One of Springfield’s long-standing mysteries has been solved.

And leave it to The Simpsons to do it in the style of an ‘80s detective mystery. The Oct. 27th episode titled, “Shoddy Heat,” revealed how Homer Simpson has kept his job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant despite being fired by Mr. Burns many times over the series’ run.

As for how he’s kept that employee ID badge despite many mishaps? Well, the mystery is unraveled during the flashback episode that reveals that Homer’s dad, Grandpa Abe was a private investigator alongside a man named Billy O’Donnell. Homer’s kids Bart and Lisa look into the cold case surrounding Billy’s disappearance and it’s revealed that he and Grandpa Abe were looking into the shady dealings surrounding a job with Mr. Burns and his girlfriend Agnes Skinner.

After Billy disappeared, Mr. Burns told Grandpa Abe that he would make sure that his son (Homer) had a lifelong job at the nuclear plant, if he called off the investigation, “no matter how often and how badly” he messed up.

As the show has made clear, he’s stayed true to his word, telling Grandpa Abe in the present day, “And that’s why your son wasn’t fired for screwing up 742 times.”

Over the course of The Simpsons three decades long run, Homer has never been a model employee, often sleeping on the job, operating machinery in a way that’s dangerous to him and his coworkers—and simply being Homer.

Fans of the series got a teaser prior to the episode airing, as producer Al Jean for fans to send their theories about the mystery.

“Tonight new @thesimpsons with long running mystery solved at this point in the show,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Oct 23. “Will send signed script (by me) to first person guessing mystery and answer.”

The replies were filled with fans of the series of sent in what they believed would be the correct answer. Many got creative with their ideas, including “Will we finally know who the baby on board was?” and another stating, “Lemme guess, Mr. Burns loved Grandpa Simpsons wife.”

However, a few were spot on. “How Homer keeps his job after all this time - some sort of deal that Abe and Montgomery made early on,” one user wrote. With another adding, “Why Homer hasn’t been fired from the plant yet?”

The Simpsons—which is currently the longest running animated series ever—has offered a season full of shock value. Viewers were confused during the current season’s premiere when it was billed as the series’ finale. The unconventional move was purposely done by showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman whose mission is to keep the fans on their toes and the characters the same age.

"You want every episode to be a big transformative cinematic journey," Matt told People in an interview published Sept. 30. "And then of course, no rational family could have 800 of those journeys actually happen to them while they don't get older while 35 years have gone by."

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