The Debarted

"The Debarted" is the thirteenth episode of Season 19.
==Synopsis==
A new troublesome student named Donny arrives at Springfield Elementary School, prompting a gleeful Bart to befriend him as his partner in pranks. Meanwhile, Marge wrecks the family car and gets a new luxury vehicle, which Homer grows attached to.
== Full Story ==
Marge is driving Bart and Lisa to school in Homer's pink car, when the children begin fighting. Having become exhausted and frustrated from moderating the kids, Marge inadvertently crashes into Hans Moleman's car. Bart manages to escape unharmed and attends class. He is surprised to discover that his seat has been taken by a new student, named Donny, who was recently kicked out of his former school. Donny soon gets Milhouse and Nelson to befriend him. After Donny throws massive amounts of garbage at the school wall, Bart begins to feel he is losing popularity. While trying to imitate Donny, Bart ends up humiliating himself. Feeling his social rank amongst his peers slipping, Bart sulks.
Meanwhile, Homer has taken his car to get repaired. The wiseguy informs him of a loaner car he could use in the meantime. The loaner car is significantly better than Homer's old car, and Homer embraces it, and begins driving it everywhere. Bart plays a prank on Principal Skinner, employing magnets and metal sole pads in Skinner's shoes. While on the school stage, the magnets cause Skinner to dance uncontrollably and ultimately be hurled outside of the school into a container filled with old and lost mouth retainers. Bart regains the respect and admiration of his peers, but when Skinner attempts to find who is responsible, Donny takes the blame for Bart's prank. Skinner takes Donny to his office, whereupon Donny is revealed to be in fact a snitch hired by Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers to get Bart suspended. Bart invites Donny into his clique alongside Nelson and Milhouse, and they plot school pranks. To signify Donny's entrance in the group, Bart rewards him with illegal Blue Vine licorice sticks from Europe, which turn the eater's tongue blue.
Homer gets Marge's attention by unlocking the loaner car from the inside of their house, and gives her flowers. Turning on the radio and the candles in the car. The Wiseguy calls Homer, informing him that his old car is ready to be picked up. Homer, however, refuses to give up the luxury car. At the school, Bart is perplexed when Skinner repeatedly anticipates and foils his pranks. Groundskeeper Willie informs Bart that a snitch is amongst them, but Bart wrongly suspects Milhouse. With the aid of Nelson and Donny, Bart imprisons Milhouse in a locker. Bart plans a final prank on Skinner involving egging his house with ostrich eggs. While helping Skinner hang up a banner, Bart notices that Skinner's tongue is blue. Bart figures out that the snitch is Donny, who had given Skinner the Blue Vines. Meanwhile, Lisa finds herself enjoying Homer's loaner car as well, taking advantage of a feature that lets her contribute directly to NPR and receive a message of appreciation by radio-show host Terry Gross. While driving past the car dealership, Homer sees the owner selling his car for $99. Homer is galled and realizes that his car is like his child, and takes it back, abandoning the loaner car.
Bart and Nelson ambush Donny and announce that they are going to force him to ingest enormous quantities of Mentos and Diet Coke. They are interrupted by the arrival of Superintendent Chalmers, Principal Skinner, and Willie, who has snitched on Bart in turn. Donny ultimately saves Bart, as he was the only person who ever cared for him. The boys escape as Skinner, Chalmers, and Willie are caught in the Mentos/Diet Coke explosion (Chalmers yells "SKINNER!" after the explosion). Before hitting the road, Donny tells Bart that he will always remember their friendship and wanting to meet him again in the future. Ralph Wiggum then comes out of a garbage can, which points to a rat. The rat then crawls as the ending credits play.
==Behind the Laughter==
=== Reception ===
The Debarted received positive reviews.
Richard Keller of TV Squad enjoyed the episode and liked the fact that it focused on Bart. The only part he did not enjoy was the subplot with Homer and the car. He said "I enjoyed this episode more than the usual ones that have aired during this post-Simpsons Movie season. There were plenty of good moments and a few of them that I actually laughed at."
Robert Canning of IGN said, "This was a fun and funny episode." He thought Homer's loaner car scenes were "just silly enough to make an impact." Canning thought both Topher Grace and Terry Gross did great jobs with their parts. He gave the episode a 7.8 out of 10.
Additionally, Joel H. Cohen was nominated for Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for writing the episode. He was also nominated for an Annie Award nomination for Best Writing in an Animated Television Production.
== Citations ==
fr:L'infiltré
pl:The Debarted
pt:O Delator
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Milhouse episodes
Category:Nelson episodes
Category:Superintendent Chalmers Episodes
Category:Groundskeeper Willie Episodes
Category:Kids episodes
Category:Education-themed episodes
Category:WGA Award nominated episodes
Category:Principal Skinner episodes
Category:Episodes featuring guest stars
Category:Episodes named after a character
Category:Episodes named after a film or TV Show
Category:Directed by Matthew Nastuk
Category:Written by Joel H. Cohen
Category:Parody episodes
Category:Highly Rated Episodes
Category:Bart vs. Lisa episodes