Simpsons Did It!: “One Angry Lisa”

So, despite the title, the plotline involving Lisa having jury duty is somehow the B-plot.

Instead, enjoy this write-up for an episode that was mostly about how much Marge loved her new Peloton knock-off bike.

See, Marge’s birthday is coming up, and she sees an ad for Peladon, an obvious knock-off to the real thing that is so obvious, even Homer accidentally uses the real company’s name at one point.  Marge, since she never goes anywhere, sees a stationary bike as the perfect gift for her, and she then manages to guilt Homer into buying one.

Considering the price is $40 a month for infinity and a lot of other extra stuff where even the deluxe shoelaces cost less than the regular ones, I think Homer is being screwed.  Then again, his attempts to put the bike together by himself while Marge is sleeping don’t go well from his insisting on carrying the heavy box inside alone to getting stuck in the bike itself, enough so Bart can just walk up and swipe his wallet for a little while.  But the endeavor is a success as Marge loves the bike, especially after she eventually gets the helmet on over her hair.

Why was Marge wearing a bike helmet for a stationary bike?  Eh, never mind.  The real problem comes when she chooses as her virtual instructor:  a cute guy named Jesse, someone who can see her as well as she can see him, to say nothing of a lot of other riders at home save for Miss Hoover since her credit card was declined for that month.

You know, I use a stationary bike at home for exercise.  It cost me maybe $250 dollars, I put it together myself, and I just watch TV while I ride for 30 minutes a day.  I don’t get why it has to be so expensive and come with a pretend spin class or something.  Then again, maybe I’m just smarter with money than most of Springfield.

Now, there is a plot here where Marge gets really into this bike thing, possibly because of Jesse.  She pedals in her sleep, her leg muscles are huge, and she’s using a lot of other stuff sold and recommended by Jesse.  I mean, even Maggie seems to get what’s going on, but that’s neither here nor there.

Meanwhile, in a much funnier plot line, Lisa gets a jury duty summons, and even though Grampa suggests just tossing the thing out and pretending it never showed, Lisa fears prison, with its vegetarian as opposed to vegan options, a little too much.  She tries to get out of it by going down to the courthouse and pointing out she’s eight, but the bailiff doesn’t believe it since Lisa’s vocabulary is too impressive.  Once on the jury, Lisa sees Kent Brockman get himself out by pointing out that as a newsman who has seen too much, he can’t possibly be unbiased.  And since she promised him a coffee date, he says Lindsay Naegle is his plus one.  That works for guest star Jane Kacmarek’s Judge Constance Harm.  Lisa thinks this is really crazy, as does fellow member of the jury Fat Tony (yes, Joe Mantegna) since Fat Tony is supposed to be in jail.

From there, Lisa sees the other jurors reading books during the trial, Cletus’s thinking he’s part of a TV show’s studio audience (complete with an applause sign), defense attorney Gill accidentally arguing that his client is guilty, and when she finally says as much, Judge Harm finds her in contempt and has her escorted away.  Oh, and then the jury doesn’t have enough people, so Judge Harm also declares a mistrial.

And no, Lisa did not go to jail.

That said, Homer meanwhile has learned all the guys at Moe’s are just as mad at this Jesse guy as he is, but what can he do?  Well, Rev. Lovejoy has Jesse’s address since Google bought the church, and Homer goes over there to kick the guy’s ass while he’s giving Marge a private lesson.  Homer doesn’t know about the private lesson.  He also doesn’t seem to realize what kind of shape Jesse is in, but since it all appears on a computer screen, Marge sees it live and heads over to help, using the tracker in her smartphone to find Homer.  Oh, and since the car won’t start, Marge has to ride Lisa’s bike over there.  Fortunately, muscle memory and strong leg muscles mean she can do it and kick Jesse’s ass for both hurting Homer and for lying about the lesson being private.

Oh, and Homer is just glad that once again Marge has saved him when he was trying to do something to save her, so everything is patched up and the two ride home.

That said, that bike company might not be lasting much longer.  Jesse has to hand off a sale to Gill in the store, and Gill is still Gill.  Apparently, Gill was once the King of South Jersey, but he ruined it all by trying to move onto Middlesex County.

As someone from South Jersey…I have no idea how to react to that joke.