Original airdate: February 21, 2021
The premise: Bart gets a hold of Edna Krabappel’s diary, and upon finding her writing about her belief in his untapped potential, he turns over a new leaf to be a better student. Lisa discovers Edna was actually writing about her cat, and struggles to keep the secret to herself.
The reaction: Almost eight years following Marcia Wallace’s death, Edna Krabappel’s departure from the series has always felt like this weirdly unresolved issue. I absolutely understand the apprehension given Wallace’s untimely passing, but considering Edna was a pivotal character as not only Bart’s teacher but also Ned Flanders’ wife, it felt all the stranger as years and years went by with no in-series acknowledgement apart from a short tribute shortly after Wallace’s death. Eventually, Ned ended up the new fourth grade teacher, but I can count on one hand the number of episodes where we’ve actually seen him in that role. But now, finally, we have what feels like our Farewell to Edna episode, and while the intentions were obviously pure, it’s a big schmaltzy mess. Bart ends up with Mrs. K’s diary, and is surprised to find a passage about Edna’s “spiky-haired after school buddy” he assumes is about him (“Sometimes I have to be tough on him so his behavior gets better, but he’s smart as a whip.”) Invigorated by his former teacher’s faith, Bart resolves to do better of himself, eventually leading to an actual A on a test. Lisa, however, finds that Edna was writing about her cat, and drives herself into an anxiety spiral to keep the secret. The back half of the episode is Bart giving long speeches about how he actually likes being good now while Lisa literally drives herself sick with guilt. It’s all so strange. I guess Bart just stopped reading the diary over however many days pass after reading that previous passage. Meanwhile, Lisa’s motivations are muddy: she starts off suspicious and weirdly jealous about Bart’s A, and that’s before the school carries Bart off like a hero for getting the “Most Improved Student” award or whatever. Is this still based off of just one test? Bart’s resolve is shown that he’s more kind and helpful, not that he’s working harder academically. At the start of act three, Bart feels confident enough to enter the spelling contest, and now Lisa is motivated to stop Bart before he fucks up and humiliates himself. Would he be a school-wide laughing stock for misspelling a word? Why would anyone care?
When Lisa finally exposes the truth, Bart starts crying and runs away. It’s pretty pathetic. In the end, Ned Flanders comes to the rescue, telling Bart a story about when he was planning to leave Springfield (for what reason, we’re never told why), but Edna was the sole “no” vote, believing she needed to stay because students like Bart needed her help. And… I’m not buying it. Sorry. I can kind of understand why some people might find this touching, but it just stinks of manipulative re-characterization. Like most Springfieldians, Edna may have entered her profession with hope and optimism, but for the course of the entire series, she was completely apathetic about her job, desperate for any opportunity to cut corners and get the hell out by the final bell every school day. Again, we’re never told why Ned wanted to leave, but it’s an opportunity that I think Edna would have leaped at if given the chance. The ending also attempts to put a sweet bow on Nedna (you know, that relationship nobody cared about?) by having Ned thumb to a page in Edna’s diary (“Now that I’ve been with Ned a year, he’s made my life a living… dream come true.”) Following this we get a sweet photo montage of Edna moments, ending with the “We’ll Really Miss You, Mrs. K” chalkboard that was used shortly after Wallace’s death. There’s so much irony-free sentimental bullshit here that I was surprised this wasn’t a Matt Selman show. Now, I don’t want to come off like a heartless asshole. Wanting to give Mrs. Krabappel a send-off show is a nice idea, and hoping to give it a level of earnestness is a good thing. This show used to be a master at balancing genuine emotional moments within its own crapsack world perfectly. We’ve seen more caring and vulnerable sides of Edna in the past (“Bart the Lover,” “Grade School Confidential”), so it’s possible to create some kind of narrative that gives her a farewell that feels within character. Even having to rely on using archive audio of Wallace, it could have been done. Instead, they went the easy route of retroactively framing Edna as an incredibly caring teacher who really loved her new husband and what a wonderful woman she was and it’s so sad she’s gone. Marcia Wallace was an incredibly talented performer, and most likely a wonderful woman beloved by the whole crew, but translating that great affection onto her character creates too big of a disconnect to me. For as pure the impulse seemed to be, this episode just came off way too forced and disingenuous.
Three items of note:
– More recasting shit: flamboyant gay stereotype Julio is now voiced by singer Mario Jose. Honestly, I don’t think anyone would have been upset if they just quietly retired this character. Also, Dr. Hibbert is still being voiced by Harry Shearer, having already made two other appearances (I think) this season. Did they just forget to recast him at this point?
– The episode opens with a musical number of everybody in Springfield waking up excited to head on down to Ned’s garage sale, since he’s such a pushover, they can get really good deals on all his stuff. Within the song, it’s implied that Ned “always” does this, so I guess he’s held multiple garage sales over a long period of time? The sale barely starts before Ned blows up at the bullies for smashing the Norman Rockwell commemorative plates they just bought. He vows to not sell one more item unless it’s going to actually be respected. So we spend two whole minutes on an opening musical about Ned being too nice, and then immediately undercut it. And it’s not like any of it has any point. Bart sweet-talks Ned into buying a box of books, one of which is Edna’s diary, unbeknownst to either of them, but he could have done that with Ned being his normal too-nice self. Pointless. Also, the song just sucks. The jokes aren’t funny, all our favorite characters do an elaborate choreographed dance number… just boring, transparent padding.
– Ned shows up at the very end to save the day, but it’s funny how we don’t see him at all in the middle chunk of the episode as Bart excels and impresses at school. He gets an A on a test in art, I guess presumably because they wanted to save Ned’s appearance until the end, but why not have it be in Ned’s class? Bart could be indirect when questioned about his new change-of-heart, which would make Ned curious, setting up the ending more. Later, when Bart discovers the truth and runs off crying, Lisa could go to Ned’s classroom and explain everything, leading right into him finding Bart to comfort him. But no, instead, Ned is nowhere to be found in Springfield Elementary. He’s not in the teacher’s lounge where we see the rest of the staff working telemarketer jobs, he’s not at the big assembly to award Bart… why make this change if you’re not going to do anything with it? Ned is literally Bart’s new teacher, the classroom being a huge series set piece for one of the main characters, and in three years after christening him the new fourth grade teacher, I can only remember one time we’ve seen Ned at school (“Crystal Blue-Haired Persuasion.”) It’s yet another “big” change in the series that actually doesn’t change anything, unless the writers randomly remember it sometime later. We literally just saw this in the last episode, where years and years after giving Comic Book Guy a wife, they finally decide to make an episode about it. By that standard, I guess in season 37, we’ll finally get an episode featuring Ned actually being a teacher. Can’t wait!
Me Blog Write Good 
Oh, no… After all that joy of revisiting Seasons 7 & 8, we’re finally back to the current-day shit again. And I thought the ending of “Left Behind” was a mawkish mess. I think I’ve found a contender for “Way of the Dog” for schmaltziest episode in the series.
Also, that whole plot point of Bart wanting to participate in the spelling bee reminds me of that joke from “I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can” where Bart has to spell “Imply” and nonchalantly walks off after getting mocked by the kids. (“Well, I got my laugh. I’m outta here.”) That was funny. And it was from Season 14! Whoa, I’m using Season 14 as a positive example! Though to be fair, that episode is one of the very few ZS episodes that isn’t garbage. And I’d rather watch the worst Season 14 episode ten times in a row than watch anything from Season 32.
Why are you so surprised to be using Season 14 of The Simpsons as a positive example for anything?
Bart suddenly becoming smart reminds me of when Lisa became good at hockey, and he and Milhouse thought maybe he’d become good at school.
“Bart Simpson, will you stop raising your hand? You haven’t gotten an answer right all day.”
Considering that Harry Shearer was against the whole recasting decision, I’m guessing he threatened to leave the show if they made him step down as any of his characters. And considering that recasting the minorities is (probably) their biggest cast changeover yet, they probably didn’t want to be tasked with recasting Harry’s big multitude of characters at the same time.
Or they’re just half assing the recasts hoping no one will notice or care.
My ‘favourite’ thing about the whole Nedna disaster is that if you go by the future continuity established in ‘Holidays of Future Passed’, it was Homer who killed Edna*, presumably at some point offscreen during ‘The Man Who Grew Too Much’. Since the show has never offered any other explanation for Edna’s passing, until we hear any different that’s canon. It’d be interesting to explore whether Bart holds any resentment towards his Dad for causing the demise of his beloved 4th grade teacher.
*Ned in that episode: ‘That’s why after Homer accidentally killed Edna, I married Maude’s ghost!’
I also loved that Ned preferred to marry Maude’s ghost instead of Edna’s.
I hate how they have Bart cry all the time now. Yeah, he cried during the classic era too but back then his tears actually meant something (“Bart Gets an F”). Now he seems to do it all the time and it just turns his character into a joke.
And I can’t believe they went through the actual trouble of recasting that borderline offensive gay character instead of just getting rid of him. He’s a third tier character at best and one that no one really likes. Also, I take it their problem with the character was that his original voice actor wasn’t Latino, not the he’s an unfunny, overused, outdated stereotype of a minority group that really shouldn’t exist in 2021.
They literally turned Bart into another Milhouse
I can only remember two episodes in the classic era where Bart cried (“Bart Gets an F,” “The Canine Mutiny”). That’s something he rarely ever did. Whenever bad things happened to him, he would just get depressed or try figuring out a way to fix the situation. Nowadays, he just cries about it, and I don’t think that’s his character at all.
It’s to the point where I was 100% expecting Bart to cry when he found out the truth about the diary, and then he did. It’s like they can’t figure out any way for Bart to deal with something bad happening to him except crying.
Also Bart Sells His Soul, but he had a good reason there.
Who the hell is Mario Jose? Does anyone really care if a gay stereotype who should have been retired ages ago is voiced by a Latino?
Apparently a bunch of “woke” people with way too much time on their hands do.
Wow..
What a big insult to a such a beloved character and person
I 100% guarantee they only did this episode for sympathy points, fanservice, and to make sure all their reviews were good out of guilt. And I’m sorry, but it almost seems like Lisa is deliberately trying to piss people off. Shouldn’t she just be happy her brother is finally being a good person? No, because as they explained in Homerland, she’s incapable of experiencing joy. And as shown in E My Sports and the restraining order episode, even with all her noble causes, she’s instantly against something if it means her brother enjoys herself. Sad how they chose to have continuity apply in the episodes we DON’T want them to apply.
Honestly, at what point does Yeardley snap and insist her character act less like an 8 year old bitch? Because if you’re telling me she’s fine with the character she’s portrayed over 5 decades now, then either she’s getting one hell of a paycheck, or she’s seriously just seemingly given up on her character, and that would just be depressing.
They stopped writing Bart and Lisa like children years ago. There’s a scene in one of the newer episodes (and by “newer” I mean one that’s nine years old by this point) when Bart meets all his old girlfriends from past episodes and I just remember thinking how ridiculous it is that a 10-year-old boy has such an extensive love life. If they want to write them as teenagers, just age them up already.
Also, it’s crazy how young Yeardley was when she started voicing Lisa. She’s been playing the character since 1987, 34 years ago, and she’s still only 56. Wow.
“Also, Dr. Hibbert is still being voiced by Harry Shearer, having already made two other appearances (I think) this season. Did they just forget to recast him at this point?”
Interestingly, I just saw this notification on my phone:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/simpsons-harry-shearer-stop-voicing-black-character
God, fuck this show.
A couple days ago Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic) posted a FB thread saying that he still thinks new Simpsons episodes are pretty good. The amount of people coming in and agreeing with him thats its still one of th best things on TV was really pathetic.
Doug specifically said he liked that episode that “spoofed” Hallmark Christmas movies by basically just writing one. Not that I’m all that surprised that Doug Walker thinks rote copying and lazy low-hanging jokes are the pinnacle of satire, mind you.
This episode was just weird. Why would Bart stop reading the diary after 35 pages, especially since he was using it to learn secrets about the faculty? Wouldn’t he want to know more about what Mrs. Krabappel thought of him? And is he that stupid, he wouldn’t realize that some of the stuff that was being talked about in the diary didn’t apply to him? Did Milhouse not want to read it anymore? I would have rather it turned out that Mrs. Krabappel was talking about Bart, because it’s been established that Bart is a smart kid that just needs someone to believe in him so he can realize his potential.
Let me get this straight, if I got it wrong I’m sorry: Edna’s diary didn’t have ANY page about Bart, at least a tiny mention of him that can make his heart warm genuinely despite him being a mischievous kid, underachiever and proud of it; but we don’t have to worry, we still got Nedna shoved down our throats at the end of the episode!
Me at that: GTFO!
This sucks because unlike the majority of modern episodes, I had expectations on this one; I really wanted it to be good. This is another episode that proves that they don’t know how to write Bart correctly. This is the typical wimpy Bart that makes me cringe so much.
Also that I’m not buying the Edna re-characterization either: moments like she didn’t care and chuckles when Martin said he was having back spasms and when she said an apathetic “Yeah, yeah” after Milhouse said he was not feeling the left side of his body helped her to be a funny great character. If I remember correctly, we even got a scene with Edna putting out a cigarette on Bart’s ear, and that was from season 24.
I’m going to rewatch “Bart gets and F” then.
I just noticed we’re inching closer to the 700th episode. Jesus Christ.
Lisa making a dig at Mike Pence was kind of strange. The election’s over, Lisa.
Retconning Mrs. Krabappel into a secretly caring and loving teacher undermines everything about why her character was great. The show used to be great at balancing the genuine emotional while undercutting it with hilarious cynicism.
Also, Ned had a yard sale when the Leftorium was failing. It was well done and funny.
To be fair, Homer is a huge asshole during that yard sale who takes advantage of his neighbor’s desperate circumstances. It’s always been my least favorite part of “When Flanders Failed.”