Season

16

Production Code

GABF01

Episode Number

0

Airdate

30 January 2005

Writer

Michael Price

Director

Mark Kirkland

Executive Producer

Al Jean

Editor

Jimmy Heenan

Plot The Simpsons celebrate a brunch at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Homer's finally paying off the mortgage. After Bart and Lisa get in a food fight, Homer goes to Moe's, where the health inspector has come for his regular visit. Since the inspector is a childhood friend of Moe, he gives the bar a clean bill of health (regardless of numerous violations). But he dies upon consuming one of Moe's pickled eggs. The new inspector immediately declares Moe's Tavern to be closed until the violations are cleared up (and the weekly garbage pickup disposes of his predecessor's corpse).

Moe's Tavern is now closed, and the regulars hold an Irish wake on the sidewalk. Homer decides to help Moe reopen the bar by getting a new mortgage for his home, forging Marge's name. She then becomes the new co-owner. Homer visits a cleaned-up Moe's with Marge running it in order to protect their investment, and suggests Homer just concentrate on the kids. Marge also suggests that Moe's should become an English pub to improve its image. The Nag & Weasel is a success, and Bart and Lisa observe that Marge now spends more time at the establishment than Homer ever did. Homer is worried, but Marge has no problem with it.

Homer and Marge go to a movie together, only to be joined by Moe, and Homer learns from Lenny and Carl that Marge and Moe are having what's called an "emotional affair." Homer is also scared when Marge reminds him for the eleventh time they're planning to attend a bartender convention in Aruba. Homer rushes to the airport, escorted by Chief Wiggum, and gets to the plane as it is about to become airborne—he must save his marriage. Meanwhile, Moe finally gets out his true feelings for his partner that he has hidden in the dark for so long, spurred on by the alarming display he witnesses from the window seat. He tells Marge he loves her and, in a rush, asks her to marry him. Marge is shocked, but before she can answer, a soaking-wet Homer bursts out of the toilet seat in the bathroom and yells at the barkeeper to leave his wife alone. Moe shouts back that Homer doesn't deserve Marge at all since he knows nothing about her: her favorite dish, for example. Homer does admit that he doesn't know much about his own wife, but despite his faults, Marge reassures him that he really is her true love, not the lovestruck bartender.

The threesome arrive in Aruba, where the miserable Moe attempts to drown himself because of his loss, only to be stopped by Marge and Homer. Marge explains to him that he's sweet enough a man to be loved by someone else, if only he's willing to make a few, minor changes. Moe seems to listen, but nevertheless reverts to his original scheme of sharing a hotel room with Marge (he has changed the booking on the sly). To his ultimate chagrin, the barkeeper finds himself forced to share the bed with Homer while Marge settles down on the couch, but suddenly she exclaims: "Who's watching the kids?!". It is revealed that Bart has entered himself, Lisa, and Maggie in a European balloon race, and the closing shot is of several balloons floating over Paris to the strains of "La Vie En Rose."