Are post-mortem appearances a recurrent thing now? Rabbi Krustofsky in season 28, Mona Simpson in season 29, Maude Flanders in season 31, Edna Krabappel now. This is a weird pattern but most of these returns turned out to be acceptable and quite special. This one is, by far, the most special, because Edna was retired due to the decease of her voice actress. I don't know you guys, but I am ready for a touching return of Troy McClure and/or Lionel Hutz, if that's possible. Phil Hartman deserves it as well.
In the last year,
Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? settled the debt giving a proper send-off to Maude Flanders 20 years after the character was killed off. This episode, however, is not a late last goodbye to Edna Krabappel. This feels more like a sweet and soft return to keep her present, something I celebrate because I always thought removing the character was a big mistake, both for the show and as a tribute to Marcia Wallace. I stand by that there is no better homage to the voice actors than keeping their characters alive. Anyway, the most remarkable thing about this send-off that is not a send-off was the new chapter in the short novel of Nedna. Let's not forget that the writer of this episode, Jeff Westbrook, pitched the idea of pairing them up – an idea I am still ambivalent about –, wrote a second episode to spontaneously marrying them a season after, and dedicated the fourth act of one of his episodes to make a heart-warming tribute to Edna from Ned's perspective. Although I question almost his entire career, I am glad he could close this adventure and give a solid last-shot to this couple. In retrospect, the marriage of Ned and Edna has no outstanding moments but it was fresh air to have something innovative and with continuity. It was nice to see a family meeting of the Flanders where Edna participates, and the moment when Ned reads a phrase about him in her diary is touching and vibrant. It's nice to know she had a nice last year after so many episodes that showed her frustrated and solitary. "Now that I've been with Ned a year he's made my life a living dream come true". That was a truly great line, a touching scene, and a beautiful ending for Nedna. Watching Ned thrilled after reading that was quite emotive. Props to Westbrook in the intention of this series of episodes and this ending as well.
We know a few little details and fun facts about her life, like that she taught Bart to read (did he learned at ten years old?) that she had a cat "as smart as a whip", that she is allergic to cats (isn't that contradictory?) that she had an intimate diary where she wrote stuff like where Chalmers has they keys of his car or the password of the teacher's lounge. Eh, nothing of this has much sense, but there are not alarming mistakes or serious cohesive problems, so it's fine for me. The participation of Edna is oriented to those gossips so, once again, this is not the big deal. The voice acting of Edna Krabappel was taken from archives recorded by Wallace. And I have a little problem with them: why would Edna say/write exactly the same she said other times? Her first intervention comes from
Bart Gets a 'Z' and here it's something she wrote in her diary, while the second one, from
The Seemingly Never-Ending Story was repeated in a family meeting. These quotes are quite iconic even if they come from relatively recent episodes, and I guess they were good choices, but I didn't like how they implemented them. The other time they used this trick, in
Left Behind, Ned remembered Edna said that once. I don't know, it feels like if everything related to the return of Edna was very flawed here. But at least it all was well-intentioned. From a critical perspective, it was quite mediocre, but as a fan who wants to have a good time and who has a profound respect for Marcia Wallace, it was all right. To end this part of my review on a positive note, I loved the series of pictures rolled along with the credits. Callbacks to previous episodes mixed up with new images, included one that I thought was really nice: Edna watching The Bob Newhart Show, another show where Marcia Wallace worked. It was a beautiful detail.
It's a shame that everything I have written so far represents an important but minor part of the episode. After all, it's supposed to be a Bart-centric story. Mrs. Krabappel only injected a dose of enthusiasm and motivation to the kid, who improves considerably after it. It was really sweet to discover Mrs. Krabappel esteemed him and had faith in him. Nobody in Springfield seems to be an adequate teacher, but she was in-depth. Besides, it was nice to have a characterization of Bart that easily avoids all the typical problems of the character: far away from a sociopath, far away from a loser, far away from being a retard, far away from being a teenager. The idea sounds promising but its execution, again, was flawed. I refuse to believe that Bart will read so carelessly the diary of his teacher. That's quite invasive and disrespectful. I would like it more if the message would come through another channel. Another problem I had here is that there is a lot of filling. The opening song lasts for two or three minutes and it's distracting they used a song they already parodied in the past. The montage of how would be Bart's life as an adult once he changed his mind was on way too long and it's totally inconsequential. Worst of all, it was immediately followed by another montage that I enjoyed a bit more, with Bart doing good acts and helping people, but which, in any case, is still expendable. The episode should have focused a lot more on Bart's changes. I would say that I liked the reconciliations he had with Skinner and Willie, that I loved how Bart believes in himself and discover his unlimited potential, that I enjoyed how the kid gets good marks in his tests. But no, those things are restricted to one scene, two at best. In the end, the entire story of Bart feels like an excuse to bring back Edna, which was lazy and superficial. And still, now I can not deduce if it all was about Edna or Bart. Or both. Or none. What a mess.
I quite liked the role of Ned Flanders in this one since he is the widower of Edna and he has always been like a father figure for Bart, so his appearance is highly justifiable from both perspectives. Their conversation in the treehouse was adorable, and I like he was much more than a religious maniac. Bart also had an adorable conversation in the treehouse along with Lisa where she discovers the misunderstanding but shuts up to don't disappoint Bart. That scene is surprisingly great. The voice acting of Nancy and Yeardley, the hesitations of Lisa, another outstanding scene in the night delivered by Matthew Nastuk, and genuinely well-written dialogues, except for that Bart/pony cloud that I'll just add to the vast list of awful or unrealistic gags from Westbrook's episodes along with the cameo of Jesus and Meryl Streep. Continuing my exposition about Lisa, I can't understand why there is so much about her in this episode. Even if it's true that I have a particular problem with her pessimism and damaging involvement practically every time Bart successes, in this episode it's worse because it's a redundant and unnecessary inclusion that adds pacing problems to the story and just doesn't suit the homage to Edna nore the new attitude of Bart at all. Bart could discover it for himself if he would continue reading, that's why the entire plot of Lisa is needless. Also, I can't buy at all the moral conflict of Lisa because I think Bart actually has that potential and there is no reason to believe he would be humiliated in a sleeping bee contest. At worst, he could have lost it and that's all. The participation of Lisa should have been limited to the same extent as Marge's, wondering how Bart got a 100%. Everything else was (more) filling.
It never happened to me, but I don't know if I liked this episode. The idea is appreciable, the tribute of Edna is mostly pleasurable, the story is a tad bit original. But the execution is poor. There are pacing problems, there are lots of expendable scenes, and I can not even get what the episode tried out. Weird. I will give it the middle grade and move on. Sorry if the review is confused but I am still confused with the episode.
3/5
Also the best in whole episode was the last act, correctly last 3 minutes - great! Tears-caused emotions, and beautiful reuse quote from TSNES and end montage
The part between it was… actually not bad 
