Plot
After seeing Ned Flanders angrily reject an offer from a man to get an illegal cable hook-up for $50, Homer chases after the cable man, who agrees to hook up the Simpsons' television. Homer likes the new channels and spends a lot of time watching the television along with his family. Lisa, however, feels suspicious about the cable hook-up. Following a Sunday School lesson regarding the existence and nature of Hell, Lisa becomes terrified of violations of the 10 Commandments, the adherence to which she is assured will keep one's soul safe from Hell. She fears that because Homer violated the Eighth Commandment, he will go to Hell when he dies.
Lisa additionally opposes other examples of common thievery all around her. She even convinces Marge to pay the cost on two grapes she sampled in a grocery store. Lisa pays a visit to Reverend Lovejoy at church, where he suggests that Lisa cannot turn her father in to the police for the illegal hook-up, since she must continue to "Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother", according to the Fifth Commandment. He instead encourages Lisa to not watch anything on Homer's cable hook-up, setting a good example that he hopes others will follow. Marge pleads with Homer to cut the cable (or at least pay for it), but he refuses, saying that the cable will stay as long as he desires. Meanwhile, Bart sets up posters on the back door for his showing of an adult channel for 50 cents, but he is caught a few seconds later by Homer, who then forbids him from doing it.
Homer sees a commercial for "The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!", a much-anticipated boxing match in which Drederick Tatum will fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. Homer decides to have a party and invites all of his friends to come over and watch the fight. Lisa tries to boycott the party, and this results in Homer making her stay outside on the lawn. Homer’s conscience eventually bothers him, more in the form of his daughter's distress than a moral objection to stealing cable. He finally gives in to Lisa's protests, begrudgingly choosing not to watch the last minutes of the fight. Marge and Maggie join them as well. Bart, on the other hand, does not care, wanting to see the fight, but Homer drags him outside. The family sits the fight out and when everyone has left, Homer hesitantly cuts his cable hook-up despite Bart's objection. Unfortunately, he ends up cutting the power to the whole neighborhood.
Read more about this topic: Homer Vs. Lisa And The 8th Commandment
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)