Another week of Lifetime of Simpsons has come and gone. It was a pretty decent week, and things look promising in the future. So why not end the week on a shockingly weird and goofy episode about Homer joining the mob. Again.

The episode begins with Lisa wandering through the wreckage of the Simpson’s house on New Year’s Day, looking at all the chaos caused from the previous night’s party. The whole house is wrecked, and everyone is ashamed for everything that occurred. So of course it’s time for Bart and Lisa to go loudly wake Homer up by banging pots and pans to exacerbate his hangover. Which, shockingly, Homer does not appreciate.

However, it turns out that Marge also has a hangover she acquired from some sort of second-hand drinking off of Homer, and she quickly puts a stop to the loud noises. Instead she wants the family to do nice, quiet things all day, like cleaning the house. So Homer begins cleaning up all of the bottles from the previous night, and brings them out to the recycling. But as soon as he drops them off he’s stopped by Chief Wiggum, who has some bad news. Apparently a whole mess of ridiculous ordinances have been made official that morning, and they hit Homer with a dozen citations, racking up a massive amount of fines for him.

Homer is obviously not a fan of this whole mess, and of course goes to Moe’s to complain about it with his buddies. And after listening to Homer’s griping Moe decides he has some advice. But he can’t tell it to him in the bar, so he brings Homer through a series of secret doors in the back to the bar before accidentally coming out on the set of a production of Wicked. They awkwardly leave Wicked though, and Moe tells him what’s up.

There is apparently a guy at the court house who will accept bribes to make citations go away. So Homer puts some cash in a bag marked ‘bribe’ and heads down to the court house, only to find the guy away for lunch. So Homer leaves the bag at his desk, and is promptly arrested for trying to bribe a government official. Whoops. And because the legal system in Springfield is all screwed up Homer is immediately sentenced to ten years in prison.

Homer rationally freaks out about this sentencing, and starts begging for leniency. And the only option he has is to work as an informant for the FBI and be planted into Fat Tony’s mob. Homer agrees to this, and the FBI creates a fake identity named Nicky Blue Pants for him and places him in the prison where Fat Tony and his men are currently being held. They then stage an incident where the FBI agent picks on Louie, and Homer comes to his safety, only to get beaten up by the guards.

And this little play works, because that night Fat Tony and his men arrive at “Nicky’s” cell to thank him for defending Louie, and offer to help break him out. Homer agrees, and the mobsters easily escape from the prison, taking Homer with them. They offer to let Homer hang out with them a bit, basically auditioning him to join the mafia. And Homer knocks that audition out of the park, mainly because he carries around various spices to make Fat Tony’s spaghetti taste better.

But the real turning point is when Homer offers to drive Fat Tony out to the cemetery where his wife is buried. Homer accompanies him, and while Fat Tony says some words to his dead wife Homer starts to think about Marge, who still thinks that Homer is in prison for the bribery. Homer ends up tearing up about Marge, but Fat Tony misunderstands and thinks that Homer’s getting emotional about his wife, which really moves Fat Tony.

So after that Fat Tony decides to give Homer a big mission to finish off the probationary period. And it’s going to be a hard one. Because Fat Tony wants Homer to burn down Moe’s. Homer is obviously not cool with this, but he catches a break when he gets to Moe’s and finds Moe already burning it down for an insurance scam. So Homer gets the credit, and Fat Tony brings him to a party where Homer is formally inducted into the mob.

But now that he’s officially part of the mob it’s time for him to be in on the big scores, which is exactly what the FBI wants. And it just so happens that Homer gets to immediately be involved in a scam to bring some Belgian guns in through the Springfield docks. Homer lets the FBI know, and manages to get the incriminating footage that they need to bring Fat Tony down. But Homer is conflicted, because he’s actually come to really like Fat Tony over the last few days, and decides to do something dumb, and warns Fat Tony. Tony freaks out, especially when he realizes that Homer is a rat, and ends up collapsing in a heap, dead from a heart attack.

An ambulance arrives to deal with Fat Tony, but they just confirm that Fat Tony has died. And Homer is crushed. He’s off the hook now, but he’d actually come to really like Fat Tony, so his death is really painful to him. And despite the fact that Homer is in the clear now and doesn’t have to worry about the mob anymore, he just can’t get Fat Tony out of his mind, and becomes incredibly depressed. Which isn’t helped when he’s kidnapped by the mob.

But it’s not Fat Tony back from the grave. It’s his cousin, a buff man known as Fit Tony, who has abducted Homer to get revenge for killing his cousin. But Fit Tony is shocked to find that Homer is actually really sad about Fat Tony’s death, and as Homer begins to tell him about their friendship Fit Tony decides he can’t kill Homer. So, Homer is set free, and Fit Tony becomes the new head of the Springfield mob. But he quickly gets used to his new cushy lifestyle, gains a lot of weight, and then just becomes Fat Tony, as if the character didn’t die.

This is a very weird episode that while I liked, gives me a weird taste in my mouth. I’ve always been a fan of Fat Tony, and I love whenever he starts to befriend a member of the Simpson’s family, and this episode is no different. However, it’s also basically the same reveal as “Principal and the Pauper.” Fat Tony dies, and is replaced by a carbon copy of himself that we’ll never mention again. Which is so bizarre. It’s also very similar to “The Trouble with Trillions” what with Homer being caught in a crime and being forced to become a government informant. And this episode isn’t as good as either of those. But it’s still pretty fun. Homer and Fat Tony’s relationship was a lot of fun in this episode, and while it’s been one of the weaker of the season so far, it’s still enjoyable.

Take Away: Don’t narc on your friends to the FBI.

“Donnie Fatso” was written by Chris Cluess and directed by Ralph Sosa, 2010.