Father Knows Worst (S20, E18-438)

Helicopter parenting has never seen such lows.

Plot Summary
Homer and the kids go to a boardwalk while Marge replaces the water heater at home.  As Marge does so, she uncovers a hidden room behind the water heater previously covered in dust.  She learns that the room is a hidden sauna, likely built in by a previous owner, and decides to keep this secret to herself for now.  Meanwhile, Homer's blind lust for food on a stick has him accidentally eating a flaming stick, and things only get worse when Bart tricks Homer into drinking lighter fluid.  Homer's tongue is badly burned, and is forced into a cast for a few weeks.  Afterwards, its learned that Homer's old taste buds were burned out and new, ultra-sensitive ones have taken its place, leaving Homer unable to eat most foods without going insane from the increased sensitivity.  Lisa helps out by giving Homer some of blandest food around: elementary school cafeteria food.  Homer takes a liking to it, and decides to just start eating at the cafeteria itself, much to the annoyance of Bart.

Bart eventually shoos Homer away, and he sits with another boy, Noah, and his mother.  He learns that Noah's mother hovers over him like a helicopter, forcing him to get good grades and follow through on manners.  Homer compares the seemingly okay Noah to Bart, who isn't winning any scholarships any time soon, and realizes that Lisa isn't going anywhere either if she remains a social outcast.  In a panic, Homer tries to tell Marge about this, but Marge has been in the sauna for a bit too long and really couldn't care less about anything.  Homer decides to take matters into his own hands.  He rushes back to school to learn that there's a building model contest and Homer sends a disinterested Bart a poster of the Washington Monument to give him an idea on what to build.  Later, Homer gives Lisa a book on how to become popular with other shallow girls, though Lisa is initially hesitant to go through with it but is convinced by Homer to try it out.

At a model building store, Homer is informed that the Washington Monument is the wading pool of building models, so Homer instead buys the most difficult model to build: Westminster Abbey.  Upon returning home, Homer then hosts a cell phone decorating party for Lisa and her new friends, then goes to build Bart's model for him.  That project goes deep into the night.  Homer eventually falls asleep and has a strange dream where Oscar Wilde impractically tells him that by doing everything for Bart, he'll never learn anything on his own.  Homer is mostly confused, though, and unwittingly ruins the model in his sleep.

Still, Homer and Bart enter the contest with their ruined project.  They end up winning as, ironically, Superintendent Chalmers is convinced that Bart's model was the only one made without help from a parent.  Homer revels in his success, but Bart puts a stop to it by revealing the Homer made the model, that he also had the dream with Oscar Wilde, and that he's learned that he needs to do things himself or he'll never learn how to live on his own.  Homer relents, but believes that he did okay with Lisa, anyway.  Then he learns that Lisa hates her new life, that its hard work "being this shallow", and so he lets Lisa go back to her old popular self.  Somewhat defeated that his kids reached self-fulfilling conclusions through his efforts, Homer goes home where a concerned Marge decides to let him use her secret sauna to ease his troubles.

Quick Review
This was another decent episode.  Nothing really bad about it, nothing particularly outstanding about it, either.  I really don't have much more to say about this episode, its about as decently average as it can get.

Final Score: 7.0