The Monkey Suit (S17, E21-377)

Can you spot the differences?  I barely can.

Plot Summary
After Bart has his entire Summer vacation during Labor day, the family decides to do something for Lisa, and they go to the museum, showcasing an exhibit on weapons.  With a long line, Homer takes a cut in front of Flanders, as does everyone else, bumping Ned and his boys so far back that the exhibit closes by the time he gets back to the front of the line.  He instead checks out an exhibit on man, and is stunned to find that most of the exhibits feature evolution, with a single exhibit mocking creationism.  Ned gets offended and brings it up to Reverend Lovejoy who, with the encouragement of his wife, decides to make 'science vs religion' a thing again.

Ned and Lovejoy blackmail Principal Skinner into allowing creationism to be taught at the school.  Lisa gets ultra offended at this, and decides to take it to a town meeting, where she says that because evolution and creationism are so incompatible, that both can not be taught at the same time.  The town mostly agrees, which means - wait for it - evolution stops being taught as per a new law.  Further upset, Lisa attempts to teach evolution herself in secret, but is quickly arrested by the police.

The subsequent trial isn't going Lisa's way either as there's a very pro-creationism feel with the crowd and the jury.  Marge decides to take a look at the Origin of Species, the book Lisa was using to teach evolution, when she realizes that the materials within do make some sense.  She decides to help Lisa out the next day to take on the big argument the pro-creationists have been using against Lisa: that humans could not have evolved from monkeys.  Marge quickly counters this by having Homer attempt to open a bottle of beer, which Homer fails to do so in a very ape-like fashion.  Lisa ends up winning the trial (somehow), and she and Ned reconcile, with each still respecting the other's beliefs.

Quick Review
I'll be honest, I was expecting much worse than what I got.  Episodes that focus on a hot, controversial topic usually have done very poorly for me these past few seasons, and while this episode is hardly an exception, I was expecting bottom of the barrel material here.  Luckily, the cringeworthy stuff was kept to a minimum, allowing the few side jokes that were in the episode to shine.  Still not a good episode, but its not as bad as it could be.

Final Score: 6.3

Lisa the Skeptic (S09, E08-186)

More plausible than it being an angel!

Plot Summary
Homer takes the family to the police station, where Homer believes he's won a boat giveaway and is to pick it up at the station.  However, the boat giveaway is a trap set up by the police to catch criminals, though Homer's only crime is not paying some parking tickets.  On the way back, the family notices a new mall being built.  Lisa realizes that its being built over a spot where a quantity of fossils had previously been found.  Later, Lisa goes over to complain, where two men overseeing the mall's construction "agree" to let Lisa undergo one last dig to ensure there are no more fossils.

Apparently owed a favor by Principal Skinner, the honor roll students along with the detention students help Lisa with the dig, though for nearly the entire time there are no finds.  Just as people start packing up, Lisa uncovers a skull.  As people around town stop by to see what's going on, Lisa eventually uncovers an entire skeleton, and attached to it are a pair of wings.  Quickly, word goes around that its an angel, though Lisa finds the notion preposterous.  While the townsfolk ignore Lisa and argue about who should own the supposed angel, Homer sneaks away with it, planning to store it away.

With nearly everyone in town wanting to see the angel, Homer decides to let them for a small fee.  Lisa wants someone to take a look at it to see whether its legit or not, but Homer refuses now that he's making money off it.  Lisa can't believe that so many "morons" persist that its really an angel, and she especially can't believe that Marge believes in it as well.  One night, Lisa chips off a toe bone and the next day gives it to a scientist for study.  The day after that, Lisa proclaims to everyone that some proof is about to be shown, much to their dismay, but the scientist runs up only to state that the study was 'inconclusive'.

Lisa tries to be reasonable on TV later on, but it only incites riots across various scientific institutions across town.  Lisa has had enough of this, and grabs Bart's crowbar with the intention of destroying the angel.  However, the angel has disappeared.  The townspeople arrive to take the angel away, but upon seeing it gone and Lisa holding the crowbar, they arrest Lisa and hold a trial that, on a grand scale, will settle Science vs. Religion.  Just as the trial starts, the angel is located on top of a hill, now bearing the phrase "the end will come at sundown", causing gloom and doom, though Lisa is again skeptical.

The Simpson family dress up for the "occasion", though Lisa remains adamant that nothing will happen.  With the entire town with the angel, the sun sets.  Nothing happens at first, but as Lisa begins to gloat, a booming voice calls for silence, and the angel floats into the air.  The angel calls for the end (at this point, even Lisa is freaking out), the end of high prices!  The angel, on wire, is pulled toward the previously mentioned mall, now having been fully built.  Turns out, the angel was a publicity stunt set up by those two guys Lisa confronted early on.  Lisa is outraged that they would toy with the town's faith like they did, but nobody else is that outraged as the need to save on various goods overwhelms them.  The scientist reveals that he never bothered to actually run the test, and Lisa and Marge reconcile.

Quick Review
You know, I had quite a few laughs throughout the episode, particularly involving the boat scam and during the parts where the townspeople were freaking out, and its from these laughs that the episode scored as high as it did.

Yet, throughout this episode there was this uncomfortable feeling I felt the entire time.  This was a Lisa episode, one where her "I'm right and everyone who doesn't agree suuuuuuuucks" attitude is prevalent.  The Science vs. Religion debate by itself didn't bother me any, but the heated debates between Lisa's science and everyone else's religion really didn't make for good laughs.

Final Score: 8.1