Recap / The Simpsons S26 E2 "The Wreck of the Relationship"

Homer and Bart try to, once again, fix their father-son relationship; this time, by going on a trust-building sea excursion. Meanwhile, Marge takes over for Homer's fantasy football league.

Tropes:

• Chekhov's Gun: The initial conflict with Homer and Bart is Bart refusing to eat his broccoli during dinner. Near the end, Bart finally eats the broccoli, convincing Homer to trust him and listen to his orders.
• Couch Gag: Homer saves Scratchy from Itchy, and he happily stays with the Simpsons. Unfortunately, Scratchy overstays his welcome, so Marge asks him to get Itchy to get rid of him.
• Crazy-Prepared: Homer, unwilling to comply with Bart's risky plan to land the ship, points out that Bart has never listened to him before. In response, Bart pulls out a piece of the broccoli he refused to eat earlier and eats it, proving that he's capable of listening to Homer and convincing Homer to do the same for him.
• Credits Gag: Over the credits is a song by various characters about the events of the episode. We see still images of scenes that aren't a part of the episode, such as Bart painting "I don't like you when you drink" on a shell and presenting it to Homer.
• Determinator: Tired of Bart's disrespect for his orders, Homer tries to force Bart to eat his broccoli at dinner, to which Bart digs in his heels. The resultant "sit-off" between them goes on for over 46 hours—nearly two full days and nights.
• The Dog Bites Back: Martin Prince beats up Nelson after taking a level in badass.
• Game of Nerds: Same principle, but applied to fantasy football. Marge originally recruited five kickers during the draft because she had no idea what she was doing. But after being appalled by the trash talking, she cracks down and finds loopholes and exploits no one ever thought of, including anticipating weather conditions so that her kickers could make 85 yard field goals^note fantasy football works by taking individual player stats and applies it to a manufactured team, this is operating as though she has direct control over how the team plays.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The end of the couch gag has Itchy taking an axe to Scratchy, cutting away to the credits on the television as blood splatters multiple times.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Homer nearly gets everyone on the boat killed because he refuses to listen to Bart despite the boy being the acting captain, but he is right to question why he should respect Bart as captain when the boy doesn't respect Homer's authority as his father.
• Like Father, Like Son: Homer and Bart both prove themselves to equally stubborn people in the first part of the episode.
• My Beloved Smother: Cletus is a male variant. He praises his son too much, prompting his son to be bothered by his father’s overly affectionate nature.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Marge comments that Homer and Bart may be more similar than they'd like to admit. The episode bears this out with their shared stubbornness fueling the lengthy broccoli standoff in the first act and Bart getting a taste of his own medicine when he becomes Homer's superior officer on the ship and finds himself up against the same kind of disrespect Homer always receives from him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The fight between Martin and Nelson isn't seen. The viewers only see the result.
• Overly Long Gag: Bart's explanation of his halyard cleat is too long, and so is the captain's explanation of the proper way to do it.
• Same Content, Different Rating: A strange example: this episode is, to date, the only The Simpsons episode to get a TV-MA rating (at least on the now-defunct Simpsons World, while the censored version has a TV-14), due to an uncensored (albeit brief) instance of a character Flipping the Bird in the movie trailer Bart and Milhouse watch at the beginning of the episode. However, The Movie had a scene like this as well, which got by with a PG-13 (the movie equivalent to TV-14), whereas the FXX showings of the movie keep the scene uncensored at a TV-PG-DV^note  D" for suggestive dialogue; "V" for violence rating (which is even lower than PG-13).
• Shout-Out: At the beginning of the episode Bart and Milhouse were watching a trailer for a movie called Project: After Party. This seems to a reference to Project X (2012).
• Sore Loser: After losing a fantasy football game, Moe burns down the banners he got for his past victories.
• Special Edition Title: Downplayed in that the Title Sequence had blood splattering on the TV during the "Created By/Developed By" part (due to the Couch Gag having Homer saving Scratchy from Itchy, only Scratchy to overstay the Simpsons' welcome, so Homer brings Itchy back to attack Scratchy).
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Bart and Homer each dig in their heels on the Broccoli sit-off when they both miss a rare opportunity they really wanted to take.
• Take a Third Option: When Bart and Homer fight over a piece of broccoli, Lisa serves them two smoothies. One has the broccoli blended in, and the other doesn't. If Homer and Bart drink both, then one of them will have eaten the broccoli, and the argument can be resolved. Bart tips over both smoothies.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Scratchy becomes this in the Couch Gag after the Simpsons kick Itchy out of their house. Eventually they're so fed up with Scratchy that they bring Itchy back to dispose of him.
• Trapped at the Dinner Table: Homer is mad that Bart doesn't respect his authority. When Bart refuses to eat his broccoli, Homer makes him sit at the table until he does. Since neither will give in, they each spend 46 consecutive hours sitting at the table. Lisa comes up with a solution of making two fruit smoothies, one that has the broccoli and one that doesn't, and having them both drink them so it can be even. Bart spills both smoothies on purpose.
• Trust-Building Blunder: Can't get more of blunder than Homer nearly getting everybody killed because he won't obey Bart's orders as an acting superior of the boat's crew. He finally decides to help after he essentially forces them to listen to a drunken extended diatribe of how much he hates Bart.
• You Are in Command Now: Bart ends up enjoying the whole learning experience of becoming a sailor and is promoted to midshipman. Then the Captain, a recovering alcoholic, gets drunk and Bart is suddenly the senior office to take charge during a storm.