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| Yep, Lenny and Carl are Buddhists too, because why not. |
Homer and Bart attempt to shoot off a model rocket, but the attempts literally blow up in their faces. When Ned Flanders joins in on the fun, doing so successfully at that, Homer has enough and hires his college nerd pals to build him a rocket. This rocket actually gets off the ground, but he loses control of it and the rocket shoots into the church, taking out windows and starting a fire within, essentially ruining it.
With the church already strapped for funds, Reverend Lovejoy is forced with no other option than to accept aid from Mr. Burns of all people. Burns enlists Lindsay Naegle to remodel the church into a place full of advertisements and other such sacrilege so that the church can earn the needed money. Lisa is extremely outraged over all of this, and disgusted that most other patrons are okay with these changes, and decides to never return to this church again.
Though Lisa still believes in God, she is still adamant in finding a new way of following Him. Despite this, Marge is scared that Lisa's soul is in danger for her no longer going to church. Lisa's search for a new religion takes her a Buddhist temple, where Lenny, Carl and Richard Gere all are. They convince her to take up Buddhism and its belief of finding inner peace. Lisa announces this rather publicly, which further worries Marge.
After the church gets their profits from Burns' meddling, Lovejoy turns his attention to Lisa, and convinces Marge to use Christmas to bring Lisa back to Christianity. The allure of Christmas cookies and what is apparently a wrapped up pony present (though its just Ralph and Milhouse) nearly brings Lisa back over, but she sees Lovejoy spying in from the outside, and runs off. Lisa goes back to the Buddhist temple to tell Gere about what happened. Gere tells Lisa that Buddhists can actually celebrate any holiday, as Buddhism is about inner peace, and respects the diversity and love of other religions. Lisa goes home, and lets the family know that although she'll remain Buddhist, she'll still 'pay lip service' to Christianity by going back to church and celebrate Christmas and the family is okay with this, I guess.
Quick Review
This episode was good when it wasn't focused on Lisa. It was terrible when it did.
There were a few things that worked well, like the opening plot with the rocket and a few interactions among the non-Lisa members of the family. However, Lisa's religion quest provided very little humor, and Richard Gere's appearance did little to add humor to that plot line either. It dragged down an otherwise okay episode.
Final Score: 6.2
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