Springfield uses the treasure that the Sea Captain found to build a better school, but Lisa discovers some dark secrets about the new school.
- Absurdly Divided School: Lisa, Martin, Allison, and a few others are the only students who get a real education in a private computer lab while the other students are supposedly trained for the jobs of tomorrow but are really today's "side hustles" (such as driving for Uber and Grub Hub).
- Brick Joke:
- Sideshow Mel's suggestion for what to do with the treasure is to build a new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one without Pearl Jam. When the new school is destroyed and Skinner suggests moving back to the old one, the building is revealed to have been appropriated for Mel's idea.
- Superintendent Chalmers says he'll spend his retirement on a cruise where he expects to find widows he can flirt with. During the credits, he's seen at the cruise with a woman.
- When asked about what the future may be like, Carl imagines himself in a future like The Jetsons flying through space while the Earth is simultaneously half boiling and half-frozen. In the future where robots enslaved humanity, Carl is in space doing roughly the same thing.
- Character Name Limits: At Springfield STEM Academy, there's a Star Board
◊ ranking students, who are listed by user name. The names apparently have an eight-character limit, as the longest names listed are "IMSHAUNA" (Shauna Chalmers) and "THRILLHO" (Milhouse Van Houten, who clearly didn't learn from last time). - Continuity Nod: Nikki from "Stealing First Base" and Sam from "The Girl on the Bus" are both seen attending the STEM Academy, with the latter in the gifted program with Lisa.
- Downer Ending: A threefer.
- The school burns down due to the A.I.'s sadness over 1-star ratings, forcing the students back to Springfield Elementary despite it being demolished for the STEM Academy.
- The past 40 years of Horatio McCalister's life were All for Nothing.
- In the future, machines have enslaved humans.
- Fake-Out Opening: The episode opens during World War II, where a Battle Couple fights Those Wacky Nazis for a treasure map. Cut to the present, where the couple turns out to be the Sea Captain and his hitherto unseen wife, still searching for that treasure.
- Fun with Acronyms: Lisa reveals that STEM actually stands for "Sponge Bathing, Toileting, Elderly, Massage."
- Honor Before Reason: Lisa's actions destroy the STEM school, but, as she herself admits, this won't avert a future in which all jobs are made obsolete save elder care; it will just leave everybody unprepared for that future.
- Hypocrite: Mrs. McCallister, who betrays the Sea Captain because "she's supposed to be his treasure", and dumps him for Mayor Quimby, selling the treasure out to him. It makes her more of a spiteful Gold Digger than a Woman Scorned.
- Hypocritical Humor: Out of fear of being replaced and enslaved by machines, Homer tries to serve drinks in the Power Plant's break room to prove that man is superior to machine and refreshes himself with a drink dispensed by the break room's soda fountain.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Lisa discovers that the new STEM school is prioritizing the smarter students for advanced computer coding while using VR tech to train other students into doing menial labor and gig economy work. When confronting the principal about the ethics of this sort of unbalanced education, he is quick to ask what the difference is between that and the Gifted Program at regular schools. Lisa audibly gulps.
- Job-Stealing Robot: After taking part in a presentation on the new school that declares that his job will be obsolete in a few years, Homer develops an animosity with the soda machine in the break room at the plant and decides to make a stand for mankind. Eventually, his friends declare him the winner, unaware that robots have shown up to take over their workstations.
- Karma Houdini: Neither Horatio McCalister's wife nor Mayor Quimby are punished for respectively throwing him under the bus and seizing the treasure he spent the past 40 years of his life searching for.
- Life's Work Ruined: The 40 years Horatio spent looking for the treasure are all for naught when his wife betrays him and informs Mayor Quimby of the treasure's location under the former's nose, allowing Quimby to claim the treasure under redrawn district lines. To add insult to injury, his wife leaves him for Quimby.
- Man Versus Machine: Homer becomes worried that machines will take his and his friend's jobs, so when a new soda dispensing machine appears in the break room, he challenges it to a soda pouring contest, complete with a John Henry-like ballad.
- Person as Verb:Bart: Uh-oh. I know that look. She's gonna Lisa up a good thing.
- Riddle for the Ages: A Two-fer for the Downer Ending of the episode.
- It's never explained how Springfield Elementary was able to be rebuilt from the remains of the STEM academy, let alone if there was enough left in the "treasury" to do so in the first place.
- Given the Bad Future shows the soda machines rising up and forcing people, Bart and Lisa as we see, into serving them. Nothing about the elderly care the STEM academy was teaching is brought up.
- Robot War: Homer becomes afraid of this once told that his job will be replaced by automation. This leads to him challenging the soda machine in the break room to a drink dispensing contest to prove he isn't outdated.
- Shout-Out: The Stinger has Carl imitating George Jetson's outfit and iconic pose for work.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The opening sets up that the Sea Captain will have an epic adventure in search of the buried treasure and find great riches in the end. Instead, he uses the realistic method of sonar to scour the seabed around Springfield, which is very dull and takes forever. Then, once he actually gets it, the city of Springfield claims it, which is what usually happens to real-life treasure hunters.
- Take That!: The only job for future generations in the future is Senior Care.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The treasure that the Sea Captain spent years searching is taken by Mayor Quimby since it was found within city limits which had changed the day earlier. What's more, he was outed by his own wife because she's supposed to be his treasure. The next scene has him drunk and passed out outside of city hall.
