Marge v the Monorail vs. Homer Defined

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Marge v 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.


Homer Defined

At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer is eating doughnuts. One of them splatters onto the nuclear reactor core's temperature dial, which is nearing the red zone. Homer fails to see the warning and the plant approaches a nuclear meltdown. He seems to be the only person who can stop it, though he has no skills and cannot remember any of his training (due to being distracted and occupied with a Rubik's Cube at the time). In desperation, he chooses a button at random with a counting rhyme, which miraculously averts the meltdown. Springfield is saved and Homer is hailed as a hero. Mr. Burns names Homer "Employee of the Month". Homer's family is also proud of him, especially Lisa, who starts to see him as a role model. Meanwhile, Homer himself is troubled by the fact that his so-called heroism was nothing but luck, and his gloomy mood deepens when he receives a congratulatory phone call from Magic Johnson, who tells Homer "People like that are eventually exposed as the frauds they are".

Burns introduces Homer to Aristotle Amadopoulos, the owner of the nuclear power plant in Shelbyville, Springfield's neighbor town. Amadopoulos wants Homer to give a pep talk to his plant's lackluster workers. Homer is hesitant to accept, but Burns forces him into it. At the Shelbyville plant, he gives a fumbling motivational speech. Suddenly an impending meltdown threatens the Shelbyville plant. Amadopoulos and Homer go to the control room, and Amadopoulos asks Homer to avert the meltdown. In front of everyone, Homer repeats his rhyme and presses a button blindly. By luck, he again manages to avert a meltdown. Amadopoulos thanks Homer for saving the plant, but angrily berates him for his stupidity. Soon the phrase "to pull a Homer", meaning "to succeed despite idiocy," becomes widely used and is entered into the dictionary.

In the subplot, the relationship between Bart and his friend Milhouse has changed. On the bus ride to school, Bart is upset to discover that Milhouse had held a birthday party without inviting him. It turns out that Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, thinks Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse and has banned him from seeing Bart, a decision Milhouse is downbeat about but makes no effort to defy. Suddenly deprived of his friend, a depressed Bart resorts to playing with Maggie. When Marge finds out about the situation, she decides to visit Luann. Marge admits that Bart is a "bit of a handful," and she explains that he and Milhouse are best friends and only have each other, so she asks Luann to allow the boys to play together. Later, Milhouse invites Bart over to his house, and Bart thanks Marge for standing up for him.

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monorail...monorail...monorail...monorail