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Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment
The Simpsons Season 02 Episode 13
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
The episode opens up in the Sinai during exodus times. I'm curious why they didn't attempt a hebraic version of Homer's name and instead just kept him Homer the Thief.
Ah yes, another pamphlet: "So You've Decided to Steal Cable." I love these things. I wonder if anybody is printing these up. Homer's first scene watching cable is of a very Seinfeldian observational comic. How come Homer now knows that wrestling is fake? Just a few episodes ago, he was convinced it was real.
Bart talks about movies' protagonists as if their names are the same as the movie's. I like that. "This is where Die Hard jumps through the window ... This is where Wall Street gets arrested!"
I guess by this point I had forgotten entirely that "hell" was considered a "swear word". What a sham.
Dr. Nick is back, hi Dr. Nick! And he's on an infomercial with Troy McClure. Comic gold. I do wonder why Dr. Nick isn't totally rich, though, what with all his shady schemes.
While I'm often a big fan of moral certainty, Lisa's overbearing moral absolutism is grating precisely because it is so frictive on the very gears of society as witnessed here by the cashier's hostile reaction to Marge's attempt to pay for two grapes. Homer dropping Lisa as he excitedly gets up for the pay-per-view fight makes me happy.
Do we ever see Homer and his coworkers in the showers at work at any other point in the series?
Apu's brother Sanjay doesn't appear nearly often enough, I have to say.
You know, if Homer had learned to put his foot down like that a few episodes ago, the Simpsons may have been a very wealthy family.
Charging his friends to come over and watch Skinemax, Bart is such a born entrepreneur. I can only imagine what he'll do with that business instinct someday. Maybe he'll kick Shia LaBeouf's ass in Wall Street 3.
I can't believe Homer is so quick to sell out Marge, though. That's not cool.
Classic line, Homer to Lisa, Marge and to a lesser extent Maggie: "Excuse me, I hate to interrupt your judging me. But I wanted you know, I've made a couple of really important decisions. Number one, I'm cutting the cable as soon as the fight's over. And number two, I'm not very fond of any of you!"
CONCLUSION
This episode is definitely one of the classics. The writer, Steve Pepoon, only wrote this one episode for the show. I wonder why he never wrote any others. He was spot-on with this one.
THIS EPISODE'S RATINGS
 5/5 donuts from Statler
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RATINGS LEGEND
 = LAME
= BAD
= MEH
= GOOD
= CLASSIC
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PLOT SUMMARY FROM WIKIPEDIA
After seeing Ned Flanders reject an offer from a man to get an illegal cable hook-up for $50, Homer chases after the cable man. The cable man agrees to hook up the Simpsons' television. Homer likes the new channels and spends a lot of time watching the television, which the family watches with him. Lisa, however, feels suspicious about this. Following a Sunday School lesson regarding the existence and nature of Hell, Lisa becomes terrified of violations of the 10 Commandments, the adherence to which she is assured will keep one’s soul safe from Hell. She fears that because Homer violated the Eighth Commandment, he will go to Hell when he dies.
She additionally opposes other examples of common thievery all around her. She even convinces Marge to pay the cost on two grapes she has sampled in a grocery store. Lisa pays a visit to Reverend Lovejoy at church, where he suggests that Lisa cannot turn her father in to the police for the illegal hook-up, since she must continue to Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother, according to the Fifth Commandment. He instead encourages Lisa to not watch anything on Homer's cable hook-up, setting a good example which he hopes that others will follow. Marge pleads with Homer to cut the cable but he refuses, saying that the cable will stay as long as he likes. Meanwhile, Bart sets up posters on the back door for his showing of an adult channel for 50 cents, but he is caught a few seconds later by Homer, who then forbids him from doing it.
Homer sees a commercial for "The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!", a much-anticipated boxing match in which Drederick Tatum will challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship. Homer decides to have a party, and invites all of his friends to come over and watch the fight. Lisa tries to boycott the party, and this results in Homer making her stay outside. Homer’s conscience eventually bothers him, more in the form of his daughter's distress than a moral objection to stealing cable. He finally gives in to Lisa's protests, begrudgingly choosing not to watch the last minutes of the fight. Marge and Maggie join them as well. Bart, on the other hand, doesn't care, wanting to see the fight, but Homer drags him outside. As the family sit the fight out and when everyone leaves, Homer hesitantly cuts his cable hook-up, despite Bart's objection.
Accessed from Wikipedia on Mar. 04, 2010