Original air date: 1/7/2007 (produced in 2006)
Production code: JABF-03
Marge revisits her summer vacation spot from childhood — only to learn that it's gone to pot from overfishing.
Tropes:
- Advice Backfire: At the end of he episode, Lisa tells the people of Barnacle Bay to stop overfishing. They agree...and decide to go into logging. Lisa considers this even worse.
- As You Know: Marge’s comment about going to a movie screening at a park—while at the park—is quickly lampshaded by Comic Book Guy.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: After the fishing boat they're on goes down, Homer, Bart and the crew make it back to the mainland just in time to crash their memorial service.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Homer says he knows three people who can make Marge like Barnacle Bay again, it seems he's talking about Bart, Lisa and himself but he's talking about three locals he hires to restore the merry-go-round.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: After Bart's found to have stowed away in the fishing boat, resulting in his being caught in the storm with Homer.Bart: Dad, I couldn't stay with Mom and Lisa while you were out here.Homer: Aww, son.Bart: They were going to go to the folk art museum, then they were going to paint crab shells. Not crush them, paint them!Homer: You did the right thing, boy.
- Bittersweet Ending: The fish are now under conservation, and Barnacle Bay is in business again. But all the trees are cut down to be used for pornography. Lisa, unsurprisingly, considers this a Downer Ending, however.
- Continuity Nod:
- To the trip to Brazil.
- Even Barnacle Bay is aware of Milhouse's crush on Lisa because of Mr. Burns.
- Foreshadowing: One of the scenes in Marge's home movies was of her watching a net full of Yum-Yum Fish get loaded onto the dock.
- I Reject Your Reality: Homer finds himself hallucinating several mermaids while trapped at the bottom of the sea, tangled in seaweed. When finally rescued by the Marine, he berates them for saving him, jumps back into the sea, and retangles himself to continue to hallucinate the mermaids.
- Last-Second Word Swap: During the storm scene:"Shiiiiiiii.....pwreeeeeck!"
- Shout-Out: The climax of the episode, with the fishing boat getting sunk during a massive storm, is basically a recreation of the ending of The Perfect Storm.
- Soapbox Sadie: Once again, the ultra-environmentalist Lisa. She calls Barnacle Bay out on overfishing, leading to a fight with the mayor until he uses Mr. Burns' report of Milhouse against her. It takes until the end of the episode for the island to listen to her, but they decide to cut down their trees instead for porno magazines.
- Spexico: Portuguese Fausto is a parody of Alfred Pierre from The Perfect Storm, who was actually from Jamaica.
- Take That!: Lisa and Bart consider Brazil the worst place they've ever been to next to Barnacle Bay. In the Brazilian dub, the disparaging reference to Brazil was re-edited to make it seem like Bart and Lisa were wholeheartedly agreeing that Barnacle Bay was the worst place they've ever been.
- Tempting Fate: The Captain of The Rotten Pelican doesn't mind about the storm and says his knee would warn him if things were really bad. Cue the warning.
- Trees into Toothpicks: The episode ends with Barnacle Bay going into the logging business, with the logs being used for porno magazines. Lisa is horrified.
- Work Off the Debt: Homer is forced to join a fishing crew to pay for the damages caused by his fireworks.
