Jimbo's girlfriend Shauna has a crush on Bart. Meanwhile, Homer gets addicted to watching a Lost-style drama on his new treadmill that gets wireless TV.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless:
- The lifeguard is useless in stopping the bullies from beating up Bart and has to abide by the pool rules.
- Marge misidentifies Jimbo, Dorph and Ernie as potential non-Milhouse friends for Bart and encourages them to stick around.
- Affectionate Parody: Towards Lost and the obsessive fandom that surrounded the show. Almost every scene that is shown and plot points being discussed make no sense in the context given, specifically how one character finds their childhood cat with a name tag reading the flight number of the plane they were all on and with possessed eyes.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: In-Universe, the episode has a movie literally titled Horrible Premise being shown at the Springfield Mall. It is apparently about an American Football player wearing nothing but a helmet and a diaper.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Shauna falls for Bart despite the fact that he's only ten years old simply because, unlike Jimbo, he shows her basic courtesy.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When Lenny and Moe get into a heated argument, Carl talks them into surrendering their weapons to him. But then he turns the guns at them.Carl: Now it's time to talk about what Carl wants.
- The Cameo: One by Fry and Leela during the final sequence.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Bart, and Jimbo, lose Shauna after she decides to think about herself first.
- Downer Ending: Shauna loses interest in Bart who ends up feeling the wrath of Jimbo.
- Gainax Ending: Turns out that the whole Simpsons universe is in a single grain into a cat's box of sand.
- Grow Old with Me: When asked what his goal in life is, Homer replies without hesitation that he wants to grow old with Marge and live long enough to "be one of those couples who just sit in the park holding hands".
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Bart starts catching on to the fact Shauna dragging him around as a buffer against Jimbo was not going to end well for him. When he refuses to go along with her next activity and asks why he should, she flashes him her breasts. Bart is rendered near catatonic for the rest of the day, and couldn't help but see boobs everywhere, including the mound of mashed potatoes for dinner.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: After Bart asserts to the bullies that he and Milhouse only saw the Elves movie to rip on it, the nerd appears decked out in Elven memorabilia.
- Kids Driving Cars: Bart takes Shauna for a drive during a romantic montage. Seeing as Bart got a legitimate driver's license in "Little Big Girl", this is justified. What isn't justified, however, is Chief Wiggum sending in Ralph to apprehend them. Ralph proceeded to immediately drive the police car into a tree.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Homer starts watching Stranded and gets hooked on it, despite the fact the show actually ended five years previously. Marge even says that Homer originally dismissed the show when it was on the air, and now he is very antsy about being spoiled on any plot developments.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the Final Act, Lisa reveals that she's been following Bart's storyline and has a suggestion for the resolution.
- Must Make Amends: Realizing that she went too far with crushing her husband's fandom interest, Marge makes it up to him with a romantic love night with an island theme.
- Nerdy Bully: Comic Book Guy quickly sells out Bart and Shauna by revealing himself to be another type of bully.
- Series Continuity Error: Jimbo notes that Bart still has baby teeth. He actually lost his last one in "Fat Man and Little Boy".
- Show Within a Show: Stranded, a drama series similar to Lost which Homer obsesses about.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: What drew Shauna to Bart was that he was the first boy who actually cared about her interests and pointed out that she deserved someone better then Jimbo.
- Take a Third Option: While Jimbo and Bart fight each other over who Shauna should choose as her boyfriend, Lisa points out that Shauna should choose herself instead and not be treated like a prize to be won. Shauna herself agrees with the sentiment.
- Taking the Heat: After Shauna gets caught shoplifting perfume by mall security, Bart takes the blame if only to avoid her boyfriend's wrath.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As a baby, Homer drew on the wall, and when Abe angrily asked who did it, Homer said his first word: "Mommy". Abe then decided to withhold affection from her without explaining why, essentially meaning that Homer's distressing childhood was his own doing.
- Wingdinglish: Stranded at one point features a message written in Futurama's Alien Language 1. It translates to "WATCH FUTURAMA THURSDAYS AT 10".
