Treehouse of Horror XIII

"Treehouse of Horror XIII"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 14
Directed by	David Silverman
Written by	Marc Wilmore (Part 1) Brian Kelley (Part 2) Kevin Curran (Part 3)
Original air dates	November 3, 2002

"Treehouse of Horror XIII" is the first episode of The Simpsons' fourteenth season, as well as the thirteenth Halloween episode. The episode aired on November 3, 2002, three days after Halloween. 17 million people watched. It is the second Treehouse of Horror to have a zombie-related segment, the first being Dial 'Z' For Zombies in "Treehouse of Horror III". This is also the last Treehouse of Horror to have three separate writers credited for writing three stories (starting with "Treehouse of Horror XIV", only one writer is credited for writing the three stories). This is also the last Halloween special in the show to be animated by traditional cel animation.

Plot

The Simpson family and Ned Flanders hold a séance in the hope of communicating with the spirit of Maude Flanders. Bart enters the room dressed as Maude's ghost, which makes the family jump. He takes off his wig and tells them that it's him, but the family reveals that the real ghost of Maude is behind Bart. She turns into a zombified ghoul with flaming hair and asks, "are you ready for tales that will shatter your spines, and boil your blood?", to which Lisa remarks, "well, duh!". Maude's ghoulish ghost then opens a book with the title 'The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 13'.

Send in the Clones

Homer walks into the backyard to lie in his hammock, which soon collapses. He purchases a new one from a passing vendor, who warns him that it carries a curse. Disregarding this, Homer lies down and discovers that the new hammock can produce clones of anyone who rests on it. He inspects the first clone and notices that it doesn't have a belly button. He begins making and using clones to do all of his chores, which include helping Marge choose an outfit, visiting Grampa to listen to one of his war-related stories, and play a baseball game with Bart, Lisa and Maggie. The clones are soon revealed to be much more stupid than the true Homer. When Ned Flanders asks if he can have his chainsaw back, one of the clones picks up the chainsaw and looks at Homer, who nods. The clone then brings Homer the severed head of Ned Flanders. Homer, shocked by Flanders's death, immediately decides to get rid of the clones and the hammock. He bundles them in a truck and takes them to an isolated cornfield. When they arrive, Homer asks if anyone knows the way home; three clones put up their hands. Homer shoots the three with his shotgun and then abandons the rest of them, along with the hammock, presuming that none of the clones are smart enough to get anywhere without him. The clones soon use the abandoned hammock to make an army of Homer clones. Among the hundreds of clones, a few 'mutations' (including Homer as he was drawn on The Tracy Ullman Show version of the Simpsons, a nerdy version of Homer, Homer after gaining 300lbs to get on disability at work, and Family Guy's own Peter Griffin) are seen. The clones attack Springfield and destroy all of its buildings, except for Moe’s Tavern, which reports record business. US army officials gather in the Mayor's War Room, determining that the clones will have eaten up America by tomorrow. Lisa then thinks of a solution to solve the problem, after getting the idea from Homer, who became upset when he found an empty donut box. She suggests that several helicopters hook gigantic, sprinkle covered donuts on cables and have the clones chase them into Springfield gorge. The plan is put into action in a parody of the 'Ride of the Valkyries' helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now. The helicopters fly over the gorge, luring the Homer clones to their doom. Later that night, Marge enters the Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

droom and soon discovers that the Homer next to her is a clone (he has no belly button). The clone tells her that the true Homer was the first to fall into the gorge, due to his love of donuts and his totally large idiocy. Marge is upset learning her Homer is dead, but forgets her troubles when the clone offers her a back-rub.

The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms

Bart and Lisa are at the Springfield Cemetery, mourning the loss of their pet goldfish, Goldie, who had always been there for them between August and October. Lisa inadvertently discovers the grave of William Bonney, a man who was killed at a young age by gun violence. According to his epitaph, he dreamed of a world without guns. In his memory, Lisa starts a gun control crusade, which makes Springfield 100% gun free - even the police no longer possess guns. The town is now defenseless, causing the corpses of William "Billy the Kid" Bonney and his cohorts, 'The Hole in the Ground' gang (Frank James, Jesse James, the Sundance Kid- without Butch Cassidy, as they're 'not joined at the hip'- and Kaiser Wilhelm II) to rise from the dead. The gang starts wreaking havoc on the town, until Professor Frink invents a time machine, which Homer uses to go back in time to stop the gun ban and destroy the zombies. Homer tells the citizens of Springfield to shoot at the zombies' graves, causing them to rise up and flee. Lisa feels guilty about banning guns, because sometimes they are the answer. Suddenly, a more futuristic Homer comes in to warn them about guns that have destroyed Earth in the future. He is then shot by Moe, who has had enough of all this nonsense and plans to use Frink's time machine to find some "caveman hookers".

The Island of Dr. Hibbert

In an elaborate parody of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, the Simpsons head out on a trip to "The Island of Lost Souls", where they find Dr. Hibbert running the island's resort. While the family is there, Marge has a feeling that things are not as they are supposed to be, consequently leading her on an investigation of the island, and resulting in her capture by Dr. Hibbert. She is then transformed into a humanized mountain lion. After returning to her room, she engages in a session of violent sex with Homer, mauling him in the process. He soon after realizes that she has been mutated, stating: ("Oh my gosh, she's a monster! {Aside} Although I should have suspected during the sex.)

Homer then embarks to find a cure for Marge's condition, encounters Ned Flanders, who has also been mutated into a cow-centaur, in need of a milking. After Homer milks him, Flanders takes him to meet other Springfield inhabitants who have also been turned into mutants, including Bart (now a spider), Lisa (now an eagle) and Maggie (now an anteater, who is nearly eaten by Lisa until Homer interjects). Homer, initially appalled at what everyone has become, states, "Manimals, invertabroads. You must fight back against the one who did this to you!" He eventually embraces the concept of being a mutant animal who does nothing but eat, sleep, mate and roll around in its own filth upon realizing how well it fits his personal lifestyle. The segment ends with a contently mutated Homer in the form of a walrus, and the rest of the Simpsons and Springfield mutants lounging aside the resort’s pool, intending to spend the rest of their days on Dr. Hibbert’s resort.

The entire Treehouse of Horror XIII episode concludes with an appearance by Kang and Kodos, observing that Dr. Hibbert’s skull-shaped island resembles their alien number 4.

Cultural references

• At the end of the first segment, there is a parody of the War Room and General Turgidson from Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove.
• When the Homer clones first notice the giant donuts, their mannerisms mimic those of Wallace from the Wallace and Gromit films.
• The title of "The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms" is a play on the United States Constitution amendment which states that U.S. Citizens have "the right to keep and bear arms".
• "The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms" is somewhat based on the Philip K. Dick short story The Skull.
• "The Island of Dr. Hibbert" features Marge as a cat and Homer as a walrus. The final scene sees them getting a little frisky. This is reminiscent of Peter Jackson's film, Meet the Feebles, which has a much more amorous interlude between walrus and cat as one of its first scenes.
• An original idea for "The Island of Dr Hibbert" was that at the meeting one of the Springfield inhabitants is turned into Brian Griffin, also from Family Guy. Also the evil monkey shows up and attacks Dr Hibbert, but it is revealed that the evil monkey was not originally one of the Springfield inhabitants.
• Billy the Kid's Hole in the ground gang is parody of the Hole in the Wall Gang, which was formed by Butch Cassidy.
• The title "Send in the Clones" is a pun on the famous song "Send in the Clowns".
• The Homers falling off the cliff is a nod to Lemmings.
• Billy the Kid's line "looks like the only guns left are in my cold dead hands" is a reference to a popular slogan among gun rights advocates, "I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands," made famous by Charlton Heston.
• "The Island of Dr. Hibbert" remains faithful to the original book in many ways. For instance, the leader of the Beast-People is still a Satyr. Bart even refers to the island as the Island of Lost Souls, which is the name of the 1933 film version of the novel. However, in the novel the Beast-People are animals augmented with human characteristics; this episode shows the reverse.
• The scene where Homer makes out with panther-Marge references Cat People.

• One of the Homer clones is Peter Griffin from Family Guy, continuing the friendly rivalry between The Simpsons and Family Guy.
• The number 'four' is a homonym for 'death' in Chinese.