While picking up a young pair of hitchhikers on the way to a lodge, Homer and Marge flashback to when they were a young couple going to the same lodge.
Tropes
- All There in the Script: Bart plays Cereal Killer, a game about gunning down various cereal mascots. While they go unnamed in the episode, the script credits them as Cap'n Crunchy, Tricky Rabbit, and Threecan Sam.
- Already Met Everyone: According to this episode, Homer and Marge Simpson met their eventual neighbors Ned and Maude Flanders for the first time when the former two were a teen couple whose bikes had crashed and the latter two, on their honeymoon, gave them a lift. Homer's reaction to Ned was one of instant love until they got to the lodge and Ned forced him and Marge to sleep in separate rooms. (Ten seasons later, "My Way or the Highway to Heaven" would situate Ned's first encounter with Homer even further back, when Homer was a child and Ned was in his 20s.)
- Awful Wedded Life: Ned and Maude encouraged Homer and Marge, then a teenaged couple, to think about marriage, but didn't make the greatest case for it when they quickly devolved into bickering. Homer was then horrified to find they'd only been married for a couple of hours, as if this had set in the second they crossed the altar, causing him to sweetly ask Marge not to marry him (yet).
- Call-Forward: In the flashback, Homer gets off to a good start with Flanders. But after being forcibly separated from Marge for the night, he finds himself surprised to say “Stupid Flanders”.
- Continuity Nod: The episode follows "Viva Ned Flanders" in making Ned older than he looks, as he and Maude were an adult married couple when Homer and Marge were teenagers.
- Contrived Coincidence: Homer and Marge both found the same lodge with their new paramours and both had the idea to lock said paramours in a box.
- Dumbass DJ: Homer listens to one on the drive that punctuates his puns with sound effects.
- Ear Ache: Bart tries to shut out the obnoxious DJ by shoving gum in his ears. When Homer tries to pull it out and force him to listen, he accidentally pulls out his ear drum with it, before hastily shoving it all back in.
- Entendre Failure: After Ned forces the teenaged Homer and Marge to take separate rooms at the lodge.Ned: So I'm sure you missed Marge last night.Homer: Yeah. I missed her like five times.Ned: What a charming single entendre.
- Fictional Video Game: Bart has a Game Boy with Cereal Killer, a first-person shooter where the targets are mascots from brands of breakfast cereal.Bart: I'm cuckoo for killing stuff!
- Flashback Cut: As Homer drives past an SUV dealer going out of business, we cut to 5 years ago, when that dealer was having a grand opening sale.
- Flashback to Catchphrase:Homer: I never thought I'd say this, but...stupid Flanders!
- Hilarious in Flashback: Homer's first encounter with Ned, years before they became neighbors.Ned: Name's Ned Flanders! As the elephant said to the peanut vendor, toss those in my trunk!Homer: Marge, I love this guy!Ned: Put 'er there, muddy buddy!Homer: He rhymes! Oh, happy day!
- Hypocritical Humor: Ned expresses concern that Homer and Marge, despite not being married, were "bicycling two abreast."Homer: I wish! We were bicycling to a lake.Ned: (chuckling) Wordplay! Never cared for it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Homer and Marge kiss in the back of the pedal car Bart is driving, Bart tells them to "keep it PG." Homer negotiates for "R" and they settle on "PG-13," the rating of The Movie.Homer: Woo-hoo! Adult situations!
- Like an Old Married Couple:
- Bart and Lisa's arguments in the pedal-car definitely have this vibe.
- During their first encounter with the then-teenaged Homer and Marge, Ned and Maude rapidly slid into bickering while trying to extoll the virtues of marriage to them. Homer then asked them how long they'd been married and was horrified to find out it was only a few hours ago and they were currently on their honeymoon.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Patty and Selma in both flashbacks, as per usual.
- Pair the Spares: In the plot taking place five years earlier, Alberto and Sylvia took Marge and Homer, respectively, to the lodge. Upon encountering each other, Homer and Marge hid their abortive flings in the same trunk and spent a romantic evening together, while, in the trunk, Alberto and Sylvia were getting to know each other. In an unusual use of this trope to create conflict rather than resolve it, this comes back to bite Homer and Marge in a big way during the present-day plotline, when Alberto and Sylvia—visiting the scene of their first encounter with their little girl in tow—thank them for their role in getting them together, causing both to find out what was really going on that evening.
- Tickle Torture: Little Bart and Lisa try this on Grampa, so he would tell them where the cookies are; but he can't remember.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode is largely an homage to Two for the Road.
