Milhouse of Sand and Fog
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"Milhouse of Sand and Fog" is the third episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired September 25, 2005. A total of 10.2 million viewers tuned into this episode beating Family Guy again with 8.97 million.
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[edit] Plot
The show starts in church, during Reverend Lovejoy's sermon, Maggie is caught scratching herself with a hymn book. Marge takes away the book, discouraged by the fact that Homer is flossing with the bookmark string. Later at home, Maggie is given oven mitts to prevent her scratching; she cannot resist scratching herself and takes the mitts off with ease. She finds other ways to scratch herself (e.g. a cheese grater). Inspired by Flanders' suggestion of purposely exposing the boys to the chicken pox, Homer invites all the neighborhood kids over to the Simpson house for a "pox party" (at fifteen bucks a head). He ends up catching it himself, by drinking from Maggie's milk bottle, having no childhood immunity. One good thing comes of it, though: Milhouse's parents reconcile.
Milhouse feels neglected because his parents aren't fawning over him as they once did, both competing for his love. Milhouse schemes to break up his parents again, and enlists both Bart and a plot borrowed from The O.C. The boys leave a bra conspicuously located in Kirk's bed--unfortunately, it is one of Marge's. Luann thinks Marge is having an affair with her husband, and soon she has Homer questioning his wife's fidelity. An argument ensues, and Bart realizes he may have split up his own parents instead of Milhouse's.
Bart schemes to reunite them by pretending to fall off a cliff into a river, using a dummy—but Milhouse's poor eyesight (and the fact that he hit a tree, thus breaking his glasses) sours the deal, and Bart ends up really taking the plunge. Homer leaps into the rapids and rescues Bart, and through a little trust, Marge saves them both from going over the falls. The Simpsons reconcile, once safely on the river bank. Milhouse, thinking Bart fell past the waterfall, yells " I don't want to live in a world without Bart" while he leaps over the cliff. Marge worriedly asks if he can swim. "What do you think?" asks Bart.
[edit] Trivia
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- In this episode it's revealed that Homer never had chickenpox before.
- In the African-American church, Sideshow Raheem, Drederick Tatum, Alcatrazz, Lucius Sweet, Lou and three of Dr. Hibbert's children are seen. Carl Carlson can also be seen, even though he is a Buddhist as of the episode" She of Little Faith ".
- This is the second time Milhouse's therapist, Dr. Sally Wexler, is mentioned (the first time being in "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming.")
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of the episode is a reference to the book House of Sand and Fog.
- In the scene parodying The O.C., in addition to the cheating scene, it also involves the O.C. gang going to Knott's Berry Farm (along with a person dressed as Snoopy), with The O.C.'s theme song California playing (Snoopy then forces the O.C. kids to take out money from an ATM at gunpoint). Ryan Atwood, a main character on the show, once played Snoopy in a school musical. California is also played over the end credits.
- The picture Homer receives with a traffic ticket in the mail shows him running a red light while eating a doughnut and reading Cat Fancy magazine.
- In one scene, Bart and Milhouse are acting out a song from the play Oklahoma!, "The Farmer and the Cowman".
- Milhouse exclaims in surprise, "Sweet Lizzie McGuire!"
- Marge saves Bart and Homer from going over the falls the same way as Buster Keaton did with his girl friend in Our Hospitality.
- The Springfield parents' scheme of purposely exposing their kids to Maggie's chicken pox is a centuries-old (and medically controversial) technique known as pox parties. Doctors are actually against the idea of pox parties that was used in this episode, claiming people should get the chickenpox vaccine instead as a safer alternative.[1]
- Bart describes the plan to split up Milhouse's parents as a "reverse Parent Trap".
- The scene at the A.M.E. church closely resembles the scene inside the Triple Rock Church in The Blues Brothers. In particular, the choir is wearing the same color robes, and the preacher looks, sounds, and sings like the Reverend Cleophus James.
- Marge said to Bart that she will erase all the game saves on his Playstation
