Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Simpsons, season 36, episode four.
Even after 772 episodes, The Simpsons still manages to surprise us with new mysteries and revelations.
Aside from their eerily accurate predictions, fans have grown accustomed to certain elements of the show—like Maggie being scanned in the opening sequence.
Yet, one long-standing question has lingered among viewers for quite some time.
The enigma of how Homer Simpson, despite being notorious for his incompetence, continues to hold his job at the Nuclear Power Plant remained unsolved.
For a long time, many assumed this was just a comedic element of the series, a reflection of its satirical nature—until October 27th.
Before the airing of season 36’s fourth episode, titled ‘Shoddy Heat’, Al Jean, the showrunner, tweeted: “Tonight new @thesimpsons with long running mystery solved at this point in the show.”
This episode finally revealed why Mr. Burns has never fired his most inept employee.
The answer to this riddle involves none other than Homer’s father, ‘Grandpa’ Abe Simpson.
Back in 1982, Grandpa worked as a private detective with his partner Billy O’Donnell. They were hired by Agnes Skinner, Principal Skinner’s mother, to investigate her boyfriend, Mr. Burns.
Agnes suspected Mr. Burns of infidelity, but during the investigation led by O’Donnell, he mysteriously disappeared.
Grandpa confronted Mr. Burns at his manor, seeking answers, to which Burns cryptically replied that O’Donnell had ‘gone to paradise’—a line reminiscent of The Godfather.
To keep Grandpa silent, Mr. Burns struck a deal: he would employ Homer at the power plant and never fire him, regardless of his blunders—even noting a specific total of ‘742 times’.
Homer came to appreciate his father’s efforts, reflecting on all the occasions he should have lost his job.
Despite this revelation, Homer has been fired in past episodes like ‘Homer’s Odyssey’, ‘Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk’, and ‘Diatribe of a Mad Housewife’, or left voluntarily in episodes like ‘Maggie Makes Three’ to chase his bowling alley dreams.
However, he always finds his way back to the plant.
Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the episode. One viewer commented: “Kudos to the new episode for revealing the answer to the question, ‘How come Homer never got fired from his job despite all the mistakes he made?’ in the most surprising & weirdly wholesome fashion possible.”
Not everyone was impressed, as another user remarked: “Did not really care for tonight’s new episode of #TheSimpsons, ‘Red Heat’; this is not the first time the show, in recent years, has done a ‘Grampa actually has a more interesting past than we thought’ plot and I am sure it is not the last; didn’t really find it interesting.”