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| There's probably some deep, hidden meaning behind this scene. Probably. |
Needing money, Bart goes looking for a job and gets one putting hanging menus on doors for a Thai restaurant. After some initial hesitation, Bart gets trained in the practice and soon becomes such a master at it that he uses up a lot of paper, which riles up Lisa's eco-friendly blood. Regardless, Bart gets a ton of money, and decides to "treat" the family by going to Krusty Burger. There, a group of protesters in cow suits are on the roof of the building deploring the franchise's practice of mowing down forests to make room for cow grazing fields. The cops successfully bean bag the leader off the roof and into custody. Lisa gets a good look at the leader, a rather charming young hippy named Jesse Grass, and becomes infatuated with him.
Later, Lisa goes to visit Jesse in jail and decides to join his environmental group. At their next meeting, it seems they've come across a secret auction where Springfield's oldest tree is bought by a rich Texan so he can cut it down and make the world's first drive-thru humidor in its place. Jesse needs someone to go and live in the tree to prevent it from being cut down. Lisa, still enamored with Jesse, happily agrees to do so.
Lisa begins her tree-sitting, eager to help Jesse and enjoying the view the tree provides. On the fourth day, during one rather stormy night, Lisa becomes very homesick. She decides to leave the tree for just an hour so she can visit the family. Returning home, Lisa sees that they've fallen asleep near a fireplace, and decides to rest with them for just a moment. However, Lisa sleeps until the next morning, and rushes back to the tree to find in horror that its been struck down.
Horrified that she let this happen to the tree, Lisa is relieved to hear on the news that the tree was brought down not by loggers, but by a bolt of lightning attracted to a pail Lisa had been using to bring up goods. Having told nobody she had left the tree, people start assuming Lisa had died in the lightning strike. While certain Simpsons get perks for the supposed tragedy, Lisa also agrees to keep her living status secret, as the forest surrounding the tree has become a preserve in her name.
The preserve is owned by that same Texan, though, and when he decides to turn the forest into a Lisa-themed park instead (including a gigantic signpost made from the fallen tree with Lisa's head on it), Lisa reveals herself and expresses her moral outrage. Jesse and the others tear down the signpost, but it crashes down and slides into town, causing significant damage. Jesse gets arrested again, and Lisa agrees to keep in touch with him as he takes his protests elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Lisa log just keeps sliding around.
Quick Review
This episode has its moments, but there were a few things that missed the mark. I'm not particularly fond of the rich Texan character, even less so that his actual name is the "Rich Texan", so the fact that the episode featured that guy often didn't do it any favors with me. The end of the episode with the log wasn't that good either. So there was a lot that was working against this episode.
Final Score: 6.9
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