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"The Unusual Suspects" is the second segment of the twelfth episode of Pepper Ann. It aired on January 17, 1998.

Plot[]

In this parody of hardboiled detective stories and The Usual Suspects, the Hazelnut Middle School Otter Statue is stolen, and Principal Hickey calls up Pepper Ann and four suspects to find out the truth.

Synopsis[]

The episode is presented with a back and forth between the actual events and the characters imagining a black and white noir scenario. Pepper Ann addresses the audience with the story of The Case of the Missing Otter. The Hazelnut Middle School statue of their otter mascot has been stolen and Principal Hickey suspects Pepper Ann, Milo, Nicky, Trinket and Dieter as the suspects and has them all come in one by one to give their testimonies.

Dieter explains that Pepper Ann gave him a tip for his food column for the school paper. He heads to a pancake house where he encountered Gwen and danced with her. With a strong alibi, Trinket gives her testimony next. She had left cheer leading practice early when she encountered Pepper Ann who gave her a coupon for her mom's clothing store. When she got there, she got into an argument with the cashier over the prices. Nicky explains her story next; she was in the lab when Pepper Ann left and discovered a formula for a special kind of Mildew. She got into a fight with Mr. Carter who planned on getting famous from it, but Nicky managed to eat the formula to hide it. Milo, Pepper Ann's last hope, reveals that he and Pepper Ann were supposed to meet at the Brain Dead Arcade, but she was arriving late. Milo ends up going on a hopeless search for a quarter which leads to him losing his money.

Pepper Ann finally goes in to give her testimony, but Hickey immediately assumes that Pepper Ann stole the otter; giving a lengthy and ludicrous explanation that involved her selling the otter to a big-time crime lord, Mr. Big. Just when he is about to throw the book at her, Vera comes in and reveals that Hickey had actually asked her to remove the otter so that she could clean it. Humiliated and embarrassed, Hickey lets Pepper Ann go free. Pepper Ann summarizes that not jumping to conclusions is the best way to find the truth and reveals that she is actually in detention for releasing frogs in the chemistry lab. As she tries to tell the story, the episode irises out with her trying to tell the viewer not to leave.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Additional voices[]

* Marks an uncredited voice role

Non-speaking appearances[]

Trivia[]

General[]

  • This is the only episode from the show's first season to have no stock footage featured in the clip show episode, "To Germany with Love".

Continuity[]

  • Trinket's friend Marie is mentioned for the first time.
  • This episode marks the only time Dieter is shown reciprocating Gwen's crush, although they will be often seen hanging out together (presumably dating) in the second season.
  • Trinket is revealed to be part of the HMS Cheerleading Squad, along with Cissy Rooney and Brenda.
  • Mitch makes his first appearance since the first episode.
  • The note Vera hands Principal Hickey is dated 4/18/87 and signed Vice Principal Hickey, meaning Principal Hickey was originally the vice principal of Hazelnut Middle School.
    • Ironically, a later episode reveals that Principal Hickey served as a substitute teacher at HMS during the early 1990's, indirectly implying that Hickey was at one point demoted.

Allusions[]

  • This episode's title is a twist on the title of the 1995 film The Usual Suspects.

External links[]


v - e - d
Media
Pepper AnnPepper Ann Main ThemePepper Ann (song)
Characters
Pepper Ann PearsonAlter EgoNicky LittleMilo KamalaniMoose PearsonBecky LittleDieter LiederhosenTrinket St. BlairCissy RooneyTessa and Vanessa JamesPink-Eye PeteAlice KaneGwen MezzrowStuart WalldingerShelf McClainConstance GoldmanLamar Abu-DabeCraig BeanSketchCrashLydia PearsonChuck PearsonJanie DiggityJo Jo DiggityNed DiggityCrying GirlBrendaMean GirlEffie ShruggAbriola StarkCarlotta SneedRoland CarterCoach DooganBronte BladdarSherman FinkyVera Groober-SchwartzPrincipal HickeyHazelnutians
Episodes
Season 1: "Ziterella" • "Romeo & Juliet" / "Food Barn" • "Old Best Friend" / "Crunch Pod" • "Psychic Moose" / "Doll & Chain" • "Megablades of Grass" / "Family Vacation" • "Sani-Paper" / "The Big Pencil" • "Uniform, Uniformity" / "Snot Your Mother's Music" • "The Environ-Mentals" • "In Support of" / "Nicky Gone Bad" • "Soccer Season" / "Crush & Burn" • "Thanksgiving Dad" • "Have You Ever Been Unsupervised" / "The Unusual Suspects" • "Sketch 22" / "Manly Milo"

Season 2: "Quiz Bowl" / "License to Drive" • "Cocoon Gables" / "Green-Eyed Monster" • "Hazelnut's Finest" / "Cat Scan" • "An Otterbiography" / "Greensleeves" • "Vanessa Less Tessa" / "Peer Counselor P.A." • "A 'Tween Halloween" / "Mash into Me" • "Framed" / "Radio Freak Hazelnut" • "Presenting Stewart Waldinger" / "P.A.'s Life in a Nutshell" • "Like Riding a Bike" • "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Milo" / "The Sisterhood" • "Impractical Jokes" / "Cold Feet" • "Doppelganger Didi" / "Pepper Ann's Day Off-Kilter" • "A No Hair Day" / "That's My Dad"
Season 3: "Burn, Hazelnut, Burn" / "The Wash-Out" • "G.I. Janie" / "Miss Moose" • "Pepper Shaker" / "Flaw and Order" • "Def Comedy Mom" / "Career Daze" • "Baggy Bean Buddies" / "The Spanish Imposition" • "The Beans of Wrath" / "Effie Shrugged" • "The Velvet Room" • "One Angry Woman" • "The Sellout" / "The Tell Tale Fuzzy" • "Dances with Ignorance" / "Girl Power" • "Sammy's Song" / "Permanent Record" • "Live and Let Dye" • "Remote Possibilities" / "Considering Constance" • "You Oughta Be in Musicals!" • "Beyond Good and Evel" / "One of the Guys" • "The First Date Club" / "Unicycle of Life" • "To Germany with Love" • "A Valentine's Day Tune" • "Bye Bye Trinket" / "P.A.'s Pop Fly" • "My Mother, Myself" • "The Amazing Becky Little" • "A Kosher Christmas" • "The Untitled Milo Kamalani Project" / "Guess Who's Coming to the Theater" • "Single Unemployed Mother" / "Mom Knows What P.A. Did Two Nights Ago" • "The Great Beyond" / "Jaybirds of a Feather" • "The Way They Were"
Season 4: "The One with Mr. Reason" / "Sense and Senselessness" • "Dear Debby" / "Reality Bytes" • "Complimentary Colors" • "Searching for Pepper Ann Pearson" / "Forging Ahead" • "Carmello" / "Too Cool to Be Mom" • "The Word" / "The Perfect Couple" • "The Merry Lives of Pepper Ann" • "Strike it or Not" / "Moose in Love" • "Two's Company" / "A is for Average" • "That's My Mama Destructo" / "Unhappy Campers" • "The Finale" • "Spice of Life" / "Alice Kane Went Down to Calcutta" • "T.G.I.F." / "Zen and the Art of Milo"

Locations
Hazelnut Middle SchoolPepper Ann's House
See also
House of Mouse