101 Mitigations

Homer and the children are eating at The Gilded Truffle, where they used a misprinted coupon good for 100% off. Meanwhile, with the saved money, Marge gets a Swedish massage. Outside the restaurant Homer warns the kids to not hustle to get ahead in life. The valet parking attendant Raphael hands Homer the keys to the wrong car, a fancy 1957 seafoam Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. They drive away with it, having fun on the road. Back at Marge's massage, she senses Homer is doing something "incredibly stupid".

When they go back to the restaurant, its owner Comic Book Guy threatens to have Homer arrested for grand theft auto of his father's car. When Comic Book Guy notices his mint condition copy of Radioactive Man #1 was damaged, he presses charges, and Homer is arrested. At Springfield County Court House, Judge Snyder finds Homer guilty, even after a touching apology letter written by Lisa.

With two weeks before his sentencing hearing, the family prepares for the chance Homer might go to jail, and Marge agrees to make peace with Comic Book Guy. She goes to The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop to negotiate but Comic Book Guy says the issue is about getting respect. At home, Lisa discovers sentencing mitigations videos, including one employed by Mr. Burns, for one of his crimes against Springfield. The video, directed by Guillermo del Toro, opens with various monsters, then offers Burns as a sympathetic monster and product of a neglected and bullied childhood. They opt to use Springfield's last videographer, Gil, who Marge meets at Ol' Gil's Wedding Videos store, where she realizes they can do their own recording. Their efforts fall short but Lisa is able to splice together the work using her Final Cut Pro skills. In court Judge Snyder is initially open to setting Homer free but Comic Book Guy delivers an empassioned courtroom speech, the best Snyder has ever heard. He will deliver his verdict the next day.

Lisa finds a replacement Radioactive Man #1 online in a nearby Ogdenville comic book shop. But at Comic Book Guy's store he still holds a grudge against Homer. However he notices Homer's 1975 season one Welcome Back, Kotter keychain, a "precious totem" to Homer, the only gift his father ever gave him. To make Homer feel how he felt with his beloved car and comic, Comic Book Guy smashes the keychain with Thor's hammer Mjölnir, then declares he'll drop the charges. He also declares Homer his best friend and that the two will go to Comic-Con.

In the epilogue, Bart is shown in detention at school being supervised by Principal Skinner. Bart shows Skinner a prank sentencing mitigation video with Milhouse extolling Bart's transformative help, while the video plays Bart escapes from the room.

"101 Mitigations" scored a 0.8 rating with a 4 share and was watched by 2.25 million people, making The Simpsons Fox's highest rated show of the night.[1]

Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, stating "What did we learn from this episode? Certainly not the intended lesson that moments of pure joy always have consequences, it is German is earth's closest language to Klingon. The episode is funny and revelatory, though not always tummy rumbling funny. '101 Mitigations' contains a good mix of the clever and the silly, with a moral compass set on cruise control."[2]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+, stating "For Homer to finally understand the pain his wacky weekly nonsense causes to another person could be a loaded moment, dramatically. But the episode fudges it. The brisk running time—truncated more by del Toro's time-consuming but attention-grabbing cameo—leaves Homer and CBG's rapprochement hanging unsatisfactorily, pawned off on the joke that Homer regards CBG's invitation to Comic-Con as barely preferable to prison. The Simpsons has room for its characters' signature misbehaviors to be deconstructed in a meaningful way. It's a shame '101 Mitigations' doesn't.[3]