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"Smoke on the Daughter"
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| "Smoke on the Daughter"
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| Episode Information
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"Smoke on the Daughter" is the fifteenth episode of season 19 of The Simpsons and the four-hundred and fifteenth episode overall. It originally aired on March 30, 2008. The episode was written by Billy Kimball and directed by Lance Kramer.
Synopsis
- "When Lisa convinces Marge to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a ballerina by auditioning for the Chazz Busby Ballet Academy, Chazz discovers Lisa's natural talent and enrolls her in the academy instead. During a break from practice, Lisa inhales her fellow ballerinas' cigarette smoke and attributes her improvement in ballet to smoking. Lisa soon becomes addicted to secondhand smoke, with no chance of quitting in sight. Meanwhile, Homer shows Bart his secret room where he manufactures beef jerky. When Homer realizes that a family of raccoons have made off with his beef, he decides to confront the animals."
Plot
The episode starts off in Bart's bedroom, where a large snake enters the room, scaring Bart who hits the creature with his baseball bat. The snake, however, is revealed to be a costumed Homer, and Lisa arrives dressed as Angelica Button, a character from her favorite novel. The two reveal the whole family is entitled to attend the grabbing of the last novel. The family manages to get the book, and while arriving home, they've finished the entire novel, in other words they had Lisa summarise the best parts while not even opening their own copies then throwing them all out the window. Once at home Homer allows them to watch TV. After watching a variety of shows, Kent Brockman introduces a new commercial for a ballet academy owned by Chazz Busby, a sarcastic man who judges people unfairly. Marge is inspired, and later reveals to Lisa that she has a whole box and closet of unfulfilled dreams. Marge once took ballet, but had to quit because she lost balance after her boobs kicked in (one grew before the other). Lisa tells Marge to follow through this dream, and Marge agrees. Marge auditions for Chazz Busby Ballet Academy, and although Busby lets her pass, he remains bitter about Marge's performance.
Meanwhile, Homer takes Bart to the basement and introduces him to his secret room, the "jerkytorium", a room filled with Homer's own stash of beef jerky. The two bond over what they plan on doing with the beef jerky. While dancing, Marge does an impossibly high stretch with her leg, causing it to get stuck. Busby kicks Marge out, insulting her as she goes. An angry Lisa decides to defend Marge, and while berating Busby, he notices Lisa's posture is perfect for a ballerina. He asks if Lisa would join his ballet, although Marge interrupts and says Lisa would be happy to join. However, no matter how hard she practices, Lisa soon turns out to be terrible. While on break, a ballerina asks Lisa if she'd like to smoke, saying it would improve her skills like the rest of them. Horrified, Lisa rejects the cigarette. When the ballerina starts smoking, Lisa inhales a large entity of the cigarette's smoke. When the break is done, Lisa enters the studio and performs better than ever, and deduces that second hand smoke is what makes her excel.
Homer brings Apu to his "jerkytorium", and he and Bart are shocked to discover it is completely empty. After incorrectly blaming Flanders, he discovers that a family of raccoons had made off with his jerky. That night, Lisa hallucinates of a cigarette-smoked shaped older version of her, who attempts to convince her to continue smoking. Saying that the great historical women Lisa admires all smoked. Lisa agrees. Outside her window, Homer and Bart lay a trap to capture the raccoons: a tray loaded with sleeping pills-laced beef jerky. However, it turns out that the plate Homer was eating was the jerky with the sleeping pills. While driving Lisa to ballet practice, Marge, who becomes proud of having a ballerina as a daughter, starts glowing about how she sees herself in Lisa. Lisa soon begins to suspect that Marge is living her dream through her.
Homer follows one of the raccoons into the family's home under a tree stump, and can't bring himself to attack the family because he sees they are a loving family, and they resemble his own family in both appearance and manner. He soon befriends the family. At the studio, Lisa's dancing falters and she anxiously waits for break, to inhale some smoke. When break does come, she finds out that it's windy outside, so all the smoke begins to blow away. She realizes her only other alternative is to actually smoke a cigarette, and picks one up; right before she smokes it, however, Homer arrives to steal it out of her hand, and subsequently shoots the cigarette. Angry, he decides to go tell Marge, but discovers Marge is so proud and happy of Lisa, he can't bear to destroy her feelings. He does, however, order Lisa to quit cigarettes, and he decides to get Bart to tail her.
When Bart informs Homer that Lisa is still addicted to smoke, Homer creates a plan involving one of the raccoons. On the night of the big ballet recital, the raccoon breaks into the changing room and steals all the cigarettes. Homer throws the cigarettes into a nearby motel, where an impregnated Miss Springfield and Mayor Quimby lie. On stage, all the ballerinas soon begin to freak out, a few losing their tempers. The ballerinas soon go out of control, and Lisa tells the appalled audience that ballet is something America has forced onto students, and quits, prompting Busby to also quit. Marge also learns to not display her dreams through her child, and the family ends happy.
Production
