Plot

Marge goes into therapy to find the root cause of her traumatizing aerophobia.

At Moe's tavern, everyone ends up playing rather dangerous pranks on Moe, much to his utter delight. However, Homer's prank of unscrewing the top of a salt shaker causes Moe and the others to think Homer has gone too far.

Homer is thereafter banned from Moe's and sets out to find a new bar. His search leads him to a pilots-only bar near the airport. When Homer says he forgot his uniform, he is provided with one by the bar. As soon as he's settled, some pilots rush in requesting someone in the bar fill in for a co-pilot. Homer is unceremoniously chosen, and his lack of training causes him to retract the plane's landing gear before it can take off.

The head of the airlines (called "Crazy Clown Airlines") agrees to give Homer and his family a free flight to anywhere in the US (except Hawaii and Alaska) in exchange for his silence regarding the airline's error.

Homer joyfully relays the news to the family, but Marge is the only one who is not that excited. Eventually, the family goes on their flight, but once aboard, Marge begins to panic, and confesses to Homer that she is afraid of flying. Eventually, the family disembarks (but accidentally leave Grandpa Simpson aboard).

Once back home, Marge begins to exhibit strange behavior due to her coming in contact with her phobia. This includes baking at odd hours of the night, babbling, and even sitting in an odd way (minus any item to sit on!). Homer feels that Marge simply needs to watch films about aerial disasters to get over her fear, but Lisa suggests that Marge go to a psychiatrist. Homer finally relents.

Marge is taken to a psychiatrist named Dr Zweig. During their first session, Dr Zweig asks Marge to recall the earliest time in her life that was most traumatic. Marge thinks back to her first day of school, where her older sisters Patty and Selma told her about school being a scary place. On the bus, Marge was mocked due to having a lunchbox with The Monkees on it.

As the sessions continue, Homer grows more and more worried that Dr Zweig will convince Marge to leave Homer. Eventually, Marge relates a recent dream where she envisioned herself as the mother in the Tv series "Lost in Space." As a rocketship blasted off in her dream, she found herself yelling "Daddy, please don't go!"

Dr Zweig asks Marge for more information about her father, but Marge suddenly becomes defensive. When Dr Zweig presses for more information, Marge explains that she was told her father was a pilot, but upon boarding a plane that he was on, found her father was actually a stewardess (or steward). The doctor feels that they have discovered the root of Marge's fear, even though Marge suddenly recalls 3 other plane-related scenarios (a Grandmotherly figure trying to feed her with an airplane spoon but instead hitting Marge in the face several times; a pedal-car resembling an airplane that Marge is riding spontaneously catches fire; Marge and her mother are looking at a cornfield when a plane dives down, shooting bullets at them), but the Dr instead wants to discuss Homer. This is soon interrupted when Homer rushes into the room and pulls Marge out before he can be made the topic of discussion.

Marge then manages to get on a pane with the family...only to have the plane malfunction and belly-flop into the ocean nearby.