After a lockdown at a kids' fun center (caused by a kid chasing after a ball and a negligent worker talking on her cell phone), Homer is traumatized overseeing everyone panic in the chaos, and meets a doomsday prepper named Lloyd (Tom Walts) who introduces him to some Springfield residents who are preparing for the day when society crumbles from a disaster.
Tropes:
- Apocalypse Anarchy: This is what the preppers fear and prepare for should society be hit by a calamity. Subverted as when the EMP occurs this doesn't happen and everyone treats it like a vacation.
- Crazy-Prepared: The people who were constantly texting others with their cell phones until all electronics in town went off had several envelopes and papers to send letters the old-fashioned way.
- The doomsday preppers will become this when/if society does crumble. Even to the point in case it did happen, they would usurp Lloyd and make countermeasures in case he strikes back.
- Crazy Survivalist: Parodied and Deconstructed throughout the episode, which deals with Homer falling in with a group of them that includes Herman Hermann and Gary Chalmers. When they mistake an EMP affecting Springfield for a worldwide event, they move forward with their strategy, and the group's preparations to murder survivors who didn't prepare rather than share their resources proves too much even for Homer, who winds up grabbing a bunch of their supplies and making a break for Springfield to aid his neighbors...only to discover that Apocalypse Anarchy has not descended there as all the people who'd cause it left town with the prepper group, now on the verge of tearing each other apart from within.
- Downer Ending: After convincing the preppers to stop worrying about the end of society, cue a meteor somehow carrying zombie humans about to make landfall on the planet.
- Driven to Suicide: After the power goes out in Springfield and the disco is shut down, out of grief, Disco Stu tries to shoot himself in the head.
- EMP: An electromagentic pulse from the nuclear plant (caused by Homer's ineptitude, of course) causes all electronics in Springfield to go dead, leading Homer and the preppers to believe the end is upon them and leaving to their compound. The Simpsons return to help their friends and discover that the effects of the pulse were only temporary, and everything returned to normal within a couple of days (the worst that happened was all the teenagers and 20-somethings switched from texting each other to writing letters to each other). In fact, things went much smoother than expected, as if all the crazy people (the preppers) had left town and not interfered.
- Finger in the Mail: Discussed.Bart: Hey, dad. What would you do if you got my ear in the mail?
Homer: I dunno. Feed it to the dog?
Bart: You'll have to wrap it in cheese first.
Homer: Don't tell me how to feed you to the dog! - Geographic Flexibility: The nuclear plant is usually depicted as being located at the edge of Springfield, but for the sake of the plot, it's placed in the center of the town when the EMP goes off
◊. - Identical Stranger: Homer loses Bart and Lisa at the fun center, and instead finds multiple kids that look like them. When the real Bart and Lisa show up, Homer doesn't recognize them, asking "Who the hell are you?"
- I Just Want to Be Special: Lloyd after witnessing how society didn't crumble like he predicted and is even upset about it, he admits to Marge that he just wanted a new world where he's in charge. Well, not before the other preppers prepared to dethrone him and seal him in a cave.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: To prepare for the apocalypse, Homer and Bart watch a post-apocalyptic movie marathon.Homer: Well, what have we learned from our post-apocalyptic movie marathon?
Bart: People named Preacher and Deacon are bad; water is money, unless gasoline is money; and even though there are a lot of sharp objects around, nobody ever shaves.
Homer: Hollywood has taught you well, my son. - Recoil Boost: When the preppers chase Homer and his family back to Springfield after they wanted to leave their compound to see if there's other people they could help and stole some of their supplies to do so, Lindsay Naegle's method of transportation involves sitting on a wheeled office chair and firing a machine gun backwards.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Homer's newfound obsession with prepping for an EMP causes an actual EMP to occur when his research distracts him at the nuclear plant.
- Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: As other fathers trample around Homer, he pleads for his soul to leave his body to end the suffering. It does, but for some reason, the soul has his head in the body of a pegasus flying off.Homer: (wakes up) What the hell was that?
- Women Are Wiser: When Smart Tykes goes into lockdown after a blackout, a room full of women gets along peacefully and start showing each other photos of their kids. The room full of men immediately degenerates into a violent brawl.
