The Debarted

"The Debarted" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons' nineteenth season. It was first broadcast on March 2, 2008, and guest stars Topher Grace and radio host Terry Gross has a cameo. A new troublesome student named Donny arrives at Springfield Elementary School, prompting a gleeful Bart to befriend him as his partner in pranks. Meanwhile, Marge wrecks the family car and gets a new luxury vehicle as a loaner car, which Homer grows attached to.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Cultural references
3 Reception
4 References

[edit] Plot

Marge is driving Bart and Lisa to school in Homer's car when the children begin fighting. When Marge tries to stop the children from fighting, she inadvertently crashes into Hans Moleman's car. Later at school, Bart is shocked to find his seat taken by a new student, named Donny, who was recently kicked out of his former school. After Donny throws massive amounts of garbage at the school wall, Bart begins to feel he is losing popularity. While trying to imitate Donny, Bart ends up humiliating himself. Feeling his social rank amongst his peers slipping, Bart sulks.

Meanwhile, Homer has taken his car to get fixed. The Wiseguy informs him of a loaner car he could use in the meantime. The loaner car is significantly better than Homer's old car, and he embraces it, and begins driving it everywhere. Bart plays a prank on Principal Skinner, employing magnets and metal sole pads in Skinner's shoes. While on the school stage, the magnets cause Skinner to dance uncontrollably and ultimately be hurled outside of the school into a container filled with old retainers. Bart regains the respect and admiration of his peers, but when Skinner attempts to find who is responsible, Donny takes the blame for Bart's prank. Skinner takes Donny to his office, whereupon Donny is revealed to be in fact a snitch hired by Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers to get Bart suspended. Bart invites Donny into his clique alongside Nelson and Milhouse, and they plot school pranks. To signify Donny's entrance in the group, Bart rewards him with illegal Blue Vine licorice sticks from Europe, which turn the eater's tongue blue.

Homer takes Marge out on a romantic evening cruise. The Wiseguy calls Homer, informing him that his old car is ready to be picked up. Homer, however, refuses to give up his luxury car. At the school, Bart is perplexed when Skinner repeatedly anticipates and foils his pranks. Groundskeeper Willie informs Bart that a snitch is amongst them, but Bart wrongly suspects Milhouse. With the aid of Nelson and Donny, Bart imprisons Milhouse in a locker. Bart plans a final prank on Skinner involving egging his house with ostrich eggs. While helping Skinner hang up a banner, Bart notices that Skinner's tongue is blue. Bart figures out that the snitch is Donny, who had given Skinner the Blue Vines. While driving past the car dealer, Homer sees the Wiseguy selling his car for $99. Homer is furious and realizes that his car is like his child, and takes it back, abandoning the loaner car.

Bart, Nelson and Donny go to the school storage building, where Willie lets them in. Bart denounces Donny as the rat and Nelson grabs him. They plan to place him in Skinner's office, where they will mix Diet Coke and Mentos, of which they have a huge amount. They are interrupted by the arrival of Superintendent Chalmers, Principal Skinner (toting a video camera), and Willie, who has snitched on Bart in exchange for an elementary school diploma. Chalmers tells Bart that he will be sent to the toughest juvenile detention center there is. Donny pities Bart, as he was the only person who ever cared for him. As Skinner leads Bart away, Donny shoves the crates of Mentos into the Diet Coke, causing the fizzy explosion. The two boys escape through the roof as Skinner, Chalmers, and Willie are caught in the explosion. Bart and Donny shake hands and Donny leaves, telling Bart that he will always remember their friendship, and they promise to meet up with each other sometime in the future. The episode ends with Ralph in a trash can citing that a "rat symbolizes obviousness" explicitly referring to the movie The Departed to which this episode pays tribute.

[edit] Cultural references

The title and plot of the episode reference 2006 film The Departed^[2] and the episode contains several elements of the film, including the use of the Dropkick Murphys song "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"^[2] and Donny's attire. Bart also references the Diet Coke and Mentos eruption by doing the same stunt on a larger scale. Unusually for a Simpsons episode, Diet Coke is referred to by name; characters normally drink (or produce explosions with) the in-show product Buzz Cola. Lisa is reading a book called The Joy of Sax, which is a parody of the book, The Joy of Sex.

[edit] Reception

The episode had an estimated 7.9 million and received a 9 percent audience share.^[3] Richard Keller of TV squad enjoyed the episode and liked the fact that it focused on Bart. The only part he did not enjoy was the subplot with Homer and the car. He says, "I enjoyed this episode more than the usual ones that have aired during this post-Simpsons Movie season. There were plenty of good moments and a few of them that I actually laughed at."^[2] Robert Canning of IGN said, "This was a fun and funny episode." He thought Homer's loaner car scenes were "just silly enough to make an impact." Canning thought both Topher Grace and Terry Gross did great jobs with their parts. He gave the episode a 7.8 out of 10.^[4]