The Last Temptation of Homer

After Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Charlie miraculously escape from a gas leak at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Charlie asks Mr. Burns to add a functional emergency exit to the plant. Burns degrades and promptly fires Charlie. During Burns's attempts to find Charlie's replacement, agents from the United States Department of Labor come to the plant and charge Burns with violations of several labor laws; Burns has employed undocumented immigrants and working animals, but has never hired a woman. A beautiful woman, Mindy Simmons, is hired and when Homer first sees her, he has a hallucination where she resembles the figure in The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, which he attributes to eating a packet of powdered gravy he found in the parking lot. Homer immediately becomes attracted to Mindy. Barney advises Homer to talk to Mindy because they will most likely have nothing in common. To his horror, Homer discovers that Mindy shares many of his interests, and Marge develops a cold, causing Homer to find her unattractive. While Homer and Mindy are in an elevator together, they catch each other muttering to themselves "think unsexy thoughts", and realize the attraction is mutual. Bart is sent to an eye doctor, who finds Bart has a lazy eye and fits him with thick glasses he must wear for two weeks. A dermatologist treats Bart's dry scalp by matting his hair down with a medicated salve, parting his hair to both sides. He receives a pair of oversized shoes from the podiatrist to help his posture, and the otolaryngologist sprays his throat. These changes make Bart look and sound like a nerd, causing school bullies to pick on him. Bart eventually returns to school in his normal guise after his treatments end, but the bullies pummel him anyway. Homer tells Mindy they should avoid each other because of their mutual attraction. However, Mr. Burns chooses Homer and Mindy to represent the power plant at the National Energy Convention in Capital City. To make matters worse, the convention organizers award Homer and Mindy a free dinner in a romantic restaurant. Later, in Homer's hotel room, Mindy tells Homer how she feels about him, but notices his anguish and tells him to decide what to do. Although he is very tempted by her, Homer declares his faithfulness to Marge. Mindy accepts his decision and leaves after they share a small kiss. Later, Marge and Homer share a romantic evening together in the same room. ==Production==

David Mirkin. |alt=A seated man wearing a cap smiles as he looks into the distance. His hands are crossed. The episode was written by Frank Mula and directed by Carlos Baeza. Mirkin said he did not have to give much direction during the recording of Homer and Mindy's final scene together, in which Mindy tells Homer how she feels about him. Pfeiffer "hit it really well" and they did it several times to get it "more and more real". Mirkin also thought that Pfeiffer completely understood the part and played it perfectly. He described her as "one of those actresses that you don't even have to see to know they're great, instead you can hear from her voice what a brilliant actress she is." Dan Castellaneta was also praised by Mirkin for his performance as Homer. Castellaneta struggled to be "sweet" and "moving" in his performance. This cameo was Klemperer's last credited role before his death in 2000. ==Cultural references==

The title is a reference to "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). When Homer first meets Mindy, he imagines her as Venus in Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus. ==Reception==

thought the episode was "amazing". |alt=A man in glasses and a plaid shirt sits in front of a microphone. In its original American broadcast, "The Last Temptation of Homer" finished 24th (tied with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) in the ratings for the week of December 6–12, 1993. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 12.7. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. and The Daily Telegraph characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons Television Episodes". Nancy Basile of About.com named it one of her top twenty favorite episodes of the show, and said Michelle Pfeiffer "is so elegant and beautiful, that the irony of her playing a burping love interest for Homer Simpson is funny enough." She added "the thorny issue of adultery is tackled in a way only The Simpsons could," and "though Homer is contemplating cheating, he's a sympathetic and almost innocent character." The authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'', Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts, called it a "wonderfully scripted episode". Bill Gibron of DVD Talk called it a "jest fest loaded with insight into the human heart and hilarious over-the-top goofiness." In a review of the 2008 episode "Dangerous Curves", Robert Canning of IGN called the episode "smart, touching and funny", and said "it did a great job showing Homer's struggle to deal with the flirtations of a co-worker." TV DVD Reviews's Kay Daly called it the season's finest episode with the "greatest foray into emotional resonance". Matt Groening thought it was an amazing episode with "a lot of fun" in it. David Mirkin said Frank Mula's script was great. She also appeared on AOL's list of their top favorite guest stars on the show. Brett Buckalew of Metromix Indianapolis wrote that Pfeiffer "gives arguably the best celebrity guest-vocal performance in series history." Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked her performance as the 15th best guest appearance in the show's history. When the inspectors visit the plant, they mention finding an entire Brazilian soccer team working there, and Burns says that they have to because their plane crashed on his property. This scene was mentioned by various media outlets after the 2016 disaster that killed most players on the Brazilian team Chapecoense. Nathan Rabin notes Bart's discovery of "a secret society of underground nerds that in any other show could easily be the foundation for an entire episode, if not an entire season, but here is only used as a throwaway gag. The episode ends as it must: with Homer flagrantly disobeying a fortune cookie that had told him he would find new love and inviting Marge to his hotel room for some dirty, dirty hotel sex, the very best kind of sex there is. 'The Last Temptation Of Homer' concludes with Marge and Homer’s marriage being lustily and satisfactorily reaffirmed, with the deep, true love Homer and Marge share overcoming his intense but passing physical attraction to Mindy. It’s a sweet and tender episode that also has the benefit of being consistently hilarious around the edges. From the flying-impaired 'flying monkeys' Burns is raising as hench-monkeys plummeting immediately to the ground after exiting a window to a visibly agitated Martin Prince leaping up and imploring his teacher, 'Pick me, teacher! I’m ever so smart!' when a vision-impaired Bart stalls on answering a question in class, it’s chockablock with inspired bits of business. In its god-like prime The Simpsons did not need to sacrifice laughs for heart or vice versa." ==References==