Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Simpsons season 36, “The Past and the Furious”

I didn’t think that Homer’s history with his mother Mona could get any sadder, but The Simpsons season 36’s new special proved me wrong. The Simpsons has been around for a very long time and, throughout its many years on the air, Homer’s father Grampa has always played a major role in the show’s story. With over 780 episodes to its name, The Simpsons is now officially the longest-running scripted primetime American TV show ever. As such, it is notable that Homer’s mother only appears in a handful of outings.

While The Simpsons season 36’s new Disney+ special indirectly expands her story, but this new outing only makes her plot sadder in retrospect.

Mr. Burns’ “Past and the Furious” Story Makes Mona’s The Simpsons Plot Worse

Mr. Burns Drove Homer’s Mother Into Hiding

In “Mother Simpson,” Homer learns that his boss, Mr. Burns was responsible for his mother going into hiding during his childhood. When Mona and a group of environmentalist protesters blew up Mr. Burns’ germ warfare lab, Burns was trampled by the ensuing stampede of hippies. Mona made the mistake of helping Burns survive, and he repaid her by sending the FBI after her. This sends Mona into hiding and eventually results in her leaving Homer again when Burns tracks her down decades later.

In “Mona Leaves-a,” Homer accidentally thwarts Burns’ plan to send Springfield’s waste to the Amazon rainforest, thus fulfilling the life’s work of his late mother by chance. This makes up for the downbeat conclusion of “Mother Simpson,” but I was shocked when The Simpsons season 36’s sad special revisited Mona’s already poignant story with Lisa in the lead role. In “The Past and the Furious,” a younger Burns repeats his history with Homer’s mother Mona with Lisa when she accidentally time travels to 1920s Springfield.

Years after her canonical death, The Simpsons managed to make Mona’s story feel even sadder.

Feeling hopeless due to Springfield’s environmental degradation, Lisa is sent to a psychiatrist who prescribes an experimental form of therapy. This allows Lisa to travel into the past, where she meets a young, shockingly friendly Mr. Burns. Lisa tries and fails to get Burns to save Springfield’s Mini Moose, but the budding industrialist instead ends up becoming the same monstrous industrial overlord that he was always destined to become. Thus, years after her canonical death, The Simpsons managed to make Mona’s story feel even sadder.

Lisa and Mona Simpson Both Failed At The Same Goal

The Two Simpson Women Tried To Stop Burns From Polluting Springfield

Both Mona and Lisa appealed to the humanity of Mr. Burns and both were met with nothing but scorn from the power plant owner. Mr. Burns turns Mona in after she tries to help him to his feet, and he turns on Lisa when the Mini Moose accidentally destroys his cherished greenhouse. While Lisa might get the consolation prize of a small flower garden, Burns still owns Springfield and continues relentlessly polluting the concrete wasteland.

The painful inevitability of Burns’ villainy and the Simpsons family’s failure is noticeably downbeat.

Although The Simpsons season 36’s special pairs up Lisa and Burns, I was mostly struck by how much it reminded me of “Mother Simpson.” In both episodes, one of the Simpson women takes a game on trusting Burns and ends up regretting the decision, realizing too late that he is truly irredeemable. Both episodes also introduce younger versions of Burns but only do so to confirm that the villain was always going to end up becoming the monster viewers know. The painful inevitability of Burns’ villainy and the Simpsons family’s failure is noticeably downbeat.

The Simpsons Season 36’s Special Makes Mr. Burns’s Mona History Darker

Lisa Failed To Change Mr. Burns By Travelling Back In Time

Burns and Mona’s history was already pretty bleak, considering Homer worked for the man who forced his mother into hiding for most of his adult life. However, “The Past and the Furious” managed the considerable feat of making Mona’s story even sadder by proving that even time travel wouldn’t change Burns. The Simpsons season 36’s special took place in an alternate reality, so it would have been easy to make Burns a less hateful character for the duration of this standalone outing.

Furthermore, executive producer Matt Selman said in an X post that The Simpsons has an “Elastic canon,” meaning the show could have made Burns more likable without this having permanent ramifications for his character. Instead, “The Past and the Furious” proved Burns was just as happy to crush Lisa’s hopes as he was to take away Homer’s mother, making the cartoonishly cruel villain into a less comical and more genuinely unpleasant villain for The Simpsons season 36.

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