Treehouse of Horror

Bad Dream House

The Simpsons move into an old house, wondering at its low cost. Their questions are answered when the walls begin to bleed and objects begin to fly through the air, and Lisa senses an evil presence in the house. There is also a portal to another dimension in the kitchen. Marge expresses the desire to leave, but Homer asks her to sleep on it, due to the cost of buying the house. That night, the house possesses Homer and the children, manipulating their minds and making them chase each other with axes and knives. Marge unlike the others however, is instead using her knife to spread mayonnaise on a sandwich and intervenes, breaking the trance. Afterwards, Bart discovers the source of the haunting - a Native American burial ground hidden in the basement. After the Spirit of The House threatens them again, Marge loses her patience and confronts the house, demanding that it treat them with respect during their stay. The house thinks it over, and eventually opts to destroy itself rather than live with the Simpsons.

Hungry are the Damned

The Simpsons are in their backyard having a barbecue when they are abducted by extraterrestrial life forms (specifically Kang and Kodos). The aliens explain that they are taking the Simpsons to their home planet on Rigel IV, "a world of infinite delights," for a 'feast'. En route they present the family with enormous amounts of food and watch eagerly as they gorge themselves, then check their weights, being particularly delighted at Homer's mass. Suspicious of the alien's intentions, Lisa sneaks into the kitchen and finds a book titled How To Cook Humans. She takes the book and shows it to the aliens, who explain to her that part of the title was obscured by space dust, which they then blow away to reveal the title How To Cook For Humans. Lisa, skeptical at this, blows off more space dust, revealing the title to be How To Cook Forty Humans. The aliens blow off the last of the space dust, finally revealing the real title How To Cook For Forty Humans. Enraged at Lisa's mistrust, they return the Simpsons to Earth, explaining that Lisa ruined the family's chance at paradise on the aliens' home planet. Homer and Bart agree with the aliens, but Marge tries to explain to them that Lisa was just concerned for their family and didn't know better. Even she agrees that Lisa sometimes needs to tone down her attitude and just ask.

The Raven

Lisa reads "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. In this adaptation, Bart is depicted as the raven, Homer finds himself in the role of the poem's lead character, while Lisa and Maggie are seraphim. Marge appears briefly as a painting of Lenore. James Earl Jones narrates.

The episode then returns to the treehouse and Bart, Lisa and Maggie, who are not frightened by any of the stories. They climb down from the treehouse and sleep peacefully the whole night. Homer, on the other hand, lies in his bed terrified. As he notices a raven outside the window similar to the one from the poem, Homer hides under the sheets and exclaims that he "hates Halloween".



The Crepes of Wrath

Homer trips over Bart's skateboard and falls down the stairs, hurting his back, and is confined to the couch for several days. Marge sends Bart to clean his room and while doing so, he discovers an old cherry bomb among his things. At school the next day, he decides to flush it down the toilet in the boys' restroom with friends, Milhouse, Richard and Lewis. On the same day, Principal Skinner's mother is visiting the school and Bart ends up pulling his prank the same time Principal Skinner's mother is using the facilities in an adjacent girls' restroom. The resulting explosion blows her off of her seat and enrages Skinner. In order to punish him, Skinner proposes deportation to Homer and Marge, by having Bart participate in a foreign exchange program. They decide to send Bart to France, while the Simpsons host a student from the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, named Adil Hoxha. Bart is shown a picture of a lovely château in the heart of France and he immediately agrees to go, much to Homer and Skinner's delight.

In France, Bart arrives at "Château Maison", which is actually a dilapidated farmhouse on a run-down vineyard. He is greeted by two unscrupulous, abusive winemakers, César and his nephew Ugolin, who proceed to treat him like a slave. Bart is starved while being made to carry buckets of water, collect and crush grapes, sleep on the floor, and test wine contaminated with antifreeze.

Meanwhile, in Springfield, Adil arrives and turns out to be very friendly, helping out Marge with the family chores. Homer immediately takes a shine to him, and it is noticeable that he is a better son and role model than Bart ever was. However, Marge challenges Homer that while she appreciates Adil's good behavior, part of being good parents is that they have the same respect for their natural children, in that is Homer being concerned for Bart while he is abroad. Unbeknown to the family, Adil is actually a spy sent by his government to obtain blueprints of the Springfield nuclear plant's reactor. Homer unwittingly takes him on a tour of the power plant and thinks nothing of the many photographs Adil takes, which Adil sends home by a secret fax machine in Bart's tree house.

When Bart is sent by his captors to Paris to buy a case of antifreeze, he sees a gendarme and tries to ask for help, but the gendarme does not understand English and only gives Bart a piece of candy. Bart walks away, despairing over his own stupidity, then suddenly begins speaking French to himself. Realizing he has become fluent in the language, he runs back to the gendarme and tells him about the winemakers. The winemakers are swiftly arrested and Bart finishes his stay in France being hailed as a hero. He is awarded a medal for his bravery and he is kissed by a French beauty queen. Back in Springfield, Adil is caught by the FBI, forcing him to be sent back to Albania in exchange for their own child spy. Bart returns to his family, bringing them gifts from France. Back at home trying out the gifts, Homer has difficulty opening a wine bottle, but is pleased to hear Bart speak French, oblivious that Bart has just called him a buffoon.

I look forward to watching the original TOH every year for The Raven alone, but I'm not crazy about the other segments. Crepes of Wrath is great, though, even though they hadn't solidified the relationships between the characters yet.

staying open for another round

Who voted for Crepes?

I did, but this was a toss up. I should have just changed my vote. Too late for that now!

I too voted for Crepes.

Ugh. I slaved in the kitchen for days for you people.

Alright I switched.