Lisa's Rival vs. You Only Move Twice

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Lisa's Rival

Lisa feels her status as top student in the class is threatened when a new student named Allison arrives at Springfield Elementary. Lisa tries to befriend her since the two share many traits, but Lisa feels that Alison is better than her at the things she takes pride in and begins to doubt herself. At a band practice, the two girls end up in a saxophone duel that results in Lisa passing out from over-exertion. Their rivalry comes to a head during Springfield Elementary's annual diorama building competition. Allison constructs a scene from "The Tell-Tale Heart", by Edgar Allan Poe. Lisa goes to great efforts to produce a better diorama, a scene from Oliver Twist, but it is immediately destroyed by an electric fan that Lisa utilizes. Bart decides to intervene and help Lisa sabotage Allison's entry so she can win. On the day of the diorama contest, he distracts the other students with his own demonstrations to give Lisa time to switch Allison's entry with one containing a cow's heart. After Principal Skinner chases Bart away, he discovers the cow's heart in the diorama and proceeds to humiliate Allison in front of the students. Soon Lisa's conscience intervenes and she produces the real diorama.

However, Skinner is unimpressed by both Lisa's and Allison's work and declares Ralph Wiggum's collection of Star Wars figurines to be the winner. In the end, Lisa and Allison put aside their differences and become friends as they walk off into the sunset, picking up Ralph along the way after he accidentally trips and breaks his action figures.

The episode's subplot follows Homer after he encounters and then steals hundreds of pounds of sugar he finds at the site of Hans Moleman's truck accident. Homer decides he can get rich by selling the sugar door-to-door. He keeps the sugar in a pile in his back yard, where he obsessively guards it from thieves. Soon, the sugar attracts bees from a local apiary. The beekeepers track the swarm down and offer to buy the bees back from Homer for $2,000. Before the transaction can be completed, however, it begins to rain, dissolving the sugar; the bees fly away, leaving Homer without any money or sugar.

You Only Move Twice
Waylon Smithers is offered a job at the Globex Corporation. When he refuses, the offer is passed down to Homer, the next-longest-employed individual at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He informs his family that the new job pays better and provides free health-care for the family, but involves moving to Cypress Creek. The Simpson family originally opposes the move, but after they watch a promotional video about the planned community, they agree that it is much better than Springfield. Abandoning their house, the Simpsons pack up and leave town.

Shortly after the Simpsons arrive at their new house in Cypress Creek, they meet Homer's new boss, Hank Scorpio, who is very amiable and seems like the perfect boss. After giving Homer a tour of the company, Scorpio tells him that his job is to motivate the employees in the nuclear division. Meanwhile, Bart starts school, but he finds that his new class is far above the standards of Springfield Elementary. When his teacher discovers that Bart cannot read cursive writing, he places him in a remedial class, much to Bart's shock. Lisa goes for a nature walk and discovers that she is allergic to all of the plants around Cypress Creek. Marge tries to go about her daily chores, but the house does everything automatically. This ends up depressing her to the point where Marge starts drinking a glass of wine to cope with her depression. However, Homer does an excellent job motivating his team in the nuclear division, and productivity increases by 2% thanks to his skills, which makes his family very proud of him.

Despite his success, Homer notices after a few days that his team members are starting to get overworked. He decides that the solution is to get them hammocks and visits Scorpio to ask where he can purchase some. Scorpio begins to tell Homer of "the Hammock district", but he is interrupted by some urgent business. It turns out that Scorpio is a criminal mastermind formulating a plot (known as Project Arcturus) to take over the East Coast with a doomsday device, as he turns to a screen and threatens the United Nations Security Council by declaring that he has got hold of the doomsday device and that they have 72 hours to meet his demand of gold. To prove his intent, he blows up the 59th Street Bridge. Despite being in the same room, Homer appears oblivious to Scorpio's nefarious plan as he was looking outside the window.

Another time was when Homer was in Globex Headquarters trying to get something from a vending machine, Scorpio has managed to capture a secret agent named Mr. Bont, who is attempting to stop him in his tracks. Scorpio intends to have Bont killed with a laser, but Bont uses a coin to free himself from his restraints before attempting to flee. However, Homer, who is unaware of events and believes that Bont is a 'loafer', easily knocks him down, allowing Scorpio's soldiers to shoot the agent. A proud Scorpio happily thanks Homer for a job well done.

At dinner, Homer proudly tells of his successes at work, but discovers that his family hates Cypress Creek because of their current problems and want to go back to Springfield. At first, Homer is opposed to this, saying that he has been doing a great job for the first time in his life, but nobody else is happy. Dejected, Homer decides to visit Scorpio back at Globex Headquarters. His visit coincides with an assault by the U.S. military, but Homer still remains oblivious to what is taking place. He finds Scorpio, explains the situation, and asks what to do. Scorpio advises Homer that he should do what is best for his family, asking him only to kill someone on the way out. As Homer dejectedly walks away, Scorpio straps on a flamethrower and attacks the remaining U.S. troops, making them flee.

The next day, the family returns to Springfield, as Scorpio succeeds in his plot and seizes control of the East Coast. Homer, who previously confided to Scorpio his dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys, expresses disappointment when he instead discovers the Denver Broncos practicing ineptly on his front lawn as a present from his former boss.

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Hank Scorpio may be their best one off character ever. I'm still kind of angry at someone (Mecca's) utter inability to understand the pants joke.

[Simple Torture]

I think You Only Move Twice is slightly over-rated, but I've voted for it a few times during the tournament (including during this match-up).

[LoathedVermin72]

YOMO is absolutely a top 10 episode for me.

[stip]

I think You Only Move Twice is slightly over-rated, but I've voted for it a few times during the tournament (including during this match-up).

you probably think Ziggy's gotten too preachy, too