Trilogy of Error

Homer's day

Lisa shows Homer her school science project, a robot named Linguo, who corrects grammar. Homer breaks it by pouring beer down its throat, and Lisa runs upstairs frustrated. Meanwhile, Marge accidentally severs Homer's thumb as she is cutting brownies. They drive to the hospital, but Dr. Hibbert claims that the insurance will not cover the cost, so they instead drive off for Dr. Nick's clinic. Since Homer's thumb is starting to shrivel up, he stops by at Moe's, where he gets a pickle brine solution. He gets distracted when Moe offers him a beer. Homer rushes out the door and sees Marge is gone. He hitchhikes with Cletus who drives him to Dr. Nick's, but they discover the clinic is on fire. Homer asks Cletus to drive him to Shelbyville Hospital, but his truck gets stolen and Homer leaves for the hospital on foot. His thumb is almost completely shrivelled up now, and he is just about to throw it away when an explosion sends Linguo's severed head flying up into the air and it lands next to him.

Lisa's day

Thanks to Homer, Lisa has to fix Linguo, and misses the school bus as a result. She runs to school but on the way gets a ride from Krusty. However, Krusty mistakenly takes her to West Springfield Elementary School. Lisa leaves the school and, needing a ride, stops at Moe's Tavern looking for her dad, but he is not there. Homer comes in just as she is leaving by the back door. Outside, Lisa finds Marge, who tries to take her to school, but the car runs out of gas. Marge and Lisa see Cletus' truck and hitch a ride, but when he exits his truck they steal it and drive off for the school themselves. However, they are forced to stop when Bart emerges from a manhole in the road in front of them.

Bart's day

The doorbell rings, and Bart answers it. It is Milhouse, who takes Bart to a cave he has found in the woods, which is full of fireworks. Bart tests some, but accidentally sets fire to Dr. Nick's clinic. Bart and Milhouse hide in a building but are caught by the police and asked to help find the person selling the fireworks. Bart and Milhouse find Fat Tony and his henchmen, but when Tony realizes that Bart has a wire he chases the boys through the sewers until they emerge where Marge and Lisa are. Having been chased down the street, Bart and Milhouse get cornered. To save the boys, Marge throws Linguo at the gangsters and due to their bad grammar, the sparks from Linguo's body caused by the overload ignite the fireworks causing Linguo to explode. Fat Tony is arrested, but Marge points out Homer's severed thumb and Lisa's destroyed science project. Fat Tony proposes a solution. Lisa brings the mobsters to the science fair, and Legs (one of Fat Tony's henchmen) successfully reattaches Homer's thumb while Lisa narrates the presentation for her class.

Production

"Trilogy of Error" was written by Matt Selman and was directed by Mike B. Anderson as part of the twelfth season of The Simpsons (2000–2001). Selman was inspired by the 1999 comedy thriller film Go. Before pitching it, he devised the whole plot in order to prove that it could be done. The episode was originally called "Go, Simpson Go" in an allusion to the 1998 German crime thriller film Run Lola Run. Due to the non-linear structure of the episode, the writing staff found it difficult to write jokes for the episode, because "every thing would affect the story".

In the original draft, the second act would have portrayed Lisa travelling on the short school bus and meeting children with amusing disabilities, but it was deemed "too radical" at the time. The production team also wanted to create a segment focusing on Marge, but they decided she was already prominent in the first two segments.

During production, the staff found it difficult to choose which jokes to start each act since they had previously seen this. There was also a debate on the appearance of Homer's truncated thumb. The staff decided to add a thumbnail, although characters in The Simpsons do not have nails on their fingers and toes. The cost of "Trilogy of Error" was above average, despite the several replays of the same animation and the expectations of the production staff. During production of the third act of the episode, Selman went on vacation and the staff had to finish the act without him.

The title of the episode is a reference to the 1975 made-for-television horror film Trilogy of Terror. The episode makes a number of allusions to the 1999 film Go, an example of which is Homer and Marge's theft of Rainier Wolfcastle's car after Wolfcastle smashes up their car. The episode also parodies the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs by showing the same events occurring from different points of view, while also featuring music similar to that featured in Run Lola Run during the "Lisa's Day" segment.

Release

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 29, 2001. On August 18, 2009, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Twelfth Season. Staff members Matt Groening, Mike Scully, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Rob Lazebnik, Matt Selman, Tim Long, Max Pross, David Mirkin, and Mike B. Anderson participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were featured on the box set as well.

Since airing, "Trilogy of Error" has received positive reviews from critics. Matt Selman considers this episode "the best [he] has ever written". In a 2008 Flashback Review, Robert Canning of IGN called the episode "outstanding" for its several sight gags and pop culture references. He concluded it was an amazing episode and that it proved the series could still deliver "[its] share of quality episodes" despite its overall drop in quality. He ultimately gave the episode a 9.0/10. Several members of the IGN staff later named it the best episode of the twelfth season. AOL named "Trilogy of Error" the 20th best episode of the series. Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide positively compared the episode to the Treehouse of Horror episodes and called the episode "clever program that consistently entertains". DVD Verdict's Mac MacEntire called the episode "one of my all-time favorites" and she called Dr. Nick Riviera's line "Inflammable means flammable" the best moment of the episode.