On the bus, Lisa wishes she had a close friend, then notices a girl sitting on her front porch playing a clarinet.
Exploring the Springfield Heights neighborhood, she finds the girl's house and notices her crying through a window.
Wanting to not reveal her embarrassing family, Lisa lies about them, saying that Homer is a sculptor, Marge is a chemist, Maggie is a precocious professor, and Bart does not exist.
Noticing the sudden awkwardness, Bart invites everyone to hang out in his redecorated room, which he worked on secretly while everyone was focused on Lisa, who is ecstatic to have her story have a happy ending.
In July 2018 at San Diego Comic-Con, the producers announced that Patti LuPone would guest star as Sam's mother.
[3][4][5] Leading out of the NFL divisional round game on Fox, the episode earned a 3.2 rating with a 12 share and was watched by 8.2 million viewers.
And say what you want about the good old days, but when there’s a legacy of writing great Lisa stories and you botch one this badly, the failure is that much more glaring.
"[7] Tony Sokol from Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 points ranking, stating "'The Girl on the Bus' gets caught in crosstown traffic by the ending.