History Recap / TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy

''(everyone but Frank cheers and applauds for Homer, even Mr. Burns applauds for him)''\\
'''Frank:''' ''(maniacally)'' Oh, I can't stand it any longer! This whole plant is insane!!! INSANE, I TELL YOU!!!

* SurroundedByIdiots: Grimes believes himself to be the smartest person in the Power Plant and thinks he's owed everything because he works hard and does his job. Even when his plan to humiliate Homer at the nuclear power plant design contest has backfired, it only drives Grimes to more of his sanity as he angrily declares everyone in the plant (including Mr. Burns) insane for their supposed inability to see the absurdity of Homer's idiocy.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Grimes believes himself to be the smartest person in the Power Plant and thinks he's owed everything because he works hard and does his job.

* AntiVillain: Frank Grimes is absolutely correct that Homer shouldn't be the safety inspector at a nuclear power plant and he's right to say that it's incredibly reprehensible of Mr. Burns to have even allowed Homer to keep his job for this long.

* AntiVillain: Although his anger is misdirected at Homer instead of the system that employed him, Frank Grimes is absolutely correct that Homer shouldn't be the safety inspector at a nuclear power plant and it's incredibly irresponsible of Mr. Burns to have allowed Homer to keep his job for this long.

* FatalFlaw: Frank Grimes' flaw is his envy. Frank can't accept that in life there is always going to be someone better than you or have better accomplishments, [[HardWorkHardlyWorks or at least when they don't even put that much effort]]. 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.

--> '''Kent Brockman''': Frank Grimes, the man who had to struggle for everything he ever got, received his correspondence school diploma in nuclear physics.

* TraumaCongaLine: Frank Grimes' life story is this up till the bitter end.
* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: The episode focuses on Frank Grimes (a "realistic" character, by WordOfGod) being forced into the PlayedForLaughs CrapsackWorld of Springfield and getting so fed up with Homer's IdiotHoudini luck that he becomes the titular "enemy" of Homer... and then when Homer's luck saves him from being humiliated by a plan of Grimes, he undergoes a VillainousBreakdown which ends with him accidentally (or not, depending on your view) electrocuting himself while trying to mock Homer's scot-free stupidity. The BlackComedyBurst was so strong that some people believe marked the moment when the show became the same brand of insensitively offensive KafkaComedy as other shows like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.

* HeroAntagonist: Frank Grimes

* CosmicPlaything: Deconstructed; while Grimes' criticisms of Homer do have merit and Grimes was indeed dealt a crappy hand in the game of life, his misery in the episode was largely his own fault. Grimes was so blinded by envy and self-pity that he refused to learn anything about Homer's life and never built relationships like Homer did at work. What Grimes perceived as life dealing him another injustice was actually Homer being rewarded for his kindness. Homer was applauded for entering a children's competition because he had friends in the audience while Grimes didn't.

'''Lenny:''' Yeah, and Homer beat their brains out!\\

* PlotHole:
** Kent Brockman's report at the beginning of the episode show Grimes living in a normal house, yet later in the episode the latter claims to live between in a tiny apartment -- "above a bowling alley ... and below another bowling alley."
*** It's entirely possible that Frank changed his living arrangements after getting the power plant job, either to be closer to work (it's not explicitly stated he lived in Springfield) or if the small apartment of his own represented an upgrade from being a boarder. He also could have had to move after Burns cut his salary, as we don't know how much time passed in between scenes.
** Another minor one at the Create-a-Power-Plant Contest. After Burns disqualifies Ralph, Chief Wiggum tells him from offscreen to get off the stage. Minutes later, when we see a shot of Grimes heckling Homer's entry in the audience, Mrs. Wiggum is shown sitting nearby with her husband nowhere in sight. (Thought it's certainly possible for her to have gotten there late and not been able to get a seat with her family, especially as the auditorium seems completely full.)
** After going insane and imitating Homer, Grimes says, "D'oh! D'oh! D'oh!" However, Homer never actually said "D'oh!" in the entire episode. The episode's setting does span through several days so it's possible Frank heard some of Homer's "annoyed grunts" off-camera.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The whole conflict between Homer and Grimes can be traced back to Mr. Burns being the capricious multi-billionaire MeanBoss that he is.

* {{Determinator}}: Whatever you may think of him, Frank is undeniably this given how he managed to overcome nearly dying and gained a degree in nuclear physics.

** A lot of Grimes' frustration with Homer is caused by [[PoorCommunicationKills errors in communication]]. Most prominently when Homer attempts to befriend him and invites him to his home, dolling up the family and the house. Grimes mistakes the formal occasion for their usual lavish lifestyle and is even more infuriated.

** Grimes thinks, from beginning to grim end, that he is the only man in Springfield who hates Homer Simpson. In this very episode, Moe points out to Homer that he does not likes him too much and there's other people who outright hate him, but Homer does not wishes to hear it as he focuses on Grimes' hate.

* 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 (possibly because of [[SelfMadeMan how much he already]] [[HardWorkHardlyWorks did the latter]]) leads to him finally snapping.

* FatalFlaw: Frank Grimes' flaw is his 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.

* HourglassPlot: By the end of the dinner scene, the story becomes an inversion of SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond, going from Homer trying to please Grimes to Grimes trying to make everyone else despise Homer.

* HourglassPlot: By the end of the dinner scene, the story becomes an inversion of SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond, with Grimes becoming obsessed how nobody else seems to despise Homer.

** The reason Grimes hates Homer is that he believes that Homer was given more than he deserved and envied him for having a better life. However, Grimes never asked about how Homer got these achievements and Homer never explained them to him.

** Sometimes, good intentions can be completely misinterpreted. Even though Grimes saved Homer's life by hurling the acid out of his hand and inadvertently damaging the wall, Burns assumed this was intentional and docked his pay, without hearing his side of the story.

* RageBreakingPoint: The design contest winds up being this for Grimes: not only does his attempts at pointing out the absurdity of an idiot like Homer taking part in a ''children's'' context fall on deaf ears (he's actually outright told to shut up twice), but the moment Homer wins and everyone sincerely cheers for him, that is when Frank out and out snaps at everyone (including Mr. Burns and Mr. Smithers) in the plant, declaring them all insane for overlooking Homer's idiotic nature.

*** Grimes riles at Homer for having a son that owns a factory without considering the absurdity of a 10-year old boy owning a factory in the first place. Alternatively, it's ''because'' of said absurdity, but what he doesn't know is that the factory was already old and abandoned anyway.

** One of the final nails in the coffin in terms of Grimes' aminosity for Homer is him rescuing Homer by throwing away a vat of acid he was about to swallow....and then Homer obliviously tattling him to Burns over the mess.
-->'''Homer:''' He likes you. ''*thumbs up*''

-->'''Bart:''' [''after seeing the collapsed factory''] Aw, geez! Millhouse, how could you let this happen? You were supposed to be the night watchman!\\

[''cue a '''massive''' stampede of rats, which run from the factory's rubble, across the street and into Moe's Tavern''.]\\