History Recap / TheSimpsonsS6E7BartsGirlfriend

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: '''Averted'''. Jessica is plainly shown to be a manipulative brat who knowingly takes advantage of boys and the trouble she lands Bart in is... well, it's played about as straight as this show is willing to go.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Bart's calendar with which he marks days to avoid seeing Jessica shows April have 31 days instead of 30. Additionally, it shows the month starting on a Monday, when April 1, 1994 was actually a Friday. It also shows May having 30 days instead of 31, starting on a Wednesday when May 1, 1994 was actually a Sunday, and it also shows June starting on a Tuesday when June 1, 1994 was actually a Wednesday (at least they correctly showed June having 30 days).

* ArtisticLicenseMath: Bart's calendar with which he marks days to avoid seeing Jessica shows April have 31 days instead of 30. Additionally, it shows the month starting on a Monday, when April 1, 1994 was actually a Friday. It also shows May having 30 days instead of 31, starting on a Wednesday when May 1, 1994 was actually a Sunday, and it also shows June starting on a Tuesday when June 1, 1994 was actually a Wednesday (at least they correctly showed June having 30 days).

* AbusiveParents: Marge leashes Bart and Lisa with prison shackles, Nelson's dad uses a whip and wraps it around his son's neck and Kirk van Houten traps Milhouse in a net to force them to go to church.

* AttentionWhore: One of Jessica's last lines is demanding her father pay attention to her.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Reverend Lovejoy gets so desperate after the church money is found in Jessica's room that he accuses Bart of somehow sneaking his room into the Lovejoy house. Everyone else just stares blankly at him.

* DaddyIssues: Jessica's self-absorbed, manipulative tendencies seem to stem from the fact that her dad only cares about his projected image of her.

* HeartfeltApology: At first, the townspeople believed that Bart stolen the church money and treated him as a hated individual, but when it became clear that Jessica was the true culprit, the townspeople (on Marge's insistence) apologized to Bart for their behavior.

* HeartfeltApology: At first, the townspeople believed that Bart stolen the church money and treated him as a hated individual, but when it became clear that Jessica was the true culprit, Marge orders the townspeople to apologize to Bart for their behavior, to which they obliged immediately.

** The opening sequence of the kids running away from Church contains several references to Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968, including a brief snippet of Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack.

* VocalDissonance: Bart hears angelic singing on his way to church. He assumes it's Jessica, but it turns out to be Ned Flanders singing in falsetto.
-->'''Bart:''' That's very disturbing.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Happens with Jessica Lovejoy after she's caught framing Bart Simpson and stealing the church collection plate money. When she sees Bart approach her while doing her punishment of washing the church steps, she assumes Bart is going to laugh at her. He instead confesses how their small relationship taught him not to be naïve around girls. Jessica, however, confesses that she's learned she can make boys do whatever she wants and proves it by asking Bart to finish the job while she runs off with another boy. Bart claims he sees through her deception but then says "wait until she sees the second rate job I do on these stairs".

* GambitRoulette: Skinner's "sting operation" on Bart involves getting Willie to wear a kilt and positioning him outside church under the assumption that Bart will take steps to treat onlookers to an upskirt view. He was arguably only in the right place at the right time because he was leaving Sunday school, which he'd been ''banned from'' and had pleaded for readmittance that very day in an effort to impress Jessica.
* GoodIsNotNice: Lisa initially gives her brother's framer a chance to come clean on her own. When this is ignored, she grips the pulpit and yells to everyone that Jessica is the culprit. This honesty is what resolves the plot.

** When Bart is accused of stealing church money, Homer says he'll believe if Bart tells him he didn't. Bart does so and Homer not only refuses to believe him but also asks how Bart can dare to lie while strangling him. (Bart wasn't but, either way, Homer had just set a bad example by falsely claiming he'd believe Bart.)

** Bart laughs at the "poor sucker" who picks up Jessica on his bike, when she's only available to leave with him because Bart took over scrubbing the church steps.

* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Bart figures out pretty quickly that Jessica is bad news, [[LoveMartyr but his first plan for dealing with it is to just take her abuse until they're old enough to get married and have a baby]] on the assumption that she'll have no choice but to be nicer then. Lisa tells him it's naive to think it's possible to change someone, [[HypocriticalHumor unless it's]] ''[[HypocriticalHumor her]]'' [[HypocriticalHumor crush]], the rude kid who works at the library.

* LittleSisterInstinct: Lisa enforces this trope full on when she finds out the truth about the stolen collection plate.

-->'''Bart:''' No no, wait, hear my plan. Put up with her for seven more years. Then we'll get married. [[BabiesMakeEverythingBetter Once the first baby comes along, she's bound to settle down and start treating me right!]] [[ICanChangeMyBeloved After all, I deserve it!]]

* ManipulativeBitch: Jessica uses her beauty to manipulate boys and uses timidity to manipulate adults and girls.

* MistakenConfession: Lisa tries to get Jessica Lovejoy to confess to stealing the church's collection money, so she stands in front of the congregation and asks that the criminal confess now. As she didn't specify which crime she was referring to, everyone in town starts owning up to random things. And when Jessica plays dumb through the entire thing, Lisa just says "Oh what the heck...IT WAS JESSICA LOVEJOY!"

* PyrrhicVictory: Bart laughs about sticking Jessica with a second-rate cleaning job of the church stairs. Of course, she's out having fun, while he's spending time scrubbing down a stairs that don't even look particularly dirty to start with.

* ToTheBatnoun: When Lisa fingers Jessica and tells the adults to search her room for the money, Homer stands up and shouts, "To the little girl's room!"

** Bart's ill thought out anecdote to the Lovejoys is from ''Series/{{Martin}}''.

* SkewedPriorities: Marge doesn't want Bart playing with a troll doll in church. Not because it's rude or because she thinks he needs to pay better attention to the sermon, but because she hates the sight of such a bizarre hairstyle.

-->'''Homer''': It was Marge, admit it.

Episode - 2F04\\
First Aired - 11/6/1994

* ShamingTheMob: The people of Springfield do this to themselves when they realize that they WronglyAccused Bart of the theft. They all make a point of apologizing to him.

-->'''Truck driver:''' Oh, no! There goes the glue after all!\\

* UnwittingPawn: Willie.
-->'''Skinner:''' ''(to Bart)'' There's no such thing as Scotchtoberfest.\\

* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Bart figures out pretty quickly that Jessica is bad news, [[LoveMartyr but his first plan for dealing with it is to just take her abuse until they're old enough to get married and have a baby]] on the assumption that she'll have no choice but to be nicer than. Lisa tells him it's naive to think it's possible to change someone, [[HypocriticalHumor unless it's]] ''[[HypocriticalHumor her]]'' [[HypocriticalHumor crush]], the rude kid who works at the library.

* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Bart figures out pretty quickly that Jessica is bad news, [[LoveMartyr but his first plan for dealing with it is to just take her abuse until they're old enough to get married and have a baby]] on the assumption that she'll have no choice but to treat him more kindly then. Lisa tells him it's naive to think it's possible to change someone, [[HypocriticalHumor unless it's]] ''[[HypocriticalHumor her]]'' [[HypocriticalHumor crush]], the rude kid who works at the library.

* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Bart figures out pretty quickly that Jessica is bad news, [[LoveMartyr but his first plan for dealing with it is to just take her abuse until they're old enough to get married and have a baby]] on the assumption that she'll have no choice but to treat him more kindly then. Lisa tells him it's naive to think it's possible to change someone, [[HypocriticalHumor unless it's]] ''[[HypocriticalHumor her]]'' [[HypocriticalHumor crush]], the rude kid who works at the library]].

* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Bart figures out pretty quickly that Jessica is bad news, [[LoveMartyr but his first plan for dealing with it is to just take her abuse until they're old enough to get married and have a baby]] on the assumption that she'll have no choice but to treat him more kindly then. Lisa tells him it's naive to think it's possible to change someone, [[HypocriticalHumor unless it's her crush, the rude kid who works at the library]].

--->'''Rev. Lovejoy:''' Don't you ''ever'' come near my daughter again! Never have I heard such gratuitous use of the word "butt"!\\