Dark Knight Court

"Dark Knight Court" is an episode of The Simpsons. It is the sixteenth episode of the 24th season and the 524th episode overall. It aired on March 17, 2013.^[2] The episode is dedicated to Janet and Maggy Reno's brother, Robert Reno, who died of Alzheimer's disease.^[3][4] The episode was rated TV-PG for suggestive dialogue (D), bad language (L), violence (V) and sexual situations (S).

Plot

During an Easter celebration, hundreds of eggs are suddenly fired at the townspeople, ruining their clothes and splattering the streets. The citizens immediately suspect Bart after seeing him laughing at their misfortune. Bart repeatedly denies committing the prank, and Lisa eventually decides that the best way to determine his guilt is to hold a trial, which is presided over by Janet Reno. However, the odds do not look good in Bart's favor, and he is close to being found guilty. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns rediscovers his love of superheroes after visiting Comic Book Guy's store, and he decides to become a superhero named Fruitbat Man. However, Smithers, fearful of Burns's safety, stages numerous crimes for his boss to thwart, using Homer, Lenny, Carl, the Crazy Cat Lady, and other citizens as patsies for supervillain identities, but Burns soon finds out Smithers's schemes and becomes outraged.

Desperate to find someone to solve Bart's dilemma, Lisa tries to hire Burns, but he refuses. Through clues, Lisa deduces that Groundskeeper Willie was responsible as his kilt had only one egg splattered on it, compared to the other articles of clothing. She confronts him, and he confesses to committing the prank, citing his inbred hatred of Easter as his motivation. He then shreds the kilt and attempts to escape, but Burns intervenes, having had a change of heart. Willie is captured and turned in just before Bart can be found guilty of the accusations against him. Lisa thanks Burns and tells him that this could be a good opportunity for him to become a better person. Later, Moe gets a phone calls stating that Bart was acquitted.

Before the end credits role, there is a trailer for the "Dependables" that features superhero spoofs of the other characters.

Cultural references

The episode is a reference to the Batman films The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises as well as the 80's TV series Night Court. Expanding on the former references, Mr. Burns dresses up like Batman and is tangling with various fake villains; Lenny is dressed as Bane, Carl is dressed as the Joker, Homer is dressed as the Penguin and The Crazy Cat Lady is Catwoman. A spoof segment of The Avengers, called "The Dependables" (a play on The Expendables and Depend brand adult diapers), is seen at the end of the episode, featuring Nick Fury and several Justice League parodies and an Iron Man parody.

Reception

Ratings

The episode received a 2.2 in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.89 million viewers. This made it the second most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line up that night, beating The Cleveland Show and Bob's Burgers but losing out to Family Guy with 4.92 million.^[5]

Critical reception

Robert David Sullivan of The A. V. Club gave the episode a B, saying "Earlier this season, I wrote that Mr. Burns was getting tiresome as a character. So though 'Dark Knight Court' isn't necessarily the funniest episode of the season, it is one of the most pleasantly surprising."^[6] Rob H. Dawson of TV Equals said "The Simpsons is at its best when it doesn't stray too far from its roots as a take on the family sitcom, and the Batman parody in 'Dark Knight Court' just didn't hit that mark for me."^[7] John Blabber of Bubbleblabber gave the episode an 8.5 out of 10, saying, "The Simpsons put together another solid episode with a bigger focus on the Burns story. No joke, this is the closest we've gotten to a Bartman type deal and it worked so well I wanted more of it."^[8]

References