34x20 The Very Hungry Caterpillars

[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I wasn’t sure if The Simpsons would ever tackle COVID. Given the long lead time necessary for animation, it’s hard to be timely with this sort of thing. But I’m honestly glad they chose to address it in some form. Wrestling with the issues of the day is very much in keeping with the show’s best years, so I’m glad to see the series offers this sideways time capsule and commentary on the times so many of us lived through.

I appreciate the choice of the caterpillars as the plague du jour . It's vivid enough to account for a lockdown without being too close for comfort. The show has some fun with past characterizations like Kirk turning into an easily duped nutjob. And while a lot of the caterpillar-specific gags are pretty feeble, the bright red wigglers make for a good visual reminder of why everyone’s trapped inside.

While there, each member of The Simpsons is facing a challenge, divided up into three stories for easy consumption.

The one I’m least on board with is Marge and Homer vs. Ned in the battle of ranch dressing. There’s a germ of truth to the conflict over who ought to lend whom a cup of salad topping. Young kids do fixate on certain food items. (My cousin was obsessed with ketchup as a tyke.) There was genuine pandemic envy of folks who’d managed to get a hold of the last container of toilet paper or paper towels and the like in the throes of supply shortages. And Ned finally getting fed up with Homer’s freeloading, in a “fable of the ant and the grasshopper” sort of way, makes sense as something that would come to a head in a fraught moment like lockdown.

I even like some of the gags. The bit of Ned’s rapture prepping is amusing. Homer pulling various implements out from the couch cushions is a cheap but effective laugh. And I particularly appreciate the throwback to Homer’s famous “Land of Chocolate” daydream in Ned’s recollections of Homer’s entitled attitude.

But this one is just too cartoony for me. Ned seems really out of character in how harsh he is with the Simpson parents, which you can maybe ascribe to the stress of lockdown, but still seems like a bit much. Homer tugging on Ned’s mustache while Ned tugs on Homer’s hairline is too Looney Tunes. And the resolution to such extreme behavior comes too easily.

Somewhere in the middle is Bart’s story. Admittedly, it strains credulity that Skinner would be so foolish about his online learning platform that he’d leave it on the whole time for the students of Springfield Elementary to peer into his personal life. But granting the premise, I also like the cinch of this one.

You do sympathize with Seymour, having a manipulative cousin come in, flatter Agnes and belittle Seymour, and steal a quilt that has sentimental value for Seymor for purely mercenary reasons. Again, the plot logistics of this one are a little silly, but I love that Bart and company come to see their principal as a real human being, sympathize with his predicament, and even act to help. Their ploy to expose Cousin Peter is a solid one, and the act to get Skinner his mother’s quilt/his security blanket back is one of genuine kindness.
My favorite of the stories, though, is Lisa’s. Maybe it’s because I was an anxious doomscroller in the midst of the pandemic, but her tale spoke to me. It’s easy to forget now, but particularly in the days when we didn’t know what we didn’t know, it was natural to be concerned about worst case scenarios, to fret over knock on effects, to think about what and who might be lost before this was all over.

And in truth, many of those were not misplaced. Many of us did lose people. I lost people. If I have a major criticism of the episode, it’s that it raises a lot of those concerns with aplomb, but falls back on stock bromides to try to settle them back down.

But I also like the recognition that it’s not healthy, then or now, to immerse yourself in that stuff. I love how Lisa tries to give into distraction with a new toy, but finds her imagination game reflecting her anxieties. The conceit of her Malibu Stacies talking back, bringing her into their world, and prepping for the worst in this imaginary playset as much as folks were in the real world is a fantastic one. It uses the fantastical and imaginative to get at the tangs of the mind in an inventive way. Lisa using that imagination game to process her feelings, and find a sort of peace on the other end, is a wonderful way to go.

I particularly like the message the episode leaves us with, trite though it may be. While blind optimism can be hollow, showing empathy to others in difficult times is the only way out of the worst of this. Whether it’s Homer, Marge, and Ned realizing how far they’ve fallen, or Bart caring about Skinner’s wellbeing, or even Lisa finding the caterpillars cute, the idea of showing others, and ourselves, some grace in a difficult time is a great takeaway from an episode that reflects something incredibly challenging for a ton of people.

Overall, if you’d asked me how I felt about The Simpsons tackling something as socially and emotionally fraught as the pandemic, I would have blanched a bit. But this was a good, if imperfect reflection of those times -- the tough parts of them, but also the bits of hope and kindness that helped get us to the other side of them.