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| Imagination... or delusion? You decide. |
Homer drops Bart and Lisa off at the recreation center. There, Lisa finds a new friend: Juliet, whose parents have just moved to Springfield. Lisa enjoys Juliet's intellect and taste in music, and the two become very good friends and, after having Juliet stay over for a night, the two become best friends. That night, the two begin work on a fantasy land where everyone is equal except the two of them, who are its queens, calling it Equalia.
Juliet's family invites the Simpsons over for dinner, where Juliet openly disagrees with her father over music and runs off. Lisa catches up to Juliet, who has deluded herself into fully imagining Equalia, and Lisa imagines it right with her. The two become completely enveloped in Equalia and its adventures, chronicling them in a notebook. However, Lisa's focus on Equalia has left her struggling in school, so Marge is left with no other option but to have Lisa stop seeing Juliet. At school, however, Lisa is met by Juliet, who tells Lisa she's running away and wants Lisa to join her. Lisa decides to forgo her important Model U.N. duties and the two run off together.
Juliet takes Lisa to an abandoned clam restaurant with a medieval theme out in the forest, and the two decide to stake out there. Marge is informed by Model U.N. participant Martin that Lisa is absent, and Marge quickly realizes what's happened, and takes the family to where Marge believes two girls fantasizing about medieval castles would go. Unfortunately, Marge guesses wrong as they head to the mini-golf course. Meanwhile, Lisa and Juliet's new adventures are interrupted by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, who had made the restaurant their base. They capture the girls, and leave Kearney to guard them as the other two go elsewhere for a time. The two girls try to forget their troubles by continuing their Equalia adventures, but inadvertently intrigue Kearney as well. Some time later, Kearney is as enveloped in Equalia as they are. Jimbo and Dolph return, and decide to burn the notebook Lisa and Juliet had been working on. Kearney, however, refuses to let his new favorite fantasy land burn away and attacks the other two, allowing Lisa and Juliet to escape with the book. Lisa realizes that its not good to always stay in a fantasy land, and that being grounded in real life isn't a bad thing either. Juliet disagrees, believing the real world to be devoid of imagination, and takes her leave, effectively ending their friendship. Some time later, Lisa receives word that the Chronicles of Equalia have been rejected as a book, but Homer is... somewhat... inspired to write a fantasy novel of his own. Then for some reason Bart lets Fallout Boy perform during the credits.
Quick Review
This episode has several bright spots, most notably during the Simpsons' dinner at Juliet's house. However, the multiple scenes featuring Lisa and Juliet together were just... not funny. There were several instances in those scenes where it didn't seem like humor was even attempted, and from that, this episode's score suffers harshly because it seemed like this episode would've been fine had it kept up with the comedy throughout.
As an aside, this is the first episode to break up into four segments instead of three, as the episode now begins immediately after the opening sequence. Much more notably, this is the final episode to air in standard definition as the new production of episodes begins the following episode. This is also the final episode to use the opening sequence that had been in place since Season 2. It was used during the best of times and, for now, the worst of times. It is definitely the end of an era.
Final Score: 6.7
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