“No More Simpsons” and what came of it

There is a The Simpsons fanfic titled No More Simpsons (Não Mais Simpsons in Portuguese), which happens in a world where Homer is a lazy drunk, Marge is significantly disturbed by her husband’s lack of care for her and the rest of the family, Bart is a sex-crazed maniac, Lisa has a best friend, and Maggie (herein Meg) is a boxer. It’s probably the longest Simpsons fanfic in terms of chapters, standing at a whopping 218. Its author, a journalism student named Brendon, died in 2023, leaving the story without an ending. This led to “Just Another Simpson”, essentially my version of the story’s three remaining chapters, intended as a homage to the original author.

Note: The content in this analysis has been toned down, albeit not censored, for better clarity and viewing. The original story includes content such as major & recurring character deaths (if you also count original characters), canon-typical violence, an unbelievable amount of sex scenes (from blowjobs to orgies), homophobia, abuse of power, nuclear disasters, (non)consensual usage of alchohol and drugs, self-harm, sexual harrassment, and many more.

Act 1

The story is divided into three sagas, or acts, with appearances from all Simpsons family members, but also several other characters from the show. The first saga, or Act I, contains several plot lines — some of which are only relevant later on. The prologue shows Lisa meeting her best friend, a black-haired girl with albinism named Cristianne, at a library, while Bart ends up trying to join the “Indelinquents”, the name given to Springfield Elementary’s group of bullies — Dolph Starbeam, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, and Nelson Muntz, although the latter seems to have departed the group temporarily at the time. Jimbo, as leader of the group, challenged Bart to tell one nearby girl to touch his private parts; if she did, he’d be part of the group. The sheepishly honest Bart was upfront about this to the girl in question, named Claire, who told him not to do this and instead kissed him. This would start off a long but important relationship throughout Act 1.

By the time Act 1 is here, seven years have passed since this moment, and the Simpsons family is quite different from last time. Maggie — now 7 years old and only referred to as Meg —, relates less and less to her father, seeing local bartender Moe Szyslak more and more as her own father, something she’s felt ever since the day he saved her, an event that happened two years prior to NMS’ events and five years after the prologue. Her brother, Bart, is described as a slob who’s only interested in making sweet, sweet love with his girlfriend, Claire. Homer, even more of a slob than he actually is, frequently enrages Marge, who believes her own stress to be caused by him. Lisa’s the only one in the family who hasn’t significantly changed, although she remains affected by her parents’ constant arguing.

Marge in particular gets very enraged after Homer misses Lisa’s school recital, instead sleeping in their own car. She wasn’t the only one; that same day, Bart and Claire would have a quickie in another school area. When the family came back home, they found themselves being awaited by police chief Clancy Wiggum and a group of soldiers, who invited Meg to a military school in Jefferson City, the capital of the state of Missouri. Though she would later consult this with Moe, who would give his consent, she was already willing to do so; one big reason for this was her lukewarm opinions of the family members, in particular Homer and, to a lesser extent, Bart.

The next big event in the story occurs when Lisa receives a letter from billionaire and Springfield Power Plant owner Charles Montgomery Burns, aka Mr. Burns, inviting her to a hospital visit. Burns, as it turns out, is dying; plugged to at least a dozen different cords, the ailing Burns is only aided by his trustworthy aide, Waylon Smithers, who sits hopelessly next to him at the hospital every day. Knowing that Lisa, who once served as an assistant to him, would be one of the few people he could trust in this day and age, admitted he was never a good person. To redeem himself, even if just for a bit, he agreed to list Lisa in his last will — as the receiver of his trustworthy teddy bear, Bobo, and also 80% of his fortune; conservative estimates would give her at least $796 million dollars, though likely much more. The only requirement was that Lisa would need to spend it from time to time; she agrees to it.

In the meantime, Lisa would also join her friend Cristianne’s band; an alternative unnamed band, they would feature Jimbo on drums, Lisa on saxophone, Mat — a friend of Cristianne’s — on guitar and herself on vocals. They had only one rehearsal throughout the story, partially due to several breaks and vacations other characters would take. Shortly after this, Meg finally departed Springfield for Jefferson City, where she would remain through the rest of Act 1. The Simpsons family took this as an opportunity to take a break and go to the beach, inviting Bart’s childhood best friend Milhouse as well.

Milhouse’s background here is something to notice; he’d shown signs of depression and had been self-harming for at least a while prior to the story’s events. Part of this is hinted to have been caused by the bullying from the Indelinquents, in particular Nelson.

His friend, Milhouse, was distracted as usual… he was looking around, a little distressed. They were both chatting while the teacher wrote something to be copied on the blackboard. One sat at the desk next to the other, and Lisa stood at the far end of the room.

— Hey, you know what I did today?

Milhouse didn’t even hear him. He scratched a bit under his long sleeve, grimacing slightly.

from Chapter 20, “A pill in the coffee”

In the aforementioned beach chapter, for example, Bart invites him for a swim, which he declines; after much insistence, he agreed to, taking off all of his clothes — except the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing. Meanwhile, his sister Lisa uses this time to take her mind off a series of events — and people — annoying her. One of these is with her friend Colin (herein Collin), the Irish boy who was Lisa’s crush in The Simpsons Movie. Collin lives in Canada, although he dreams of re-encountering Lisa again; although they are not dating, they have a high enough degree of familiarity, and Lisa thinks to herself that she loves him, something he also does. A moment of unease occurs when Collin videocalls Lisa — while naked — causing her to ignore him for a while, mostly out of shock.

By chapter 35 (Advertising and publicity), Burns is dead. Lisa received an unbelievable amount of money, and the rest of the family (besides Meg, who’s upstate) agreed to not tell Homer about it. The rationale for this was simple: Homer would find out and, well known for misusing their money, would manage to zero out their bank accounts. Despite this, Lisa would not directly use this money; it would be Marge, who gifted to her kids a dog named Zero and a cat named Pearl. By this point in time, Marge is more willing to use her maiden name, Bouvier, rather than Simpson, even if in secret, as if the idea of independence from Homer begins to resonate with her. A brief glimpse of the reaction to Burns’ death is shown; the nuclear plant workers got two days off, which they used to celebrate. Smithers was now in charge, and Homer had kept his job.

However, one of the many remarkable events in the story is the offscreen reveal of a series of lewd pictures. These pictures, spread throughout Springfield, revealed Bart and Cristianne, Lisa’s friend, together in bed, both in compromising positions. Bart, as it turns out, was the last to find out; Claire breaks up with him, and even his own family is horrified by the events. Even Homer offered some insightful commentary on this:

That son of his was nothing but trouble. A worthless piece of shit. What kind of honorable man would do that to his own girlfriend, especially one so beautiful and nice. He felt sorry for Kary… was that really her name? Kary? Or was it Klery, or Cler, or Spoon (Colher, in Portuguese)… maybe it was Fork, or Dish… it didn’t matter… what mattered was that his son was useless, worthless and so on — he didn’t know many other adjectives.

from Chapter 41, “Disappointments”

This is enough to ruin Bart’s reputation in town, and the only person who is willing to sympathize with him is his friend Milhouse. One particular day, Lisa went to visit Cristianne, the other person in the photo, to see how she was doing. While Cristianne was in the shower, Lisa accidentally discovered that her best friend not only had a crush on Bart, which she found unamusing, but had also manipulated the photo herself — using an image of a bedroom, an image of herself, and an image of Bart, which happened to be taken on the day the Simpsons family and Milhouse went to the beach. The photo wasn’t real; it was a deepfake.

Prior to all these events, other minor events happened in the story. One of them was regarding Homer’s co-workers, Carl Carlson and Lenny Leonard, who actually came out as a gay couple. There’s even a full-fledged sex scene in one of the chapters with them — but their role in Act 1 is rather limited. In the beginning of the story, there are three to four chapters showing police chief Clancy releasing Robert Terwilliger, most known as Sideshow Bob, from prison. He does not make any notable appearances in this Act.

Back to the present, it’s revealed that in two weeks, there will be a party held for Apu and Manjula’s children, the Octuplets. This leads to another argument between Marge and Homer, when he notices she spent a horrendous amount of money (from Lisa’s bank account) on the presents, something she never did on their home. This would also cause Lisa, aware of the situation going on between her parents, to advise her mom to seek divorce.

Another series of events occur here; this story, Act 1 in particular, has the POVs of many, many characters, most of which make appearances later on. One of them is Bart’s first childhood crush Laura Powers, who visits with her mother (and Bart and Lisa’s teachers) Ruth Powers. A common theme in this story is the occasional appearances of other minor characters in the protagonists’ point of view, even if briefly. Generally, these characters would appear later on, either in a more major role or in their usual minor roles. One of this happens to be the Simpsons’ next-door neighbor, Ned Flanders, whose lack of appearances in the story is explained by Homer in another chapter; two years prior to the story’s events, his two children went to study in another state and moved away, and so did he. Marked for sale this whole time, he ends up receiving an offscreen proposition from Collin’s father to buy the house, which he accepts, and returns to Springfield for about two months to assure the sale goes smoothly and that the house is in perfect condition. After hearing of this, Homer goes livid.

Meg also makes another appearance in the story, after videocalling her entire family (although she remains displeased at them, especially Homer). A few things have changed since she left; classes haven’t started yet, but she’s met a young girl named Lexanna (the Brazilian equivalent of Leshawna), and also had an unfortunate encounter with her nemesis, Gerald Samson, who turns out is also going to the same place. In the end, the only person she really wanted to talk to was Lisa, who had her own plans. Earlier on, she had called Milhouse asked for his help — something which helps him keep busy for the rest of Act 1 —, instructed Bart to block Cristianne on social media, and had told Claire she was thinking of doing something big, almost biblical — and she’d need her help, even if she didn’t want to believe in her. Lisa was already plotting her revenge. It’s worth noting that while Cristianne had some reservations about Lisa, and even admitted to herself that her friendship with Lisa was only because she wanted to be with her brother Bart, she didn’t hate her. She thought Lisa was a good friend, and even thought she deserved someone better than her. But at that point, it was too late for Lisa to turn back.

A couple of days later, Meg is given permission to go back home by the military school’s director: a tall, muscular guy named Boll (a subtle reference to then Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro). Meg appreciates the return home, realizing she did miss her family after all (although she continued to ignore Homer and not show many signs of this), being informed by Lisa of her latest plan. It was Saturday. This is where it began, on the day of the octuplets’ birthday. Lisa went to Cristianne’s home, much earlier than she’d anticipated, and the two decided to watch the streaming series “Queen” (a nod to TV series The Crown) in her living room. Meg, using her newly acquired military abilities, would climb onto Cristianne’s room, where she would stick a flash drive in Cristianne’s prized MacBook, climbing down shortly after. Inside the flash drive was a program that can be best described by Bill, a friend of Milhouse’s, who designed it:

He created a system as quickly as possible and put it on a USB stick. This, in turn, would open a direct and — unfortunately — weak connection between the device to be broken into and his own personal computer. In other words, if at any point he — or she, he didn’t fully understand — arrived in the room and unplugged the device before the files were 100% through, all progress would be lost and the mission would fail.

Bill certainly wasn’t a black hat, since even the simplest of infiltrations, that of just copying the files and sending them to another device, took a lot of work.

from Chapter 62, “The hacker’s help”

Bill later sent Milhouse three folders: one containing video and audio files, one containing a backup of all her messages, and one containing a series of pictures. It is at this point that he also had a glimpse of what Lisa saw that fateful day. She’d told Bart about it, too; he was so distraught that he couldn’t react properly, but went along with what she wanted to accomplish. Later, when he ran into Cristianne at the party, he asked her to go out with him, right there, right then; she happily accepted. The party was held in the gymnasium of the Springfield Elementary School, which was a large enough place for everyone to gather. Aware that a movie (specifically The Itchy & Scratchy Movie) was being exhibited there that night, Lisa asked Manjula if she could borrow the screen for a moment, which she did. And so, everyone in the party (besides the children, who were kept away from the screening by Meg) watched the exposé.

An angry, outraged Cristianne tried to attack Lisa, but was unable to do so, being slapped by her instead and falling to the floor, running away to her home instead. Bart, seeing the surrounding confusion, tried to make amends with Claire, who told Bart that despite everything, Bart never considered her a friend; she was only there to satisfy him, and their relationship wasn’t healthy. This would officially mark the end of their relationship. When Sunday came, Marge received a call from a Ruth, her two oldest children’s teacher, and gathered the entire family on their living room to tell them something. Cristianne was dead. She’d stabbed herself the night before, and her mother, Lenna, discovered it the next day. They were devastated. Homer, understanding the situation, expressed to his kids that Cristianne did not deserve to be mourned, that what they did was right, and that by killing herself, she proved she never deserved to live. Springfield’s reaction to Cristianne’s death was mixed; although mourned by her (former?) friends, and her death leading to Milhouse quit self-harming altogether, others did not react so well to it. Ned, for example, was horrified to see that Reverend Timothy Lovejoy refused to eulogize or even acknowledge her, leaving him to console her mother, Lenna, all by himself.

Act 1 ends with Gerald Samson, still in the Jefferson City military school, wandering to a wooded area nearby and talking to the “Boss” — a tall, big-footed, almost superhuman, mysterious figure who has given him a mission he must follow, “or else”.

Act 2

Act 2 starts with Bart and Lisa playing chess, seven months after the events of Act 1 and the death of Cristianne — who ended up forgotten. She’s barely mentioned in the story after this, a common occurence with past and future dead characters. This is a particular characteristic of Brendon, who seems notorious for killing many characters in his stories — such as in his original story “In the assassin’s shadow” (Na sombra do assassino, 2018), where half of the story’s cast of characters ended up dead. In No More Simpsons this does not occur, but he is much more creative in this Act.

In this Act, two characters are introduced. One is Professor John Frink, albeit not the one in the show — it’s actually his son, John Frink Jr.; the original Frink reportedly was eaten by a shark while working on a blood-based sunscreen lotion. Frink Jr. has a son, John Frink Junior Junior — though he is frequently called “Grandson” —, who can be best described as a deeply curious Ritalin kid. His POVs are very interesting because he has a tendency to repeat himself very often, especially when it comes to separating himself from his father, Frink Jr. For example:

The car continued for 500 meters, until it reached the SBRC — Squabbletown Biochemical Research Center. Squabbletown, by the way, was the town where he, Frink — not him, because that would be redundant, but his father — and Mrs. Frink — Frink’s wife — lived (Frink his father, not John Frink Junior Junior/John Frink Grandson [especially since he was only 13 years, 3 months and 17 days old {who knows if it was still the Middle Ages}]).

from Chapter 77, “Floorplan”

These two will be more relevant later on. In the meantime, Ned has been getting along with Lenna, the mother of the deceased Cristianne, and has been living in his old house (alongside his two children) since then. For reasons not explained in the story, Collin’s move to Springfield was delayed. In Act 1, Collin’s father, Mr. Manbre, had been recently fired, and getting in touch with some of his (virtual) friends from Springfield led him to discover some insider information: Smithers, now head of the power plant, would repeal and replace 40% of all factory workers with more efficient ones, meaning there would be a job opportunity for him (see chapter 44, “Good news”).

Among the houses he’s considering buying is the old Flanders house at 744 Evergreen Terrace, and he tells Collin they would start moving right at the start of December; however, the move does not immediately happen, and only seven months later we hear from Flanders that the Manbres’ furniture would arrive in a week, although the family only would arrive at the end of the month. It’s possible that Flanders requested to Collin’s father (Mr. Manbre) for more time to make sure the house was in good condition, or other events in the Manbre family prevented an immediate move. And Ned, now too interested in Lenna, agreed to move his two sons into her house, as there was enough room for all four.

Around this time, Bart found out about Milhouse’s self-harm scars while showering in the school gym’s bathrooms. (Afraid of being noticed by him, he distracts him by going to third base with him.) He later informed Lisa of this, shocking her — although she suspected Milhouse had undiagnosed depression, she did not imagine he was cutting himself, and the two agree to take a look at this issue. Meanwhile, in Jefferson City, Meg and Lexanna are getting along with each other and attempting to avoid Gerald Samson. However, one day Director Boll gathered the student body to inform them of a grave transgression: one of the laptops in the computer lab was stolen. After a few hours of searching their dorms, Boll informed everyone they found the laptop — in Meg’s room, and she’s called to his office. Lexanna, knowing she couldn’t have done it, told her that she would find the real culprit.

In Springfield, Flanders took Lenna and his two sons to a restaurant to eat a fairly standard Brazilian plate: rice, beans, chicken and salad. His intentions were to tell them that he and Lenna were officially dating, but also that he was gonna make sure both boys would be transferred to Springfield schools, as he would be staying for good. His oldest son, Rod Flanders, disagreed with the latter; up until then he was living in Worecester, Massachusetts, where all his friends where, and, skeptical of living under his much more religious father, lashed out at him. He was, quite frankly, tired; his father, besides being hyperreligious, was also overprotective. Ned didn’t know that Rod had a girlfriend, that Rod had sex, that Rod was not the perfect angel he thought he was. Lashing out at him, Rod left the restaurant shortly after. At home, the two however would make peace, especially after Ned realized he was creating mini-Neds instead of letting his sons be themselves.

Super Secret Agent Lexanna, after asking questions to Quimberly Hills, a teacher of theirs’, discovered the laptop was found under Meg’s bed, and that the window in her room was open. In Director Boll’s room, Meg is left off with a very stern warning; although Boll informed her that she came from a troubled family (and not in the conventional sense), her in-school behavior combined with words of approval from her friend Lexanna made him go for a lesser punishment. She was prevented from using the school’s computer labs until the end of the semester — four months from that day. After a bit more investigating, Lexanna confronted Gerald on his home. The day before the laptop ordeal, Gerald had visited Meg’s house to annoy them, and Lexanna explained that, with his hands around his back and himself slumped near the window frame, only he could have done it. Surprisingly, he admits it was him — but is even more surprised after finding out Lexanna also saw one of his emails on the computer lab, all of them directed to “Boss” at the catchy email totally.ano@nymous.com. Gerald didn’t just want to frame her; he wanted to make sure Meg had no way of contacting her family. It was at this moment that Samson threatened to, in case she revealed it was him, to leak a secret of hers to her religious family, but also the school officials: she was lesbian.

Meanwhile, it would also be the day Bart would get his driving license at the Springfield DMV, where he also took some time to chat with his aunt, Selma. With Homer focused on whatever he was doing, this meant it was Marge — who not only could drive, but also had significant experience with it — who taught him. Driving through the city streets with an instructor, he stops by a streetlight near a park — where, to his surprise, he noticed his ex-girlfriend Claire and best friend Milhouse sitting together, drinking milkshakes, and watching her holding his hands:

The signal flashed, but Bart didn’t realize it, being distracted, until the chubby woman let out a fake cough. Ham-ham.

His heart was pounding in his Adam’s apple, and all he could think about was that scene, to the point where he forgot all about traffic laws. He shouldn’t be jealous. She wasn’t dating him anymore. And this didn’t indicate anything other than a possible friendship. But still…

He couldn’t just forget about the six years of Blaire (ship name for Bart + Claire)…

By some chance, when he returned to the driving school and poorly parked his practice car, he still managed to get his driver’s license. But now that achievement didn’t seem quite as good..

from Chapter 90, “Driving school”

Unbeknownst to Bart, Claire also became aware of Milhouse’s past self-harming after noticing his metal bracelets — gifts from Lisa to cover them up — and he asked her if she wanted to go out for ice cream, which she did. They discover things about each other: Claire reveals she was adopted by her father, Math Kell (he is named Daniel in this chapter, although Math was given as his name in chapter 56 (No boyfriend)), and Milhouse revealed to her that most of the cuts were due to his parents, Kirk and Luann, who frequently argue and disrespect him; thus, the physical pain was a way to distract himself from the emotional pain. Making sure to tell him he wasn’t alone, she gives him a rather symbolic kiss in the mouth.

A week after the laptop incident, we get a brief scene from Meg and Lexanna at the military school, where Lexanna — thinking that someone in Meg’s family, if not her, was in danger — asked her how she would react if, hypothetically, she was expelled from the camp instead of being warned. Meg, saying being here was basically her dream, said she would be shattered. Recalling that Meg told her that she had a very smart sister — Lisa — something popped up in her head. Not too far away from there, in nearby Squabbletown, a rather febrile Grandson in bed was watching a documentary about the history of robotics. Specifically, it was about the creation of Unimate, the first industrial robot patented in 1954 by George Devol. His brain was focused on so many things he tried his best to focus on his father, Frink, who came to give him cough syrup and was worried about something else, thinking he had done something “irreparable”.

Back in Springfield, the Indelinquents are having fun. Their headquarters is an abandoned house in one of Springfield’s many streets, one that has been abandoned for a few years. Today, they’re doing a circle jerk, where the winner is the one who ejaculates the last — in this case, Jimbo. The winner, he would need to select another member to do a handjob on; he picks Kearney, to Dolph’s demise — the former was quite well-endowned —, who is forced to do it on Nelson instead. The situation just described is not new to the group; in the prologue, it is Kearney who makes a bet for Bart to show his penis to Claire, which fails. Jimbo, who was part of the failed Cristianne band, wanted to get it on with her — but that failed because of what Cristianne saw as his lack of respect for Lisa; if he wouldn’t respect her best friend, she wouldn’t respect him either. And even then, he had been missing out an identical scenario that was going on at Nelson’s house. And of course, Dolph also ends up fantasizing about having Kearney inside him.

But Nelson does not. Although familiar with the group’s standards and practices, he wasn’t in the mood for it today, and soon quit. The loser, he was forced to go home naked — and when he got there, he realized how bad of a situation he’s in. His mother, Mrs. Muntz, abandoned him for another man and moved states, leaving him alone and with only a $50 dollar bill, which he is trying his best to not use. While making ramen noodles, he eventually realized that he really needed a job to survive.

That night, Homer and Marge had been invited to dinner by Lenna, whom they still kept a close friendship with. Reaching the Flanders’ home, Homer — reflecting on their relationship and wondering if Marge didn’t love him anymore — departed the dinner to Moe’s instead, which hurt Marge. A few hours later, at the Simpsons home, Lisa is awoken by noises coming from downstairs. So was Bart — who, in accordance to Brendonian standards, had gone commando and was naked, to Lisa’s disgust. When they reached downstairs, they discovered their kitchen was almost ransacked, cutlery spread throughout the floor, and the kitchen’s window was open. Outside, Bart saw a person panting, which he recognized as one of the Mackleberry twins, either Sherri or Terri, although he is unable to recognize her for obvious reasons; she ran away shortly afterward. Bart and Lisa are then spotted by Rod, the older of Ned’s children, who says he saw everything and advised them to come in.

They both knocked on the door — Bart and Lisa — and he opened it.

— What the fuck was she doing out in the street at a time like this?
— Bart, it’s not that late. She must have been at Sally’s party. Terri, poor thing, wasn’t invited; that’s probably why she was walking home alone.
— Good for her, right? Imagine if…
— Caham-caham — Rod cleared his throat. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to litanies about a random incident — come on in, it’s cold.

The two of them complied.

Although it had been months since the Flanders had returned, the two families had seldom stopped to talk. Especially their children.

Lisa and Bart — who, Rod was relieved to see, had put on some jeans — sat down on the sofa.

from Chapter 100, “Tresspassers: who are they?”

He explained he saw two voyeurs near their house, and later saw a third man come out the window to them, but reportedly without nothing in his hands — or something not as big. Rod recalled seeing a small guy, a muscular guy, and a taller, lanky guy with a red beanie possibly made out of wool. Lisa didn’t think twice before realizing it was the Indelinquents, and told Bart they would meet them tomorrow. Back in the military school, Special Agent Lexanna moved forward with her next plan: asking Meg to distract Gerald. This was only part of the plan, however, but she needed to distract him; every time she went to the computer lab, so did he, threatening to leak her secret. With him distracted, she emailed the Simpsons’ most beloved family member: Bart. (The explanation for this is that she could not recall Lisa’s email, which was a string of random letters and numbers.) To elbarto.sexy@springfield.com, she sent him a message in Morse code (though Brendon in particular hints at this as a reference to William Minerva’s letters in The Promised Neverland) and after pressing enter, rapidly deleted the email, logged off her account, and deleted her browser history. A fraction of a second after this, Gerald stormed into the room — and she realized she was screwed.

Meg’s efforts at distracting him had failed, miserably. Even worse: Gerald, realizing that Lexanna was doing something, admitted to her that she was, in fact, lesbian. And Meg, repulsed by this, is in shock, and decided to stay away from her for a while. Meanwhile, in only six days, Collin would move back to Springfield — and he could finally have Lisa to himself, where they would live and love and laugh and all other things in between. A true lover at heart, his excessive libido only rivals that of the Indelinquents; he’s a tried and tested nymphomanicac, as much as he wants to not think about it.

Chapter 104 (Happiness on a teeter-totter) is, curiously, different from all the other chapters. It’s read from the viewpoint of Judith Underdunk, best known as the mother of Sideshow Bob. She reflected on her life: raised by uncaring parents, she soon met Robert Terwilliger, Sr., and, after weeks of dating, both moved away to the other side of the country. Robert owned a lot of money to the mafia and convinced Judith (who only became aware of this later on) to move with him. Their next two years were spent living in poverty, until Robert got a job as a hospital assistant, later becoming a surgeon. The two would have two children — one named Robert, after his father, and one named Cecil. Robert, as the older brother, was watching a broadcast of The Krusty the Clown Show, when he told his mother that he wanted to be in the show — first as Krusty’s assistant, then as the main host, and finally, get his own program.

The next chapter takes us back to the night Homer left Marge at the dinner. It’s a little over midnight, and he went straight to Moe’s Tavern expecting it to be closed, only to notice the lights were still on. He’s met by Moe, who, after much insistence, lets him in. Moe in particular had just taken a pill of Viagra and, like most male characters at some point in this Brendonian rhapsody, is rock hard. Aware that Smithers, now head of the power plant, wanted to move forward with the employee cuts in the power plant — something Lenny and Carl were also really worried —, he told Homer that he couldn’t do much about it, causing him to go forward and drink a beer. At this point, the bar was now overflowing with other drunken Springfieldians, such as Barney Gumble, with Moe unable to keep them out. It’s at this point where Homer explains what happened to him and Marge; Homer’s own words can help explain this better.

“Six years ago; that’s when it all started. I ordered a cake, dropped off the kids. Then I took Marge out to dinner at a restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary just the day before. As I ate, I saw her looking at me with contempt in her eyes…” Homer swallowed, trying not to burst into tears, and continued: ”Not a shred of the love she’s always had for me.”

“She barely wanted to talk to me. When we’d finished eating, she told me she’d planned to spend the whole next day with me and the kids. She’d even made an… itinerant, I think…”

— Itinerary. — corrected Moe.

— Yes, yes… she had printed out a sheet with the schedules. I looked at it and saw that we wouldn’t be able to watch a movie there together. I said that I’d already promised to come by the bar at that time, since it was a promo day or whatever you were going to do…

“[…] You know when someone is angry when they explode, like a ticking time bomb, out of nowhere, and take their temper with them. But with her, Marge… it was different, it was scary, it was, it… it… she just stood up and said, “Let’s go. I’ve got nothing else to do, neither today nor tomorrow”. It was the last thing she said to me for a week. And… and when I… when… I looked at her face… at her eyes… the eyes that always gave me solace and made me happy… they were empty, black… lifeless… they were sour.”

“That’s when I saw that she had had enough… in the months after that I tried everything; flowers, cards, declarations, presents, chocolates, but… nothing worked. So,” said Homer, starting to sob, ”I just gave up, on her, on my kids, on my friends, on me… it was the biggest mistake I ever made. And the worst… the worst of all, Moe… you know what it is? I… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fix what I’ve done… I’ve lost them… forever…”.

from Chapter 106, “Venting and alcohol”

When Homer came back home, it was around 2 a.m.; an annoyed Marge made him sleep on the couch. In the early morning, they would argue again, this time because Marge made him no bacon and eggs (there were no eggs to be used). It eventually turned into Marge complaining about how her husband spent more time at Moe’s than her own home, causing an exhasperated Homer to lash out at her. Distressed, Lisa went upstairs and asked Bart, who woke up confused by the noise, for them to take a walk and talk about it later. In the meantime, we see a glimpse of Lexanna and Meg at the military school again — with Meg, apparently, still horrified over the revelation that her best friend is lesbian.

Going to Kwik-E-Mart to buy some snacks and sodas, Bart and Lisa are surprised to find out the cashier there is now Nelson — who managed to find a job to pay the bills and sustain himself. In fact, Nelson basically adored the Simpsons family for being so stable, despite everything — despite knowing little about what was going on behind the scenes. They asked him about the Indelinquents, but he admitted he hadn’t been seeing them often lately; despite this, he does tell them they were doing an odd job consisting of retrieving something for some guy. After leaving, Bart eventually noticed an email he’d received, which caused Lisa to analyze the message and discover it read: “WATCH OUT, THEY WANT TO KILL YOU”.

Chapter 112 (Studies of a psychopath), similar to chapter 104, shows the viewpoint of another character. It’s a guy named Paul Vanhelsin Guillar Zaurd Loney Stuart Junior, who is humorously referred to as this throughout the entire chapter, alongside all other characters. (Brendon in particular highlights this as a nod to both Douglas Adams and Lemony Snicket, whose A Series of Unfortunate Events he was a fan of.) He was recalling his high school days — including a boy, Robert Terwilliger, who was the second-smartest boy in his class and ninth-smartest overall in the school. No one liked Terwilliger; Paul describes him as unlikable, antisocial, narcissistic, and “a real masochist”, being involved in all sorts of chaotic activities since seventh grade. He found out that Terwilliger ended up working as a clown assistant for a small-town show; by comparison, Paul, who was the smartest in their class, ended up with a major job at a company, and worked 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. He shrugged.

Back to Bart and Lisa, after wondering how to find the Indelinquents, they end up finding their address by doing something simple: asking Dolph. Arriving at an abandoned house, they’re met by Dolph and Jimbo, who — perhaps remembering the incident with Cristianne during one of their dead band’s sessions — agreed to let her in. Lisa heard from Dolph that there was a vacant spot in the group, with Nelson working at his new job — and that Milhouse and Claire, Bart’s ex-girlfriend, were now all kissy-kissy with each other. Bart, refusing to comment on this topic, asked them why did they invade their house — and if they didn’t steal anything, what were they doing there. Jimbo told Lisa that one guy hired them to invade their house, and gave Lisa an empty medicine box, noting that Kearney took at least one pill from it and felt “strange”. On the back of the box, an address — for the Squabbletown Biochemical Research Center.

Bart eventually went to his friend Milhouse’s house, where they made amends, and Bart even admitted that the “distraction” he gave him in the school gym bathroom that day was so people wouldn’t notice the cuts on his arms. Milhouse — who was actually sporting a Mohawk and ignoring the fact his dad, Kirk, was drunk and naked in their living room — decided to go with Bart to a hardware store owned by a Mr. Skuley; although Milhouse told him that the prices there had gone up a lot in the past few years, Bart told him not to worry because money to him was not a problem. That same day, Ned and the family finally moved out of their old residence to Lenna’s place. Rod also packed up his things and headed back to Worcester, but promised to call and come back when his break began.

It was on that same day that Collin, after a trip that should’ve begun seven months ago, finally reached Springfield. He and his father, Dan (not to be confused with Daniel, the name used for Claire’s father), took an economic class flight to nearby Squabbletown, where they took an intermunicipal taxi directly to Springfield. Shortly after he arrived, Lisa also arrived home; she’d arranged for police chief Clancy to give her a ride, which he did, as long as she promised to pay him, which she promised she would. There, Bart told her three important details: Homer hadn’t gone home since yesterday, Marge had gone after him, and their new neighbor had moved in. It was at this point when Lisa realized her new neighbor was someone she was still trying to avoid: Collin.

Chapter 118 is remarkable because it contains the following title: “A chapter purposely smaller than it would normally be, so as not to spoil the climax of the ensuing saga; in order to do so, I’m going to compensate for such a tiny chapter with this huge title, which may not even be allowed on the site where No More Simpsons is posted; if that’s the case, I’ll write the title in the body of the chapter.” (Due to site limitations, the chapter ended up being named “A chapter with a long title”.) In it, we learn that Homer is… somewhere. He doesn’t know where he is, or what happened the previous day, but he’s having a good dream about eating melons.

It all seemed so ludic, abnormal; so unreal! Could it be a dream? Homer had his doubts. It was too confusing to think about it all, and as soon as he’d entered his loop of exhaustive reflection and reflexive exhaustion, he’d come out of it. He left what he was experiencing in a vacuum and stuffed two melons in his mouth, without cutting them into pieces or peeling them, and held two more. Hopefully that dream wouldn’t end!

from Chapter 116, “A chapter with a long title”

Yet more was to come. Another week had passed since Meg and Lexanna had spoken to one another, when a devastated Lexanna came in to her dorm and, still in shock, told her that Gerald Samson — her years-old arch-enemy and the person who’d ended their friendship — was dead, his body having been found in the woods earlier that day. And Lexanna thought it was her fault. By chapter 120, we get another of Judith’s viewpoints on life, in particular her sons. She reflected on — and hated — some of the decisions she made in the past, and part of her blamed her husband Robert for it. But she loved him, and knew she shouldn’t easily avoid him. By then, Robert had died, and she’d sobbed. There were only three other occasions where she cried this much: once after discovering her husband’s relations with the mafia; once after her son Cecil was imprisoned, and once after her other son Robert was imprisoned.

Cecil was released years ago and kept in touch with her occasionally, via the internet. Robert, by comparison, had gotten out last year and hadn’t even phoned or visited her. Both were remarkably different, too: the shy Cecil was a fan of chess and puzzle games, loved listening to the radio, and was a straight-A student. The also smart Robert was more hectic, loved burning ants, and was a big The Krusty the Clown Show fan. Robert was also a Stephen King fan (Judith specifically recalls the novel Under the Dome, which was only released in 2009. Some could argue Brendon actually was referring to the unfinished precursor of same name, The Cannibals), and had a particular interest in the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, stories from the Chernobyl disaster, and many more.

Back in Springfield, Lisa was mesmerized by the mere appearance of Collin in front of her. Collin recalled she stopped answering his messages, prompting Bart to joke about the two of them having broken up — leading Lisa to kick his ankle and curse at him. She even got surprised at this; she never acted like this even after the Cristianne situation, for example. Of course, the madly-in-love Collin would go and kiss her, causing them to kiss and having a confused and dazed Lisa walk home. Meanwhile, Lenny and Carl were at home watching an animated 2D movie (although the film is not named, the references made to it make it almost certain it’s the 1995 Disney movie Pocahontas), when Carl, not too interested in the film, admitted he was being scared of being fired by Smithers. Lenny reassured him, saying that he was one of the best workers there and that only some “Homer-like” employees would be fired. Seeing his boyfriend was still very worried, Lenny found a way to calm him down, and by the end of it, both got into funny business. They really loved each other.

And just the day before this, Marge was in shock. She had just been tipped-off about Homer’s whereabouts: a local brothel called House of Belladonnas. Homer had apparently hired two prostitutes for about five hours; after breaking in through the door, Marge found out they were indeed getting it freaky. Distraught and angry, Marge argued with her husband and decided to go in with one of Lisa’s suggestions from last year: the divorce. This scene also led to this remarkable moment of the story:

Homer had a mixture of anger and drowsiness on his face. He got out of bed and stood up, his penis still erect. Then he walked barefoot towards Marge. Facing her… he firmly grasped her arm.

— You don’t want it, bitch! Shut up! When you get home, you’re gonna get it!

— Stop it! Let me go! — screamed Marge, feeling her arm sting.

The chubby attendant came to her aid and pushed Homer hard. He let go of her and fell to the ground. Marge fled immediately, back to her car. Enough! That was the final straw, the absolute worst. Her hands were shaking and her eyes kept leaking.

— Marjorie Simpson, you’re stronger than this, get a grip. — she took a deep breath. She turned the engine keys and shifted into first gear — No… I’m still Marjorie, Lisa is Lisa, Bart is Bart, and Meg is Meg. But… — she got out of there — No more Simpsons.

from Chapter 123, “Adultery”

Chapter 124 introduces the point of view of another character: Ralph Wiggum, the son of police chief Clancy. He is playing with Todd, Ned’s younger son, and during one of their conversations, Ralph (who was 2 months older than Todd) called himself a lord (as in, an older person) and said he was above him and everyone else. The religious Todd, horrified and thinking Ralph meant *the* Lord, as in God, and slapped his left cheek, causing Ralph — who didn’t consider God to be so important to the point of not capitalizing the G in God — to be confused. This chapter in particular comes with two notes from Brendon, who emphasized that this chapter “doesn’t deal with religiosity as such, but rather its misuse, religious intolerance and religious fanaticism.”

Similarly, the next chapter also introduces a new character’s point of view: that of Abe Simpson II’s, better known as Grampa Simpson. He’s alive and well, but also in an asylum and struggling to remember key elements of his family, such as his grandchildren’s names; he’s surprised, however, when he gets a visit from his son, Homer. Meanwhile, Milhouse decided to visit Claire for a bit, where, after she purposely stained his shirt — and shorts — with soda, she realized that maybe, they could have a little fun. And so they did; it was a home run. Claire in particular noted she never had this with anyone, including Bart. This may have very well been to avoid an unintended pregnancy; in this situation, Claire withdrew herself before things got serious.

In Squabbletown, an incredibly neurotic Grandson is struggling to think about whether to tell his father about something he’d done. Going back home, he asked Frink Jr. about his day, to which Frink admitted that it didn’t go as well, because he also had to do some things. And in Springfield, Homer admitted to his father that he came there to ask him for money. Abe was perplexed by Homer’s current state; Homer himself couldn’t easily explain what happened. He recalled drinking a can of Duff beer after waking up, which led to a headache, and after a brief afternoon nap, did a lot of things he would never even think of doing. Unconvinced, Abe kicked him out without sending him any money.

Meanwhile, in the Jefferson City military school, Meg is comforting her friend Lexanna — or at least trying to. A part of her was afraid of doing so because Meg, who was already skeptical of her because of her sexuality, thought this would lead to Lexanna having a crush on her. Even then, they had other things to worry about — someone wanted to kill Bart. (Technically, they had no evidence that Bart was the one in danger; it could’ve very well been Lisa, Marge, or Homer, but it’s possible they picked Bart because he was the most likely out of the three to make enemies, and also because Lexanna’s email was sent to him, and not Lisa.) Meg suspects of Sideshow Bob, but Bart had so many enemies it could be anyone, really. Realizing Meg’s family was in danger, Lexanna asked her to go back to her town and protect her brother; unsure if she could still trust her friend, she said she would think about it. Meanwhile, her own family was in shambles; at home, Lisa tried to comfort Marge after hearing about the whole thing with Homer. Bart even wanted to kick his ass, but Lisa advised him to stay away:

— Bart.
— I shouldn’t take long. — The blond clenched his fists. His voice was inconsistent, so he cleared his throat — I just want to have a word with Homer.
— “A word”, you say?
— Well, it’ll be in ASL (American Sing Language). I’ll have to use my hands.
— No, Bart. For now you’re forbidden to talk to Homer; and keep your distance until I’ve sorted the situation out.

Lisa could have started her own plan at that very moment, but she wanted to let Homer have a taste of his own medicine. And Bart would be safe as long as he didn’t let himself get carried away. But the main thing was Marge, the best mother and wife in the world. Lisa loved her.

from Chapter 130, “Motherly company”

The next chapter is from the point of view of Sideshow Bob, aka Robert Terwilliger. It is here where the story’s biggest revelation occurs. Bob, who has hated Bart ever since he made him go to prison, wanted his revenge as usual. With the help of a certain lab coat-wearing dude, whom he manipulated, he thought his plan had a good shot at succeeding. However, he knew that any revenge would’ve been much harder with the Simpsons family members around — despite having no real opinions on any of them —, and it was here where his schemes began, after a year or so of planning. With Abe in a nursing home, he didn’t need to worry. Homer and Marge were having issues with their relationship for a while now, so all he needed was just a little bump to get things going. For Meg, he made sure to put her standout among the candidates for the Jefferson City military/boarding school, and got Gerald Samson to make sure she’d have no connection with the outside world. After hearing that Gerald got another person involved in their plan, he decided it was the best course of action to eliminate him.

That only left Lisa remaining. Somehow, Bob became aware of the booty call-esque “I had a videocall with my girlfriend-in-waiting, ignoring the fact I was naked” incident, and after hearing the Flanders were selling their house, getting the news to Collin’s father (prompting an eventual move) would put Lisa in a tough spot. His plan was also aided by the death of Mr. Burns, which not only put Homer’s job at the power plant in jeopardy, but would make a plan B of his — in case he couldn’t kill Bart — a perfect crime.

(It’s worth noting that in the story, there are no indications Meg ever applied to a military or boarding school, and police chief Clancy and the soldiers that came with him said they had been checking out her abilities for a little over a year. Likewise, there is little explanation over Collin’s move to Springfield; initially scheduled for the start of December, this move only seems to happen around June-July, the time when the story happens in [as per one of Marge’s comments on chapter 78 that there were only 3 weeks left until summer began]. [It may also be possible that Brendon instead used the start of summer for the Southern Hemisphere instead, which would make this story happen around September-October and Act 1 happening in March-April.] Up until then, practically none of his plans go into effect, aside from putting Meg at the boarding school — yet Gerald makes no effort to prevent her from contacting her family until much, much later. Curiously, Sideshow Bob is not aware of Lisa’s new status as a millionaire.)

Back to Homer, he knew things weren’t good for him. For starters, he’d been essentially kicked off his house and was living in a rundown apartment on the other side of town, surviving with an amount of money Lisa gave him (that he had no idea where she got it). And worse: on that day, Smithers announced a series of employees who would be fired from the factory and replaced with more capable, skilled workers. Smithers does not fire half of the factory, as some suggested, but fired eleven workers. The eleventh worker was him. He was distraught. Worse: He was fired.

But it’s at this point in the story where things get, erm, freaky. On that day, Ralph and Todd went out for a swim in the Springfield River — or well, only Ralph, as Todd wasn’t even aware of it until they were walking there. The silly Ralph continued playing with him for a bit, even giving him nicknames such as Toddy and Nescau, references to two major chocolate milk brands sold in Latin America, including Brazil. Another nickname he gave for him was boring — because Todd, in comparison to him, was pretty boring. The river was not in suitable conditions for bathing, but Ralph insisted. Todd, who didn’t wanna swim in jeans, told Ralph he would pray for his soul and left.

And in the Jefferson City military school, Meg is sent to Director Boll’s office, where she spotted a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man with curly black hair leaving. Boll told Meg this was Jefford Freeley, captain of the 13th Public Disaster Event Control Squadron. But he didn’t want to talk about that, at least not yet; he sent her there because he found out she stopped talking to Lexanna over her homophobia. Boll told her that he too, like her, was LGBT-phobic for the longest time until he met Jeff and realized he was so, so wrong. And he told Meg that Lexanna, the girl with the smartest IQ in that entire school, wasn’t gonna contaminate her with the gay plague or something similar. She was charismatic, intelligent, ethical, altruistic, and much more — and it didn’t matter where she liked girls or not. Meg, although somewhat unsure of this, agreed with him. After this, Boll told her that, if she’d been listening to Lexanna, she’d know they had other, more important things to address.

And most importantly, Lisa and Bart are visiting their father. Lisa in particular told Bart to be quiet so he wouldn’t hear them. Homer was still in the apartment Lisa made him stay in, and he and Marge had started the divorce proceedings a month ago. It was being headed by a lawyer who Lisa knew; it was one of the late Mr. Burns’ many employers. They had only been allowed to visit their father now, meeting a disgruntled Homer while walking inside. He was drinking, again. Lisa and Bart threatened to withhold funding from him if he continued to do so, since they weren’t funding him to drink and be lazy. An outraged Homer began insulting his soon-to-be-former wife, Marge, and when Lisa tried to leave, he grabbed her arm and prevented her from doing so. This led to Bart pushing Homer against the floor — in retaliation, his dad got up, held Bart by the neck, and went to his kitchen. There, despite Lisa’s pleas, Homer grabbed a fork, and without hesitation, stuck him in the chest. Bart was dead.

And Sideshow Bob knew this. Not because he guessed it, but because he was there — hidden within the roof of the building, hearing everything with his new biological abilities to hear even the faintest of infrasonic sounds. After weeks of doping Homer, he realized that, as much as he wanted to kill Bart, he wouldn’t be upset if someone else did it. If anything, it being caused by a member of his own family would make things much, much easier for him. And when it happened, it was over. The villain of the story was dead. Bart Simpson is dead, and Robert Terwilliger is alive. Revealing himself shortly after, Lisa rapidly realized it was him, and said she knew he was involved in this. But it was too late now — Bart was dead, right? Or so he thought.

It was then that she heard a laugh, typically perfidious. It could only be one person. From the slats that supported the ceiling, coming out of the darkness, Sideshow Bob descended like a guided missile. He slammed into the floor in an impact that literally sank the wooden floor, without even bending his knees.

— It’s no use, Lisa. He won’t listen to you. I made sure that wouldn’t happen. — he said, smiling.
— Sideshow Bob! I knew you were behind this!
— Too bad it’s too late for you now, isn’t it? And don’t call me that anymore… why isn’t that fat slob sticking the knife in once and for all? — complained the hairy man, impatiently.
Lisa couldn’t help but smile at what happened next.

— I don’t think you heard what she said, asshole: She knew you were behind it.

Robert squinted his eyes and turned back. Bart was there, standing tall and well, live and in color, and, of course, with that insolent smile on his lips.

from Chapter 137, “Death”

Scratch that — Bart was alive. And Lisa knew of this. Homer knew of this, too. He helped Lisa get up and, after clapping three times, the room was swarmed by policemen, such as police chief Clancy, and a cameraman, recording everything. Bob had lost. Again. In chapter 138, we go back directly to Frink Jr.’s point of view, where he explained the things that had happened. His son, Frink Grandson, has ADHD, and he barely had contact with his wife due to the time he spent at the lab. Specifically, within the Squabbletown research center, he had a small secret lab of his own, although it was hardly secret because everyone there knew it existed. However, they only had a vague understanding of *what* happened in there, only that it was something genetics-related. It was there that he made a decision he learned to regret.

Robert Terwilliger was only released thanks to, essentially, a pay-to-play, corrupt judicial system powered by incompetent judges, lawmakers, and elected officials. Despite being accused and charged of many counts of murder, attempted murder, extortion, data manipulation, corruption, grand larceny, contempt of authority, and kidnapping, he was still released from jail. At some point, he encountered Frink Jr., who made him his test subject. Against the wishes of his son, he continued with his experiments. They succeeded, altering Robert’s DNA and giving him superhuman-like characteristics. At the same time, he was coerced by Robert himself of continuing the experiments — as otherwise, Bob would report him to the government, and it would be over for him. (It’s worth noting this is very similar to episode The Man Who Grew Too Much, where Sideshow Bob/Robert also genetically enhanced his DNA to get revenge on Bart.)

Milhouse’s point of view also explains why Bart came back to life. Claire was visiting his house right after lunch, at about 1:30 pm, where he tried some magic tricks on her, using a magic trick kit he bought at the same store he went with Bart with the other day. He also told Claire that not only he and Bart started talking regularly again, but that he also bought a fake knife and a fake bag of blood, just like those used in Hollywood. He must’ve been doing another prank, Milhouse thought. More interested in her own man, Claire suggested for them to do a bit of magic together.

Back to Squabbletown, we get a glimpse of Grandson’s viewpoint of what happened. He was reading an art magazine and trying to make a comparison between Lisa and Mona — as in the painting Mona Lisa. The two Lisas were very different, and this Lisa wanted to talk to someone about the medication she’d found at her home — which was made there. No one wanted to talk to a girl of her age, however, and since Grandson was aware of (and disapproved of) his father’s recent machinations, he went to the archives room and sent Lisa a series of files about the research he was doing on the test subject.

In the present, Robert struggled to recall what was happening. As much of a genius he was, there were just some things that he couldn’t quite remember, seemed to be escaping from his mind, or were within such deep fog that it was hard to reach. He barely remembered a thing about his father, the original Robert. He could feel his memories with his mother slowly dissipating, and this made him sad. And there wasn’t even a hint of a good relationship between him and Cecil, his brother, which made him angry. The only thing he recalled was simple: he hated Bart. Or so he thought… as he recalled a childhood memory, he remembered how much he loved Krusty the Clown. He liked it so much, he wanted to be a part of it!

Fast forwarding a few years later, now as one of the interns working in the show’s production, Robert suggested to Krusty that they buy the broadcasting rights to Rower Pangers (a nod to TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers of the Power Rangers franchise), as the producers had given the go ahead, but he refused, saying he was not gonna spend half a million dollars on it. To Krusty, everyone who watched his show was “a bunch of fucking retards who like anything”, and that Robert was just a “squashed and fucked maggot” on the sole of his shoe. That’s when it clicked to Robert: Krusty was not a nice man.

Krusty was abhorrent, despicable; he didn’t deserve to live. Yet no one in Springfield besides Robert knew this — everyone else was too obsessed with the idea of Krusty rather than discovering who he actually was. This was when he realized he needed to take this matter into his own hands (likely referring to the events of Krusty Gets Busted), and as he is taken away to prison, he memorized the shape and name of a blond-haired boy that watched him get taken away. Bart, he was named. Robert hated Bart. Yet all of his tries had failed. Except for a certain plan B… it was then that he took a stick from the pocket of his shirt. This stick (cylindrical in nature) had a red button on top. Despite Clancy’s warnings, Robert pressed that button. Moments before he did so, he recalled an excerpt of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias (see copy):

Bob ignored him. A laugh bubbled up from deep in his throat, and it was unstoppable. Absolutely unstoppable. Then Bob chuckled, and felt the tension run through those present.

“Yes… my name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

So he pressed the button. If he couldn’t take revenge on Bart due to Springfield’s interference, then let Springfield fall with Bart.

from Chapter 141, “Past”

Going back in time a bit, it’s shown that Lisa, right after getting the documents from Grandson, got in touch directly with Frink Jr. — who now was in no position to argue against the nature of the documents he’d prepared himself. He could, technically, but opted against it. Frink Jr. explained to Lisa that he was motivated by his own ego, his own instincts; his family had studied these topics for ages, and he was merely following his father’s footsteps. With the help of some of his father’s studies, alongside others such as the cloning process which created the sheep Dolly, he began work on this secret project, which was kept secret in order to avoid government intervention. His surprise was when someone voluntarily asked to be a part of the studies — Sideshow Bob.

By the time he realized what he was doing, it was too late. Bob, or rather Robert, had coerced him into preparing powdered drugs to be diluted in H₂O, aka water. These ranged from simple substances to make someone more aggressive, to hallucinogenic aphrodisiacs, to hallucinogens that turned its users into irrational killers. As if Sideshow Bob didn’t wanna do something by himself, but wanted to use someone to do things for him, unintentionally. This person, Lisa realized, was Homer. She asked if there was an antidote for these drugs; he said there was, but he’d used most of the funding he’d received during the process of developing the drugs — which he bought in the black market first. At Lisa’s insistence — since she *had* the money for it — he agreed to help her.

And finally, chapter 143, which is also the final chapter in Act 2, is from the point of view from a different character: Springfield. Not as in a person, but as in the city of Springfield. It’s the closest to a third-person perspective the story has to offer, although it is rather unique. “Springfield” reveals that several military camps were hastily arranged around the city, at strategic points, to ensure no one would get out. On that very same day, on the same moment that Sideshow Bob pressed that button, the floodgates from the Springfield Toxic Waste Dump (or another adjacent area next to the power plant) were opened, resulting in millions of liters of radioactive waste leaking into the Springfield River. In 2 minutes and 32 seconds, Ralph, who was bathing in the river, became the first victim of this, dying of intoxication.

Sideshow Bob managed to get access to this not very innocuous gadget on the day of Smithers’ announcement of the fired employees, setting up his plan B as a backup. What he didn’t know is that, when pressing the button, the authorities — which were seemingly aware of a possible plant leak — were immediately alerted. Among these were Jefford Freeley — and his subordinates, Hugo and Mathy — who were already of possible soil contamination. However, they had dug deep into all the river outlets and implanted technological retractable dams, which would the flow of water from continuing. At this time, hundreds of army helicopters took off, carrying thick slabs of concrete and metal, and forming an impenetrable wall around Springfield. (Sounds familiar? The Simpsons Movie has a similar plot line.)

In a last-ditch attempt at escaping, Bob advanced into the policemen near him through his newly-acquired superhuman speed. Eddie got his head smashed into a wall and Lou was almost strangled, saved by a bullet that grazed his arm and hit another civilian, who died 11 seconds later. Bob went after chief Clancy Wiggum, who fired twice at him and missed both shots. Sideshow Bob succeeding in grabbing Clancy and squeezing his left arm until it broke, and would’ve done so to his right arm if Lou didn’t shoot him in the head.

Sideshow Bob was dead. Springfield was in chaos. And just moments away from there, a terrified Marge discovered the body of Ralph in the river. End of Act 2.

Act 3

Unlike Act 2, which began 7 months after the end of Act 1, Act 3 begins immediately after the end of Act 2.

It starts off with Lieutenant Hugo Francis Demoyr, or just Hugo, who is one of Captain Jefford Freeley’s subordinates. Curiously, he’s not a fan of Jefford — he finds him to be so high and mighty that he even calls him a fascist (though in the strict sense, not in the political sense). He was with a group of 12 soldiers distributing loudspeakers through the west part of town (at times like this, the fan-made Springfield map is useful), although he manages to get rid of those 12 pretty easily so he can go on his own. Although Hugo had nothing against Springfield and didn’t think this city deserved to go to waste, he thought some of them were corrupted by other black sheep. Yet his emphasis was on *black*, and not the sheep.

He spotted a few children playing hide and seek, including a girl who was near a tree crying, scared, and asked him to take her up there. Two boys were up the tree; one of them, black, got down and rapidly grabbed the girl’s wrist. Hugo retaliated — by shooting the kid. He was dead. The girl cried, and the other boy up the tree, likely her brother, went down to comfort her. As other citizens heard the noise and surrounded them, he was satisfied. He had just saved someone’s life from a criminal, he thought.

Not too far from there, Claire and Milhouse — who she could definitely call her boyfriend now — stood near the city square listening to one of Jeff’s speeches. He explained that a couple of months earlier, they’d received “strong evidence” that toxic material would be released into the main river by the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He highlighted that they managed to contain the toxic material and would be punishing those responsible, alongside the fact that citizens would only have to drink water provided by the military, and other information Claire did not focus on. Behind her was Lisa, who, unlike all other times she’d seen her, looked disappointed. Lisa invited both to her house that night at 7 p.m., and went away soon after.

The next five chapters are part of the “Water Donation” pentalogy, which involves, you guess it, water donation. Collin was in front of the Simpsons’ house, reflecting a bit on what’d happened after his move. Though he was always a bit shy, he expected people in Springfield to see him as this big, popular kid — only because he was good in sports. There, he found a truck with several boxes unloaded; Bart was there, and he agreed to help bring some of them inside. Bart did ask him, however, what happened between him and Lisa. He highlighted they were always really close, even after he moved to Canada, but there was a period where she just started ignoring him. Collin explained, with some unease, that Lisa was just more innocent than he thought she’d be. Getting some boxes upstairs, Collin himself was surprised when, opening the door to Lisa’s room, he was hit by a phone directly in his forehead.

After apologizing to Collin and tending to the small cut on his forehead, she’d explained to him that her phone had no signal, and they were all offline — which led to her throwing it at the door, which Collin was unfortunate enough to open at the wrong moment. In the bathroom, Lisa cried, saying this was all her fault. Collin thought this was about the phone incident, but it wasn’t, she said. The soldiers, the water intoxication, the death of Ralph, and the destruction caused by Sideshow Bob… this was her fault. If she did nothing, things would’ve been much better. Sure, Bart might’ve died and Homer, her father, might’ve been jailed for life — or worse — but maybe it would’ve been a better price to pay in comparison to the city’s entire suffering. She should’ve just let her brother die — and even thinking about this made her sad. He comforted her; their moment was briefly interrupted by Bart opening the bathroom door and seeing the scene, but closing the door instead of commenting on it.

Homer, after the events of the previous act, stopped by the Simpsons’ house (and now his old house) to retrieve some water. He found Marge there — although she was relieved that her husband hadn’t cheated on her intentionally and was literally acting out of his mind, she told him she wouldn’t go back to him. To her, Homer was not only an alcoholic, but also an absent father; Meg barely even considered him as a father. An emotional Homer promised he would change, but an equally emotional Marge said they had far more important things to address now, and said she needed some time — as Marge Bouvier — to see if she was ready to go back to Mrs. Simpson or make the change final. Homer soon departed their house, telling Marge he loved her — which she also did.

Later, Lisa gathered as many of the people she could to her house. Among them were Collin, Claire, Milhouse and Nelson — but also other friends of hers, some of whom had made little to no appearances in the story until then, such as Bill (Milhouse’s friend who helped her invade Cristianne’s MacBook in Act 1), Janey (the closest Lisa has to a best friend in the original show), Martin, and Samantha (Milhouse’s former girlfriend from Bart’s Friend Falls in Love). It’s worth noting that, of these four, Bill is the only one who had an appearance and a speaking role until then; Martin and Samantha had no appearances until this chapter, while Janey is mentioned in chapter 22 (Hospital visit) as “Janey Hagstrom”, one of Lisa’s friends whom she consulted about going to visit Mr. Burns in the hospital or not.

Alongside them, the city’s adults, such as Apu, Carl, Lenny, Manjula, Moe, and many others, were also there. Yet there were others missing, such as Ned, Todd, his girlfriend (soon-to-be wife) Lenna, and the twin sisters Sherri and Terri. Many, many people. There, Lisa tried to summarize the situation and said that she — using her new philanthrophic skills — had used part of her fortune to buy and distribute water to the city’s residents, since the Springfield River was now at least partially contaminated. This surprises a few people, namely Nelson, who, like most of the story’s recurring characters, had no idea where she even got the money:

— Then you can spread the word… to the rest of the town. Everyone… — Lisa said.
— Okay, hold on. First of all, where did you get the money to buy all that water, sis?

Lisa cuddled Pearl a little more and looked at Nelson.

— I got it from a will. Actually, come to think of it, it felt a lot like poetic justice. As if Mr. Burns was redeeming himself for a future mistake.
— I don’t know if I understood what…
— We’re not here for that, Nelson. Just say thanks and shut up! — Claire cut him off.

from Chapter 149, “Water Donation (part 4)”

Bart, seeing Claire so happy with Milhouse, felt sad. He didn’t miss Claire has a person, but he missed the concept of Claire — her body, her mouth, her warmth. And every time he saw the two of them together, he didn’t know whether to be happy or sad, angry or relieved. Sometimes, he felt like she didn’t deserve either of them. And he couldn’t understand why he was thinking of her now, because he thought he had moved on. Confused, a crying Bart got out of the house and ran in the streets — almost being hit by a car in the process. And he soon realized that all his pain wasn’t due to Claire — it was because he felt guilty of the stuff that had happened. He felt like he needed to die, and yet no one was there to comfort him or listen to him. And so he continued running away in the streets; it was getting dark.

Back to Lisa’s house, Martin was telling her that perhaps she was just exaggerating everything; after all, he said, it was the army’s “patriotic duty to defend the country”. They weren’t stuck in there, and toxic water was nothing particularly unusual in Springfield. Lisa rebutted him, insisting that he shouldn’t need to be such a kiss-up, and further clarified what she meant. For the military to surround the city with a wall, there were only two explanations for it: either to protect the inside from the things outside, or to lock something inside it. It was simple; they wanted to erase Springfield from the world. And she asked everyone to check their phones — which, as expected, had no signal. But when asked what they could do about it, Lisa was plain and simple: nothing. However, she did tell them to take care and be careful when around some soldiers, as their names and positions would be released the next day. She highlighted a soldier named Hugo, who had killed a 9-year-old boy who was playing hide-and-seek with friends — merely because he was black. This chapter marked the end of the Water Donation pentalogy.

Two girls on the street end up encountering Bart, who had tripped once again. Did they know him? Of course — everyone knew El Barto. But they were also familiar to him. They were the Mackleberry twins, better known as Sherri and Terri. Bart didn’t recognize them at first, partially because he was recovering from his fall, and partially because they had dyed their hair green. Terri reveals she was the twin who was stalking Bart that day his house was invaded — confirming that Rod’s statement that the girl was Terri was indeed correct — and both girls laugh about seeing Bart naked. It wasn’t a surprise to either; the entire town still recalled the day that photo of him and Cristianne was leaked. After both joked and insinuated that, because they saw Lisa that night with him, that they had a relationship with each other, the two invited Bart to a party they were going to.

The next chapter brings us to Todd again. He was in his room, begging on his knees for God to bring Ralph back. He’d been there for hours, without eating or drinking anything, which caused a rather worried Ned to show up and see what was happening. After Ned explained that God didn’t always answered their prayers, an outraged Todd lashed out at him, wondering why God was so egoist and why even pray and follow his teachings if they deserved nothing. With Ned threatening to spank him if he kept talking like that, he backed down. Though Todd explained he didn’t want Ralph to die, even saying he loved him — causing Ned to correct him, saying he liked, but never loved another boy — Ned advised him to sleep and left the room. Moments later, Todd would look at the Bible on his lamp desk… and rip it into shreds.

Bart was soon taken by the twins to the party — which was actually a small gathering at the Indelinquents’ abandoned house. Kearney hadn’t arrived yet, and Nelson was in the backyard, so only Jimbo and Dolph were there. Although Jimbo was not happy they sent someone else there, he was alright with Bart’s presence. As Dolph gave everyone there cans of Duff (besides Nelson, who didn’t want to drink because he had work the next day), a rather horny Sherri — which Terri repeatedly insulted in her mind — insinuated Bart was only there to fuck around with everyone, and even asked Dolph if Bart’s presence there made him hard. Although he denied it, Sherri said she and Jimbo already knew it was true — noting that Kearney was dumb enough to understand this —, insinuating he liked men; Dolph even blushed a bit. And Bart, not willing to drink much, just went to the yard outside.

His actual intentions were to go to the bathroom, but Sherri informed him that there was no toilet there. He then went to the yard to take a piss, noticing Nelson was there too. They spoke for a moment; Nelson had left Lisa’s meeting hours ago directly to the Indelinquents’ hangout. Nelson even gave him a cigarette; although Bart thought drugs were too bad even for him, he accepted it nonetheless, not really liking the smell. Eventually, Nelson asked him about his family — what it was to have a good family, specifically. Bart said he never had a good family; his dad was an alcoholic, his mother was too sensitive, and his sisters weren’t fans of his. This surprised him, who thought it was the opposite, but also said his family wasn’t good either. Nelson’s father, Eddie, was practically unknown to him, and his mother had left Nelson alone by himself. And this worried him.

Nelson Muntz stared at Bart with watering eyes and asked:

— Do you think my mother will still try to come back, even with this shitty wall? She always comes back and… I… I’m really scared of losing her. Forever…
— I think you should let it go. I mean, I know it’s complicated, since she’s your mother and all. But she never appreciated you and, I don’t know. You get it; I’m not good at this.
— Thanks, Bart Simpson. Let’s go inside.

from Chapter 154, “Smoking outdoors”

At Ralph’s funeral (at his family’s house), there were a few people gathered there. One of them was Lenna, alongside Ned and Todd. She wasn’t very used to being at funerals like this; she was raised Hindu by her parents, and yet still came to support her boyfriend and the parents of the dead Ralph. Ralph’s coffin was made out of lead — to prevent any contamination —, and was sealed by military recommendations. He wouldn’t be buried, however; he’d need to be cremated. After comforting the wounded Clancy and his wife, Sarah, she went to comfort the poor Todd. She gave him a salami sandwich and water to eat, which he did. Lenna took him to Ralph’s room so he could sleep a bit, and it was there when he told her that he wanted to die; again, she did her best to comfort him. Todd explained that he loved him, which Lenna said wasn’t a bad thing, but Todd insisted he wasn’t gay and did not want to go to Hell. Suspecting that he was confused and was actually expressing guilt for not being able to save him, she advised him to go to sleep while she talked to his father. On her way out, Todd called her “mom” — although he was not sure if she heard him.

The following two chapters are, perhaps, the most interesting in the entire story — to say the least. When Nelson and Bart came back inside, everyone else gathered in a circle and began playing a mix of spin the bottle and truth or dare?. Some of the rules were that any question or challenge was allowed, and that the player could only choose the same option a maximum of three times in a row. For example, someone who picked “truth” three times in a row would necessarily have to pick “dare” at least once. Bart went first, and the mouth of the bottle (specifically a milk bottle) pointed at Jimbo, who picked dare; Bart dared him to eat a single strand of his hair. Although he didn’t think it was a real dare, he did so with some digust. It was now his turn — after spinning the bottle, it pointed at Terri, who also picked dare. Jimbo dared Terri to give her sister, Sherri, a full-fledged French kiss, tongue-on-tongue, which she did without hesitation.

With Terri in charge, the bottle then pointed at her sister Sherri. Yet another dare; she dared her sister to not drink for the rest of the night, bumming her out. When Sherri spun the bottle, it pointed at Bart. Smiling, she dared Bart to fuck all of them — each one of them — for 5 minutes each in the street. Alarmed, the others thought it was a lot for Bart — and for them, too! — and Terri decided that her sister was too drunk and decided to take her home. However, Bart — who was still reeling from seeing Claire and Milhouse earlier that day — said he would do it. Nelson even suggested for him to do it only with the twin sisters, as he was straight, but he insisted.

Jimbo offered him a pack of condoms, and everyone went outside to do it. The streets were practically empty at this time of night, meaning no one would see them. After a long silence, an embarrassed Dolph volunteered himself as tribute, and was the first one that night to be buttfucked. Although somewhat indifferent, Bart was not very satisfied with it. When the five minutes passed, Nelson and Jimbo argued with each other until Nelson gave up and went second. Likewise, Bart was not very satisfied with it, and Nelson did not seem to enjoy it. Jimbo went next, and both felt very similar to how Bart and Nelson felt. When they were finished, Sherri asked Terri to go next, which he did. But unlike the previous three, Bart actually liked it! After the five minutes passed, Sherri rapidly took her spot, to Terri’s disapproval, and they continued. Liking it even more, Bart continued until even after the 5-minute timer had ended — to everyone else’s surprise. Yet they weren’t only surprised at this, however; they were shocked when another person stopped by. It was Kearney, beaten and bruised up.

The next chapter, from Kearney’s point of view, is intentionally full of grammatical errors. He was in his house with his girlfriend, a woman named Hanney Beller. Hanney was 26 — six years older than Kearney, who the story puts as 20. They had a kid, Keusley (unrelated to Kearney’s two canonical children, Kearney Jr. and his other son), although this wasn’t public information yet; Kearney never accepted public responsibility for his son, but wanted to do so now. This surprised Hanney, but she was happy about it. When Kearney went out — he had to meet the Indeliquents —, it was about 10 p.m., and it was cold outside. During his route to the abandoned house, he was spotted by one of the soldiers who were patrolling Springfield. It was Hugo who, finding the man suspicious, promptly frisked him. After finding a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, he kindly bashed Kearney’s head into a tree.

Back at the Wiggum Resident on 732 Evergreen Terrace, Lenna was daydreaming. She recalled a moment where she took her daughter, Cristianne, to a fashion store when she was just 6-years-old. Her daughter didn’t really like her dress, but Lenna insisted that it was alright, and that she looked beautiful in it. Seeing she was still upset, she tried to comfort her. Lenna explained that she wanted to see her daughter have success in life. She pointed at her own skin color and explained that people there, in America, used to treat them differently due to it, and that she was lucky that she inherited the lighter skin her father had — and that she had to try everything she could to get to the top. Lenna’s daydream eventually moved to another scene, where she was called to the principal’s office in a private school due to something her daughter did. Cristianne was then 8 years old; on the way back home, Lenna was disappointed about something she did, after all her attempts and making sure her daughter fit in. Her daughter (and a friend of hers named Adrielly) was expelled. Before she could think more about it, however, Sarah would interrupt her and ask if she was okay. She was in the hallway, still; her daydream was over. The two went down to the dining room, although Lenna knew that, this time, with Ned and Todd, she had a second chance to make things just right.

The Springfield POV returns here, in chapter 161, showing what had happened until then. Jefford Freeley had taken over the Springfield Town Hall, and was looking over at several files from their archives in shock. Hugo, after beating up a vagabond (Kearney), left for one of the temporary military camps just outside town. Despite being satisfied with this, Hugo would have unspecified nightmares overnight. Bart, after an unexpected sixsome, realized that maybe he was straight after all. He went back home after hearing from Kearney what happened to him, although he kept in touch with Sherri to participate in their next meetings. When he went back home, Marge immediately hugged him; just moments prior, Marge was arguing with Lisa over letting him wander the unsafe streets of town. Collin would come to her defense, explaining that Bart was a cynical idiot and that she didn’t need to cover up all his mistakes.

Eventually, Marge informed them of Ralph’s wake, and that they would go straight to his house. Lisa invited Collin to go with them; it was at this point that he asked her out to be his girlfriend. Around the same time, Lenna would talk to Ned about Todd, his son, just outside the Wiggum residence; it would end in a peaceful, heartwarming discussion. Not too far from there, Kearney would go back to his house. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Zzyzwicz, couldn’t care less about him, but his little brother did. His name was Keusley. Keusley soon noticed his bruised appearance and, perhaps being aware of Kearney’s conversation with Hanney earlier that night, asked him if he was really his brother. Moments after this, all clocks in Springfield — with a margin of error of 35 seconds — turned into midnight. (Fun fact: every chapter from 135 to 161 all happened in the same day!) Lots of things would happen; Jeff would throw some folders on the floor, Hugo would wake up from his nightmare, Lenna and Ned would get into an argument, Marge and Bart would avoid talking to each other, and Kearney would say Keusley was indeed his brother. But to Collin, Lisa said yes.

The new day had begun in the worst possible way. But even in the longest, darkest tunnel, abandoned by men and at the mercy of nature, without any affection or appreciation, nor interest or care… there is a minuscule, teeny, tiny light. There is a way out. Anyone who is lost in this tunnel, or in their own dilemmas, can follow that speck of hope towards the way out of this situation. And if this exit is blocked, all that means is more hard work.

If we know what to do with this scratch, almost invisible to the human eye, it can lead us to a new source of light and warmth. Lisa and Collin felt that spark inside them. Lisa had said yes. And the fire of her love could warm and illuminate everyone else, who was not in the tunnel, but at the bottom of the well.

from Chapter 161, “A lot of things happening”

A month had passed. Ned and Lenna took Ralph to a psychoanalyst named Jessy, whose office was a naphthalene-smelling room he didn’t like much. A whole month later, he still thought about Ralph — how he at times thought he was going to show up to his home, and they’d play together, but he wouldn’t. He was dead. And he loved him. When he told this to Jessy, Ned was immediately enraged and asked him to not use that door; this caused her to ask Ned to leave. She asked the 14-year-old Todd if he’d fallen in love with someone before; he said no. She then asked him what he felt about sex — and if he’d do it if he had the opportunity to, which he also said no. Finally, she asked him if he thought he could fit, among many other categories, in the asexual category. And after a moment of silence, he nodded yes.

Hugo, meanwhile, was having a nightmare. (It’s not specified if this nightmare was the same nightmare from a month earlier or a similar, newer nightmare.) He’s running from something during a flood, which killed and eaten what looked like the Grim Reaper. Eventually, this something — some black light of sorts — caught him and turned him old, weak. And suddenly, he found himself at 8 years old again, recalling his childhood. He lived in a slum (think of the Brazilian favelas) with his 21-year-old brother, father, and mother (who was carrying an unborn child). Their house, however, dissipated in the dream and was replaced by a man — a black man — taking off his clothes and grabbing one of the branches in the tree. Hugo called him a monkey.

He could hear, far away, the siren of a police car where the bourgeoisie lived. He assumed the cops were going after someone who stole a purse. Hugo could also hear the noise of his mother asking him to buy bread for her; in the way, he stumbled across a “fat smoker” who asked him where he was going, and why would a boy like him buy bread all alone. Scared, he ran, ran, and ran, to no avail. By the end of everything, he was lying in an alley, crying. No one came to help him. Although this chapter is written in an intentionally confusing way, one thing is fairly clear: Hugo was sexually abused.

In school, Milhouse and Claire sat in class next to each other. Their teacher was a guy named Kallihd (possibly an erroneous misspelling of Khalid), who was hired by the military. Claire was still uneasy with the military there, but Milhouse explained they’d have to settle in eventually — they’d been there for almost three months! A lot of things had changed in the school system, too; classes were now separated by age, and so anyone who had a birthday would automatically move up a grade. As a result, Bart was now one grade ahead of Lisa. (Up until then, they were in the same grade.) And many of their textbooks were replaced by abridged versions, with more images than actual text or exercises. When leaving school, the two eventually noticed Bart hanging out with Nelson and the twins, Sherri and Terri. This concerned Claire, but Milhouse did not comment much on it.

This chapter is followed by the “Wall-Mart Mayhem” duology (an ironic title, given that at no point a Walmart is even mentioned in the story). Over here it’s explained that it had been exactly 3 months and 2 weeks since the military invasion, and food stocks were only refilled the month prior, causing food prices to have tripled (see: supply and demand). Lisa, after helping the outskirts of town obtain access to safe water, was at Kwik-E-Mart with Zero, her dog (who was outside), Bart, and also Collin. It was there that Lisa confirmed to Nelson that yes, she and Collin were dating; although she hated making it public at first, only her boyfriend and mother could really comfort her in these tough times. It was then when Hugo entered the establishment, asking to talk to the manager — Apu. He told Apu that he was there to jail him, as his business license had expired and so had his passport.

Although Apu kindly explained that he was in fact a naturalized American about a decade ago (likely referring to the events of Much Apu About Nothing), Hugo was not satisfied with this answer, and proceeded to beat him up. Bart ran into Apu’s defense but was hit and fell near the cash register. Zero, who was outside, ran into Hugo’s direction and bit his leg, causing it to bleed. Hugo promptly used his nightstick at the dog and kicked him, causing Zero to also bleed. While Bart went to check on Zero, Collin got on top of Hugo and Nelson tried his best to hold his arm, all of this while Apu slowly crawled away. It was right at this moment when the Kwik-E-Mart doors opened; it was Mathy — one of Jeff’s subordinates, with a German accent — and he rapidly rebuked Hugo for causing confusion there. Although he tried to defend himself, Mathy told him they hadn’t even collected that region’s “documents” (as in, the data regarding every citizen who lived there), and both left as if nothing happened.

And after a 30-chapter absence, she’s back! Meg, the one and only. (Brendon even calls her his Daenerys!) She was in a makeshift military camp in the woods, just like many of her fellow students. Meg recalled the conversation she had with Boll months ago, where he explained that Jeff requested his soldiers to help him in a mission. The soldiers, just like the camp structure, followed a strict hierarchy where richer and smarter students were on top — including Lexanna, who was labeled as a child prodigy. Going back to her tent, she stumbled upon Lexanna on the way, where they waved hi to each other but didn’t really talk; their relationship hadn’t really recovered since that incident. And Meg had other things to worry about — her parents, the people in Springfield, and also the huge responsibility she had to take care of, as Boll had explicitly told her that she was his biggest weapon — to avoid the genocide of an entire town.

Lisa, Bart and Marge took the wounded Zero to a veterinarian, Doctor George Marrell (possibly the veterinarian from Dog of Death), who said he wished he could do more — and blamed the “so-called colonel Jefford”. He explained that a squadron had recently taken a bunch of his medications, alongside other health clinics, because they were deemed “less important.” However, due to the costs of the invasion, they simply hadn’t prepared to request new shipments. Instead of simply requesting the government for more supplies, they were actually importing them from other foreign countries, such as Canada, China, and Russia. It was then when Lisa explained to him that the reason the shipments were slowly coming in was that they were covering up something — the accident that had happened in the nuclear plant. They wanted to wipe out Springfield from the map. Marell said Zero would need to say in there for a while, but the Simpsons promised to pay as much as they needed to not only help Zero, but also Marrell’s clinic.

The next chapter is in Springfield’s POV: after almost four months of no internet, Jefford had announced the week prior that it would be returning. However, any mentions to the situation of the city (namely the wall, or the military siege of it) were prohibited. Marge was ecstatic, as she had not been in contact with her ever since it was suspended by Boll, and eventually removed outright. She gathered her family — Bart, Lisa, and also Homer and his father, Abe — to videocall her. (Selma and Patty were invited, but did not show up.) Abe now lived with Homer, and was basically living off a monthly pension paid by Lisa. Lisa, in fact, had been doing a lot — not only to fund the poor in need, but to also make sure clinics, hospitals, schools, etc. were under working condition, and also to make sure local producers were producing enough food for the city. She was essentially their Shadow President.

Their surprise was that when calling Meg, instead they were met by Boll, who said he’d tell Meg that they called, and quit the voicecall. The rest of the family went downstairs, enraged, shouting all sorts of epithets at him and the military members who invaded the town. In the midst of this, Lisa would tell a bandaged Bart that she’d just received an email — from the same girl that had warned them about Sideshow Bob in Act 2. (Though Lisa does not mention Lexanna’s name, she would’ve most likely known this as the email Bart received was from Lexanna’s personal account. Curiously, it seems neither of them had any contact after that message was sent, although any contact would’ve been brief given how a week later, the power plant incident occured.) As seen below:

“Hello!

I’m sending this message randomly to random people… it just so happens that I recently read a magnificent book saga! But I have no one to talk to… ;-;

The books are called ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, you know… but my favorite is the spin-off: The Unauthorized Autobiography.

Anyway… I’d be very much delighted if you, whoever you are, would read and reply to me so that we could become friends.

Seriously, they’re short books… if you start as soon as you wake up, you’ll be finished before the bells ring in the afternoon; the books tell of the tragic and ill-fated adventures of the Baudelaires, whom we know live under the claws of Olaf, the Count of a nasty troupe. As we read these books, the trinity of protagonists feel their fate being sealed off, and we hope that the author will have mercy on them, that they will use their omnipotence in the work to make everything all right.

Anyway, all I hope is to convince you to read it; it’s simple, there’s no code. To end this long-winded message, please know that it’s no secret — ring the bells of joy! — that everyone loves this saga. So long, I hope.”

from Chapter 169, “Internet”

This is still a work in progress. I might finish this someday. Maybe.