The second episode of the 35th season of The Simpsons premiered today, and it’s one of the most wholesome and beautiful episodes to ever come from the three-decade-long series. Marge Simpson is known as the mild-mannered mom to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie and the all-enduring wife of Homer, and she puts up with all the tantrums of the kids and her husband. Today, we get to see a side of Marge that every parent must’ve felt at least once in their lives, and even if you’re not a parent yet, you can understand her emotions just as strongly. Here’s a detailed recap of the latest episode of The Simpsons, and be warned, it’s going to be heavy.

Spoilers Ahead

Why Is Marge Sick?

The episode opens on an uncharacteristically beautiful note, with Marge coming home from shopping and Bart and Lisa being excited to see her back. Bart drags her by her hand and takes her to the yard, where the kids and Homer are blowing bubbles with the bubble gun that Marge has just bought them. She wants to cherish this moment because it’s one of the sweetest memories she’s had, until things start to get a little foggy. She finds Bart floating away in a bubble, and then it bursts, drenching her in water, and she sits up awake, pale as a sheet. Homer wakes up and is rather concerned to see his wife’s body covered in cold sweat and her face sunken. They deduce that it was the excruciatingly bad street food they’d eaten that night, and just the mention of the same makes Marge run to the washroom to throw up.

What Is Bounce-a-thon?

Homer wonders if he should take Marge to a doctor while letting her know that he doesn’t think she looks bad, but he’s just concerned for her wellbeing. In so many ways, Homer is a much better father or husband than Peter Griffin from Family Guy can ever aspire to be. However, Marge refuses because the next morning is the ‘Bounce-a-thon,’ an annual event where the kids do a race on bouncing balls, and she wants to attend it no matter what. She falls back asleep and starts dreaming, where she can feel the events changing at that very moment. Lisa arrives at the scene and announces that she’s the figment of Marge’s imagination that remembers everything their brilliant daughter told her. Lisa explains lucid dreaming to Marge, and she starts understanding the situation. Homer joins her, but as an otter, and together they explore the source of all the worry in Marge. The previous day, Marge heard Bart call for her, and when she rushed over, he’d lodged a splinter in his palm. While digging it out, she realized it’d been a long time since she’d held her son’s hand, and she was transported back to his childhood.

Why Is Marge Terrified?

However, this wasn’t the actual reason, and they traveled to the PTA Marge and Homer had with Bart’s teacher. She was meeting with all the parents and announced that Bounce-a-thon meant the end of the year and that Bart would start middle school in the next season. She then stressed especially hard on the fact that the parents needed to get their children strong deodorants, and soon the teacher became a massive entity, warning Marge that her son’s childhood was over. She warned how Marge would now have to worry about her son dealing with girls, drugs, and other questionable habits. After spending a while with her thoughts, Marge realizes she’s still dreaming and needs to wake up. It’s morning by then, and she finds Lisa, Bart, and even Milhouse in the kitchen. She wants to go to the function to support her children, but Homer making lunch for the kids makes her gag, and she has to throw up again.

What Does Bart Tell Marge?

While lying on the bed, she pleads with Homer to take a picture of Bart and Lisa making the thumbs-up during their bouncing, and Bart has to break it to his mother that he’s in the phase of making funny faces. Despite her pleas, he staunchly refuses to do anything but make funny faces. However, this had been a tradition for Marge to capture the thumbs-up moment for her children, and unable to deal with not getting the same this year, she falls back to sleep. In her dream, Homer, as the otter, comes to tell her that while Marge was so busy worrying about Bart, she missed the little dance Lisa did seeing her mother up. She then realizes that next year will be Lisa’s last year before middle school, and then one-by-one, all her children will leave the nest, and she’ll be all alone.

Marge once again wakes up and is determined to attend the bounce-a-thon this time. She puts on lipstick and gets in the car, but the radio talking about mayonnaise makes her throw up inside the car, and she has to use children’s scooters to pedal to the school while throwing up every 5 meters. She desperately wants to capture Lisa’s run for her scrapbook, and she prepares for Lisa to do the thumbs-up when her head spins.

Does Marge Capture Lisa’s Picture?

Marge wakes up in the makeshift nursing house, where Bart’s teacher shows Marge the shaky photo of Lisa she managed to click before passing out. The teacher also added that she never mentioned Bart losing his childhood, and he still had quite a few years of being a child left in him. Neither did she mention anything about drugs or girls, and it was just Marge’s mind worrying that her children were growing up. With the realization that she needs to cherish what she has at this moment, Marge’s pale skin is replaced with the usual yellow hue of The Simpsons characters, and she arrives just in time for Bart’s run. He uses two balloons for his hind as his pose, and Marge is just as elated to click this picture because she knows that she needs to let her children follow their hearts.

Does Marge Get Better In The End?

Seeing Bart happy with the picture, Marge understands that parents need to let their children choose their own paths, and they can’t mold them as per their ideals. The only way to deal with such situations is by accepting them, and to her joy, Bart offers his hand to take her to the place where kids are trying to dunk their gym teacher. She gladly takes her son’s hand, and he leads her on, just like her beautiful dream, and by that time, Marge is in perfect health. She came to terms with the fact that children grow up, and parents need to grow with them.