The Last of the Red Hat Mamas
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The Last of the Red Hat Mamas is the seventh episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. The episode originally aired on November 27, 2005. This episode was the second highest rated of the season with 11.5 million viewers.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot
The Simpson children participate in the annual Easter celebration at Mayor Quimby's mansion. When Maggie is unable to gather any Easter eggs, Homer decides to take the other children's eggs. Maggie is delighted, but Hugs Bunny, who is refereeing the egg hunt, voices his immediate displeasure. Homer and Hugs get into a huge fight. Meanwhile, Marge goes on a tour of the mansion, led by Quimby's estranged wife, Martha Quimby, but things quickly go downhill when the fight spills into Quimby's office. Marge is embarrassed by Homer's childish actions, and her friends determine she is bad news and shun her.
At home, Marge tells Homer exactly how she feels, leading Homer to try to make amends by trying to find some new friends for Marge. He goes to the supermarket to find one, but fails by behaving too much like a stalker.
Where Homer fails, Marge succeeds. While walking through a street, she meets up with members of the Cheery Red Tomatoes. She quickly impresses the group's leader, Tammy (voiced by Lily Tomlin), and - after participating in a few low-key meetings - is soon invited to become a member of the women's group.
However, when it comes time for the initiation, Tammy asks Marge to assist in their efforts to break into Burns' mansion to steal $1 million in Fabergé eggs. They explain they are a group that raises funds for charity, and that Burns once promised them that amount to donate to a children's hospital; however, at a press conference, the selfish millionaire announced he plans to keep the money for himself (to undergo a procedure that will extend his life by 10 minutes). Marge tells the Cheery Red Tomatoes members she cannot go ahead with the burglary, however bad of a person Burns is, but when told her membership rides on her participation, she decides to cast her morals aside and proceed with the burglary.
At home, Homer finds Marge's Tomatoes folder lying around the house and after rummaging through it, learns about the group's plans to break into Burns's safe. As he tries to get to the mansion to stop her, his reckless driving gets the attention of the police, who follow him, after leaving Officer Eddie behind to direct traffic. Meanwhile, Marge is able to sneak onto Burns's grounds through an air duct and unlock a gate; from there, the women crack open the safe and begin helping themselves to the Fabergé eggs that sit inside.
As the women are leaving, Chief Wiggum and Burns arrive at the mansion to arrest the women. Burns is disgusted by Chief Wiggum and Lou arguing over Wiggum's pants size. Homer arrives to stop Marge from doing something she might regret, but finds himself a prime suspect in the heist. However, once everything is explained, Marge realizes she does not need the group to make friends; after all, she already has one very special friend - Homer. The group returns the eggs to Burns, but Marge later reveals that she hid one in her hair and gives it to them before departing.
Meanwhile, Lisa is seeking summer opportunities and settles on traveling to Italy. She tries to convince Principal Skinner that she speaks fluent Italian, but the principal is skeptical. Rather than putting her on the spot, he decides to test Lisa later. This gives Lisa time to hire a tutor, who turns out to be Milhouse; he learned the language by force from his grandmother in Tuscany, as she hated English due to being left pregnant by an American G.I. after World War II. Milhouse is actually quite good at teaching Lisa, and before long, Lisa is speaking fluently and apparently forms a friendship with Milhouse. However, just as it seems that Milhouse's unrequited feelings for Lisa would be reciprocated, he is caught with a girl named Angelica and then Lisa starts beating him up and cursing him in Italian like his grandmother did.
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[edit] Cultural references
- The episode title is a reference to Sophie Tucker, who was known as "the Last of the Red Hot Mamas" throughout her career.
- When the twins Sherri and Terri notice that Lisa is gone, they resume speaking in their "Secret twin language." This refers to an actual phenomena (Twin language) known as Idioglossia.
- When Marge is walking alone in the streets the song playing is Everybody Hurts by R.E.M..
- The group of women that Marge joins is called the Cheery Red Tomatoes. They wear red dresses and pink hats, similar to the clothing worn by members of the Red Hat Society (purple outfits and red hats).
- Inside Burns' mansion, after the ladies open the safe, Homer appears and tells Marge he accidentally led the police there. He finishes by saying "Game over, man! Game Over!!!". This is a reference to a movie line, made famous by Bill Paxton as Pvt. Hudson in James Cameron's Aliens.
- This is the third episode to feature Fabergé eggs. The other two being "The Joy Of Sect" and "'Round Springfield".
- The outfit Milhouse wears in Little Italy is similar to the one Don Fanucci wore in The Godfather Part II.
- The music played in the Mayor's office when the red button is pushed is an easy listening version of the song Music to Watch Girls By by Bob Crewe.
