proving his innocence. It shows the body was actually Waylon Smithers, Sr., who died in an almost nuclear meltdown 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 their house, the next day, Moe Szyslak comes over with clues and relates them to Homer and Marge all the way through the end credits, which end with Homer screaming over the Fox logo.
Reception
The episode received mixed-to-positive reviews from TV critics and fans. It is called "a comedy gem" and a "highlight of Season 13". On the other hand, the episode is called a "bad parody of Stand By Me" and "annoying". Since the release of Season 13 on DVD, the episode received mainly positive reviews.
