Mr. Burns hires the Simpsons to play his live-in virtual reality family, but excludes Homer so that he may play dad. Now alone, Homer finds a new best friend in girl-next-door Julia, who eats, drinks and thinks like him. Blackboard: 'I will stop losing 50% of my NFL lead-in'.

In the midst of a major drought, Mr. Burns introduces a Hunger Games-style contest in which Springfield's children fight each other for a day in Burns' personal reservoir. Meanwhile, Lisa's imaginary best friend, Rachel, is jealous of Lisa's real best friends and starts killing them. Moe tells Bart that the barflies are actually covert agents and that he wants Bart join their team in Homer's place.