The WORST episodes of Popular
Every episode of Popular ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Popular!
Who's hot? Who's not? The popular ones, the unpopular ones, the geeks. Kennedy High is the set for a big war: the popular against the unpopular. On the popular side: Brooke McQueen, a Barbie doll prototype, the head cheerleader with Nicole, her best friend and the Devil in person. Her boyfriend, Josh Ford, star of the football team; Mary Cherry, the psycotic multi-millionaire Texan girl and Sugar Daddy. On the unpopular side: Sam McPherson, the girl who is always looking for justice; Harrison, the not-so-hot boy; Carmen Ferrara, the fat girl with the warm heart and Lily, the confused girl with the boyish look. Brooke and Sam, enemies by nature, have to deal with their parents' marriage and school problems. A drama? A comedy? A dramedy? You tell!
#1 - You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape… You Don't Spit into the Wind… You Don't Pull the Mask Off the Ol' Lone Ranger… and You Don't Mess Around with Big Bertha Muffin
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/11/2001
Sam and Brooke have a quick but intense argument over what each one has done to/with Harrison. Sam does not forgive Brooke for having slept with him, and Brooke puts Sam against the wall saying Sam turned him down so there were no strings attached. They both realize none of them is really wrong, and if there's anyone wrong there it's Harrison. At school, they give him the cold shoulder and George does the same to Sam. Sam and Brooke plan to stood up Harrison at a restaurant, but Brooke shows up and is caught by Sam talking to Harrison, which leads into a huge food fight. At home, Jane is trying to fix things between the two of them when her water breaks. Josh's mom announces she is moving away, and Josh has to either come with her or go live with his dad - which he does in order not to leave Lily. She suggests they get married, and although his mom tried to warn him that he was too young, he goes ahead and gets married to Lily right before prom.
#2 - The Phantom Menace
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1999
It's the first day of classes at Kennedy High. We meet Sam McPherson, a unpopular girl, and her friends, Harrison, Lily and Carmen. And the popular ones: Brooke McQueen, the head cheerleader, Nicole Julian, the Devil impersonated, Josh Ford, Brooke's boyfriend and captain of the school football team, Mary Cherry, and Sugar Daddy. These groups hate each other. But unfortunately, Brooke is assigned to be Sam's lab partner in biology. Carmen tries out for the cheerleading squad. Sam tries to help her with the cover story on the school paper about popularity, but instead she ends up trying to get invited to Sam and Nicole's party, which will define who's hot and who's not. Josh decides to be on the school play, and that becomes an issue because Brooke doesn't want to date a drama geek. Carmen doesn't make the squad, she is discriminated against because of her weight.
#3 - Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/30/1999
Josh decides to get in the play. Brooke feels guilty about shutting Carmen out of the cheerleading squad. She and Nicole are treated like monsters by the entire school. Sam gets invited to their party, and Harrison, who has a crush on Brooke, tells her that she sold herself. Brooke meets Carmen and they share feelings. Brooke tells her that she was the best dancer, but only too fat to get in the squad. Sam decides that her friends are important too, and so they go to the party, uninvited. Brooke and Sam are having a huge argument when their parents arrive, with the news: they're getting married.
#4 - Under Siege
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/7/1999
Josh is pressured to quit the play, so Mr. Vincent gets back at coach Peritti by giving Sam the sports budget. The scandal is set and the Glamazons are the first ones to be axed. Brooke tries to convince Josh on quitting the play and they have another fight. Nicole tells Principal Hall that Sam and Mr. Grant are having an affair, and he can't prove wrong. Lily refuses to dissect a frog and Ms. Glass makes her walk around carrying the dead frog. The McQueen-McPherson family dinner is a disaster and Brooke slaps Sam. But they realize that their parents are really in love.
#5 - Windstruck
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/14/1999
In the play rehearsal, Sam has to sit in Josh's lap, and he has an erection. Sam tells Carmen about it and she accidentally sends emails to the whole school about it. Rumors spread through the entire school, and the big secret comes out: Brooke and Josh are still virgins! Meanwhile, Lily has to face her new job at a fast food chicken shack. Josh seeks for advice in Sam, and a drunk Brooke asks Harrison for help.
#6 - Slumber Party Massacre
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/21/1999
Carmen throws a slumber party for her sweet 16. The popular girls get it, just so Nicole can hit on Carmen's hot older brother, and Brooke can finally do it with Josh. Harrison tries to stop it, but he messes everything up and they end up together. Nicole realizes that Leo is more interested in Sam, and punishes Carmen by hypnotizing her into a chicken. Sam walks in her mother and Brooke's father doing it. Carmen humiliates herself in front of everybody, but ends up ditching the popular girls and hanging out just with her real friends.
#7 - Truth or Consequences
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/4/1999
Nicole and Mary Cherry steal the bio midterm. The popular kids ace the test, and the unpopular ones get in big trouble when their grades are not so good. Sam overhears Nicole and Brooke's talking in the bathroom. In an operation to prove that the popular gang cheated, Harrison becomes friend with Josh and Sugar. But he gets a little carried away and walks out on the middle of the operation. Sam publishes the story. It all ends up in a big food fight, headed by Brooke and Sam. To make things better for the girls, their parents decide to move in together. Sam and Brooke have to share a bathroom. That can't end well...
#8 - Queen B.
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1999
It's homecoming time. Being the homecoming queen means being the most popular girl in school. The war is set. Nicole is out, because she cheated on the bio test, but she's still the Homecoming Court Chairman. She makes plans so only the cheerleaders and Carmen compete. Mary Cherry and Poppy are pressured to support Brooke. Mary Cherry's mom, the beauty pageant winner Cherry Cherry leads her daughter's campaign. A hideous picture of Brooke in the morning is hanging all over the school. Brooke says Sam did it, because she was the only one that could have that picture. But Sam didn't do it, Mary Cherry did. Brooke still gets elected the Homecoming Queen, proving her popularity.
#9 - Tonight's the Night
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1999
A new hot song shakes things up in Kennedy High. Carmen and Sugar Daddy meet on the Internet, but they both lie about their looks, so they both get disappointed. Harrison and Lily try to have sex, because they think it should be with someone you really know, a close friend. But it never happens. Brooke and Sam bet about boyfriends: Brooke has to prove her love for Josh, and Sam has to get a boyfriend in a week. Sam convinces Carmen's hot brother Leo to pretend to be her boyfriend, and Brooke and Josh finally have sex.
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#10 - Wild Wild Mess
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/1999
The "Guest Principal" election turns the school upside down. The popular girls want Gwyneth Paltrow for it, and so they kidnap her personal shopper and torture him. The unpopular gang want George Stephanopoulos, so they look for Harrison's mom, who had an affair with him a long time ago. Sam and Brooke join forces when Brooke might be pregnant. Harrison's mom turns out to be a lesbian, and the girls think it's cool while Harrison wants her in the closet. Sam tells Josh about Brooke's situation, so he can support her, whether she wants it or not. At the end, Brooke is not pregnant and Harrison and his mom agree that he needs more time to deal with her situation.
#11 - Fall on Your Knees
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/9/1999
It's Christmas time and everybody is happy, but Nicole. She is the Devil impersonated. All the cheerleaders accept her vote for Carmen to get in the squad after she sprains her ankle taking private dancing lessons. Bio Glass gives fruitcake and cancels the exam for everyone, but still Nic gets her fired of her new job. The ghost of Marley Jacob haunts her, along with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. From a little pure child through Devil, we learn all about Nicole, and how she changed with the death of her anorexic friend, the death of her grandmother, and other facts. Sam and Brooke get along by throwing together a Christmas party for all their friends and family. Finally, Nicole falls on her knees and gives everyone a gift. Carmen is accepted in the cheerleading squad and the Nurse Glass gets her pussycat.
#12 - Ex, Lies and Videotape
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/13/2000
The producer of Entertainment Today lands at Kennedy High and asks Sam and Brooke if they want to produce a segment. They both agree on doing a story about Josh. He agrees in hope to get closer to Brooke. April becomes obsessed with Carmen as a cheerleader and starts to worship her as a Goddess, and she even buys Carmen's panties from Nicole. The cheerleader squad wants Carmen to dump her unpopular friends, and she accidentally drives over April in the DMV parking lot. Back to Josh's story, his father walks out in the middle of his play, and they have a discussion. Josh's mom takes his side, risking her marriage. At the end, both Brooke and Sam agree on erasing the story so things don't get worse for Josh.
#13 - The Trial of Emory Dick
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/20/2000
Emory Dick flunks on Biology and decides to sue the school. Once again, we see Brooke versus Sam. Sam and Lily defending Emory and Brooke is defending the school. The accusations: the popular kids get good grades for their looks, while the unpopular ones are by themselves. Sugar Daddy won't be able to be in the wrestling team because he's too fat. Carmen gets in the middle of the Brooke-Sam fight and she decides to drop out of the cheerleading team. Emory drops the charges and the case ends with no winner.
#14 - Hope in a Jar
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/27/2000
Kennedy High goes crazy with the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Everybody gets obsessed with their looks and they run against the clock to get in shape. Josh gets in SD's sweating system to lose a few pounds and get Brooke back. Sam asks Harrison to the dance, but he chooses Brooke when she asks him, and so Sam goes with Josh for retaliation. Harrison works out too much and has a muscle breakdown and can't move. The cheerleading squad starves to lose weight and agree to make April Tuna less weird. Lily takes Emory Dick. Sam wears an inflatable bra. Carmen goes by herself and asks Josh at the dance, but he is dehydrated. And the final lesson is given by Principal Hall, who has only found true love after she lost her sight.
#15 - Caged!
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/3/2000
As if getting locked in the girls bathroom wasn't bad enough. But what if your deepest secret was threatened to be exposed? When the boys realise that the girls have gone a little chaotic, they decide to lock the girls in the Novak to teach them a lesson. Hours later, Nicole has an interesting plan. After stealing secrets from an assignment in class, she posts the secrets in the Novak for each girl to respond. When the secrets come full circle, everyone's life is destined to change.
#16 - All About Adam
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/17/2000
Tall, dark, handsome and possibly the first male cheerleader? Could Kennedy High get even more twisted? Newcomer Adam joins the Kennedy High scene, where he befriends Brooke to express his secret desire to become a male cheerleader. Nicole, Poppy, and Mary Cherry are not at all interested in Adam joining the squad - until Adam exposes heavy dirt on the three girls. Meanwhile, Brooke's loyalty to Carmen is put on backburner when Carmen submits a photo of Sam for the new "Power Girl" commercial.
#17 - Joe Loves Mary Cherry
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/2000
Nicole is desperate to save her popularity, which is falling since she was banned from the Glamazons. She tells Brooke that she should dump Josh and start dating George. Harrison is feeling a little bit jealous about Sam and George flirting, and so he and Nicole team up to make a study on attraction for chemistry class. Brooke and Josh break up. Sam feels like she lost again to Brooke when she sees she and George together. But George tells Sam he is really into her and they kiss. Josh and Lily find themselves attracted to each other when he helps her to send a gay chimp back to his lover in Uganda. Harrison learns more about Mary Cherry and starts to have feelings for her (could it be love?). Jane tells Mike she's pregnant.
#18 - Fag
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/9/2001
Lily, in an effort to defend a fellow student who has been suffering jokes about his sexual orientation, starts the G.L.A.S.S. (Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Supportive Students), which causes a lot of repercussion around the school, and not such great support from people as she expected. But prejudice is not only about sexual choices, as Sam and George have to deal with the comments on their interracial relationship; Sugar D. doesn't get a job for being fat and Jamie (Brooke's date) reveals that he has suffered prejudice because of his religion. Things get hot when Lily is hospitalized after being attacked when she was leaving a g/l community center (which she took Miss Glass to get information about her sexuality). The gang realizes that hate will never lead to anything, and join the group one by one. Bryan comes out of the closet in a gesture of support after the group is cancelled.
#19 - Promblems
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/18/2001
Sam and Brooke help deliver Jane's baby (in one of tv's fastest labors) and realize that they can't fight over Harrison, so they both agree on going with him to the prom (ménage?). Nicole is thirsty for revenge and gets George into asking her to the prom, since he is hurt by what Sam's doing. Josh and Lily are trying to handle their marriage, and decide they should get a place of their own, since Lily's mother disapproval has become unbearable. So they move to the now available Ms. Glass's basement. But they have too much pressure on their hands, since Ms. Glass is using them for house chores and they are totally broke, to the point of Lily having to sell organic soap at the school and Josh getting a job as a window salesman. And they're still trying to consume their wedding. Mary Cherry is touched by the sisterhood of Brooke and Sam, and decides she wants a sister too. She asks Nicole to be her sister, but she turns down the offer.
#20 - I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/4/2001
Ms. Glass wants all the students to write down where did they go for Spring Break and how many they slept with, so, in her own words, she can judge them. Most of the gang say they went to Cancun, and Harrison writes that he went to Yemen as his nose starts to bleed. Ms. Glass deduces he has been infected with the Rift Valley fever that is contaminating everyone in Yemen. Just as Sam was trying to talk to him by his locker, they are both isolated from the rest of the people and the school is shut down in quarantine. During Chemistry, Mary Cherry receives a call in her cell phone from someone who knows what she really did for Spring Break - a low- budget soft porn scary movie - and she has to run for her life as she is chased to be killed. Meanwhile, Lily tells April what they really did for SB. They intended to go to Cancun, but they all stayed in LA and had SB in different ways. Nicole is elected to attract the killer, but only virgins get chased by the killers.
#21 - The Brain Game
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/27/2001
Desperately seeking to be popular again, Mary Cherry fails in an audition to a teen talent show. But that didn't stop her, and she decides to put a team of students together to be in "The Big Head Challenge". Everybody is studying for the SATs and they all think it would be a nice way to test their knowledge at this competition. Cherry Cherry, who has become a student at KH (trying to beat her 50 points score in her SAT), also tries to get in, but loses the very last spot to Josh, who surprisingly know a lot more about chicken than we thought. Meanwhile, Carmen decides to take salsa lessons, and has her heart broken by the instructor, whom she had a crush for. But after he realizes how bad he made Carmen feel, he goes to KH to ask her out. At the competition, the gang is first relieved to be against the John Ashcroft Private School for Special Needs Children, but then surprised when they see that Cherry Cherry has bought the entire team.
#22 - Coup
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/16/2001
With a lot of power in her hands and not so many brain cells in her head, April Tuna is ordered by Principal Krupps to cut one of the school's clubs. April becomes an easy prey for Evil Nicole (still out of the Glamazons and thirsty for revenge), who manipulates her into cutting the Glamazons off. April and Emory have a small fight when she threats to cut the "John Travolta-inspired Staying Alive" club, for which Lily, Harrison and Josh compete to be president of. Meanwhile, Brooke gets in deep trouble after she doesn't come home from Jamie's, which causes Mike to get furious and ground both Sam and her for lying. After Jane talks to him, he finally decides to give Jamie a chance and invites him over for dinner. Back at KH, Emory blackmails Tuna in order to save his club, and she ends up losing the position of student body president to Nicole, who immediately cuts the Glamazons, replaces it with "Bring It!", the new pep squad with her as the big star, and shuts the John Travolta club.
#23 - Style and Substance Abuse
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/3/2000
Brooke decides to run for student council president, dropping out of the Homecoming Queen election. She asks Harrison to be her campaign manager. They disagree on mandatory drug testing for students and he quits to run against her. Sam, Carmen, Nic and Mary Cherry get nominated to Homecoming Queen. Sam is motivated by George to run for it, but gets too into the spirit. Carmen is sleeping at the school since she is homeless, and Bobbi Glass invites her to her home. Seeing in Carmen herself in high school, Ms. Glass helps her with the contest (even threatening to give everybody an F if they don't vote for Carmen). Nic and Mary Cherry look for help with Hellacious Arke, a past 3 time Homecoming Queen, who is also Ms. Glass's own "Nicole" back in her high school days. Brooke misses Josh and sees him and Lily trying cough syrup while spying on them. Motivated by the recent death of a student of cough syrup overdose, she decides to run her campaign on anti-drug platform.
#24 - Lord of the Files
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/24/2000
There is an attractive fellow wandering the halls of Kennedy High, but how could he share the same last name with that weird Lunch Lady? The women of Kennedy are in a full-on war to win the affections of Calvin Krupps, the school's new vice-principal. This leads to all of the girls signing up for Calvin's new tai-chi class, but a few girls go a little to far to impress him. Harrison's newfound passion for music leads him to write a song that parallels Josh and Carmen's roller-coaster relationship. It is further complicated as Brooke finds herself still attracted to Josh...
#25 - Ch-Ch-Changes
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/20/2000
Everyone must face changes in life, and some are destined to cause havoc. Beloved shop teacher Mr. Don, makes the shocking announcement that he is becoming a woman, leaving the class very confused. Despite a possible social downfall, Harrison along with Sam, Carmen, and Lily support the transformed Ms. Debbie. Meanwhile, Cherry Cherry becomes the new home economics teacher and teaches her class a positive lesson which teaches the popular kids to accept Ms. Debbie as well.