TVSquad

Another pretty funny episode. Could this reporter have gotten it right? Are The Simpsons on a comeback? The first half of the episode was definitely better than the second half but still enjoyable none the less. Eh, it doesn't matter, I'd watch it even if a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters blah blah blah. On with the show.
The episode starts with Maggie itching like crazy in church. The family looks for Dr. Hibbard before Rev. Lovejoy tells them that he now goes to a more "celebratory" church. They find him in exactly that much to Bart's delight: "Black God rules!". Dr. Hibbard lets them know that Maggie has chicken pox and hijinx ensue. Since Homer has never had chicken pox before Marge tells him to keep out of the house to avoid getting infected. In the backyard, Homer tells Flanders what's going on and Flanders asks if he can bring Rod & Todd over so that they can catch it and be done with it. Homer's amazed that someone would purposely infect their kids and Flanders tells him of "pox parties" and before he can even get the statement out, Homer's already marketing his kids sickness.

While the kids play, Marge is entertaining all the parents in the kitchen with drinks. The Van Houtens (Milhouse's parents) both have a little too much to drink and Milhouse walks in on them making out. They decide to have a trial "un-separation" and while it seems like everything is all that Milhouse could have dreamed about for a while, he quickly realizes that with his parents both interested in each other more and him less, he's coming out the loser. Since neither are competing for his love, him, and Bart by association, are losing out on many of the "commodities" they've come to enjoy (two christmases, soda at dinner, etc). Bart and Milhouse come up with plan after plan to break the VanHoutens back up, but none work until they become inspired by an episode of Lisa's favorite show, The OC.

The boys plant one of Marge's bras on Kirk VanHouten's bed, causing Milhouse's Mom to go and confront Marge, unfortunately she gets Homer. Homer accuses Marge of having an affair and she promptly throws him out. Luckily Lisa figures everything out but when she tries to talk Bart into admitting his lie, he warps her advice into a hairbrained scheme. He gets Marge & Homer to both meet at the bottom of a cliff and he was going to throw a dummy of himself off of it but Milhouse accidentally shoves Bart off. Bart falls into the rushing river below and Homer jumps in to save him, unfortunately, he's also swept away. Marge comes to both their aides but her rescue plan involves Homer having to trust her, he does and the rescue goes off without a hitch.

Good episode, but I don't like that 3 episodes in we've had 2 that have dealt with Homer & Marge splitting up. The first half of the show was excellent and had some extremely funny moments (Maggie as the "Pox Princess", Homer getting fired so non-chalantly, Homer in the tub of Oatmeal) but the second half seemed almost phoned in. Would definitely reccommend it on the first half alone though, I wanna see Homer with more childhood diseases. Tonsilitis anyone?

Couch Gag of the Week:
Everyone sits down and a TiVo interface comes up on the screen and selects "Delete this recording"