vote

I voted Mother Simpson mostly because I love the opening scene.

Mother Simpson

Mr. Burns has all of his employees clean up a highway maintained by his company. Not wishing to waste his Saturday, Homer fakes his death so that he does not have to take part. He uses a replica of himself and throws it into a waterfall which gets severely broken and eventually goes into the turbines to which everyone thinks Homer killed himself. The next day, news of Homer's "death" spreads, and after getting many flowers and sympathy cards, as well as a tombstone, Marge finds out and orders Homer to go to the Springfield Hall of Records to get the "misunderstanding" sorted out. While sorting out the problem, Homer gets into an argument with a clerk who claims that Homer's mother is still alive, in spite of Homer's belief that she died while he was young. Homer visits what he believes is her grave, only to discover that it belongs to Walt Whitman. Nearby, he sees his own grave and falls into it. A woman approaches and chastises Homer for falling into her son's grave. Homer realizes that the woman is his mother, Mona, and the two have an emotional reunion after 27 years apart.

Homer takes Mona home to meet the family and she bonds with Lisa, being on the same intellectual level. While the two are sitting on the front steps, a police car drives by and Mona runs inside the house, making Lisa suspicious. She shares her suspicions with Bart, who had raided Mona's purse and found several driver's licenses with different names; Lisa suspects that Mona is a con artist. Meanwhile, Homer and Marge are wondering why his mother left him for 27 years and the two decide to confront Mona, who decides to tell them the truth.

In a flashback to 1969, Mona is a housewife who still lives with Homer's father Abe. While Abe is watching the 1969 Super Bowl, Mona becomes inspired by Joe Namath's long hair. She joins a group of hippies who protest Mr. Burns' germ warfare laboratory, who is deliberately trying to poison everyone in Springfield. They detonate an "antibiotic bomb" inside the lab, killing all the germs and curing lab security guard Clancy Wiggum's asthma. Angry about the destruction of his "precious germs", Burns runs to the lab, but is trampled by the fleeing hippies. Mona goes back to help him, and Burns manages to identify her as one of the perpetrators, forcing Mona to leave her family and go into hiding.

Mona reveals that she sent Homer a care package every week, although he never received them, and they go to the post office to claim them. There, Burns recognizes her and calls the FBI. The FBI and Burns manage to track Mona down and invade the Simpson home. However, Homer and Mona manage to escape thanks to a tip-off from Wiggum, who is grateful to Mona for curing his asthma, and thereby allowing him to join the police force. Mona is once again forced to go into hiding and she and Homer say goodbye. After Mona leaves, Homer remains in the night, sitting on his car and watching the stars.



Lisa Gets an A

After a long morning at church, the Simpsons go to the grocery store Eatie Gourmet's to take advantage of free samples in lieu of a Sunday brunch and Bart's suggestion that the family go Catholic so they can have "communion wafers and booze". At the store, Homer wants to buy a lobster, but since the larger ones are too expensive, he decides to buy a small one and fatten him up before he "eats the profits". Homer also tries to look for normal flavors of ice cream among the unusually named flavors at the "Ken & Harry's" factory plant, so he puts Lisa into the freezer to look for some in the back, which ultimately causes her to catch a cold.

Although Lisa hates the idea, Marge wants Lisa to stay home from school for the next few days to recover from her cold. Lisa is derisive about playing one of Bart's video games in order to pass the time, but soon becomes addicted to it, and consequently ignores the homework on The Wind in the Willows that she is given by Ralph. She even fakes the perpetuation of her illness so that she can continue playing the game. When Marge finally compels her to return to school, Lisa realizes she is unprepared for a test on the book, having not read it. In a panic she visits Bart, who brings her to Nelson, from whom she gets the test answers. Miss Hoover grades the tests over lunch, and Lisa is awarded the rare grade of A+++. Meanwhile, Homer has become attached to his lobster and names him Pinchy. When the time comes to cook Pinchy, Homer cannot bring himself to do it, and instead declares him a part of the family.

The family is extremely proud of Lisa's "achievement", although she is guilt-ridden at having cheated. The next day at school, Principal Skinner informs Lisa that her test grade has brought Springfield Elementary's GPA up to the state's minimum standard, and they now qualify for a basic assistance grant. Lisa admits that she cheated on the test, but Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers persuade her to keep it a secret so the school can keep the money. During the presentation, Lisa says that she understands about how desperate the school needs the basic assistance grant money, but also says that the truth is more important, confessing that she cheated. However, this was anticipated by Skinner, who fooled Lisa by staging a fake presentation before the real one, with the comptroller being revealed as Otto wearing a latex mask, allowing the school to keep the money anyway. Meanwhile, Homer discovers that he has accidentally cooked Pinchy while giving him a hot bath. Later that night, a distraught Homer eats his late friend, and finds him delicious.

excellent ending, too. This is a close one

I'm surprised how LV and Stip voted on this one. I think the Pinchy stuff in Lisa Gets an A is solid gold, and I never cared for any of the eps featuring Homer's mother.

i haven't voted yet. I am waiting for people to sway me.

I actually don't remember much about Lisa gets an A. I do remember Pinchy being the best part of that episode.

Mother Simpson is heartbreaking and wonderful.