227 Episode Rating Graph

Lester is informed that he has an inheritance coming to him. But before he can collect it, he has to live with some distant relatives and discovers that they are country folk and white.

When Rose is looking for a live-in superintendent, Manny suggests his father, knowing that the Super's family will live with a 50% decrease in rent. When his family moves in, they later find out that he is also the Superintendent, but Alfonso has no skills in that area. Instead, he would rather play concert violin in a symphony. When a try-out conflicts with his job as Super, he decides to complete his job as Super, but Rose allows him one more day to complete his job so he can try out for the Orchestra. He doesn't make it, but vows to put his all into being the Super.

Lester's construction company has the chance to be purchased by a multi-national company. The lawyer that is over the proposed merger sub leases the apt and next door, and he and Mary start off on the wrong foot from the beginning. He requests tickets to see the Pointer Sisters, makes Mary cook a steak, (after she'd already made fish) mistakes her for the maid and tells her to clean his apt for $3.00 and hour. When Mary can't get tickets, she, Rose and Sandra dress up as the Pointer Sisters and host a party for Thurmond. Lester decides that he does not want to sell.

For a choir sing-off, Mary has found housing for all of the competitors except one, and for good reason. He is rude, pushy and impatient. He winds up staying with the Jenkins. He tries everything he can to guarantee that his choir will win, including taking the judges to dinner and bringing in a professional gospel singer. The D.C. choir brings in Brenda, Tiffany and friends to sing with their choir, which gives them a unique, youthful sound. The competition ends in a tie, where both teams will represent the East Coast in the California semi-finals.

When Mary is concerned at Calvin and Brenda's nonchalance about teenage pregnancy, she designs an experiment with their sex education class where the kids must take care of an animal. Brenda and Calvin "adopt" a piglet named Alberta and she is a handful. All of the kids in the class realize how hard it is to take care of animals, let alone a baby.

Sandra introduces her boyfriend to the ladies, the same man that audited the Jenkins. Mary still does not like him, however he charms everyone and eventually wins Mary over. Rose decides to sell 227 to him because she is efficient with his building (across the street) and he handles some of the 227's problems. The next day, a man shows up saying that he is going to demolish 227, but the only one who sees him is Mary. She blames Mr. Stone and tells the other residents. When Rose confronts Mr. Stone, he calls the deal off before Rose can say anything about the demolition, but Mr. Stone sends a building inspector around to persuade Rose to sell again.

When Sandra is dating a man who wants to open a sleazy night club down the street, Mary starts a petition to keep it from opening. Meanwhile, Brenda is working on an assignment about black cowboys. While reading about he historical figures, Mary dreams that they all live in the old West. Mary is "2-Gun Mary," the fastest gun in the West. Lester is the Marshall and Brenda-Sue is his daughter. Rose is a school marm turned cocktail dancer, Pearl is a dancer, and Sandra owns the saloon. When bad-guy Jessie comes into town, the town bands together to defeat him (which is what Mary would like to do in reality).

When Sandra comes to show the ladies the new ring that her boyfriend gave her, Mary notices an article in the newspaper that mentions a robbery at the same jewelry store where Sandra and her beau first admired the ring. Mary suggests that Sandra contact the police. The police put a bug in one of Sandra's earrings so they can record her convo with her boyfriend. While he is there, he shows Sandra some bracelets and neckalaces. Just then, the police come into her apt, but Justin gets away. Sandra is afraid that he may come back, so she asks her friends to keep her company and sleeps on the Jenkins' couch. The next day when she returns to her apt fearless, Justin returns with all the ladies there, but the police come in and arrest Justin. They reveal that they were surveilling Sandra's apt.

When the landlord dies, everyone believes that Sandra will become the new landlord, including Sandra. She assures Mary that once she becomes the new landlord that Mary will have to find a new place to live after her lease runs out. The tenants all go to the will reading and it is discovered that he actually leaves the building to Rose. However, when Mary thought that Sandra would get ownership of the building, she called a building inspector to check out 227. He states that 227 is in need of numerous repairs, more than the tenants can afford.

When Mary and Lester's flight to Hawaii is cancelled due to the blizzard, they go home only to find Rose, Pearl, Sandra and Calvin in their apt, which is one of two apts in 227 with working heat. They all stay there, including the Jenkins' cab driver, whose cab was stuck in the snow, for at least two days before everyone starts to get on everyone else's nerves. When they realize how they were acting, and that Mary and Lester had to put up with their attitudes in addition to missing their flight, they decide to recreate Hawaii in the apt for Mary and Lester.

Sandra gets a job on a low budget television station, Channel 87. She tried out for the weathergirl, but bombed! So the station manager gives her another chance hosting her own talk show. Mary, Lester, Rose and Pearl agree to be on the show and talk about various things (bake sale, rummage). But the station manager wants ""Sex In The 80's"" as a topic, which makes them feel uncomfortable (except Pearl).

When Brenda meets a cute boy she decides to invite him to her party Saturday night. After getting permission to actually have the party, she then hears Sandra tell a story about how when she was young and wanted to get to know a boy better, she would ""mistakenly"" tell him the wrong day of the party. Brenda tries the idea and invites Ken over for Friday night instead, hoping that when he gets there he will meet her parents and stay for dinner. But Mary and Lester decide to go out to eat and are not home when Ken arrives. Brenda decides to let him come in anyway, just to have a drink, but then Calvin shows up to drop off chairs for the party. When she tells them they need to leave, Mary and Lester arrive home and the boys hide. Mary and Lester eventually catch the boys in the house.

When Mary's brother Lewis comes to town on business, she decides to set him up on a date with Rose. The next day when Rose won't give Mary any details about the date, they get in to an argument where Rose finally admits that she thinks Mary's brother is "self-centered" and "egotistical". They stop speaking. Meanwhile, Lewis asks Sandra out on a date, and Mary fears that Sandra may be her future sister-in-law.

Lester hires a young ex-con from the persuasion on Mary. They both admit that he is doing a great job and are happy with him until he asks Brenda out. They object and eventually tell Mike that he is not allowed to see Brenda. He feels dejected and decides he may as well not take the GED test as planned, because people will always see him as an ex-con. The real Joe Clark of the ""Lean on Me"" fame comes and gives him words of encouragement and he decides to take the test. The Jenkins apologize for the way they treated him.

Mary goes on a hike with the Buttercups, the group of young girls (like the Girl Scouts) that Alexandria wants to join. Sandra comes along also, thinking that the handsome leader would be there. They all get lost and decide to stay in a cabin until the next day. Brenda and Lester hear on the radio that a woman escaped from a mental institution and is on the loose in the park. The ladies later hear the same message. When the ladies meet Ranger Granger they assume she is the escaped lunatic disguised as a ranger. When she is sleeping, they tie her up. That's when the real lunatic showed up. The ladies wind up tying Lucinda Merkle up, and the police take her back to the asylum.

When Mary and Lester are on their way to the airport their tickets are stolen by a pick pocket who is running from the cops. As Lester and the police officer go after the man Mary waits in the cab and imagines their lives as the movie Casablanca. In the end, Lester gets the tickets back and they go off to the airport.

Mary and Rose win a raffle contest and their prize is a butler for a week. They both become quickly annoyed with his presence and ""loan"" him to Sandra. When it is time for him to go home, his boss comes over to the Jenkins and fires him. With no where to go, Alfred fakes a back ache and have the Jenkins' waiting on him hand and foot. His boss later come back and wants to take him back. He admits to Mary that it's only because it was in his father's will to that he must continue to employ Alfred in order to receive money.

When Mary goes to a seminar about success, she meets a business man who wants to build a $50 million museum. She tells him that Lester is a big time contractor and sets up a meeting date. She uses Sandra's boyfriend's penthouse across the street to prove to Mr. Mortimer that she and Lester have lots of money. When Sandra's boyfriend comes home early, Mary's plan begins to fall apart. She admits what was going on to Mr. Mortimer and his wife. They understand, because Mrs. Mortimer says she, too, would do almost anything to aid in her husband's success. They end up using Lester's company for a smaller project.

The Social Security office says that Pearl is dead, and the resulting protest lands Pearl, Mary and Rose in jail.

Calvin befriends a new kid named Ron who says that his money comes from his rich uncle. He buys Calvin a new pair of shoes and offers to take Calvin and Brenda to a Stevie Wonder Concert. Mary doesn't like the way Ron is ""trying to buy friends."" For $50, Ron gets Calvin to give someone a sealed package and in return he receives $1000 to give back to Ron. Once Pearl and Mary find out, they conclude that Ron is a drug dealer. Mary goes to talk to Ron's mother about his free spending and the fact that he is a drug dealer, but his mother refuses to believe Mary. Calvin confronts Ron about using him to deliver drugs and Ron admits that he used Calvin and all it cost him was a pair of shoes. Later that day at a drug meeting, Ron's mother shows up and tells the 227 residents that Ron was stabbed to death in a drug deal gone bad.

Pearl goes to Baltimore to visit her sister and the Jenkins watch Calvin for her. When he tries out for the romantic lead for a school play and doesn't get it, he becomes depressed. Sandra boosts his confidence and makes him feel better, however, he mistakes her kindness for affection and begins to fall in love with Sandra. When Brenda hears how silly Calvin is acting over Sandra, she goes and talks to him and expresses to him that she cares for him more than Sandra would ever, and she tells him that he is her best friend. Calvin gets over his crush really fast after that.

Pearl asks Mary if Lester would have a man-to-man talk with Calvin about sex and Brenda asks her parents if she could go to the dance Friday night. They believe that she is too young to date (14). From Mary's persuading, Lester talks to Calvin and ends his talk with, ""If you mess around with my daughter, I'll rip your head off."" Scared, Calvin breaks the date anyway. But Brenda still wants to go and comes up with a plan. Brenda tells her parents that she will go to the library Friday night, while Calvin tells his grandmom that he is going to see Haley's Comet. When Mary finds out, she goes to the dance and takes Brenda home. At home she and Brenda have a heart-to-heart talk, where Mary says she and Lester will relax the rules a little.

Sandra starts dating a man who works with her and Lester, however she finds him boring. She leaves it up to the Jenkins to cancel their date. When he comes to the apartment, he meets Rose and she goes out on the date instead. The two hit it off very well. He asks Rose to go to New York with him and Mary and Sandra disagree on what Rose should do. Mary thinks she should not go, because they may end up sleeping together, which would be too soon for the time they were dating. Sandra thinks she should live life to the fullest. Rose finally decides to go and Mary apologizes for meddling into Rose's business. Rose has a great time but does not reveal if they went through it or not.

Brenda desperately tries to get Calvin to notice her. When Mary doesn't seem to help Brenda out, she seeks romantic advice from Sandra. This ultimately upsets Mary when she finds out that Sandra alters Brenda's appearance.

Mary is upset that whenever Lester watches the football game, she doesn't get any attention. So she gets two tickets from Sandra for her and Lester to go to the game, with the hopes that he can teach her about the game and she'll get some attention. At the game, Mary insults the other fans and cheers for the wrong team. She and Lester end up having to leave early to avoid a fight.

When Mary causes Lester to miss a prizefight, they have a bout that could deliver a knockout punch to their marriage. Lester stays with swinging bachelors after a fight with Mary.

Mary invites Sandra and her date, an eligible Congressman, to a dinner for Brenda's teacher who is attracted to the legislator.

Both Mary and Sandra get commissioned to the same murder trial. There are 11 votes guilty and 1 vote not-guilty, Sandra choosing not-guilty. After hours, she still has not changed her vote and Mary is annoyed because her anniversary is that night. They vote one last time, and this time the 1 not-guilty vote is from Mary. The judge sequesters them for the evening in a hotel and Mary is going to miss her anniversary dinner with Lester. Lester sneaks into the hotel room and brings Mary caviar and champagne. The next day, Mary presents her theory of what actually happened (pertaining to the ""murder"" on the boat) and the jury agrees and they all vote not-guilty. Their verdict was the right one, because later the ""murdered victim"" was found on the French Riviera with her husband's best friend, which was stated in a voice-over.

Sandra asks Rose to take her place on a blind date. Little does she know that her blind date is a Prince! The ladies each take turns trying to impress him, but it's Brenda who catches his attention. She agrees to marry him, thinking that maybe her parents won't think that her proposed trip to Europe that summer isn't so bad after all. The Jenkins decide to let her go through with the plan, but instead Calvin will be in a masked costume. They were thinking that Brenda will stop the ceremony before it's complete. But Brenda hears that plan and also decides not to stop the ceremony. The Prince finds out about the plan and his chauffeur grabs Calvin while the Prince takes his place in the ceremony. After the ceremony is complete everyone finds out that Brenda actually married the Prince. The Jenkins are furious, and so is Brenda. She apologizes for saying that she'd marry him just to make her parents mad, and they get a divorce.

Sandra gets a job as a meter maid. When Pearl gets her purse snatched while on her way to the bank with Mary and Rose's dues, Sandra and Mary hatch up an idea to stage a stake-out in the park. Rose and Mary pose as elderly women. They become suspicious when a skater continues to skate past them and suspect that he is the mugger. An older man comes and sits on the bench with Mary and Rose. He eventually snatches their purses and the skater, who is an undercover cop tries to handcuff him. Sandra decides to be the hero when she jumps in, but she handcuffs the skater instead and the mugger gets away. When they get home, Pearl realizes that the dues money wasn't in her purse but pinned inside another bra.

When Sandra meets Brenda's math teacher at the Jenkins' apt., they begin dating and he gets more serious than Sandra. Then, Sandra comes by the Jenkins' with her new rich date, while Mitchell is visiting. To get Sandra back, he spends all his money trying to wine and dine her. One night at the Piano Bar he announces that he is going to begin working as a computer executive, thereby making more money. Mary talks to Sandra and says that Mitchell loves being a teacher and is only giving it up for Sandra and to make more money. He and Sandra talk and the show closes with Sandra announcing their engagement.

Mary and Lester go to a toy store to purchase toys for kids in the hospital. When they get there, the guy lets them in even though the sign on the door says closed. The Jenkins discover that he is attempting to rob the place. Pee Wee Herman comes into the store to purchase some things, so he is taken ""hostage"" along with Mary and Lester. Later on, Sandra comes and she is also escorted to the back of the store. The entire gang is tied up. They think of ways to escape. Their plan for Sandra to entice the robber changes courses a little when Pee Wee actually saves the day by throwing bubbles into his eyes.

Sandra is very upset when she learns that her mother is coming to visit. She feels as though her mother doesn't love her because she is so different from her ""normal"" siblings and family members. Sandra changes her appearance to look ""dull"" because she thinks that is what her mother willl approve of. That same weekend, a male friend of hers also comes to visit. Sandra and Mary try to keep the two from meeting. Finally Sandra admits to her mother that she thinks her mother does not love her. Her mom admits that she was just like Sandra before she got married, but calmed down so she could fit in with Sandra's father (who is a minister) and that she loves Sandra just the same because there is never a dull moment with Sandra around. Mop and her mother end up meeting anyway, and they all go dancing.

When Sandra sees a pillow that Mary is making for Brenda, she is impressed. She tells Mary that they could go into business and make lots of money. So Mary agrees to a 50/50 deal with Sandra. Eventually, things become too overwhelming for Mary as she is the one doing all the work and Sandra is the one eating expensive lunches and arranging buyers. Mary insists that she go on the next business lunch with Sandra, and the buer requests 10,000 pillows for his stores. Mary admits to him that they are a small company and they make a deal, with him as a third partner, to build a factory. He decides to build the factory in Taiwan, minus Sandra and Mary. In the end, Sandra ends up owing Mary money because she spent all of the profits.

Sandra is writing a romance novel whose characters resemble the residents of 227: Marie, Rosita, and Pearlie Mae. With Mary up against Emma Johnson for the presidency of the Ladies' Auxiliary, she becomes nervous when Emma receives a copy of Sandra's book. She and the Rev. come to the Jenkins' home when Sandra drops by and gives Emma the newest chapter of her book, introducing a new character: Emily (who resembles Emma). Emma changes her mind about blabbing to the Rev. and resigns from the running for president. Mary becomes president.

Sandra's cousin Conchita (also played by Jackee) comes to visit, and her finacee follows her to America. Conchita does not want to marry Carlos in an arranged marriage so she asks Sandra to tell him for her. The two go back and forth with whether or not they want to marry each other, until finally Conchita realizes that she does love Carlos and they decide to get married.

Mary is a star player of ""Family Feud""... in her house. She decides to try out for the show when it visits Washington D.C. Sandra also decides to try out, and when she and Mary argue during the interview, the producers decide to air a Neighbor's version of ""Family Feud."" She and Sandra pick teams from a hat and Sandra's team wins on the show. But in the final round, they only make 199 points-- one point away from 200, which was needed to win. Sandra decides to split the money they won (almost $1000) among everyone on both teams.

Lester and Raymond decide to buy a Jaoanese Restaurant together. Pearl and Rose each put in $500 and receive a stock of the restaurant. When the deal is sealed, the kitchen staff all quit, right before a Japanese tour group arrive to eat. They all hustle to try to serve them but it is a disaster, as Pearl cannot cook (or understand) Japanese food and the ladies are horrible waitresses. The chef returns and decides to buy the restaurant from Lester and Raymond at the same price they bought it for.

Sandra comes up with a slogan for a new perfume, but she thinks it stinks when her ad-agency boss steals her idea. (tvguide.com)

While helping Eva straighten up the gallery, Mary inadvertently creates a pop-art sensation, and spends some of her 15 minutes of fame on ""The Joan Rivers Show.""

Julian recruits Mary to help him keep 227 out of the hands of his soon-to-be ex-wife (Rosalind Cash). (tvguide.com)

When Mary throws pictures of Sandra, Rose and Pearl away, they each find them and reminisce over the past 3 227 seasons.

Bobby Brown shoots a video at Brenda's high school, while Brenda plagiarizes an old essay of Mary's to win a part as an extra. Brenda kept putting off writing it by going to pep rallies, football games, and parties with Calvin at Morgan State, and on Sunday night, she still does not have her paper done. When Mary wrote it (25 years earlier), she received an A+, but Brenda gets a C and is not one the five chosen to appear in Bobby Brown's video. Meanwhile, Julian bribes Travis into bringing Bobby Brown to his penthouse so he can discuss going into business ventures with each other. Bobby Brown decides that he does not want only five students to appear in his video, but the whole class. Brenda is allowed to be in the video but she is stil grounded and has to write 3 more papers for Mary.

En route to Lester's birthday party, Mary and Sandra run into gang members who want them as their biker chicks. (TVguide.com)

Dylan's mother moves in with him after leaving his father, and starts stepping out with Julian (Paul Winfield). (tvguide.com)

Mary dreams that she's homeless after misinterpreting a plea for help from a street person (homeless advocate Theodore Hayes) as a threat to her safety.

Lester's old boss comes to visit the Jenkins from Hawaii. While there, Rose hires him as the building repairman and lets him live an efficiency on the third floor. Pearl begins to notice that people go up to visit Lou and never return. She and Mary investigate and find out that Lou is homeless and his homeless friends are the ones that have come to live with Lou. It turns out his business in Hawaii went belly-up, and Lou lost everything. Mary has sympathy for them and feeds them, while trying to keep the news from Rose, because she would have to put them out based on the housing codes that they are breaking. Lester finds out about an abandoned building that his company will fix-up so the homeless people will have some place to live. This will also give Lou the chance to get back into business again.

After Sandra sees her neighbors (a married couple) interact with each other and with their daughter, Sandra decides that she wants a husband and a child. She goes out on a series of dates which end in disaster becasue of Sandra's openness about wanting to be married and have a child. She finally decides that since she can't find a suitable husband that she'll just get artificially insiminated. Mary and Rose try talk her out of it. But nothing is more of a rude awakening than when Sandra witnesses Cathy going into labor and she sees how Jim was there for her every step of the way. Then Mary and Lester talk about the night Brenda was born and how they really needed each other then. Sandra changes her mind and decides that when she does have a baby she would like to be married so she can have a husband that loves her and loves their child.

The 227 residents are worried when Calvin's free-spending new friend offers him a chance to make 50 dollars for doing what ""sounds like a Miami Vice drug deal.""

When Lester goes to watch the game at a friend's house, Mary and the ladies decide to have a girl's night out. They go to a club/bar where Pearl meets man. They hit it off. When Pearl comes home, she tells Mary that she and Felix are engaged. Mary seems to be the only one concerned about it, while Rose and Sandra want to throw her a bridal shower. Mary thinks that he is after Pearl's money. Pearl doesn't care what Mary thinks, and she and Felix get married any way. When she returns from her honeymoon, Mary apoligizes, but Pearl has bad news. Felix passed away. She admits to Mary that they knew that he was dying. Because she loved him and didn't want him to be lonely, they married so soon.

When Mary's high school friend comes to visit, everyone is excited to meet her because she is a famous writer, psychologist, and romance adviser (like Dr. Ruth). Mary imagines what it would be like to be that famous and well liked. She begins to get jealous when Brenda tells her that she wants to be like Dr. Butler. She tells Lester how she feels and he admits that he thinks Thelma may be jealous of Mary and her stable life. Mary and Thelma get in an argument about who is jealous of whom and they bring up a lot of things that happened in the past. They wind up laughing about how silly they were acting and make up.

When Calvin wants to quit school and join the Army, Lester puts him through his paces at a mock boot camp.

Lester falls asleep during church and dreams that he and Mary visit both Heaven and Hell. While in both places, they return to earth to see what has happened to their family and friends. While in Heaven: Brenda inherits Lester's construction company and is a success when Calvin, her husband takes over. Pearl has moved in with them. Rose still hasn't come to terms with Mary's death. While in hell: Calvin becomes a failure and sells the business to Julian for $500. Brenda is pregnant and the family is in poverty. Rose has married Julian and they have raised the rent of the building big time.

Sandra has moved to New York, but finds herself jobless after she finds out that the film company that she works for specializes in porn films! So once she find her apt., she meet a woman who tells her about a job opening at her job. Sandra goes with her the next day and gets the job at the spa. Sandra finds out that her new friend's boyfriend is using her, but when she tells her, she doesn't believe Sandra. Finally, when she hears it for herself, she cuts the boyfriends loose and her and Sandra are back on good terms.

At a dude ranch, Mary lassos Rose and Sandra into a treasure hunt, and Dylan takes a likin' to a filly. Part 1 of two

Conclusion. Lester puts together a posse to find the womenfolk when the water rustlers take them hostage.

Just before Brenda gets ready to graduate high school, Mary is rushed to the hospital with appendicitis. Mary gets a lesson in plastic surgery from her roomie; and Lester gives low marks to his father's girlfriend.

At their vows renewal ceremony, Mary's parents are in the middle of the argument and are not talking to each other. Lester talks to his father-in-law, and Mary talks to her mother to encourage them to make up and go through with the ceremony. Meanwhile, Sandra meets a man who turns out to be married, and Rose has a peculiar conversation with another man: it turns out that both her late husband and his late wife both used to vacation in Vermont for one week out of the year, to go "fishing" and "writing poetry," respectively.

When Calvin has a hard time finding a part-time job, Brenda and Pearl persuade Mary to convince Lester to offer Calvin a job working at the construction site. But when Calvin proves to be inept with his hands, he gets terminated. With some helpful advice from Mary, Calvin later lands five interviews.

Mary is in charge of the church's charity show, and it's like divine providence when the Temptations show up at her door.

Calvin's dad comes to visit D.C. He and Calvin have fun going to basketball games and going to see the Blue Angels fly. Because he and his grandma have been arguing a lot lately, Calvin makes the decision to live with his dad in Iceland, thinking it would be more fun than living in D.C. Pearl is sad about it but doesn't want to show it too much. Mary throws Calvin a going away party, and after he hears what nice things every one has to say about him, he realizes that he has more ""family"" than he thought and decides to stay in D.C.

When Mary and Rose come home from the movie theater, they see JoJo spray painting his gang tag underneath Pearl's window. Pearl hits him with her pillow, Rose grabs the spray can and accidentally sprays his shirt, and Mary grabs hims, but tries to talk sense into him. JoJo tells his mother everything that happened, while leaving out the part about him spray painting on the building. They decide to sue the ladies, and use Sandra as a witness, who was in the car on a date. When they get in court, his mother and the Judge eventually find out the truth and JoJo is made to clean up his damage. His mother apologizes to the ladies and the ladies are fined 10 cents each.

The IRS audits Mary and Lester. At a diner, Mary gets into an argument with a man whose views on women are old-fashioned and clash with Mary's views. She goes as far as to insult his mother. When she and Lester are finally let in to see the auditer, it's the man Mary insulted! She knows that she and Lester are in deep trouble. Mr. Stone doubts the validity of their receipts and Lester is upset. Sandra bursts into the room because she has a date with Mr. Davis ans wants to know what's keeping him. She verfies a that a questionable dinner party was truly a party for Lester's investors and employees. Mr. Stone lets them go.

Upset when Brenda comes home from University Day wanting to attend Northwestern, Mary anticipates an empty nest by demanding that Lester give her a job at the construction site --and gets fired on her first day. Mary takes a job at a travel agency (with Sandra), where her boss finds her so invaluable that he wants her to accompany him on a trip. The boss comes on to Sandra, who then quits and tells Mary not to go on the trip. She goes anyway, and Sandra then tells Lester about their boss. He surprises Mary in Philadelphia and jumps to the worng conclusions when he finds a man's suit and bathrobe in Mary's closet. He finds out that Mary bought them for him as a surprise.

A man with a knife rents an apartment.

Mary and Sandra go to court over song royalties.

Brenda's grandfather arrives with a Wailing Eddie record in tow. While letting Brenda listen to it, she accidentally scratches it and her grandfather is devastated. She doesn't understand what's so special about the blues anyway. Mary and Lester find another rare copy, and it too is ruined accidentally by Brenda. This episode is cut with scenes of Sandra and Rose singing the blues and narrated by Brenda. Towards the end of the episode, she finally understands what the blue is all about, because she has them. Her grandfather is upset with her and everyone is coming down hard on her about the broken record. She and her grandfather reconcile and Pearl gets Wailing Eddie to come to the Jenkins' and sing.

Mary is the director for the church production of ""The Wiz"" and her cast is edgy. Meanwhile, the Jenkins' have a house guest. A college student who will be staying with them for a year. They are all surprised when 11 year old Alexandria shows up. She gets on everyone's nerves with her know-it-all attitude. She reveals to Mary that she wants everyone to like her and she thinks that no one does at that moment. Mary tells her to just be herself, even if it means acting her age.

Brenda is a star track star and her coach comes over to the Jenkins' for a cup of coffee and brings a friend of his-- Willie Amakye from Ghana. Willie needs to raise money to stay in America and train for the Olympics so Mary suggests a neighborhood marathon. He even gets his friend Florence Griffith Joyner to participate. Mary solicits all of the sponsors, but when Brenda loses a track race, she loses her confidence also. She decides not to run and Flo Jo tries to convince her that you can't give up because of one loss. When the snow causes all runners to quit, Willie continues runninig because he says he has to raise the money. When Brenda sees his determination, she decides to run alongside him.

Alexandria doesn't celebrate Christmas so everyone tries to get her to feel the spirit of the holiday. Sandra meets a Santa on the street and brings him upstairs to meet Alexandria. But when everyone leaves the room, he steals all of their presents. Mary, Lester, Sandra, Rose and Pearl each decide seperately to dress up as Santa and bring gifts to make Alexandria think that Santa had a change of heart. However, since the police is looking for Santa thieves, they all end up in jail as suspects. Brenda, Calvin and Alexandria come to the precinct to get them all out and the real Santa is caught. He still has their presents. And Alexandria realizes how far everyone went to get her into the holiday spirit and she appreciates it.