Gone Boy

Sideshow Bob is collecting trash for community service with other men. However, when they finish the work, the Simpson family runs over it with a rental car. After finishing up the rental time and fuel, Homer goes with Bart to play. However, Bart needs to pee and goes in the forest, falling down a manhole. Bart finds himself in a strange bunker, where he finds electronic equipment, which appears to be a military installation. Bart tries to escape, but the ladder gives in. Milhouse finds the entrance, but fails to help him.

The family and the Springfield Police Department as well as Bob and the other detainees start searching the forest for Bart, but Chief Wiggum and his fellow police officers fail as usual. The news states Bart is dead, but Milhouse fails to bring the good news in favor of Lisa's affection and Bob struggles to accept it. When Bart finds a phone in the bunker, he calls Marge to assure her he is alive.

When Milhouse leaves the house after getting more hugs from Lisa, Bob forces him to bring him to Bart with the family right behind. Bob shoves Milhouse down the manhole and then follows him immediately. Homer and Grampa fail to find them once again while Bob ties them up to a Titan II missile and tries to launch them and kill both. He soon has a change of heart and saves them at the advice of the injured prison therapist, as the missile crashes near the other sculptures as three people laugh at the Norad name. Back in prison, Bob begins his prison therapy, vowing to do good when his life sentences are done.

Many years later, Bob has retired to a secluded lighthouse as a mailman delivers his mail.

In May 2017, Entertainment Weekly reported that basketball player Shaquille O'Neal would guest star as himself when Homer asks him for help.{{cite web|url=http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/04/simpsons-shaquille-oneal-shaq/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504210417/http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/04/simpsons-shaquille-oneal-shaq/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 4, 2017|title=The Simpsons nets Shaq for guest role|last=Snierson|first=Dan|date=May 4, 2017|website=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=July 29, 2023}} O'Neal was previously featured in the twenty-second season episode "Love Is a Many Strangled Thing" in a non-speaking appearance.{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-simpsons-shaquille-oneal-guest-star/|title=Shaq Will Guest Star on The Simpsons, Somehow Hasn't Before|last=Mathews|first=Liam|date=May 4, 2017|website=TV Guide|access-date=July 29, 2023|archive-date=July 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729190313/https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-simpsons-shaquille-oneal-guest-star/|url-status=live}} Kelsey Grammer guest starred for the 21st time as Sideshow Bob.

The episode title is a parody of the novel Gone Girl. Sideshow Bob sings a musical number from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard. He later argues about the difference between the magazines The New Yorker and New York. Certain repeated animated sequence are in the style of the Film “Anatomy of a Murder” which starred James Stewart. The music from the movie “Cape Fear” is also featured at least on a couple of occasions such as the scene in the prison.

"Gone Boy" scored a 2.3 rating with an 8 share and was watched by 6.06 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.{{cite web|url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-final-ratings-dec-10-2017/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213010915/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/sunday-final-ratings-dec-10-2017/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 13, 2017|title='Bob's Burgers,' 'The Simpsons' and '60 Minutes' adjust down: Sunday final ratings|last=Porter|first=Rick|date=December 12, 2017|website=TV by the Numbers|access-date=December 12, 2017}}

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave this episode a B+, stating, "A coherent narrative throughline—check. Carefully nurtured extended gags—check. Lines that actually made me laugh out loud—a handful of checks. Couple all that with a refreshing lack of atonal jokes that either violate the show’s spirit or pander glibly to pop cultural ephemera, and even a halfway decent repurposed Christmas couch gag, and I found that, by the end of ‘Gone Boy,’ I'd had a uniformly good time watching The Simpsons."{{cite web|last=Perkins|first=Dennis|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-simpsons-brings-back-sideshow-bob-for-an-episode-th-1821171574|title=The Simpsons returns Sideshow Bob for an episode that ticks all the right boxes|website=The A.V. Club|date=December 10, 2017|access-date=December 11, 2017|archive-date=July 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724123608/https://www.avclub.com/the-simpsons-brings-back-sideshow-bob-for-an-episode-th-1821171574|url-status=live}}

Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode 3/5 stars, saying, "The premise promised...by the title of The Simpsons season 29, episode 9, ‘Gone Boy,’ would have made for a far more original offering from the series. The book and film Gone Girl was about a missing wife, who lived such a duplicitous double life, no one wanted to believe the most obvious suspect, her husband, was indeed the killer, had only she died. Bart Simpson lives a duplicitous life and everyone would believe his mortal nemesis would have had no choice but to kill the boy. Sideshow Bob was indeed spotted near the crime scene, associating with known rakes, of the boy, Bart Simpson, he vowed to kill. Bart, of course, is a master prankster and we wouldn't have had that much sympathy for him until he turned up again."{{cite web|last=Sokol|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Sokol|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-simpsons/269570/the-simpsons-season-29-episode-9-review-gone-boy|title=The Simpsons Season 29 Episode 9 Review: Gone Boy|website=Den of Geek|date=December 10, 2017|access-date=December 11, 2017|archive-date=December 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211060352/http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-simpsons/269570/the-simpsons-season-29-episode-9-review-gone-boy|url-status=live}}

This episode was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program at the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.{{cite web|last=Hipes|first=Patrick|url=https://deadline.com/2018/07/2018-emmy-nominations-list-all-nominees-1202425072/|title=Emmy Nominations: 'Game Of Thrones' Tops Noms, With Netflix & HBO Leading Way – Full List|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=July 12, 2018|access-date=July 2, 2023|archive-date=October 26, 2021|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211026/https://deadline.com/2018/07/2018-emmy-nominations-list-all-nominees-1202425072/|url-status=live}}

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{{Cnote2|Note 1|In some versions of this couch gag, the family is in their Christmas attire (elf costumes), but in others, they're just in their regular outfits.}}

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{{Wikiquote|The_Simpsons/Season_29#Gone Boy|"Gone Boy"}}

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• {{IMDb episode|7480064}}

{{The Simpsons episodes|29}}

{{Simpsons Sideshow Bob}}

Category:2017 American television episodes

Category:American Christmas television episodes

Category:The Simpsons season 29 episodes

Category:Television episodes about murder

Category:Animated television episodes about revenge

Category:Television episodes written by John Frink

Category:Television episodes directed by Rob Oliver