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| Now why didn't robot fighting last longer than it did? Why, I ask! |
Plot Summary
Bart finds his bike to be incapable of keeping up with the 10-speed bikes the cool kids are using. Homer explicitly tells Bart that he'll only a new bike when his old one no longer functions, no questions asked. Bart sets up a ploy where his bike gets run into by a passing-by car, Dr. Hibbert's car, and Hibbert also agrees to pay for the new bike in apology. However, as he begins to drive away, Lisa cat, Snowball II, leaps from Lisa's arms and ends up being run over by Hibbert's car, dying in the process. As Lisa mourns the departure of her second cat, Homer get Bart the new bike, though he refuses to pay to have it assembled. Homer decides to build it himself, and at first seems to actually do it, but it turns out he didn't, and the bike falls apart just as Bart attempts to show it off.
Bart is extremely disappointed in Homer and his inability to build things. Homer decides to prove Bart wrong and tries to build a robot after noticing Bart likes to watch one of those robot fighting shows that were popular at the time. However, he's unable to, and seemingly gives up. The next morning, though, Bart is greeted with a hammer-wielding robot Homer seemingly built, having it smash a six-pack of beer to test its might and stability. As Bart rushes off to show off his robot, its revealed that Homer is inside, having just built a metal casing to pose as a robot. Bart enters the 'robot' into a robot fighting contest, calling his robot "Chief Knock-a-Homer". In the first fight, against a saw-wielding robot, Homer gets a deep cut on his arm, but is able to defeat the robot anyway. Homer continues fighting in the competition, keeping the truth of the robot - and his wounds - secret from Bart and the family.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa go to the pound to get a new cat, and Lisa finds one she calls "Snowball III". However, a short time later she finds the new cat having drowned in the fish tank. Saddened, Lisa tries to get a new cat, and finds one called "Coltrane", named after the jazz musician. Lisa brings Coltrane home and tries to play some Coltrane for it, but the cat can't stand it and jumps out the window to its death. Feeling unlucky, Lisa laments her situation when that crazy cat lady throws a cat at Lisa, a cat that looks just like Snowball II. Lisa tries to push it away, afraid it'll die like the others, but after seeing the cat avoid death, she decides to keep it and call it Snowball V (even though she never called Coltrane 'Snowball IV'), but then decides to call it Snowball II to save money on a dish and avoid confusion, a rather odd continuity reset Principal
Chief Knock-a-Homer makes it to the robot fighting championship, but its up against Smashious Clay, a rather terrifying robot built by Professor Frink and boy that looks like Frink that may or may not be his son. Despite the high probability of death, Homer tries to keep his ruse going, but after one round's worth of a beatdown, he stumbles back to Bart who finally discovers the secret. However, Bart is even prouder of Homer now, as he risked his life to beat up robots. The second round starts and Homer is beat up even more, being forced out of the casing. Frink's robot stops fighting, following its directive to only serve humans, and everyone becomes disgusted with robot fighting after 'man' is declared the champion.
Quick Review
The main storyline with Homer and Bart had its moments. It was nothing spectacular, but it held its own and I had no problems with it, really. I didn't really have any problems with the cat subplot, not even to take away points from the episode's score but I still found it odd. In all, three cats died in Lisa's care, and in the end Lisa gets a fourth cat that looks just like the one she started with and with the same name as well. That, combined with the lack of jokes in the subplot kinda makes the whole thing pointless. It doesn't detract from the episode, like I've said, but it doesn't help it any, either.
Final Score: 7.2
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