Marge's primal instincts take over when Luanne uninvites Bart from a concert trip with Milhouse.
A flashback to 20,000 years ago begins, with a family of cavepeople counterparts of the Simpsons. Primal Bart is hungry, and Primal Marge gets her sling and goes out to hunt for food. But as the flashback ends with the primal family eating from a giant snake, present day Bart isn't interested in the museum cafeteria's vast array of food. Marge tries to lecture him about how lucky he's got it, but he walks off, bored. Milhouse tells Bart that he's got tickets for Violencia Gigante in concert, much to everyone's amazement. Bart asks Marge to go, but she's not so sure, he's still young. Bart claims he's responsible, before running off to play with (and destroy) a trebuchet that Milhouse loaded himself in.
Back at home, Bart still wants to get Marge's permission to go to the concert. Lisa slyly suggests Marge listen to one of Violencia's songs, and Bart loads one up on his phone. The song is light on lyrics, and Marge remarks he's not saying anything offensive, or barely anything. Lisa points out that's the censored version, and loads up the uncensored version on her phone, with a lyrical translation. Marge is shocked, and forbids Bart from going. Bart decides to call Luann Van Houten to get her to convince Marge to let him go, but Luanne tells Bart he's not invited, taking back permission because of the misbehavior with the trebuchet. Luanne tells Bart that he's a bad friend, and hangs up.
Another flashback begins, with Primal Bart is hiding from a large wolf with a bulbous snout and a light blue mane. The Luanne wolf finds him, but Primal Marge hears Bart's screams. She grunts, her eyes dilate, her arm hairs stand on end, and she leaps at the Luanne wolf with a knife and stabs her in the thigh. Marges past and present console their Barts, present day Marge outraged at what Luanne said. She grunts, her eyes dilate, and her arm hairs stand on end. She's had to put up with Milhouse for so long, and this is how Luanne treats Bart? Marge's primal insticts don't care that she forbade Bart from going to that concert, uninviting him was crossing a line! She rounds Homer up to have a chat with the Van Houtens, and gets Grandpa to babysit. The primal family are stuck in their tent during a blizzard with barely any soup to share. Primal Grandpa divides his soup among the children, embraces Primal Homer, and goes out into the cold to die, as modern day Grandpa arrives from the freezing rain.
Marge confronts Luanne, and the husbands can already tell this won't end well. Kirk tries to de-escalate the situation, saying "nobody thinks you're a bad mother". Homer and Marge didn't pay attention to the "nobody thinks" part, and Homer calls out the Van Houtens for their overwhelming attachment to their son. Marge has had enough, they're leaving, saying they have "an all-consuming vendetta" against Bart. Marge wants Homer to get Bart four tickets to the concert, good ones, at all costs. This feud is more important than her opinions. Primal Marge hears the howling of a wolf, and sharpens her spear.
Primal Homer is hunting a deer, chasing it relentlessly through thorny briars despite all the blood loss. Modern day Homer is hunting the concert tickets, switching tabs between websites for anything that might pop up. Marge encourages him to keep it up, or else Bart dies... socially. The deer climbs up a steep cliff and into the snow, and Primal Homer follows. Eventually, he slays the deer and lets out a triumphant roar, and Homer calls Marge with a triumphant roar. He got not just tickets, but a VIP package with admission to the "Front Row Club". Marge is overjoyed.
Milhouse is playing four square with Nelson, Martin, and Lewis, discussing the pre-gaming for the concert, talking about snacks to have beforehand. Bart shows up to flaunt his tickets, and Nelson, Martin and Lewis abandon Milhouse without even so much as a "HAW HAW".
Marge is still over the moon, she has proven herself the superior mother. Lisa tries to get Marge to calm down, and encourages her to take a deep breath in, but the exhale takes the form of a caveman growl. Lisa knows what's happening, Marge's primal instincts are in charge, treating this social situation as if it were a fight for survival from the ice age, and she's stuck in "fight or flight" mode. Lisa lights a scented candle, and tries to reawaken the higher brain function made from thousands of years of human evolution. There's no threat, no need to fight, no need to flee, her cubs are fine.
Luanne confronts Marge at a PTA meeting. She moves to dismiss Marge from the PTA board for bullying Milhouse. Marge grunts, her eyes dilate, and her arm hair and beehive stand on end. The Luanne wolf confronts Primal Marge, and as modern day Marge and Luanne exchange verbal blows, so too do their primal counterparts exchange physical blows. After Marge says she packs a lunch for Milhouse out of pity, Mr. Largo and Ms. Peyton restrain the two and Primal Homer enters the fray, scaring off the Luanne wolf, but she destroys the tent as she leaves. The primal family must go, find shelter in a distant cave.
The night of the concert comes, and Milhouse had to take kindergarteners with his extra tickets. As the primal family reach a wall along the cliffside, Marge reaches the ticket booth. She presents her ticket, but the wiseguy says paper tickets aren't accepted, she must use the app. She calls Homer to know which app to use, and Homer says he deleted the app, as well as the password-storing app, because he likes to see the icons squirm before getting deleted. Marge hears Kirk on the line, he's over at the Simpson residence for fantasy football drafts. Marge won't accept this treachery, and hangs up. Primal Homer is about to assist his Marge up the wall, when the Luanne wolf strikes! She tosses Marge aside, bites Homer, and throws him onto a very sharp stalagmite that impales him, and nearly tears him in two as he slides down it. Both Marges are dismayed, and the wiseguy lets modern Marge through so she can turn around. Luanne stops to gloat. Enraged, Marges past and present charge forward with a primal roar!
Primal Marge vaults over the wolf and the wall, while modern Marge jumps the station wagon over some tire spikes and into the parking lot. They are on the run with primal Lisa, Bart and Maggie and modern Bart, Nelson, Milhouse and Lewis in tow. The primal family are stopped by a ravine, the modern day party by a chain link fence. Primal Marge rips out a tree to make a bridge, modern Marge throws the boys over the wall before climbing up herself. They have evaded the security, now to make sure they get in the venue. Marge opens her purse to plant bags of potato chips onto the people in line behind her, narcing on their outside food to the Squeaky-Voiced Teen as a distraction.
The primal family have reached the cave, but one last obstacle stands in the way of the Marges and their goals. The Luanne wolf, and the guards for the Front Row Club. Modern Marge makes a spill of popcorn stand butter and blinds the guards with camera flashes, sliding under the velvet rope and past the curtains, to the door of the Front Row Club. They made it, but the boys aren't excited for the concert anymore. Marge won't let Luanne win, but Bart asks that she get the opinion of her reflection. Marge's dress is torn, her shoes are gone, and her hair is down. With a grunt of realization, Marge sees she has become like a cavewoman. Marge regrets her actions, she was blinded by rage, but it was out of not wanting anything bad to happen to Bart. Bart can handle bad stuff happening, but not losing his good parent.
As modern Marge looks at the Front Row Club lanyards, lightning splits the sky of the primal world, and makes a rockslide that pins down the Luanne wolf. With spear in hand, Primal Marge has her dead to rights, but looking in her eyes, Marge uses the spear to displace the rock that has the Luanne wolf pinned down, and she breaks the spear to make a cast for the wolf's broken leg. Modern Milhouse is miserable that he couldn't just invite Bart, but Luanne tries to indulge him into the schadenfreude of Bart's misery. Milhouse doesn't want to see Bart sad, he's his only true friend, bad as he might be. Marge approaches Luanne with the Front Row Club lanyards, inviting the Van Houtens to join them. Luanne and Marge hug.
The primal Simpsons have tamed the Luanne wolf, now their loyal giant canine companion.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Homer and Kirk are at best, bystanders to the feud between their wives, and do very little to stop them from escalating things further beyond following what they say. They're still shown to be on good terms later on as Kirk's present at Homer's Fantasy Football league.
- Art Shift: The prehistoric segments of the episode are in a different art style, reminiscent to that of Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: The prehistoric segments of the episode are in a more widescreen ratio, similar to Primal's own aspect ratio.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Marge sees the whole of the Van Houten as one, with Luann in particular getting the most of her rage after the latter calls Bart a bad influence. Marge calling her out for her general smothering and neglect for her own son at the PTA meeting is enough to nearly send the two into blows.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Because of how much bloodshed Primal has, this episode has a lot more blood than the average non-Halloween episode.
- Central Theme: When push comes to shove, there is no distinction between the modern woman and her distant ancestors.
- Credits Gag: The opening credits of the episode are in a different font than usual, a more angular one to make things seem all the more primal.
- Expressive Hair: Marge's arm hair stands on end when she's enraged, and during the PTA meeting, her slouching beehive does the same. This episode alludes to how this is a real-life vestigial defense mechanism from early man.
- False Reassurance: Lisa tells Marge that there's nothing to worry about... then the candle she lit for the mood promptly lights the curtains on fire. Lisa quickly grabs a fire extinguisher and puts it out while reassuring Marge everything is fine.
- Furry Female Mane: The prehistoric wolf has some light blue human-like hair, to make it clear it's an allegory to Luann Van Houten.
- Gangsta Rap: The Spanish rap group Violencia Gigante.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Two in the Primal flashbacks.
- Primal Grampa gives his share of food to the children and walks out into harsh winter to die so he won't be a burden to the family anymore.
- During the cliffside battle with the Luanne wolf, Primal Homer attacks first to protect his family, but is mauled and impaled onto a rock.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Primal Homer is killed when the Luanne wolf throws him onto a very sharp rock, nearly torn in half while sliding down it.
- Kindness Ball: Despite Homer's usual portrayal as an Abusive Parent, here he's willing to spend the entire day refreshing various ticket sites to ensure that Bart gets premium front row seats at a concert. It actually works, too! Unfortunately he drops this and grabs the Idiot Ball once more the instant Marge needs to get into the concert.
- Lampshade Hanging: Raphael the sarcastic guy is identified by Marge as "the mustache man who has every job."
- No-Dialogue Episode: The scenes involving the Primal Simpsons. With grunts being the only sounds heard.
- Mama Bear: Decon-Recon Switch. Marge is so outraged at Luanne calling Bart a bad friend that it reawakens her primal instincts, causing a gradual Sanity Slippage throughout the episode. But she eventually realizes she took things too far and makes peace with Luanne after seeing her reflection and having a heart-to-heart with Bart.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Homer succeeds in buying Marge tickets to the concert and shows the physical copy of the receipt, only for her to learn she needed the app itself to get in and that she can't use it as Homer deleted both his account and the password to it.
- Slippery Skid: Marge dumps butter on the floor of the theater so she and the kids can slide into the VIP lounge.
- Shout-Out: The Primal Simpsons storyline is an homage to Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal. The main story takes notes from the episode The Primal Theory, taking place in more contemporary age where one person gives into their primal instincts.
- Sudden Anatomy: Marges past and present have their arm hair stand on end when enraged, but in the shots before and after, their arm hair is nowhere to be seen.
- Take Our Word for It: Marge listens to some of Violencia Gigante's music that Bart presents her while trying to convince her to let him attend the concert, Marge thinking it's nothing too bad. But Lisa points out Bart showed her the clean version of the song: the regular one contains some awful content, Marge shocked as she listens while reading the translation, making her immediately ban Bart from the concert. We don't hear the music because Marge is wearing earbuds, nor do we see the words because her phone is pointed away from the camera.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: None of the events of this episode would've happened if Lisa hadn't shown Marge the actual lyrics of a song.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Marge outright disowns Homer for being friends with Kirk when she overhears Kirk's voice while calling Homer. This never gets resolved by the end of the episode.
- What Have I Done: After all the trouble Marge goes through to get Bart and friends to the concert, Bart feels they don't want to go anymore. As Marge rages about trying to win against Luanne and anyone else willing to hurt him, Bart points to Marge's reflection in a mirror. Seeing how disheveled she looks, Marge realizes she's let her primal rage get the better of her.
