In his ongoing effort to impress his son, Homer decides to build a robot that can fight on the mechanical gladiator show they enjoy watching on television. Without the technical skills to build it correctly, Homer decides to don a robot suit and fight for Bart's affection - getting beaten to a pulp in the process.
Bart discovers what his dad's up to, but finds it extra-cool that Homer went to such great lengths for him.
Meanwhile, Lisa is crushed when Snowball III dies, and is further distraught when she can't keep a large number of replacement cats alive either.