Plot

After a hurricane destroys Ned Flanders' house, he suffers a nervous breakdown and is forced to confront repressed problems from his childhood.

Homer lazily enjoys his latest mid-afternoon nap outside, when the winds begin to pick up. Lisa consults her weather instruments and a question-and-answer book and finds out a hurricane will soon strike Springfield as she alerts Homer that a hurricane is coming. Panicked residents quickly gather supplies and food at the Kwik-E-Mart, but Ned Flanders remains calm as the main storm approaches, having fitted his home with a large tent like guard to keep it hunkered down.

As the bad weather hits, and various hurricane-related gags play out throughout Springfield, the Simpsons do their best at family bonding in the basement. Eventually, the storm finally passes, and everyone is overjoyed that the hurricane caused absolutely no harm to their house, or seemingly anyone else's homes. However, next door to the Simpson house, the Flanders family has gone through serious trouble; Ned's house is the only one that has been totally destroyed as Ned and his family emerge from the rubble.

Ned is relieved that his family escaped serious injury, but that's of little solace since he doesn't have homeowner's insurance having considered insurance "gambling" and all they have left are their tombstones. The Flanders family is forced to move into the church basement with Rod and Todd getting new clothes from the donation bin. There, he watches news accounts of the storm's aftermath, and is further discouraged when footage is shown of the Leftorium, cleaned out by looters after Maude tells Ned it has been a hard day for him, but the Leftorium will still be in business. Seeking answers from God, Maude and Rev. Lovejoy attempt to reassure Ned that matters will work out well. He tries to find solace in the Bible, but all he gets is a paper cut. He tries asking God directly why he's being punished when he's done everything the bible said (even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff) and also mentions that he has always been nice to people and he doesn't drink, dance or swear and even kept kosher. He thinks that he's coming apart and that he wants to yell out and that he can't do it, but doesn't get an answer.

The next day after the hurricane, in an attempt to show their community spirit and friendship, Marge commissions everyone in Springfield to rebuild the Flanders' home with Marge taking Ned and his family to the newly-rebuilt Flanders' house after Marge tells them that they got to come back to their house and that something incredible has happened and Ned sarcastically asks if the rubble have burned down and Marge tells the family no and to come on as Ned becomes amazed that his house is now rebuilt. The job's completed in record time, and Ned's overjoyed - that is, until he inspects their workmanship, which turns out to be (at best) shoddy; for example, some of the floor's made of dirt as Moe remarks that they were out of tiled floor, so they painted the ground to make it look like tile wood floor, there's too much electricity in the living room, there's a lot of loose nails sticking out in the walls, the toilet's in the kitchen where Chief Wiggum tells Ned about lugging up a toilet up the stairs, the boys' bedroom has a crack in the wall with a Krusty the Clown poster which Rod doesn't like and takes down with Bart suggesting to not have the poster removed and the door to the main bedroom's too small as Ned thinks that there's something wrong with the hallway and it's only the right size to accommodate a cat at best and even Barney Gumble's able to fit in the main bedroom with the small door and Ned tells Homer that he has seen enough. After this, the two leave the house, and when Homer asks how much Ned likes the house that "love" built, the building promptly collapses. Overwhelmed and nervous, Ned tries to clean his glasses, but they break much to his dismay.

Ned puts his glasses back on and despite the best efforts of his neighbors and townspeople, it's pretty obvious that he's at his wit's end. Ned desperately tries to calm himself down by reminding himself that the people did their best and telling himself that he has to be nice as hostility isn't the answer. As he speaks, however, his words start to become more and more slurred as he's unable to control his emotions.

Finally, it becomes too much for him and something totally unexpected happens, Ned is unable to control his emotions and finally snaps, angrily screaming "AW HELL-DIDDILY-DING DONG CRAP! CAN'T YOU MORONS DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!", shocking the entire crowd.

In the aftermath, certain members of the crowd speak out to or against him or catch his attention, prompting Ned to turn upon them and rant at them specifically:

• Marge - Marge criticizes Ned's lack of appreciation, saying that they meant well and everyone did their best by having good intentions. Ned, however, gets right in her face and states flat out that this isn't good enough, pointing out that his family can't just live in "good intentions". He also scolds Marge for never accepting the negative side of things (especially those brought about by her family) because of her overly positive outlook since she has good intentions. His attitude and voice level causes Marge to cringe away from him in fear.
• Bart - Bart stands up for Marge and yells at Ned to "back off" in anger. Unintimidated, Ned turns to face the local trouble-maker, using two of Bart's catchphrases (Dude, and have a cow man) in an exaggerated mocking manner. He then states that Bart better learn a new catchphrase for his adult years ("Hey buddy, got a quarter?"), effectively telling Bart that the way he is going he will end up a homeless, jobless beggar when he grows up, which shocks the entire crowd again. Bart initially cringes away from him in fear, but as Ned storms off, Bart admits that he's "shocked and appalled".
• Lisa - Following this rant, Lisa appears from the crowd and informs Ned that Bart hasn't done anything wrong. Ned promptly insults her for constantly butting in and forcing her opinions upon others when they don't ask for or want them and calls her "Springfield's answer to a question no one asked", which also makes her cringe away from him in fear.
• Chief Wiggum - Wiggum laughs at Ned's insult to Lisa, causing Ned to turn his anger at him. Grabbing and wiggling Wiggum's massive belly around, Ned cites his incompetence as the chief of police by calling him "the long flabby arm of the law" and tells him that the last case he got to the bottom of, was a case of Mallomars. Unlike Marge, Bart and Lisa, Wiggum doesn't cringe away in fear or take offense, nor does he arrest Ned for grabbing his belly. Instead, he just looks at Ned in a surprised expression.
• Krusty - the clown is taking notes for his act after Ned insults Wiggum, causing Ned to note that Krusty is "the only one of the buffoons" in Springfield that Ned doesn't find funny or make him laugh. Like Chief Wiggum, Krusty doesn't cringe away from Ned or take offense. Instead, he just ignores him, presumably believing that he doesn't appreciate humor and continues writing notes for his act.
• Lenny - Ned just points randomly at Lenny (admitting he doesn't know him) and assumes he's just a jerk. Like Chief Wiggum and Krusty, Lenny doesn't cringe or take offense. Instead, he becomes confused, confessing that he has only been there a few minutes and has no idea about what's going on.
• Moe - Ned then targets Moe specifically calling him an "ugly, hate-filled man" right to his face. Like Wiggum, Krusty and Lenny, Moe doesn't cringe. He also bravely stands up to Ned, only for his attempt to fall short as he has forgotten what else Ned has said to him.
• Milhouse - Ned shouts at the boy for staring at him after he passes by Milhouse. Milhouse then timidly remarks that Ned wears glasses too (as Ned called him four eyes) before he cringes away in fear (similar to Marge, Bart and Lisa). Note: this is a deleted scene, which isn't featured in the main episode.
• Homer - Homer stands timidly in front of the ruined house, smiling sheepishly as an infuriated Ned marches towards him. Anyone nearby backs away, staring at Ned fearfully. For a moment all is silent between the two men. Then in a quiet, hate-filled voice as opposed to his loud one, Ned says "Homer, you are the worst human being I have ever met," before leaving. With that, Homer says , "Hey, I got off pretty easy," possibly not recognizing this was Ned's worst insult due to his low IQ or that he ''did'' recognize it and is relieved that he wasn't yelled at.

Ned then storms off and drives away as the townspeople of Springfield, including the rest of the Simpsons and his family except for Homer, Chief Wiggum and Krusty stare after him in shock.

Fearing he has lost his mind and on the verge of a mental breakdown, Ned checks himself into the Calmwood Mental Hospital to seek therapy for help. There, a nurse who is shocked he is there, calls his childhood counselor Dr. Foster, who reminds Ned that - because his beatnik parents didn't believe in discipline - he was a rambunctious, out-of-control brat in need of psychiatric counseling. That therapy, called the University of Minnesota Spankalogical Protocol, involved eight months of continuous spanking. Although it reformed Ned from his bratty behavior, it worked so well that it rendered him unable to express his anger at all and resulted in his trademark nonsensical jabbering at moments when he was particularly close to losing his temper. This caused Ned to unknowingly repress his anger, until it built up inside him and erupted in the form of his uncontrollable tirade of insults at the townspeople, including his neighbor, Homer.

Now having seen that his earlier therapy was inappropriate, Dr. Foster enlists Homer to help Ned learn to appropriately express his emotions, as Homer is the person who Flanders harbors the most resentful feelings towards just as much as Homer hates Ned. Homer arrives at Calmwood and Foster begins the therapy with several cards he wrote. After several flubbed tries Homer makes that results in failure and Ned retaining his nonsensical speech, a doctor assisting Foster suggests he try a new and unorthodox way to get Flanders to open up to his anger by letting Homer use his own approach. Dr. Foster is against testing it and wants to continue using his cards. The doctor convinces him to let Homer use his own approach when he noticed its failure. He believes that Flanders won't make any progress with the scripted cards Foster wrote unless they let him try it and help trigger the real source of Ned's anger. Homer takes this to heart and tries his own approach by claiming Ned is afraid to be human because humans hate things, but he likes everything. He disagrees and admits to Homer that he doesn't like everything. Ned mentions that he has been frustrated over the post office's lack of customer services all the time and ends it with admitting that he hates his beatnik parents for the lack of discipline he got from them over the years resulting in them turning to someone else to do it for them. Suddenly, he feels like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders and Dr. Foster eventually declares him cured.

Shortly thereafter, the newly cured Ned is finally released from Calmwood and the townspeople of Springfield, including the other the Simpsons and Ned's family greet him again, and Ned tells everyone, including Homer, that he is all better now and will try harder at expressing his feelings and acknowledging when he is upset. He says in a jokingly-ominous tone that when he is positively hurt, he'll "run you down with my car" to be sure people hear about it. Ned winks to signify he's joking and everything then returns to normal. Feeling a new sense of camaraderie with Ned, Homer calls him crazy and the men laugh.