After destroying the meager home of a homeless woman named Hettie, Bart makes up for it by allowing her to live in his closet. Lisa then finds out Hettie is actually the daughter of a renowned country music singer, but her faith in Hettie's potential is shattered when she learns Hettie has a serious case of heroin addiction.
Tropes:
- Continuity Cameo: Sideshow Bob is briefly seen being forced along with other prison inmates to clean up El Barto's vandalism.
- Crazy Homeless People: Done subtly and in a more realistic way. Hettie at first seems to be largely harmless and quirky, but her drug addictions make her a time bomb ready to relapse.
- Doom It Yourself: Homer stubbornly tries to fix a broken floor by himself when Marge decides to call a "handy man" to do it. The cat ends up somewhere within the walls.
- Funny Background Event: While Lisa and Hettie are talking on the pier, a guy riding a unicycle and juggling burning torches passes them in the background. Then he passes again but now his head is on fire. And then he is seen being carried away by two paramedics also riding unicycles.
- Genre Savvy: Bart realizes that any aspirational figure that comes into Lisa's life is bound to let her down in some way, and tries to warn her of it to no avail.
- Get Out!:Lisa: You know what, Bart? Just get out! And get Dad's keys and drive us to the radio station. And then get out! Wait until we're done. Then drive us back. Then get out!
- Hidden Heart of Gold: While Bart is not a perfect child, he is truly a good kid. After accidentally knocking Hettie's shopping cart into a frozen lake, the boy's guilt compels him to invite her to his home.
- Inside a Wall: Homer has to fix a hole on the kitchen wall. Surprisingly, he does a perfect job... except that he leaves Snowball II trapped inside the wall. When he rescues the cat, he realizes that Santa's Little Helper is now stuck inside.
- Meta Twist: Instead of strangling Bart, Homer crushes the little boy by sitting on him in retaliation for an insult.
- Self-Made Orphan: It's implied that Hettie shot her own parents to death but was too affected by drugs back then to remember.
- Shout-Out: The food Homer leaves for Snowball II while she's trapped behind the walls? Lasagna.
- Skyward Scream: Homer watches a video on how to diagnose and repair tile, and the guy on the video says if the floorboard itself is compromised he would play music loud enough to cover up the scream, which Homer does.
- To the Tune of...: The songs Hettie sings are sung to the tune of bluegrass, folk, and gospel tunes like "Poor Wayfaring Stranger", "Down to the River to Pray" and "Big Rock Candy Mountain".
- Two Lines, No Waiting: There's the A plot of Bart and Lisa meeting Hettie and trying to help her, and the B-plot of Homer trying to prove he can be a handyman, which ends with the Simpsons pets getting lost in the walls of the house and Homer trying to cover it up until he can retrieve them.
