The Simpsons Season 36’s returning character death after 27-year absence explained

While The Simpsons Season 36, Episode 2 technically killed off an existing character, many viewers would be hard pressed to remember the unfortunate guest star. The world of The Simpsons is a complex. While it sometimes seems like the chaotic cartoon is constantly changing the reality that its heroes live in, The Simpsons The show almost always reinstates its status quo at the end of each episode. The Simpsons Season 37 may change that but for now, no matter how weird the events of any given outing are, the show snaps back to normality in the next episode.

The Simpsons Season 36 saw the series take advantage of this with its premiere, “Bart’s Birthday.” The Simpsons Season 36 Episode 1’s show-shaking twists were all undone at the end of the episode when, instead of turning 11, Bart became 10 again and the rest of Springfield remained the same with him. However, the very next episode featured the seemingly permanent death of a Simpsons Supporting character. This was a minor, long-forgotten character whose earlier role viewers may have missed altogether, but the twist still came as a surprise given the show’s love of its status quo.

Nick the realtor’s previous appearance on The Simpsons and how he’s different in season 36

Nick the Realtor looks visibly younger in his Season 9 introduction

In a parody of The White Lotus, Season 36, Episode 2, “The Yellow Lotus,” killed Nick the realtor. Even among superfans, this character was an obscure one. A visibly younger Nick appeared once before in season 9, episode 9, “Realty Bites,” where he was one of the real estate agents Marge worked among. Marge’s other co-workers from the outing, Gil Gunderson and Cookie Kwan, became fan-favorite supporting characters appearing in dozens of episodes. In contrast, Nick never appeared again until his death. He looks older in “The Yellow Lotus,” and the change seems intentional on the part of the show’s creators.

Since The Simpsons never ages, the show is slow to kill off recurring characters that could eventually be central to a future episode. spoke to ScreenRant, The Simpsons Producer Al Jean called Nick the Realtor “Someone who is okay to lose.He noted that the character hadn’t appeared on the series for 27 years before his return, meaning he’s clearly not as pivotal to the show’s fictional world as Sideshow Bob or Dr. Hibbert. Even more minor characters like Dufman had entire episodes dedicated to their stories, that way The Simpsons Need a truly forgotten character for “The Yellow Lotus.”

How and why Nick the Realtor was killed in The Simpsons Season 36, Episode 2

Nick’s bad karma caught him in the Yellow Lotus

On “The Yellow Lotus,” Marge and Homer curse the day they signed up for a timeshare thanks to Nick’s shady manipulation. The Simpson family warned Nick the realtor that karma would catch up with himBut the real estate agent was reluctant and the family was mostly distracted from the rest of the resort drama. One such dramatic background was Dr. Hibbert’s struggles with his wife, Bernice, who harbored an addiction to prescription pills. The Simpsons Bringing back thick supporting characters in its premiere to set up a meta punchline, Bernice’s subplot has a practical purpose.

Hibbert finally got Bernice alone in a hot air balloon, where he threw her supply of pills overboard and told her she was going cold turkey no matter what. The pair embraced and reconciled while, far below them, an otter consumed a range of psychoactive drugs and immediately became completely intoxicated. Unbothered by the years of bad karma he earned before the episode began, Nick the Realtor enjoyed a relaxing swim in the ocean before encountering the otter. The marine mammal attacked him, gnawing him to death and establishing the central mystery of the event.

Nick’s Death Continues A New Simpsons Trend

Nick is the second minor Simpsons character to die in two seasons

In season 35, episode 15, “Cremains of the Day,” The Simpsons Killed off Larry the Barfly, a recurring background character which has appeared throughout the series since its pilot episode in 1989. While Nick’s death was more comedic and served as the center of a murder mystery, Larry D. Barfly’s death was more poignant and set up a soul-searching road trip between Moe’s Tavern band. Despite this, the two deaths form a surprising pattern for a show that is usually slow to kill off supporting characters.

The Simpsons has killed off over a dozen characters over the years, but almost all of them died in the same episode that contained their first appearance. Larry the Barfly and Nick the Realtor, though the latter was barely recognizable even to seasoned viewers, represent a change in pace. The Simpsons May continue to kill off minor characters as the show progresses through season 36 and beyond, especially as its cast of thousands makes this achievable with minimal narrative disruption.

Source: ScreenRant