Hi there everyone, and welcome back to another week of Lifetime of Simpsons. And we have another pretty solid week ahead of us folks. But it’s going to start with an incredibly strange episode. So buckle up folks, we got a weird one on our hands.

The episode begins with Willie refereeing some sort of Elementary School-wide dodge ball competition. The fourth graders are currently playing against the fifth graders, and Bart is one of the last men standing. He begins having some delusions of grandeur, imagining what his life will be like if he winds the game and becomes a hero. And, luckily, he’s not just dreaming, because he’s able to peg the last remaining fifth grader, and win the match.

Everyone begins cheering Bart, treating him like a hero. Unfortunately the ball he hit the fifth grader with never touched the ground, and the boy is able to catch it, thus getting Bart out and winning the match. So victory is snatched from Bart and the fourth graders, and the fifth graders come out on top again. Which leads to some incredibly heightened hostility between the two grades, causing the groups of boys to be at each other’s throats.

The fourth grader and the fifth graders, led by a boy named Erik, begin yelling at each other and fighting in the halls, all until they decide that the only course of action is to have a rumble. The boys set up a time and place, and get ready to have a huge fight out on the playground. They come up with some ground rules, and prepare to start beating the bajesus out of each other when something startling happens. They notice that both Bart and Erik have the same scar on the back of their hands, shaped like a sword tooth-pick.

Bart and Erik are very confused about this, but neither of them seem to have any memory of what caused the scar. Bart also seems to have never noticed his before, and goes around trying to figure out what the cause may have been. He checks with the bullies, but they don’t have any record of having done it to Bart. So, with no other alternatives, he decides to go ask Marge, and she decides to tell the story.

Turns out back when Bart was a toddler he was part of some little playmate group, and had three little best friends, one of whom was this Erik kid. Marge and the other kid’s mother became best friends, and she really enjoyed that period of her life. However, the other kids were always a bad influence on Bart, so she decided to take him out of the group, and as a result lost the other women as friends. And it was something that these boys did that gave them the scars.

But they don’t get into that right now, instead we take a detour to have Marge realize that she misses these women. She decides to call them up, and they all get together again. They’re a little awkward at first, but end up having a great time together, even though Homer and the husbands have to spend time together and hate each other.

However, this also results in Bart and the other boys hanging out again. And while none of them really remember their time together in their toddler days, they do enjoy being idiots together now. They just do stupid stunts together, that begin to escalate rapidly. But they’re having a good time. And so do Marge and the moms. In fact, they’re having such a good time that Marge decides to continue seeing them, making it a weekly thing.

Marge and the other women decide to go out to dinner together, where they try their damndest to tell Marge that she needs a life outside her kids. She finally agrees that this is a good idea, and decides to keep seeing them, while coming home super drunk after spending the night partying with them. So lucky Marge! She’s got three friends back. Homer however is not happy, since he needs to spend time with the weird husbands.

And while Bart initially was a fan of hanging out with these boys again, he quickly starts to realize that they’re a little much for him. They’re too obsessed with being extreme, and keep challenging each other to more and more dangerous stunts. So Bart decides to do something about all of this, and asks Lisa for advice. Plus, they can’t stand how much time Marge is spending outside the house, and since the last time they all stopped spending time together was when Bart and the boy got their scars, they decide to replicate it.

But this requires them actually learning what caused the scars. So Bart goes to Dr. Hibbert for information, but for some reason he won’t tell Bart what happened, and instead tells Bart that Comic Book Guy knew what was up. So Bart and Lisa head over to the Android’s Dungeon, and convince Comic Book Guy to tell them what was going on. They have to ply him a bit by threatening to destroy a priceless comic, but after that he starts singing like a bird

Comic Book Guy tells them that the scars came from a fourth of July celebration seven years ago in the park. He was contracted to handle the fireworks display, since he was the lonely guy without friends or family to care about. Comic Book Guy was taking a break from firing off the fireworks so he could enjoy a giant sandwich when Bart and the other toddlers showed up and launched all of them at once, setting off a massive explosion. And in the ensuing chaos Comic Book Guy’s sandwich exploded, launching four sword-shaped toothpicks at the boys, giving them their scars.

Which means that all Bart has to do to stop seeing those boys is to cause another massive explosion and blame it on their influence. So Bart gets together a bunch of fireworks, and essentially makes a bomb. However, when Bart finishes it Marge catches him, and is not pleased. She realizes what he was doing, and goes to tell the other mothers that he was going to frame them. And they aren’t surprised. In fact, they start saying how Bart was always the bad one, and start judging him and Marge’s mothering. Which makes Marge remember that this was actually the reason that she left the group. So Marge leaves the little gang again, and everything goes back to normal.

There’s not really much wrong with this episode, but it’s one that didn’t do a whole lot for me. I think a major reason may be the incredibly weak justificcation for the whole episode. I mean, Bart’s had a sword shaped scar his whole life and never noticed it before? What a weird idea. Plus, the plot that follows is less than stellar in my opinion. It’s just a little too jumbled. Having the episode switch from caring about Bart’s scar to having Marge have friends for once is a little strange, and it just didn’t work that well for me. I don’t know, like I said, there’s not really anything wrong with the episode, it just didn’t do much for me. But don’t worry, the week will be getting a lot better.

Take Away: You shouldn’t spend time with people who are needlessly judgmental to you.

“Moms I’d Like to Forget” was written by Brian Kelley and directed by Chris Clements, 2011.