Episode 13 - Gone Maggie Gone
30 July 2009
Synopsis: Marge is temporarily blinded after looking at a solar eclipse. Homer has to pick up the slack and manages to hand Maggie over to the Convent of St Teresa. Lisa goes in undercover and is told if she can find the Jewel of St Teresa, she will find Maggie. As she solves a series of riddles, Principal Skinner, Comic Book Guy and Mr Burns all join in the fun. Despite Maggie bringing peace, Marge comes to take her home.
The Good: The Da Vinci Code inspiration provides us with a pretty engaging story as Lisa solves a series of clues to find Maggie. Quests are always handy plots for TV shows because viewers feel a natural inclination to see a mystery through to its conclusion. The fake history of St Teresa manages to showcase some classic Simpsons humour with the juxtaposition of modernity with history. So we get nuns acting like pirates as they sail to America and find the Phillie Phanatic mascot in Philadelphia. A fake War of Independence then ensues as King George and George Washington search together for the jewel.
Mr Burns, Principal Skinner and Comic Book Guy also make nice additions to the quest, giving Lisa fun characters to play off. Comic Book Guy cries out after Burns makes him dig his own grave “Superman, I’ve believed in you for years. If you can hear me now, please come help me dig this giant grave!”
And with Marge temporarily blinded we get Homer taking charge of a trip to the poison store which is typically bungled. The setup for why he abandons Maggie is pretty funny (see Best Joke) and the writers throw in the literal image of the fox-duck-corn dilemma for good measure.
A few other typically Simpsonian jokes sneak in too with Millhouse admitting “I’m not a smart nerd, I’m just a weak nerd.” And then Lisa reads the sign outside of the Bell tower “KEEP OUT…OR ENTER. I’M A SIGN, NOT A COP.”
The Bad: The episode this draws a comparison (most obviously) with is “Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in The Curse of the Flying Hellfish” (722). That too had a mystery based around a fictional historical event and a quest. But when the silliness was all over that episode left a clear message. For years Abe had told exaggerated nonsensical stories. Bart finally called him a liar but through the quest learned that Abe really had been brave and important once. The Simpsons universe returned to its status quo as usual but the viewer was left with the warm story of a Grandparent and Grandchild brought closer.
The problem with so many of the modern episodes, this one included is that they have no similar purpose. This episode ends with Marge choosing Maggie over some spurious notion that peace had been brought to Springfield. There is no warm feeling coming from that because the writers didn’t have a purpose in mind for the characters when they wrote this. Their aim was to use a Davinci style plot to save them coming up with fresh ideas (throw in Ratatouille for good measure).
And although “The Curse of the Flying Hellfish” was clearly silly and fictional, it didn’t have so many plot holes that you couldn’t enjoy it fully. Here the Jewel of St Teresa is so lazily plotted that it really doesn’t come across as well as it should have done. The silly anagrams are bad but the fact that the nuns couldn’t have known that the baby was called Maggie makes it worse. Maggie’s supposed peace powers and Bart’s devil inspired ones make this more of a Halloween episode too. Add to that the fake War of Independence which pushes the whole thing outside of a believable reality for really no good reason. You even have Mr Burns threatening to murder Lisa and friends before randomly deciding to help them when it is of no benefit to him. It’s such a far cry from the consistent and hilarious Mr Burns from the “Flying Hellfish.”
A lot more could have been done with Bart pretending to be Lisa to fool Marge. And Homer’s hand suddenly having a personality is one of those jokes which probably sounded funny on paper but has no basis in reality.
Best Joke: Maggie is scooped up and taken into the convent by a nun. Homer shrieks “Ah! Catholics!” and hastens to get her bad. There is no reasoning with the sister though. “Come on lady, have a heart, I bet your husband does stupid things sometimes.” She looks insulted and replies “I’m married to Jesus!” Scoffing Homer replies “Yeah right and I’m married to Wonder Woman!”
The Bottom Line: Season twenty of The Simpsons has produced some fun episodes by its own later-season low standards. This is one of them, a fun plot with some fun jokes. But think of how much better this could have been with a fully engaged writing team aiming to make a point which would make their audience feel something.
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