Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)

For the second part of this episode, see Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two).
"Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)" is the twenty-fifth and final episode of Season 6 and the first part of the two-parter "Who Shot Mr. Burns?". Both parts were originally produced entirely for that season.
== Synopsis ==
Mr. Burns's greed soars to new heights when the elementary school strikes oil, culminating in his blocking out the sun to keep the town in the dark and dependent on his power plant — and someone tries to stop him by gunning him down. But who?
== Full Story ==
left|thumb|Mr. Burns showing Smithers his plan of blocking the sun
At the beginning of the normal ordinary school week, Principal Skinner opens up the school to find that Superdude, the fourth grade gerbil, has passed away. He gives Groundskeeper Willie the task of burying the gerbil, and in the process Willie strikes oil, causing the school to explode.
Up on the roof, Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers are inspecting what caused the explosion when a worker comes up and tells them they struck oil. He also holds up the corpse of Superdude. After thanking Superdude, Skinner tosses the gerbil off the roof. Everyone in the school rejoices, as now they have all the money they could ever want. While several teachers want new equipment, other requests are more exorbitant - and are just as quickly approved; Lunchlady Doris wants more staff and a better kitchen, Willie wants a crystal slop bucket and a brand new filthy blanket, Otto Mann wants a double guitar, and Lisa wants to hire Tito Puente to teach jazz at the school.
However, Charles Montgomery Burns has his eyes on the well, wishing to take the oil for himself in order to secure his energy monopoly over Springfield. He initially attempts to fool Skinner into selling the drilling rights to him by poorly disguising himself as Jimbo Jones, but Skinner immediately sees through the disguise, questioning Burns as to how he thought he could mistake the oldest man in town for one of his students. Despite Smithers' objections, Burns then organizes a slant drilling operation to tap the oil well before the school can, thereby stealing the oil for himself.
Burns' drilling operation causes chaos throughout Springfield. The initial jet of oil smashes into Bart's treehouse, leaving it in a wreck, injuring him and breaking Santa's Little Helper's hind legs. The drilling also causes a huge sink-hole in the ground under Grampa's retirement home, causing it to collapse and forcing all the occupants to vacate the building until further notice. Abe is forced to move in with the rest of the Simpson family along with his few remaining possessions, including a loaded Smith & Wesson; when Marge demands that he get rid of the gun, Abe buries it in the back yard with Bart. Along with the physical destruction, the fumes from the oil drilling force Moe's Tavern to close until the operation concludes; an angered Moe grabs a shotgun from under the bar. The alcoholic Barney Gumble has now lost his primary beer supply, and after being forced to leave, he pulls out a derringer. Similarly, the barflies Larry and Sam also have nowhere to go. Additionally, Springfield Elementary can no longer afford any new equipment because the school is now bankrupt from building and dismantling their oil derrick; Willie and Puente are both laid off as a result. Willie vows revenge on Burns right there, before running out of the office.
The only person whose hatred towards Burns is not directly caused by the oil well is Homer. Instead, the cause of his anger is that despite working for Burns for the last 10 years, meeting with him many times and even introducing him to his family, Burns constantly fails to remember Homer's name. Adding insult to injury, he refers to Homer using various dehumanizing epithets, even when Homer is present, in place of his actual identity. Homer's attempts to get Burns to remember his name are fruitless; after following Marge's suggestion and sending him a box of chocolates with a family photo inside, Burns remembers the rest of the Simpsons but neglects to eat the final chocolate covering Homer's face before disposing on the box. His subsequent thank you letter only mentions Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, enraging Homer to the point that he yells out a profanity that is heard for miles. Homer later breaks into Burns' office and spray paints "I AM HOMER SIMPSON" on the wall; when Burns catches him in the act and demands "Who the devil are you?", Homer snaps and attacks his boss, only to be carried away by security, yelling at Burns that he is a dead man.
Not even Smithers can stand the acts his beloved employer has undertaken. He dryly points out that Mr. Burns has crushed all his enemies - even though none of those people posed a threat to him. However, Burns declares that he hasn't taken out his biggest enemy: the sun. He reveals to Smithers his grandest scheme yet: to block out the sun with a giant disc, shrouding the town in darkness and thereby forcing the inhabitants to continuously use the electricity from his power plant. Smithers is horrified and points out that all plant life would die, owls would hoot constantly and the town's sundial would become useless, but Burns refuses to listen. Smithers finally stands up to his boss, declaring that he has gone too far; for questioning his methods and his refusal to take part, Burns fires Smithers.
Mayor Quimby calls an emergency town meeting; after noticing that many in the audience are stroking guns, he opens the floor, and a number of people complain.
Mr. Burns then shows up, and Bart charges at him in rage. Mr. Burns brandishes a gun hidden in his blazer, stating that he has decided to protect himself ever since he was attacked in his office by an 'unidentified assailant' (Homer, of course). He taunts the townspeople for trying to intimidate him but not having the guts to follow through with their threats.
Finally, Burns activates his sun-blocker, leaving the town aghast, and walks away, laughing. Just as he leaves, Krusty returns from Reno, although he quickly leaves the area when, having not witnessed Mr. Burns' vile behavior, he sees the townspeople glaring angrily.
As Burns relishes in everybody's misery, the citizens of Springfield leave the town hall. Amid an eerie silence, Burns walks down the street, whistling and humming merrily to himself. Whilst this is happening, several people notice a number of strange phenomena:
* Carl discovers that Mr. Smithers has left his jacket at the town hall.
* Otto finds that Principal Skinner left his mother Agnes behind at the same hall.
* Back at the Simpsons residence, the cigar box which held Grampa's gun has been dug up. Frighteningly, apart from a stray bullet, the box is now empty.
* As Marge places Maggie and Santa's Little Helper into the family car, she suddenly notices that the rest of her family are absent. Curious, she wanders away from the car to search for them.
Unaware, Mr Burn's remains in a cheerful mood and states that he feels like celebrating. As he is saying this, Burns walks behind a pillar, leaving only a shadow on the wall. Burn's stops suddenly and turns to face somebody hidden from view. Walking towards this person, Mr Burn's completely disappears from view, saying: -
"Oh it's you, what are you so happy about? (Gasps) I see. I think you'd better drop it. I said drop it!" 
He is then heard struggling with the someone.
Meanwhile, at the front of Town Hall, Marge noticing that the streets are deserted, asks aloud where everybody has got to? Suddenly, a gunshot is heard. A second later, Mr Burn's staggers out from behind Town Hall, clutching his chest in agony. Refusing to answer a worried but unhelpful Jimbo's question if he's alright, Burns wanders over to and collapses onto the town's sundial. The shocked residents of Springfield gathers around, realizing that the man they all hate and wanted a piece of has just been shot.
Following a bit of tomfoolery from Chief Wiggum, Marge asks how are they going to figure out the shooters identity? Nearly everybody in town had a reason to shoot Mr Burns and is therefore a suspect. There is a pause, in which several citizens look at one another suspiciously. Dr. Hibbert then breaks the silence with a laugh, before saying "Well I couldn't possibly solve this mystery. Can YOU?" He points at the screen, towards what is thought to be the viewer, but when the camera pans back, it shows that he is pointing at Chief Wiggum.
Although he does not seem confident, Wiggum says that yes, he will give it a shot, since it is his job as a police officer. An ominous tune plays after this and the words "To Be Continued" appear onscreen. Thus, the episode and the season concludes with a cliffhanger.
== Suspects ==
Marge states that every person in town could be a suspect and it is true that Burns blocked out the sun. However there are certain suspects whose motives are focused on, and the public was assured that the contest was winnable, so there could only be a limited number of suspects - presumably a character present at the Town Meeting who has been seen before. The most obvious suspects at the meeting were...
* Homer Simpson - lost it after Burns kept forgetting his name.
* Waylon Smithers - lost his job
* Seymour Skinner - lost his oil well.
* Moe Syzlak - lost his bar
* Barney Gumble - lost Moe's bar
* Abraham Simpson - lost his retirement home and his magazines.
* Bart Simpson - his dog's legs were broken and his treehouse was destroyed
* Tito Puente - lost his job
* Groundskeeper Willie - lost his job and his dream of a crystal slap bucket.
* Lisa Simpson - lost her music program.
**However as well as the primary suspects who draw the most attention to themselves at the Town Hall, there are other, less significant characters in the general area and at the Town Hall with potential motives...
* Dewey Largo - like Tito and Willie, he too lost his job at the school.
* Lunchlady Doris - she lost her potential canteen staff.
* Edna Krabappel - the school lost all extra equipment.
* Miss Hoover - the school lost all extra equipment.
* Jimbo Jones - Burns stole his clothes to try to dupe Skinner. Unfortunately, Jimbo isn't a suspect, as he is at a same location as Marge and being the first two alongside her who notice Mr. Burns got injured from a gunshot.
* Old Jewish Man - lost his retirement home and his sunbathing magazines
* Jasper Beardley - lost his retirement home,
* Sideshow Mel - offers to deal with Burns
* The Sea Captain - threatens Burns
* Apu Nahasapeemapetilon - states that somebody should have dealt with Burns
* Snake - Apologizes to Apu for not dealing with Burns
* The barflies Lenny, Larry and Sam - like Barney, they lose Moe's bar.
* Clancy Wiggum - it's his job to find the shooter and he could pin it on anybody and look like a hero. Wiggum is always carrying a gun and is well known to be corrupt.
*(Cleared later in part 1) Marge Simpson - "He's making us all yell!"
*Maggie Simpson (The culprit) - Vents her anger at the town meeting, likely because of her connection to her family, who all vented their anger. (She shot Burns because he stole a lollipop)
* And of course... any other person who had connections to the suspects and wanted to gain revenge on their behalf...
== Clues ==
There are many clues in this episode that rule out many of the suspects.
* Burns recognizes his shooter. This rules out Homer, as throughout the episode, Burns cannot remember his name. 
* Burns is an elderly man carrying a gun, and yet he talks to and then struggles with his attacker physically rather than shooting them straight away. This implies that...
**a) Burns' attacker has very little strength.
**b) Burns' attacker arrives at the scene unarmed.
*Burns' attacker doesn't speak at all.
*Smithers says that he never misses an episode of "Pardon My Zinger" Earlier in the episode on the TV at Moe's Tavern, we see that Pardon My Zinger airs at 3 PM, the same time as the shooting. Smithers is later seen leaving the town meeting in the opposite direction that Burns heads.
* When everyone is seen stroking their guns, Moe is shown to have a shotgun, which would do much more damage on Burns' body than shown.
*Burns hints at "stealing candy from a baby" earlier in the episode. 
* Skinner's gun has a suppressor in it, yet a gunshot is heard clearly.
* Otto, Carl, and Agnes were all seen in the town hall just moments before Burns was shot. It is extremely unlikely that they would be able to get from inside the town hall to the location Burns was shot behind it in time to shoot him at the time that he was shot, all but clearing all three of them has innocent, even if they all lost stuff from Burns oil well.
Also, the shooting took place at 3:00 PM, and when Burns' collapses on the sundial after getting shot, his arms - which, if you look at the sundial at a certain angle, resembles clock hands at 3:00 PM - land on the W and the S, hinting at the shooter's possible initials; W.S. (Or M.S.)
Additionally, when Burns collapses, his holster is shown to be empty, showing he has lost his gun.
== Behind the Laughter ==
=== Promo Cards ===
Who Shot Mr Burns.gif
Who Shot Mr. Burns (Promo Picture) 2.jpg
Who Shot Mr. Burns (Promo Picture) 3.gif
Who Shot Mr. Burns (Promo Picture) 4.gif
=== Reception ===
The episode (and the second part) received positive reviews from critics and the writers of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "A superb end to the season - and what's more, it's a genuine whodunnit. There's no cheating - all the clues are there." "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" ranked 25th in Entertainment Weekly's Top 25 Simpsons episodes' list, in 2003.
== Citations ==
fr:Qui a tiré sur M. Burns ?
it:Chi ha sparato al signor Burns?
pl:Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)
pt:Quem matou o Senhor Burns? (1ª Parte)
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