Grade School Confidential (S08, E19-172)

Lucky for the rest of us we won't ever had to worry
about being a 44 year old virgin, right?  Am I right?

Plot Summary
Martin Prince is having a birthday party, and invites everyone including his teacher Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner.  Bart and Milhouse decide to go out of boredom.  There, Krabappel and Skinner have a talk, as the two wonder how their lives have come to this.  As Skinner is hounded again by his mother, who is apparently the next door neighbor of the Princes, Edna and Seymour hide out in a tea party house Martin just happens to have.  The two come to realize their feelings for one another.  Around this time, every kid at the party gets sick, as the oysters served at the party instead of cake turned out to be pretty bad.  Bart is the only one who didn't eat those oysters (well, neither did Lisa but she faking it to leave the party), and is able to spy on something very interesting: Skinner and Krabappel kissing in the tea house.

The next day, Bart is about to spill the beans on what he saw, but Skinner is able to stop him just in time.  After failing to provide a competent "excuse" for what Bart saw, he and Edna decide to make a deal: have his sordid permanent record switched with a mostly clean file (Milhouse's), in exchange he keeps the newfound relationship secret.  Bart agrees to do so, and Edna and Seymour continue their relationship.  At first everything is fine, but things quickly turn to panic as the two are met by Superintendent Chalmers at a movie theatre.  To quickly throw off suspicion, Skinner hastily grabs and brings Barts along to fool Chalmers into thinking its some kind of field trip.  From there, both Krabappel and Skinner abuse Bart to further their love.  After an incident where Skinner has Bart 'relay' his feelings for Edna, Bart has had enough.  He gathers everyone he can in the school, and leads them to a janitorial closet.  Having everyone's faces set to 'stunned', he opens the door to reveal Skinner and Krabappel making out in the closet.

Kids are an exaggerating kind, and as they go home they tell their parents all sorts of exaggerations as to what they saw, from "seeing them naked" to seeing them "making babies, and I saw one of the babies, and the baby looked at me".  Chalmers quickly hears of the rumors, and demands that Skinner and Krabappel split up, or lose their jobs.  Skinner refuses to give up his love, and as a result he and Edna are given the end of the day to pack up and leave.

Bart feels guilt for what's happening, and decides to rectify matters.  He convinces the two to barricade themselves in the school until they get their jobs back, and is able to get the news to cover it behind a phony escaped octopus tale.  Chalmers demands the two to leave the building, and the police try their best to force them out with music and lights, but only make the scene more romantic.  With the standoff becoming more of a stalemate, the two decide to confront the masses.  As the two try to question why their love must be sacrificed just to keep their jobs, the townspeople relay the rumors their kids told them: that they were "making babies" in the closet.  Skinner furiously denies those allegations, stating (eventually) that he is still a virgin.  The townspeople realize that nobody would even try to claim himself as a 44 year old virgin unless it were true and as such the rumors must not be true, and thus lay off the two, allowing them to regain their jobs.

Afterward, the two tell Bart they're breaking up anyway given the stress of having a private relationship blown up to the public.  Just as you think the status quo had been restored, turns out the two were simply lying to Bart, and are now having their relationship under more secrecy than ever.

Quick Review
It may not look it if you don't delve too deep into the episode or its dialogue, but there's a lot of good, funny jokes in the episode that many may miss if they're not careful.  More humorous portions included Martin's party, and that period of time when Bart was being used by the two for their own lustful affairs.  Its another strong episode in a strong season.

Final Score: 9.5