"Hurricane Neddy" is the eighth episode of Season 8.

Synopsis[]

A hurricane blows through Springfield and spares the Simpsons, but unfortunately, the Flanders' house is the only one that takes damage, leaving the Flanders family homeless and reeling. Unfortunately, things get worse when everyone in town comes together to rebuild Ned's house (rather poorly) and Ned goes on the mother of all tirades, calling everyone including Homer out for their personality flaws, then commits himself to a mental hospital, where Ned's childhood therapist reveals why he lashed out.

Full Story[]

While Homer takes a mid-afternoon nap outside, the winds pick up. Lisa consults her weather instruments and a question-and-answer book and finds out a hurricane will soon strike Springfield. She alerts Homer that a hurricane is coming. Panicked residents gather supplies and food at the Kwik-E-Mart, but Ned remains calm as the main storm approaches, having fitted his home with a large tent like guard to keep it hunkered down.

As the bad weather hits, the Simpsons do their best at family bonding in the basement. The storm finally passes, and everyone is overjoyed that the hurricane caused absolutely no damage to their home or anyone else's, except for the Flanders family next door, whose house has been totally destroyed and making it the only house in Springfield to be destroyed by the hurricane. Ned and his family emerge from the rubble.

Ned is relieved that his family escaped serious injury, but unfortunately, he doesn't have homeowner's insurance (having considered insurance gambling) and all they have left are their tombstones. Now homeless, the Flanders family are forced to move into the church basement, with Rod and Todd getting new clothes from the donation bin. Ned watches news accounts of the storm's aftermath, and is further discouraged that the Leftorium has been cleaned out by looters. Maude tells Ned it has been a hard day for him, but the Leftorium will still be in business. After seeking answers from God, Maude and Reverend Lovejoy attempt to reassure Ned that matters will work out well. He tries to find solace in the Bible, but all he gets is a paper cut. He tries asking God directly why he is being punished when he has done everything the Bible says and also mentions that he has always been nice to people and he doesn't drink, dance or swear and even kept kosher. He thinks that he is coming apart and that he wants to yell out and that he can't do it if he doesn't get an answer.

The day after the hurricane, in an attempt to show their community spirit and friendship, Marge commissions everyone in Springfield to rebuild the Flanders' home. Marge takes Ned and his family to the newly rebuilt Flanders' house after Marge tells Ned and Maude that they need to come back to their house as something incredible has happened with Ned sarcastically asking if the rubble is burned down. The job is completed in record time, and Ned is overjoyed. That is until...he inspects their workmanship, which turns out to be shoddy; for example, Moe remarks that they were out of tiled floor, so they painted the ground to make it look like tilewood floor; there is too much electricity in the living room; there are a lot of loose nails sticking out in the walls; the toilet is in the kitchen; Chief Wiggum tells Ned about the difficulty of lugging up a toilet up the stairs; the boys' bedroom has a Krusty the Clown poster holding up the wall, which Rod doesn't like and takes down with Bart suggesting to not take the poster down as it's the only thing stopping the wall from collapsing; the door to the main bedroom is too small as Ned thinks that there is something wrong with the hallway, and it's only the right size to accommodate a cat at best, and even Barney is able to fit in the main bedroom with the small door and Ned tells Homer that he has seen enough. Ned and Homer leave the house, and when Homer asks how much Ned likes the house that love built, the building collapses.

Overwhelmed and dismayed, Ned tries to clean his glasses, but they break, which proves to be the last straw. Driven over the edge, Ned initially tries to calm himself down, knowing that everybody had done their best shoddily, but unfortunately, he is unable to control his emotions after trying to stay nice and his temper finally explodes, furiously screaming in front of everybody about their efforts, shocking the entire crowd. He proceeds to have an angry meltdown calling out and ridiculing several people for their flaws and years of politeness:

1. Marge - Marge criticizes Ned's lack of appreciation, stating that everybody meant well and tried their best to help him in his hour of need. Getting right in her face, Ned shouts back that this isn't good enough, since his family can't just live in "good intentions". He angrily scolds Marge for never refusing to acknowledge when things go wrong (especially those brought about by her family) because of her overly positive outlook since she always has "good intentions". His attitude and voice level causes Marge to cower away from him in fear.
2. Bart - Furious and outraged, Bart comes to his mother's defense and angrily shouts at Ned to back off. Unintimidated, Ned promptly turns to face the local troublemaker and uses two of Bart's catchphrases ("Dude", and "Have a cow man") in an exaggerated and mocking manner. He then cruelly and tells Bart to learn a new catchphrase for his adult years ("Hey buddy, got a quarter?"), effectively telling Bart that the way he's going, he'll end up a homeless, jobless beggar when he grows up. This declaration shocks and horrifies the crowd even more. Bart, who initially cowers in fear just like Marge, says that he's shocked and appalled once Ned storms off.
3. Lisa - Emerging from the crowd following Ned's rant at Bart, Lisa points out that Bart hasn't done anything wrong. Ned stops dead in his tracks and promptly insults her, referring to her as Springfield's answer to a question no one asked for constantly butting in and forcing her opinions upon other people when they don't ask for or want them. This causes Lisa to cower in fear, just like Marge and Bart.
4. Chief Wiggum - Wiggum finds Ned's insult to Lisa hilarious and laughs. Turning to him, Ned grabs and wiggles his massive belly, citing his incompetence as a police officer, referring to him as "the long flabby arm of the law" and declares that the last case he got to the bottom of, was a case of Mallomars. Unlike, Marge, Bart and Lisa, Wiggum doesn't cower in fear, take offense, or even more surprisingly, arrest Ned for technically assaulting him. Instead, he stares at him in complete surprise.
5. Krusty - The clown is taking note of Ned's Mallomars insult at Wiggum, planning to use it for his act. Passing him, Ned notes that Krusty is the only one of the buffoons that doesn't make him laugh. Like Chief Wiggum, Krusty doesn't cower or take offence. Instead, he just ignores Ned, thinking he doesn't appreciate comedy and continues taking notes for his act.
6. Lenny - Ned just points randomly at Lenny, admits he doesn't know him but assumes that like everyone else he is a complete jerk. Like Krusty and Chief Wiggum, Lenny doesn't cower in fear or take offence. Instead, he becomes confused because he arrived at the site a few minutes ago and has no idea what's going on.
7. Moe - Marching up to Moe, Ned angrily calls him an ugly, hate-filled man right to his face before storming off. Like, Lenny, Krusty and Chief Wiggum, Moe doesn't cower in fear. He does take offense though, and tries to defend himself by saying he may be ugly and hate-filled, but doesn't remember the third thing Ned called him (man).
8. Milhouse - Passing by the crowd, Ned furiously shouts at the boy for staring nervously at him as he passes. Milhouse timidly remarks that Ned wears glasses too (as Ned called him four eyes) after he cowers in fear, just like Marge, Bart and Lisa. Note: This is a deleted scene, only on the season eight DVD set.
9. Homer - Homer stands timidly in front of the ruined house, smiling sheepishly as an infuriated Ned marches towards his neighbor. Watching Ned nervously, everybody nearby backs away fearfully. For a moment all is silent between the two men. Then Ned, calmly but angrily, calls Homer the worst human being he has ever met, before marching off. Homer probably doesn't realize that this was Ned's worst insult due to his low IQ, or he does recognize it and is just relieved that he wasn't yelled at. Either way, Homer states he got off pretty easy.

After that, Ned storms off and drives away as the townspeople of Springfield (except for Homer, Wiggum, Krusty, Lenny and Moe) stare at him, whispering to one another in shock. Leaving his family behind with Maude becoming worried and horrified by her husband's harsh outburst at everybody, Ned turns on the radio as he blissfully drives himself to the Calmwood Mental Hospital (albeit smashing into the gate on the way).

There, a nurse who is shocked he is there, calls his childhood counselor Dr. Foster. Foster reminds Ned that because his beatnik parents didn't believe in discipline, he was a rambunctious, out-of-control child in need of psychiatric counseling. That therapy, called the University of Minnesota Spankalogical Protocol, involved eight months of continuous spanking. Although it reformed Ned from his bratty behavior, it worked so well that it rendered him unable to express his anger at all and resulted in his trademark nonsensical jabbering at moments when he was particularly close to losing his temper. This caused Ned to unknowingly repress his anger, until it built up inside him and erupted in the form of his uncontrollable tirade of insults at the townspeople.

Now having seen that his earlier therapy was inappropriate, Dr. Foster enlists Homer to help Ned learn to appropriately express his emotions, as Homer is the person who Flanders harbors the most resentful feelings towards. Homer arrives at Calmwood with his family accompanying him and Foster begins the therapy with several cards he wrote.

After several flubbed tries Homer makes that results in failure and Ned retaining his nonsensical speech, a doctor assisting Foster suggests he try a new and unorthodox way to get Flanders to open up to his anger by letting Homer use his own approach. Dr. Foster is against testing it and wants to continue using his cards. The doctor convinces him to let Homer use his own approach when he notices its failure. Homer claims Ned is afraid to be human because humans hate things, but he likes everything. He disagrees and admits to Homer that he doesn't like everything. Ned mentions that he has been frustrated over the post office's lack of customer services all the time and that he hates his beatnik parents for the lack of discipline he got from them over the years resulting in them turning to someone else to do it for them. Suddenly, he feels like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders and Dr. Foster declares he is cured.

The newly cured Ned is finally released from Calmwood and the townspeople of Springfield, including the other Simpsons and Ned's family greet him. Ned tells everyone that he is all better now and will express his feelings and acknowledge when he is upset with Dr. Foster telling Ned he's being healthy. He says in a jokingly ominous tone that when he is positively hurt, he'll "run you down with my car" to be sure people hear about it. Feeling a new sense of camaraderie with Ned, Homer calls him crazy and laughs before Ned winks.