"The Way They Were" is the 29th and final episode of the fourth season of Pepper Ann. It aired on February 27, 2000.
Synopsis[]
Milo, Nicky, and Pepper Ann's latest argument causes the three to split up, while flashbacks show how the trio met up in the first place.
Plot[]
One day at school, Nicky pokes fun at Milo and Pepper Ann's failed science project, Milo makes some rather crude art of Pepper Ann and Nicky, and Pepper Ann has Milo and Nicky take part in a fundraising project that ends in disaster and gets all three of them in trouble. They argue at the Greezy 'n' Cheezy until they decide to end their friendship. Lydia is shocked to hear this as they have been friends for seven years since they moved back to Hazelnut. Throughout the episode, everyone wonders about their friendship as flashbacks set up their history.
Seven years ago, Pepper Ann and very pregnant Lydia arrive in Hazelnut and move into the duplex with Janie, still in her hippie phase, JoJo who has just entered the police force and their son Ned. After an encounter with Trinket and Cissy, Pepper Ann exclaims that she hates Hazelnut. In Kindergarten, Pepper Ann first meets Hickey, not yet a principal, before meeting a smartly dressed and calmer Milo who is always hiding and reading. She also meets Nicky, who wears a beanie and bullies the other kids, specifically Milo whom she loves to target.
When Lydia goes to the doctor, Pepper Ann runs away with Milo, but they run into Nicky. The girls get into an argument about their siblings and they go to Nicky's house where she realizes that her bullying is the result of pressure from her sister's success and asks that she go back down a grade. Nicky thanks them and gives her beanie to Milo who is empowered to be an artist. Lydia realizes that Pepper Ann ran away and goes into labor. JoJo finds them and Lydia gives birth with the help of Gerta Liederhosen, whose son Dieter, nicknames the baby Moose.
Back in the present, Pepper Ann, Milo and Nicky are called into Principal Hickey's office who knows that the incident was Pepper Ann's doing and orders her to be suspended. Milo and Nicky stand up for her, so Hickey suggests all three get suspended, but Pepper Ann defends them. Hickey finally gives them a janitorial punishment, with the three, now friends again, laughing it off as it is easily avoidable. In the last flashback, Pepper Ann and Nicky see Craig for the first time with Milo forced to drag them away.
Cast[]
- Kathleen Wilhoite as Pepper Ann Pearson
- Jeff Bennett as Dieter Liederhosen, Craig Bean, Shelf McClain, Pink-Eye Pete, Additional voices
- Danny Cooksey as Milo Kamalani
- Clea Lewis as Nicky Little
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Abriola Stark, Gerta Liederhosen, Teacher
- Kath Soucie as Cissy Rooney, Muffy Appleseed, Mrs. Little, Additional voices
- Susan Tolsky as Janie Diggety
- Tino Insana as JoJo Diggety
- Jenna von Oÿ as Trinket St. Blair, French Woman
- Cree Summer as Tessa and Vanessa James
- Don Adams as Principal Hickey
- Candi Milo as Constance Goldman, Nurse
- Glenne Headly as Becky Little
- Jim Cummings as Mr. Little, Roland Carter, French Man
- Cam Clarke as Stewart Walldinger, Theater Patron
- Paddi Edwards as Vera Groober-Schwartz
Desk Gag[]
(holding a plushie of herself) "A mini me!"
Trivia[]
- Being that the series is set in 1997-98, the flashbacks in this episode most likely occurred in 1990-91.
- This episode establishes that Nicky used to be a bully despite the episode "The Amazing Becky Little" establishing that she was always well educated and rather clean.
- This episode reveals that Milo got his hat from Nicky, despite "Crunch Pod" and "The Sellout" giving two alternate origins.
- The title of this episode is a twist on the title of the 1973 film The Way We Were.
- In the French dub, the movie is in English with French subtitles and the angry man and Nicky speak English instead.
- For some reason, Stewart's name is spelled "Stuart" in the credits.
- Early in the episode, Principal Hickey is briefly voiced by Jeff Bennett instead of Don Adams.
- Milo gained his artistic personality after Nicky gave him her beanie. However in "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Milo", he claims to have gotten inspired after visiting the supermarket with his mother and seeing the frozen foods section.
- Pepper Ann tells Milo and Nicky "this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship," a famous line spoken in Casablanca.