History Recap / TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy

** All of the plot happens because Burns decides to hire a man on a whim, then decides ''not'' to hire that man for the position he wanted him for (and orders Smithers to make him work just anywhere) and order Smithers to get ''a dog'' for that position instead on another whim.

* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: In layman's terms, Grimes's resentment of Homer is simply rooted in the fact that Grimes wants to be rewarded for simply doing his job and is making himself mad by comparing himself to Homer, who has been working at the plant for 10 years, while Grimes has only been there for a couple of days.

* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: In layman's terms, Grimes's resentment of Homer is simply rooted in the fact that Grimes wants to be rewarded for simply doing his job and is making himself mad by comparing himself to Homer, who has been working at the plant for nearly 20 years, while Grimes has only been there for a couple of days.

* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: In layman's terms, Grimes's resentment of Homer is simply rooted in the fact that Grimes wants to be rewarded for simply doing his job and is making himself mad by comparing himself to Homer, who has been working at the plant for nearly 20 years, Grimes has only been there for a couple of days.

* WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: Grimes' nosedive into insanity is based on the fact that he believes that he's owed better opportunities than Homer for simply doing his job.

* NeverMyFault: Sure, Grimes absolutely right that [[JerkassHasAPoint his horrible life]] has disproportionately punished him compared to lazy slackers like Homer. However, his tendency to [[ItsAllAboutMe martyrize himself]] and his obsession with humiliating Homer over bettering himself leads to him finally snapping.

* FatalFlaw: Frank Grimes' flaw is his envy and diligence.
** ''Envy'': Frank can't accept that in life there is always going to be someone better than you or have better accomplishments. When he meets Homer, he can't believe that a man so lazy and ignorant has a better life than he does and thus tries to shame and humiliate Homer instead of learning how to be as happy as he is.
** ''Diligence'': Frank gives his all to a system that would replace him without a second thought, believing that his hard work will get him everything he could ever want. When he meets Homer, Frank sees him as a living glitch in the algorithm as he has the life Frank dreams of despite being slothful and ignorant. His plan to humiliate Homer by tricking him into entering a children's competition best shows this flaw, Frank believed everyone is as diligent as he is and thought the audience would laugh at Homer and fire him. Not realizing that Homer is popular at work because he is a "good guy" who has made friends at work, unlike Grimes, who kept to himself and thought little of everyone else.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The whole conflict between Homer and Grimes can be traced back to Mr. Burns being the capricious multi-billionaire MeanBoss that he is. As Frank points out, Homer is never disciplined for his incompetence at work, which is hinted to be intentional as a cost-cutting measure in other episodes, and as Homer is neither suited nor officially qualified for his power plant job as safety inspector, Burns only gave him the position to shut down his active public safety campaigns and prevent him from getting the plant shut down ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E3HomersOdyssey Homer's Odyssey]]"). And then there's the whole thing about Burns immediately demoting Grimes from a more powerful position in his company to one that's highly implied to be lesser than Homer's itself (thus making Grimes powerless towards Homer), all because he wanted a ''dog'' to take over as his vice president.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Grimes deconstructs the LogicalLatecomer, starting with the fact that what makes him (theoretically) the OnlySaneMan and "[[TheEveryman everyman]]" is as absurd as anything else in the show (only aiming for angst, not laughs), and continuing with while normally the "logical latecomer" gets to rant angrily at the weird crap going on, he ''eventually'' either lets it go or just walks away. Instead, Grimes stridently refuses to do either, and his grievance eventually destroys him.[[note]]Many fans have compared and contrasted Grimes' behaviour with Superintendent Chalmers, who, like Grimes, is an outsider to Springfield interacting with the inhabitants on a more-than-superficial basis, often using the famous "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2122ShortFilmsAboutSpringfield Steamed Hams]]" short as an example; like Grimes, Chalmers often comes across the more wacky and downright ''weird'' scenarios found in Springfield, will question them to a point, and isn't afraid to point out when something just sounds downright ''absurd'' ("''Aurora Borealis?? At '''this''' time of year, at '''this''' time of day, in '''this''' part of the country, localized '''entirely''' within your kitchen?''"), but at the same time, rather than obsessing over it, he will just ''accept'' it as part of Springfield's general weirdness ("''May I see it?" "No."'') and move on. Frank, on the other hand, never reaches the "moving on" part, and as a result, his obsession and inability to "acclimate" to Springfield costs him his life--in a naturally Springfieldian way.[[/note]]

* NoodleIncident: The episode opens up with Kent Brockman saying "Which, if true, means death for us all." It is not known what the news Kent was reporting on is that led to that closing statement.

* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Part of Frank Grimes' ridiculously miserable backstory involved being abandoned by his parents at age four and thus never having the money to go to school; instead having to spend his childhood working by delivering toys, he never got to play with, to rich children. In real life, children are mandated by law to go school and child labor would prevent a four year old from being made to work.

* EnemyEatsYourLunch: Well 'one-sided' enemy. Franks second interaction with Homer has him find the man-eating his special dietic lunch from a bag clearly marked with his name. When he catches him and throws the food out he notices Homer trying to take it from the trash.

* OutsideGenreFoe: [[invoked]] Frank Grimes arrives in Springfield for a job at the power plant, and quickly proves himself to be the OnlySaneMan stuck in the middle of a massive IdiotPlot, until it finally causes him to suffer a psychotic break that leads to him accidentally electrocuting himself.

* NoOSHACompliance: Frank manages to electrocute himself on a high-voltage station that is '''''completely unprotected''''' even from accidental touching. One would think that it would be far behind a cage or separate room entirely. And from the context of his rant, it seems to be in ''Homer's workstation''. On the other hand, not even '''Homer''' seemed to try getting near it.
** Not to mention wondering why a beaker of sulfuric acid that was caustic enough to destroy a wall in seconds was placed on a science lab windowsill next to a break room.
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] when you consider that [[TooDumbToLive Homer]], as the plant's safety inspector, would be responsible for rectifying these hazards.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsTappedOut'' continuity, [[spoiler: Grimes survived the events of the episode; the electrocution merely put him into a coma and he was simply buried alive. He eventually woke up and dug himself out. Homer still tries to befriend him at the plant.]]

* PetTheDog: Despite Grimes' animosity towards Homer, he has no grudges towards his family. Before leaving, he even stops for a moment to politely say, "It was nice meeting you." Even before that, when Homer was about to drink acid, Grimes rapidly throws the glass away from him. He may hate Homer, [[EveryoneHasStandards but at least he doesn't wish to see him dead.]] He also seems to get along with Carl and Lenny quite well, despite their different opinions about Homer.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Grimes deconstructs the LogicalLatecomer, starting with the fact that what makes him (theoretically) the OnlySaneMan and "[[TheEveryman everyman]]" is as absurd as anything else in the show (only aiming for angst, not laughs), and continuing with while normally the "logical latecomer" gets to rant angrily at the weird crap going on, he ''eventually'' either lets it go or just walks away. Instead, Grimes stridently refuses to do either, and his grievance eventually destroys him.[[note]]Many fans have compared and contrasted Grimes' behaviour with Superintendent Chalmers, who, like Grimes, is an outsider to Springfield interacting with the inhabitants on a more-than-superficial basis, often using the famous "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2122ShortFilmsAboutSpringfield Steamed Hams]]" short as an example; like Grimes, Chalmers often comes across the more wacky and downright ''weird'' scenarios found in Springfield, will question them to a point, and isn't afraid to point out when something just sounds downright ''absurd'' ("''Aurora Borealis?? At '''this''' time of year, at '''this''' time of day, in '''this''' part of the country, localized '''entirely''' within your kitchen?!''"), but at the same time, rather than obsessing over it, he will just ''accept'' it as part of Springfield's general weirdness ("''May I see it?" "No."'') and move on. Frank, on the other hand, never reaches the "moving on" part, and as a result, his obsession and inability to "acclimate" to Springfield costs him his life--in a naturally Springfieldian way.[[/note]]

-->'''Mr. Burns''': Where's the ''heart?!''

* TheFunInFuneral: Frank is killed after touching live electrical wires, and at the funeral, Homer falls asleep and mutters "Change the channel, Marge!" The other funeral-goers and even Rev. Lovejoy burst out laughing, and inspires Lenny to remark "That's our Homer!" Lovejoy also refers to Grimes as "Grimey," Homer's nickname for Grimes which he himself despised, as though he accepted the name with affection.
* GivingUpOnLogic: PlayedForDrama: Grimes doesn't just gives up, he goes insane, and in his temporary bout of insanity he disobeys his common sense and does something that kills him, merely because he decides to believe it's something Homer would do.

* FatalFlaw: Frank Grimes's flaw is his envy and diligence.

** Carl and Lenny seem to agree with some Grimes' opinions about Homer, like his disgusting way of eating (Lenny even points out that he eats "like a duck") or the fact that putting him as the safety inspector of the plant is a bad idea, to say the least. But at the end they suggest to him that the best way to think about it is not at all. In turn, they may have been right about this idea, since Grimes' refusal to so doesn't work out for him at all.

** Most of Homer's brilliant achievements Grimes fumes over were extremely bittersweet and only cemented him as a NoRespectGuy. The Grammy Award, which acts as the RageBreakingPoint for Grimes, was one he actually earned through hard work, and in one of the series' most touching episodes to boot. In fact, this comment tends to make a lot of viewers turn against Grimes, because on that point he's just plain wrong. Of course, there is ''also'' the fact that one of the series' {{Running Gag}}s is how everybody thinks the Grammys [[TakeThat are worthless crap]].

* GreaterScopeVillain: The whole conflict between Homer and Grimes can be traced back to Mr. Burns being the capricious multi-billionaire MeanBoss that he is. As Frank points out, Homer is never disciplined for his incompetence at work, which is hinted to be intentional as a cost-cutting measure in other episodes, and as Homer is neither suited nor officially qualified for his power plant job as safety inspector, Burns only gave him the position [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E3HomersOdyssey to shut down his active public safety campaigns and prevent him from getting the plant shut down]]. And then there's the whole thing about Burns immediately demoting Grimes from a more powerful position in his company to one that's highly implied to be lesser than Homer's itself (thus making Grimes powerless towards Homer), all because he wanted a ''dog'' to take over as his vice president.

* HardTruthAesop: Hard work won't always be rewarded or even appreciated, and people far less qualified than you can do better than you through sheer dumb luck. You can either ignore it and move on with your life or let it consume you.

** Grimes' unpleasant lifestyle involves living between two bowling alleys. Running a bowling alley is [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E13AndMaggieMakesThree Homer's dream job]].
** For all of Grimes' talk of hard work, both matters of how Homer and Frank got their jobs at the power plant are complete opposites. Homer frequently had to work his ass off, and prove to Mr. Burns that he deserved his job at the plant [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E3HomersOdyssey at]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E12IMarriedMarge least]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E13AndMaggieMakesThree three times]]. Grimes on the other hand got his job by pure pity and chance through Mr. Burns seeing a sympathetic persons of interest feature on the local news and being inspired to hire him.
* JerkassHasAPoint: When Grimes says that if Homer lived in any other country in the world he'd have starved to death a long time ago. To which Bart says, "He's got you there, Dad.". When Grimes leave and Homer looks to his family for comfort all they can do is look uncomfortable since they can't disagree that Homer should not be as successful as he is.

* MandatoryLine: Lisa's entire dialogue in the episode.

* OutOfFocus: [[invoked]] Lisa only has three lines in the episode, for a total of eleven words. This is because [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Yeardley Smith had gotten the flu after recording all of her lines]] in the previous episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E22InMargeWeTrust In Marge We Trust]]".

[[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife I don't need to remind myself to stop reading TV Tropes]], [[TheStinger because I'm Homer Simp...]] [[HighVoltageDeath *Loud electrical sounds*]]

* NiceGuy: [[invoked]] Despite his {{Flanderization}} in the episode, Homer ironically comes out of this for most of the episode (well, depending on AlternateCharacterInterpretation to an extent), genuinely trying to be nice to Grimes and being comically oblivious to the other man's hatred. Heck, he even invites Grimes over for a nice dinner (though that unfortunately blew up in his face).