"The Finale" is the 65th and final episode of Pepper Ann. It aired on November 18, 2000.
Synopsis[]
Fifteen years into the future, Pepper Ann (now an educational toy maker) is invited to her reunion, where she must stop them from digging up a time capsule, which contains an embarrassing letter she wrote when she was 12.
Plot[]
The episode switches back and forth between the present and 15 years later.
Pepper Ann is moody because it is the end of the year and the photos of her in the yearbook are terrible. Milo and Nicky say that she should not be concerned about it especially because they are having the end of the year carnival and will be saying goodbye to some of their friends as they move on from the seventh grade to the eighth grade. In class, Mr. Finky assigns the students with a letter to write for a time capsule to be read fifteen years in the future. Thinking that it is a dumb assignment, Pepper Ann writes a scathing letter:
- “Dear whoever, yearbooks are stupid. Everyone at this sorry school is dumb and will amount to nothing, except for me. P.S., I'll also be married to Craig Bean and we'll have four children: Coco, Magoo, Bernstein, and Craig Junior.”
- ―Pepper Ann's time capsule letter
After school, Pepper Ann tells Milo and Nicky that she will not be going to the carnival and instead go to Fuzzy World out of spite for everyone. Milo and Nicky decide not to stop her. At Fuzzy World, Pepper Ann gets in trouble and is jailed for causing some kind of disturbance. At the carnival Milo and Nicky miss Pepper Ann and go find her to have her bailed. All three agree that it was no fun without the other and that Pepper Ann still has a chance to say goodbye to her friends at the Greezy 'n' Cheezy. She says that she will bail them out if the same happens to them, but Nicky laughs at this notion.
Fifteen years in the future (depicted with flying cars and holograms), a 27-year-old Pepper Ann is an educational game designer. Her boss is not impressed with her latest game and tells her that it needs more "oomph". Pepper Ann gets a letter for her fifteen year middle school reunion, but throws it away. While hanging out with her new friends, Pepper Ann has a fantasy where she is accused of having lost touch with her childhood friends and drifted apart for selfish reasons. She tells them that she will be attending her middle school reunion after all.
Pepper Ann comes home to see Lydia, who has remarried to Alex Trebek, and Moose who is a vet intern. She attends the reunion where she runs into Stewart, whom she does not remember, Constance, who has gotten a makeover, Dieter, who conquered his eating habits and Principal Hickey who has become senile. Later, it is revealed that Tessa and Vanessa married twins and had twin children each, Cissy works in cosmetics, Trinket is in politics, Shelf is a kind pastor, Vera has retired, the teachers have not changed and Pink Eye Pete lost his pink eye. Sulking over not being recognized, Stewart meets Gwen who does recognize him and asks him out and he accepts, though it is revealed that he does not remember her.
Pepper Ann finally runs into Nicky, who is a successful journalist and has gone through several relationships, and Milo, who is a successful artist and is married to a woman named Bettina and has an infant daughter named Zoe. The three are happy to be reunited. Pepper Ann also runs into Craig who has become a teacher at the school and has been with "my girl", news that bothers her. President Mark Hamill visits the school and decides to read the time capsule letters. Milo and Nicky's letters are read and are accurate to their careers. Suddenly Pepper Ann remembers what she wrote and is embarrassed. She tells Milo and Nicky and they whole heartedly decide to go into one of her crazy plans again like old times.
Milo and Nicky come up with distractions while Pepper Ann tries to find a way to get her letter back. Ultimately, Milo and Nicky are forced to attack Hamill with Pepper Ann successfully getting the letter and destroying it. She comes around and bails Milo and Nicky. To her surprise, they are not mad and are actually enlivened by the experience and are happy that they still have the same chemistry they had years ago. As they leave, Pepper Ann finally decides to hear their advice on what to do with her new video game. They end up being incredibly helpful and decide to go and revisit some places, only to learn that some of them are shut down. Nevertheless, Pepper Ann is still happy with her friends and to be back home.
As Pepper Ann leaves Hazelnut again, she runs into Craig and they talk. It is revealed that Craig's "girl" is actually the name of his dog (M' Girl). Pepper Ann agrees to see Craig again setting up a real date. Sometime later, Pepper Ann stops by the Greezy 'n' Cheezy to pick up her pizza when she sees three similar young children hanging out by her usual booth. She asks if she can sit there temporarily and they allow her to. Pepper Ann is flooded with memories of her childhood and thanks them before leaving; ending the series.
Cast[]
- Kathleen Wilhoite as Pepper Ann Pearson
- Jeff Bennett as Dieter Liederhosen, Shelf McClain, Pink-Eye Pete, Craig Bean, Carny, Emit Swink
- Danny Cooksey as Milo Kamalani, Marco
- Clea Lewis as Nicky Little
- Pamela Adlon as Moose Pearson, Mr. Cheap, Sue, Twelve Year Old Boy
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Abriola Stark, Natasha, Sherrie Spleen
- Don Adams as Principal Hickey
- Cam Clarke as Stewart Walldinger, Captain Antibody
- Jim Cummings as Roland Carter, Mama Tried Guy
- Paddi Edwards as Vera Groober-Schwartz
- Mark Hamill as Himself
- Tino Insana as JoJo Diggety, Fuzzy World Guard
- Kathy Kinney as Mama Destructo
- Don Lake as Sherman Finky, Spirochete
- Phil LaMarr as Terrence, Clarence, Middle Aged CEO
- Candi Milo as Constance Goldman, Twelve Year Old Girl
- Kimmy Robertson as Gwen Mezzrow
- Kath Soucie as Cissy Rooney, Mean Girl, Gina, Laura
- Cree Summer as Tessa and Vanessa James, Cocktail Waitress
- Julia Sweeney as Carlotta Sneed, Pleasant Woman
- Alex Trebek as Himself
- Jenna von Oÿ as Trinket St. Blair
Desk Gag[]
- (holding a plushie of herself) "A mini me!"
Trivia[]
- For some reason on Disney+, this is listed as the third to last episode in the series, despite it canonically being, as the title says, the finale. Due to the service's habit of misplacing episodes, it is possible this will be fixed in the future (or it could be that the episodes are placed in production order). The exact same thing happened with Doug and Fish Hooks.
- This episode is Don Adams' final acting role before his passing in 2005. Additionally, this is Paddi Edwards' final acting role after having passed away the previous year this episode aired.
- Shelf McClain, Emit Swink, and Stewart Walldinger's names are spelled as "Shelf Macclain", "Emmitt Swink", and "Stuart Walldinger".
- Despite this being the last episode of Pepper Ann, this is not the final appearance of the titular character. A couple of months later, Pepper Ann, along with her mother Lydia, would make a cameo in the first episode of House of Mouse; "The Stolen Cartoons", and 21 years afterwards will make a cameo in the second-to-last episode of Amphibia: "All In".
External links[]