Treehouse of Horror V

For the continuing series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror Series.

"Ach, I'm bad at this."

- Groundskeeper Willie

"This is indeed a disturbing universe."

- Maggie

"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of the sixth season, and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror Series. The episode premiered on October 30, 1994, and was directed by Jim Reardon. The writers were Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath, David Cohen and Bob Kushell. James Earl Jones guest-stars as the voice of an alternate universe Maggie, in his second appearance in a Simpsons Halloween episode.

Synopsis
Treehouse of Horror V is an Anthology episode that features mini-stories. "The Shinning" is a parody of The Shining where the Simpsons become the winter caretakers of Mr. Burns' mountain lodge and Homer goes insane and tries to murder the family. In "Time and Punishment," Homer repeatedly travels back in time and alters the future. He tries to change things back, but fails and settles for a reality close to his own. In "Nightmare Cafeteria," Principal Skinner begins using detention students as cafeteria food. When Bart and Lisa are about to be slaughtered, Bart wakes up and realizes it is a dream. But immediately afterward, in the closing sequence, he and the family are attacked by a mysterious fog that turns people inside out!

Intro
Marge appears and explains to viewers how scary this Treehouse of Horror episode is. She then gets a letter from Congress saying this episode is so scary that it could not be shown. The episode is cut off and Bart's voice is used in radio waves to tell us that he is controlling the programming. Homer also cuts in and plays with the radio waves using his voice, much to Bart's annoyance. Bart manages to introduce the episode. During the intro, Moe Syzlak hangs himself, Patty and Selma, disguised as witches, were being executed by fire, but light their cigarettes, and Bart beheads Principal Skinner. After that, a lightning bolt flashes to the couch, where The Simpsons were built as a Frankenstein’s monster with each other's body parts, and they swap heads until they match closely.

The Shinning


In a parody of the late Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic The Shining, the family is hired as caretakers of Mr. Burns' summer estate. On the way, Homer is forced to drive all the way back home to lock the front door to the house, and on the second drive, he is again forced to turn around to go and lock the back door to the house. On the third drive, Lisa points out that they left Grampa behind—Homer ignores and keeps driving. Upon arriving, Mr. Burns takes them on a tour of the house. He tells them the long, colorful history of the house. It was built on an ancient Indian Burial Ground (like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining), and was the setting of Satanic rituals, witch burnings, and five John Denver Christmas specials. An elevator opens up and blood spills out all over the entire floor (like in The Shining), prompting Mr. Burns to say, "Hmm, that's odd. Usually, the blood gets off at the second floor." While outside, Bart cuts a shortcut in a hedge maze with a hedge trimmer, and annoys Willie and reads his thoughts. Willie tells him that he has "the shinning," and says he should use it to call him if his dad should go insane.

Mr. Burns and Smithers cut the power cable and confiscate all the beer. Smithers comments that this might have been what caused the previous caretakers to go insane and kill their families, but Mr. Burns bets that he owes Smithers a Coke if it happens this time again.

The absence of television and beer causes Homer to go insane. He tries to occupy himself, going to the bar where Moe, as a ghost, says he will let him have a beer if he murders his family. Homer is at first against the notion of murdering his family and questions Moe, who responds that they would be much happier as ghosts. Marge goes downstairs to check on Homer, and discovers a typewriter with paper in it. Marge reads it and then lightning lights up the room to reveal that Homer has written "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the lounge. Homer then barges in through a door and tries to attack Marge. She rushes towards a conveniently placed case containing a baseball bat (labelled "Break glass in case of spousal insanity") and swings it at him as he chases her up the stairs. Homer falls down the stairs after seeing his reflection in a mirror and is knocked out. Marge locks him in the pantry and grabs some chili to make for dinner. Later on in the pantry, Homer has calmed down and happily eats. Moe reminds him of their deal on the other end of the pantry door. When Homer refuses to comply, Moe and the gang of ghouls (including Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and Pinhead) carry him out against his will.

While the family is eating dinner, Homer breaks down a door with an axe ("Heeeere's Johnny!"), only to find the room vacant (a "D'oh!"). He breaks into another room ("Daaavid Letterman!"), only to find Grandpa (another "D'oh"). And finally into the right room with a stopwatch in his hand ("I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Marley Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley! All this and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 Minutes!"), the family flees to escape the rampaging Homer. After Marge attempts to contact the police to no avail, Bart uses his "shinning" to call Willie to help. Willie immediately rushes to assist, only to get an axe in the back by Homer. Homer grabs another axe from the collection hanging on the wall and pursues the family outside into the snow and is ready to kill them until Lisa discovers Willie's TV radio in the snow. Homer immediately drops the axe to watch Kent Brockman on Channel 6 News. The return of television restores his sanity. He calls his family to sit in the snow with him to "bask in television's warm, glowing, warming glow" and they freeze while watching. However, Bart tells Homer to change the channel when the announcer informs them that the upcoming programming will be The Tony Awards, hosted by Tyne Daily and Hal Lindon, Homer replies, "Can't. Frozen." But as a theme plays, they all scream in terror, and Homer says, "Urge to kill rising."

Time and Punishment
In a parody of A Sound of Thunder, Homer is sitting down at the table, eating breakfast with the family, commenting that despite his troubles, where he feels that he is a really lucky guy sitting down with them in their cozy home in this beautiful free country. Lisa characteristically spoils the mood by yelling at Homer that his hand is stuck in the toaster, and Homer frantically attempts to remove it. He succeeds and throws it across the room, but Bart alerts him that his hand is in the toaster again, causing another panic to remove it. Homer attempts to fix it using the tools in the basement. He test-toasts it, and modifications to the toaster turn it into a time machine, and Homer is teleported into the time-space continuum. Homer travels back to the time of the dinosaurs, and realizes that touching anything will affect the future. However, when he accidentally kills a mosquito, he returns to find that Flanders is the unquestionable lord and master of the world.

After escaping his "Re-Neducation" (a process that includes a glass of warm milk, a lie down, and a total frontal lobotomy), he goes back to the time of the dinosaurs in hopes to fix the future, and ends up accidentally sitting on a fish while escaping from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He returns only to discover that Bart and Lisa are giants that mistake him for a bug, then try to smash him. His second attempt to fix the past succeeds in him wiping out all the dinosaurs by sneezing on another T-Rex, who in turn sneezes on another dinosaur, which also sneezes on another dinosaur and so on, and they all fall like dominos, causing him to grimly remark "This is gonna cost me". Homer returns to the future in the basement. He goes upstairs to discover a large, fancy kitchen, he scans the room to see his family, who are all dressed elegantly, possess a brand new Lexus and are about to attend Patty and Selma's funeral, all of which delights Homer. As he sits down, he asks Marge to pass him a donut. When Marge replies, "What's a donut?" Homer screams uncontrollably at this shocking discovery and runs back to the basement and the sound of the time machine zapping is heard. After he is gone, donuts begin to fall from the sky and Marge says, "It's raining again," implying that donuts are the rain in this universe.

Homer returns to his basement to discover Groundskeeper Willie in his kitchen. Willie attempts to help Homer, but he suddenly falls to the floor, showing that Maggie has killed him with an axe. Maggie takes out her pacifier and says in the deep, distinctive voice of James Earl Jones, "This is indeed a disturbing universe."

Homer returns to the dinosaur era. Holding a club, he destroys anything in the past that he can before returning to the future. The family's house in the present ends up changing multiple times. Homer finally stops and returns to the present. He returns to the kitchen and asks Marge several questions: his name, the color of the sky, and what are donuts. Marge answers them all accurately. Homer, now satisfied, sits down to eat with the family. Everything appears to not be what it seems when the family begins eating a breakfast with frog tongues. Homer finally decides that it is close enough.

Nightmare Cafeteria
In a parody of Soylent Green, Bart suggests that his class face their desks backward before Mrs. Krabappel arrives. The students all support the idea. When Mrs. Krabappel enters the room, only Bart's desk is facing backwards. When Bart gets to the detention room, Principal Skinner approaches him, requiring him to spend his detention in the cafeteria as the detention hall is becoming dangerously overcrowded with students. Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Principal Skinner expresses himself worried that a critical amount of students are in detention. Lunchlady Doris berates him, saying that because of Springfield Elementary's budget cuts, she is reduced to serving Grade F meat (composed of circus animals and filler) in the cafeteria.



Principal Skinner discovers a common solution to their problems: eating the detention students. Jimbo Jones trips Lunchlady Doris, accidentally spilling stew all over himself. Skinner tastes the stew, and is impressed with the Jimbo/stew combination. Skinner instructs Jimbo to assist Lunchlady Doris in the cafeteria, and Jimbo is assigned to clean a large pot when meat tenderizer is spilled on him. Eventually the lid is closed and Jimbo is killed and cooked, ending up being served as a "Sloppy Jimbo" in the teachers' lounge and the cafeteria. Everyone likes the new dish, especially the teachers. In the cafeteria, Üter cuts in line for another Sloppy Jimbo, and Skinner sends him to detention.

Lisa becomes suspicious when Üter disappears and is served as "Üterbraten" in the cafeteria. Lisa asks Bart if he find that to be strange. Skinner, overhearing the conversation, says he's got a "gut feeling" that Üter is still around, and asks, "Isn't there a little Üter in all of us?", and then says "You might even say we just ate Üter and he's in our stomachs right now!" Skinner then backpedals, telling Bart and Lisa and to "scratch that one," but it's too late: Now they all think that something is up.

At home, Bart and Lisa and try to tell Marge what is happening at school, but Marge does not believe them. She says since they are now eight and ten years old that she could not be fighting all of their battles for them. Bart and Lisa reluctantly return to school. Eventually more students arrive in "permanent detention",and the remaining students have all been merged into one class, taught by a now-noticeably obese Mrs. Krabappel, stuffed from a recent meal. Only Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Wendell, and Ralph remain. When Wendell drops his pencil, Mrs. Krabappel gleefully sends him to detention. Milhouse sees Mrs. Krabappel reading a book titled The Joy of Cooking Milhouse, and suggests to Bart and Lisa that they should make a run for it, since any one of them could be next.

The trio rush down the hall, but are intercepted by Lunchlady Doris, who charges at them with a spinning eggbeater. Groundskeeper Willie attempts to come to their rescue, but is instantly killed by Skinner striking him in the back with an axe, causing him to retort on how he fails at rescues before collapsing. Skinner and Doris advance on the three remaining students, and they are immediately cornered on a ledge above a giant food processor, which Skinner turns on and switches to the "Gooify" setting. But as they are forced closer to the edge, Bart tells Lisa and Milhouse not to worry and says that something always comes along to save them. Milhouse falls into the food processor and is instantly "gooified," killing him. Bart changes his statement to "Something will come along and save the two Simpson children." No rescue comes, however, and Bart and Lisa fall over the edge as well, screaming as they fall toward the rapidly spinning blades of the food processor.

Immediately after falling into the food processor, Bart screams and wakes up to find out it was all a dream. Marge reassures him that there is nothing to worry about except the mysterious fog that turns people inside out. The fog then seeps in through the window and does just that (interestingly, the drawings of the skinned characters show a discontinuity in the bottom area suggesting an earlier version of the animation was retouched so to erase the buttocks). The family and Groundskeeper Willie all begin to do a musical number (to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line) about being turned inside out. At the end, Santa's Little Helper drags Bart offstage and devours him by his intestines.

David Mirkin deliberately placed more graphic violence in the episode due to complaints about excessive violence in the show. The episode features a recurring joke in every story where Groundskeeper Willie is struck in the back with an axe when trying to help someone. Willie even lampshades this in the final sketch, saying "I'm bad at this".

Signs/Thoughts

In "Nightmare Cafeteria", Jimbo Jones, Uter, and other students were killed and served for meat. Here are signs and thoughts on how the kids died. (Bold can show how they died)

Jimbo Jones: Cleaning a giant pot while Skinner is smearing him with meat tenderizer, Bite Me Skinner, Sloppy Jimbo, Young and Impudent.

Uter: Fat, Soft and Tender, 7 minutes a pound, Oktoberfest Celebration, Bart and Milhouse eating their German grub, (Uterbraten). Skinner making puns of Uter's disappearance.

Milhouse: The Joy of Cooking Milhouse.

Censorship
This episode is one of the most graphic episodes of The Simpsons because of the third segment: "Nightmare Cafeteria", which contains blood and gore.

This episode is rated PG in the UK, despite being more graphic than the 12-rated "Treehouse of Horror X". This episode was originally rated TV-PG in America, but was eventually rerated TV-14. In all airings, the episode's ending is not removed and the blood is removed from Lunchlady Doris's apron. The episode is rated M in Australia's Fox 8 channel.

Reception
The episode has been deemed the best Treehouse episode ever due to a great mix of Satirical Parody, goofy humor, and creepy suspense, all in one large convenient package.