Labor Pains (The Simpsons)

"Labor Pains" is the fifth episode of the 25th season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 535th episode of the series. The episode was written by Don Payne and Mitchell H. Glazer and premiered on November 17, 2013, on Fox.^[1]

In the episode, after a night of playing poker with Moe, Lenny, and Carl, Homer finds himself in an elevator with a young mother named Gretchen, who is in labor and needs someone to help her keep calm. Meanwhile, Lisa helps the local football cheerleading team unionize and negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

Plot

A picky Maggie won't decide on a new pacifier as Marge watches impatiently. Marge finally caves in giving Maggie back her old one, which the dog had started chewing on. Lisa enters the kitchen with the book Pretending to Like Football by Mrs. John Madden. Lisa dishes out a fact about American football before Bart interrupts her saying that it's not “American” football; it's just football. Lisa rubs it in that Milhouse invited her to the football game instead of Bart, and Bart tattles on Lisa to Marge. Homer comes into the kitchen telling Marge he doesn't have time for breakfast. Marge automatically hands him a banana. Homer peels the banana, throws away the actual banana leaving the peel, grabs the bacon strips from the pan and stuffs them in the peel. In a game of poker, Homer has a winning streak before calling a night with Moe, Barney, Lenny and Carl. Homer leaves with the money and a stash of snacks. As Homer waits for the elevator to go down, a pregnant woman makes it in the elevator just in time. The elevator stops between floors, and the woman goes into labor. As neither of them have a cell phone. Homer attempts to deliver the baby by himself. Flashing back to when Homer took a prenatal class with Marge, the scene shows a younger Homer relaxing during the demonstration. Back in the present, Homer eventually gets the woman through the labor. The power in the elevator turns back on. The woman expresses her appreciation towards Homer on how at least someone who cared got her through the labor. Homer points out the random man in the corner holding a newspaper waiting for the elevator to stop at the lobby.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Milhouse watch the half-time of the football game. The cheerleaders prance on the field and ask for the help of an audience member. The Jumbotron initially centers on Milhouse before switching the focus to Lisa. The cheerleaders place Lisa on their shoulders and descend onto the field. After the cheerleaders change Lisa into her own cheerleader outfit, Lisa looks to be enjoying herself as Milhouse looks on proudly thinking that he’s dating the cheerleader. After the game, Lisa asks the cheer team for her clothes back and learns that cheerleaders get paid very little.

Over at Moe's apartment, Homer leaves poker night after another profitable night. He bumps into Gretchen, the woman who gave birth in the elevator, and finds out that Gretchen named her son after Homer. Another night, Homer drives over to the apartment to hand Gretchen some baby items he never used on his children. Gretchen, grateful for Homer's generosity, invites Homer to stay. Although Homer had plans with his friends, he decides to spend time with Gretchen and Homer Jr. When Marge discovers that Homer ditched work for what she assumes is poker night, she soon discovers that Homer is in a woman's home. Marge jumps to conclusions after hearing some suspicious sounds but hears the whole story play out in the apartment. Elsewhere, Lisa convinces the cheer team to go on strike until they get a new contract that gives them more money. However, Lisa didn't think that the cheer team would get so antsy that they would start cheering for just about anyone. Later, Homer takes his kids and Homer Jr. to the zoo only to deal with an incident when Homer Jr. mischievously pushes Maggie away on her stroller, leading her to roll towards the prairie dog exhibit. Maggie ends up saving herself. Marge appears at the zoo forbidding Homer to ever see Homer Jr. again, so in that time Homer attempts to pass some wisdom down to Homer Jr. before he has to leave him.

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, saying "In the end, there’s no payoff to this storyline at all, except that Maggie seems to forgive Homer for neglecting her in favor of his new elevator family. (Her apparently customary daydream that Flanders is her dad changes to Homer while they hug.) It’s the sort of sweet emotional payoff a good Simpsons episode pulls off after building the story on a solid character foundation along the way. Maybe next week it'll be better."^[2] The episode received a 1.8 rating and was watched by a total of 4.08 million people, this made it the second most watched show on Animation Domination that night, losing to Family Guy with 4.46 million.^[3]

References