The Father, The Son & The Holy Guest Star
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"The Father, The Son & The Holy Guest Star" is the last episode of The Simpsons' sixteenth season. The episode aired on May 15, 2005 in the United States. Originally supposed to air April 10, the episode was dropped from the week's schedule due to the death of Pope John Paul II, since this episode revolved around Catholicism.
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[edit] Plot
Springfield Elementary School is holding its medieval festival. All the students are given roles: Lisa is queen, Martin is king, and Bart is the cooper (a role he bitterly hates). Groundskeeper Willie, against his will, is cast as the village idiot. Bart is mad about his role and is treated terribly by everyone, especially Lisa. Bart hates his role, but not as mad as Willie. For revenge, Willie unleashes a pie with hundreds of rats inside. Bart is blamed for this prank and is expelled from school. After looking through other schools, Marge decides to enroll Bart in St. Jerome's Catholic School. There, Bart's hip, rebel attitude is frowned upon.
While holding out two dictionaries, Bart meets Father Sean (voiced by Liam Neeson). He gives Bart a comic book about the saints and he is drawn into it. At home, Marge becomes concerned over Bart's interest in the Roman Catholic Church. Homer goes to the school to confront Father Sean, but reconsiders after having pancake dinner and playing Bingo. After expansively confessing, Homer learns he must convert to Catholicism to be absolved of his sins. With Bart and Homer both considering joining the Church, Marge (worried she might be alone in Protestant Heaven while Bart and Homer are in Catholic Heaven) seeks help from Rev. Lovejoy and Ned Flanders, who agree to stop them. While they are learning about First Communion, Marge, Lovejoy, and Ned capture Bart.
On the road, Marge and Lovejoy try to bring Bart back to the "one true faith": The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism. Back at the house, Lisa agrees with Homer and Bart's desire to join a new faith. Even after getting laughed at for being Buddhist by Fr. Sean, she says that Marge is taking Bart to a Protestant Youth Festival. Homer and Fr. Sean then leave in immediate pursuit. At the Festival, Marge fails to bribe Bart with the banal Christian rock of Quiet Riot (Pious Riot after their conversion). However, he agrees after he plays some paintball. Homer and Fr. Sean arrive and engage in a Mexican standoff with Ned and Lovejoy. Bart says it is stupid that all the different forms of Christianity are feuding. The two groups agree to both fight monogamous gays and stem cells and to take Bart's idea to heart. The episode then jumps 1,000 years into the future, when Bart becomes the last Prophet of God. In this age, mankind is waging war over whether Bart's teachings were about love and tolerance, or understanding and peace (and whether he was betrayed by his minion Milhouse and ripped apart by snowmobiles until he died). One side cries Bart's catchphrase "Eat my shorts", the other cries "Cowabunga" and they join battle.
[edit] Cultural references
- The way that Quiet Riot converted to Christian Rock is similar to the way suggested in the episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland", as well as the South Park episode "Christian Rock Hard". The song they sing is a religionized version of "Cum on Feel the Noize."
- In Catholic heaven, everyone dances to the music made famous by Riverdance. This song is also played over the end credits.
- At the school Medieval festival, Otto is shown playing a lute, going into a "lute solo", smashing the lute, and lighting it on fire, like Jimi Hendrix's fabled performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. He sings about the game Dungeons & Dragons.
- The title is a play on the famous Catholic invocation usually associated with the sign of the cross: "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (or Spirit)". The "Holy Guest Star" refers to Liam Neeson, for his appearance as Father Sean in this episode.
- After taking Bart away from the Catholic school, Rev. Lovejoy is driving the Ministry Machine, a car similar to the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo.
- Marge's mobile phone ringtone is the opening theme song from the television series Hawaii Five-O.
- Groundskeeper Willie references a quote from The Wizard of Oz.
- Homer complains that the church has even more rules than Blockbuster.
- Cultural error: Lisa refers to Latin as "the language of Plutarch". She also says Plutarch "chronicled the lives of the Roman Emperors". Plutarch did not write in Latin, he wrote in Greek. He also did not write specifically about the lives of the Roman Emperors. While he did write about the lives of Julius Caesar and Augustus, he also wrote about many other notable historic characters, both Greek and Roman.
[edit] Reception
Eric Goldman, Dan Iverson, and Brain Zormski of IGN called this episode this best episode of the sixteenth season. They thought of it as a great episode that dealt with the sensitive topic of religious tolerance, stating that "with a daring story, we can't help but remember when The Simpsons was an edgy hip show that would frequently shed a light on cultural complexes". They thought it would be ideal if there were more episodes like this one.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" at TV.com
- "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" at the Internet Movie Database
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