Lisa signs up for the Mars One Space Colony tryout to get to Mars, but a concerned Marge acts against her daughter's wishes by making Bart enter the tryout in hopes of driving Lisa away from it.
Tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Homer claims he had enough of Flanders' chickens bothering him but he had just learned Flanders has chickens in spite of Flanders owning them for the last six months.
- Continuity Nod: Homer's past as an astronaut is brought up.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Disco Stu is excluded from the tryout for not liking fig glutens. Justified because they're made by one of the companies sponsoring the project.
- Didn't Think This Through: You can't just move up a space launch from a decade from now to next week. Not only won't they have any of the technology ready, but the astronauts won't be mentally prepared to spend the rest of their life on another planet in such a short amount of time.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Homer tells Marge that forbidding a woman to do anything, just like she is forbidding Lisa to go to Mars, will just make them do it out of spite. When Marge objects Homer reminds her that she married him because her own mother told her not to.
- Filching Food for Fun: Flanders builds a chicken coop to get fresh eggs. After stealing some of them, Homer decides he wants fresh eggs himself and builds his own coop. However, he and Bart soon realize part of the superior taste is the thrill of stealing, leading Homer to blow the whole thing off.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Bart actually tells Homer that he's glad that Homer's abuse is simple and straightforward physical abuse, rather than the complicated emotional and mental kind Marge and Lisa are going through.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When he complains about Flanders having a chicken coop, Marge chastises Homer for always thinking about what he doesn't have instead of what he does have, only for Homer to point out that nobody really thinks about what they have, to the agreement of his children.
- Men Can't Keep House: Lisa and Marge pass the tests while Bart, Homer and the other men in their group fail. Marge's housekeeping skills helped her. Bart and Homer are worried about being left because neither of them knows how to wash dishes or where to buy paper plates.
- Middle Child Syndrome: When Marge passes the tryout, one of the evaluators is surprised because she's not from any groups qualified individuals are expected from. One of these groups is middle children. Lisa is particularly upset because middle child is one of the groups she belongs to.
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Invoked. Homer tells Bart that when women are angry they don't want someone to talk to, but talk at. So he teaches his son how to nod, agree and fake sympathy in such a way that neither Marge nor Lisa notice they aren't actually paying attention to what they're ranting about.
- Parental Favoritism: One reason Homer doesn't want Marge and Lisa to leave for Mars is that Lisa is his "one good kid". Right before Bart had turned this around and says that Marge is his "one good parent".
- Parental Marriage Veto: Marge's mother opposed her marriage to Homer. Being reminded of this fact convinces her that reverse psychology might make Lisa give up on the idea of going to Mars.
- Reverse Psychology: Homer and Marge pretend to support Lisa's decision hoping it'll make her give up. She figures it out when they join the tryout.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The launch was supposed to be made only in the next ten years but the companies sponsoring the project demanded it to happen in one week.
- You Are Grounded!: Marge does this with Lisa early into Act 2, stating she is confined to this planet, which Homer adds, "And its Moon." This marked a first for Lisa's character, as she had never been grounded before, only sent to her room in prior instances.
