This is the first episode of many that focus on Homer and Marge's marital problems. It's a subject that could easily become quickly tiresome, but for the first decade of the show, every one of these episodes is able to provide a very real sense of emotion and weight. Interestingly, most of these episodes focus on Homer's temptation, and we rarely see Marge considering leaving Homer. With very little knowledge of the show, you would guess that Marge would be the one to struggle with the marriage as opposed to Homer. I think this speaks a lot to Marge's character; she is clearly extremely devoted to Homer and very much in love with him. That being said, Marge's temptation in this episode is especially dramatic because we know how much she cares about Homer.
Jacques represents to Marge everything that she has given up because she has chosen to be with Homer. He is rich, suave, confident, and extremely sexual. He constantly flatters her and encourages her, almost to the point of being too forceful. The brief bit of dialogue where he forces her to laugh out loud really stuck with me. He is encouraging her to be open, active, and social; something that she almost never gets while taking care of her kids in the house. This works well because so far in the series, Marge has been so boring. Most of her jokes involve how mundane her life is, and I feel like she often talks to herself without anyone really listening. Jacques is seemingly offering her the opportunity for her to escape all of that, and it is tempting.
The question then becomes why does Marge chose to stay with Homer. And to be honest, this question is the same as why Marge chose Homer in the first place. This is a pretty damn hard question to answer, and I think there are a lot of reasons why Marge stays with Homer. I think the most succinct way of saying it is that Marge loves Homer because of his flaws. There's a wonderful episode in the fifth season (Secrets of a Successful Marriage) that I consider the quintessential Homer and Marge episode. Homer has to once again win Marge back, and he does so by saying he can offer her something nobody else can: complete and utter dependence. We begin to see shades of this idea in this episode. Homer's adorable speech about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is what ends up winning Marge back. She sees that Homer truly appreciates everything she does for him because he'd be a wreck without her. While Jacques is a foreign and exciting idea, Marge realizes that Homer loves her more than anyone else possibly could, and she stays with him because of that. Homer and Marge are one of my favorite couples ever to be on tv and I could ramble on about them forever - I'll stop now, but this episode does a fantastic job at beginning to explore their relationship.
Springfield characters:
Helen Lovejoy - Helen introduces herself as "the gossipy wife of the minister". I don't think her character ever evolves past that point in the entire series. She's a really obnoxious character, but in a good way, unlike the music teacher.
Other random stuff:
Jacques was voiced by Albert Brooks. He played the car salesman from Call of the Simpsons and is known for improving most of his lines. His amazing line about brunch goes through my head every time I eat brunch. He has only been a guest star on the show four times, but he steals the show in each episode. He later voices the character Hank Scorpio, who is largely considered the greatest one-episode character in the history of the show. Also on the subject of Jacques, I think it's hilarious that he has a bunch of bowling groupies that are swooning over him.
We had the first sequence of funny signs (in this case, store names at the mall). My favorite was the International House of Answering Machines.
How dare Jacques try to seduce Marge with onion rings. We later see that onion rings have a very special place in Homer and Marge's history.... "Would you mind if I took it off... The oil is burning my finger."
Bart offers Homer terrible advice. He tells Homer to bottle up his feelings and not talk to Marge. Like father like son.
The ending sequence is very corny, but that's largely due to it being an outdated reference. It is almost a shot for shot duplicate of the ending to An Officer and a Gentleman.
Again, this episode is not nearly as funny as the show's golden years. But its as emotionally riveting as some of the best. It is one of my favorites from season 1
8/10
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