Chief Wiggum In Pursuit
I'm directly under the earth's sun...now!
S05E06

"Marge on the Lam" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 4, 1993. When Marge invites her neighbor Ruth Powers to attend the ballet with her, the two become friends and begin to go out, making Homer jealous as he wants Marge to spend time with him. Ruth and Marge agree to remain friends but not go out together after a large police pursuit with Chief Wiggum. It was written by Bill Canterbury and directed by Mark Kirkland. Phil Hartman, Pamela Reed and George Fenneman guest star.

After donating money to public television, Marge receives complimentary ballet tickets. She asks Homer to accompany her, and much to Marge's surprise he agrees, confusing ballet with a circus. On the day of the ballet, however, he inadvertently gets his arm stuck in a vending machine while trying to steal a can of soda from it and then gets his other arm stuck in a candy machine, and so is unable to attend the ballet. In disbelief about Homer's story, Marge invites her neighbor, Ruth Powers to attend with her. They both enjoy themselves and arrange to go out again the next night. Marge and Ruth's friendship annoys Homer, who feels Marge should be spending time with him instead. However, ignoring Homer's protests, Marge and Ruth visit bars and clubs in Springfield, and Ruth later shows Marge how to use a pistol.

Homer, attempting to prove to himself he can have a good time without Marge, leaves Bart, Lisa and Maggie under the supervision of Lionel Hutz and goes out by himself. Finding Moe's Tavern more depressing than usual, Homer visits the hilltop where he and Marge used to come to on dates before they got married. Ironically, Marge has also taken Ruth there to finish the night, but they leave just before Homer arrives. Chief Wiggum finds Homer depressed and offers him a ride home, which Homer accepts. As Ruth and Marge are driving home, Chief Wiggum, with Homer as a passenger in his patrol car, spots Ruth's car and claims that one tail light is slightly smaller than the other. He decides to pull them over. Reluctant to stop, Ruth reveals to Marge that the car she's driving actually belongs to her ex-husband, and that she had stolen it as revenge for stiffing her on child support (although Marge points out that Ruth could've just reported him to child services). Ruth leads the police on a high-speed chase rather than turning herself in. Homer realizes it is Marge in the car, and believes she is leaving him after discovering that she can have a better time without him. Ruth successfully evades Wiggum by turning off her headlights, which leads him to believe her car is a ghost car.

After seeing Marge and Ruth again while cooking breakfast on his car engine, Wiggum continues his chase of the two, aided by other Springfield Police vehicles. After noticing a cliff ahead, Homer believes that Marge and Ruth are attempting suicide because of him and, using a megaphone, apologizes to Marge for all the mistakes he has made in their marriage and urges them not to drive into the chasm. Ruth, who had not noticed the chasm, slams on the brakes and stops in time; however, Homer and Wiggum fail to stop and fly over the edge of the cliff only to crash into a landfill. The episodes ends with a description of the fates of each of the characters involved in the episode.

Much of the plot, including Ruth's blue convertible and Homer and Wiggum's fall over the chasm, is a parody of the Ridley Scott film Thelma & Louise. Crystal Buzz Cola is a reference to the fad drink Crystal Pepsi, and when Homer reaches into the vending machine, a can of Fresca is seen in a skeletal hand. The comedian who performs at the telethon who the Simpson family does not find funny is a parody of Garrison Keillor. Ruth mistakenly inserts Lesley Gore's song "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" into her car stereo before beginning her and Marge's wild night out; later, Chief Wiggum plays the song on his police cruiser's stereo as "appropriate" car chase music. After extracting the wrong tape, Ruth pops in "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses.[1] The scene when Homer is in Moe's Tavern is emulated from Thelma & Louise. Quimby dancing in a night club is in reference to the Kennedys. When Marge gets hit on in the bar, the guy who does not talk is a caricature of show runner David Mirkin. The old man that comes out when Marge is shooting his cans is a parody of Walter Brennan. The episode's closing sequence is a reference to Dragnet. George Fenneman recorded the ending in the same fashion as he did on Dragnet. 1pp2p30eccmcv3443

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