Ranking All 25 The Simpsons Season Finales
17. The Father, The Son, And The Holy Guest Star
Season: 16
Originally scheduled to air earlier in season sixteen, The Father, The Son, And The Holy Guest Star became that season's finale due to the death of Pope John Paul II. As the episode involves Catholicism, those in charge of the show felt it would be a little insensitive to air it immediately in the wake of the pontiff's death.
The guest star in question is Liam Neeson, playing Father Sean, a Catholic priest who teaches at St. Jerome's, where Bart is sent after being expelled from Springfield Elementary.
The episode's over-reaching theme is that the differences between branches of faith matter far less than their similarities and key values, something Bart seems to appreciate more than the adults, and that's what makes this episode a better season finale than it should have been. In the end, many saw this as one of the standout episodes of a generally weak season.
It also gets bonus points for Homer confessing that he has masturbated somewhere around eight billion times and has no intention of stopping.