The Simpsons: Mother Simpson (1995)
Season 7, Episode 8
10/10
An emotional look inside the mind of Homer Simpson
23 November 2016
The Simpsons have had its ups and downs in terms of great film making. Even with a lot of un-funny, boring and dull episodes given lately, some episodes like "Barthood" give us glimpses of the little bit of creative juice left in the tank and give us episodes that were both hilarious and heartfelt.

Mother Simpson is not my favourite Simpsons episode, but has my favourite Simpsons scene. In an animated comedy, the acting, the score, the message and the feels that had to be crammed into a 1 minute scene and it works wonders, and that is why this episode is a gem.

I never thought I had seen a perfect scene in The Simpsons, but I remembered the ending of this episode.

The Mona character is one of the best and most interesting in the series as she isn't in many episodes. This episode is all about her, and her backstory and the explanation of why she left her son and husband at such a young age. Mona is an important character to every Simpson character in the family.

Bart and Maggie never say and give any real reasons why it was important seeing her. But we can infer that Mona would put Bart in line while watching him grow up, same with Maggie, Homer and Marge would want their Mother and Mother-in-law to watch one of their babies grow up from the beginning.

Marge lost her mother and says, when she sees her for the first time, "I can finally have a real talk…" showing that Marge needs someone to let out all of her contained feelings over the years and treat Mona like her very own mother.

Lisa feels alone and "adopted" as her whole family isn't up to the... intellectual standard of herself. When she talks to her grandma, she says she feels at home with her presence knowing that she belongs somewhere.

Homer, lost this woman when he was younger, and is bound to lose her again because she has to run from the police. Her mother left at a very young age, and as soon as he has her back, she leaves again, and seeing how many family members she has effected making for the saddest moment in The Simpsons.

The setting of this scene where they are, in the desert, a wasteland, showing that they are alone, just to talk for the last time with no artificial noises.

Cinematography ties in with this idea, his mother and him fill up the whole screen, showing their closeness and as soon as the window winds up and they drive away, you see the camera moving back further, showing that his mother is slipping away from his grasp. And in the last scene Homer is shown with himself and the stars, thinking about his biggest day in recent memory.

The score is the definition of tear-jerky it is brilliant. That's all I can say.

Everything that is spoken is perfect, Homer says "At least this time I'm awake to say goodbye." But the greatest part of it was after Mona uses Homer's world-famous line, to show that they are connected, not another word is spoken. No jokes are here to break the mood. Every time I watch this incredible final scene when Homer waves his mother goodbye, possibly for the last time, I always get teary. It is such a beautiful scene and important one. It gives the shown emotion of Homer that is dearly lacking in the rest of the episodes. It gives us more connection with Homer making him one of television's favourite animated father.

OVERALL : A

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