Last night saw the debut of the second episode in The Simpsons’ 36th season, entitled “The Yellow Lotus” (a parody of the recent HBO black-comedy/drama series The White Lotus), and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment of the long-running animated sitcom.
I’ll be honest with you right off the top here and say that I have not seen any of The White Lotus yet, so the (I’m sure voluminous) references to that show in this Simpsons episode were admittedly lost on me. But I’ll absolutely do my best to judge “The Yellow Lotus” on its own merits. This installment begins with one of those flash-forwards to the most intriguing part of the episode– a TV device that I’ve never cared for, but it’s possible this is straight out of the source material. Homer Simpson (voiced, as always, by Dan Castellaneta) and his wife Marge (Julie Kavner) are swimming in a secluded cove when a seaweed-covered corpse floats near them. Then we cut to ten years earlier, when the newly (mostly-happily) married couple attended a time-share sales pitch alongside Kirk and Luann Van Houten, the latter of which manage to escape scott-free thanks to Kirk staging a deadly allergy attack. But Homer is suckered into signing up for the time-share thanks to the inclusion of a free boombox by the pitchman Nick Callahan (Hank Azaria).
In the present, the Simpson family are pleased to find that they have finally saved up enough points to visit the Yellow Lotus resort, but once they get there they quickly discover (via hotel manager Lindsay Neagle, voiced by Tress MacNeille) that they have only earned 20 minutes at the posh destination. As they are being escorted out, they notice a wealthy woman named Tasha (guest star Chloe Fineman from Saturday Night Live)– clearly a direct spoof of Jennifer Coolidge’s character from The White Lotus, even I know that– who needs a spare room just for her luggage. Bart has the idea for the Simpsons to squat in Tasha’s luggage room, and the whole family– even Marge– quickly agrees to that pitch because of how much they feel they have been swindled. But upon moving into the room, they overhear Tasha speaking to her husband, who turns out to be the infamous Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer, returning for his 24th appearance as Bart’s long-time nemesis). Naturally the Simpsons are suspicious of Bob’s motives here and confront him about it, but Krusty the Clown’s usually-villainous ex-sidekick promises them he will keep quiet about them staying in the hotel for free if they don’t spill the beans to Tasha about him being an attempted murderer.
So the Simpsons try to enjoy the rest of their vacation without getting caught, but everyone around them is acting suspicious enough that they are also wary of foul play during their stay. After some time enjoying their resort and dodging varying dangers at every turn, they are finally apprehended by Neagle, who sends them packing once again. But Homer and Marge decide to take one last swim, overhear Sideshow Bob actually being a good husband (though Tasha does suddenly attempt to murder him thanks to her mental instability), and then the timeline catches up with the flash-forward. The floating body turns out to have been Nick Callahan, who was bit by a drug-crazed otter who swallowed some pills dumped from a hot-air balloon by Dr. Hibbert (Kevin Michael Richardson) and his recovering-addict wife Bernice (Dawnn Lewis). It’s a funny but deflating ending to an episode that promised some macabre mystery up top, though it was definitely good to see Sideshow Bob back again, and I especially enjoyed the resolution to his character’s arc here, wherein he reconnects with his old pal Sideshow Mel (also Castellaneta) and mentions that they should have a three-way lunch with Krusty. To me this installment was kind of a wash overall, with a so-so plot but some laugh-out-loud moments like Homer complaining that everything he wants to steal from the hotel is bolted down. Going back to what I said at the beginning of this recap/review, I have a feeling that fans of The White Lotus would get a much bigger kick out of it than I did.
New episodes of The Simpsons air Sunday evenings on FOX.