The Simpsons newest Halloween-themed episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXXVI,” features killer lard monsters, possessed apes and post-apocalyptic marauders, but the most shocking moment in the whole episode just might be when the characters pay a visit to the Kwik-E-Mart.
The episode’s third segment, “Plastic World,” is like Waterworld parody, but with plastic junk instead of H2O, and no gratuitous scenes of Kevin Costner drinking his own urine. The most optimistic voice in this trash-filled post-apocalypse is, of course, Lisa Simpson. She urges her fellow citizens to dig through the garbage in an effort to find actual dirt to grow crops.
Lisa and her followers end up tunneling their way to the Earth’s surface, where they stumble upon the Kwik-E-Mart! The convenience store contains tons of food, and also, the skeletons of Apu and Snake, who both seemingly died mid-robbery.
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While the Kwik-E-Mart used to be one of The Simpsons’ core locations (even spawning a pricey LEGO set) that’s clearly no longer the case. As most fans are already aware, the show (eventually) sidelined the store’s proprietor, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, after Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu sparked a cultural reckoning with the character.
Hank Azaria’s explanation for how he came up with the Apu voice certainly didn’t make the character seem any less problematic.
As we’ve mentioned before, the character of Apu is technically still a part of the show, but he wasn’t killed off or recast. In fact, Apu has been seen hanging around the town of Springfield as recently as last season — he just never actually speaks. And this new behind-the-scenes arrangement means that the Simpson family don’t do their grocery shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart anymore.
We did briefly see the interior of the Kwik-E-Mart in Season 35’s “Night of the Living Wage” but only when Marge, who’s working as a food delivery driver, tosses an order through the automatic doors to a silent Apu and Snake, who’s holding the clerk at gunpoint.
That episode came seven seasons after the Kwik-E-Mart’s previous appearance, when the store was overrun with canines in Season 28’s “Dogtown.”
But “Treehouse of Horror XXXVI” actually features several prolonged scenes inside the Kwik-E-Mart for the first time in ages, and they include all five members of the Simpson family. Sure some of them are now grizzled marauders and deformed mutants, but still.
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