I look forward to next week's episode, Interac. Seriously, could this show get any lazier?

We skip the opening credits in favour of a long couch gag re-enacting The Game of Life, in which the Simpsons hit all the "bad" events before finally landing on the couch. But the Grim Reaper is coming for Homer...

Marge is preparing for a block party while the kids watch Itchy and Scratchy. This one is possibly the grossest yet, as Itchy possesses Scratchy into cooking himself as dinner for cats while the corpses of other cats lie around him. Ugh. The cats, informed that they are now cannibals, barf everywhere and drown in the vomit. Marge tries to turn up the mixer so that she can't hear it, but Bart simply plays the episode louder. I'll keep this in mind the next time my mom thinks I'm creepy for liking Game of Thrones. The ensuing argument destroys Marge's cake-baking efforts, so she must shamefully purchase a store-bought cake at a Trader Joe's knock-off.

The block party begins, with Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney's band singing The Music Man and Mr. Burns shilling for the Whig party. Marge meets a man who has also resorted to store-bought cake. Booth Wilkes John, voiced by an unmistakable John Oliver, has just moved to the neighbourhood from London and is looking for some friends. The Simpsons are invited to a block party, but Marge is worried about Homer's potential conduct and makes an excuse. This prompts her to wonder why they have no "couple friends" (um, the Hibberts, the Lovejoys, the Flanderses pre-being widowed twice, the Nahasapeematapetilons...), to which Lisa points out that she's happy having no friends. Marge decides that as hard as she finds it, Lisa's situation appears much sadder. Ah, the introvert with the extrovert mom. I know that pain so well. Why don't they realize we're happy watching old episodes of House, reading Scandinavian crime novels and blogging for FJ? Well, that got personal fast.

Marge interrupts Homer's Topiary Wars marathon (honestly, a pretty good parody of reality TV) to tell him that they're going to the party. This somehow turns into an incessant nag about all the things he's not supposed to do, which apparently lasts for several days. You know, I used to think that Homer was exceptionally lucky to have Marge, but now I'm inclined to think she's no prize herself. Ouch. They meet up with Booth and his wife, Wallis, and take part in a murder mystery game. They've pulled out all the stops, but Homer ruins it before they've even begun by revealing the murderer. Booth is devastated. He and Homer wind up in a fight, and they leave with some parting words about Homer's character, a dashing Russian count. "As we say in Russia - goodbye in Russian!"

Marge is terribly upset by the evening's events, and asks Homer to leave her alone for a while. The atmosphere is glum the next morning. Marge is resigned to never having friends and tells Homer that she's given up. Homer has to work hard to hide his delight - he really hated those dinner parties. However, Marge has another project in mind. Come hell or high water, she's going to find Lisa a friend. Um, hasn't Lisa had like eight dozen friends in this series already?

They decide to hold a party for Lisa's friends, only none of them show up except for some weirdo from her soccer team. They get rid of both the kid and the party decorations before Lisa comes home and sees the evidence of her unpopularity. Nonetheless, they're still confused about her friendlessness. (And hey, whatever happened to Alison Taylor? We can clearly see she's still at the school, for heaven's sake.) Marge goes to ask Miss Hoover about it, but the world's most apathetic teacher just wants to get back to her lunch break.

The kids have to start the mandatory "dance unit" of gym (remember that, guys?), and everyone pairs off but Lisa, leaving her to dance with Groundskeeper Willie. Suddenly, a classmate we've never seen before asks her to dance. They settle down for a nice round of square dancing/Bombardment. Lisa is all set to abandon her new buddy, but the girl invites her to a vintage record store, and who can resist that? They listen to jazz and bond over their shared interest in NPR and kale. Bart thinks something is suspicious about this. He follows them around for a few days, and comes to Lisa with the news that Marge is paying the girl to be her friend. Lisa is humiliated.

Bedraggled and pissed off, Lisa runs into the kitchen to confront her mother. She wails that she would have found friends on her own, even if it had to wait until college. Mother and daughter are both miserable, and Homer reflects that right now, he's the better parent. It's beautifully acted between Smith and Kavner.

Lisa rejects Marge's "I'm Sorry" cake, which Homer is all too happy to eat. Grampa talks about how terrible Homer was as a kid, and how he paid Lenny and Carl to be his friends - an arrangement which continues to this day (though Barney's not part of the deal). Marge goes up to check on Lisa, and let me tell you, this scene is incredibly well done. Kavner and Smith knock it out of the park once again, it feels really real and serious, and somehow, it resonates. Lisa is bitter with her mother, Marge bursts into tears of despair, and Lisa realizes how much she's hurting her. They reconcile, and it's lovely. Then we get a dumb, abrupt "Happy Mother's Day" ending where Bart and Homer rush to the store at the last minute. I have rarely been more disappointed. This could have been the best Simpsons episode in years, reminiscent of the very early days, and they totally fucked it up. Not impressed guys, not impressed.

In a tag scene, they show that Lisa's new friend genuinely wants to stick with her, even though she's not getting the money anymore. Too bad she'll probably never appear again. Fickle Lisa disappears when she hears she's not really vegetarian, anyway. And we wonder why she doesn't have friends.

The episode had some great moments. It really, really did. But whatever happened between Marge and Lisa was totally ruined by the abrupt ending. Too much setup, not enough payoff - a common problem in the latter seasons. Maybe the finale next week will have the episode we've been waiting for, but I wouldn't count on it.

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