History Recap / TheSimpsonsWhoShotMrBurns

* DisproportionateRetribution: {{Inverted}} in one of the alternate endings where the culprit turned out to be Smithers. Burns punishes Smithers's murder attempt by giving him a 5% pay cut, to which Smithers is utterly dismayed.

* AllJustADream: Smithers wakes up in his apartment to find [[ShoutOut Mr. Burns in the shower]], perfectly fine, and concludes with relief that it was all a dream. Burns then informs Smithers that they are the stars of a 60s detective show called ''Speedway Squad'', at which point Smithers wakes up again and realises, "Wait, ''that'' was all a dream!" -- Mr. Burns really has been shot. Smithers then remarks, "Hey, then maybe I ''haven't'' become a hideous drunken wreck, and --" only to realise that he's in the exact same state he started the episode in, and his mouth still tastes like an ashtray. The whole scene is a spoof of the infamous ending of the eighth season of ''Series/{{Dallas}}'', an egregious example of this trope.

* PoorMansPorn: Moe is forced to admit under a lie detector test that he spends his evenings ogling the women in the Sears catalogue[[labelnote: note]]Sears stopped sending out Sears catalogues in America at the time of the episode's first airing, but who's to say that Moe doesn't either have a stash of old catalogues or is getting new ones from Canada?[[/labelnote]].

* BloodlessCarnage: Mr Burns is shot right into chest and still he bleeds very little. Even his hands are clean.

* CursedWithAwesome: Homer hates the fact that Mr. Burns can never remember who he is, even though the old man's forgetfulness is likely the reason he's been employed for as long as he has, especially considering the number of times he's drawn Burns' ire in the past.

* DisproportionateRetribution: {{Inverted}} in one of the alternate endings where the culprit turned out to be Smithers. Burns punishes Smithers' murder attempt by giving him a 5% pay cut, to which Smithers is utterly dismayed.

* EvilDetectingDog: Santa's Little Helper growls threateningly at Mr Burns when the latter shows up at City Hall, and this is the episode where Mr Burns is at his most evil.

** Just as Burns collapses onto the sundial, his coat briefly opens, revealing that his holster is empty. This is a major hint, as it reveals that it was Burns's own gun which fired the shot, meaning he must have lost it in a struggle with someone; earlier in the episode, it's shown that Burns lacks the physical strength to take candy from a baby. Maggie is likely the only person who could have possibly ''caused'' a struggle in the first place--anyone else would have overpowered Burns immediately.

* {{Jerkass}}: Mr. Burns might well be at his absolute worst in this episode, stealing oil from a school out of spite, destroying the retirement home, badly injuring Bart and Santa's Little Helper (though that was unintentional on Burns' part, he didn't pay for either of their medical bills and mockingly offered to sell oil for SHL's squeaky medical frame), and then planning to block out the sun entirely, travelling to the town meeting to gloat. And while there, he threatens to draw a gun on Bart, after taunting him about aforementioned injuries to SLH.
* KickTheDog: Mr. Burns develops a project to block sunlight from reaching Springfield, to deprive them of one more alternative source of heat and light. Smithers STRONGLY objects to this, and is fired as a result. A town hall meeting is held about this, and Burns shows '''just''' when the whole town is being shown what Burns' oil drilling operation did to Santa's Little Helper, who was seen using wheels just to walk down the hallway.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: After Mr. Burns collapses on the sun dial, Dr. Hibbert comments "Well, I couldn't possibly solve this mystery...Can you?" whilst looking and pointing directly at the viewer, [[FourthWallPsych before quickly cutting to a different shot to show he was talking to Chief Wiggum]]. This was done in reference to the contest that ran over the summer, in order for the viewers to figure out the culprit.

* MysteriousMiddleInitial: Or first initial. This episode reveals that Skinner's full name is "W. Seymour Skinner", because every potential suspect has either W.S. or S.M. as initials. Not only it is never stated what the "W" stands for, it is also never used again.

-->'''Chief Wiggum:''' This isn't Mr. Burns' face at all! It's a mask! (pulls on his face) Oh wait, it is Burns. Heh — his wrinkly skin lo-looked like a mask.

** When Lisa reveals that Mr. Burns' card doesn't have Homer's name on it, rather than fly into his usual cartoonish rage, he [[TranquilFury very calmly]] tells Bart and Lisa to leave the room. They waste no time in making themselves scarce, understanding their father's very real anger.

* PlotBasedPhotographObfuscation: Happens in-universe with the family portrait inside the box of chocolates. Burns and Smithers refuse to eat the last piece, which happens to be the one thing obscuring Homer from their view, resulting in everyone but [[AccidentalMisnaming the eternally ignored]] Homer being thanked in Burns' letter. Which leads to Homer [[AtomicFBomb letting out an outburst for the ages]].

-->''Mr. Burns, it was naive of you think I would mistake this town's most prominent 104-year-old man for one of my elementary school students.''

** Snake Jailbird -- known as such for the Snake tattoo on his arm - shows up with a revolver at the last minute and apologises for ''not'' shooting Mr Burns -- to Apu.
** Dr Hibbert laughs at Mr Burns getting shot.
** Mr Burns stole Jimbo Jones' clothes to impersonate him and we never did see what happened to Jimbo in the meantime. Jimbo is present at the town hall and when everybody else is looking around suspiciously, he looks nervous. And after all...
** Mr Burns recognized his attacker.

* RoomFullOfCrazy: Homer spray-painting "I am Homer Simpson" on the walls of Mr. Burns' office. It ''still'' doesn't get Burns to remember him.

** Chief Wiggum mistaking Mr. Burns' face for a mask parodies WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou.

* TakeOurWordForIt: When Mr. Burns sends Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie (but not Homer) a thank you card, Homer reacts by shouting something Flanders considers the loudest profanity he's ever heard.

-->'''Homer''': (lowers Mr. Burns' letter from face; fury in eyes; quietly) Kids? Would you step outside for a second?

* Tito's 'vengeance' turns out to be [[TheVillainSucksSong a slanderous mambo]], much to entertainment of the police.
* Skinner admits to preparing to attack Burns, but was applying combat make-up at the time of the shooting. A flashback shows that he mixed up his ''mother's'' make-up, and while Superintendent Chalmers can vouch for his alibi, "Anything else he says is a filthy lie."

After a [[Series/TwinPeaks bizarre dream involving strange symbolism and Lisa talking backwards]], Wiggum checks the suit Burns was wearing when shot. He finds an eyelash, and a DNA scan reveals that it came from the Simpson line. At this time Burns wakes up, crying, "Homer Simpson!"

The police raid the Simpson home, and find a gun in the family's car. It not only has bullet markings identical to the one from the shooting, but Homer's fingerprints on it! Homer is arrested, but escapes when Wiggum turns over the paddywagon while trying to get fast food from a drive-thru.

Lisa goes to the town hall to investigate some more, and has a revelation on who the shooter is. Smithers issues a reward for Homer's capture "Dead or alive", and word gets out that the fugitive is at the hospital Burns is at! The entire town hurries there to find Homer shaking Burns, demanding that the 'accusation' be taken back. This cures Burns' trauma, and he ''still'' has no idea who Homer is.

Burns reveals that after the town meeting, he saw Maggie in the Simpson car with a lollipop. Wanting to actually 'take candy from a baby', Burns went at it, but found his strength to be lacking. During the struggle, his gun fell out and into Maggie's arms, firing.

** Tito Puente planned revenge on Burns, but chose to do so with a [[TheVillainSucksSong slanderous mambo]].
** Principal Skinner confesses he was on his way to shoot Burns, but was still applying face paint when the shooting occurred. Superintendent Chalmers can vouch for him, "but everything else he says is a filthy lie." (Chalmers had caught him putting on his mother's makeup by mistake.)

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The Springfielders who tear down Burns' sun blocker rejoice once Principal Skinner states the town it crushed was Shelbyville.

* BaitAndSwitch: The climax of the episode sees Homer sneak into Mr. Burns' hospital room and moves towards him, hands raised, intending to make sure Burns stops saying he shot him. When everyone rushes into the hospital room later on, [[BrickJoke we see Homer yet again shaking Mr. Burns by the shirt]].

* CardboardPrison: Double subverted for Dr. Colossus: when he tries to escape the police precinct's prison with his "Colosso-Boots" after gloating, he's unable to punch though the roof and he asks for his lawyer, but when Sideshow Mel arrives and says that Wiggum has arrested an innocent man in error, Wiggum immediately assumes he's talking about Colossus and lets him go before Mel can say that he meant Smithers.
* CartoonishSupervillainy: Smithers' recap of Mr. Burns' actions in Part One is the TropeNamer.

* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: After all of Mr. Burns' crimes, which include stealing Springfield Elementary's oil well, causing immense amounts of property damage, and blocking out the sun, it's stealing candy from a baby that gets him nearly killed.

** Burns gets away with a ''lot''. Sure, he got shot, but he stole millions of dollars from the school by rigging the oil well forcing them to let go a number of people including Willie, caused the retirement home to collapse in a sinkhole, ruined Moe's bar via toxin fumes, broke Santa's Little Helper's legs, and drove Homer so crazy over his inability to remember Homer's name that he assaulted him in his office. And his worse plan is to blot out the sun and kill all plant life and force everyone to use his electricity. Yeah, his device got torn down, but unless he paid to repair the damage above offscreen, or the device didn't last long enough to make up for the money he spent building it, he got away scot free with no consequences!
** The people who tore down Burns' device aren't seen receiving any sort of punishment for crushing Shelbyville either, though considering the Shelbyvillains tend to be bigger {{Jerkass}}es than the Springfieldians, this may be more of a case of LaserGuidedKarma for Shelbyville.
* LetsGetDangerous: Although the plot eventually demonstrates that the "iron-clad" evidence was product of a bunch of highly circumstantial coincidences, Wiggum still manages to pull off a decent enough investigation (with some help from Lisa) when prompted that Homer's (wrongful) conviction was almost sure.

-->'''Kent Brockman:''' At 3PM Friday, local autocrat C. Montgomery Burns was shot following a tense confrontation at Town Hall. Burns was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was then transferred to a better hospital where doctors upgraded his condition to "alive".

* OnceMoreWithClarity: At the end of part 2, the shooting is portrayed once again, except this time from Burns' perspective and clearly showing the culprit.

* PlotHole: One that almost completely destroys Smithers' alibi: He says that he left the Town Hall meeting early in order to catch the beginning of "Pardon My Zinger," but Part 1 shows him leaving the same time as everyone else (he can be seen walking past in the background when Lunchlady Doris is commenting on the blocked-out sun).
* PoorMansPorn: Moe is forced to admit under a lie detector test that he spends his evenings ogling the women in the Sears catalogue[[labelnote:note]]Sears stopped sending out Sears catalogues in America at the time of the episode's first airing, but who's to say that Moe doesn't either have a stash of old catalogues, or getting new ones from Canada?[[/labelnote]].
* RageBreakingPoint: Homer's violent shaking winds up snapping Mr. Burns out of his "Homer Simpson" stupor... and his first act is to ask Smithers who is shaking him. Homer full on breaks, grabs Chief Wiggum's pistol, '''and jams it into Burns' head, finger on the trigger'''.

* SharedDream: Defied. During a lull in the investigation, Chief Wiggum has a surreal dream in which Lisa tells him to examine Burns' suit. Wiggum wakes up, upon which Eddie approaches him, having come to the same conclusion. Eddie did not, however, have the same dream:

* SnapBack: The sunblocker is destroyed, but the rest of the havoc caused by Mr. Burns' slant oil drill (Springfield Elementary's massive staff cuts, Moe's Tavern shutting down, Springfield Retirement Castle collapsing, countless other damage caused by careless oil spills) are reversed without explanation.

** The first thing that clues Sideshow Mel in on Smithers' innocence is when he mentioned watching Comedy Central, which Mel took note of because it was unusual (this episode having been made back when Comedy Central wasn't as popular as it was now).

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The fact that Smithers, the quintessential YesMan, can't bring himself to toe the line is a good indicator of how far over the edge Burns has gone.

* PaperThinDisguise: Mr. Burns tries to convince Skinner to give the oil to the power plant by disguising himself as Jimbo Jones. [[RealityEnsues It works about as well as you would expect]].

** Mr Burns losing his gun means that no matter what weapon anybody had, or no weapon at all, anybody could have shot Mr Burns.

** Sideshow Mel makes a direct threat to Mr Burns.

** Mr Largo, the school's music teacher, also lost his job - but had no attention drawn to him in the Town Hall scene, so maybe he rushed off early?

** Mr Burns recognised his attacker.

* InsaneTrollLogic: An amusing bad guy version of it. When telling Smithers about his evil scheme, Mr. Burns starts with "Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the Sun." He apparently hadn't heard of such folks as [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Ra]] and [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Amaterasu]] and [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Apollo]].

''The residents of Springfield all look around, expecting someone else to step forward''

--> '''Marge:''' HE'S CAUSING US ALL TO YELL!

--> '''Smithers''': But sir, every plant and tree will die, owls will deafen us with incessant hooting; the town's sundial will be useless.

* AtomicFBomb: Homer when his plan to make Mr. Burns remember his name backfires.
--> '''Ned:''' Dear Lord, that's the loudest profanity I've ever heard!
** Bonus points by having the church organ [[StealthPun play an F-minor chord]].

* {{Homage}}: The whole episode, and the next by extension, is a parody of the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of ''Series/{{Dallas}}''.
** Dr. Hibbert -- already an {{Expy}} of Creator/BillCosby as his ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' character -- becomes one for Cosby's character in ''Series/TheCosbyMysteries'' with his "Well, I couldn't possibly solve this mystery... Can you?" statement at the end.

-->'''Mr. Burns:''' There has been a shocking decline in the quality and quantity of your toadying, Waylon, and you will fall into line, now.
-->'''Smithers:''' No, Monty, I won't. Not until you step back from the brink of insanity.

** Smithers, who at first confessed to the murder, makes a comment from the show ''Pardon My Zinger'' while being interviewed. Watching the news, Sideshow Mel realized that the show aired at the time of the shooting, and thus Smithers was not the shooter. Further interrogation revealed that he had shot Jasper on his wooden leg while in a drunken rage.

** Principal Skinner confesses he was on his way to shoot Burns, but was still applying face paint when the shooting occured. Superintendent Chalmers can vouch for him, "but everything else he says is a filthy lie." (Chalmers had caught him putting on his mother's makeup by mistake.)
** Groundskeeper Willie couldn't have fired the shot because of crippling arthritis on his index fingers, which he got in the eighties from VideoGame/SpaceInvaders. [[note]] "Yeah, that was a very addictive video game." "Video game?"[[/note]]

* EntertaininglyWrong: Homer is falsely arrested for shooting Burns. The evidence against him seems pretty solid, but he turns out to be innocent. When Burns wakes up from his coma, he shouts "Homer Simpson!", the gun Burns was shot with had Homer's fingerprints on it, and was found under his car seat, and the bullet that was removed from Burns matches the other bullets in the gun. However, "Homer Simpson" is the ''only'' thing Burns could say due to brain trauma, Homer didn't know the gun was there and left fingerprints on it without realizing it, the gun was the one Burns had bought after Homer had attacked him in his office prior to the town meeting, and it fell out of his pocket, into Maggie's hands and fired at him before ending up under the car seat (along with the lollipop Burns had tried to take from Maggie).

* EpicFail: [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythbusters While it turns out that contrary to popular belief]] it's actually hard to steal candy from a baby, but Burns is such a colossal weakling that trying to take it from Maggie's grip was a Herculean task for him and he started to shake around screaming "give me that!" in a manner similar to struggling with a knife-wielding assailant, which loosened his pistol from its shoulder holster and it fell on Maggie's hands, [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns which was enough of a hard shock to set it off]], injuring him.

* PlotHole[=/=]SeriesContinuityError: One that almost completely destroys Smithers' alibi: He says that he left the Town Hall meeting early in order to catch the beginning of "Pardon My Zinger," but Part 1 shows him leaving the same time as everyone else (he can be seen walking past in the background when Lunchlady Doris is commenting on the blocked-out sun).

* SixIsNine: The official answer to the mystery involves a clue where Burns left when he fell on the town sundial, pointing to W and S which implicates Waylon Smithers -- except from his angle, he was pointing to M and S for Maggie Simpson, the true culprit. Notably, though, the episode had many RedHerring that ''still'' work with those same letters--it could have implicated '''Mo'''e '''S'''zylack (whose last name is even revealed in this episode by his liquor license), '''S'''ideshow '''M'''el, Grandpa and Bart Simpson (the former brags about owning a '''S'''mith & '''W'''esson revolver, and the latter knows about said revolver), Skinner (whose full name is given as '''W'''. '''S'''eymour '''S'''kinner this episode), Groundskeeper Willie (while his full name[[note]]William [=MacDougall=][[/note]] wouldn't be revealed until ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E9LisaTheDramaQueen Lisa the Drama Queen]]'', he's a '''S'''cotsman named '''W'''illie), and even ''Santa's Little Helper'' (who Burns prominently refers to as "the '''S'''impson '''m'''utt").

* AluminumChristmasTree: As ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' has demonstrated, taking candy from a baby is not as easy as it sounds.

* SpecialGuest: Music/TitoPuente. Applies to Part 2 as well, where he is joined by his entire band. The reason for the latter's appearance is because writers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had written the "Señor Burns" song for Puente to sing, only to find out later that Peunte is a drummer, not a singer.

* SpecialGuest: Music/TitoPuente. Applies to Part 2 as well.

A few days later, Principal Skinner turns on the new oil derrick the school has built to tap the crude beneath them... but nothing comes out. Burns mockingly reveals that he established a slant-drilling operation, draining the oil well for himself. Faced with a huge bill for installing and dismantling the derrick, Skinner is forced to fire Willie and Tito, who, along with Lisa, swear vengeance. The oil drilling leads to other problems in town: the toxic fumes in the neighborhood force Moe to close his tavern, infuriating both him and Barney; a sinkhole opened by the operation destroys the Springfield Retirement Home, leaving Grandpa Simpson homeless and angry; and a gusher from the well destroys Bart's treehouse and injures Santa's Little Helper, which distress both him and Maggie. [[ForTheEvulz Delighting in his villainy]], Burns tells Smithers that he's ''still'' unsatisfied with his schemes, as people can still use natural sunlight for energy. He then reveals his most evil plan of all: using a "sun-blocker" to cover the star, trapping Springfield in perpetual darkness and forcing them to rely on his power plant for all of their needs. This is [[EveryoneHasStandards too much even for Smithers]], who demands that Burns stop his plot; a furious Burns fires him instead.

A few days later, Principal Skinner turns on the new oil derrick the school has built to tap the crude beneath them...but nothing comes out. Burns mockingly reveals that he established a slant-drilling operation, draining the oil well for himself. Faced with a huge bill for installing and dismantling the derrick, Skinner is forced to fire Willie and Tito, who, along with Lisa, swear vengeance. The oil drilling leads to other problems in town: the toxic fumes in the neighborhood force Moe to close his tavern, infuriating both him and Barney; a sinkhole opened by the operation destroys the Springfield Retirement Home, leaving Grandpa Simpson homeless and angry; and a gusher from the well destroys Bart's treehouse and injures Santa's Little Helper, which distress both him and Maggie. [[ForTheEvulz Delighting in his villainy]], Burns tells Smithers that he's ''still'' unsatisfied with his schemes, as people can still use natural sunlight for energy. He then reveals his most evil plan of all: using a "sun-blocker" to cover the star, trapping Springfield in perpetual darkness and forcing them to rely on his power plant for all of their needs. This is [[EveryoneHasStandards too much even for Smithers]], who demands that Burns stop his plot; a furious Burns fires him instead.

A few days later, Principal Skinner turns on the new oil derrick the school has built to tap the crude beneath them...but nothing comes out. Burns mockingly reveals that he established a secret slant-drilling operation, draining the oil well for himself. Faced with a huge bill for installing and dismantling the derrick, Skinner is forced to fire Willie and Tito, who, along with Lisa, swear vengeance. The oil drilling leads to other problems in town: the toxic fumes in the neighborhood force Moe to close his tavern, infuriating both him and Barney; a sinkhole opened by the operation destroys the Springfield Retirement Home, leaving Grandpa Simpson homeless and angry; and a gusher from the well destroys Bart's treehouse and injures Santa's Little Helper, which distress both him and Maggie. [[ForTheEvulz Delighting in his villainy]], Burns tells Smithers that he's ''still'' unsatisfied with his schemes, as people can still use natural sunlight for energy. He then reveals his most evil plan of all: using a "sun-blocker" to cover the star, trapping Springfield in perpetual darkness and forcing them to rely on his power plant for all of their needs. This is [[EveryoneHasStandards too much even for Smithers]], who demands that Burns stop his plot; a furious Burns fires him instead.

* SixIsNine: The official answer to the mystery involves a clue where Burns left when he fell on the town sundial, pointing to W and S which implicates Waylon Smithers -- except from his angle, he was pointing to M and S for Maggie Simpson, the true culprit. Notably, though, the episode had many RedHerring that ''still'' work with those same letters--it could have implicated '''Mo'''e '''S'''zylack (whose last name is even revealed in this episode by his liquor license), '''S'''ideshow '''M'''el, Grandpa and Bart Simpson (the former brags about owning a '''S'''mith & '''W'''esson revolver, and the latter knows about said revolver), Skinner (whose full name is given as '''W'''. '''S'''eymour '''S'''kinner this episode), Groundskeeper Willie (while his full name[[note]]William MacDougall[[/note]] wouldn't be revealed until ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E9LisaTheDramaQueen Lisa the Drama Queen]]'', he's a '''S'''cotsman named '''W'''illie), and even ''Santa's Little Helper'' (who Burns prominently refers to as "the '''S'''impson '''m'''utt").

** Groundskeeper Willie Macdougal, who is Scottish (meaning "Scottish Willie" works), didn't get his crystal slop bucket and lost his job.

* NobleProfession: Spoofed. Lisa says that Tito Puente can't be a suspect in the case because he's a celebrity. Chief Wiggum doesn't think so.

* ResignInProtest: Smithers comes right to the edge of doing this when Burns first reveals his plan to block out the sun, refusing to work for Burns any longer, including [[FoundASpine finally finding a spine]] and refusing Burns' orders to shut up and fall in line. Burns fires him before Smithers can formally resign.

* SixIsNine: The official answer to the mystery involves a clue where Burns left when he fell on the town sundial, pointing to W and S which implicates Waylon Smithers -- except from his angle, he was pointing to M and S for Maggie Simpson, the true culprit. Notably, though, the episode had many RedHerring that ''still'' work with those same letters--it could have implicated '''Mo'''e '''S'''zylack (whose last name is even revealed in this episode by his liquor license), '''S'''ideshow '''M'''el, Grandpa and Bart Simpson (the former brags about owning a '''S'''mith & '''W'''esson revolver, and the latter knows about said revolver), Skinner (whose full name is given as '''W'''. '''S'''eymour '''S'''kinner this episode), Groundskeeper Willie (while his full name[[note]]William MacDougall[[/note]] wouldn't be ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E9LisaTheDramaQueen Lisa the Drama Queen]]'', he's a '''S'''cotsman named '''W'''illie), and even ''Santa's Little Helper'' (who Burns prominently refers to as "the '''S'''impson '''m'''utt").

---> '''Eddie:''' Hey, Chief. I have an idea. Why don't we check out that suit Burns was wearing when he was shot?\\