I guess I should have read the synopsis a little more closely because I had no idea this would both be an Inception parody and also feature an appearance by Mona. Those were fairly pleasant surprises (as it turned out). As usual, trying something with a different style had an advantage, and I think it found the right balance - not trying to be profound in what the problem was while also not being too trivial and jokey with it, taking a good amount of time (most of the episode) on it but also not pointing out all the details of the parody. This was also a fun way to get a little more mileage out of Mona after killing her off (I'm reminded of Maude) - and while it was sweet enough it didn't even bother reaching for a big emotional response. Anyway, nicely done. I was a little worried - I shouldn't have been.
DYN: ...Burns doesn't include Smithers as an employee who didn't steal office supplies?
Previous episodes I was reminded of elements of CABF21 (dream therapy) 2F08 (Marge's fear of flying) 4F07 (curing Ned with parental insights) DABF14 (karma + Apu stuff, atoning for one's sins) 9F14 (biking ending, and it hinted at Homer's vices even if they weren't addressed) KABF02 (figuring out the mystery in the subconscious, bits of previous episode gags)
Previous episode stuff -Ullman style bit: MG09 ("Making Faces"), 8F14? (Lisa's "Bart's making faces at me!"), 7G04 (a little bit, with the family therapy, though even that had advanced past the really old animation and voices) -Homer cutouts at "Mr. Simpson's Wild Ride" include 3F05's muumuu Homer and 9F04's King Homer (I couldn't spot others in time) -Glenn Close as Mona: 3F06, EABF18, KABF12
Meta -Homer refers to "urination domination" (compare "animation domination", the name Fox has given to its Sunday night block for several years) -Normal Stu likes normal things -Tracey Ullman short style -A rare Maggie fall
More looping -Lenny's "who the hell are you" at the forgiveness party -Frink's line before the Acrobat joke