(S21E21) Tonight's Mother's Day-themed 'Simpsons' episode can't compare to last week's -- one of the best in years -- but it was a pleasant enough outing as we wonder which Springfield wife is running off with Moe the Bartender: Marge, Helen Lovejoy or Manjula? Or, as Reverend Lovejoy puts it: "Which one of our wives got Moe-jacked?"

The ep riffs on the 1949 movie 'A Letter to Three Wives,' in which three women are told one of their husbands is running off with the town tramp, followed by flashbacks galore as we see just why the men would be eager to leave.

Here, it's Moe who writes the note to Homer, Reverend Lovejoy, and Apu. The men's most recent screw-ups are trotted out: Homer ruined his mother-in-law's 80th birthday party by calling Patty and Selma "penis-curling she-devils," Apu left one of the octuplets behind at Moe's, while the Reverend was too busy painting mustaches on his toy train porters to tuck Helen in at night.

In the end, no one runs off with Moe: "What am I? Blind and noseless?" points out Manjula. Instead, Moe has magnanimously fixed all their marriages. For Homer, he convinced Marge's mother that the birthday fiasco was all Patty and Selma's fault. "There's something evil about them. Did you know they smoked when I was pregnant?" The reader board at the church reads, "Get your ass in here, Tim," but Helen's packed her bags for both her and the Reverend for a romantic train trip. "Is that a train in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" she asks Tim. "Both," he says. Funny stuff.

But it was Apu had some of the funniest lines, like telling Manjula, "I am playing the world's smallest sitar" when she complains. And, on being certain that she's the one leaving with Moe, "I feel the pain of a thousand Squishie headaches."

Favorite bits:

Otto telling Milhouse, "Even I hooked up with your old lady," to which Milhouse (who's sitting right next to his dad), says, "You were my favorite uncle, Uncle Otto."

Krusty plugging a day at Weasel Island: "This Mother's Day, why don't you give your mom what she really wants? A break from you!"

Lovejoy to Homer: "Think back, Homer. When did you first realize that Marge was checked out like a Harry Potter book at the public library?"

The 400 devils on Homer's shoulder all saying "D'oh!" at the same time.

Moe explaining why he wrote the letter: "Think of it as a wake-up call from a man who ain't got nothin' but a blow-up doll. And even she left me. I should not have used helium."

The episode closed with a Squishie-like sweetness: A photo montage of Springfield moms that might have been too syrupy except that it included Brandine and her pack of 13 kids and the Sea Captain embracing a wooden masthead. That, and it was preceded by Moe's missing doll floating past as he tells us to call our mom.

[Watch clips and episodes of 'The Simpsons' at SlashControl.]