The Simpsons: 10 Characters Who Reappeared After Long Absences

Rounding off our trilogy of characters who died in the show is Homer's estranged mother, Mona Simpson.

After abandoning Homer as a child to become a social rights activist, Mona re-enters her son's life in the Season 7 episode Mother Simpson.

Mother Simpson is one of the show's best episodes. Aside from the usual Simpson hilarity, it features one of the emotional highlights of the entire series - that iconic shot of Homer staring at the night sky after once again saying goodbye to his mother.

Eight seasons later, Mona would reach out to her son once more using a news story about a giant pizza. She'd made appearances in flashbacks, but My Mother The Carjacker was the first proper appearance for the character since Mother Simpson, and ended with Mona presumably plummeting to her death in a car accident.

Because The Simpsons is a cartoon, Mona survived and would return to her son one last time in Season 19, where she would pass away. This brought to an end one of the most emotionally-charged character arcs in the show's entire history.