19x07 Husbands and Knives

[7.6/10] The ending on this one is pretty awful. Homer having a plastic surgery-induced nightmare with an “it was all a dream” life lesson weakens the overall story and moral. By the same token, Marge getting the (admittedly shady-seeming) doctor to just reverse all the surgeries is an overly tidy reversion to the status quo. It really threatens to send things out on a sour note.

But in truth, the episode ends with a reaffirmation of Marge and Homer’s love (and a shaky but fine comic book creator gag), which put a smile on my face. That’s a good thing, because up to this point, “Husbands and Knives” was a surprisingly strong outing!

On the one hand, you have a mostly ephemeral but still really funny and enjoyable riff on comic book shops. CBG himself is based on a (somewhat) outdated stereotype, and so having him clash with a new, hip comic book proprietor stereotype is a fun direction to go. Jack Black is the perfect guy to play Milo, and the show finds good material in playing up the differences between him and CBG. At the same time, I loved the cameos from the alternative comics creators, which hit some easy but still great jokes. I continually laugh about the “Watchmen Babies in V for Vacation,” and the whole thing is a good bit.

But the main story is well done itself. There’s a nice progression here with Marge feeling bad about her body after comparing it to Wonder Woman’s, CBG’s shop closing down thanks to Coolsville, Marge using that space for her own Curves-parodying gym after a bad experience at a traditional one, and then Homer initially enjoying but then feeling threatened by his wife’s new success. As rationales to put stress on Homer and Marge’s relationship, this is a good one.

The ensuing plastic surgery gags are solid, if a bit cartoony, and Homer’s quick fix methods to try to hang onto Marge are silly but feel true to character on both counts. Yes, it tumbles headlong into the dumb ending, but up until that point, this is an episode with a lot of solid laughs and good plot to boot.

Overall, this one loses a lot of points for how it goes out, but for 85% of the episode, it’s a late-season stand out.