The title is funny, because the story has nothing to do with the title. I’m still impressed by the episodes because they continue to squeeze content in 20 minutes. The opening scene has Bart going on a field trip, but the entire episode has nothing to do with Bart. I hadn’t watch cartoons in a long time, but from what I remembered, most of the time anyway, episodes tend to stick to one topic. So this is refreshing, because I never know where the story is going.
Spoiler next:
Bart had a field trip to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The scientist, Waylon Smithers, showed off the safety features of the place, including a three eyed fish at the pond where water flows out of the plant. Homer wanted to impress his son, so he drove around the block when the class had a view of the factory floor. Like father, like son, both of which caused chaos and Homer drove straight into a gas pipe that cause toxic gas to be released – he was fired on the spot by the father of the two twin girls, the same two who were provoking Bart on the way to the field trip. Homer stayed home, couldn’t get a job while still an alcoholic, finally fell so low that he smashed Bart’s piggy bank, only to find it didn’t even have enough for a beer too.
He decided that he needs to commit suicide by dragging a boulder from his house to the river, but was annoyed that he almost killed by cars at the intersection to the bridge. The Simpsons arrived, and Homer’s new mission is to have a stop sign at that intersection before dying, and he found that nobody oppose for these signs, so he became obsess at adding signs everywhere. He soon lost interest except for his old employer – Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, and started a huge protest against it. Mr. Burns, CEO of the power plant, bribed Homer by asking him to call off the protest to reinstate him. Homer rejected, and Mr Burns see an opening, install Homer as a chief Safety Officer, which is a win-win. Homer told the crowd that he will change the power plant from within, whereas Mr. Burns knows that Homer would continue to eat his donuts at work. Overall, I didn’t find anything too funny on the episode, but man, what a ride. In some ways, it is Homer’s Odyssey, he is home after so much incidents and trouble. Let’s see how episode 4 can topped this!