Moe Baby Blues

From Simpsons Wiki

"Moe Baby Blues" is the finale of the fourteenth season of The Simpsons. It aired on May 18, 2003. The title is a play on both the Spike Lee film, Mo' Better Blues and The comic strip Baby Blues. In this episode, Moe starts spending time with Maggie, leading to Homer thinking that Maggie is seeing Moe as the father figure, rather than himself.

Plot

The town goes to the Springfield Botanical Gardens to see the blooming of a Sumatran Century Flower (based on the Titan arum). However, when the flower opens, it emits an odoriferous smell, sickening everyone and causing the town to flee. When the town starts to drive away from the Botanical Gardens, the Simpsons become trapped in a traffic jam. Homer is informed that the traffic is moving by Lisa, however he accelerates too hard and hits the brakes suddenly. The force sends Maggie flying through the sunroof. Moe, who is standing depressed on the edge of a bridge about to jump, catches Maggie just as she is about to fall into the river below the bridge. Moe is then instantly declared a hero.

Moe shows up at the Simpson house, and when Homer leaves for work and Marge ends up having to deal with Grampa, Moe is left babysitting Maggie. Maggie is instantly attached to Moe, and they have a good time. Marge returns and Moe asks if he can babysit Maggie, and she agrees. After a while, Marge is happy that she has had plenty of time to get things done, but Homer feels left out of Maggie's life. Later, Moe tells Maggie the story of The Godfather. When he gets to the part where Don Corleone plays with his grandson, Moe demonstrates how the Don scares him by sticking a cut-up orange in his mouth, and Maggie enjoys it. He later goes on to tell her the sequel. When it comes to Maggie's birthday party, Moe annoys both Homer and Marge, and they decide that they've had enough, and throw him out.

Moe reverts to being depressed, to the point of Moe imagining the barflies as Maggie. One night, the family is asleep, and Maggie wakes up and hears the mafia outside the house, plotting to kill the Castallaneta family (an in-joke to Dan Castallaneta, voice actor of Homer). When one of the mobsters feels hesitant, he does the Godfather-orange routine to cheer him up, and Maggie recognises it. She manages her way outside, and decides to follow the mobsters. When Homer and Marge find her missing, they automatically assume that Moe kidnapped her, and they track him down with the help of the police. They see Moe at his oven, and they think that Maggie is inside, though it is found that it is only a ham. When Moe is told that Maggie is missing, they decide to search the Simpson's house yard. They find the cut-up orange that was used by Fat Tony, and Moe works out that Maggie must have followed them to Springfield's Little Italy.

Maggie follows the mobsters to Luigi's, where Fat Tony's gang and the Castallaneta's are having a meeting. Maggie enters the restaurant where the two gangs are about to start a gun war. The situation deteriorates when they are all point guns at each other and Maggie is in the middle of an "Italian-American Mexican standoff". Homer, Marge and Moe are standing outside and Moe decides to go inside and save Maggie. Moe goes inside, and to prevent being shot, shows the gangsters Maggie's innocence. They start to cry, and Moe and Maggie are safe to leave. The family and Moe make up in the end, and Homer and Moe decide to have a "playdate", with Homer being with the ham, and Moe spending more time with Maggie.

Spin-off

Bongo Comics published a mini-series based on the Maggie and Moe relationship that bloomed in this episode. The comics are called Maggie & Moe Mysteries, appearing in both The Simpsons and Bart Simpson comic books.

Cultural references

• This episode's plot seems to be inspired by the film Baby's Day Out, right down to the lost baby retracing the steps of her/his favorite bedtime story and the babysitter finding her/him by realizing where the baby is going. Joe Mantegna was also in this film. There are also shades of Silas Marner, in that a miserly man is redeemed by a small lost child's love. Steve Martin, who appeared in "Trash of the Titans", starred in a feature film adaptation called A Simple Twist of Fate.
• Many references were made to the Godfather trilogy in this episode. The "cut-up orange" gag used by Moe and Fat Tony references how Don Corleone scares his grandson, while working in the garden, just minutes before he suffers a fatal heart attack. Another reference was that Fat Tony complains about paying to see The Godfather III. The actor who voices Fat Tony, Joe Mantegna, was in this final film. Also in the episode, Moe mentions Bridget Fonda, who was in the film as well.
• The song "You're My Best Friend", performed by Queen, was featured in this episode.
• The movie that is playing in the Hibberts' SUV is The Beverly Hillbillies Down Under.
• The title is a reference to Mo' Better Blues and Baby Blues.