There Will Be Buds

Plot

During the season opener game of the Springfield Neutrinos peewee football team, an excessive amount of special effects smoke fills the field causing the entire team to crash into each other and even though no one seems to be hurt, the parents freak out that they've suffered concussions and the football season is suspended. At a town meeting, no one is happy with alternatives like baseball or basketball, and when Kirk Van Houten tries to pitch the idea of coaching a junior lacrosse team nobody wants to hear it. Marge feels bad that everyone including Luanne treats Kirk like garbage and orders a reluctant Homer to make the crowd shut up and listen to Kirk. The pitch, which includes a description of lacrosse as a cross between "hockey and soccer" and a display of great ability by Milhouse himself, leads everyone to ignore the very high rate of concussions in lacrosse and create a new kids league for it.

The team is formed with Kirk and Homer as coaches, where Kirk does the actual coaching while Homer sits on the sidelines cutting oranges. Their team wins games easily, making it all the way to the championship match. Kirk begins to see Homer as his new best friend while Homer, although impressed by his excellent lacrosse coaching skills (which Kirk explains is due to his former lacrosse career ending in the mascot unintentionally breaking his wrist with his armor during a high-five), becomes increasingly annoyed by all the time they are forced to spend together, not least when Kirk keeps trying to get Homer to go to strip clubs when Homer doesn't want to. After a musical number during which he hears Homer insult him at length and call him a loser, Kirk then disappears just as the team needs him for the championship game.

When Lisa Simpson looks at Homer he looks nervous and asks him to tell the truth. Homer finds out from Luann Van Houten that Kirk has withdrawn all his money in $1 bills, and instantly realises that Kirk fled to a strip club. Encouraged by Marge, the team, and eventually the rest of the crowd, Homer goes to search for Kirk and finds him at Clubbb Sinnn talking to the strippers. When Homer tries to get Kirk to come back for the game, he initially declines, but agrees when Homer gives him a sincerely encouraging pep talk where he says he doesn't like Kirk but respects the hell out of him. Then the owner reminds Kirk that he owes back $15,000 for the time he has spent in the club and proceeds to have the club's security block the exits. Fortunately for Homer and Kirk, the club's strippers are sympathetic to their situation, as they are all mothers with young children, and allow them to use a helicopter from the club to get to the game just in time and the team wins. For winning the game, the team goes for pizza as Homer and Kirk high-five, only to get broken bones and end up in the hospital.

During the credits, Kirk does a MyTube video that someone keeps skipping to different parts all the way to the end, which includes a segment on preparing his famous rice sandwiches and a reference to 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+ stating, "The episode looks great. The cozy familiarity of Springfield’s yellow-dominated color scheme is so universal that it’s easy to overlook the show’s visuals. But the design and blue-and-gold palette of the kids’ uniforms is striking, and there’s a nicely thought-out fluidity to both the brief snippets of in-game action and movement all through the episode. The clearly defined motion and purpose of the lacrosse sticks makes for some truly funny and excitingly-designed sight gags, too...Matthew Faughnan’s direction makes it all crisp and fun to watch. It’s one story, well-told. A Simpsons episode with a little time to breathe (this one skips the theme song and couch gag entirely) is often a good sign."

"There Will Be Buds" scored a 1.4 rating with a 5 share and was watched by 3.14 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.