Trilogy of Error/References

Cultural References

 * The plot of this episode is based on the film Run Lola Run.
 * The innovative story telling style shown in this episode was also used in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. The seventh episode of the seventh season ("Blackout") involved the same series of events being seen from several different view points. The character of Thelonius is voiced by Frankie Muniz, who played the titular Malcolm.
 * The 2003 Patrick Swayze movie 11:14 is another example of this type of story-telling.
 * The 1999 film Go is another example of this type of story-telling, and elements from this film were even used in this episode such as when Rainier Wolfcastle smashed Marge's car with golf clubs due to their ramming into his car by accident, which was based on when Jack Nicholson's character performs a very similar action to what Rainier Wolfcastle did.
 * Ned reads a modified book of Harry Potter where Harry and his friends go to Hell for practicing witchcraft, which is a reference to many fundamentalist Christian groups protesting the book series for promoting Satanism.
 * The title is a parody of Trilogy of Terror.

Trivia

 * Shelbyville is 20 miles far from Springfield at least.
 * This is the second episode where Bart Gets Hit by a Car.

Goofs

 * When Lisa is looking at the bus, one can see Milhouse sitting on it, even though he is with Bart.
 * Marge says that she took the car from McBain the character played by the out-of-character Rainier Wolfcastle.
 * During Lisa's segment time seems to move really quickly. When she leaves Thelonius she says it's 11am, but when she goes to Moe's Tavern a few seconds later it's noon, and then when she is at Dr. Nick's it is 2:45pm.
 * Time during Bart's segment seems to move even faster: When they Fat Tony and his gang found out that Bart was wearing a wire it was noon, and when Bart gets hit by the truck Marge and Lisa stole from Cletus it's almost 3pm.
 * In Bart's segment, Bart counts two of his keys as the same one (The key to Milhouse's house and Lisa's bike).
 * In Lisa's segment, Homer gets drunk as soon as Lisa leaves the tavern, showing time goes very quickly (though Homer's quick drunkenness could be the result of him drinking while losing blood from his thumb injury).
 * In Homer's segment Rod and Todd Flanders are at home while the rest of the children are at school. It is unknown if their father is homeschooling them (which, given their sheltered outlook on life, especially in light of Maude Flanders' death, and the fact that no other past episodes has ever depicted the Flanders children going to school with Bart and Lisa [not even the Catholic school that Bart temporarily went to on the season four episode "Whacking Day"], is probably most likely), or if they are home for the day.