My Mother the Carjacker

"My Mother the Carjacker" is the second episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season and first aired on November 9, 2003.^[2] Homer receives a cryptic message in the newspaper informing him to come to a certain place at midnight, and soon discovers that the person who wrote the message is his mother, Mona Simpson. It was written by Michael Price and directed by Nancy Kruse.^[2] Glenn Close makes her second of three guest spots as Homer's mother.^[2] It is the second in the Mona Simpson-trilogy, and has a direct link from the season seven episode, "Mother Simpson".^[3] It was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in 2004.^[4] In its original run, the episode received 12.4 million viewers.^[5]

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Reception
4 References

[edit] Plot

Homer, Bart and Lisa are cleaning the back garden miserably when Marge orders the family inside to watch TV. On Kent Brockman's Channel Six "Oops Patrol" segment, he displays a humorous headline, noticed and submitted by Marge, for which she received a free T-shirt. When Doctor Hibbert offers Marge special health treatments because he likes her shirt, an envious Homer asks Marge if he can have it. When she refuses, he attempts to find his own funny headline so he too can win a T-shirt, to no avail. Homer spends the following night with newspapers plastered over his bedroom wall, trying to find a funny headline. While searching, he finds an attractive article entitled "World's Biggest Pizza". Oddly enough, however, it's not the headline that attracted Homer's attention: the first letter of each line spells "Homer". Homer wakes Marge and tells her that someone or something is communicating with him, telling him to meet him at Four Street Overpass at midnight. He discovers that it is today's paper, and wakes Bart up so they can both go. When they reach the overpass, the mystery person arrives, frightening Homer and Bart. When putting a sweater with the words "World's Best Grandson" on Bart, she reveals herself to be Mona Simpson, Homer's mother.

Homer reunites with his mother again. At the Overpass Diner, she apologizes for the cloak and dagger, and explains that it was because the government is still hunting for her because of her 1960s crime of sabotaging Mr. Burns' germ warfare lab. Her liberal links at the Springfield Shopper published the story of the giant pizza to lure Homer, knowing that pizza was the first food Homer choked on. Bart questions why Mona came back, and she reveals that it was because of a macaroni pencil case Homer had made for her when he was five. Just then Chief Wiggum, Lou, and Eddie arrive at the diner, and Lou recognizes Mona. Hora, the lunch lady, lets Homer, Mona, and Bart to escape through the back. In the car, Homer vows not to let the cops get Mona again, but due to a lapse of concentration, he rams into the police station and Mona is arrested. Despite the fact that Mona had done many useful community service acts, Mr. Burns insists she be put on trial. When the trial goes unsuccessfully, Homer is put on the stand and he miserably gives a heartfelt request that they don't take his mother away from him again. The jury, moved, decide to acquit Mona.

A montage follows of Mona catching up on Homer's missed childhood; giving Homer a bath, watching Homer in the school play, knitting for Homer, teaching Homer how to ride a bike and the birth of Bart. Mona catches up with Lenny, Carl, and Moe, and Homer goes as far as to steal a room from Ned Flanders's house to please her. Mr. Burns renames his Germ Warfare Laboratory the "Grandma Simpson Peace Museum and Kid-teractive Learnatorium", to a crowd of cheering onlookers. Mr. Burns asks Mona to be the first to sign the museum's guest book. As she signs, she unwittingly mentions she had been signing false names when visiting state and national parks, which is a federal offence. The FBI jump out and arrest her for supplying false information on a national park register. They handcuff Mona, and take her away, causing a distraught Homer to run after the car taking his mother away again. A miserable Homer reminisces about the times he and Mona had caught up on, and while looking over photos of him and Mona, Lisa tells Homer she disagrees with what the government did with Mona, and unintentionally gives Homer the idea to break Mona out of prison.

The next day, as the bus transfers Mona and other female convicts to a federal prison, Homer and Bart trick the bus into pulling over. Homer steals the bus and liberates all the convicts except for Mona. Suddenly, police cars appear and give chase. Mona doesn’t want Homer to be imprisoned and leave his children like she did, and she pushes him out of the bus onto an abandoned bed. As the bus nears a cliff with the police in hot pursuit, Homer watches in horror as the bus flies off the cliff into a lake, blows up, and is covered by an avalanche. After Mona's funeral, at which he vented his frustration on Frank "Grimey" Grimes' tombstone, he pours over newspaper headlines, hoping his mother survived and left another message for him. He finds a random article in which the first letter of each row spells out "IMOK". Taking this to be another message from his mother, he goes to sleep. However, he overlooked an article about a giant taco, in which Mona encoded a message that explains she escaped from the bus before it crashed and hitched a ride out of town.^[3]

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a reference to the tv series, My Mother the Car.^[6] The song Mona sings with the convicts is "I Fought The Law".^[6] The song played during the '60s montage is Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower".^[6] During the scenes with Homer re-enacting his childhood for his mother, the song being played is "The Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon.^[7] Homer's line of "Bless the loom that fruited you," is a reference to Fruit of the Loom.^[7] Homer's line of "We'll hide you where there's no people - Disney's California Adventure", is a reference to how a park in Disneyland had the lowest attendance in history.^[7] Homer covering the walls and floor with newspaper cuttings is a reference to A Beautiful Mind.^[6]

[edit] Reception

During its original run, the episode gained 12.4 million viewers, losing to a rerun of "Three Gays of the Condo" (12.6).^[5] The episode was very positively received,^[8] and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award.^[4] TV.com reviewer Johnny Seidz quotes the episode did well introducing a former character, but wasn't as strong as "Mother Simpson".^[8] IGN ranks Glenn Close's performances as the twenty-fifth best guest appearances in the show's history.^[9]