That ’90s Show season 1, episode 2 recap: Free Leia

In the first episode of That ’90s Show, an adult Eric and Donna agree to let their teenage daughter, Leia, spend the summer with her grandparents in Eric’s childhood home. In Point Place, Wisconsin, Leia finds a group of friends to hang out with.

Red and Kitty agree to let the kids use the basement as a hangout place, just like Eric and Donna’s friends had done twenty years earlier.

That ’90s Show Season 1 Episode 2 Recap – The 70s leak into the 90s…

In the basement, Leia’s friends find a bag of weed, probably left over from the 70s. While Leia objects momentarily, the group uses the weed in their very first “circle” moment of the show.

Red ends up kicking the kids out of the house after they sneak upstairs and go through his bedroom and closet. But Kitty tells Leia that she should have a movie night with her friends later.

Leia is worried about looking lame in front of her new friends. After all, her first two interactions with them involved her trying to covertly buy a tap for a keg and then finding weed in her grandparents basement.

After that, a movie night might seem a little lame. Especially because her favorite movie is Free Willy.

At the video store, Leia asks Jay what his favorite movie is (it’s Clerks) and then pretends it’s her favorite as well. But she can’t rent it because it’s overdue by six weeks.

Leia finds out the address of the person who has been keeping the Clerks tape and then heads off with Kitty to track it down. Once they arrive at the house, the person turns out to be Leo, who seems just as out of it as the last time we saw him back on That ’70s Show.

Leia figures out pretty quickly how to manipulate Leo into giving her the Clerks tap. Meanwhile Kitty, seemingly for the first time, contemplates the potential implications of the storyline of Leo hanging out with a group of teenagers all the time from the original show.

That ’90s Show Season 1 Episode 2 Recap – It’s movie night

Back at the house, Leia and her friends sit down to watch Clerks only to see that the tape actually contained Leo’s audition for MTV’s The Real World. While Leia feels dejected and worries that her friends will turn on her, Gwen reassures that they still like her.

If she’s worried about not fitting in, she’s found the group of people who also don’t fit in, which makes them perfect for each other. Plus, the gang discovers more weed hidden in the tape box from Leo.

So that, plus actually watching Free Willy, ends up being a pretty good movie night. Meanwhile, the subplot for Red and Kitty involves them meeting their new neighbor Sherri, the mother of Gwen and Nate.

Sherri seems unable to keep her life from falling apart, as every story she has involves some plan going wrong, or some part of her house getting broken or falling apart. Kitty, never one who was able to turn away a stray, offers to let Sherri use their bathroom until her own shower is fixed.

Much to Red’s dismay. While there, Sherri tells them about the guy she’s been seeing, but saying that she’s not sure if it’s going anywhere, or if she even wants it to.

Red and Kitty convince her to break up with this guy, so that she can take some time to work on herself. She goes to her date, intending to break up and it’s revealed that the person she is dating is Fez as the episode comes to a close.

That ’90s Show Season 1 Episode 2 Recap – Setting up the status quo…

Without Eric and Donna appearing, this is the first episode that feels like it’s showing what the show is going to look like. For the first time, Leia’s story takes center stage in the narrative, and it plays out really well.

The broad sitcom style format with the studio audience, feels like the show really fits as a next step for the original series. While there still isn’t much to pull from for some members of the main group, as a unit, it feels like they’re dynamic is becoming clearer.

It’s also nice to have a fair amount of time focused on the adult characters. Red and Kitty are the main draws for people who loved the original series, and they’re doing a great job of carrying the weight of the show that having to be that link implies.

Red having to deal with a frustrating neighbor had a nice nostalgic feel to it. But it was a new character, giving the episode its own feel, rather than just a rehash of what’s happened before.

Even with Fez showing up at the end and Leo getting a scene, it looks like the show isn’t going to go overboard on relying on old stuff to the point where it detracts from the new.

What did you think of That ’90s Show season 1 episode 2? Leave your answers in the comments below!

You can watch That ’90s Show season 1 on Netflix.