According to The Simpsons season 33, Homer never saw his mother after Bart’s birth, but this claim retcons one of the show’s most beloved and moving episodes. The Simpsons has often annoyed a vocal section of its fanbase by adopting a flexible attitude toward continuity. The show’s producers have been known to say that the long-running animated sitcom has no canon, but this can result in some of The Simpsons’ sweeter moments being abandoned, whether intentional or not.
For example, one Simpsons season 33 episode saw Grandpa claim that Homer never saw his mother after tracking her down in his teens, but this claim retcons the events of a much-loved season 7 outing. While the show’s Golden Age might be long over, The Simpsons could still avoid undoing the events of classic episodes through new outings. However, season 33, episode 9 “Mothers and Other Strangers,” saw The Simpsons bring back Glenn Close’s Mona before discarding her most famous appearance on the series.
The events of "Mothers and Other Strangers" begins by flashing back to how Homer found out that his mother was still alive after Grandpa claimed otherwise. Relatively well-reviewed, this Simpsons episode earned little critical hate, unlike many later season outings. The plot sees Homer track down, and then once again lose his mother during his teenage years, with Grandpa claiming that they never saw her again after that. Homer does correct him with the revelation that he saw Mono disguised as a doctor, moments after Bart's birth, but this nonetheless retcons the moving events of The Simpsons season 7, episode 8, "Mother Simpson".
In "Mother Simpson", Homer visits the local courthouse and discovers that his mother is still alive. As it turns out, she had faked her death and what Homer believed to be her grave actually contained the remains of legendary poet Walt Whitman. Homer learns that Mona left her family because she was being hunted by the FBI, connected to a 1969 hippie protest that saw an antibiotic bomb detonated inside Mr. Burns' germ warfare lab. The emotional episode gave Homer a rare opportunity to reconnect with his mother—one that The Simpsons bizarrely retconned in season 33.
The decision is a strange one, considering that with some minor changes to the script, Homer re-establishing contact with his mother during his teenage years didn't necessarily have to conflict with them meeting again in "Mother Simpson". Even more surprising was that the episode came from director Rob Oliver, who was responsible for one of The Simpsons’ best Christmas episodes with season 23's “Holidays of Future Passed.” Bringing back Close’s character only to retcon her existing appearance was an odd creative call that did not add anything to the Simpsons season 33 episode, but could reasonably have frustrated fans of the earlier outing.
Of course, this is far from the first time that The Simpsons has caused controversy with its many retcons. A few years back, fans were infamously irritated by an episode that made Marge and Homer teenagers in the ‘90s, while another recent outing depicted Marge as a teen attending school near the end of the millennium. This season 33 Simpsons retcon was a mistake for some fans, but not as egregious as undoing Homer’s reunion with his mother. Homer and Mona’s troubled history is one of The Simpsons' more moving stories, and should have been handled with more care.