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The Very Hungry Caterpillars |
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The Very Hungry Caterpillars is the twentieth episode of Season 34.
Synopsis[]
When a plague of insects shuts down Springfield, the Simpsons face their greatest challenge yet...spending time in lock down with each other.
When caterpillars swarm Springfield, the city goes into lockdown mode — forcing the Simpsons to deal with the stress of isolation: Lisa imagines her Malibu Stacy dolls have come to life; Bart and his friends spy on Skinner’s family; Marge and Homer frantically search for a supply of ranch dressing for baby Maggie, pitting them against a Rapture-crazed Ned Flanders.
Plot[]
In the start of the episode, at breakfast, Marge attempts to feed Maggie some pancakes, but Maggie refuses to eat them because they lack ranch dressing, which she insists on having with her food. After Marge relents and gives Maggie ranch dressing, the family receives an emergency alert instructing them to watch the television. Kent Brockman has announced that a swarm of Dutch Leaf Slurper caterpillars has arrived in town. Mayor Quimby has declared that the town will be under lockdown until the situation is resolved. The family chose to spend time together engaging in activities and watching the show "Steak, Cake or Fake?" on Binge+. Both Bart and Lisa are so angry after Homer signed out of the account.
The following day, Springfield Elementary School began remote learning through ChatHippo. Later in the day, after school had ended, Principal Skinner inadvertently left his webcam on, which allowed Bart to spy on him. During the lockdown, Cousin Peter has been staying at our house, charming Agnes with sweet talk and simultaneously offending Skinner with insults. Meanwhile, Marge attempts to persuade Maggie to try a different dip in place of ranch, which has run out. Maggie refuses and knocks over the dips. As Homer attempts to sign into his Binge+ account, Marge asks him to check with Ned to see if they can have what they need. At the Flanders' House, as Homer takes Ned's emergency supplies, Ned envisions Homer pilfering provisions from himself, Rod, and Todd, before reclaiming the food and reluctantly offering Homer a tiny cup of ranch dressing. Marge thinks they can ration the ranch dressing over a couple of days. As Lisa enters the room and mentions that the lockdown might be longer, Maggie sips from her cup of ranch dressing.
Lisa has become obsessed with reading news about the lockdown, which is causing her growing concern. Homer and Marge chose to present Lisa with her Christmas gift early; a Malibu Stacy playset known as The Shops at the Orchard. Meanwhile, Bart and the other children watch Skinner's webcam feed where Agnes gives the Skinner family quilt to Peter, even having beforehand promised it to Seymour. While playing with her Malibu Stacy playset, Lisa begins to envision the dolls conversing with her about the lockdown and then went under her blanket on the bed.
The following day, Homer attempted to trick Maggie into eating different sauces instead of ranch dressing, but his efforts were unsuccessful, resulting in Maggie spitting it out and crying. When Marge was watching the next door where Ned, Rod, and Todd were eating it with ranch dressing, she decided to go with Homer to steal his ranch dressing. While Bart and the kids are watching Skinner's webcam feed, he tells Agnes why she gives his quilt to Peter. Bart discovers that the Skinner family quilt was Seymour's security blanket when he was a baby. As Skinner tears, everyone felt sorry for him, and Bart decided to help him get his blanket back for him which the kids agreed to help him. When Lisa returned to her dolls, she discovered they had constructed a barrier to protect against the caterpillars. A doll taking a photo of Lisa shrunk down to their size so they can join them in the mall. That night, Homer and Marge start breaking in to steal his ranch dressing. However, Homer knocking a tin off the shelf which Flanders going to check the noise in his basement while he's helping Marge to steal his ranch dressing. Meanwhile, Moe tries to burn his bar to kill the caterpillars, but it's unsuccessful. Back to the Flanders' house, as he turns on a light, Homer starts fighting with him and lets Marge escape to take the bags of ranch while distracting him. During the fight with Homer, Ned attempts to drown him in the barrel of ranch dressing.
Bart and the kids produce a plan to get Skinner's blanket back and Nelson will call Peter to offer to buy the blanket. While Peter is negotiating with Nelson, Mrs. Muntz walks into his room where she made a homemade puppet and the plan got ruined (almost) and he's not selling the quilt. Eventfully, however, Seymour spies on Peter and Agnes is insulting him and exposing that he was conning her to Nelson. Seymour takes the blanket back from Peter and Agnes throws Peter out of the house directly into the caterpillars where was massacred. The plan went well and Seymour then thanks Bart and the kids for helping him to return the blanket to him via ChatHippo.
Back at the basement, Ned still tries to drown Homer in the barrel of ranch dressing but stopped by Marge to save Homer by reminding him that he's a good person. He realizes what he did wrong and lets them keep the ranch dressing. Meanwhile, Lisa helps the dolls to build the barricade until they encounter one of the caterpillars to try to eat them, but Lisa throws a piece of lettuce from her sandwich to the caterpillar, which eats a lettuce to make it go away. At last, Lisa stopped envisioning herself as small as her dolls.
The following day, every caterpillar had formed a cocoon, and the lockdown was over. While Maggie was enjoying a bowl of ranch dressing, however, the cocoons unexpectedly hatched, releasing swarms of butterflies throughout Springfield. For the next lockdown, in the end of the episode, Homer had taken Ned's account to watch Christian on GodFlix together.