Seasons & episodes

Martha feels like Lee Grant in Marooned as she and Tom anxiously await news of George and Mary. The survivors think they're hallucinating elves when the SWAT team breaks out of the ventilation shaft. Realizing she lost Wanda's incriminating diary, Lila turns the Jeeter apartment upside down and then frisks Wanda. The SWAT team blasts open the entrance to the buried work area. After Vernon suggests the explosion was intentional, Texas says he's found a clue... a Marvin Gaye album and Afro comb left by the bomber.

Mary and Tom's low-key reunion leaves her unfulfilled. The SWAT team visits the guys at the plant to say goodbye. Mary befriends Dewey and realizes talk isn't cheap. At the Capri, Lila spots Martha stealing a patron's lighter and confides to Tex that she thinks Martha has Wanda's diary. Vernon holds a GGG meeting in Mary's kitchen and is appalled to see Dewey doing an odd job for the Hartmans. When Mary makes a motion to have Dewey join the GGG, Vernon suggests ominously that they already have big plans for him.

After Howie reveals that he has documentation of a dangerous paramilitary group in Fernwood, Charlie suggests to Mac, Tex, and Vernon that the GGG protect him against death threats. Mary attempts to cure Martha's kleptomania with group hostility therapy, but only succeeds in making Martha angry at her daughters. Cathy encourages Howie to share her bed, and is dismayed when he puts her off until the day after tomorrow. Lila sneaks in the Shumway kitchen to search for Wanda's diary but is interrupted by Mary and then George, who catches Mary taking back Martha's cache of stolen goods.

Mac and Cathy each interrupt Charlie and Loretta's love in the afternoon, and lamenting Howie's disinterest in sex, Cathy probes Loretta for information about Mac. At the Capri, a drunken Howie admits to George that he's never known women in the biblical sense. George offers Howie advice about using women but is furious when he realizes Howie plans to use it on Cathy. Mary is shocked by what she reads in Wanda's diary. Merle calls Mary to tell her that Tom returned their toys. Lila phones Mary about the diary, but Mary refuses to give it back. After Mary tells Howie the significance of her hypothetical diary, Howie secretly steals it.

S2 · E125Episode 255 1977-03-25 · 22 min＋

Mary and Cathy attempt to shock Martha out of her kleptomania by having convicts Duke and Crude terrorize her. Fed up with Lila, Wanda and Merle decide to drive her insane. Howie tries to read Wanda's diary, but is interrupted by Cathy, who takes him to bed. Texas emerges from Howie's closet and steals Wanda's diary along with Howie's research on the GGG. Realizing the intruder, Howie chooses phoning the cops over making love to Cathy. At the GGG's Disco Night, Vernon brainwashes the crowd into leading a crusade against the school system's books, and Mary finds the party getting very strange.

As the GGG returns from their trip to stop school book delivery at the depot, Mary questions their actions. Merle and Wanda instigate their plan to drive Lila crazy. Mary confesses to Tom that she read part of Wanda's diary. George rigs an electric shock as aversion therapy for Martha's kleptomania.

Texas tells Vernon that funding has been pulled for the GGG, and they use the bombing to divert Tom's attention away from their school book ban. Lila convinces Mary to give her Wanda's diary, and they discover it's missing from the waffle iron. Mac brings a drunken Howie home, and he and Cathy seize the opportunity to get closer. Merle and Wanda's plot against Lila begins to take effect. The Jeeters convince Vernon that the GGG should incorporate into a political party known as the Guardian party, represented by Merle. To raise funds, they decide to hold a Dimes For Diseases telethon.

Mary confesses to Wanda that she skimmed her diary thinking it was a posthumous Jacqueline Susann novel, and subsequently lost it. Wanda wants Loretta to emcee the telethon. As Charlie and Loretta celebrate her being back on the road to superstardom, they're being watched through the window by an unseen heavy breather. Lila phones Tex when Wanda says she knows the diary is lost. Mary and Dewey secretly agree to perform a scene from Othello for the telethon. After a talk with Mary, Texas and Lila believe Howie has the diary, and Tex is ready for violence.

Loretta and Cathy agree that men like Howie are funny in the head and are also funny in bed. Lila and Vernon separately phone Howie and offer to meet him with tips for his story. Everyone meets at the Haggers home to rehearse acts for the telethon but end up arguing about who gets to go on the air in prime-time. Lila gets Howie into a hot tub and tries to seduce him for the diary, but Texas catches them, jumps in the tub, and tries to strangle Howie... until Wanda walks in and finds all three together in a compromising position. Tom warns Mary to not hang out with Dewey because he could be part of the black militant group in Fernwood. At the plant, Vernon hides himself in the shadows and tells Howie that the black militant group was responsible for the plant explosion. Howie accidentally finds GGG paraphernalia hidden in the plant break room.

Cathy sends Howie to the Shumway house to hide GGG paraphernalia. Once there he realizes Martha and George are members, and he vows to stop the telethon after Martha reveals that the GGG is backing the Guardian Party. Loretta becomes unnerved when she thinks someone's outside her house and the lights go out. Charlie finds that someone ripped out their fuse box, while the heavy breather watches them through the window. Wanda and Mary argue over Mary bringing Angelo Bickett as their Dimes for Diseases poster boy, because he's in an iron lung. Tex overhears Howie tell Cathy he has to stop the telethon. Texas handcuffs Howie to a cactus as the telethon goes on air.

The telethon continues with Charlie performing bird calls while doing yo-yo tricks. Texas gags Howie. Mary sees Howie gagged and handcuffed to a cactus but thinks it's an act. Mac performs a bad ventriloquist act. Merle continues the plot to drive Lila crazy by disrupting her sleep with a blaring TV and dripping water. Martha taps for dimes. Vernon suppresses disgust over Mary and Dewey performing together. Cathy frees Howie but wants to discuss their relationship. Mary receives a bomb threat to blow up the telethon, secretly sent by Texas to frame Dewey.

The Dimes for Diseased telethon continues. Vernon orders Texas to take care of Howie permanently. Howie can't convince anyone that the GGG is a threat. Loretta and Texas exploit the bomb threat to make the money roll in. Mary and Dewey's recitation of Othello entrances the audience. The telethon reaches its $25,000 goal. Texas catches up with Howie and bribes him to leave town with the Dimes for Diseased proceeds. Vernon fears that a freed Howie will now expose them.

Merle realizes the telethon proceeds are missing. Vernon discovers a watermelon in the safe and wonders if it, along with the Afro comb and Marvin Gaye album, might be a clue to the robber being the same person responsible for the bomb threat and plant explosion. Merle suggests the clues point to an Afro-American, and Mary laughs at the notion that it's Dewey. Cathy plans to break up with Howie to date Mac, but Howie dumps her first as he leaves for LA. Martha is caught shoplifting, but George persuades the cop to let her go. Martha announces she's leaving the Shumway home. Loretta and Charlie spot an enormous footprint outside their home. Tom wants to be left alone to reflect on his life.

Vernon and Texas make the men think that there's a black militant group in Fernwood, and the GGG forces Tom to stop Mary's friendship with Dewey. Cathy reluctantly takes Martha as a roommate after she leaves George. Dewey warns Mary that she and Tom don't know what they're getting into and vows to stay away from her for her own safety. George leaves in disgust after discovering that he and Martha are making out in the same apartment as Mac and Cathy. Tom and Mary receive a death threat that appears to have been sent by Dewey.

Texas' rejection and Wanda switching the sugar with salt drives Lila closer to the edge. Mary visits Wanda and says she didn't sleep with Merle. Texas and Merle scheme to have Lila committed to a mental institution. Later, Lila flips out in the Capri and is taken into custody by Texas. Tom and Charlie go out on armed GGG patrol. Loretta opens her front door to something horrifying.

Loretta spots a hairy, 8 foot monster, but Mary wonders if maybe it's a crazed militant or the new milkman. Howie leaves money for Cathy with Mary. Mary feels bad about not telling Tom that she's talking to Dewey. George decides to fool around himself since Martha is thriving at Cathy's. At the Capri, Martha and Howie have a heart-to-heart, resulting in Martha's cure from kleptomania and Howie deciding to come clean about the robbery and the GGG. Texas, wearing an outrageous disguise, murders Howie.

Texas forces Lila to leave town, but she has the last laugh when her suitcase gets mixed up with the one containing the missing money. Mary brings Dr. Mattick to the Haggers house, and he identifies Loretta's monster as a Sasquatch. Merle asks Mary to be his Girl Friday, but she insists there's nothing between them, and she no longer wants to play their games. Heather declares Merle a creep. The GGG suggests Dewey is the militant bomber. An armed Tom vows to kill the person responsible for murdering Howie and nearly killing Mary in the explosion. Dewey finds Wanda's diary and Howie's research papers.

Heather's revelation that Merle was in her parents' bedroom infuriates Tom. Wanda questions why Merle wants Mary as his assistant, and she strongly recommends that he think carefully about it. Martha holds an unusual wake for Howie. As the mourners listen to an audio recording of Howie's impressions of Fernwood, Vernon stops the tape just as the GGG is about to be exposed.

Mary's unusual method for drying clothes annoys Tom. Martha accidentally scatters Howie's ashes on the linoleum. In possession of Howie's research, Dewey warns Vernon to stop the GGG's activities. Wanda arranges a meeting with Dewey to collect her diary. Later, she walks out on Merle after confronting him with Mary's slip, found in the pocket of his overcoat. Vernon phones Tom claiming to have discovered the militant's arsenal. Over Mary's protests, Tom loads his gun and leaves for a fateful meeting.

Charlie and Loretta find Wild Child on their doorstep. Vernon phones Charlie and lures him to the meeting at the intersection of Hidden Bay Road and Birch Bark. Mary begs Charlie for help in stopping an armed and dangerous Tom. George rejects Mary's fears that Tom's in over his head. Texas sets fire to Dewey's house, and when Tom tries to stop them, Vernon knocks him unconscious.

Vernon and Texas force whiskey down an unconscious Tom. After awakening, Tom runs to Dewey's burning house. Vernon tells Charlie and George that a drunken Tom vowed to kill Dewey in retaliation for bombing the plant. Lt. Trask arrests Tom when a body is found. A distraught Mary goes to Merle for help. Wanda misunderstands when she returns to find Mary in Merle's embrace. Merle takes a call from the police and informs Mary that Tom has been charged with murder. George sees Mac and Martha in a compromising, medicinal position. Mary learns the identity of the person Tom's accused of killing.

Charlie breaks the bad news about Tom to Loretta, and she shares her concerns about Wild Child. Wanda offers Mary a fur for not sharing what she read in Wanda's diary. Mary doesn't believe Tom's claims that Texas and Vernon are responsible for setting him up. Mary decides to accept Merle's job offer to help make ends meet while Tom's in jail. Texas taunts Tom. Merle advises Mary to let justice run its natural course in Tom's case.

Charlie and Loretta decide that Wild Child needs to see a special kind of doctor: a veterinarian. Vernon and Texas agree to make it appear they're trying to help Tom but secretly want him sent up the river for a very long time. The GGG names George the Grand Mysto. Cathy visits Tom in jail and tells him that Mary's not coming because he's too negative. Mary holds a sparsely attended memorial service at the plant

Grandpa Larkin urges George to call Martha, but Cathy says she's happy being away from the selfish, pig-headed, bozo. Cathy and George wonder if there's anything between Mac and Martha, while Mac and Martha watch a boring porno movie together, and Martha thinks Mac's lip is cute when he talks. In the middle of the night, a lonely Mary can't sleep alone and disturbs everyone in her family.