Shortly, it is revealed that the boy is the son of rival illusionist Cregg Demon, and merely used her to steal the secret of the Milk Can act, much to Lisa's shock.
After some thinking, Raymondo decides to offer Lisa a chance to redeem herself by helping him stop Demon from performing the Milk Can act.
Lisa tries to step in to save him, but is stopped by Ricky Jay, David Copperfield and Penn & Teller (in their second guest appearance on the show), who reveal they had replaced the fake milk can with a real one so that Demon will be unable to escape, thus eliminating him as competition to them.
After a fight, Raymondo saves him by making a girder fall onto the magicians, and Demon decides to quit magic.
[3] In its original American broadcast, "The Great Simpsina" was viewed by an estimated 4.996 million households[5] and received a 2.3 rating/7 share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49,[6] marking an eighteen percent drop from the previous episode.
You know you're in for a clever storyline with plenty of heart, but not so much in the humor department...Overall, the episode was entertaining and flowed nicely throughout, but just lacked the funnier moments I've become accustomed to during this strong season".
Club rated "The Great Simpsina" a B−, stating "Tonight's episode was an almost Platonic example of the modern Simpsons trying to recreate the glory years and not quite getting there.
It has all the ingredients: a weird, irrelevant opening act, an investigation into a quirky aspect of American culture, and a single new character/guest star altering one of the Simpsons' lives temporarily...the jokes generally landed when they were made, and the ending was surprisingly sweet.