Summary

• Blaming Homer for The Simpsons Movie's story overlooks the fact that it was the villainous EPA agent who put the dome over Springfield.
• In season 35, episode 11, Lenny and Carl wrongly accuse Homer of trapping Springfield under a dome, missing the point of the movie's plot.
• Despite the retcon in the new episode, Homer was the one who destroyed the dome in The Simpsons Movie's ending, saving the town.

In the process of referencing the show's movie spinoff, The Simpsons Movie was a huge hit upon release, impressing critics and breaking records at the box office. Although the wait for a Simpsons spinoff movie lasted over a decade, the consensus was that the movie proved worth the wait. Since then, The Simpsons has occasionally referenced the events of the movie in ing, although it has also been partially retconned from time to time. In particular, Dr. Nick’s death in The Simpsons Movie was seemingly undone.

The Simpsons has typically followed a pattern of only referencing the movie’s events in throwaway gags. The series continued this approach with season 35, episode 11, “Frinkenstein’s Monster,” which saw Homer gain an impressive job at Shelbyville’s new Finnish power plant thanks to some high-tech trickery by Professor Frink. Upon learning Homer got the job that she was more qualified for, Amanda Seyfried’s character Dr. Spivak came up with a plan to oust Homer. She interviewed Lenny and Carl, who were more than eager to share Homer’s many indiscretions.

Lenny and Carl Blamed Homer For The Simpsons Movie’s Story

While spilling the beans on Homer’s past mistakes, Lenny asks Carl if he re that time when Homer put a dome over the whole town. Carl is so busy recounting Homer’s screw-ups that he never points out the fact that Homer didn’t put a dome over Springfield in The Simpsons Movie. It was the villainous EPA agent Russ Gargill who put that dome over Springfield, not the show’s antihero. While this sort of oversight is understandable in a surreal, silly series like The Simpsons where characters never age and often return from the dead, it still retcons the movie’s plot.

ittedly, Homer was partially to blame for Springfield getting placed under a pollution-absorbent dome. The EPA’s excuse for putting the dome over the town was that Homer had polluted the town with gallons of pig effluence, but Springfield’s history of pollution was the main cause for the EPA’s drastic action and Cargill was solely responsible for the choice. Cargill even tricked the president into allowing this risky decision, meaning the blame lay squarely at his feet and not on Homer’s head. To make matters worse, Lenny and Carl failed to note who got rid of the dome in the end.

Blaming Homer For The Simpsons Movie’s Story Misses The Point

Not only was he not individually responsible for its creation, but Homer was the one who destroyed the dome in The Simpsons Movie’s ending. Bart did assist him, but it was Homer who pulled off a wildly risky motorcycle stunt to save the town. While The Simpsons season 35 episode 11 featured a lot of gags mocking the show's earlier plots, Lenny and Carl were wrong to accuse their friend of trapping Springfield under a giant dome. All Homer was responsible for was accidentally killing Dr. Nick via the dome’s explosion in The Simpsons Movie, but after the new episode, that may no longer be an accurate .