The holidays take on a whole new meaning for Corky, who's celebrating his first Christmas as a married man-and now how the wishes of a wife and in-laws to consider.

The Thatcher's rise from the ashes of the restaurant: exchange student Becca prepares to take wings for Paris; Paige and Corky go hunting for jobs.

Becca, Libby, and Paige have entered the ""man zone"". They tear down a wall in the Thatcher house to reveal another room, which is then redone (mainly by Paige) to be baby Nick's new room. Momentos from the old room lead to flashback-type scenes that reveal the changing roles of women in American society: Jesse and Becca as 60's hippies, Libby becoming a 50's Avon lady (with the Thatcher's as a 50's family), et al. Libby decides to leave Jerry's advertising firm to deal full-time with Nick. Paige discovers her true calling after finishing Nick's room-- she also wants to be a builder.

The Thatcher's toast a third season by reopening their renovated grill, but their dreams go up in smoke. Corky is given more responsibility at the grill, specifically, cooking french fries. When they close one evening, he turns the fryers off, or so he thinkd, but in actuality, he turned the fryers up as high as they go, which was the cause of the fire. He finally tells Drew that he was the cause of the fire at the end of the episode.

The thatcher house is struck by lightening. As a result, Corky predicts the future, Arnold the semi-wonder dog runs away, Becca gets a major static problem in her hair, Drew becomes attracted to another woman, and Paige enchants the boss's son, Kenny Stollmark Jr. Nothing returns to normal until lightening strikes the house again.

Corky, somehow rendered mute by the accident, does not speak up until Becca bears her soul to him. Then Corky says that Tyler tried to swerve around a boy on a bike. Becca still feels guilty over Tyler's death as she and Jesse place flowers at Tyler's grave. Also, Paige and Michael get locked in a refrigerated room for wedding cake storage ( she was looking for a cake for her and Kenny' wedding.)

Corky gets a babysitting job; his classmates barge in at the house where he is babysitting. The intrusive folks include Tyler, who regrets the whole thing, and ""Russo"", who is basically a jerk/nemesis.

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.

Corky is nearly swamped when he tries to help Tyler's younger brother, who also has Down Syndrome, mainstream at Marshall High.

Corky runs for freshman class president with the help of an unpopular, smart student,Lester Fishbein. He has a crush on Rona and really believes that Rona likes him as well. Rona encourages him to run and Corky doesn't realize she's just joking with him.

At 16, Becca retains her innocence-but maybe not for long. Throughout this episode Becca records herself and her birthday party on camcorder for Maxi, who is in Paris. When Corky buys Becca a great looking jacket for her birthday, it is with the new-found power of a checking account. Unfortunately, some bad kids at school find out that Corky has checks and fool him into giving them a $100 check to join the fictitional ""Plebian Club"". At the end, Becca is in front of the camcorder again with a robe on, then opens it to reveal her negligee ( which Maxi sent her as a birthday gift), asking, ""Is this hot or what?""

Libby writes a fairy tale about Corky, and Corky enters it in a contest. Libby then gets an offer to get it printed as a children's book, but in a rewritten form. Libby turns down the offer, staying true to the story which has so much to do with Corky. (Becca doesn't like this because she would have wanted the money for college.) At the beginning of each act in this episode there is fancy narration and illustration which fades into the scene in "" real life"". There was also a subplot with Paige, Michael and Kenny.

Amanda's angry parents vow to annul her marriage to Corky and try to regain custody of Amanda. They then run off to a motel, further angering the Swanson's, not to mention their attorney. Amanda's father also falsely tells Corky that Amanda wanted the annulment. Meanwhile, Becca and Jesse are mad at each other. Becca can't come to Jesse's first show at the gallery beacuse of Corky and Amanda, and his recent growing involvement with Jill. Jesse is mad in part because the art show did not go well. Becca and Jill face off; Jill says Becca is too much in control, and acts like the only one who can take care of Jesse, but she'll back out anyway. Jesse talks with Corky about their ""honeymoon"" and Corky makes Jesse happier by interpreting one of his paintings as a window. In the end, the Thatchers and Swanson's go to court, but the judge let's Amanda make the final decision: She will live with Corky. They get Paige's old loft above the garage, while Paige decides to move out.

Corky tries to mainstream into the 9th grade, the same grade as Becca. Becca worries that Corky may stop her from getting to the boy she really wants, Tyler Benchfield, a star on the football team. Corky dreams of being King at the homecoming dance with Ron Lieberman. Corky is accused of cheating off Rona's paper but it was exactly the opposite. Tyler introduces the Thatchers to his brother Donny, who also has Down's Syndrome. Doubts arise arise over whether Corky should indeed mainstream as opposed to going into a special-ed program, or a private school (which the Thatcher's can't afford). But at a serious parent-principle meeting, Corky dispels all doubts by reciting ""The Raven"", the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem. Sub-plot: For Libby's 40th birthday, Drew buys her a heart-shaped ring that they can't afford. Paige moves home.

The series finale, it leaps 4 years into the future to see Becca and Jesse marry, and 10 years when Becca, now about 27 ( and still played by Kellie Martin) tells her son a story about what happened after graduating from high school. Corky doesn't graduate, but says, ""I'll be back."" Ray was the valedictorian of Becca's class. Jesse leaves for Europe, breaking Becca's heart, but returns four years later. It is not determined whether Becca's son was fathered by Jesse or not, but Becca expresses a desire to have Jesse's baby, saying that new treatments could make it possible. The question of who fathered this child is hard to answer as Becca says the final words of the series: "" I love you, Jesse.""

Corky tries out for the football team. The footbal coach hits a student, one of his former players, and all the team stands up for the coach except Corky who is compelled to tell the truth. The coach claims that he was hit first. He cuts Corky from the team, but later when the team comes out with truth as well, Corky is allowed to keep trying out.

Corky and Amanda's ""trial marriage"" gets off to a rocky start. ( or crunchy, as in the crunchy macaroni and cheese: they didn't boil the elbows long enough.) Interviews with couples who have Down Syndrome are interwoven throughout.

Ray nominates Becca ( against her wishes) for Homecoming Queen; Goodman nominates a cow in protest of beauty pageants in general. The third contestant is a stuck-up cheerleader. Also, Artie (Paige's supervisor from the steelworks in season 3) and Paige redo the restaurant with a bovine motif. (They formed a partnership called Darlin' Construction, so called because Artie always calls Paige darlin'.)

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 enters a Miss Teen contest and finds out that she is sharing a room with none other than Rona Lieberman. Scholarship money is at stake in this pageant. Becca gets know Rona a little better after Rona's mother shows up at the pageant drunk and makes a fool of Rona during her piano performance. Drew has problems with the new neighbors because their son has a band and plays loud music. Corky tries out for chorus but doesn't make it because he can't sing. Later the neighbor boy gives Corky his old set of drums and Corky seems to be quite talented at playing them. Drew and the neighbors make peace.

Becca falls for the lead singer (Gabe) in a neighborhood band. She stays out with Maxine to listen to the band past curfew. Gabe encourages her to stay late and she gets in trouble with her parents.

As a reporter for an underground newspaper, Becca zealously pens an expose of the school janitor's criminal past for the that's the truth- but not the whole truth. The janitor's name was Kominsky. He had a minor criminal infraction years ago when he broke into a house to steal money to feed himself and his wife. Becca reports on this, but never interviews Kominsky for his side of the story. The scandel breaks, and Becca realizes the irresponsibility of her actions ( although she was pushed into it by the pretentios paper editor, who also asked her out on a date). She apologizes to Kominsky and publishes a retraction in the legit school paper. Kominsky gets a job at the Grill.

Romance blossoms between Corky and a girl with Down Syndrome (palyed by Andrea Friedman who has Down's), but it's nipped in the bud by her parents. Corky and Amanda first meet when Drew runs his truck into the back of Amanda's car. Meanwhile, Jerry sponsors Becca in a need-based scholarship contest, and Becca doesn't now it's need-based until the day before a banquet she's supposed to speak at.

Drew finally gets a chance to own his own restaurant, but it's Corky who brings home the bacon: a huge runaway porker that hogs Corky's affections. Corkt adopted it to fill the void of Paige's leaving ( so this must be when Monique Lanier left the show). How Drew got the restaurant bears discussion. In ""Ordinary Heros"", he tried to but it, but when the brother's who owned it discovered that Corky had Down's, one of them got cold feet about what that would do for business. Then the writers decided instead on the fact that Drew can't get the loan approved to buy the place. When the owner of the pig ( which Corky named ""Jeffrey"", even though it was a girl) finally is reunited with the animal, he mentions something about liking restaurants but having no time to run them. Drew sees his shot and goes for it-- cut to the Grand Opening of the Glen Brook Grill, with cameos by all the friends of the family from previous episodes.

Becca finally gets asked to the dance by Tyler. Only had already accepted an invitation with someone else. She breaks it off with the first guy, but then feels guilty and dances with him or something.