Chief Wiggum gets a jetpack and uses it to fight crime from above, but ends up crashing into the town church. To raise money for damages, Marge, the Lovejoys and others decide to count cards at a casino.
Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Chief Wiggum unwittingly kills two people for doing graffiti by landing his propellers on them.
- Armour-Piercing Question: When Homer asks why Marge is in trouble for counting cards if it's not illegal, the thugs can't give him a straight answer and start torturing him to shut him up.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The jetpack:
- In order to be able to viably fly, it has to have two enormous engines in order to get enough lift.
- Wiggum never takes off the jetpack for fear someone will take it. Since he never takes it off for maintenance, it becomes filthy.
- When Wiggum tries to fly off with the pack, he's very easily subdued by the military since it's a big target and can't take off so quickly that they can't hit him.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The jetpack crashes into the town church right after it seemed to be about to land at a junkyard for jetpacks.
- The episode's title has hardly to do with the actual plot and only gets a Title Drop near the end. Chief Wiggum's misadventures don't last too long for a B plot.
- Brick Joke:
- When Apu comes up with the plan to count cards at a casino, he explains that he used this strategy to be able to enter the MIT and, when expelled from there for his bad grades, was given a bum's rush by a robot. Homer receives a similar treatment at a casino for demanding it to allow the patrons to count cards.
- The episode starts with Chief Wiggum eatng Stuffer's Italian Foods brand lasagna. Later, a poster of it is seen in the Kwik-E-Mart. The casino manager also works for said company and Marge says her family loves the lasagna. The manager promises to relay her praise to the food division's manager.
- Continuity Nod: After being convinced that God has nothing against gambling, Ned decides to buy insurances for his sons. In "Hurricane Neddy", it's revealed that Ned never insured his house because he believed insurance to be a sort of gambling.
- Disproportionate Retribution: During the ending credits, Nelson steals candy from Ralph and Chief Wiggum uses his jetpack to take him to the sky where Nelson will freeze and there's little to no air.
- Drunk with Power: Quote Chief Wiggum: "I'll kill you all, I'm Sky Poliiiice!"
- Fingore: Apu assures the church organization that the worst punishment they'll get for card counting is some smashed fingers, then shows off his mangled thumb.
- Gorn: Chief Wiggum accidentally lands his jetpack on two hoodlums, reducing them to little more than bloody guts.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode initially focuses on Chief Wiggum's misadventures with a military jetpack, but quickly switches gears to Marge and the Lovejoys trying to raise money to rebuild the church.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Although Gill doesn't understand it at first but when he mentions that the church is covered for everything except acts of God, Lovejoy begrudgingly points out that as a priest everything is an act of God to him.
- The second half of the episode juggles the ideas that counting cards is not cheating or even manipulating the system, it's playing by the rules just with more educated guesses. Whenever they try to explain that to casino security they can't counter exactly why its illegal.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: During his first flight with the jetpack, Chief Wiggum smashes a police car, knocks down a police helicopter and makes a hole big enough to allow people to escape jail.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode is partially inspired by the 2011 documentary Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians, which just as the title suggests is about an all-Christian blackjack team.
- Shout-Out: To American Hustle:
- Compare Marge and Ned in this photo
with these characters from American Hustle◊ - Then there's the themes of running a con and the casino business...
- The Sky Police gag in the end credits is done in the style of 80's action-adventure TV shows like Airwolf.
- Special Guest: Nathan Fielder as Doug Blattner the casino manager.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: Not trusting Homer with the truth, Marge tells Homer that she and the others are making a theater play to raise money. When Homer learns about the card counting scheme, Homer asks why she gave up on the theater.
- Title Drop: After her Heel Realization, Marge shames the rest of the group for thinking Homer's plan of stopping them from card counting was intervention by God:
Marge: God's plan? God isn't some video gamer up there controlling us like we were Pac-Men and Dig Dugs. God isn't Sky Police. God didn't do this. I lied to my husband, and made my kids lie, too. We did this.
- To the Tune of...: Wiggum sings a "Sky Police" song using the melody of "Baby Face".
- Turn in Your Badge: During the ending credits, Chief Wiggum turns in his badge, his gun and the jetpack. The last item smashes Mayor Quimby.
- Watching the Sunset: At the end of the episode, the Simpson family watch the sun set over the newly-repaired church.
Marge: Homie, after all this, do you still believe in God?
Homer: On a beautiful night like tonight, how could I not?
- Whole-Plot Reference: To 21, with Apu making the MIT student connections.
