TV Recap: Homer and Marge Rekindle Their Flame as Survivalists in Season 33, Episode 12 of “The Simpsons” – “Pixelated and Afraid”

Hi-Diddly-Ho, Simpsons fans! America’s favorite yellow family returned for the 12th episode of season 33 of The Simpsons, titled “Pixelated and Afraid." The title is a play on the Discovery show Naked and Afraid, finding Homer and Marge out of their element and struggling to survive… without clothes on. Enjoy this week’s episode recap and look forward to more now that there aren’t any NFL disruptors to Fox’s Animation Domination programming schedule.

Chalkboard gag: None

Couch gag: None

A black & white version of the clouds parting to reveal The Simpsons logo segues into a film Lisa is watching, a parody of The Thin Man with a romantic finale. As the camera pans out of the living room TV, we see Lisa longing for a marriage as glamorous and romantic as the on-screen couple. Marge tells her that she hopes she has the kind of love she has with Homer and Lisa looks bac and is disgusted by what she sees. Marge sits on the couch with Homer on the floor between her legs. She’s trimming his hair (what little he has) as Homer eats Cheese Puffs and occasionally reaches back to feed some to Marge, who uses a handheld vacuum cleaner to clean up the hair and cheese dust.

Lisa goes upstairs to lament to Bart, interrupting his VR video game with Millhouse, who we hear getting clobbered when Bart stops playing. Lisa tells Bart that she’s worried about their parents’ relationship, saying “They’re nothing like the couples in movies or prescription drug commercials.” She drags Bart downstairs to show him how their parents are spending a Sunday night, finding Marge on the floor in homemade kneepads spraying a bug deterrent (Ant-Pocalypse Now) while Homer changes lightbulbs on the chandelier above the kitchen table, a trash can strapped around his waist to catch his taco drippings as he eats. Marge tells Homer to hold still as she tosses one of Maggie’s dirty diapers into the trash bin. Bart is still not convinced that he should care until Lisa paints a picture of a future in which Bart has a date and Marge and Homer call for him to bring her inside, visualizing his date being grossed outs by a vision of Marge and Homer being slobbish on the couch.

Homer and Marge sit on the couch, which is covered in throw blankets. Bart and Lisa pull in folding chairs and turn off the TV, sitting facing their parents. Lisa stars the intervention, pointing out that there are nine throw pillows for two people and telling her parents that their love life is in a rut. She pulls out a certificate that they won at a school raffle for a romantic trip to The Saffron Togetherness Center on Honeymoon Mountain, which expires soon. Marge and Homer each make excuses for why they haven’t gone yet, lying and saying they’d like to go if the other is free. Their hands tied, they reluctantly commit to going on a couple’s retreat.

On their drive to Honeymoon Mountain, Marge reads the brochure for The Saffron Togetherness Center out loud, telling Homer that there’s no TV, phones aren’t allowed, and the menu is keto-based. All of the activities also happen at sunrise, which Homer refuses to get up for. They realize that the trip will be miserable and decide to turn around, but their car spins out, breaks through a guard rail, and lands on a frozen river. The ice cracks and they go sailing down, climbing on top of the car and jumping to rocks, hoisting themselves out of the frozen water in the middle of the wilderness.

Drawing inspiration from reality survival shows they talked about watching earlier in the episode, Marge tells Homer they need to make a fire. He does it by cracking his waterlogged cellphone and when Marge asks where he learned that, he confesses to never taking care of the recall letters that were sent for their phones, this being the known defect. Now that a fire is going, Marge suggests they take off their wet clothes and hang them from a tree branch above it so they will dry. Naked, their bodies become pixelated over their privates (Homer’s nipples are pixelated, too). Homer helps Marge climb a tree to see if there’s anything around. All she sees is wilderness, except for a spot of red in the distance that looks manmade. They go to collect their clothes and the branch breaks, their garments instantly turning to ash over the fire. “Oh no, this is worse than ‘Nude and Screwed’ season 6 when howler monkeys got out and bit Jerry’s pixelated area,” Homer complains.

Naked, Homer and Marge walk towards the red thing and find a heart-shaped hot tub full of leaves in the middle of the woods. Pulling back the brush, they discover that they’re standing in the ruins of a Honeymoon Mountain resort, the area littered with items. Homer finds a cigarette machine (brands include “Bronchial Burn,” “Cougin’ Nails,” and “Prescripto 100 – Doctor Recommended”) and gets a matchbook out of it, starting a fire in the heart-shaped tub. They find a champagne-glass tub and flip it over on top of the heart-shaped tub to keep the fire going without wind interference. They get to work collecting items around them, fashioning clothes out of curtains and rugs and creating a shelter out of TVs, mattresses, and a giant clamshell headboard for a door. That night, Marge worries that they will never be found. Home keeps adding broken old TVs to the fire as kindling. Red eyes watch their shelter from the woods.

The next day, Marge and Homer unsuccessfully try to forage for food, going to bed hungry with their tummies growling at each other. The next day, Homer tries to fish using a fishhook he made with the tab of a soda can and no bait. He wades in the river and doesn’t catch anything, but a fish lands in his wet pants on his way out. Marge and Homer cook it, savoring every bite, but the smell draws the glowing red eyes out of the woods. The fish dinner puts Homer in a romantic mood, who gets Marge to dance with him as he sings “Pretty World” by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. Their dancing is interrupted when something begins to push on the clamshell door and they rush to brace it. The animal trying to get in manages to break through the backside of one of the TVs, appearing in the glass and snarling at them. It’s a rabbit wolverine, which goes around and breaks through a mattress wall.

Homer lures the wolverine out of their shelter to save Marge, climbing a tree and being pursued by it. Marge rushes to Homer’s aid, luring it towards her as she holds a makeshift hammer Homer fashioned from the broken head of a cupid statue and a stick. Homer races back down the tree, breaking a large tree branch and chasing to save Marge, pinning the wolverine against their shelter with the branch. Marge tosses Homer the hammer and he uses it to bludgeon the wild animal (off-camera, but the cupid head does become red).

The next morning, Marge patches up their shelter as Homer romantically sneaks up behind her. Homer kisses Marge before heading out hunting, but he hears a mother and pulls back a bush to see a park ranger riding an ATV. He has a moment of hesitation, looking back at Marge as if planning to stay in the wilderness forever. By the time he makes up his mind to call for help, the ranger is out of sight. Homer tells Marge, who suggests they follow the tire tracks in the snow. Along the way, they take in beautiful and tender moments as they eat wolverine jerky. When they finally see the ranger station, they start to cry. Homer promises he will be more romantic going forward, but Marge tells him not to change a thing. They decide to walk slowly. As the credits roll, Homer emerges from the station with a bag of potato chips. Marge doesn’t want to go inside, saying her favorite show is on. She’s sitting on a picnic table and Homer sits on the bench between her legs. They watch the sunset together as Homer alternates feeding himself and feeding Marge chips. Marge kisses Homer’s bald head and squeezes him tight, sighing in contentment.

That’s all for this week. The Simpsons will be back next Sunday, March 6th, at 8/7c on FOX with an episode titled "Boyz N The Highlands."