The Simpsons has finally cleared up a long-standing mystery after 35 years of confusing fans.
Matt Groening’s animated series, which premiered back in 1989, is currently on its 36th season – and appears to be making waves once again for the first time in years.
Weeks after surprising fans with it’s “finale” and bringing back a surprise character for the first time since season nine, the show has now addressed a confusing detail about the family patriarch, Homer, that has flummoxed viewers for decades.
Throughout the show’s time on the air, Homer has worked at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, which is owned by Mr Burns. He hasn’t exactly been a model employee, though, finding himself at the centre of many errors.
However, he has always kept his job, with viewers simply assuming there was no actual reason for this behind the fact.
It turns out this assumption was incorrect, as the latest episode of the long-running series revealed there is actually a reason Homer is able to hold down his position at the power plant.
In the instalment titled “Shoddy Heat”, it’s explained that Homer’s dad, Grandpa Abe, arranged a deal that saw his son’s job at the plant protected regardless of his many errors.
Flashback scenes show that Abe, while working as a private investigator, orchestrated a deal following the disappearance of his partner Billy O’Donnell (Topher Grace).
When Burns ominously tells Abe that O’Donnell took a one-way trip to “paradise”, he urges Abe to drop the matter – and says Homer will have life-long security at the plant in exchange for ending his investigation.
The revelation comes after showrunner Al Jean said the episode will “solve a mystery that has puzzled (me at least) since the beginning of the show”.
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The 36th season of The Simpsons started earlier this month, with a parody episode exploring what makes an effective finale. It was one of the show’s most acclaimed episodes in years, and imagined what the perfect ending of the show would look like if it was written by AI.
Throughout the episode, there were animated recreations of final shots of shows including The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Succession.
But when the title card first appeared on screen announcing the premiere as the “series finale”, viewers quickly jumped to social media to share their surprise at what they believed to have been a well-kept secret. In actual fact, it was a meta prank.
“IS THIS ACTUALLY THE SIMPSONS SERIES FINALE????” one asked, with another chiming in: “Wait, it’s like not REALLY The Simpsons Series Finale is it!? WTF!”