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Original Air Date: Sunday, October 21, 2018  Cthulhu's Cameo Opening in Fogburyport, birthdplace of Green Clam Chowder, the Simpson family arrive on a vacation, as a book suggests it to be one of several places to visit before they mysteriously disappear. However, it all turns out to be a trap, and they are soon to be sacrificed to the mighty Cthulhu. As Cthulhu goes to devour Homer, Homer retaliates by saying he was promised an oyster eating contest. In a seemingly hopeless situation, Homer and the monster take each other on, and Homer ends up being the victor. Cthulhu then tells him he can have anything he wishes, but his wish ends up being to eat Cthulhu. Then, as the beasts head is stewing in a pot, Homer pokes one of his ink sacs that spills out the title 'Treehouse of Horror XXIX', and the opening credits roll.  'Intrusion of the Pod-y Switchers' In this parody of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', things begin in a 'Bond'-style underwater base of "Mapple", where late founder Steve Mobbs comes on screen to talk about the new MyPhone. It is revealed that Steve's replacement is a plant alien on some sort of mission. While everyone is occupied with their new phones, the aliens fire spores from their planet to land on Earth, turning everyone in Springfield to plant versions of themselves. During the spore launch, there's a solid visual gag where the spores pass the Futurama ship, waving a banner saying "Bring Back Futurama". That's solid enough, but out of nowhere, the Orville comes along and destroys it, seemingly claiming it as yesterday's news (but honestly, I'd still always accept a 'Futurama' comeback). But while things on Earth are getting terrifying, no one really knows what happens to the original host until the end of the segment, where all is revealed. This one has a few good gags, but it's a bit of a jumbled mess at the same time. It really feels rushed, and that's sort of unfortunate, because its underlying lesson is actually pretty noteworthy. That said, to some, it may also feel a little heavy-handed. It makes its point, but it's a point we've heard and ignored time and time again, so it's a positive message that won't ultimately be taken to heart. I can appreciate its effort, but I still find it to be pretty weak overall, and something that could have turned out much better. 2/5  'Multiplisa-ty' In what seems to be a parody of 'Split', Lisa captures and holds Bart, Nelson and Milhouse captive. She manages this by drugging a few bottles of Sunny-D that were mysteriously delivered to them while at Milhouse's for a sleepover. No one really knows what she's got going on, but Lisa enters, imitating a series of characters from her own mind. When Bart finally asks what happened to her, Lisa recounts him changing the answers on one of her tests to insult Ms. Hoover, resulting in a failing grade. This apparently leads her on a bloody rampage of revenge. However, knowing how rational Lisa tends to be, this whole concept is pretty hard to buy into. Bart's stunt apparently sends Lisa off the deep end enough to kill, and what they do with Lisa here goes so against the grain on her usual character it's a bit jarring, even if this is completely non-canon. The segment isn't without its moments, but altogether it's actually pretty lame. I think they could have had so much more fun doing this with, say, Homer's multiple personalities, and they could toss in his 'Shinning' persona as a little Easter Egg. It's also weird that they use this particular title, when they parodied the movie 'Multiplicity' in 'Treehouse XIII'. There's a few giggles here and there, including a pretty great Homer quote towards the end, but it's just not quite enough to save it 2/5  'Geriatric Park' Usually there's at least one good salvageable segment in these episodes, but this last one just drives it into the ground. It's just a forced farce of 'Jurassic Park', using the name 'Geriatric Park', which shows like 'Bobby's World' did in the early 90s already, among several other shows. Even 'The Simpsons' itself had 'Itchy and Scratchy Land'. To the segment's credit, it opens well. Mr. Burns proposing opening a facility that will rejuvenate the elderly using untested dinosaur DNA. A year later, the Simpson family heads to said facility while flying over the ruins of all of the 'Jurassic Park' locations up until that point. While visiting with Grampa, he complains a bit about how they keep it cold, leading Homer to turn up the thermostat which... leads to all of the old people turning into dinosaurs, and the segment goes from pretty funny to very unfunny very quickly. One also has to ask why it took them this long to make a 'Treehouse' segment based on 'Jurassic Park', considering the year the original film was released was the same year 'Treehouse IV' was released. I will give it credit for a few solid jabs at the 'Jurassic Park' series in the beginning, but the way it starts to go downhill is a bit too sharp and weird and it's just a bit much, even for a 'Treehouse' episode. This one is a simple matter of being too little too late. It caps off a rather disappointing episode altogether, and once again, I have no closer for this one, as it cuts to the credits as soon as this segment ends. The last episode was pretty good... what happened? 2/5 Overall Episode Rating: 40%
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