Treehouse of Horror XV

"Treehouse of Horror XV" is the first episode of Season 16 and also the fifteenth Halloween episode of The Simpsons, airing November 7, 2004, one week after Halloween in the US, the latest any Halloween episode has ever aired. In this year's installment, Ned Flanders' head injury gives him the power to predict doom in "The Ned Zone," Bart and Lisa play detective when a string of Victorian-era prostitutes are murdered by a ripper in "Four Beheadings and a Funeral," and The Simpsons go on a fantastic voyage inside Mr. Burns' body to save Maggie in "In the Belly of the Boss." 11.29 million people watched this episode on its first airing on Fox.

Because of the brutal violence against women and scenes depicting opium smoking (including a scene where a child character Ralph Wiggum is shown smoking opium), this episode has been given an "M" rating in Australia for violence and drug abuse. In the U.S., this episode was given a TV-14 rating for the first time since season ten's "Treehouse of Horror IX" (which was given a TV-14 rating due to the offensive language in "Starship Poopers" and the violence in "Hell Toupee" and "Terror in Tiny Toon").

Opening sequence
Kang and Kodos star in a fictional sitcom, entitled Keepin' it Kodos. In it, Kodos is preparing their boss' visit by cooking dinner: Homer, on a baking tray (continually eating himself), Bart, on a fryer, Marge and Maggie in a pie, and Lisa in a soup. The boss gives the meal a delicious rating, but ends up liberating Bart, and gives Kang and Kodos a hyper-galactic promotion, much to the aliens' delight. Bart is sad about the loss of his parents and younger siblings, but Kang and Kodos adopt him. The Treehouse of Horror logo appears on the screen, as an alien hand stamps the "XV" underneath which makes it say, "Treehouse of Horror XV" in the fashion of the Mark VII Productions company logo.

The Ned Zone
Trying to get his frisbee from the roof, Homer throws a bowling ball that eventually hits Ned on the head. When Ned recovers in Dr. Hibbert's hospital, he has a vision of the latter falling out of a window to his death, which actually happens shortly afterward when Homer asks him to get his frisbee from the window ledge. In a parody of The Dead Zone, Ned realizes that he can see the deaths of people whom he touches; he saves Hans Moleman from falling down and has a vision of him getting chewed up by American alligators. In shock, he drops Moleman - right into an open manhole full of alligators. He also predicts the closing of the Rosie O' Donnell Musical, but he "didn't need special powers to know that was coming!"

A later vision depicts him shooting Homer; when Homer finds out, he taunts Ned and even gives him Chief Wiggum's gun to shoot him with. Ned refrains from shooting Homer, and realizes he has changed the future, but then has another vision, this time of Homer blowing up Springfield by pressing the 'Core Destruct' button at the nuclear power plant. Ned tries to dissuade Homer from going to work, but Homer goes anyway because of ice cream cake for Lenny's birthday. Ned rushes to the power plant to stop Homer, but his warning is scrambled by static over the intercom, sounding as if he is encouraging Homer to press the button. In desperation, Ned grabs a nearby security guard's gun and forces himself to shoot Homer (thereby fulfilling the original prediction); but in his death throes, Homer presses the destruct button with his tongue. Ned has enough time to say "You stupid son of a..." before the power plant explodes and Springfield is destroyed. Ned, The Simpsons, and their garage (which Homer was assigned to clean, leading Marge to believe he blew up the town specifically to get out of doing so) go to Heaven as angels and meet God, who proceeds to give Homer "what he deserves" - returning his frisbee.

Four Beheadings and a Funeral
In 1890 London, the city's prostitutes are being killed with swords in a series of unsolved murders by "The Muttonchop Murderer". Scotland Yard Detective Eliza Simpson and her easily-amazed assistant Dr. Bartley (parodying Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson) trace the swords used back to the "wicked industrialist" C. Ebenezer Burns (so wicked, Bartley claims, that he makes coal out of babies). They find him in Mao's Den of Inequity, a London opium den, where he claims he lost all his wealth in swords to opium. The next suspect in mind is Homer, another man in the den possessing a set of 'muttonchops'. The police arrest Homer and are about to hang him when Eliza finds the real murderer: Inspector Wiggum, whose eel-pie covered handprints were all over a sword used to kill Selma, attempting to create a case that even Eliza could not solve. Wiggum attempts to escape in a hot-air balloon, which is destroyed by a large steampunk-style flying saucer flown by Kang and Kodos (both with muttonchops), who comment on destroying the Earth's air force. However, it all turns out to be a dream that Ralph Wiggum is having while smoking opium in an opium den, which is part of an even crazier dream.

In the Belly of the Boss
At the "Invention Expo", Professor Frink creates a machine that shrinks objects. Maggie (thinking that it is a ball pit) crawls inside a giant pill, which is miniaturized and swallowed by Mr. Burns. The rest of the family agrees to be shrunk within a craft and injected into Mr. Burns' body (parodying Fantastic Voyage). Homer is the captain, Lisa is in charge of science and research, Bart is in charge of security, and Marge is just herself. When Homer refuses to follow Frink's instructions, the ship gets stuck in Burns' heart. The crew manage to get the ship free and are able to reach the stomach by catching a ride on a nerve impulse. They manage to save Maggie, but are forced to leave Homer behind when their craft doesn't have enough power to save them all due to the addition of Maggie's weight. The submarine successfully escapes, and Prof. Frink tells them there is time to save Homer, but he is wrong, as Homer instantly returns to his original size inside Mr. Burns' skin after eating a huge marshmallow. Even though Homer complains that Mr. Burns needs several extra holes, Burns is confident that things will work out. The episode ends with Burns and Homer leading a dance to the tune of "I've Got You Under My Skin" (along with characters from all three segments and the opening sequence).

Cultural references

 * The hammering in of the Roman numeral in the opening is a reference to the logo of the production company Mark VII Limited.
 * "The Ned Zone" is a parody of The Dead Zone.
 * Ned's messages to Homer being misunderstood due to static over the intercom, causing Homer to (attempt to) set off the explosion, is a reference to the Tenerife airport disaster.
 * The Four Beheadings and a Funeral section is a reference to the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Jack the Ripper murders in 19th century London.
 * "Eliza Simpson" is a parody of Sherlock Holmes and "Dr. Bartley" is a parody of Dr. Watson.
 * When Inspector Wiggum eats the eel pie, a live eel tries to come out of his mouth. This is a reference to the urban myth about having snakes living in your stomach.
 * The kidnapping suspect is Peter Pan (Squeaky-Voiced Teen).
 * Marge is parody of G.B. Shaw's Eliza Doolittle form the play Pygmalion, which had been adapted in a musical and then inspired My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn
 * Many characters in “Four Beheadings and a Funeral” speak with a pronounced Cockney accent.
 * Ebenezer Burns is a reference to Ebenezer Scrooge.
 * The Quimby character in “Four Beheadings and a Funeral” wears a sash saying “Lord Mayor”, thus being Lord Mayor of the City of London.
 * In “Four Beheadings and a Funeral” Homer says he has "never known the pleasures of a woman or a proper eating apple" in reference to Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
 * Inspector Wiggum and his son flying out of an ice-castle on a bed is a reference to the comic Little Nemo in Slumberland.
 * The third title, "In the Belly of the Boss" is a reference to In the Belly of the Beast, but the plot is a parody of Fantastic Voyage.
 * Professor Frink shows a drawing of a "retro-virus". Its style greatly resembles the works of Robert Crumb, who is said to have drawn it.
 * When Lisa and Bart pass a movie theater the movie showing is called "Abbott and Costello Meet Polio." This is a reference to some of Bud Abbotts and Lou Costello's films that started with "Abbott and Costello Meet."
 * While the Simpsons are being injected into Mr. Burns’s body, he is reading the Premiere magazine.
 * The song playing at the end of the last sketch is Frank Sinatra’s “I've Got You Under My Skin”.
 * The end credits play the opening theme of Perfect Strangers. This song also plays at the beginning of this episode.
 * Part of The Ned Zone parodies Final Destination, in which Ned can see people's horrible death.