High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" is the season finale of The Simpsons` eighth season, first aired by the Fox network on May 18, 1997. Bart gets sent to a military academy as punishment for bad behavior. While visiting the academy, Lisa sees that the school is far more challenging than hers and she decides that she wants to attend as well. It was directed by Mike B. Anderson, written by Richard Appel and featured Willem Dafoe in a guest spot as the school`s commandant. The episode was mistakenly anticipated by some as being about Lisa launching "a legal battle" to enroll at the military school. Lisa graduates from the second grade in this episode, (as does Bart from the fourth, apparently) but in all subsequent seasons they remain at their original grade levels.