How Lisa Got Her Marge Back

Plot

Bart buys a Money Grabber, a device to pull away dollar bills and trick people. However, everyone realizes it is one of Bart's pranks. Afterwards, Bart is pranked by another group. Later, he tries to pull a prank on Ralph, but even he won't fall for it.

Later at breakfast, Lisa tries to show Homer and Marge her new saxophone solo, but Homer leaves for work and Lisa plays for Marge. Later that day, she tries to play for her parents again, but she goes to her bedroom to fix one of her reeds. That's when Marge confesses to Homer that she hates jazz, even when Lisa plays it. Unfortunately, Lisa hears her confession and confronts her mother, avoiding her hugs and calling her "Marjorie".

Marge decides to take Lisa on a trip to Capital City to cheer her up, like taking her on the Capital City Dream Tour. However, Marge's attempts to bond with Lisa annoy her even more, to the point where she stops wearing her pearl necklace. In a final attempt to calm Lisa down, Marge takes her to Bad News Bears - The Musical. At the show, Lisa realizes that her mom has very different tastes than she does, and she decides to just pretend she is liking the musical, just like Marge did with her solo. At the exit, Marge meets the show's star, Andrew Rannells, and invites him to join them for dinner.

Meanwhile, back in Springfield, Homer gives Bart the responsibility over Maggie while the girls are out. Bart soon realizes that playing with Maggie is fun, and she could be his sidekick for pranks. The first pranks go well, as they trick the Flanders into thinking Maggie is an angel and giving a fake glass Maggie to Gil Gunderson, making him think he just dropped a baby, but everything almost goes wrong when they are pranking Homer, as Maggie is disguised as Bart and he almost strangles her. After that, Homer asks Bart to stop using Maggie to prank people, not wanting her to turn out like her older brother.

At Capital City, Lisa is discussing Andrew's presentation, saying that unlike her, Marge thought he was amazing, and starts complaining about her family, but Andrew points out that Lisa ignored all of Marge's attempts to reconcile. Feeling bad, Lisa and Marge apologize to each other. Lisa sings "Don't Rain on My Parade."

Marge and Lisa later partake in the Capital City Crime Tour which shows the different areas where known crimes have happened in Capital City, like the 19th Street Liquor Store, which was the epicenter of the 1967 riots (where it never fully stopped), and a high rise where State Senator Wilcox was shot in mid-air as he plummeted to his death. Marge and Lisa are pleased with their trip.

Before the end credits, Homer is shown putting different recycling bins full of beer bottles and Abraham Simpson out at the curb, and throwing Maggie's toy saxophone into one of the recycling bins.

Reception

"How Lisa Got Her Marge Back" scored a 1.2 rating and was watched by 2.55 million viewers, making it Fox's second highest rated show of the night, behind The Last Man on Earth.

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- stating, "Marge and Lisa have a fight in the first act of “How Lisa Got Her Marge Back”. Which means they’re going to make up by the end of the episode, and, in true fashion of not only The Simpsons but most sitcoms ever made, that fight is not going to affect their relationship in any appreciable way going forward. I’ve always maintained that that’s not a problem in itself—The Simpsons can go on as long as these actors’ voices and Fox’s largesse hold out because, not in spite of, the show’s weekly-rewritten reality. It’s an endlessly renewable resource where good writers can play out these characters’ stories—silly, emotional, or any combination thereof—again and again. It’s all in how it’s written."