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| Hearing Steve Allen say "Ay Caramba!" is a fun experience. |
This episode sees a role-reversal for Bart and Lisa and, as per usual, standardized tests are to blame! The school takes a "career aptitude test", which can somehow determine the best careers for students. Somehow it predicts that Lisa would best be a homemaker, while Bart could end up being a policeman. Lisa refuses to believe her test-approved fate, believing herself to grow up and become a great jazz musician, but is devastated to learn from some guy that she'll never be able to make it big because of her stubby fingers.
Meanwhile, Bart is brought along by the cops Eddie and Lou to gauge his interest in police work. While the ride starts off a bit dull, soon they're on the trail of Snake who just robbed the Kwik-E-Mart again. Thinking they have Snake cornered in an alleyway, they're mistaken when Snake tries to make a run through Bart, but the alleyway narrows just enough where Snake's car crashes and stops just before reaching Bart. Thrilled over the events, Bart's enthusiasm towards law increases exponentially.
Lisa, however, begins a downward spiral which sees her start spending time with some "bad girls". Wanting to get at Skinner, the girls get advice from Lisa to egg a Puma statue Skinner is fond of. Disgusted over the act later on, Skinner is suddenly surprised to see Bart having Groundskeeper Willie hauled off for violating clean air laws. Realizing that Bart has taken a liking towards maintaining order, Skinner makes Bart a Hall Monitor in an attempt to clean up the school. It works wonders, as the school is cleaned up and becomes a police state, even if the kids can't really do anything anymore. As Milhouse so eloquently paraphrases as Bart takes him away for spit balling poor Kearney: "Sure, we have order, but at what cost!?"
Lisa's continued fall worsens as she begins to backtalk her teacher, particularly in an instance where Miss Hoover misreads her teacher's edition book. After Lisa's remarks about Miss Hoover earning her low salary, she gets detention. Angered, Lisa figures that the teachers would be nothing without those teacher editions, and decides to go around the school, stealing all of the teacher's editions and hiding them in her locker. Of course, now the faculty is in full-blown panic. Bart surmises that the books are likely still in the school and that he and Skinner search the lockers for those books.
With Lisa realizing that the two have begun searching lockers, the two of them inching closer to hers, its ultimately Bart that reaches her locker first, stunned over the revelation that Lisa stole the books. As Lisa pleads with Bart over his former rebellious streak, Bart simply replies that even he had his limits. As Skinner finds the books, though, its Bart that covers for Lisa, taking the blame for the crime. While stunned over the supposed betrayal, Bart's work as Hall Monitor alleviates his punishment to just a few hundred days of detention. As Bart is hauled off by the new Hall Monitor, Milhouse, Lisa asks why Bart took the fall. Bart knows that Lisa is a smart, talented girl and he didn't want her to wreck her life. As Bart is forced to write "I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty" on the chalkboard, a rejuvenated Lisa plays her sax for him, their original roles having been restored.
Quick Review
This was another excellent episode full of laughs, particularly with Bart's portion of the story. Once Skinner and the teachers became involved with the main plot later on the episode really took off. Another classic episode for Season 3.
Final Score: 9.3
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