A new girl, Samantha Stanky, moves into the nieghborhood and join's Bart and Milhouse's class. After school, a smitten Milhouse walks her home. Bart is stunned when Milhouse shows up at the treehouse with Samantha. Bart climbs down to get a few girl-type comic books from Lisa's room and when he returns, he is appalled to discover Milhouse and Samantha kissing.

Meanwhile, Lisa worries that Homer's overeating will shorten his life. She convinces Marge to order subliminal weight-loss tapes for him. Unaware that he has been sent vocabulary-building tapes instead, Homer puts on the headphones and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he is suddenly articulate.

To Bart's dismay, Milhouse and Samantha spend all of their free time together. Jealous andf feeling excluded, Bart reveals Milhouse's and Samantha's relationship to her father. Mr. Stanky orders Samantha never to see Milhouse again and enrolls her in Catholic school. Meanwhile, after two weeks of listening to the vocabulary tapes, Homer gains thirteen pounds and throws the tapes away. He quickly loses his advanced verbal abilities and has trouble remembering the most basic words. Bart confides to Milhouse that he snitched and they fight. Afterwords, they visit Samanta at St. Sebastian's. Bart apologizes to her and she and Milhouse share one last kiss.