After returning from a nuclear plant convention, Homer begins to act out of character and Lisa, along with a mentally disturbed FBI agent who looks and acts like
Claire Danes' character from
Homeland (but is voiced by
Kristen Wiig), investigate.
Tropes of this episode:
- The Cameo: The Griffins, Smiths, Browns, and Belchers all make an appearance in the end credits.
- Continuity Nod: Bart's apparently back on Focusyn (at a 20mg dose, presumably lower than the one he was on in "Brother's Little Helper"), which Marge secretly puts in his cereal.
- Credits Gag: The end credits are a sequel to this episode's Couch Gag (in which Homer isn't let in for the show's 25th season celebration).
- Green Aesop: Lisa and the people who told Homer.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: Homer... though he gets the job done.
- Nobody Here but Us Birds: Lisa makes cat sounds to keep Homer from finding out he's spying on her.
- No OSHA Compliance: The Springfield Nuclear Factory; the reason Homer's attempt to weaponize the air conditioning to stink up the place fails because the air conditioning never worked. However, this is exactly what gets the plant shut down by the FBI.
- Not What It Looks Like: All the signs that seem to indicate Homer has become an Islamitic terrorist who wants to blow up the nuclear plant, turns out to be something else.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Homer isn’t acting like himself. He doesn’t choke Bart, enjoys vegetables, ask for water instead of beer, declines Marge’s offer to have sex, and is kneeling on a prayer mat. This scares Lisa, as she thinks Homer has become a Muslim terrorist, but really, he was hanging out with hippies, the mat is actually an affirmation mat that he's meant to kneel on whenever he feels tempted to drink beer, and his apparent repeated bowing while kneeling on it is because it's hell on his knees and he's strugging to stay up and/or bowed.
- Rake Take: One of the early random scenes features Sideshow Bob stepping on a rake.
- Saying Too Much: Mr. Burns ends up blabbing in front of the FBI that the nuclear plant never had a working air conditioning, and that he is planning to move the plant to China. The FBI ends up shutting the plant down.
- Shout-Out: Homer asks if the cat was near by asking if it’s like Garfield… right into asking if it hates Monday and likes lasagna.
- Stalker with a Crush: The FBI Agent that is following Homer becomes obsessed with him (to the point that she barges into the Simpsons' home to both threaten Homer that she's watching and try to seduce him, was flatter when he called her beautiful, and takes time from giving him a Police Brutality No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the episode's denouement to steal a kiss from him).
- Status Quo Is God: Moe uses a remote-controlled drone with a beer can to undo the changes done to Homer. He comments that the device will pay for itself after one night.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Lisa, of all members of the family, is unsettled when Homer rejects violence and stops eating meat. (Subverted at the end when, once she understands that these changes aren't indicative of anything sinister, she encourages him to keep up his improved behavior, to no avail.)
Lisa: Bart, why is the dad I always wished for creeping me out?
Bart: I don't know. 'Cause you're incapable of experiencing joy?
- You Just Told Me: The FBI Agent claims she learned Millhouse's name this way.
