Bart and Milhouse try to go to a taping of Krusty's show but instead go to a taping of ¡Noches con Abejorrito!, a talk show in Spanish hosted by Bumblebee Man (now voiced by Eric Lopez). Turns out Milhouse knows Spanish. Bart is one of three audience members selected for a game, which Bart wins, thanks to Milhouse's explanation. For his prize, Bart selects a crystal skull filled with tequila.
Once home, Marge forbids Homer from drinking the tequila Bart won. Dressed like Indiana Jones, Homer steals the crystal skull and takes it to Moe's, where Homer, Barney, Carl and Lenny all share in the quality liquor. They urge Moe to join in, which Moe does, reluctantly.
Moe is a member of a secret society of bartenders who drink after hours at The Confidential. For violating the cardinal rule of bartending, Moe is expelled from the guild, and his regular customers are shot with a serum that makes them violently ill upon consuming alcohol in any form.
The lives of Moe's regulars all improve markedly, and they go drink water at Moe's. The bartenders' guild decide to revert the anti-booze serum with its antidote. Barney, Lenny and Carl all eagerly take the antidote, but Homer refuses and leaves. But he won't be able to outrun the bartenders wielding syringes with the antidote for long...
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: As usual, Moe's core group of regulars are this—Barney, Lenny and Carl to the point where they willingly embrace their bad habits again even after sobering up for several months and improving their lives as a result. Homer is the only member of the group who chooses to stay sober, but is forced back into alcoholism against his will.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- After winning a game on ¡Noches con Abejorrito!, Bart is given a choice of three prizes: a vacuum cleaner, a skull-shaped bottle of tequila, and a dirt bike. As Bart looks at the dirt bike, he says "There's only one obvious choice." Cut to him presenting the skull bottle.
- When Moe's regulars are offered the anti-booze serum's antidote, they're warned that they'd lose the improvements sobriety gave them, making it seem they're allowed to turn down the antidote. When Homer refuses, the bartenders are ordered to re-booze him.
- The Bartender: The Confidentials are an entire Secret Circle of Secrets devoted to this concept: if the role of the bartender in society is to listen to the problems of others, bartenders themselves require a place to unload their problems. Though bartenders in the society freely share the darkest secrets of their patrons with one another, there are serious consequences for disclosing them to anyone outside the circle. The episode itself serves as a Deconstruction of the concept: upon being forced to sober up, Homer and his friends are quickly able to solve all of the personal problems that they confided in Moe, implying that the social role of the bartender amounts to a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, with the bartender's presence helping patrons to cope with problems that were caused by alcohol consumption in the first place.
- Bilingual Bonus: Bumblebee Man's show is in untranslated Spanish. Viewers who don't know Spanish are as lost as Bart is.
- Body Horror: The effects of the anti-booze serum are demonstrated when Barney takes a drink. First comes a "skull-splitting headache", which is relatively normal. But then comes "firehose sweating", where sweat sprays out of Barney like a fountain. Then he gets "rhinoceros pox", which has horn-like growths sprout up all over his body. And finally, there's "hurricane vomiting", which the audience mercifully doesn't get to see.
- The Bus Came Back: Barney's mom returns in this episode.
- Cloth Fu: Moe puts up quite a fight against most of the other bartenders in Springfield when he fights them using his bar rag.Lenny: Wow, he's like a ninja with that crotch rag.Carl: That disgusting towel is a blur!
- Dark Reprise: A gloomy, minor-key version of "Tequila" plays during the closing credits.
- Don't Look At Me: Moe says this when the gang find him at his lowest point — tending an omelet bar at a hotel.
- Downer Ending: Homer, Lenny, Carl and Barney all vastly improve their lives when forced to become sober, but decide they want Moe as their bartender anyway and take him back to his bar so he can serve them a round of water. Artemis declares that Moe has succeeded in his role as The Bartender and "rewards" the group with an antidote to the serum—which Lenny, Carl and Barney all immediately take, throwing away all of their progress. Homer, who has become the husband and father he always wanted to be, refuses the antidote and chooses to go home to his family—only for every bartender in town to chase him down.
- Hidden Depths: Since when does Milhouse know Spanish?
- Karma Houdini: Hibbert drugs Homer right in front of the rest of the family, and gets away with it. That said, they all prefer the non-drunk Homer.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Moe tracks down Homer, Lenny and Carl at work and expects to find Barney at the power plant too.Homer: Barney doesn't work here!Moe: Really? Seems like he would.Carl: Yeah, that would lead to some good stories, all right.
- Milkman Conspiracy: Moe is a member of the Confidentials, an ancient order of bartenders who "listen to the listeners" and keep the secrets their customers tell them. When Moe gets drunk and tells secrets to Homer and friends, not only is he expelled from the Confidentials, but his customers are targeted to be "cut off" from alcohol forever. Soon every bartender in town is after them, including Dr. Hibbert, who tended bars to get himself through medical school.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a pun on The Last Starfighter.
- Reset Button: The antidote to the anti-booze serum.
- Rock Bottom: Forbidden from bar tending, Moe is reduced to working at a hotel omelet bar, berated by demanding guests.
- Season Finale: Of Season 32. Fittingly, its title is The Last Title.
- Self-Made Man: Dr. Hibbert used to be a bartender to work his way through medical school.
- Sequential Symptom Syndrome: When Moe comes to the power plant and is surprised to not see Barney there, Homer calls him on his tablet. Since it's a video call, Homer holds up the tablet so Moe, Carl and Lenny can see Barney. As Moe explains the side effects of anti-booze, Barney is seen suffering each symptom Moe lists.
- Shout-Out:
- To Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Lenny says that film is his least favorite Indiana Jones movie but his most favorite Shia LaBeouf movie.
- The scenes of the bartenders going after Homer, Moe, Lenny, and Carl spoof the John Wick movies.
- The actual skull-shaped bottle of tequila is a reference to Dan Aykroyd 's Crystal Skull Vodka.
- Teetotalers: Barney, Lenny, Carl and Homer after being injected with anti-booze.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: The audience is spared the sight of Barney's "hurricane vomiting".
