Review: The Simpsons “Habeus Tortoise”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Homer humiliates himself in a town meeting, he looks for acceptance in an internet group hunting for a missing tortoise, but finds something much more sinister.

Our Take:

The family from Springfield is back once again with another season full of mishaps and comical misfortunes. It still boggles my mind to see the show going strong for more than 30 years, especially with some of its lesser-quality episodes. Despite that, I had fun revisiting The Simpsons in its 33rd season, with its two-part episode “A Serious Flanders” being one of its highlights. So now we see if its latest series of episodes can fare any better.

The 34th season starts with Homer searching for a tortoise that went missing. No, you’re not mistaken. A turtle hunt is how this new season starts. Actually, it started with a new couch gag with the family traveling to their couch on a lost connection page, which is enough to put a smile on my face. The episode then starts with Homer embarrassing himself with the idea that’s already been invented, which is a library. Fearing he’s not taken seriously, Homer decides to take on the case of the missing tortoise named Leonard with the help of a Facelook group.

There’s nothing new about Homer’s attempts to redeem himself after committing a dumb mistake that affects the population. I mean, he did try to fix his error by deleting the viral videos in the last season’s 14th episode. It’s part of his ever-lasting phase of being a caring person and loving father, even though he keeps screwing things up afterwards. However, in this episode, we see him looking for acceptance instead of redemption, as he joins an internet group to search for an old turtle.

However, this team of turtle-finders seemed to be more into conducting conspiracy theories that usually go overboard. Homer felt welcomed in the group because he was free to express his ideas to others without being judged. However, after discovering their true intentions, Homer realizes that most ideas are bad enough to be left alone. Aside from its usual pop culture jokes, including Homer referencing the 2011 comedy Zookeeper, the episode’s humor pokes fun at the concept of conspiracy theories but also effectively reflects on how these theories harm others and themselves. It even broke the fourth wall at the end by referencing the theory about the show’s “ability” to predict the future, which I thought was a perfect fit for an episode like this.

It’s no conspiracy that “Habeus Tortoise” is a decently enjoyable start to the show’s 34th season. There’s nothing too special about Homer’s search for acceptance. Still, the season premiere offers a humorous trip down the Conspiracy Hole that exposes the dangers of providing false theories and pokes fun at them. If I were to make my own conspiracy theory, it would be that the rest of the season would be as fun as this episode.