Flashbacks and Flashforwards

Written on January 9, 2011.

I love watching flashforwards in TV shows. Flashforwards show us what writers envision the characters to be like in the future. I especially love seeing flashforwards in cartoons because, let's face it, cartoon characters don't age.

Today, I got to watch--for the nth time--my favorite episode from my favorite cartoon show: The Simpsons S06E19 Lisa's Wedding.

I forgot that the flashforward was set in 2010, which was last year. It's surreal. It's funny seeing how we envisioned the future then: hologram trees (in memory of real trees), robot librarians, World War III. It's already 2011 and the world is far from becoming what we envisioned it over a decade ago, except for maybe picture phones (thank you, Face Time and Skype).

Since the episode originally aired in 1996, I think, perhaps I can go on and blog about what happened in the episode without it becoming a spoiler.

The episode starts off with the Simpsons going to the Springfield Renaissance Fair. Lisa goes to Friar Wiggum's (Not-So-) Fantastical Beastarium. An equinox (aka bunny) hops away. Lisa tries to go after the bunny but she stumbles upon a fortune teller.

The fortune teller tells Lisa about her first love, an English boy named Hugh. She meets Hugh in college in the year 2010. Initially, they hate each other but eventually fall madly in love with each other after playing a game of "who's better/smarter than who". They travel to England and get engaged.

Lisa and Hugh go back to Springfield for the wedding and stay at the Simpsons' home. Being the Simpsons, they unintentionally give Hugh a difficult time. Homer brings Hugh to Mo's for a drink, where he passes on a tradition by giving Hugh a set of hideous, novelty pig cufflinks.

On the day of the wedding, Homer and Lisa talk. (Such a sweet, aww-inducing scene.) Lisa notices that Homer is wearing the pig cufflinks and asks Homer about it. Homer says he found the cufflinks on nightstand, insisting that it's fine if Hugh doesn't want to wear them. Lisa confronts Hugh about wearing the cufflinks despite them being hideous. (For you to understand how important the cufflinks are, you have to know that it's one of very few Simpsons traditions. Homer also believes that the cufflinks gave him good luck in his marriage.) She also emphasizes that Hugh promised he'd wear them and that it would hurt Homer's feelings if he didn't wear them. Hugh finally concedes but suggests that after the wedding, Lisa and Hugh will be living in England never to see the Simpsons ever again, except for maybe Marge and the kids. Lisa gets upset, saying that even if she complains about them a lot, she still loves her family. She then leaves Hugh, calling off the wedding.

Back to present time, the fortune teller tells Lisa that Hugh leaves for England the next day, never to see him again.

Despite the main arc being sentimental and all, the show was still funny especially because of the secondary characters. Mayor Quimby ends up working for Otto's cab service as a cab driver. Millhouse ends up becoming Homer's boss at the power plant (and, apparently, Lisa's first lover--which doesn't count, according to Marge). Mo loses an eye and wears an eye patch. Bart gets married (and divorced) twice. Pretty much everybody changes except for Troy McLure, who's still on TV. But this time, he facilitates interactive video classes--yes, as in school classes, Math and the like (sponsored by Pepsi)--gray-haired and all. Oh yeah, Patty and Selma are still single.


I really love seeing characters in the future. It's a part of them we never usually see, well, except in flashforwards.

I'm not sure if this will happen in the next 20 seasons of The Simpsons, which I haven't seen yet, but I hope we do see Lisa actually get married. I really do hope she doesn't end up with Millhouse. Maybe that kid from The Simpsons Movie?