Treehouse of Horror XXVIII


"Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" is the fourth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 622nd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 22, 2017.

Plot

Opening Sequence: The Sweets Hereafter

The Simpson family is in a bowl with other treats left for trick-or-treaters in front of a house on Halloween. A Butterfinger bar fears being taken, the Mars bar comforts him by saying he is always the last taken, and the Oh Henry! bar adds that even a box of stale raisins gets taken before him. Crunch and Turkish Taffy get taken, and an apple complains about no one ever wanting the apples, as people are afraid of razor blades being inside them. Marge tries to reassure her by saying apples are taken when dipped in caramel, to Lisa's disgust. Shauna takes the Junior Mints, after Homer moves aside to evade her grasp, and eats its contents.
The next day, the Simpsons are the only ones left, and they get placed on a shelf when the residents of the house remove the Halloween decorations.
Already on the shelf is a chocolate Easter bunny that tells them they will be left there, forgotten. Seeing his discomfort as no one ever takes him, Homer starts eating him. Marge tries to stop him, but he tells her chocolate does not feel anything, and resumes eating it, with the rest of the family joining in when he eats the bunny's mouth to silence its objections. The camera pans to the wall, where "The Simpsons Easter Special" is written, but the chocolate from the bunny splatters all over it, covering the words, and dark chocolate resembling blood spells out "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII".

The Exor-Sis

On a pre-Christian temple site in northern Iraq, a Pazuzu statue is dug up and sent through Amazon to the Simpsons home due to Homer accidentally ordering it, thinking it said "pizza". After Homer sings a very disturbing lullaby with glowing red eyes, the statue is left on Maggie's bed as the demon within it possesses Maggie, with the possessed infant making her presence known during the cocktail party that Homer and Marge are hosting downstairs. The demon kills a complaining Helen Lovejoy before locking everyone in and then killing Dr. Hibbert while revealing that he is cheating on his wife. Ned Flanders tells the Simpsons that Maggie needs an exorcism before being killed himself from being beaten up and choking on a toy car. An Irish priest arrives soon after, and performs the exorcism that purges the demon from Maggie, but the demon ends up possessing Bart, which he fearfully regrets, declaring that Bart has the evilest soul he's ever seen.

Coralisa

In a parody of Coraline, Maggie is still recovering from Pazuzu while starting to violently vomit all over the dinner table, eventually flooding the kitchen with puke. In Lisa's room, Snowball V takes her through a secret tunnel that brings her to another version of the family, with pink buttons instead of eyes on their faces. While the alternate family are like a dream, Lisa runs back to her world in terror when she learns they want to sew buttons on her eyes so she can remain with them forever. Lisa reconsiders the alternate family's offer after Homer had killed a snake with Lisa's saxophone.
A few days later, the family finally realizes Lisa is missing with Homer accepting it and saying Maggie gets Lisa's room and clothes, while Bart gets her homework. Upon hearing this, Bart escapes through the door and is accepted in the alternate reality. After Marge follows after her children, Homer follows suit and a meeting with the alternate family results with him killing the alternate Bart while alternate Homer injures himself on a pair of scissors trying to avenge him. This infuriates alternate Marge as she transforms into an eight-legged spider-like creature to attack Homer, who decides to take advantage of the situation to benefit himself: bringing the surviving members of the alternate family home with his alternate counterpart attending parent-teacher meetings while alternate Marge does the chores and guards the house. Lisa accepts this outcome, claiming that it could have been much worse.

MMM… Homer

An opening scene features Lisa warning viewers about the following segment’s disgusting content, proclaiming, "What you're about to see is so disgusting, you'll watch Game of Thrones to calm down!" The episode then begins when Homer remains home while the rest of the family go on vacation with Patty and Selma. Homer gets comfy, but ends up eating his food supplies, ending up with only vegetables before finding a frozen hot dog. Losing the hot dog to Santa's Little Helper, Homer accidentally cuts his finger off while grilling. He cooks the finger and eats it. He discovers how tasty it is, losing interest in other food when invited by Ned for lunch, and starts cooking parts of his body before his family come back. They become suspicious with Homer constantly wearing oven mitts to hide his severed fingers, being 20 pounds thinner, and walking with a limp. When Marge discovered Homer's self-cannibalism one night while he was frying his own severed leg, she takes him to an addiction counselor for help, but Mario Batali, in search for new ingredients, convinces a despondent Homer to cook his remaining body parts as ingredients sold at Chez Homer and several other restaurants across Springfield. Carl mentions that they are also eating Barney Gumble, Comic Book Guy, and horse meat. In Heaven, Homer comments to Jesus how he now shares people eating his body with him, as the Springfield residents have turned into cannibals.

Reception

This episode received mostly positive reviews. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- stating, "The 28th ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ carries on the venerable Simpsons institution by, as ever, tossing a whole lot of stuff at the screen and seeing what sticks. To that end, this year’s outing gives us: An 'Exorcist' parody, a 'Coraline’ parody, Homer eating human flesh, stop-motion segments, horror and fantasy-specific guest stars, a little light Fox standards-pushing, and the usual string of hit-or-miss gags. That last part isn’t really a criticism in itself. Freed up from the need to calibrate the heart-yucks equation, a ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ rises or falls on the strength of its jokes, although the annual Halloween anthology provides its own unique degree of difficulty."
Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the episode an 8.6 out of 10 stating, "The ‘Treehouse of Horror’ specials are rarely among the more memorable episodes in any given season of The Simpsons. However, Season 29 is likely to be a major exception. All three segments in this year's special were strong. The series finally plugged two major holes in its huge collection of horror movie parodies while also reminding us that it can offend and disturb with the best of them. Perhaps there's still more mileage to be found in this long-running Simpsons trope."
Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode four out of five stars stating, "’Treehouse of Horror XXVIII’ had chills and spills, which Marge, of course, has to clean, but the thrills were only middling. It was a very funny episode, yes. It took chances, like leaving a kid alone with a catholic priest, but ultimately doesn’t reach the dizzying highs, terrifying lows nor the creamy middles of Halloweens past. It’s better than a Butterfinger, but doesn’t have a long-enough lasting aftertaste."
"Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" scored a 1.6 rating with a 6 share and was watched by 3.66 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.