The Simpsons (Classic): “Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)”

But David Mirkin pitched
Maggie Simpson, and the rest is history. The clues are all there if you look
hard enough, but beyond that Maggie’s triumph is the comeuppance Mr. Burns
truly deserves. Having anyone else kill Burns for one of ten thousand reasons
would have been fine, but only Smithers has the truly grand, operatic motive
(maybe Homer, whose complaint is so simple and yet so profound, but we can’t
have Homer in jail for the rest of the show). Better to have Smithers as the
red herring, though, since robbing him of his relationship with Mr. Burns
forever after would be a body blow to the show.

Yes, it wasn’t Mr.
Smithers (nor was it Dr. Colossus). He certainly did get drunk and buy a gun,
but all he shot was Jasper’s foot, just because he wanted to get back home to
see Pardon My Zinger (lord, I wish
that was a real show). As any Simpsons-phile
already knows, an alternate ending where Smithers was the shooter was written
to throw people off the scent, but it doesn’t make any sense. One of the Simpsons
had to do it, and not just because of the DNA evidence—because this is their
show.

One of the rare things
that sets “Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part Two” apart in The Simpsons’ golden years is that it’s a Wiggum-centric episode.
Is there any other Wiggum-centric episode in the first nine seasons of the
show? I guess he’s pretty prominent in “Marge On The Lam” and “Mother Simpson,”
but “Who Shot Mr. Burns” sees him at his most straightforward. Sure, he’s still
an incompetent cop, but he’s trying his best, dammit, and he interrogates many
of the crucial suspects before drinking some warm cream and having a Twin Peaks-inspired dream that tells him
to run a DNA test.

The Twin Peaks dream is great because it’s both a little creepy and an
excellent poke at the Wiggum character more than at David Lynch’s weirdness.
Wiggum has to have a backward-talking dream just to remember to order a DNA
test? It’s not quite the deus ex machina Dale
Cooper’s dreams could be, and Wiggum’s ultimate conclusion that Homer Simpson
is the culprit is a pretty logical one, since Mr. Burns finally wakes up
repeating the name over and over again.

As I said before, it would
be quite something if Homer had done it. There’s a beautiful simplicity to Mr.
Burns’ transgression with Homer, which sums up everything about the
oligarchical evil Burns represents—he’s had countless dealings with the Simpson
family, watches Homer through his surveillance camera every day, and still
can’t remember his name. Is death not a worthy sentence for such behavior?
Could Burns not at least do Homer the courtesy of mocking him by name?

So in that way it’s also
fitting that Maggie is the culprit. Whether she knows it or not, she’s exacting
sweet revenge for her father, just the latest in a heap of wonders she’s
performed on the show. She tried to kill Burns—and she woulda got away with it,
too, if that damned hospital hadn’t upgraded his condition to alive.

Stray observations:

• Smithers has some
  great dreams. “The year is 1965, and you and I are undercover detectives on the
  hot rod circuit!”
• Kent Brockman is
  rightfully disgusted by the reporting chops of the Springfield Shopper.
• Wiggum lets
  Colossus out. “But stay away from Death Mountain!” “But all my stuff is there!”
• Jasper can’t
  stand the drunken stagger. “Slow down. Sidewalk's for regular walkin', not for
  fancy walkin'.”
• Willie has arthritic
  fingers. “I got it from Space Invaders in 1977.” “Oh yeah, that was a pretty
  addictive video game.” “Video game?”
• “Homer Simpson,
  you're under arrest for attempted murder.” “D'oh!” “Yeah, that's what they all
  say. They all say ‘D'oh.’”
• Dr. Nick examines
  Ms. Burns. “When you were in that coma, did you feel your brain getting
  damaged?”