12016-12-06T13:30:36-08:00Elizabeth Withers4c83cfe2d791828249eb6cc21e5e14580fecf72e130083plain2016-12-07T14:37:36-08:00Elizabeth Withers4c83cfe2d791828249eb6cc21e5e14580fecf72eThis can be interpreted as an anxiety dream, in which Bart is experiencing the repressed sense of responsibility for Skinner's death and the wish to absolve himself of that responsibility. In this episode, Skinner goes missing after Bart complains about him to some mobsters, and the people of Springfield mention that police are looking for his body in ditches, rivers, and meat coolers, among other places. These locations are all part of the daily residue upon which Bart's dream is constructed. The fact of Skinner's death is distorted in the dream by his being able to run and talk and chase Bart. The reverend can be interpreted as a way of further fulfilling Bart's desire for absolution of guilt. The act of working out or physical exercise can be interpreted as a symbol of both the assertion of masculinity and sexual gratification. Both of these are validating and comforting actions, and the entire scene speaks to Bart's conflicting desire for comfort and his desire to atone for Skinner's death. The reverend gives him a hollow, stiff pat on the arm. As Bart isn't particularly concerned with the Reverend in his waking life, it is possible that the reverend is actually a displacement of Bart's desire to be deprived of comfort in order to make up for his wrong-doing. The mob outside can be interpreted as a means of fulfilling Bart's wish for death. However, this is not a wish for death in order for Bart to regain control, nor is the mob just a means of killing Bart. The other aspects of Bart's dream-- Skinner chasing him and someone depriving him of comfort, indicate that Bart's primary wish is that Skinner kill him, thus removing the guilt that Bart feels. This wish conflicts with Bart's desire to live and to be comforted and loved, and thus the mob outside can be interpreted as a condensation of Bart's family and friends and self and Skinner. In order for the death-wish to be fulfilled, every self-preserving feeling must be gotten rid of, and Bart feels anxiety over the conflict between self-preservation and the need to be free from guilt.