Smoke on the Daughter

"Smoke on the Daughter" is the fifteenth episode of Season 19.

Synopsis
Lisa discovers that secondhand cigarette smoke makes her a better ballet dancer, and becomes addicted to it; a family of raccoons takes off with Homer's homemade beef jerky supply.

Full Story
The episode starts in Bart's bedroom, where a large snake enters the room, waking and frightening Bart who starts hitting the large snake with his baseball bat. The snake is revealed to be a costumed Homer dressed as Lord Evilton, and Lisa arrives dressed as Angelica Button, a character from her favorite novel. The two reveal that the family is entitled to attend the grabbing of the last novel. While waiting in line, Jeffery Albertson, dressed as a character that resembles Hagrid from Harry Potter, criticizes Lisa's costume, stating several differences between her costume and the real Angelica Button. Lisa rebuffs, stating that she based her costume according to the book, not the movie, causing everyone to laugh at Albertson as he hops away on a broomstick. The family manages to get the book, and while arriving home, they have finished the entire novel, in other words they had Lisa summarize the best parts while not even opening their own copies then throwing them all out the window. Once at home, Homer allows them to watch TV. After watching a variety of shows, Kent Brockman introduces a new commercial for a ballet academy owned by Chazz Busby, a sarcastic man who judges people unfairly. Marge is inspired, and later reveals to Lisa that she has a whole box and closet of unfulfilled dreams. Marge once took ballet, but had to quit because she lost balance after her bosoms started to grow (one grew before the other). Lisa tells Marge to follow through this dream, and she agrees. Marge auditions for Chazz Busby's Ballet Academy, and although Busby lets her pass, he remains harrowing about Marge's performance.

Meanwhile, in the basement, Homer takes Bart to his secret room, the "jerkytorium", a room filled with Homer's own stash of beef jerky. The two bond over what they plan on doing with the beef jerky. While dancing, Marge does an impossibly high stretch with her leg, causing it to get stuck. Busby kicks Marge out, insulting her as she goes. An furious Lisa plans to defend Marge, and while berating Busby, he notices Lisa's posture is perfect for a ballerina. He asks if Lisa would join his ballet. Before Lisa can answer, Marge interrupts and says Lisa would be happy to join and Lisa agrees to learn. However, no matter how hard she practices, Lisa soon turns out to be terrible. While on break, a ballerina asks Lisa if she would like to smoke, saying it would improve her skills like the rest of them. Horrified, Lisa rejects the cigarette. When the ballerina starts smoking, Lisa inhales a large entity of the cigarette's smoke. When the break is done, Lisa enters the studio and performs better than ever, and deduces that secondhand smoke is what makes her excel.

Homer brings Apu to his "jerkytorium", and he and Bart are shocked to discover it is completely empty. After incorrectly blaming Ned Flanders, he discovers that a family of raccoons had made off with his jerky. That night, Lisa hallucinates of a cigarette smokeshaped older version of her, who attempts to convince her to continue smoking. Saying that the great historical women Lisa admires all smoked. Lisa agrees. Outside her window, Homer and Bart lay a trap to capture the raccoons: a tray loaded with sleeping pills-laced beef jerky. However, it turns out that the plate Homer was eating from was the jerky with the sleeping pills. While driving Lisa to ballet practice, Marge, who becomes proud of having a ballerina as a daughter, starts glowing about how she sees herself in Lisa. However, Lisa soon begins to suspect that Marge is living her dream through her.

Homer follows one of the raccoons into the family's home under a tree stump, and is unable to bring himself to attack the family because he sees they are a loving family, and they resemble his own family in both appearance and manner. He soon befriends the family. At the studio, Lisa's dancing falters and she anxiously waits for break, to inhale some smoke. When break does come, she finds out that it is windy outside, so all the smoke begins to blow away. She realizes her only other alternative is to actually smoke a cigarette, and picks one up. Right before she puts it to their mouth, Homer arrives and shouts, "Lisa, give me that!" He snatches the cigarette out of her hand, and subsequently throws it on the ground and shoots it with a handgun (concealed in his jacket, along with a variety of other firearms). Ticked Off, Homer plans to go tell Marge, but discovers Marge is so proud and happy of Lisa, he can't bear to destroy her feelings. He does, however, order Lisa to break away from cigarettes, and he plans to have Bart tail her.

When Bart notifies Homer that Lisa is still addicted to smoking, Homer creates a plan involving one of the raccoons. On the evening of the big ballet recital, the raccoon breaks into the changing room and steals all the cigarettes. Homer throws the cigarettes into a nearby motel, where an impregnated Miss Springfield and Mayor Quimby give false information coincidentally, Quimby had been hoping for a cigarette and took it as a wish granted by God. On stage, all of the ballerinas soon begin to freak out, a few of them losing their patience as well. The ballerinas soon go out of control, and Lisa tells the appalled audience that ballet is something America has forced onto students, and quits, prompting Busby to withdraw likewise. Marge also learns to not display her dreams through Lisa, although Homer has evidently not learned the lesson, and then forces a Mexican wrestling mask onto Bart, before railroading the boy into practicing his mantle.