That ’90s Show season 1 episode 8 recap: Summer Storm

By the end of the last episode, Leia and Jay are a full on, grandparent approved, couple. Leia celebrates by showing off what she claims to be a hickey to her friends.

But her confidence in her blossoming relationship wanes when Gwen asks her if she had touched it yet. Leia doesn’t even know what “it” is, so Ozzie clarifies that “it” is exactly what you thought “it” was.

Leia is worried that her inexperience with relationships will result in Jay quickly losing interest in her. Her concerns cause her to act oddly around Jay.

However, Jay ends up being the biggest problem in this episode, not Leia, because Kitty is cleaning out the house.

That ’90s Show season 1, episode 8 recap – The missing stash

In a complicated series of events that only works because the show takes place in a sitcom world, Kitty and Sherri have worked out a plan where Red will do some repairs on Sherri’s house. Meanwhile Kitty takes the opportunity to get rid of boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff that Red doesn’t want to give away.

In her mad dash to get rid of everything she can, Kitty gathers up the box of dog treats where Jay had hidden the group’s stash. Unfortunately Jay can’t think up a reason to stop her in time.

The group leaps into action to save the stash. Gwen and Nate go upstairs to sort through the boxes in the kitchen, while Jay and Ozzie head out to the garage to look through the rest of the boxes, as Kitty is getting rid of a ton of stuff.

While searching in the garage for the stash, Jay discovers one of Red’s old jackets in the giveaway box that he thinks makes him look cool. Ozzie is not as impressed.

This shouldn’t be a big deal, but unfortunately, when Jay does find the stash, he quickly hides it in the jacket pocket when Red enters the garage to grab some tools. Seeing Jay wearing his jacket, Red demands it back.

Since Jay can’t come up with a reason not to give it back, for the second time in a row, he’s forced to give up the stash.

That ’90s Show season 1, episode 8 recap – Sibling rivalry

Meanwhile, Gwen and Nate are supposed to be looking for the stash inside the house, while simultaneously distracting Kitty. But they keep getting distracted by bickering with each other as siblings do.

While the argument starts over a T-shirt and how the two siblings treat each other, the crux of their spat involves the fact that Nate’s father is never around. While Gwen’s father does show up more than Nate’s, Gwen still understands how his father’s absence hurts.

The two of them make up, as Jay and Ozzie sneak over to Sherri’s house to rescue the stash from Red’s jacket. The final stash rescue is successful, and the gang celebrates by, of course, immediately breaking it out.

As the gang ventures outside to enjoy the nice summer weather, Leia comments on how happy she is right now, (her earlier insecurities about Jay having been wrapped up when Nikki talked her down), and how she wants the summer to never end. This, of course, brings about Sherri who gleefully announces that school schedules have arrived, which means that everybody will be heading back to school soon and Leia will be going back home.

That ’90s Show season 1, episode 8 recap – Making the group feel like a group

This episode makes a very deliberate point of splitting the main group up into pairs, that normally don’t spend that much time together. It even makes a point of breaking down why the more familiar pairs won’t work, to force each character to spend the whole episode with someone that they haven’t shared a whole lot of screen time with up until now.

It’s a great strategy that really pays off for the show as a whole. One of the things that the show has struggled with throughout the first season is trying to portray the main group of kids as a group of six friends, instead of several pairs of friends that all just happen to be existing in the same basement.

Part of that is ok. After all, the show is set in the 1990s and who you were friends with wasn’t so much dictated by similar interests, as much as it was based on who lived near you that was close to your age.

So, in a sense, having all of these different personalities works. But for a long running ensemble to really work, you need to be able to put any arrangement of your characters together to keep the show engaging.

This feels like the series gave itself an intentional challenge to do just that, and ended up showing why the show has enough potential to justify future seasons.

What did you think of That ’90s Show season 1 episode 8? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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