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| Does anybody even call it Catsup anymore unless they're trying to imply its low quality? |
Lisa is part of a recycling group at school, trying to gather enough recyclables to earn a trip to Albany. Principal Skinner brings in Mr. Burns as a guest speaker to talk about business decisions, however when Lisa confronts Burns about him not knowing what recycling even is, Mr. Burns realizes that he has less money than he believed. Later, he checks his stocks for the first time in decades, and learns that, well, they aren't doing so well. Surrounded by yes men who refuse to tell Burns he's making any mistakes, Burns tries a new investment strategy that may have had trouble working back in the 1920s, much less today. Quickly, Burns goes broke, realizing too late he had been given advice by said yes men. With the bank having repossessed both the plant and his home, Burns is left with no choice but to take his leave.
As the bank chooses Lenny to run the plant, Burns starts living with Smithers. Looking to earn his keep, Burns goes shopping after Smithers goes to the plant. A couple of clerks there notice Burns struggling to accomplish tasks, and decide to admit the seemingly senile Burns to the retirement home.
Meanwhile, the school's recycling efforts come to an abrupt end when they get back way less money than they were expecting for their efforts. Still, Lisa attempts to recycle whenever possible. She goes to the retirement home to get some more recyclables, where Mr. Burns overhears her voice. Burns tasks Lisa with helping him get back on his feet, and Lisa agrees on the condition that Burns climb back doing nothing but honest work (nothing evil!). The two agree, and Lisa starts Burns on basic recycling.
Slowly but surely, Burns is able to scourge the town for cans, bottles and paper and makes a marginal profit from doing so. He's able to get the other seniors at the retirement home to help out as well. As Lisa is helping him out, she is entitled to 10% of his profits and Lisa starts to believe Burns truly has changed for the better. Burns does so well, he's able to open up a recycling factory named after Lisa. At first Lisa is impressed with everything Burns has done, but at the back of the factory is something she isn't prepared for: taking a cue from the 'fish getting stuck in a six-pack holder' example Lisa gave him earlier, Burns has created an 'omni-net' of six-pack holders over the sea, which is able to pull in a large quantity of marine life. Said life is then cremated into an all-purpose slurry. This action disgusts Lisa, who realizes that Burns is still committing 'evil' even when he doesn't realize he is. She tries to go around town to stop people from recycling, as it now helps Burns, but they've been too brainwashed by Lisa's previous efforts and continue to recycle promptly.
A short time later, Burns goes over to the Simpsons place to announce that he has sold the recycling plant for $120 million to a fishstick company, and he's repurchased the nuclear plant (thus ending Lenny's reign of terror). As Burns' partner, Lisa is entitled to 10% of that profit. However, knowing what Burns did with that plant, Lisa finds herself unable to accept that money. Homer has four simultaneous heart attacks from the incident, and things only get worse from there when a recovering Homer realizes that 10% of $120 million is far, far more than $12,000.
Quick Review
Mr. Burns episodes are usually excellent watches. Lisa-centric episodes are... less so. Usually. An episode where Burns' inability to adapt to modern times combine with Lisa's attempts to get people to care about modern issues turns into another fine episode, a continuing beacon of Season 8's high quality. Burns' character goes through several changes in the episode which is handled very well, and the end of the episode is hilariously dark.
Final Score: 9.1
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