Simpsons Did It!: “The 7 Beer Itch”

Robin Atkin Downes and Brian George voice various Englishmen in this episode.  Downes at least is known for voice work, and George’s biggest claim to fame is a couple episodes of Seinfeld.  Do they count as guest stars?

Maybe.  But the real guest star this time around is Olivia Colman.  I mean, she has an Oscar at home and everything…

We got a weird one this time which could describe all kinds of episodes, but I am sticking to that description right now because I can.  Groundskeeper Wiillie is here to tell us a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, his only audience at various times Nelson, a raccoon, a gopher, and the home audience.  Skinner shows up long enough to ask Willie to rake the leaves while he narrates, but Skinner changes his mind for a rather dark joke involving class pets.

Anyway, why is Willie narrating anything?  It seems that back in the United Kingdom there was a very enchanting woman named Lily (Colman) who liked to go to pubs, sing songs, and enchant every man she meets.  She is so charming that a judge exiles her to the penal colony (America), getting Lily multiple men asking her out or even proposing on the flight over.

Seriously, this is apparently one charming woman.

After a failed relationship with a certain Leonardo DiCaprio (not the real voice), Lily is tired of it all and opts to go to Springfield since it has the lowest testosterone levels in America and she could use a break.  That takes her to Moe’s where she once again sings happy songs and enchants everyone there.

Homer is, oddly, not there.

He’s at home.

If you were wondering where the Simpsons were in all this, we now have our answer.  Marge and the kids are going on vacation to Marge’s aunt’s winery in Martha’s Vineyard for an unconditional free stay.  Except there was one condition:  Homer couldn’t come.

Marge’s family really sucks.

That puts Homer in a sad place, even as he sees the pets are going to stay with Flanders.  SLH and Snowball sure do love Flanders.  Hell, Grampa is going to stay with Flanders and seems happy about it.  Homer will be home completely alone without anyone for a week, and that makes him miserable.  He eventually finds his way over to Moe’s.

And once there…he is completely immune to Lily’s charms.  He’s the only one.  He just misses Marge so much.

Naturally, Lily falls for Homer as a result.  Why Homer?  I don’t know.  Apparently Barney feels the same way as Lily for Homer, and that was a twist I did not see coming.  However, nothing comes of it, so I won’t remember it later.

Lily then goes out of her way to woo Homer, even going to the Nuclear Plant with a picnic lunch that attracts attention…from Mr. Burns.

See, this is one odd episode.  We’ve seen Homer tempted in the past, but he never strays from Marge and never really will.  The one time he and Marge did break-up, the whole thing was a series of dreams-within-dreams ending in a tattoo.  And we see Lily really pour on the charm, starting to get through to Homer…only for Marge to come back early.  Bart got a lot of tick bites, Maggie nearly got run over by tourists, and Lisa…didn’t have a whole lot to do this episode, truth be told.

So, even as Lily starts to enchant Homer through song over to her house, Homer manages to resist by imaging Marge’s own singing.  Ugh, that singing.  But, it worked, and Homer doesn’t stray.

Lily is distraught enough to return to England.  I thought she was exiled, but here we are.  And she even meets a mustachioed Homer lookalike that will stay with her, so I guess that’s a happy ending.  Considering how much Lily ignored the fact–that she knew–that Homer was married, well, I can’t say I feel that bad for her either way.

So, Homer was tempted by another woman and stayed true to Marge.  That’s, like, Generic Simpsons Plot #4.

We’ll probably see another one of those before the season is over.