Kredit Kookies: Short Credits.Couch Gag: The entire town of Springfield is at a sporting event, and on-cue, they hold up signs which contain a portion of a picture of the Simpsons on their couch.Homer’s too distracted by his hot-dog to complete the picture quickly – but in the end, with a d’oh, he holds up his missing piece.

After Homer becomes the victim of a Mr. Burns-related workplace accident, he’s given two months’ paid vacation – a fact he hides from Marge due to her increasing frustration and displeasure with his behavior.Thanks to his accident, Homer hallucinates the visage of Stradivarius Cain, a dashing character in a spy movie he’d seen before the accident.He promptly begins advising Homer on his romantic woes, which leads Homer into a dangerous flirtation with the wife of a Bolivian gangster.Meanwhile, Bart uses an idea given to him by Declan Desmond’s cautionary documentary to neutralize Nelson and starts pumping the bully full of fast food, forcing Lisa to spring to her ex-boyfriend’s defense.

“The Spy Who Learned Me” is a cut above middling; the A plot is fairly inventive, with some excellent work by Bryan Cranston as Cain and Homer’s repeated-though-bumbling attempts at making all well with Marge. We haven’t seen her this angry in quite awhile, which is a fresh twist to the typical Marge-and-Homer-break-up plot.Yet the ending is route, and Homer never learns that he can be an effective husband without his apparitions’ help, making the plot a fun but empty one.

The secondary plot, on the other hand, is another classic Bart-the-Brat moment.It’s interesting that he doesn’t end up paying more for his misdeeds; one expects him to suffer disproportionately for his sins and he simply doesn’t.

Bonus credit must be given for the way the episode uses Lenny, especially the side-gag of his imaginary friend sleeping with Homer’s hallucination’s wife.But that’s not enough to lift “The Spy Who Learned Me” out of the valley of mediocrity into which it sinks.

LETTER GRADE: B-