In this week’s episode, "Little Orphan Millie," Milhouse is elated to find out that his parents are getting remarried.  On their honeymoon cruise, they are lost at sea and are quickly dismissed as unfindable by the cruise line.  After sulking awhile, Milhouse swallows his pain and becomes the brooding loner of the Springfield Elementary playground.  Bart resents the attention Milhouse receives and can’t stand the fact that he’s not the cool kid at school anymore.  To remedy this, Bart hunts down Milhouse's uncle Zack.  Uncle Zack turns out to be from the cool Danish side of the family, and only increases Milhouse’s popularity.  The plotline speeds up at this point and Milhouse boards a hot air balloon with his uncle to travel the world.  Bart, frantic at seeing his best friend float away, grabs the rope hanging from the basket, and sails off with them.  They immediately encounter Kirk and Luanne Van Houten attempting to parasail off a deserted island and the family is reunited.

While Milhouse was dealing with his grief, Homer was in trouble with Marge once again.  This time he could not remember the color of her eyes and Marge donned sunglasses to prevent him from catching a peek.  Eventually Homer recalls a song he wrote about Marge when they were dating, and still gets stuck when he can’t remember what rhymes with "appraisal".  Marge decides that he’s close enough to remembering and takes off her sunglasses to reveal her hazel eyes.

The remarriage of Milhouse’s parents is a little confusing since we haven’t seen much on them.  I believe the last time we saw Kirk Van Houten, he was at a single dads' event in the episode "Ice Cream of Margie," so this seems like it comes from nowhere.  It was a refreshing change to have Milhouse be a major character.  It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve been to Springfield Elementary and seen the kids there.  Watching them fawn over Milhouse was a fun change, as was the switch from his usually dopey sidekick persona.

The subplot was weak, but had its moments.  The song Homer wrote for Marge was unfortunately not one of them, but it provided a quick ending to a boring story. Luckily it was a subplot and did not take much time away from the main plotline. 

In what has seemed to become a typical move, the ending was rushed and lacking.  The sudden appearance of Milhouse’s parents was pretty pathetic, making me think that they should have done away completely with Marge/Homer storyline to build up the ending a bit.

Overall it was a fairly decent show, especially after last week's Halloween episode.  Next week looks promising with Jack Black guest starring in "Husbands and Knives."  Hopefully we’ll see a strong ending on this one.

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