While on his deathbed, Grampa makes a confession to Homer about the past. He comes to realize that the issue will not be easy to reconcile when he makes a recovery. This is also the 636th episode, surpassing Gunsmoke's record for most episodes in a series.
Tropes:
- Artistic License: A nearby nurse charges Homer $75,000 for destroying a box of cotton balls, but the charge is WAY too pricey for Homer to pay.
- The Atoner: Grampa decides to recover the lost recipes.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:
- Grampa mentions Pearl Harbor in a letter. He means a person by that name instead of the historical place.
- Dr. Hibbert sadly tells the Simpsons the hospital staff did everything they could to save Grampa. Then his mood improves and he tells them the last thing worked.
- Busman's Holiday: A flashback revealed that building model airplanes was Abe's only way of relaxing after a hard day of working at a model airplane factory.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Not just Homer but the whole family go to tell off Abe when they find out about he threw away Mona's recipes.
- Continuity Nod: "Truckasaurus II," the successor of the original Truckasaurus seen in "Bart the Daredevil."
- Contrived Coincidence: In the end, Homer goes to a car lot to buy a car to replace the one he lost at the beginning of the episode. Said car turns out to be the only one he can afford.
- Deathbed Confession: Deconstructed. Abe pulling one about the worst thing he ever did to Homer is treated as an act of cowardice because he waited until he wouldn't be around to face the consequences and Homer was socially obligated to forgive him. Worse, he made Homer promise not to tell the rest of the family.
- Epic Fail:
- Just a few seconds after Lisa starts the silent treatment, Homer assumes it's been months.
- Grampa needs binoculars to read a sign that's right in front of him.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite their varying levels of friction with Homer and their own relationships with Abe, Homer's family is just as angry as Homer is when they find out about Abe's cruel act and express nothing but sympathy for Homer and fury at Abe on his behalf.
- Freudian Excuse: Adding to what we learned from previous episodes about how the friction in his parents' marriage and Mona's eventual departure lead to Homer becoming the Big Eater he is today, we find out that Homer's fondest memories of his mother were of the times they spent baking together, over the course of which she lovingly creating a collection of recipe cards for him with notes on the back of each card. She told him that she wanted him to have the recipes his whole life so that he would never forget her love for him and would love himself as a result, but after losing them—and believing she took them with her—his only takeaway was that "food is love."Lisa: If this man had had those notes, his life would have been different. He would have had confidence. He would have had his mother with him!Homer: I would have had hair!Marge: Homie, that's not very realistic.Homer: (tearful) And I would have been more realistic!
- Not-So-Final Confession: Thinking he may not have long left to live, Grampa tells Homer about how he threw out Mona's apple pie recipes, only to make a recovery. Homer is furious with him, not only for what he did, but for using a Deathbed Confession as a way of absolving himself from facing the consequences of his actions. Grampa spends the rest of the episode trying to make amends with Homer.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Marge and Lisa are just as furious with Abe as Homer is when they learn what it is that Abe did. They do try to make them reconcile at first, but only because Homer initially honors his promise not to tell what happened. Bart is also aghast at his grandpa's actions and sympathetic to his father's suffering.
- Series Continuity Error: The plot of "Mother Simpson" hinged on Homer spending his entire life believing that his mother was dead because Abe thought that lying to him would be better than letting him know the truth. In this episode, the young Homer is fully aware that she left the family and believes she took the recipe cards she made for him with her.
- Silent Treatment: Incensed at Abe, the family head to the Retirement Castle planning to chew him out, but Lisa floats the idea of giving him the silent treatment instead. Homer's skeptical that this will work until she demonstrates the tactic on him, driving him to distraction within seconds.
- Special Edition Title: The opening sequence for this episode parodies the various intros for Gunsmoke, in which Maggie defeats Matt Dillon in a Showdown at High Noon (based on the intros for seasons 1-13) before segueing into oblong portraits of the show's cast (based on the intros for seasons 18 and 19), referencing how this show surpassed that one's record for being the longest-running scripted primetime series in the world.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: An In-Universe example occurs when an angry audience destroys a new Truckasaurus designed with feathers, which is a reference to the hatedom on feathered dinosaurs.
