The Seemingly Never-Ending Story

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The Seemingly Never-Ending Story
Season 17 Episode 13
Production Code	HABF06
Original Airdate	March 12, 2006
Written By	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Directed By	Raymond Persi
Show Runners	Al Jean
Special Guests	Maurice LaMarche
Blackboard Text	none

The Seemingly Never-Ending Story is the thirteenth episode of the seventeenth season, the 369 episode over all and the ninth Emmy Award-winning episode. It was originally broadcast in the United States on March 12, 2006. The title is a take-off from the novel The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende, and the 1984 Wolfgang Petersen film of the same name.This episode was rated TV14-DL in the US, the ninth time for The Simpsons.

Plot

While visiting "Carl's Dad Caverns, a parody of Carlsbad Caverns, Homer meddles with a very fragile stalactite, with the result that the whole family ends up in an unknown cavern below the main tour—with Homer stuck in a narrow hole, half in and half out of the cavern. Noting that this cave is not on the tour's map, Marge and Bart go off to find an exit. Homer is afraid to be left alone in his position, so Lisa stays with him. To pass the time, she begins to tell a story which he tells her cannot be about unicorns.

Lisa tells how, the week before, she had been out for a walk when a big-horned sheep inexplicably attacked her; she ran to the nearest shelter, Charles Montgomery Burns' house. The animal bursts in, and she and Mr. Burns wind up in the attic and block the entrance with old boxes. There, Lisa finds a photo of Mr. Burns as an employee at Moe's, and he tells her the origins of it.

Mr. Burns explains that once, he and the Rich Texan were involved in a scavenger hunt, the winner of which would get all the possessions of the loser. The items consisted of ridiculous things like Frank Grimes' tombstone and a single strand of Homer's hair. After both competitors get a strand, Homer goes into a wig store and gets an identical wig. Burns was unable to find the last item on the list—a picture of himself with a smiling child. Every child was terrified of him. Milhouse says "It's the boogeyman's grandfather!" when confronted with Burns. The Texan won by getting a picture of him and Jimbo Jones in a cowboy hat, as a result Mr. Burns had to go and start from the bottom of all industries, but to get to the bottom, he had to work his way up to the bottom from Moe's Tavern, having lost all of his worldly possessions to the Texan. While there, he found a note hidden under a pickled egg jar to be opened when Moe Szyslak died, which led to Moe's own story of a hidden treasure.

The summer before Edna Krabappel began teaching, she and Moe meet when he is hit by Edna's bus. They fall in love, without Edna knowing he owns a bar. At the time, she hated bar owners since her ex-husband was an alcoholic, Moe, scared to lose Edna, claims to be an alcoholic therapist. Scared that Edna will find out the truth about him eventually, Moe wants to leave Springfield with her but has no money. He then discovers that Snake Jailbird — who used to be an idealistic archaeologist — had discovered a large batch of Mayan coins he was going to donate to the museum. Moe steals them, turning Snake to a life of crime (a.k.a. regularly robbering the Kwik-E-Mart). Moe is then about to leave town with Edna, but when she goes to school to explain that she is quitting, she sees Bart.

This leads to her story. Bart explains he had all-summer detention, and feels he is a lost cause because no one believes in his abilities. Edna declares that come the next year, when she teaches fourth grade, she will help him to succeed. It turns out, however, that Bart was actually just distracting Edna while he and Nelson steal microscopes and computers. After explaining her decision to Moe, he flies into a rage and screams at her while dumping her luggage into the street and storms into his tavern.

Utterly depressed, Moe puts priceless coins in his jukebox, repeatedly playing 'their' song, which is "Fly Me to the Moon" by Bart Howard, as sung by Frank Sinatra. Mr. Burns (here ends Moe's story) opened up the jukebox and gave the coins to the Texan to buy back all of his things, but the Texan demanded that Mr. Burns produce a picture of himself with a smiling child before he could get the plant back. Burns' rival explains that he has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, thus feeling the need to have Burns complete the scavenger hunt. Mr. Burns ends his story and he explains to Lisa that he cannot get the plant back because no child will smile at him.

Just then, the goat bursts into the attic. Mr. Burns hurts himself defending Lisa. It turns out that the goat doesn't want to kill them—in its own story (which lasts but a few seconds) it speechless explains that it found Lisa's pearl necklace on a branch and was merely trying to return it, ending the goat's story. Lisa, in gratitude to Mr. Burns for his attempted rescue, takes a photo of the two together with her smiling, allowing Burns to win back his plant from the Texan. This exits to the cave scene.

Homer breaks free of his trap, and reveals that he had an ulterior motive for bringing the family to the caves. He himself tells a new story, explaining that while in the woods hiding from babysitting duty, he saw the Texan hide the gold coins in the cave while singing a parody song, and brought the family so they could search for the gold to pay an operation for Bart. Nobody, not even Bart, knows about this operation. Just then, the Texan shows up, and the gold is found behind a rock by Mr. Burns, Moe, and Snake (in that order). They enter a four-way Mexican standoff. Everyone has guns except for Moe, who makes gun noises with his mouth while holding a baseball bat. Snake had also brought his son, Jeremy, as it is their weekend together. Marge grabs the bag and threatens to drop it down a very deep pit if they don't end their standoff. When she discovers the extreme depth of their greed, she drops it down the pit. Instantly, everyone realizes how greedy they had been, and go out to volunteer as a way of atoning for their sins, with the exception of Mr. Burns, who attempts to climb down to get the gold.

Suddenly, it is revealed that the whole episode has all been a story by Bart, being told to Seymour Skinner as an explanation for why he didn't have time to study for a recent geography test. The principal finds this ridiculous until he sees Moe and Edna kissing outside, meaning they've finally got back together. At this point in her life, Edna is so desperate, all she's looking for is a "guy with a healthy libido," to which Moe responds "And this is where it gets awkward," implying that this relationship will not last long, either.

Cultural references

• Commander McBragg, a character from the 1960s cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, calls the scavenger hunt duel. He had pink skin in the original version, but of course in the Simpsons' world, was recoloured yellow.
• Rich Uncle Pennybags, mascot of the game Monopoly is seen in Burns' club.
• Numerous scenes feature music from Beethoven's 6th Symphony (when Lisa has to deal with the big horn sheep) andAaron Copland's Hoe Down."