Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Simpsons season 36, episode 1
Almost three decades after the show initially promised this twist,The Simpsonsseason 36, episode 1 finally killed off the show’s main villain. WhileThe Simpsonsseason 37’s renewalhas not yet been confirmed, the series isn’t saving any of its more ambitious ideas until its next outing.The Simpsonsseason 36’s Treehouse of Horror specialswill expand on season 34’s risky experiment by including both a normal Halloween anthology episode and a second, separate “Treehouse of Horror Presents” outing that celebrates the work of Ray Bradbury. The season also includes an exclusive Disney+ Halloween short.
The Simpsons Season 36 Is A Great Time To Use One Storytelling Trick The Show Surprisingly Never Has Before
The Simpsons season 36 has an opportunity to pull off an impressive series first, but this would require a big creative risk from the series.
Continuing in this experimental vein,The Simpsonsseason 36 episode 1 saw Bart finally ageas the show’s hero went from 10 to 11 years old. “Bart’s Birthday” was presented as an in-universe series finale forThe Simpsons, with host Conan O’Brien introducing the episode in front of a star-studded celebrity gala. The episode’s story was ostensibly written by the generative AI “Hack GPT,” and its plot saw the citizens of Springfield change in shocking, dramatic ways as Bart’s birthday approached. This included a grisly payoff for a promise thatThe Simpsonsmade way back in 1995.
The Simpsons Season 36 Killed Off Mr. Burns
Mr. Burns Died In A Nuclear Power Plant Accident During Season 36 Episode 1
In season 6, episode 25, “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One,”The Simpsonsused its season finale to dramatically imply that Homer’s hated boss Monty Burns has been killed. This prompted a worldwide hunt to work out Burns’ killer and it seemed as if this plot twist would rewrite the story of the series substantially. However, the next episode revealed that Burns made a full recovery, and he was soon reinstated as the undying boss of Springfield’s nuclear power plant. 29 years later, amidThe Simpsonsseason 36 episode 1’s returning character cameos, the show suddenly, brutally killed off Burns.
Early in “Bart’s Birthday,” Smithers gathers the power plant’s workers to announce that Burns has died and left them his fortune. The workers celebrate, only for Burns to appear from the shadows and laugh at their gullible optimism. After this mean-spirited prank,Homer accidentally knocks Burns into a vat of nuclear waste and he immediately dissolves and dies horribly. Hilariously, Mr. Burns’ pitiless lawyer announces that the will Burns created for the prank is legally binding, meaning his employees will receive his fortune after all. The plant employees celebrate Homer’s accidental success, carrying him out on their shoulders.
How Mr. Burns' Season 36 Death Compares To “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”
Burns’ Demise Is Nastier But Also Sillier Than His Earlier Mystery
Although Burns’ death is one ofseason 36 episode 1’s biggest twists, it is also absurdly cartoony. The death scene itself is significantly more gruesome and explicit than his shooting in “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One,” but this is due to the divergent tones of the two episodes.“Bart’s Birthday” has a zanier, sillier tone than “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One,”owing in part to its ambitiously meta premise. Since the episode is supposed to be an AI-generated series finale forThe Simpsons, “Bart’s Birthday” features a string of outlandish, unlikely twists that are clearly shoehorned in.
The episode satirizes bad TV finales as Bart grows increasingly suspicious of how convenient, ludicrous, and abrupt all these events are.
From Principal Skinner suddenly leaving Springfield to Kirk Van Houten receiving a recording contract, everything that happens in “Bart’s Birthday” occurs for narrative convenience or to set up a hacky spinoff. The episode satirizes bad TV finales as Bart grows increasingly suspicious of how convenient, ludicrous, and abrupt all these events are. “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One,” parodies murder mysteries with its gloomy final scene, wherein Burns is shot by an unseen assailant in a moment that is atypically dark for the cartoon. In comparison, Burns’s death in “Bart’s Birthday” is disgusting, but also comically brief, shocking, and sudden.
Burns’ Death Was Undone In The Episode’s Ending
Like most of the unexpected events in “Bart’s Birthday,”Burns’s death is undone by a reality reset at the end ofThe Simpsonsseason 36, episode 1. FromThe Simpsonsbringing back Danny DeVito’s Herb Powellto Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney raising a baby while living with Hank Scorpio, all the storylines in “Bart’s Birthday” were self-aware attempts to wrap up the sprawling universe ofThe Simpsonsin a tidy package. This effort broke down when Homer lost his temper and began strangling Bart in the finale.
The Simpsonswas renewed for seasons 35 and 36 in January 2023, but season 37’s status is currently unknown.
Instantly, the AI-generated episode’s storyline fell apart and things returned to normality. Bart was ten again, the forgotten supporting characters attending his birthday party vanished, and all the unlikely events of the episode were presumably instantaneously retconned. Future episodes might reveal that Moe really did sell his tavern, Ned Flanders and Ruth Powers are married, and Burns actually did die. However, it is more likely thatThe Simpsonswill never reference this goofy non-canon outing again.
