Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Simpsons Season 36 special, “O C'Mon All Ye Faithful.”
Although it has been 24 years since the episode originally aired The Simpsons Season 36's Christmas special managed to fix one of the series' biggest mistakes with the Flanders storyline. The Simpsons rarely kills off characters, as the series generally only does so when there is a behind-the-scenes justification for it. One of The Simpsons Season 36's big changes to the show's status quo are the ever-increasing body count, but even so, the show only killed off two minor characters in its first 11 episodes. This still represents a big change from your usual approach.
In the series' 770 episodes The Simpsons permanently killed just over a dozen characters. This seems surprising, but since The Simpsons never ages, killing off characters frequently runs the risk of radically altering the show's immutable status quo. One exception to this rule was the instantly infamous death of Maude Flanders in Season 11 Episode 14, “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily.” Ned Flanders' wife was killed when a stray T-shirt from a cannon knocked her out of the stands at an auto race. This was a reaction to actress Maggie Roswell's salary denials following the network's collapse.
The Simpsons Season 36 Christmas Special Finally Justifies Maude's Death
Ned's crisis of faith is rooted in the death of his wives
Ironically, Roswell was rehired just a year later and has since repeatedly reprized the role of Maude Flanders in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror segments, as well as some episodes set in parallel timelines or alternate realities. However, Maude's death itself has never been retold. This is somewhat surprising, as Maude Flanders' death never seemed justified in narrative terms. The death of Ned's wife could, theoretically, have made the perpetually cheerful religious fanatic a more complicated character, but that never happened. Fortunately, season 36's “O C'Mon All Ye Faithful” corrects that with the best Ned story in years.
Ned leaves love notes for Maude every day, more than a decade after her death, illustrating never-before-seen depths of sadness.
When Homer is hypnotized by British mentalist Derren Brown, he becomes convinced he is Santa Claus. Eventually, Brown snaps Homer out of his delusion, but Ned's faith in God has been irrevocably shaken by the idea that an imaginary authority figure could be easily unmasked. Ned stops believing in God and becomes discouraged. In a devastating scene, he reveals to Marge that he still texts his second wife, the late Edna Krabbapel, daily at her old phone number. Ned also leaves love notes for Maude every day, more than a decade after her death, illustrating never-before-seen depths of sadness.
The Simpsons' Maude Flanders' Death Never Made Sense
Actress Maggie Roswell's departure shaped the dark story
Maude Flanders' death was an infamously strange and unpleasant plot device that was clearly designed to abandon the characterrather than organically growing Ned's character arc. The Simpsons The Season 36 Christmas special revived that storyline 24 years later with a plot that felt emotionally resonant and truly focused on Ned's inner world. Everything from the morbidly funny nature of Maude's death by a T-shirt cannon to the episode that quickly sent Ned on some doomed dates proved that “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” wasn't taking the widower's grief seriously. Even his later relationship with Edna Krabappel struggled to resolve this issue.
Ned's tragic love life has been the subject of some off-the-cuff jokes but few focused stories.
In Season 22, Episode 22, “The Ned-Liest Catch,” Ned began dating Bart's teacher after saving her from falling down a ladder. After the episode aired, viewers were able to vote in a real-life poll to decide whether Ned and Edna should remain a couple or break up. That SimpsonsWorld poll kept the pair together and they married in Season 23, Episode 1, “Ned 'n' Edna's Blend Agenda,” but Mrs. Krabappel's character was killed off when her real-life actress Marcia Wallace passed away in 2013. Since then, Ned's tragic love life has been the subject of some off-the-cuff jokes but few focused stories.
The Simpsons Season 36's “O C'mon All Ye Faithful” Fixes Ned's Biggest Problem
Ned Flanders famously summarized the term “Flanderization”
For everyone The Simpsons the big changes of season 36, the series took years to deal with the emotional impact that Maude and Edna's deaths had on Ned. The main reason for this is an issue that TVTropes users nicknamed “Flanderization”Which made the plot difficult to tackle. A phenomenon when a part of a character's personality (such as Ned's religiosity) becomes their defining trait,”Flanderization”It's often blamed for sitcom characters becoming increasingly unrelatable and unrealistic. There's a reason Flanders became the poster boy for the trope, and his increasingly cartoonish personality detracted from the character's personal journey.
Writing Ned as little more than a closed-minded religious fanatic undermined his humanity and made Maude and Edna's deaths more difficult for the series. Ned's exaggerated personality didn't lend itself to real human emotion, as his years as a crazy fundamentalist and a lively, animated do-gooder made Flanders seem less real. While The Simpsons Season 36's sad revelations about Marge's family were heartbreaking, a similar revelation about Ned wouldn't have had the same impact, as he's a fundamentally absurd figure of fun. Fortunately, “O C'mon All Ye Faithful” managed to change that when Ned lost his faith.
The Simpsons Season 36 Ned's Story Makes Maude's Death Necessary
Ned's tragic loss of faith is genuinely moving given his losses
The Simpsons season 36 did what Maude's death should have done for Ned 24 years agomaking an increasingly one-dimensional character feel real through believable difficulties. Lisa's attempts to share her Buddhist faith with Ned were genuinely sweet, and Marge paying attention as he described his one-sided relationship with his two ex-wives was quietly devastating. Considering how often Ned's role in The Simpsons is reduced to him uttering one-liners or attacking a Bible, seeing him texting everyday thoughts to Edna's inactive phone number was a tragic and well-observed character detail that wouldn't be out of place in a dramatic series.
The unexpected revelation that Ned was saved by the yoke of an ox, as in Lisa's parable, was a touch of life-affirming sweetness.
Likewise, seeing Ned regain his faith after losing his belief in God was unexpectedly moving. The Simpsons Season 36's guest stars were used as more than just attention-grabbing window dressing and the reveal that Derren Brown somehow manipulated the events of Ned's entire epiphany was comically silly. However, the unexpected revelation that Ned was saved by the yoke of an ox, as in Lisa's parable, was a touch of life-affirming sweetness that made Ned's entire ordeal seem fated. Although the show took a while to come to an end, The Simpsons finally found meaning in Ned Flanders' sadness.
Sources: SimpsonsWorld