Specs and the City

Plot

In a flashback from December 2013, a jolly Mr. Burns passes out Christmas gifts to his employees after Homer, Lenny and Carl just finished discussing their boss's past not-so-great gifts. The employees at the power plant unwrap the gifts to find Oogle Goggles. Concerned with his boss's sudden kindness, Smithers wonders if he should contact Mr. Burns' doctor, but Mr. Burns lets Smithers know that now all his employees can spy on each other. Furthermore, with a press of a button, Mr. Burns thinks he can kill an employee even though this doesn't work when he tries to demonstrate it to Smithers. Fast forward to February 2014, when Marge encourages Bart and Lisa to join in the Valentine's Day festivities of making cards for everyone in the class. Bart stands against giving a card to Nelson, the class bully, who he doesn't love. However, Marge shows Bart an amusing video the school had sent out with a kid who overdoses on candy hearts when he doesn't receive Valentine's Day cards.

As Homer heads out with his family, he notices that Flanders' home is worth more than his home, so in order to up the value on the property, Homer snatches Flanders' flowers and plants them on his yard. Through Homer's goggles, he sees that the value shoots up, before Santa's Little Helper urinates on the plant and value drops. During Homer's snuggle time with Marge, he cannot take off his goggles, prompting Marge to walk out on him. Homer desperately asks the goggles to find a gift for Marge under five dollars. Homer then asks the goggles to take him back in time to two minutes ago. In the morning, Marge flips pancakes in anger. When Homer decides to give up the goggles, he places the goggles on the lazy Susan before it lands on Maggie. Marge grabs the goggles and puts them on to which Maggie spits her pacifier at her in defiance.

Over at Springfield Elementary School, a line of kids waits to give Nelson a Valentine's card. When Nelson is ready for Bart to give him his card, Bart stands up to Nelson in not giving him one despite Bart already having one planned. Bart rips the owl card with a bad joke. The kids gasp. Gripping Bart's shirt, Nelson demands that Bart have a card ready to give to him in a week. Meanwhile, Homer appears at work without his goggles, but he soon realizes that he cannot live in a reality without them because when Carl saw him, he slapped Homer repeatedly. Homer looks for goggles in Mr. Burns's office only to find the room empty. Homer sees the monitors of all the employees doing anything but work. Homer also sees Marge wearing his glasses and feeding Maggie ice cream even though Marge had told Homer they had run out of ice cream.

Homer sits on Mr. Burns' cushy chair eating popcorn when Mr. Burns shows up asking, "Who are you?" and Homer says Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns apologizes to "Mr. Burns" and backs away from the chair and out of the office. Homer continues to watch Marge do her everyday errands, which includes visiting a therapist where she talks in detail about the infuriating behavior Homer displays every day. Back at SES, Bart gives Nelson a card that's based on fear (of both the pressure of Valentine's Day and Nelson's psychotic actions) which outright calls Nelson a crazy violent person who will someday be on Death Row; to everyone's shock and happiness, Nelson is moved by Bart's honesty and gives him a hug. Based on advice from Moe, Homer sets up a fake appointment at the therapist's office to "bump into" Marge, but before he can do this he overhears her say that the therapy is her reset button. He figures out that Marge always goes from being miserable on Tuesdays before her appointments to being absolutely happy and lively on the Wednesdays after them, and he quietly watches her leave before going through his own appointment (he has the psychiatrist cut his hair). Homer later tells Marge she deserves to have her secrets, and they end up making love to the horror of the monitoring Mr. Burns.

Couch gag

This episode's couch gag features an ident commissioned by the UK network Channel 4, in 2006 (though first aired in July 2007), for use before its broadcasts of Simpsons episodes. The writers added in all-new sections in order to theme the gag around the Super Bowl which was broadcast near the airing of this episode. In the original ident, Homer places his six-pack of Duff beer on a hammock in the Simpson's backyard. When he sits down, he inadvertently fires the six-pack into the sky, only for them to get caught on the power lines hanging over the garden. When Homer manages to get up to the beer cans, climbing up the family's garden tree, he is shocked by the electricity now running through the six-pack. He is continuously shocked as the camera pans up to a birds-eye view of Springfield. Every time Homer is shocked, an area loses power, which slowly start to make out the shape of the Channel 4 logo. In the updated couch gag version, Homer sits down to watch the Super Bowl, only to discover he has misplaced his six-pack of Duff. He discovers Bart has tossed it onto the overhead power line in the family backyard, and when Homer retrieves it, he is shocked. He continues to get shocked as the camera pans to a birds-eye view of Springfield until the town's power goes out (the Channel 4 logo is noticeable, but the power outages have been changed so it isn't as obvious).

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, saying "It’s not that 'Specs And The City' (wherein Mr. Burns’s gift of Google Glass-style eyewear to his employees leads Homer to a surprising revelation about Marge), is a bad episode of The Simpsons, or even a bad episode of television. It’s that it’s so nondescript that it seems constructed according to the guidelines of a sample spec script template—it hits all the recognizable beats of a Simpsons episode without imbuing any of them with originality, personality, or, you know, laughs. There was one thing that annoyed me, a handful of moderately amusing lines, and then it was over. I keep having to go back to my notes to remember story details watched twice only minutes ago. Not a good sign..."

The episode received a 1.7 rating and was watched by a total of 3.87 million people, making it the second most watched show on Animation Domination that night beating American Dad! and Bob's Burgers but losing to Family Guy with 4.11 million.