For the one who writes this, ‘Who shot Mr. Burns?’ it is by far one of the best episodes (when not the best) of ‘The Simpsons’. The double episode that closed the sixth season of the animated series and began the seventh had viewers on edge theorizing who could have shot the local chief.
Premiered in the United States on May 21, 1995, the episode began with maintenance man Willie finding oil, something that did not go unnoticed by Charles Montgomery Burns. who tries to do everything to get that reservoir drained earning, along the way, enemies everywhere.
And it is that the end of that episode ended with the final plan of Mr. Burns to deprive Springfield of sunlight. I was in full celebration, lonely through the streets, when I would be shot. Badly wounded, the tycoon would end up collapsing on the now obsolete sundial with his arms pointing west and south (W and S).
The ‘Dallas’ from ‘The Simpsons’
Anyone could be the culprit the resolution of the case would come almost four months later, with the broadcast of the second part as the beginning of season 7 of ‘The Simpsons’. There he turns around several suspects, including Moe, Homer Simpson and, of course, Waylon Smithers, to finally discover the real culprit: Maggie Simpson.
A solution that was not the only one that passed through the writers room and, in fact, they shuffled several names… some of which were revealed just a couple of months later in the ‘Spectacular episode number 138!‘, where they offered an alternative ending to the chapter. However, theories about the real culprit have not stopped emerging in all these years.
And one of the latest theories has been “blessed”, for lack of a better word, by Josh Weinsteinwriter of the episode in question, assuring that it is the “best alternative theory I have seen in 25 years”. And it has been done by a fellow screenwriter, Nico Colaleo (‘Ollie & Scoops’), pointing out one who had gone more than unnoticed:
A) Yes, the blame shifts from Maggie Simpson to the pet by autoland Muffler yesAle, a more than unexpected suspect. Now more questions arise: who is hiding behind that disguise and why is he shooting Burns? I’m afraid we’ll never know.