The Simpsons Kills Off Surprise Character After 34 Years (for the Second Time)

The Simpsons has killed off a surprising character 34 years after their initial debut, and it turns out that this is the second major time an episode has seen them die. The Simpsons Season 37 is now steadily making its way through its new wave of episodes towards its 800th episode milestone, and each of the episodes shown off thus far have come with some big reveals for these long running characters. But it’s also come with a fun spirit of experimentation that isn’t afraid to make some changes to the status quo that has been in place for such a long time too.

The Simpsons Season 37 continues with that experimental nature as the newest episode starts off with the shocking death of Alice Glick. While episodes in the past have dedicated entire episodes to the death of a long running character (even one that had been in the background), this one surprises by happening in the first few seconds of the episode. But there’s probably a reason why it’s so flippant as Alice has technically already died in the series before.

The Simpsons Kills Off Alice Glick After 34 Years

Alice Glick first made her prominent debut in The Simpsons with the Season 2 episode, “Three Men and a Comic Book.” She instantly became a hit for not only putting Bart through some terrible chores for a small amount of money, but over the years we’ve seen her being used as an example of an angry old woman who has some strong views. Hilariously, The Simpsons Season 37 episode “Sashes to Sashes” kills her off within its opening seconds and actually uses her death to launch the real plot of the episode from that point forward.

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Glick dies while performing on the church organ, and is revealed to have left her entire estate to Springfield Elementary with the hopes that they fund the music program. This sparks an entire plot where Lisa tries to save the funding, but Glick’s death is swept under the rug fairly quickly. It’s a hilarious note to open the episode on, but might not be the kind of send off fans might have wanted for the long running character. Then again, Glick has been killed off before in a much more flippant fashion for the sake of a fun joke (which has also been the case for a few others over the years).

Does This Death Actually Matter?

The Simpsons has had a lot of characters retired or killed off from the long running series over the years, but there are a few that have actually remained permanent. Glick is one of those characters who had been killed like in Season 23’s “Replaceable You” where she was apparently mauled by a robotic seal. This might be the same case here as Glick has that kind of narrative flexibility, and that episode has been jokingly referred to as “non-canon” over the years.

It’s a quick and sudden death with not a lot of attention behind it, so it remains to be seen if Glick will remain dead in future episodes. The fact that she has popped up multiple times since her last death seems to indicate that this will be the case once more, so fans are going to need to keep an eye out to see if this death actually sticks.

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