Yeah, for me, the cut from Homer saying he has a resolution that will let Sgt. Skinner keep his dignity, to him being tied to a chair and pulled out of town by a train, was by far the biggest laugh of the episode.

I actually thought it made it sweeter. With the knowledge that Mrs. Skinner realizes her son is probably dead, but is determined to deny that fact, makes her controlling attitude much more understandable. And the fact that Skinner chose to be her son, rather than being raised under her iron fist, makes his devotion to…

Because with everyone calling him a fraud, he felt he had no right to the life he'd built up over the last two decades, and went back to where he thought he belonged. But, as we saw when he tries shilling a strip club or shouting "Up yours, children!", that life doesn't fit him anymore, and his attempts to go back to…

His time with the real Skinner in Vietnam changed him. He says as much in the episode.

Right on. Way I see it, this episode isn't a retcon, it's just revealing backstory we didn't know before. Like Abe Simpson having a child with a carny prostitute, or Homer singing in a barbershop quartet, or Mr. Burns having basically the same origin story as Charles Foster Kane.

Whoops!

I thought what they were going for was that Armin had been pretending to be Skinner for so long, that he had become the mask. What was originally just a persona he adopted became his real personality. Given that no one else on the show had known him pre-Skinnerizing, and no one had any past history with the real…

Even if you feel that way, citing "The Principal & the Pauper" as when the show went down hill seems misguided, when there are so many more flagrant continuity violations from much earlier in the show's run.

You got metal fever, boy! Metal fever!

Yeah, plus the fact that Skinner and his mother actually CHOSE to be with each other, rather than being locked into this toxic relationship from day one, actually adds an element of sweetness and affection to them. Any episode that can make me feel sympathy for Agnes Skinner is doing something impressive.

I'm pretty sure I've seen them in crowd shots at the school, though I have no idea what episodes.

To which I respond with "Lisa Gets an A"

Are people really upset about the whole "never mention this again" thing? Back in Season 5, we had an episode where Lisa points out that every week their family gets into one crazy adventure or another, but everything always goes back to normal so things can start over again. When the episode wraps up with a major…

If that's your experience, I'd point you towards The 100, Daredevil, Sleepy Hollow, and The Vampire Diaries as counter-examples.

I wouldn't exactly call Breaking Bad realistic. Maybe in Season 1, but by Season 3 they'd started to go full-on spagehetti western operatic with it.

The talking space coyote episode had tons of heart to it! /not joking

Although, part of the point of the episode is that Homer is basing all his notions of what NYC is like from when he visited there a couple decades back. The rest of the family, who don't have those preconceptions, have a wonderful, crime-free time.

I actually really liked the opening scene at Moe's. While the pickled egg joke is the best, I also enjoy the slow dissolving of Barney's sanity to the point where he delivers that ultra-creepy, "Sure, Homer. Tomorrow."

Cheerfully withdrawn.

They really had to fly someone in from overseas for this? There aren't any Croatian guys willing to flash their junk?