Trap 4 steps
Bob's Hotel Gas Trap: An Undetectable Leak and a Timed Cigarette
Sideshow Bob's plan to kill Selma combined an opened gas valve in their hotel room with two personal vulnerabilities he counted on: Selma's inability to smell the leaking gas, and her habit of smoking a cigarette after watching MacGyver, which would supply the ignition.
Read the 4 steps as text
- 1
Bob opens the gas valve
Sideshow Bob
Bob opens the gas valve in the hotel room, counting on Selma not to smell the leak and to light a cigarette after watching the show.
- 2
Selma's anosmia hides the leak
Selma Bouvier
A childhood bottle-rocket accident left Selma with no sense of smell or taste, so she cannot detect the gas leaking into the room.
- 3
The post-MacGyver cigarette as trigger
Selma Bouvier · Sideshow Bob
Selma has cut back to smoking only after meals and episodes of MacGyver, and Bob counts on her lighting a cigarette after watching the show to trigger the explosion.
- 4
The room explodes but Selma survives
Selma Bouvier · Sideshow Bob
Selma retreats to watch MacGyver and the hotel room explodes; Bob returns expecting her to be dead, but she is unscathed and the Simpsons and the police apprehend him.
