Episode 22 - Blood Feud
8 July 2010
Synopsis: Mr Burns urgently needs a blood transfusion but his rare blood type makes it unlikely that they will find a donor. When Homer discovers that Bart can donate he insists that he does anticipating a financial reward. The operation goes well but Burns sends only a thank you card. Homer writes an angry letter which indirectly leads to Burns seeing the error of his decision.
The Good: There are plenty of interesting sign posts for the future of The Simpsons in this episode. After a season of sentiment heavy episodes with clear "morals of the story" there is almost a conscience shift here. The writers deliberately script Marge to conclude that there was no moral to this tale and thus the groundwork is laid for future episodes to rove into different territory rather than the show remain a moralising cartoon in a traditional mould.
In terms of humour you can see it already breaking free here. Homer has one of his first sarcastic rants about something when he accuses Marge of living in a fantasy land for thinking that Mr Burns doesn't owe Homer lots of money for his son's blood donation. There's also a very unexpected gag based around Maggie. Lisa is teaching her the names of more complex and rare animals so that she will broaden her learning possibilities. We see this going on a couple of times before Mr Burns' bizarre gift of an Olmec statue arrives. When it does Maggie proudly and impressively holds up one of Lisa's cards which says "Aztec" on it. But Lisa of course corrects her pointing out that it's actually Olmec with no hint of praise for this astonishing recognition in one so young. It's such a small and strange joke. But it's somehow very fitting for the show and where it's headed. No opportunity for an unexpected punch line is going to be ignored from now on.
The story itself was just fine with Burns being his usual selfish self. I very much liked the scene where Smithers faced moral conflict with his order to beat up Homer. There was something sadly real about the casual brutality of the heavy who admitted he knew and liked Homer. Between that and Smithers' guilt you felt the story was really being explored thoroughly.
The Bad: On the other hand the ending was odd. Burns' gift was bizarre but it was perfectly appropriate in value to what Bart had given him. The big hole in the story is why Homer didn't immediately suggest they sell it netting them $30,000. The problem with that is that would have wrapped up the story on a clear moral - that Homer had some right to demand a reward. The writers didn't want that and so instead the family sat awkwardly with their present discussing the lack of a moral to the story. It was a clumsy attempt to move the show past the concept of having a moral message.
Sticklers may ask how exactly the Olmec statue got into the house considering how large it is.
Best Joke: Homer Simpson is one of the characters largely responsible for me coining the phrase "believable stupidity" to use in my reviews. Here is a classic example where his behaviour is entirely plausible and relatable until the point where he didn't think it through entirely. He heads to the post office and pretends to be Mr Burns in order to retrieve his angry letter.
Homer: "Hello my name is Mr Burns, I believe you have a letter for me."
Postal worker: "Ok Mr Burns. What's your first name?"
Homer: (Pause) "I don't know."
The timing and Homer's fake voice make it far funnier than I can make it in print but it remains classic for its simplicity.
The Bottom Line: Season two of the show was heavy on the sentiment and moralising stories. Some were very good, but the majority were just solid. You can sense that the writers wanted to start branching out and the strains of that begin to appear here with a poor ending to an otherwise fine story.
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