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026
"Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"
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- "I have an announcement to make: The Simpsons have cable!"
- ―Homer Simpson
| "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"
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| Episode Information
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Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment is the thirteenth episode of season 2. The episode was first broadcast on February 7, 1991 and was written by Steve Pepoon and was directed by Rich Moore.
Synopsis
Homer becomes the most popular guy in town when he gets an illegal cable hook-up. But Lisa doesn't approve and fears that Homer will go to hell for violating the Eighth Commandment ("Thou shalt not steal").
Plot
After seeing Ned Flanders reject an offer to get an illegal cable hook-up, Homer chases after the cable man and wants to be hooked up for free. He likes the new channels he gets, which the family watches with him. However, Lisa feels suspicious. Following a Sunday School lesson regarding the existence and nature of Hell, Lisa becomes terrified of violations of the Ten Commandments, the adherence to which she is assured will keep one's soul safe from Hell. Lisa imagines her house melting, and the devil sits at their couch with them. He tells her that watching T.V. will cost her nothing, but "Her Soul". She fears that because Homer violated the Eighth Commandment (thus "Thou Shalt Not Steal" according to the division by the Anglican and Reformed Churches), he will go to Hell when he dies. She additionally opposes other examples of common and harmless thievery, including her mother's tasting of grapes in a grocery store which she has not paid for. Lisa pays a visit to Reverend Lovejoy at church, where he suggests that Lisa cannot turn her father into the police (as she must Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother), and instead encourages Lisa to not watch anything on Homer's cable hook-up, setting a good example.
Homer invites his friends from the power plant, as well as Apu, Moe and Barney to watch "The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!", on the pay-per-view movie channel The Blockbuster Channel. (Mr. Burns and Waylon Smithers show up as well). Meanwhile, Bart has set up posters on the back door for his showing of the adult-only channel "Top Hat Entertainment" for 50 cents (although his age requirement is 8), but is caught a few seconds later by Homer. Homer's conscience eventually bothers him, moreso in the form of his daughter's distress than a moral objection to stealing cable, and he gives in to Lisa's protests, begrudgingly choosing not to watch the fight. Marge and Maggie join them as well. Bart, on the other hand, decides to go back to see the fight, but Homer stops him for good. He sits the fight out and when it is over, he hesitantly (and unprofessionally) cuts his cable hook-up, despite Bart's objection. He accidentally (somehow) cuts the electricity to all of Springfield in his random wire-cutting, before finally cutting the cable wire.
