History Recap / TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson

* MythologyGag: "Penelope Olson" is the name of Homer's mother on the family tree in ''Bart Simpson's Guide to Life'', although much in this source is most likely non-canonical.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Gannon’s son is said to have gone crazy in Vietnam.

Homer surprises the family with Mona's return: Marge is overjoyed at not having to endure more being sassed by other wives, Lisa is bemused at this Dickensian situation, and Bart tells her she owes him lots of money in pending gifts. But things turn quite suspicious as Mona has the tendency to run away whenever she sees the police or when she is asked about what she had done in the past, while Bart finds some fake driver [=IDs=] under the names Penelope Olsen, Mona Stevens and Muddy Mae Suggins. And Homer begins to wonder why she did leave him in the first place. The family then decides to have Mona tell the truth, or else, they will have Grampa come. She then decides to reveal what happened...

As fate would have it, when they go to retrieve it, Mr. Burns is also there looking to have a letter sent to the Prussian consulate in Siam by autogyro, and recognizes her... partly because of a phrenological analysis of her having the head of a career criminal (even though phrenology has been discredited long ago) and orders a manhunt on her. Meanwhile, the Simpson kids form a bond with their grandmother and Abe chews her out as an awful wife and mother for abandoning him and Homer... and asks her for sex. After asking a cabbie, the cemetery gravedigger and Patty and Selma (and Chief Wiggum ordering that an "Uosdwis R. Jawoh" be arrested after reading Homer's gravestone upside down), Burns gets to the Simpson residence aiming to destroy it with tank to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries"... or more like "Waterloo" after Smithers taped it over. However, Homer and Mona manage to escape, being tipped off by Wiggum (who as a teenage security guard got cured from his asthma by the ambush on the chemical lab). Getting to the city limits, Homer realizes his mother will have to hide again, but at least he'll see her leave. As Mona is picked up by her escaping companions, Homer stays and stares at the moonlit sky as the credits roll.

Homer surprises the family with Mona's return: Marge is overjoyed at not having to endure more backtalk from other wives, Lisa is bemused at this Dickensian situation, and Bart tells her she owes him lots of money in pending gifts. But things turn quite suspicious as Mona has the tendency to run away whenever she sees the police or when she is asked about what she had done in the past, while Bart finds some fake driver [=IDs=] under the names Penelope Olsen, Mona Stevens and Muddy Mae Suggins. And Homer begins to wonder why she did leave him in the first place. The family then decides to have Mona tell the truth, or else, they will have Grampa come. She then decides to reveal what happened...

At the municipal office, Homer finds out his mother Mona is still alive, believing she died when he was a child and that she was buried under a giant angel monolith at the cemetery. After the bureaucrat tells him to look for himself (as he never bothered to all this time), Homer finds out that the one actually buried there is writer Creator/WaltWhitman. He then finds a nearby gravestone with the name Simpson in it... Homer Simpson. Shocked by this, he falls into the shoveled burial plot where a woman, mistaking him for a drunk, tells him to get away from her son's grave. Homer then tells her it's ''his'' grave. It's then that they both realize they are mother and son, and that neither really died, much to the dismay of the gravedigger (and of Hans Moleman, who is being buried in spite of him being very much alive as well).

Mr. Burns announces the creation of a new sanitation concern that will clean up Springfield's highways... With the use of forced labor by the employees of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. However, as one might expect, Homer has skipped the whole affair and decides to pull a prank on his co-workers, with some help from Bart. They hurl a dummy of Homer down the creek, much to the horror of the onlookers, who think he has suffered a fatal accident. That afternoon, neighbors offer their sympathy to Marge (or in the case of Patty and Selma, their last insults, including a burial plot and gravestone they bought when Homer married her), much to her confusion. Then, after the electric company shuts the service off as it was under Homer's name, Marge tells him to set things straight.

At the municipal office, Homer finds out his mother Mona is still alive, believing she died when he was a child and that she was buried under a large monument at the cemetery. After the bureaucrat tells him to look for himself, Homer finds out that the one actually buried there is writer Creator/WaltWhitman. He then finds a nearby gravestone with the name Simpson in it... Homer Simpson. Shocked by this, he falls into the shoveled burial plot where a woman, mistaking him for a drunk, tells him to get away from her son's grave. Homer then tells her it's ''his'' grave. It's then that they both realize they are mother and son, and that neither really died, much to the dismay of the gravedigger (and of Hans Moleman, who is being buried in spite of him being very much alive as well).

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Walt Whitman is buried in his family's tomb and not under a statue of an angel.

Homer surprises the family with Mona's return: Marge is overjoyed at not having to endure more backtalk from other wives, Lisa is bemused at this Dickensian situation, and Bart tells her she owes him lots of money in pending gifts. But things turn quite suspicious as Mona has the tendency to run away whenever she sees the police or when she is asked about what she had done in the past, while Bart finds some fake IDs under the names Penelope Olsen, Mona Stevens and Muddy Mae Suggins. And Homer begins to wonder why she did leave him in the first place. The family then decides to have Mona tell the truth, or else, they will have Grampa come. She then decides to reveal what happened...

After faking his own death and getting the mistake cleared up at the town courthouse, Homer makes a discovery: his mother, Mona (Creator/GlennClose) is still alive. She supposedly died when Homer was a kid. Mona's grave actually has the remains of Creator/WaltWhitman. But the joyous reunion at the cemetery is cut short when the FBI comes after Mona for something she did in the 1960s, which is connected to Mr. Burns and is why she abandoned Abe and Homer.

Much like ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]", this episode was known for its TearJerker ending, where Homer once again has to say goodbye to his mom as she returns to the underground to evade authorities and Homer silently sits on his car and stares into the night sky.

* FailedASpotCheck: Chief Wiggum fails to notice that he's been putting out an APB ''into his wallet''.

** Since Wiggum was secretly trying to help Mona escape, this may have been an intentional screw-up on his part. Sending all the police cars to Greek Town would certainly serve as a good distraction...

* PetTheDog: Abe is not the best father to Homer but when Mona left he told his son that she had died so he wouldn't think she abandoned him.

* TheScapegoat: Burns immediately blames Smithers when his "Ride Of The Valkyries" tape is replaced with "Waterloo". Subverted in that he's actually correct and Smithers sheepishly admits it.

* TwoDecadesBehind: At the post office, Mr. Burns asks to send a letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by autogyro. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen goes to check the manual and thinks that it must be out-of-date.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In real life, Mona would have nothing to worry about since the statute of limitations on her crime would have long since passed.

* The scene of the family in the dark after their power's shut off shows a good understanding of height and eye level for each character, as well as how expressive they can be with just their eyes visible.

* The scene of the family in the dark after their power's shut off shows a good understanding of height and eye level for each character.