"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of Season 7.

Synopsis[]

After faking his own death and getting the mistake cleared up at the town courthouse, Homer makes a discovery: his mother, Mona is still alive. However, the joyous reunion at the cemetery is cut short when the FBI comes after Mona for something she did in the 1960s, which is connected to Mr. Burns and is why she abandoned Abe and Homer.

Full Story[]

On a beautiful Saturday, Mr. Burns has got all of his workers to clean up a highway that is maintained by his company. His workers are understandably ticked off about being forced to volunteer on the weekend, especially since Mr. Burns is only there to grab a photo opportunity of himself posing as a cleanup worker then immediately leaving afterward, showing his failure to lead by example. Homer seems to be missing, but he shows up on top of a nearby cliff. On his way down (to work), he slips and falls, resulting in him being sucked into a turbine, much to the shock of his co-workers. But in reality, Homer actually pushed a dummy of himself off of the cliff so that he could get off of work to spend the Saturday by having fun with his family.

The next day, news of Homer's "death" spreads across Springfield, and Marge starts getting condolences from prominent Springfieldians. Patty and Selma offer their condolences in the form of a tombstone celebrating Homer’s death (it reads "Homer J. Simpson, We are richer For having lost him"), which they have been saving since Marge's wedding day, but she yells, "Get out of here, you ghouls!" at them and slams the door. When the house loses power, since the residence is in Homer's name, Marge finally puts her foot down and demands Homer sort out the whole "misunderstanding". The following day, Homer goes to the Springfield Hall of Records to tell them he's still alive which the clerk obliges. After his problem is taken care of he sees in the record that his mother is still alive. Incredulous, he goes to his mother's grave (or what he thinks it is) and discovers that it is actually Walt Whitman's grave. Nearby, he sees his own grave (possibly prepared by Patty and Selma since it has the same name written on it when they showed it to Marge earlier), and falls into it. His mother, Mona Simpson, suddenly arrives at the grave site and, at first, she doesn't believe he's her son. He's able to convince her when he tells her that it's his grave, so they have a rather emotional reunion after twenty-seven years of separation.

He takes her home to meet the family, which causes quite a stir and shock. Marge cannot believe she actually has a mother in law, Bart however only thinks that he has many overdue Christmas presents. Homer is furious at this, but Mona is not offended. She also bonds with Lisa, being on the same intellectual level and of the same socially-conscious personality. However, a police car drives by and Mona runs inside the house, making Lisa a little suspicious. She shares her suspicions with Bart, who had raided Mona's purse and found several drivers licenses with different names and Mona's photo. Lisa wonders whether she is a con artist or not. Meanwhile, Homer and Marge are wondering why his mom left him alone for twenty-seven years (Homer thinks he must've been a lousy son who no mother could love), and decide to find out. With Marge by his side, they go downstairs to Mona, and at the same time, Bart and Lisa come up from the basement to her. The whole family then confronts Mona about her shady past, threatening to call the police. She decides to tell them the truth after the family threatens to tell Grampa that she returned to Springfield.

The story flashes back to 1968, when she was still with Homer and Grampa. Obviously, she and Grampa didn't share the same interests. Unexpectedly radicalized by Joe Namath's hair during the telecast of Super Bowl III, she joins a group of hippies who protest a germ warfare lab owned by Monty Burns. They detonate an "antibiotic bomb" inside the lab, killing all the germs and curing lab security guard Clancy Wiggum's asthma. Mr. Burns, angry about the destruction of his "precious germs," manages to identify Mona as one of the perpetrators of the deed after she stopped to help Burns up after being trampled by the group. Not wanting her family to be put in danger Mona then went into hiding by herself but kissed a sleeping Homer goodbye one last time. Upon hearing about these events, the family now understands why she left, Homer then wonders why Mona never contacted him. Mona, insisting that she did send packages, they head to the post office to claim the undelivered packages ("That's what happens when you don't tip your letter carrier at Christmas," according to the post office worker).

At the post office, Mr. Burns somehow recognizes her and calls the FBI to send Bill Gannon (voiced by Harry Morgan) and Joe Friday (of Dragnet fame). At the Simpson home, Grampa gets the shock of his life when he visits and meets Mona. After a tense exchange, of Abe being left to raise Homer alone with Mona furious that he told their son she was dead, Abe begs for sex, but Mona refuses. Meanwhile, the FBI and Mr. Burns track her down, through a cab driver, a gravedigger and Patty and Selma.

Homer and Mona escape, thanks to Clancy Wiggum, who is grateful to Mona for curing his ailment, but she has to go underground by herself again. One final tidbit proves that Mona is indeed Homer's mother: as she bumps her head while getting into the hippies' van, she cries out "D'oh!"

The episode finishes with Mona driving away while Homer waves into the distance until the van is out of sight. Later, he is seen at night, still sitting on top of his car while gazing at the stars.

Citations[]