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Original Air Date: Sunday, October 16, 2016  The Episode #600 Milestone In America, where "everything is early", things open with the Simpson family exploring a Christmas tree lot on Halloween. They are then locked in and ambushed by a "furious four" of Sideshow Bob, the Leprechaun from 'Treehouse XII', the ghost of Frank Grimes and Kang. Their reason for ambushing the family is due to every battle they've fought over the years with Homer resulting in Homer besting them somehow. As they move in for the kill, however, a Clockwork Orange (again) dressed up Maggie kills them all, spilling out purple alien blood from Kang that spells out the title for 'Treehouse of Horror XXVII'. The ghost of Frank Grimes (not really able to be killed) asks if anything can stop the Simpsons, and the screen proceeds to load with clips from every previous episode (filling the screen 20x30) with Grimes suggesting that in Hell they make you watch them all in a row. But hey, the intro isn't over yet. The 600th episode milestone marker is followed by a couch gag entitled 'Planet of the Couches' in which a tribe of sofas captures the Simpson family and... doesn't realy do anything with them, but apparently still pose a threat. Homer then knocks the couch out while on the beach, and the family sits and watches the waves from the ocean instead of the TV. It's not my favorite couch gag, but the overall opening is quite humorous.  'Dry Hard' This one is a bit hard to appreciate unless you can appreciate the farce of a three-part story being split into four movies within a near-five-minute spoof. The parody here is mainly 'The Hunger Games', but it also touches on 'Mad Max: Fury Road' as it collectively portrays a community without sustenance of some sort. In this case, it's water, which has all but drained from Springfield due to a drought, but Mr. Burns hogs the last of it. Burns announces a battle in which the children of Springfield will fight each other to the death just for a chance to spend a day swimming in Burns' personal reservoir. Lisa is selected to represent "Nevergreen Terrace", and has "Homish" as her coach. However, Lisa tries to convince the kids to band together and fight Mr. Burns for his water instead of just competing to the death for a day of refreshment. The whole thing is split into four quick parts, and sometimes visually hilarious - my personal favorite being Willie representing that crazy guitar guy from 'Fury Road' at one point. As a whole, I have to admit that the segment is a bit of a mess. But I almost feel that for this one, in a way, it's supposed to be a mess. As mentioned before, it pokes fun at the seemingly unnecessary extra money-making film at the end of such franchises as 'Harry Potter', 'Twilight' and of course, 'The Hunger Games'. In that regard, it's a mess you can appreciate, like paint splatter on a canvas. I think I've seen worse. It just passes. 3/5  'BFF R.I.P.' In a bit more of an original segment, several people who are close to Lisa start to die off in various gruesome ways. She talks to a therapist, but even she is mysteriously killed. While Chief Wiggum suspects her to be the culprit, Lisa soon finds out that the deaths are due to a jealous imaginary friend from her past named Rachel (Sarah Silverman). The next morning, there's another murder on the school bus, which leads to Lisa's arrest. In jail, Lisa mentions that her mother was right about not needing Rachel anymore, which leads Rachel on a rampage, seeking out Marge and everyone else Lisa cares about, which, knowing Lisa, is generally everyone in Springfield. With the help of Bart and her imagination, Lisa sets out to find and stop Rachel from doing any more damage. Also brought into the picture, eventually, is Homer's imaginary friend, Sergeant Sausage. This one also gets a solid pass. It's nothing awesome, but the story flows nicely, and the gags are at least decent. Sarah Silverman also brings her own touch to the homicidal Rachel, and even Drew Carrey shows up for a brief moment to give a eulogy. It's no knee-slapper, but it's not without a few giggles, and some relatively creative kills. It doesn't really parody anything specific either, and sometimes an original work is just fine. 3/5  'Moefinger' I actually did enjoy this one, despite the fact that it doesn't entirely fit the Halloween theme. This one is a mixed parody of 'Goldfinger' and 'Kingsman: The Secret Service'. In the opening, Bart is running from Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, and tries to hide in the back room of Moe's bar, through the back door. They catch up, but just as they are about to pummel him, Moe comes to the rescue. Moe then reveals to Bart that this whole time, he and the rest of the regular barflies actually work as secret agents. Due to Homer's recent death in action, Moe asks Bart to step up to the plate and take his place. His first mission involves helping them to thwart Remoh Industries, who are plotting to buy up all of the world's beer. The plan is to strike during a free concert Remoh Industries is putting on, featuring Steely Dan, at their recently purchased Duff Stadium. This is all followed by a generous twist, which I won't spoil. To be fair though, you may already still see it coming. I have to admit that I had quite a bit of fun with this one. It's pretty off the wall, and fits the 'Kingsman' concept pretty well. It's another example of a not-so-Halloweenish segment that gets my attention as a pretty good parody, regardless of whether or not it fits with Halloween. It still does what it's trying to do well, and though it's not laugh out loud hilarious, it's still perfectly enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed just how half-assed the explanation regarding Remoh buying up all the world's beer was. 4/5 If there's no other reason to end on a 'Bond' farce, it's so that it can end in a 'Bond' style, complete with its own 'Bond' song, '600'. Its soul purpose is essentially to call out all of the bad shows that have gone under over the years that 'The Simpsons' has lasted. It even goes so far as to take a jab at 'Futurama' and "Untitled Seth McFarland Show 2017", which eventually turned out to be 'The Orville'. In my opinion, a well-earned ending, even if it does boast its milestone.
Overall Episode Rating: 67%
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