The Wandering Juvie

"The Wandering Juvie"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	329
Prod. code	FABF11
Orig. airdate	March 28, 2004
Showrunner(s)	Al Jean
Written by	John Frink & Don Payne
Directed by	Lauren MacMullan
Couch gag	The shutter click of a camera can be heard as an undeveloped Polaroid photo floats to the couch and develops into the Simpsons family.
Guest star(s)	Sarah Michelle Gellar as Gina Vendetti Charles Napier as the Warden. Jane Kaczmarek as Judge Constance Harm
Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004 "Treehouse of Horror XIV" "My Mother the Carjacker" "The President Wore Pearls" "The Regina Monologues" "The Fat and the Furriest" "Today I Am a Clown" "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" "Margical History Tour" "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" "Smart and Smarter" "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" "Co-Dependent's Day" "The Wandering Juvie" "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" "Catch 'Em If You Can" "Simple Simpson" "The Way We Weren't" "Bart-Mangled Banner" "Fraudcast News" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23

'The Wandering Juvie" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode aired on March 28, 2004. It guest starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Gina Vendetti.

Plot

When the Simpson family is at the Costington's department store, Bart uses the wedding gift registry as a prank to register himself and his bride, "Lotta Cooties", for wedding presents. Bart invites many people to his so-called "wedding" and plans to take all the unused gifts back for store credit, but he is stopped in his tracks by Chief Wiggum, who arrests Bart. Bart tries to bribe Chief Wiggum with the wedding presents, but Chief Wiggum only accepts cash bribes, as stated on his badge. Bart is sentenced to six months of juvenile detention by Judge Constance Harm, going to a detention center (the next episode would feature a real wedding).

At the detention center, Bart is being harassed by Gina Vendetti, who ties him to the fence and uses a knife to destroy his uniform. Homer temporarily gets a job as a prison guard to keep an eye on Bart. Bart is afraid he will be buried alive in the sandpit or photographed being punched while going down a slide. Bart has another problem when he is partnered with Gina Vendetti for the "prom" by the warden. When they are dancing, Gina escapes with Bart using a rope, finding themselves on a window ledge. But because they are handcuffed together, she automatically brings a reluctant Bart along before the window could be closed (though he only comes after she kisses him). Slowly, they gain each others trust. It is publicized on channel 6 news of the escape and the Simpsons see it.

They are on the lam and look for a blacksmith who can remove their cuffs. They are freed, but after it happens, Gina is alone and forlorn. Gina yells at Bart and Bart calls her a psycho. They engage in a brutal fight and this time, Bart is so angry he actually wants to kill her as much as she wants to kill him. They end up rolling right into the police officers who arrest them (and a bear that Cletus correctly predicts that would attack Chief Wiggum), telling the Simpsons that now Bart will stay in Juvie even longer (apparently for years, since that Wiggums claims that Bart would stay long enough to lose his innocence and become more muscular). Gina, feeling terrible, confesses she does not have a family when she returns to jail (also clearing Bart of all charges that would result in him remaining in prison), but the Simpsons and the warden step in to help Gina by offering a Mexican food feast in her cell at the end.

Reception

This episode peaked with 10.5 million viewers.^{[citation needed]}

Cultural references

• Gina's surname, "Vendetti", resembles the Italian word "vendetta", which means "revenge".
• The episode's title is a play on the name of a figure from medieval Christian folklore, the Wandering Jew.
• The "Little Hooker" T-shirt line sold at Costington's is a spoof of clothing manufacturers marketing adult fashions toward a pre-teen (especially female) demographic made by Abercrombie & Fitch and others.
• The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, The Battle of Slaughter-Loo, is a pun on the Battle of Waterloo.
• Much of this episode's plot (where a shackled-together Bart and Gina escape prison and learn to work together to survive) is inspired from the 1958 film, The Defiant Ones.
• When Gina calls Bart a "family guy" it is a reference to the animated TV series Family Guy which also airs on Fox (although Family Guy had been canceled and off the network for over two years by the airing of this episode) and focuses on a dysfunctional family, furthering the supposed rivalry between Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane (who is a fan of The Simpsons, according to the DVD commentary of the season four episode PTV).
• In a nod to Disney, Gina explains to Bart that she got into juvie because she pushed Snow White off the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.
• Seymour Skinner makes a remark about his mother winning dishes on the long-running game show, Let's Make a Deal on which dinnerware was one of the staple prizes.
• Chief Wiggum's remark, "Well, well, if it isn't Punch and Juvie" is a reference to the puppet show, Punch and Judy.
• The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Criminals, Snake's self-help book targeted at criminals, is inspired by the 1989 self-help book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
• The sign in the warden's office — "HIS JUDGEMENT COMETH AND THAT RIGHT SOON" — is the same as the one seen in Warden Norton's office in the 1994 movie, The Shawshank Redemption.
• The heavily edited Itchy & Scratchy short is reminiscent of classic cartoons (e.g., Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) being edited on television due to issues of violence, racial stereotypes, and subject matter deemed inappropriate for children.
• The song played when Bart buys all the wedding gifts is "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.
• Bart comments that his wedding prank is his "Sgt. Peppers", referring to The Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is often considered the band's magnum opus.
• "Juvie" in the episode's title refers to Juvenile Delinquency and Juvie Hall, which we saw in Marge Be Not Proud. In the original script of this episode, the store guard from that episode (now named Hank) reappears at scene where Bart makes a get away out of the tent, but that was scrapped as he appeared in the webisodes "Marge Be Not Proud, Again" parts 1 & 2 where he catches Bart shoplifting again but he stole bras, & sends him to his juvie hall & him for a long time, "There is no Way to Justice where he is at Moe's telling Moe he's quitting his job & joining Scotland Yard, "Bart in Zone Wars" where he puts Bart to work on cleaning the red paint he painted, "Homer's Ducky Break" cameo no lines, "Never Say Surrender Again", where he confronts Mr. Burns & teaches him a lesson, "Breakout of Springfield", in a dream where Marge is in love with him, in "Flanders on the Run", where he is with Wiggum, & "Bart & Milhouse Porn Robbery" where he chases Bart & Milhouse but falls off a cliff & dies.