Homer's trouble begins when he accidentally ruins a beautiful garden that was planted by a new-agey hipster, Zeek, who had just moved to Springfield. Zeek had been trying to make the town more "Zen" and peaceful. Homer's destruction of the garden sets off a chain reaction of events.

A standout. Bart becomes a therapy bird handler for a former attack pigeon named Ray. When Ray goes missing, Bart descends into a The French Connection -style obsession. The episode is a loving homage to 1970s paranoid thrillers, with rain-soaked streets, a jazz score, and a surprisingly touching ending. This is the kind of episode that reminds you The Simpsons could still do genre pastiche better than almost anyone.

A cliffhanger episode where Ned and Edna Krabappel start dating after she is suspended for a prank Bart pulled. The episode ends with the two kissing in the rain — only for the final shot to reveal that Principal Skinner had been watching from a window, setting up Season 23’s love triangle. It’s a soft finale, but it shows the show still cared about its secondary characters.