Marge vs. the Monorail vs. Raging Abe Simpson...

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Marge vs. the Monorail

After being caught by the Environmental Protection Agency dumping nuclear waste in the city park, Mr. Burns is fined $3 million. A town meeting is held so that the citizens can decide how to spend the money. Marge suggests that the city use the money to fix Main Street, which is in poor condition. The town is about to vote in favor when someone new to town, a fast-talking salesman named Lyle Lanley, suggests that Springfield construct a city monorail. After being swayed by a song, the now enthused townspeople decide to build the monorail.

Even though Lanley succeeds in winning over almost the entire town, his salesmanship fails to convince Marge, who is frustrated with the town's purchase because she (correctly) believes the monorail is unsafe and that Lanley is a conman. While watching TV, Homer sees an advertisement that suggests he attend Lanley's institute of monorail conducting, which is a transparent effort to make even more money from the con. Homer immediately decides to enroll. After a three-week course, Lanley selects Homer at random from among his classmates to be the monorail conductor.

Still annoyed about the town's lack of understanding of the monorail, Marge visits Lanley to question his motives, and discovers a notebook containing drawings which reveal Lanley’s intention to run off with bags of money skimmed from the monorail project while everyone else falls victim to his faulty train. Marge immediately drives to North Haverbrook, which Lanley mentioned was a previous purchaser of one of his monorails. She discovers that the town is in ruins. While exploring, Marge meets Sebastian Cobb, the engineer who designed Lanley's North Haverbrook monorail. Cobb explains that Lanley embezzled construction funds through shoddy workmanship and materials, and that the entire project was a scam. Realizing Marge believes him, he offers his assistance in helping to prevent the same fate from happening to Springfield.

At the maiden voyage of the Springfield monorail, Lanley arranges for a well-attended opening ceremony, which will divert the town's attention while he escapes on a plane to Tahiti. The whole town turns out, and Leonard Nimoy is the guest of honor. The monorail departs just before Marge and Cobb arrive. Although it runs normally at the start, the controls soon malfunction and cause it to speed wildly around the track. Homer, Bart, and the passengers are in danger, but the monorail's electricity cannot be shut off because of its solar power.

Meanwhile, Lanley's flight to Tahiti is interrupted by a brief and unexpected stopover in North Haverbrook. The townsfolk are alerted to his presence and they storm the plane to attack Lanley as revenge for ruining their town. Back in Springfield, Marge and Cobb contact Homer by radio and Cobb tells Homer that he will need to find an anchor in order to stop the train. Improvising quickly, Homer pries loose the giant metal "M" from the logo on the side of the monorail's engine, ties a rope to it, and throws it from the train. Eventually the "M" catches on the sign of a doughnut shop and the rope holds, stopping the monorail and saving its passengers.



The relationship between Grampa and Bart deteriorates after Grampa's senility and abrasiveness embarrass Bart during Grandparents Day at Springfield Elementary School, where Grampa claims to have invented the toilet, to have turned cats and dogs against one another, and that Kaiser Wilhelm II stole the word "twenty".

Back at the retirement home, Grampa receives word that Asa Phelps, one of the men who served under his command in the Army during World War II, has died. Their infantry squad – known as the "Flying Hellfish" (despite not being an aviation unit) – also included Chief Wiggum's father Iggy, Seymour Skinner's father Sheldon, Griff McDonald, Milton "Oxford" or "Ox" Newman-Haas, Etch Westgrin and Barney Gumble's father Arnie. (It is also mentioned that their field commander was a Flanders, though as his father is portrayed as beatnik in other episodes, this is perhaps Ned's grandfather or uncle.) Grampa and Mr. Burns are now the only two surviving members of their squad. Burns wants what he describes as the "Hellfish Bonanza" for himself; not wanting to wait for Grampa's natural death, he hires Fernando Vidal, "the world's most devious assassin," to kill him. Vidal tries several tricks (including disguising himself as Homer, with Burns as Marge and Smithers as Bart), and as a last resort storms Grampa's retirement home with a machine gun. Grampa evades the initial volleys by sheer luck and escapes when the attending nurse produces a shotgun and routs the surprised assassin. Fearing that Burns will not give up, Grampa takes shelter with the Simpsons. He moves into Bart's room, putting further strain on their relationship, and reveals to Bart his reason Burns wants him dead.

In a flashback, it is revealed that during the final days of World War II, the Flying Hellfish discovered several priceless paintings in a German castle. To avoid being caught for theft, the soldiers set up a tontine and locked the paintings in a strongbox to be hidden away; the one who outlived all the others would then inherit the collection. Each man was given a key, all of which would eventually be needed to trigger a mechanism that would reveal where the paintings were hidden.

After Grampa finishes his story, Bart dismisses it as fiction but is proven wrong when Burns suddenly breaks in to his room and tries to take Grampa's key by force. However, Bart manages to steal both keys back and the two Simpsons go after the paintings. They hurry to the local cemetery, where a monument to the Hellfish is located. After activating the locator mechanism built into the monument, they discover that the paintings have been hidden at the bottom of a lake, so they steal a motorboat from Ned Flanders and head out onto the water. Bart brings up the strongbox, but just as he and Grampa open it, Burns shows up to take the paintings at gunpoint. When Bart calls him a coward and an embarrassment to the Hellfish, Burns kicks him into the empty strongbox, which topples back into the lake. Grampa dives in to save Bart, and the two chase Burns back to shore; Grampa then overpowers Burns, gives him a dishonorable discharge for trying to kill his commanding officer and his grandson, and expels him from the tontine, much to Burns' distress.

Before Grampa and Bart can go home with the paintings, representatives of the U.S. Department of State arrive on the scene. The government has been trying for 50 years to track down the paintings. Rather than arresting Grampa and Bart for the theft, the representatives instead turn over the paintings to a Euro-trash heir of one of the original owners in order to avoid an international incident, and Bart and Grampa are left empty-handed as the heir leaves for a Kraftwerk concert in Stuttgart. Grampa tells Bart that he did all of this to show that he used to be something besides a pathetic old man, and Bart says that he never thought of Grampa that way. The two hug, their relationship back on good terms.

[LoathedVermin72]

I think Monorail is the single most overrated episode of this show, but it's still better than Hellfish, which is a mid-tier episode.

[ABNorman]

I think Monorail is the single most overrated episode of this show

[tragabigzanda]

I really do not enjoy the Hellfish ep.

[Mecca]

i call the big one "bitey"

[Jorge]

I think Monorail is the single most overrated episode of this show

My vote for most overrated ep goes to "Mr. Plow". "Monoral" isn't their best episode but it's still an amazing piece of comedy writing.

[LoathedVermin72]

It's very clever, funny, sharp episode, but I've always thought the pacing and vibe are a bit off. It feels different than most Simpsons episodes, and not in a good way.

[EJ]

Mono thingy