Paige's mom comes back. They have a great time, and make plans for a trip to New England. Paige's mom winds up living without Paige. A lot of flashbacks to when Paige's mom, an actress, originally left. Tearful ending with Paige calling Libby mom.

A frustrated Drew decides to quit his construction job and go into the restaurant business; and he joins Libby in counseling a couple whose newborn daughter has Down's Syndrome. As it turns out in the end, the guy who owns the restaurant doesn't sell the restaurant to Drew because Corky has Down's. Also, we learn that the cook at his restaurant makes the best french fries.

Becca and Corky (in the same class somehow) do a classroom exercise in which paired students must pretend to be married for a week to investigate issues of marriage and family life. Becca is first paired with Lester Fishbein, then switches to Tyler. Neither works out terribly well. Corky, on the other hand, is paired with the new girl (Shannon Dougherty of 90210), upon whom he develops a crush. She only has eyes for the ubiquitous Russo, though, and Corky has to make peace with only being a friend. Meanwhile, Libby's parents hole up at the Thatchers' to continue their love feud. There's a great scene in which Sal Giordano encourages Corky that the right girl is out there.

At 18, Corky wants out from under his parents' wings-- even if it just means taking the bus to school. Unfortunately, he ends up with the bad crowd. The height of this episode comes when ""bad boy"" Corky auditions for the community talent show with a hip-hop dance routine to "" Fight the Power"" from ""Do the Right Thing"", the Spike's Lee film. Eventually, after the rough kids with whom he's been hanging out turn on him, he mends his ways and does a tap dance routine with Becca (their ""standard"" act) in the show instead.