Marge is embarrassed at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting because she does not have an email address. She agrees to get one and learns to browse the internet. Bored with no new email, she repeatedly hits the refresh button causing new advertising banners to appear. An advertisement for a massively
multiplayer online role-playing game called
Earthland Realms catches her attention. Marge clicks on it and creates a character for the game. She quickly learns how to play, exploring the local town when she meets the characters of other Springfield residents who are also playing the game. Soon, she is dragged into hiding with everyone else as a powerful and deadly character named "The Shadow Knight" appears. He kills
Principal Skinner's character, a sentient reptilian turkey, before Apu begins eating the roasted remains. Disgusted, Marge stops playing. Walking past
Bart's bedroom, she discovers that Bart is the Shadow Knight, yet is pleased about how well he is doing in the game. With this knowledge, Marge goes to the Shadow Knight's castle and meets Bart, fussing over and embarrassing him. Later, when Marge runs into
Jimbo,
Dolph and
Kearney while exploring, Bart rescues her. Returning to his castle with her, Bart discovers that Marge replaced the contents of his trophy room with a
Hello Kitty expansion pack. Enraged, Bart smashes the decorations and accidentally kills Marge's character in the process, massively disappointing her, and causing her to act coldly to him. Meanwhile,
Homer takes
Lisa to her soccer game and agrees to referee the match. His subpar skills frustrate Lisa, so Homer learns the rules of soccer and becomes a better referee. While playing, Lisa trips trying to steal the ball from another player. Homer calls a foul and gives the ball to Lisa. She takes advantage of the situation and pretends to be fouled again so Homer can grant her another penalty kick. When Homer's decision is challenged,
Ronaldo appears and confirms that Lisa is a
flopper. Homer gives Lisa a
yellow card. Angered, Lisa rips up the yellow card, causing Homer to give her a
red card and eject her from the game. Homer returns home with an angry Lisa from the soccer game. Homer and Bart go to Moe's Tavern where
Moe gives them advice. Homer gives Lisa a DVD documentary about soccer riots and player fights, which horrifies her. Lisa realizes she was at fault and apologizes to Homer. Meanwhile, Bart uses his character's abilities to transfer health to his mother's character, costing him two-thirds of his life force. Having heard that he is weakened, the other players storm his castle and graphically kill the Shadow Knight, celebrating by propping his limbless body upright and dancing around it like a
maypole, using his innards as ribbons. Rather than continuing, Bart instead opts to go outside and play soccer with the rest of his family, barring Marge, who changes her character to a warrior and avenges her son by eliminating all those who participated in killing him, starting with Moe's character, who wonders why he's paying $14.95 a month to play the game. ==Production==