Mona Leaves-a
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"Mona Leaves-a"[1] is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season, and first aired on May 11, 2008. The episode features the death of Homer's mother, Mona Simpson.[1] Homer is reunited with his mother, Mona, but isn't willing to forgive her for all the times she left him as a child. When she dies, a guilt-ridden Homer attempts to make it up to her by fulfilling her final wishes.[1] It was written by Joel H. Cohen and directed by Mike B. Anderson and Ralph Sosa.[1] Glenn Close makes her third appearance as Mona Simpson, and Lance Armstrong has a cameo as himself.[1] The episode is dedicated to the memories of Elsie Castellaneta (Dan Castellaneta's mother)[2] and Dora K. Warren (Harry Shearer's mother).[3] In its original run, the episode was watched by 6.02 million people, making it the lowest watched episode in the history of the Simpsons.[4]
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[edit] Plot
The episode begins with the family shopping at the Springfield Mall. Marge reveals that she merely brought the family there for sweaters, prompting Homer, Bart, and Lisa to bombard her with requests to go to different areas. Marge pressures the family into doing something Maggie wants; they agree to go to "Stuff-N-Hug", a workshop that lets children create stuffed animals. When Bart finds a hippo that records his own voice, he decides to humiliate Homer. Homer, enraged when all the toys begin insulting him, starts attacking all the hippos in an angry fit, prompting Marge to immediately take the family home. Upon arriving home, the family discovers their front door is open. The family assumes that a burglar has entered the house. Homer takes a concrete block tied with a chain called "the Defender",[5] with the intention of attacking the burglar. However, when he smells apple pie in the kitchen, he hurries inside and discovers that the supposed burglar is none other than his mother, Mona Simpson.
Mona says that her days of activism are over, and that she is staying for good. When she asks if Homer will forgive her, a shaken Homer angrily replies that he will not, because of all the times she left him as a child. When she says that he is the most important thing in her life, Homer replies that he does not want to get close to her again because she has a pattern of disappearing and he'll just wind up feeling hurt and abandoned again. After Bart and Lisa tell Mona that Homer had always missed her when she was gone, Mona arrives in Homer's bedroom at night to apologize again. Mona desperately tries to apologize, and she tells him that she realizes the damage she caused upon her son, and says that by trying to fix the world, she learned she was destroying her own, but after Homer's anger reaches its highest, Mona decides to leave the room. In the middle of the night, Homer is guilt-wracked for his behavior. He makes an apology card and goes to the living room to find Mona staring at the fireplace, quiet. After going right up to her face and discovering she isn't moving, it is discovered that she is dead.
Mona is cremated, and a miserable Homer takes her ashes. At the funeral, Abe says he had always planned to dance on her grave for abandoning him with Homer, but now realizes he can't bring himself to do it. Homer is depressed and guilt-ridden for not apologizing to his mother and struggles to come to terms with her death. While going through Mona's old stuff, Marge finds her video will, and watches it to discover that Mona left the family some of her possessions: Marge received Mona's hemp sulfur purse, Bart received Mona's Swiss army knife, and Lisa received Mona's rebellious spirit. For Homer, however, she leaves a task: to take her ashes to the highest point at Springfield Monument Park and scatter them at exactly 3 o'clock. Although the point of the mountain is extensively high, Homer climbs to the top, in honor of his mother. He scatters her ashes, which blow into a missile guidance computer at the base on the inside of the mountain, ruining the computer. The two guards determine that judging by the wind, the exact time, and exact location, the ashes may have been planned to fall into the system. Homer is hurt that the last thing Mona told him to do was "another hippie protest".
Fired upon by the guards, Homer falls down into the launch room. After a beating from the guards, Homer is tied up and left in a control room. Mr. Burns comes in to tell Homer that he is going to send a missile filled with Springfield's nuclear waste into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. As a last retort, Mr. Burns gives Homer back his mother's ashes in a vacuum-cleaner bag from when they vacuumed out of the computer. Seeing Homer tied up, Bart throws him Mona's knife, in which Homer uses to cut himself free. Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa are outside. Using a pair of Mona's diamond earrings Lisa stole, the two light Marge's hemp purse on fire, which creates marijuana fumes through a vent, slowing the guards. Upon noticing a concrete block and a rope, Homer recreates "the Defender", from early in the episode, and uses it to attack the guards. With no distraction, he stops the launch, but then accidentally presses the self destruct button on the computer and the base explodes, representing Mona's final victory (through her family) over the things she spent her life fighting. Homer escapes on a parachute, landing with his family. He then releases his mother's ashes once again and the scene turns into clips of Homer enjoying time with his mother, of when he was little and scenes from other episodes with her.[1]
[edit] Cultural references
The title is a reference to the famous Da Vinci painting, the Mona Lisa. This is the third Simpsons episode to be named after the painting, after "Moaning Lisa", and "Moe'N'a Lisa".[6] Homer compares Mona's disappearances to the show, Scrubs.[6] The episode parodies James Bond.[6] The ESPY Awards features Lance Armstrong and Fozzie Bear.[6] The "Stuff-N-Hug" store at the Springfield Mall is a parody of the Build-a-Bear Workshop chain.[7] Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" is heard, running over Mona's tribute.[5] Mr. Burns calls his assistant's wife "no Mamie Van Doren".[5] There is a reference to the TV Show Monk by two guards.
[edit] Reception
The episode was watched in 6.02 million homes and garnered a 2.9 Nielsen rating and a 9% share, placing it third in its timeslot.[8] This makes it the lowest watched episode in the history of the Simpsons.[4] Both Robert Canning of IGN and Richard Keller of TV Squad called it a decent episode, but despised Mona's brief appearance.[6][7] Both, however, found favor with the scene where Homer realized Mona's death, and the tribute at the end.[7][6] Mel Bouvier of FireFox.org quotes the third act shouldn't even have existed; she continues by saying the entire James Bond theme was already used in "You Only Move Twice", and ruined the image of the episode.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "HOMER FULFILLS HIS MOTHER'S FINAL WISHES ON "THE SIMPSONS", SUNDAY, MAY 11, ON FOX", FoxFlash, 2008-04-15. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
- ^ a b Bouvier, Mel. "Review -- The Simpsons "Mona Leaves-a"", FireFox, 2008-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ^ Harry Shearer Biography (1943-). NetIndustries. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
- ^ a b "SimpsonsChannel: Your Home For Simpsons News.", Simpsons Channel, 2008-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-05-12.
- ^ a b c d Christine M. "Recapist: "Mona Leaves-a"", Recapist, 2008-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-05-12.
- ^ a b c d e f Keller, Richard (1008-05-12). The Simpsons:Mona Leaves-a VIDEO. TV Squad. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
- ^ a b c Robert Canning. "IGN: Mona Leaves-a Review; Homer's mother returns... briefly.", IGN, 2008-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-05-12.
- ^ Robert Seidman. "Nielsen Ratings May 11, 2008: Housewives vs. Survivors", TV by the Numbers, 2008-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-05-12.