TV Recap / Review: Kirk Van Houten Has His First Successful Idea in "The Simpsons" - "Homer? A Cracker Bro?"

This past Sunday after the airing of its 800th episode, The Simpsons also debuted its 801st episode-- entitled "Homer? A Cracker Bro?" (a line of dialogue straight out of Homer's mouth)-- which also serves as the season finale for season 37 of FOX's long running-animated sitcom. Below are my recap and thoughts on this installment.

"Homer? A Cracker Bro?" begins at Mayor Quimby's (voiced, as always, by Dan Castellaneta) dedication of a new wildlife crossing over one of Springfield's busy freeways (we have these in Los Angeles, which I suspect is where The Simpsons' writers got the idea). Apparently this was Lisa Simpson's (Yeardley Smith) idea, and she proudly watches the animals cross over the street, where they promptly invade a local pharmaceutical factory and eat a large portion of its output. In the very funny sequence that follows, this makes all the critters go crazy in various ways, and Lisa sadly is forced to take the blame.

Later, Homer (also Castellaneta) is dropping Bart (Nancy Cartwright) off at his friend Milhouse's (Kelly Macleod) house, but he insists that Bart jump out of the car while it's still moving because Homer doesn't want to have to talk to Milhouse's dad Kirk Van Houten (Hank Azaria). Unfortunately for Homer, as he's driving away, Kirk jumps on the hood of his car and insists that Homer check out his new sprinkler that rotates a full 360 degrees-- it doesn't work upon demonstration. Both Homer and Bart are then forced to spend the night at the Van Houten home because of a "shelter in place" order due to the crazed animals rampaging around town. During their visit, after drinking the water that the spaghetti was cooked in (it does have all the nutrients), Homer confesses to Kirk that he and Marge's love life is suffering because of him getting too many cracker crumbs in their bed.

The next night, Kirk shows up at the Simpsons' home with a full day's worth of stubble, a crazed look on his face, and an idea for a crumb-less cracker that came to him when a group of teenagers shattered his windshield ("It wasn't only teenagers!" declares Bart, who quickly backtracks on his knowledge of the situation). So despite the fact that Marge (Julie Kavner) is upset at Homer for sharing their intimate details, Kirk takes Homer on a walk and convinces him to become his partner in a new cracker-centric business venture. They bring the new crackers to Cost-Lo (essentially Costco) and hand out free samples, which quickly win over both the bikers and the nuns shopping there. Soon Springfield is going gaga for Kirk's crackers, but Dr. Hibbert (Kevin Michael Richardson) doesn't seem too excited, for reasons that will soon become clear.

After a successful launch of their business, Kirk takes his family and the Simpson family out to dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant and presents a bottle of wine that cost thousands of dollars. This is where he delivers one of my favorite lines from the episode about how he's confident that their money will never, ever run out and that nothing ever has to end, but outside the restaurant Dr. Hibbert confides in Marge that Kirk had gone off his medication after the shortage caused by the animals and is now riding high on a wave of manic-depressive bipolar disorder. Indeed, when Marge visits the Van Houten's ostentatious new home, she has her suspicions confirmed, and is also accused of wanting to sleep with Kirk by his wife Luanne (Maggie Roswell).

During a television interview, Kirk continues his manic spiral by ranting about how the human race needs to relocate to the bottom of the ocean using a sea rocket of his own invention, and then he crashes, sending the cracker company's stock tumbling and putting the Simpson family's well-being at risk. It also turns out that Kirk has been siphoning money from the company to put toward the rocket project, which gets them in trouble with the SEC (the Salty Edibles Commission, naturally). Homer decides that the only way out is to take the fall for Kirk, but first Marge pays another visit to the Van Houten home to rouse him out of his now deeply depressive state. Upon hearing that Homer is going to take the blame, Kirk snaps out of his funk and he and Marge use the rocket, which shockingly does actually exist, to stop Homer before he turns himself in at the Riverside FBI Headquarters.

The credits play over Kirk and Homer walking down the street once again, but this time images Kirk Van Houten's best moments from The Simpsons play on the walls of the buildings. And I have to say that while I liked the 800th episode "Irrational Treasure," I actually thought this one was stronger and funnier. Maybe I'm just a sucker for Kirk stories, but I laughed quite a bit during this half hour, and got a pretty big kick out of Michael Stipe voicing himself in a parody of R.E.M.'s early-90s hit "Everybody Hurts" called "Everybody Kirks." I was also admittedly kind of touched by where Homer and Kirk left their friendship at the end of this installment, and though I'm sure Homer will just go back to wanting to dodge Van Houten again by the next time the character shows up, it was nice to have that moment between them.

The Simpsons will return for its 38th season this fall on FOX.