History Recap / TheSimpsonsS2E4TwoCarsInEveryGarageAndThreeEyesOnEveryFish

* UniversallyBelovedLeader: The current governor, Mary Bailey, at the beginning seems to be incredibly beloved and well respected. And squeeky-clean, as Burns had a whole team just to slander her, and the best they could uncover was that he kissed a boy when she was 16-years-old.

* NoPartyGiven: The political parties to which Mr. Burns and Mary Bailey belong are never mentioned. However, given Burns's platform of low taxes and lax business oversight, it is very heavily hinted that Burns is running as a Republican, and Mary Bailey is a Democrat. Burns' implied party affiliation would be corroborated by later episodes, where he's shown to have a prominent position in the Springfield Republican Party.

* NoPartyGiven: The political parties to which Mr. Burns and Mary Bailey belong are never mentioned. However, given Burns's platform of low taxes and lax business oversight, it is very heavily implied that Burns is running as a Republican, and Mary Bailey is a Democrat. Burns' party affiliation would be corroborated by later episodes, where he's shown to have a prominent position in the Springfield Republican Party.

* NoPartyGiven: The political parties to which Mr. Burns and Mary Bailey belong are never mentioned. However, given Burns's platform of low taxes and lax business oversight as well as his prominent position in the Springfield Republican Party in future episodes, it is very heavily implied that Burns is running as a Republican, and Mary Bailey is a Democrat.

* ElectionDayEpisode: When an inspection of the plant reveals numerous safety violations, Mr. Burns runs against Mary Bailey for governor to prevent the plant from being shut down. The night before the election, Burns has a televised dinner with the Simpsons to show his appeal to the common voter. Marge, who supports Bailey, sabotages Burns' political stunt and dooms his campaign by serving him the head of Blinky, the three-eyed fish.

* ThreatBackfire: After all is said and done, Burns swears that he will destroy all of Homer's hopes and dreams in revenge for losing the election. After he leaves, Marge gives Homer reassurance by pointing out that Homer's "hopes and dreams" are so small and petty that Burns can't destroy them at all.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The Safety Inspector does not even entertain the notion of accepting a bribe of tens of thousands of dollars yet he also gives Burns the opportunity to rectify his violations.

* PragmaticHero: Homer knows that Mr. Burns does not deserve to win the election, but he still votes for him because Mr. Burns is his boss and would likely fire him out of spite if Homer voted for Mary Bailey.

* PlotHole: How Marge actually got hold of Blinky to cook it is never explained, especially since it seemed to be in Burns's possession to begin with. Future episodes do show there's more than one Blinky, however.

* CharacterisationClickMoment: Mr. Burns was mostly only a standard MeanBoss in season one. It's this episode that he begins his penchant for {{Zany Scheme}}s and hones his role as a behind-on-times CorruptCorporateExecutive.

* ClungOnTight: Maggie clings affectionately to Mr. Burns' leg. Burns, having apparently never seen a baby up close, reacts as if he's being attacked by a wild animal.

* NoPartyGiven: The political parties to which Mr. Burns and Mary Bailey belong are never mentioned. However, given Burns's platform of low taxes and lax business oversight, as well as his prominent position in the Springfield Republican Party in future episodes, it is very heavily implied that Burns is running as a Republican, and Mary Bailey is a Democrat.
* PerpetualFrowner: Burns, to the point that when one of the campaign managers produced a fluff picture of him smiling and looking heroic, he had to ask why his teeth were showing.

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Mr. Burns interrupts a government inspector's tirade to notice that "some careless person" left a huge pile of money on his coffee table, and quickly exits with Smithers, hoping that the money will ''somehow'' disappear in their absence. He comes back a moment later to see the annoyed inspector hasn't touched it.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Marge single-handily torpedoes Mr. Burns' campaign with one serving.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The conflict between Marge and Homer is this; Marge is right to oppose Mr. Burns, who is a terrible person in general and only running to keep the power plant from being (Rightfully) shut down or spend money to bring it to code. But as Homer points out, Burns is a BadBoss who will probably fire him if he doesn't support the campaign.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Mr. Burns is outraged that it will cost approximately $56 million [[note]]$129 million in 2023 dollars[[/note]] to bring the power plant up to code. Sure, that ''is'' a lot of money, but he behaves as though he can't afford it (even getting drunk and crying over it) despite later episodes confirming his net worth is roughly $16.8 ''billion''.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Mr. Burns is outraged that it will cost approximately $56 million to bring the power plant up to code. Sure, that ''is'' a lot of money, but he behaves as though he can't afford it (even getting drunk and crying over it) despite later episodes confirming his net worth is roughly $16.8 ''billion''.

** Then again, he is also usually known to be greedy, so he ''has'' the money but he probably didn't ''want'' to pay.
** Burns's net worth has also varied over the years. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa The Old Man And The Lisa]]" it's quoted as less than $100 million, down from the $200 million he believed it was.

%% * DirtyCoward: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] Marge is bold enough to directly sabotage Burns's campaign on live [=TV=], but she loses her nerve when Burns throws a tantrum over this and shamelessly orders Homer to intervene.
-->'''Marge:''' (as Burns and Smithers wreck the living room) Homer. Homer! Make them stop!

* DirtyCoward: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] Marge is bold enough to directly sabotage Burns's campaign on live [=TV=], but she loses her nerve when Burns throws a tantrum over this and shamelessly orders Homer to intervene.

* JerkassBall: Marge acts like Homer is some sort of villain for supporting Burns, ignoring Homer's blunt declaration that he's doing so because the old man is his boss and would no doubt fire him out of spite if Homer supported Mary Bailey. She directly and openly sabotages the campaign anyway, and when Mr. Burns throws a tantrum, she cowers, tosses Homer into his boss's line of fire, and makes no attempt to claim responsibility for her actions when Burns vows revenge against Homer (the best she does is reassure Homer that Burns can't destroy his dreams, but the way she does so, which is mentioning that they are too small for Burns to destroy, [[CondescendingCompassion is not really that reassuring]]). While Burns was a corrupt, tyrannical scumbag who deserved to lose the election, Marge still unrepentantly threw her husband under the bus after putting her family's livelihood at stake.
* KarmaHoudini: Marge essentially gets away with letting Homer receive all the blame for the destruction of Burns's political campaign even though he had nothing to do with it.

--->'''Burns:''' Oh, look, Smithers, the money and the very ''stupid'' man are still here!

* CryCute: Happens to Mr. Burns, of all people, near the beginning of the episode. After a spectacularly failed safety inspection, Mr. Burns [[DrowningMySorrows downs a whole bottle of wine]], staggers into the parking lot, and breaks down in tears in the front seat of his car, sobbing into the steering wheel. This vulnerable moment humanizes him a bit; even ''Homer'' [[SympathyForTheDevil feels sorry for him]] to the point of outright asking him if he's alright.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The original impetus for Burns to run for governor is that current state law will require him to either shut down the power plant or spend $56 million getting it up to code. [[HalfwayPlotSwitch Once his campaign kicks off, however, it's never mentioned again]]. It makes more sense in light of Burns' net worth as revealed in later episodes--he can spend the money, he'd just rather not.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The original impetus for Burns to run for governor is that current state law will require him to either shut down the power plant or spend $56 million getting it up to code. [[HalfwayPlotSwitch Once his campaign kicks off, however, it's never mentioned again]]. It makes more sense in light of Burns' net worth as revealed in later episodes--he can afford the fixes, he'd just rather not.