20 The Fabulous Faker Boy

Marge attends a parent-principal conference with Principal Skinner, who tells her that Bart might be able to improve his academic performance by taking up a musical instrument. Marge takes Bart to several potential instructors - Sideshow Mel, Comic Book Guy, and Professor Frink - but he ridicules all of them. He becomes infatuated with a young Russian woman named Zhenya, who agrees to give him piano lessons in exchange for Marge teaching her father how to drive so that he can get a driver's license. While Marge makes little progress with Zhenya's father's dangerous habits, word of Bart's rapid progress and emerging musical ability quickly spreads, leading to Zhenya gaining many more students. However, it later emerges that he has only been miming in time with a CD that he has secretly slipped into a player mounted beneath the piano. Feeling neglected because Zhenya has very little time for him due to her other students, Bart publicly confesses to his deception during a talent show. Marge is enraged and disappointed in him until Zhenya's father tells her that he has obtained his license - not by passing the test, but by bribing Patty and Selma with counterfeit jeans. He also convinces Marge to go easy on Bart as he only cheated for love and for his mother. Marge forgives Bart, saying she is proud of him for having told the truth and assuring him that he is unique and it will work out for him in the future.

Meanwhile, Homer loses the two last hairs on his head and becomes totally bald. He tries to hide it by using different hats and a wig, but these attempts only draw further attention to him. One worker at the power plant, who is also bald, inspires Homer with confidence by describing all the exciting experiences he has undergone since losing his hair. Homer tells Marge that he has gone bald; she comforts him, and the hairs spontaneously grow back. (Frédéric Chopin's "Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53" is played on piano during the closing credits.)