Character Study: Mona Simpson

Shaun: 0:02

Hey everybody. I'm Shaun.

Sari: 0:08

And I'm Sari. And we're the Simpsons Siblings. We could have said it at the same time.

Shaun: 0:13

Time. I was just trying to mess you up.

Sari: 0:16

And, uh, we're here to talk about Simpsons related

Shaun: 0:22

things as we do all the time, as we do

Sari: 0:25

quite often. And we're back from winter break.

Shaun: 0:29

Oh, it was busy. It was

Sari: 0:32

busy, but, uh, yeah, it feels good to be back making episodes and we hope you all had a nicer holiday season and all that, all that good stuff. Yeah. And we're, we're, uh, starting off the new year with a character study, which I'm a little nervous about. Cause we've only done this once, which was with Troy McClure, which was fun. Yeah. Shaken things up. No that, so, uh,

Shaun: 1:01

yeah, I had a lot of fun with this, like, cause it was over several episodes and I feel like I wanted the episodes that she was in. Wasn't necessarily, she wasn't necessarily a main focus, but it was fun pulling details

Sari: 1:16

from those. And yeah, I also feel like we're making our way up the staircase because we start with Troy McClure who like only has one real episode where he's the subject and now we're moving up to Mona Simpson. Who's got like five, six ish, depending on what you count. And so we're not going straight into like, let's talk about homework because then it's going to take. 20 episodes. Yeah. Yeah. I wrote an intro and I'm going to say that intro. This is the intro to the intro

Shaun: 1:47

and that intro is

Sari: 1:50

grandpa. Maybe the Simpson's grandparent to get the most screen time, but his wife Mona takes the cake when it comes to heartfelt Simpson's story. Her first episode of other Sims in as known as one of the tear, jerkier must have all Simpsons episodes and her follow-ups do a great job. Continuing the theme of a long lost mother who can never fully reconnect with her son. Oh, she's a complex character with connections. Each member of the Simpson's family has had a bad streak with the law, but is also heartfelt and truly loves her family. Let's get

Shaun: 2:23

going well, like we first see her in mother Simpson and it was interesting how, like, we first see her dynamic with Abe sin and a lot of how she is, at least in the beginning, she starts off being very close and connected to the homeowner. And, and it was like, like you said, that the mother Simpson's a real tear-jerker episode because it is sad to see that. She gets something that's like such a passion in her life. What she's first sees like the football player with his long hair. And that sets off double rebellion.

Sari: 3:03

But I mean, we'll go with it,

Shaun: 3:05

but, but it is kind of sad too, that she finds something that she can have a passion for in life. And then once she finds that that's something that draws her away from her family. Yeah. It's kind of mixed feelings in my mind that like, I'm happy that she's kind of willing to sacrifice things in her life to do what she feels is. Right. But it's also sad that she feels like she has to do that. Like I wish. It's fiction, but I wish she could have found a better middle ground

Sari: 3:36

and that the sorta irony of it too. Like I remember when they're running out of like the germ warfare facility building, um, that she's the only one that stops and helps Mr. Burdens to get up. Cause he like falls over and her helping him to get up is what makes him catch her. And that it's almost, and I wonder if that's almost like a parallel that she's so willing to give up. Things to better the world that's you almost does it too much. Yeah. Yeah. Um, how that's interesting. And, and it's not that she's a bad mother per se. Like she definitely loves homework. Yeah. Um, And I, uh, one thing I thought was interesting with mother Simpson is that when she first comes back, it's to see Homer's grave after he's faked his death.

Shaun: 4:26

Right. And that, like I had noted that too, that she has been keeping an eye out in the news. And it made me think of how many times in the past, on the Simpsons Homer, especially, or anyone else in the family has been in the newspaper or on the news or in the media. And you know, that. Basically following the family through all of their headlock

Sari: 4:49

man loses pants, come up life. That would have been what she saw with

Shaun: 4:56

all the times that like stupid things where like Homer had a fight with someone or different things where like, I can't remember exactly. Now I should have looked it up, but. Homer fighting a bear or something. Ridiculous.

Sari: 5:09

Give him getting stuck in the woods. And they think he's big foot, all that kind of stuff. I

Shaun: 5:13

wonder if she saw an old Daniel's a

Sari: 5:15

cloud. I mean, she probably did it. I was like, Hey babe. Um, eh, yeah. And also the fact that she risked getting caught to see his grave. Yeah, yeah. That, that was something she was willing to come back into the open for. Um, well, and

Shaun: 5:34

how sad it would be to in her mind. The first time going to reconcile would be after Homer's death. Not only that, but after he loses his

Sari: 5:43

pants. Okay. Oh yeah. Gosh. And the beavers couldn't say any of them. And, uh, it's, it's interesting seeing her with homework as a kid and how that compares to him as an adult. Um, and, and the whole sort of. Oh, it's almost like a love triangle, but not romantically between, between Mona Simpson, Homer and food. Because if you think about it, like the first time when you see her tucking him in, she sings him, the fig Newtons song, and he's tucked in with his arm popping fresh and, um, which he's also mistaken for by Mr. Burns. Interesting, but that's much later. And like how in Mona leaves, where he sort of realizes that she's the reason he got addicted to food that her leaving, like once she left, he started kind of gorging himself and, and that he, he kind of filled his absence of her with food.

Shaun: 6:50

And I kind of got the impression too, that he was already using it as a coping mechanism when Mona and Abe were fighting all the time. That's true. And then when she left that just pushed him over and he went full in on that as a coping mechanism.

Sari: 7:06

Definitely the thing that always gets me is when she kisses him goodbye. And he says, I thought I imagined that kiss.

Shaun: 7:14

Yeah. That's just like a

Sari: 7:16

punch to the. Like just the thought, the little Homer, how he's processing this and how his brains retaining these memories. Um, and we also get an alternate scene of her leaving in, um, Todd, Todd, why hast thou forsaken me, I think. And in that episode we see. Uh, Mona and Abe kind of arguing. And that's the thing that gets her to leave. And that almost makes me wonder, like obviously a wizard did it, like someone didn't look up their continuity, but, but what if she had left and come back multiple

Shaun: 7:51

times? That's the impression that I got that that was one of the times that she was leaving and not the last time that she was leaving.

Sari: 7:58

So it might've been more to her leaving that she thought she told herself she was leaving. To help the world and do all this humanitarian stuff. And that might've been part of it, but she might've also been leaving because she just despised Abe. And that if he had been a supportive husband, maybe she would have been able to have both.

Shaun: 8:22

Yeah. Because looking back there's you see it several times where Abe doesn't really care at all, and he's just sitting on the couch, watching TV, watching football. Mona's trying to do good in the world and, you know, he could have supported her even just in the slightest, even just by agreeing and saying, oh yeah, I'm glad you're doing your thing. Or, but he just completely rejected her. And I can definitely see that that would lead to multiple fights at her storming out several nights,

Sari: 8:51

one that doesn't, and that doesn't take into account either that, uh, she could have told him. That she was on the run from the law and they could have all booked it. They could have all left and run together and, you know, just say, Hey, let's go move to another state because I don't think this was like a national level manhunt. I think they were just looking in Springfield area. And if they could had all just moved to a different state. And it could have been fine. So, I mean, I'm not excusing what she did, but it also could have been made a better situation.

Shaun: 9:25

Yeah. But I also feel like Abe. Turn it around or something, maybe knowing that yeah. Turned her into the authorities of the great state of wherever Springfield's located in.

Sari: 9:37

What was it that they said in the Simpsons movie it's like in between Alaska, Ohio, Maine, and Kentucky, the four states that border Springfield. Um, it's interesting too, to see how. In the present day in quotes, cause this is all floating timeline and all that. But how grandpa acts towards her after the fact, now that they're all older and after she dies, he says, after your mother died, I wanted to dance on her grave. And he goes through like all these different dance moves he's been learning and all this. And then he says, but now I don't feel like much like dancing and he's very sad about it. And then he like walks away and he's like wearing tap shoes. But there's definitely mixed feelings there and that's something you don't see a lot, um, that after the fact grandpa could have grown more and regretted how he treated her, but still have that sort of anger at her as well.

Shaun: 10:37

I think it's something that there was definitely anger from both sides and it just, yeah. And like we saw two on mother Samson, like she was kind to him. She, no, she said he didn't age. Well, and wasn't, it wasn't necessarily nicest, but oh, I, you know, but you know, it's, there was so much resentment from both sides that you've never all those years of not seeing each other. It would have taken a long time to

Sari: 11:03

reconcile that. Oh yeah. And you can't forget that Abe was left to raise Homer all by himself and that's a lot. My did

Shaun: 11:12

agreed.

Sari: 11:18

Um, and of course he here originally told the Homer that his mother was dead. So he didn't have to tell him she was on the run from the law, which is it's like, what do you do in that situation? The thing

Shaun: 11:31

that's dangerous too, because. What if she comes up in the news, what if she returned five years later? What would they have done to Homer and Abe's relationship?

Sari: 11:40

Uh, yeah, so, uh, something I thought was interesting was that in, um, Mona Mona leaves, it's kind of shown that she's a hippie for a longer period of time. Whereas in mother Simpson, it's all seems very fast.

Shaun: 11:56

Yeah. It, I mean, at the end of other substances, She leaves with her hippie friends

Sari: 12:01

though. So she had to have been able to form a bond. I think it was weird too, that she says she's going to chain herself to a submarine. I don't know how that's gonna work.

Shaun: 12:14

It's like, they're not going to dive because he do it.

Sari: 12:17

Um, which, I mean, she could be there with the village people

Shaun: 12:22

I forgot about.

Sari: 12:25

Oh, that didn't turn out very well for them

Shaun: 12:27

though. Oh, man. Yeah, it's, it's almost like she grew out of the hippie lifestyle, but not like the ideology, if that

Sari: 12:37

makes sense. Um, especially, um, and we'll get further into this later, but like her last task. After her death, she wants her ashes spread at this very specific spot at this very specific time. And it was so that they could go and disrupt like this missile launching system and all this. Like she was protesting even through her ashes being straight spread. And Homer's reaction is really telling that he gets mad and he says, you used me to pull off one last hippie protest and he seems mad about it. Yeah. But later he kind of comes to understand it a little bit better. And, and I think almost kind of accepted as part of who she was even after she's dead. So

Shaun: 13:26

talking about her motherhood, I know we talked about that a little bit already. She, before she got into all the hippie stuff, she was a really good mom. And I feel like she kind of shielded him, have Homer from a lot of the behaviors that Abe was showing. But in front of like, we were watching these episodes, I was wondering. How Homer would have been if you would've had more of that motherly influence, because he was already starting to show some oddball behaviors as a child, you know, like playing the, uh, the operation game and getting stuck and electrocuted that ma

Sari: 14:06

I love little over is

Shaun: 14:08

poison, but I don't know. I feel like. He still wouldn't have been a fully well functioning adult to put it, but he could have probably been better off. And, but I think she set him up, especially when she knew that she was going to be leaving soon. Potentially. She, I feel like she was really setting him up to kind of be good. And wife, I kind of was almost like a crash course. Like, Hey, I'm going to be leaving soon. So you don't want to do all these things on the street. It's extra love and attention. And. I dunno. I feel like she wanted to be there the whole time. It's not like she chose to abandon or wanting to leave him, but I can see that conflict in her mind that she wanted to be that. Mom that was there consistently, but just couldn't.

Sari: 14:59

And I can definitely see too that the sweet parts of homework come from her. And it's interesting. Cause I can see both like him and his kids, what each of them gets from her because he gets the sweetness from her and Lisa gets the rebellious. To the point that she says, I didn't know how I fit in with this family, but now that I met you, this suddenly makes a lot of sense that that rebellion of hers kind of skipped the generation to Lisa. And then I feel like Bart gets her troublemaking. Yeah. In a way they just, they just express it differently. And

Shaun: 15:38

it's like, Lisa gets the reason Bart gets the. That's a great way

Sari: 15:43

to put it. Yup. Yup. And then Maggie, I guess just gets that little cute little dance that she does. Side note. If you take that, that gift and like set it to music, it goes with just about anything and she just like dances and it's super cute. I love it. She definitely passes herself on to each of those family members. And I'm wondering if. Um, if she had been more present, if there would have been a little less of a jerk ass Homer in like the middle seasons, if that was some sort of manifestation of her being gone and not nurturing him enough and his dad, grandpa Simpson, having too much. Yeah, and his life, but

Shaun: 16:29

I think to Marge was lacking in a lot of things by not having her there. Remember in mother's Simpson, she gets really nervous when Mona comes back like that nervous. Laughter oh, I have a mother-in-law and I think that, you know, from Marge's family, There was a lot of anger and they dismissed her feelings a lot. And I think that March could have done a lot better, especially with her anxiety that she has, if she would have had monitored, having a relationship

Sari: 17:00

with, she could have been a bit like a second mother to her. Yeah. Yeah. That's true.

Shaun: 17:07

But even while she's gone, She was trying to be supportive of Homer when she kept sending him the care packages and the post office. And that's kind of sad that just because you didn't tip your mail carrier. Homer didn't know that she was alive still. And, and he could've continued to at least through the mail to have that relationship

Sari: 17:28

with her. Yeah. And, um, it's shown in a, the season 32 episode and mothers and other strangers that, um, she actually sends him a postcard when he's 16. And they go looking for her, which probably messes up the Canon a bit, but you know, what is there? Did it, so that's okay.

Shaun: 17:48

Ned would not like that. Oh no.

Sari: 17:53

So she sends him a postcard from Utah and homework convinces grandpa that they can both track her down. Um, and they find her at this gas station in the middle of nowhere. And they could have reconnected, but the FBI tracked them through the postcard and they chased her into a canyon. And Homer gets this sort of decision where he has to, because grandpa gets stuck in like, it's hard to explain completely, but he gets stuck and he has to either choose between following his mother or going and helping grandpa. And he ends up choosing grandpa, which is interesting. I think that's more of him choosing what he has versus what he wants to have. And that's when she meets the guy in the hippie van and they go driving off. But it was absolutely a part of the Canon that did not need to be filled, but they did and the episodes. Okay.

Shaun: 18:52

I don't, I don't remember seeing that one,

Sari: 18:54

but yeah, that was one I forgot to put on our.

Shaun: 18:57

It does seem like it wouldn't fit in oddly with all the other yeah. Counsel her,

Sari: 19:02

but it did also lead to, um, showing Homer, getting therapy, um, and talking about her during mother's day because it showed that like basically every mother's day, he kind of socks and thinks about her. So this is something that's very much still on his mind, even after all these years. I mean years, even though the kids have an age it's it's it still counts. It's time. I guess it's a little out there. It's still good. It's still good. It's still good. So airborne. Uh, and he definitely still Pines for her attention when she comes back that first time, um, like he was like doing handstands or something going mom, you're not looking

Shaun: 19:50

well. It's like two, it kind of goes along the lines. We said earlier with her keeping up with the news, she still had a lot that she held on to over the years. Like she still had the macaroni pencil holder holder that Homer made. She was still just like, like she remembered Glennie and Carl, like she saw any and Carl and she was like, oh, well, sorry, I saw you. You were so small and everything. Like, she still knows all the things that are important to Homer. And I dunno, I, I still like in mother, the carjacker mother Simpson, all the other episodes. She regrets all the time that was lost. And, and she, even though she may not have as much memory wise, she holds onto what she does have. Yeah.

Sari: 20:35

And she, she keeps a lot of pictures of him. Um, she remembers how he stores his clothes. Oh, that's right. Just right in the drawers one. And that's the other thing, like she never. It's kind of a neat inverse because there's a line from Lisa where she says, oh, you used a big word for me. You didn't dumb it down. And at the same time, she doesn't insult Homer for not meeting smarter. She knows how to adjust herself to whoever she's talking to. Um, As like a way of caring for them when she, when he says that and she says, right in the drawers, she doesn't say it like, she's making fun of him. She's she's saying it lovingly. And when she talks to Lisa, she talks a bit with a bit higher vocabulary because she knows how to adjust yourself to people. And in a way, I wonder if that's why she got into. The hippy movement so much was because she does have a lot of empathy and she does know how to connect with other people.

Shaun: 21:39

Yeah. She would be good at like, even if you're in conflict with someone kind of, like we said again with Mr. Burns too, like she hated what he was doing, but she didn't necessarily hate. Completely as a person, like she's still wanting to negotiate and work things out. And she just has those interpersonal skills that it's not just going out there and yelling about some, but let's find a solution.

Sari: 22:05

I'm an old man yelling at a cloud, um, which it would be interesting. I would love to have an episode of them meeting Mona and Abe and know that backstory.

Shaun: 22:19

Yeah. Cause it was kind of sad in that one episode when they're fighting and she says, oh, I just got with you to make my parents man at work, there had to have been some connection there

Sari: 22:30

it's pretty petty for her. Like she doesn't seem like the kind of person that would do that, but she could have also changed over the years. Uh, Again, connecting, um, Mona and Homer's relationship with food when they find her again and Mona leaves, uh, they think she's broken into the house and then they smell a pie baking and it turns out she's baked them a pie and. Homer kind of starts to eat the pie, but then when she kind of starts apologizing to him and stuff, he he's very slowly sets down the pie, which is interesting. You don't usually see Homer stop, think about something and set down a piece of food that is not Homer style. Um, and it's kind of frustrating, cause it was a really cool moment that they put that in, but then five seconds later, she says, he's eating the whole. Yeah, which I don't know if that was like, they forgot the continuity or again, it might've just been a wizard, just

Shaun: 23:34

wizards all throughout Springfield. So many

Sari: 23:36

wizards, they're doing all these things.

Shaun: 23:39

Now, there was one part that it did seem kind of odd to me. Cause we were talking all about how she does really care and everything. And she was there, but in Mona, Lisa there's towards the beginning. When she goes to head out and homeless, like looking at the KFC in the fridge where she goes hugs and kisses, and he goes to put out his arms for a hug, and then she leaves like that. I don't know if you had any thoughts on that. Like that's mostly consistent with everything.

Sari: 24:08

So it was kind of interesting. Um, later on in Todd Todd YFL per second, me, she says she's finally able to give him that. Like at first, he, she says, you know, I'm not really a hugger. And then, and he says, oh yeah, I know. And then, and then she says, well, we're, we're dead in heaven. I'll go ahead and give you a hug anyways. But that's also inconsistent with her hugging him when he was really little. Yeah. So

Shaun: 24:39

I kind of just

Sari: 24:39

didn't frequently give hugs. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Um, that was it. It was a weird connection. It connects two episodes, but not the rest. I don't know why she gives them. You know, I don't know when he does hug her. He says, this is all I ever wanted.

Shaun: 24:58

And then he does that at all, as he fades away.

Sari: 25:04

Yeah. It's so I like that that episode did give them that sort of closure.

Shaun: 25:09

Yeah. See what I would have wanted at the end of that was for Homer and Ned to compare notes and be like, Hey, we had the same experience. So it had to be real. And then for him to know that that actually was his mother and not just a dream.

Sari: 25:23

True. Yeah. They should have said something about this. Oh man. That's why

Shaun: 25:29

I need to just be a writer

Sari: 25:30

for the Simpsons. Here you go. Come on, call them up. Come on. I kind of wouldn't mind taking a little break. We'll be right there. I was supposed to say that. A lot of us are stuck at home, which means now more than ever, we've got to take care of our furry friends, keeping us company. So treat your dog with BarkBox super chewer. He themed collection of super tough toys, treats and chews sent to your home every month. Use our link to get one free extra month. Go to super chewer.com/simpsons or click the link in our description. That's super chewer.com/simpsons. And we're back here and we're going to talk about. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. First of all, thank you, Disney plus, because the description of this episode says what's going to happen like in the first sentence and it's just like, yeah, she does. Okay. Yeah. Thank you,

Shaun: 26:35

Disney plus that's what the plus in Disney plus is for it's

Sari: 26:38

for the spoilers. So, this is about when she breaks in with the whole apple pie scenario. And she really, really tries hard to get Homer, to forgive her for leaving her, for leaving him and all that. Um, but he very adamantly does not. And, um, It's kind of weird because she's trying to do all of these sort of motherly things to him, like, like very mother to child, things like she bakes in the pie and she actually tucks him in like physically tucks him in. He still does not forgive her. And then her last words to him are I understand these things take time. Good night. Damn Homer wakes up in the middle of the night and is upset about all this. And he says, I'll make her a card. And the card is like one of those hand Turkey drawings that kids make. And it says I've been a real Turkey. Which

Shaun: 27:40

is adorable. Little bit of aggression.

Sari: 27:43

Yes. Very Homer dumb, but sweet. And I think she would have loved it. And then the part where he finds her, it's kind of, it's like a brush, but you know,

Shaun: 27:55

to do the angle like panning out from the house.

Sari: 27:58

Yeah.

Shaun: 28:00

All the emotional moments are with Mona.

Sari: 28:01

Yeah. It's very, it's like almost kind of jarring the way it works. It it's also very much the opposite of a. Of a one fish, two fish, something Blowfish. When he thinks he's going to die, she's like, oh, the drool is still warm and all that. It's like the exact opposite, which is interesting. A Homer takes it super hard. Like he stays in his bed and just stares at her urn, which is very not Homer, which is. We're always fascinates me with characters is when they act the opposite of how they usually act, you know, something's happened and he buys, earn par Polish at the quickie Mart. So he's definitely caring for the earn. And then we get the whole situation with him, dumping the ashes into the missile silo, which turns out. To be owned by Mr. Burns. It was his rocket that he was using to dispose of nuclear waste in order to send it into Amazon reinforce, which is kind of an aha moment for Homer. Um, because he's a little upset about how she wanted him to spread the ashes about how she kind of manipulate them a little bit, but then he kind of realizes in that moment, the importance of what she was doing and what it meant to her. And I think that's kind of when he sort of reconciles it a little bit

Shaun: 29:31

and I feel like also she, in part of her video will said that she's passing on her, her sense of like protests and everything to Lisa. But I think it's, she's passing it along the Homer to just so key. Kind of more for closure because that way he can understand her motivations earlier in life. And so he can understand more why she had to leave. If he can turn around, be like, oh wait, I need to do what's right. And get that justified anger and everything. That can maybe help him to understand why he grew up the way he did.

Sari: 30:08

Yeah. And he goes, and he fights for it. Like he gets in a fight. He has that like contraption with a chain around a brick that he just like whips around.

Shaun: 30:18

He's like, what am I going to do with these?

Sari: 30:22

And, um, and he parachutes out of the facility after it blows up and stuff. Like she leaves him that and, and she leaves him her sweetness too, because she even ends the will by saying here's a bunch of footage of animal bloopers to get you to feel better, which is just so specifically Homer and also so sweet. A Homer says when he comes back with her ashes, now I'll just add some water to these ashes and bring her back to. Oh, God, it's so sad, but it's also, but he's used

Shaun: 30:59

to her leaving and faking your death and coming back and

Sari: 31:04

it's, he's ready for that, that cycle that happened again. And it's just not going to, and

Shaun: 31:11

one thing I thought of too, because. She had to plan ahead with knowing the three o'clock being up on the mountain, getting it into a video will and everything. When she broke into the house to make that pie, she had to know she was dying. Ah, that's true. And then that just makes it hurt that much more one Homer wouldn't forgive

Sari: 31:34

her. Yeah, because she knew that was her last shot. And, and for her to just sort of sit in front of the fire to think she probably knew that was going to be the last thing she saw that she was just gonna, she wasn't watching TV or doing something stupid. She was probably just ruminating on her life. Yeah. Yeah.

Shaun: 31:56

But she couldn't tell him that she was dying because then he would

Sari: 31:59

have freaked out and upset. Oh God, that's hard. Um, as much as, as much as like, I almost don't like her death scene and when I saw it, I was almost like, that's it like, it's not gonna, it's not sad. It's not super sad or anything. It's very sudden. But then the end of the episode, they show the montage and it's got moments from earlier episodes, as well as newer moments. Um, showing her being a good mother to Homer, both as a kid. And then those few moments she gets when he's an adult. And then it ends with Homer demanding more sugar in a cereal, he's saying more sugar. And she says, no. And then she says your sweet enough. And I think that shows that that's where he gets her, his sweetness from. And that's when I started crying and it worked. It was great. It was a good conclusion. And. Yeah,

Shaun: 32:56

but yeah, I like, like we were saying, I think Homer does have a hard time accepting her death, but I think it's something that there's been so much back and forth and like, you know, she comes back and then she gets arrested again because of technicality and everything with the national parks. And it's, I almost feel like the cycle has to end for Homer and I don't know as much as. My first reactions were when she had them going up and you find out it's like for another motivation of, you know, saving the world and doing another protest. At first, I also thought, like I wrote down manipulation, like, like even in her debt, she's using her death to manipulate the family into doing stuff. But I really think that it's important for the family to understand her motivations and why she was doing things that. For Homer to be able to get that sense of right and wrong and to finally understand why she's doing what she did. I think that was the best way for her to go out. And I don't know, we see her come up a few more times throughout the series and will, who knows what part might sear again and flashbacks in the future. But I feel like that kind of helps solidify a good memory of her Homer's mind because going into this episode, he was very sour about. Abandoning him and wasn't trusting ever. And I just feel like that was a good way to kind of push that all aside and to make it be all good memories and no, no. It's something where I know she's a lot of these episodes that we want. She's only like in a third of them and stuff like that, but I'm really glad that throughout the years, they've decided to go into Monash. So you can learn more about homework because

Sari: 34:49

she's a big part of his characterization.

Shaun: 34:53

And she's a big part of Abe too. And sheep, I feel like she has a lot to do with his grumpiness and anger that we see throughout the years too. But. You know, it's just, it kind of closes the circle on that whole family dynamic that even though it's may not be completely functional and good all the time, at least we understand where it's coming from.

Sari: 35:15

Yeah. With that. I also want to shout out Glenn close for voicing the character. It's kind of interesting because she's a pretty big actress and she came on to do every single one of these episodes. I think there's just a couple there's a couple of times she showed up like pre mother Simpson that she was voiced by someone else. But other than that, she came for every one of these, um, these voices for her. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Shaun: 35:45

Yeah, I like that. Consistency. You know, you hope that the people who do those voices are fans and coming in just to have that little part in the continuity. Definitely.

Sari: 35:59

I guess this is also a good time to shout out our Patriots eight Timothy Burleson.

Shaun: 36:04

Yes. Yes. The great Timothy,

Sari: 36:06

the great Timothy Timothy. You

Shaun: 36:11

just imagine in the future, when we have. Five patrons. You could say I was the first. We

Sari: 36:17

could have tens of patrons tens, but on that note as well, check out our Patrion patrion.com/simpson sibs. We've got bonus episodes. We've got, I'm sending a painting to Timothy and it, I need to work on it some more, but I'm going to have it to you. By the end of the month, you get extra crap, extra crap. Last time we did. At the, well, it was a couple of times ago. We did an episode where we actually recorded a video of us recording the episodes. So you get to see the whole thing, which we need to do that again. But that was fun and

Shaun: 36:53

intimidating. Oh, you're

Sari: 36:54

you're, you're not usually on camera. I have another YouTube channel, so I'm like, I'm on a camera in Sean. No, Eva's no,

Shaun: 37:02

no Eva's

Sari: 37:04

glide even. So this was our second character study. Our other one was on trauma core. You want to go back and check that out? Our next episode is season 12, episode 18 trilogy of error. I'm looking forward to this one because of the one with the multiple storylines happening at once. And I love it. Yeah, definitely a listen. No, that's not what I'm supposed to say. Watch the episode you listen. Yeah. To get that full experience. Yeah. Until next time. Happy new year, everybody.