Marge on the Lam

"Marge on the Lam"
The Simpsons episode
File:Marge On The Lam.jpg
Episode no.	Season 5
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	Bill Canterbury
Original air dates	November 4, 1993
Episode features
Couch gag	The family run towards the couch and crash through the backdrop which is painted to look like the living room.
Commentary	Matt Groening David Mirkin Mark Kirkland David Silverman

"Marge on the Lam" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season, which originally aired on November 4, 1993. When Marge invites her neighbor, Ruth Powers to attend the ballet with her, the two become friends and begin to go out, making homer jealous as he wants Marge to spend time with him. Ruth and Marge agree to remain friends but not go out together after a large police pursuit with Chief Wiggum.

Plot

After donating money to public television, Marge receives ballet tickets. She asks Homer to accompany her, to which he says yes, confusing ballet with a circus. While at work, he inadvertently gets his arm stuck in a vending machine, which makes him unable to attend. After attempting to remove his arm from the machine, he fails and this results in him having to be released by the fire department. The firefighters discover he is holding on to the can and that his arms are not trapped. In disbelief about Homer's story, Marge invites her neighbor, Ruth Powers to attend with her. They both enjoy themselves and arrange to meet up the next day. This annoys Homer as he wants Marge to spend time with him. The following day, Marge and Ruth visit bars and clubs in Springfield, where Ruth later shows Marge how to use a pistol.

Homer, attempting to prove to himself he can have a fun time on his own, leaves Bart and Lisa under the supervision of Lionel Hutz. He goes to the Springfield sign where he and Marge used to go prior to their marriage. He arrives just as Marge and Ruth are leaving. Chief Wiggum finds him depressed and, sympathetically, offers him a ride home, which Homer accepts. As Ruth and Marge are driving home, Chief Wiggum, with Homer as a passenger in his patrol car, claims that one tail light on Ruth's car is smaller than the other. He decides to pull them over. Reluctant to stop, Ruth tells Marge that she stole the car from her ex-husband when he refused to pay child support. Homer realizes it is Marge in the car, horrified and questioning why she is doing this. Ruth successfully evades Wiggum by turning off her headlights, which leads him to believe her car is a ghost car. After seeing Marge and Ruth again when having breakfast via his car engine, Wiggum continues his chase of the two, aided by several other Springfield Police vehicles. After noticing a cliff ahead, Homer apologizes to Marge for "just about everything". Marge and Ruth slam on the breaks, and stop in time; however, Homer and Wiggum fail to stop and fly over the edge of the cliff, only to land on a high pile of garbage, dumped in the cliff.

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The very end of the episode ends in a Dragnet-like sequence (including the music), telling the fates of each of the characters involved in the episode: Ruth gets her child support money. Lionel Hutz gets his payment for babysitting Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. ("He was glad to get it.") Marge has to pay 50 cents to replace the antique cans and a further $2,000 for punitive damages and mental anguish. Homer is taken back to Fort Meade, Maryland for extensive neurochemical testing (a flashback earlier in the episode showed that he had volunteered for this once before; see Wikiquote).

Cultural references

• Much of the plot, along with Ruth's blue convertible and Homer and Wiggum's fall over the chasm, is a parody of Thelma & Louise (which executive producer David Mirkin jokingly denies). Also, in the third part of the episode, a road sign reads:

"Entering Badlands: High-Speed Chases Use Diamond Lane"

• A possible reference to Badlands, in which a man goes on a killing spree while he takes a woman as his accomplice.
• The Badlands resemble the Badlands National Monument in South Dakota. This is the second reference to Springfield's possible location in this state (the first being Mount Rushmore in "Mr. Lisa goes to Washington). There is actually a Springfield, SD.
• Crystal Buzz Cola is a reference to the fad drink Crystal Pepsi.
• The SPRINGFIELD letters on the hill are reminiscent of the famous Hollywood sign.
• The comedian who performs at the telethon whom Homer does not find funny is a parody of Garrison Keillor.
• When Ruth tells Marge that she "better get home before that naked talk show comes on", she is referring to the Robin Byrd Show.
• The songs "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses and "Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows" by Lesley Gore are featured in the car chase scenes.
• Homer reads a Jet Magazine which has an article about the birthday of former Saturday Night Live castmember Garrett Morris.
• Lionel Hutz mentions being at the YMCA after he wakes up with a knife in his hand. He also makes fun of the legal drama L.A. Law for depicting lawyers as successful.
• Homer tries to convince Bart and Lisa they do not need a babysitter by mentioning the movie Home Alone
• The comment Marge makes to Ruth on the farmer's field about being hunted for sport is a reference to The Most Dangerous Game.
• Homer mentions that Marge has become a criminal just because he did not take her to the ballet; Chief Wiggum then claims "that's exactly how Dillinger got started."
• Homer reveals that he and Marge watch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman on Saturday nights.

External links

• "Marge on the Lam episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Marge on the Lam" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Marge on the Lam" at TV.com