The Simpsons Season 36 Quietly Retcons One of the Golden Age’s Best Episodes

The following contains spoilers for The Simpsons Season 36 Episode 6, ‘Women in Shorts,’ now streaming on HuluThe Simpsons‘The anthology’s latest episode quietly introduces a small retcon to one of the most beloved episodes from the series’ Golden Age. The Simpsons‘ longevity means it has a lot of canon and history to play with, but a wide world of adaptable characters to experience. For the most part, this allowed the characters to change and evolve over the course of thirty-six seasons. Sometimes, however, the new plots in The Simpsons retelling the backstories and histories of certain characters.

This can occur in major and minor ways, from flashback episodes that rework the timeline of The Simpsons to episodes that reveal new wrinkles in the series’ long-standing tropes. The most recent of these, season 36’s “Women in Shorts,” adds quiet changes to the details of a plot from one of the The Simpsons‘Golden Age. However, the episode largely avoids changing that story too much, highlighting how The Simpsons can bring modern flourishes to an elastic but consistent schedule.

The 36th season of The Simpsons changes the way Maggie was conceived

‘Women in Shorts’ changes a detail from ‘And Maggie Makes Three’

‘Women in Shorts’ introduces a new wrinkle in Homer and Marge’s conception of Maggie, which quietly seems to reconfigure a major plot thread in Season 6’s ‘And Maggie Makes Three.’ Season 36’s “Women in Shorts” is an anthology episode, similar in structure to previous episodes such as Season 7’s “22 Short Films About Springfield”. The episode’s final joke, however, takes place a year before the modern events of The Simpsonsrevealing Homer and Marge alone at home. After admitting that “Jake from State Farm kind of does it” for her, Marge and Homer sleep together, leading to Maggie’s conception.

This is a different origin for the younger Simpson than was established in Season 6. “And Maggie Makes Three” was a flashback episode that revealed that Homer had paid off all his debts a year before the main events of the show, leading him to leave the Nuclear Power Plant and get his dream job at bowling alley. However, a night of celebration with Marge resulted in the conception of Maggie, whose birth forced Homer to return to his higher-paying but devastating job under Mr. It’s a small change, but one that upends the show’s established canon. .

The latest Simpson Retcon tweaks an old episode, but doesn’t erase it

The Simpsons‘The latest change doesn’t erase a beloved episode

This ret-con brings Maggie’s conception more firmly into the present dayespecially given the presence of a reference to the State Farm Insurance Agency’s modern mascot character, Jake. It’s a small change, but one that distorts the show’s canon. However, this tweak doesn’t erase anything from the plot of “And Maggie Makes Three,” which has aged quite well compared to other flashback episodes from The Simpsons. The reference to Jake from State Farm changes the specifics of Maggie’s conception, but the rest of “And Maggie Makes Three” still works in the present day.

In your heart, the best plots of The Simpsons has a timeless quality. While many cultural references in the early seasons are very different from those made in the present day, the show’s shifting timeline has allowed it to feel relevant for decades. ‘Women in Shorts’ highlights one of the best ways the series can do this, updating a small element of an old episode and leaving the emotional and comedic core of the original intact. Season 28’s “Kamp Krustier” did something similar, highlighting how The Simpsons can create threads from previous seasons to modern episodes.