• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

Exiled “Simpsons” character Apu, the beloved immigrant from India whose voice was silenced for nine years, returned Sunday night in an episode that directly addressed the controversy that canceled the character in 2017.

The episode came as a surprise. Fox provided no preview-screener opportunities for reporters and TV columnists to watch the episode in advance of Sunday’s airdate. 

The episode was titled “Treehouse of Horrors Presents: The Revengening.” The “Treehouse of Horrors Presents” designation means that its storyline was designed in the manner of the series’ famed “Treehouse of Horrors” anthology episodes that air annually at Halloween time.

This year’s “Treehouse of Horrors XXXVII,” featuring three separate stories, airs this coming Sunday on Fox.

Not only did this past Sunday’s episode bring back Apu, but the character was voiced by New Delhi-born actor Sunil Malhotra.

The choice of the Indian-born Malhotra was an apparent reaction to the criticism that erupted in 2017 that Apu was not voiced by a genuine Indian, and that the tone of his exaggerated Indian accent was insulting to south Asians.

It took nine years for the creatives at “The Simpsons” to figure out how to bring the character back from his long absence, starting with the change in voice-casting.

The approach they came up with was a storyline in which Apu’s sudden disappearance from Springfield society was seen from his point of view.

Since it was a “Treehouse of Horrors” episode, “The Revengening” had a disguised Apu taking bloody revenge on citizens of the fictional TV town.

In a climactic scene, Apu revealed himself to an assembly of surviving Springfielders and explained why he sought revenge after a series of mishaps on Halloween in which he was nearly killed over and over by some of the town’s best-known residents, who then left him for dead.

Portions of the script can be interpreted as a direct commentary on the controversial exile of the character nine years ago.

“I am the man you left for dead!” cried Apu. “I am the shame you tried to bury! I am the one you pretended never existed! You thought you could just get rid of me? That I’d disappear? There wouldn’t be consequences for the horrible thing you did?”

After the series of near-fatal accidents, Apu washed up on a nearby desert island where the town’s quack physician, Dr. Nick, helped him convalesce over a long period of time.

When he was fully recovered, Apu realized that he needed to get back. “I’m a beloved member of the community. It would have been so easy to bring me back,” he lamented.

He went home and his family was gone. He went to his beloved Kwik-E-Mart and it was closed and abandoned.

“As I wandered aimlessly through town, no one even noticed me. It was as if I was invisible,” he said. “That was when I vowed to take my revenge on Springfield!”

In response, various townspeople seemed to speak for the show’s writers when they offered explanations to Apu, starting with Marge Simpson.

“Apu, we’re so sorry we left you for dead. Believe me, we wanted to do the right thing!” she said.

“We were so scared and just didn’t know what to do,” said her son Bart.

“If it’s any consolation, we had so many internal conversations about it,” said Lenny, one of Homer’s co-workers at the nuclear plant.

“They just didn’t go anywhere,” added Carl, Homer’s other friend from the plant.

Homer then paid tribute to Apu and his position in the Springfield community, calling him “the guy who loved this town and everyone in it.”

“You were on our bowling teams, our barber shop quartets, our dead rock cover bands,” said Homer, listing three memorable “Simpsons” episodes in which Apu played a vital part.

“We took you for granted. I took you for granted,” Homer said.

At the conclusion of the show, Apu’s murder spree turned out to be a bad dream, based on his feelings of being an outcast in the town. 

“It was a bad dream,” he told wife Manjula, now voiced by Joliet, Illinois-born Janina Gavankar. “The whole town forgot about me.”

As for Apu’s distinctive tone of voice, to the TV Blog’s ears, it may have been toned down just a little bit as voiced by Sunil Malhotra, but it was still unmistakably the voice of Apu.