The Simpsons (TV Series) Alone Again, Natura-Diddly (2000) User Reviews

"Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" is a morally complex emotional powerhouse of an episode, and the best of the eleventh season!

[Zabon · 10/10 · 26 June 2011]

This is without a doubt the best episode of the entire eleventh season of the series. It revolves around Flanders (my second most favorite character in the entire series). Basically, Homer and his family are at a race car competition... and Flanders is there also, with his dear wife, Maude. What happens here is a huge deal for hardcore Simpsons fans. Maude Flanders is accidentally killed! Homer goofs off when he asks for rolled up T-Shirt's to be flung in his direction... and he kneels down... causing an unsuspecting Maude (who was standing up) to be knocked off the stadium... and to her painful yet quick demise. This of course leaves Ned Flanders devastated for the rest of the episode. It's an emotional ride as Flanders struggles with his inner torment to withstand this great loss. Flanders is tremendously depressed at the funeral proceedings. He goes home to a lonely bed and holds air where his wife used to be. Homer is rather sweet to Flanders although he tries to make a video of him in order to find him another woman. Flanders doesn't want to betray Maude's memory as he's so loyal to her essence and being... and finds himself struggling to hold God close to his heart. The episode greatly portrays the challenge of staying true to religious beliefs regardless of conflicted emotions. Flanders questions God and why he's the one who's being punished... he can't accept this as he's the most loving and caring man and yet he is the one who suffers most of all... (with the pain of loss, the pain of his childhood, and the pain of withstanding numerous forms of anguish and torment. Flanders turns the image of God from the table beside his bed... and promises not to go to church... although he finds himself rushing to church and asking for forgiveness in the morning. As Flanders reaches the church, he sees a woman named Rachel Jordan, who sings a song at the church... and proceeds to move along with her band after the church proceeding ends. Flanders notices she needs help with her baggage and equipment and helps her load her traveling truck... and he ends up telling her that he'll be at church in Springfield if she ever decides to come back and visit. This adds a great deal of hope for Flanders and gives him a purpose for survival. God works in mysterious ways, and this episode portrays this to a powerful end... even under the worst circumstances, Flanders doesn't lose hope... and this makes this episode a rising and plummeting powerhouse of emotion, which solidifies it as a morally challenging and complex collision of struggle and healing... and in turn makes it the best episode of the season.

A great and also emotional episode of The Simpsons.

[opalpika1328 · 10/10 · 9 July 2023]

Many Simpsons episodes have humor in it, and some have some emotional points too, such as "The Sound of Bleeding Gums Murphy", and "I (Annoyed Grunt) Bot". This episode is definitely one of those episodes, which focuses on the death of Maude Flanders, Ned Flanders' wife, and how he tries to cope with her death. During a race event, Homer wanted a t-shirt to be shot at him, but he bent down to pick something up and the shirt accidentally hit Maude to her death. Ned was very depressed and devastated over Maude's death, everyone tried to cheer him up. Bart cheered up his kids, Rod and Todd, though by playing a Christian video game with them. Ned however was still upset, Homer wanted to help him out somehow by trying to find him another woman to date. Ned's grief was getting worse to him saying that he would give up going to church, which shocked Rod and Todd, but he quickly changed his mind and went back to church. He heard a Christian Country Rock singer when he got there and felt very moved by her song, and was getting attracted to her. Their interaction together had made Ned feel better. This had humor, but more importantly this focused on the emotional points of how Ned Was trying to cope with Maude's death.

A very good episode

[studioAT · 6/10 · 23 July 2017]

In amongst lots of so so, rather average episodes during the 11th series of 'The Simpsons' every so often we were given a reminder of its true quality, in episodes such as this.

Full of humour, yes, but also full of heart and real life issues, and the writers do so well to follow Ned Flanders as he mourns the loss of his beloved Maude, questioning God in the process.

This is the sort of episode that 'The Simpsons' do so well, and it's a shame that all too often instead it goes for easy laughs.