Season

14

Production Code

EABF12

Broadcast Index

S14E17

Episode Number

308

Airdate

13 April 2003

Writer

Matt Warburton

Director

Mark Kirkland

Executive Producer

Al Jean

Guest Stars

Scott Thompson
"Weird" Al Yankvic

DVD Commentary

Al Jean
Matt Warburton
Ian Maxtone-Graham
Matt Selman
Carolyn Omine
Yeardley Smith
Scott Thompson
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Mark Kirkland
David Silverman

Editor

Jimmy Heenan

Plot Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpsons Family Wednesdays. When Grampa sees that the box says "Suitable for ages from 8 to 80", he leaves in a huff with Maggie. Milhouse shows up with a rock polisher, but Bart - along with the rest of the family - is becoming increasingly engrossed in their slow but steady progress with the jigsaw. Bart even takes some pieces with him to school in his lunch box. Lenny and Carl visit the Simpsons' home to inquire about Homer's absence from work for the last few days, wondering whether he has taken up another job...again! Homer, obsessed with the puzzle, imagines Lenny as being made of jigsaw and tries to add him to the puzzle, causing pain to his long suffering eye.<br /><br />Finally, the Simpsons finish the jigsaw puzzle. As they admire it, Ned Flanders points out that there is one piece missing. The family starts searching for the piece. Bart finds their old gerbil (who they thought had run away) under the sofa cushions and crosses himself solemnly. Homer searches his closet, saying "Puzzle piece, come out to play-ay..." (a reference to the 1979 film The Warriors). Instead, he finds a box labeled "Marge's Memory Chest," which contains a business card he made for Marge, an old T-shirt she wore to the Rolling Stones' "last concert ever" and an invitation to the opening of Moe's Tavern. Homer, on reading the writing on the back of the invitation, discovers that Marge was unhappy about sitting alone at Moe's while Homer played video games and drank himself silly. When Homer later got alcohol poisoning that day, she felt even more angry. In the present, Homer wonders why Marge stayed with him all this time and finds out that two days after his alcohol poisoning, she was pregnant. Marge enters the room after finding the missing jigsaw piece (found under Maggie's eyelid) and asks Homer why he looks unhappy. He confronts her with the note. She says that she was mad, and she loves him even if he does aggravate her. Angrily, he refuses to sleep in the same bed with her. He instead cries himself to sleep in Bart's bed.<br /><br />The next morning, Homer gets even madder with Marge, packs up, and moves into Bachelor Arms' Apartments with Milhouse's dad, Kirk. However, after listening to lonely men weep, Homer is ready to move back home - until he picks up a newspaper advertising an affordable room on the river. Homer unwittingly travels into Springfield's gay district. He encounters Waylon Smithers, roller-skating in a red tank top and bright blue shorts. When Smithers sees Homer, he feigns ignorance of the surrounding gay area, though a tramful of gay men greet him, much to his embarrassment. Homer meets his new gay roommates, Grady and Julio. The three become good friends while shopping, where Grady and Julio buy Homer a tight black T-shirt (and a girdle to prevent his huge belly from popping out). Later, when Homer visits Marge, their meeting is rather icy and the family notices Homer's newly-acquired mannerisms and the fact that his hands (which he uses to strangle Bart) are quite smooth, thanks to a new lotion. That night, at the local gay bar, Homer tells Grady and Julio that the chance for reconciliation is low. They invite him to dance and he does, taking off his shirt and playfully bouncing around, to the delight of the men, not so much the women.<br /><br />The next day, Homer hears a sound outside his new apartment. From the balcony, he sees Marge and the kids, who have brought "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band, who play a song called "Homer and Marge" (spoofing John Mellencamp's song "Jack and Diane"), to tell Homer that Marge loves him very much. Marge then asks Homer out on a date, to which he agrees. That night Homer is nervous while preparing for his date, so his roommates bring out a pitcher of margarita, which sounds like "Marge", which he takes as a sign to drink. Meanwhile, at the medieval-styled restaurant, Marge anxiously awaits Homer. Julio reminds Homer of his date and Homer runs to meet Marge. He shows up drunk. Marge, angry at his drunkenness, leaves. At the apartment, Grady tries to console Homer and slowly starts to come on to him. When he kisses Homer, Homer bolts out the window and runs to Moe's. There he wonders aloud whether he should give up drinking, considering that alcohol is to blame for all his relationship problems. Moe hears this epiphany and, unwilling to lose a regular customer, shoves a bottle of beer into Homer's mouth and forces him to drink "his medicine". Homer suffers alcohol poisoning and Moe wheels him to the hospital in a shopping cart. He leaves him there, nearly gets caught by the cops, but blames another bar for the poisoning.<br /><br />After Homer is cured, he tells Dr. Hibbert that Marge must hate him. However, Hibbert shows him a videotape (which he made because he thought that his nurse was stealing sponges) that documents Homer's first alcohol poisoning. It shows Marge's compassion for the unconscious Homer, as she tells him she loves him. Back in the present, Marge comes inside the hospital room and says that she still loves Homer and they kiss.<br /><br />Years later, a much older Hibbert is sitting in his den alone and feeling sorry for himself. All he has are videotapes of his patients. He is watching Homer and Marge kiss, when suddenly he sees that his nurse was, in fact, stealing his sponges.<br />