The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 17: American History X-Cellent
Mr. Burns expects his entire power plant workforce to put on a 4th of July BBQ extravaganza for him so he can enjoy the holiday while his workers slave away for him. Homer, Lenny and Carl are tired of working on the holiday and sneak into Mr. Burns wine cellar. They get drunk and destroy some of Mr. Burns precious items stored away and make a big dent in his wine collection. When Mr. Burns calls the police to come to investigate the problem the police find a famous stolen painting hanging in Burn’s wine cellar and arrest him, sending him to jail.
Lisa wants to share her excitement about her ant farm with Bart, who isn’t too interested at first. Bart sticks a whole pop-tart into the ant farm and Lisa is upset. The ant farm breaks by accident and one lone ant is saved. Lisa creates a new ant farm for her one ant and warns Bart to stay away from it.
Mr. Burns assistant Smithers takes over the business and tries to be nice to the workers. Homer, Lenny and Carl take advantage of Smithers until he overhears them making fun of his gullible nature. Smithers decides to be just like Mr. Burns only worse and Homer, Lenny and Carl begin to wish Mr. Burns would come back.
When Mr. Burns enormous cell mate pulls the evil out of him (resembling a scene from The Green Mile) and helps him find Christianity, Mr. Burns he becomes a changed man. Mr. Burns spends his time in prison singing in the choir, gardening and doing good deeds along with his cellmate.
Lisa and Bart notice the ant is slowing down. Realizing her ant days may be numbered, Lisa and Bart take the ant to the outdoors to set her free for her remaining days. As they release the ant into an ant hill they created just for her, Lisa and Bart’s dog Santa’s Little Helper licks up the ant and chews as they stand by horrified.
Homer, Lenny and Carl hatch a plan to break Mr. Burns out of prison. Before he leaves, Mr. Burns tells his cellmate he hasn’t given up all his evil, he saved some between his toes. Smithers, Homer, Lenny and Carl are happy Mr. Burns is back at work. Mr. Burns looks in his wallet to view a picture of his cellmate and himself and smiles at his happy memories of prison life.
