This episode has the modern problems of poor pacing (it's 1 1/2 minutes shorter than Springfield Splendor), but I forgive it for that because of how true to life it was with PVQ tests and the heart that it had in it. There's just so much depth to the subjects of Frink Gets Testy and The D in Apartment 23 with which they do a lot in their stories, and so much happens in a slightly shorter time than usual in both cases. It's not just your intelligence that shows how important you are to save, it's also how good and caring of a person you are.
This episode makes lots of excellent points, like how there's always room for improvment, and PVQ tests can be wrong since Ralph was 1 point more valuable than Lisa until Frink gave Lisa 10 more points. I really loved how they wrote Marge in this episode because when Bart seemed to have the lowest PVQ score and then his results turned out to be mixed with Homer's, Marge never gave up on them, no matter how mean they have acted in past episodes. By the way, how does Abe yelling at Homer in his will show he still has faith in Homer?
I really loved this episode because Homer improved his handwriting to write love letters for Marge and possibly improve his PVQ, since I always thought he was the villain in The Simpsons Movie until he saved everyone's lives from Russ Cargill. The only problem I have with this episode is that Mr. Burns only wanted to take the most valuable people on his ark to be his slaves. It's still very funny because he spent so much time recording everybody else's personal value that he forgot to record his own PVQ and realize it wasn't high enough. If only he was more like his Fruit Bat Man identity and made them his last friends. Lisa also wasn't so terrible in this episode, but it has the same problems of Yolo when Lisa has a superiority complex that triggers her for someone doing better than her.
I know you're unsatisfied that the plots fizzled out at the end, but there is a good reason why the rocket ark didn't matter in the end. The ark Mr. Burns was making to save the most valuable people from World War 3 started the plots, but they were more about how PVQ tests can make mistakes and even the lowest PVQ scores can improve. It led to some really nice moments between Marge and Homer. The reason why Mr. Burns's ark didn't matter and none of the Simpsons were desperate to go on Mr. Burns's ark is because...none of them were as delusional as him to believe that World War 3 would come so soon, so Mr. Burns got all worked up over nothing because World War 3 doesn't even start when this episode ends, so Mr. Burns had nothing to escape.
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