Popular backdrop
Comedy•Drama

The Best Episodes of Popular

Every episode of Popular ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Popular!

Binge this in 1d 7h•Peaking at 9.0/10

Brooke McQueen, a popular cheerleader at Jacqueline Kennedy High School, and Sam McPherson, the editor of the school paper, are polar opposites. When their single parents unexpectedly meet and get engaged, Brooke and Sam have

Airs on
The WB
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons2

All12

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    Popular Season 2 Episode 1 - Timber!
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Timber!

    S2:E1

    Brooke bonds with her long-lost mother--much to her dad's chagrin. Meanwhile, Lily and Sugar Daddy try to save a tree from being cut down, and Carmen delays telling her friends about her pregnancy.

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Popular Season 2 Episode 6 - Style and Substance Abuse
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #2 - Style and Substance Abuse

    S2:E6

    Brooke decides to run for student council president, dropping out of the Homecoming Queen election. She asks Harrison to be her campaign manager. They disagree on mandatory drug testing for students and he quits to run against her. Sam, Carmen, Nic and Mary Cherry get nominated to Homecoming Queen. Sam is motivated by George to run for it, but gets too into the spirit. Carmen is sleeping at the school since she is homeless, and Bobbi Glass invites her to her home. Seeing in Carmen herself in high school, Ms. Glass helps her with the contest (even threatening to give everybody an F if they don't vote for Carmen). Nic and Mary Cherry look for help with Hellacious Arke, a past 3 time Homecoming Queen, who is also Ms. Glass's own ""Nicole"" back in her high school days. Brooke misses Josh and sees him and Lily trying cough syrup while spying on them. Motivated by the recent death of a student of cough syrup overdose, she decides to run her campaign on anti-drug platform. Scared to be caught

    Director:Elodie Keene
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Popular Season 2 Episode 7 - Ur-ine Trouble
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #3 - Ur-ine Trouble

    S2:E7

    Harrison reveals that he has been taking medicine for bad headaches, which later turns out to be leukemia. Harrison is forced to withdraw from the campaign and Brooke wins. Sam realizes what she is doing and quits from Homecoming Queen election. Nicole, Mary Cherry and Hellacious team up to beat Carmen in the election and prove that there is no place for her. Reaching as low as publicizing Carm's mom's alcoholism and make her look as an alcoholic teenager. Carmen moves back to her mom's to support her and wins the election. Hellacious tries to cheat, but Principal Krupps busts her. Ms. Glass has her comeback and helps taking all her pictures off the girl's room homecoming queen hall of fame. Lily turns herself in to save Josh, but they are a couple now, and he decides to get punished with her.

    Director:Michael M. Robin
    Writers:Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Popular Season 2 Episode 12 - The Shocking Possession of Harrison John
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #4 - The Shocking Possession of Harrison John

    S2:E12

    After Harrison returns to school since he had his bone marrow transplant, he acts in a weird way, making everybody think he's possessed or something. The girls think about it and conclude that he has impersonated Nicole's personality, since she was the donor. They decide to call a priest to exorcise him. Meanwhile, Josh and Lily's relationship is growing so much that there's hardly any space left for Sugar Daddy in Josh's life. Feeling neglected, he finds a new friendship in George. They enjoy each other for a while until George feels like Sugar is demanding too much attention. Josh and Sugar make up. Nicole finds out she's adopted after she asks her mom about her birth and she doesn't give clear information. Shocked, Nicole finds out that her mom was a 16 year old cheerleader, and tries to find her with no luck. Both Nicole and Harrison conclude they have to find themselves.

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writers:Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Popular Season 2 Episode 18 - The Brain Game
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #5 - The Brain Game

    S2:E18

    Desperately seeking to be popular again, Mary Cherry fails in an audition to a teen talent show. But that didn't stop her, and she decides to put a team of students together to be in ""The Big Head Challenge"". Everybody is studying for the SATs and they all think it would be a nice way to test their knowledge at this competition. Cherry Cherry, who has become a student at KH (trying to beat her 50 points score in her SAT), also tries to get in, but loses the very last spot to Josh, who surprisingly know a lot more about chicken than we thought. Meanwhile, Carmen decides to take salsa lessons, and has her heart broken by the instructor, whom she had a crush for. But after he realizes how bad he made Carmen feel, he goes to KH to ask her out. At the competition, the gang is first relieved to be against the John Ashcroft Private School for Special Needs Children, but then surprised when they see that Cherry Cherry has bought the entire team and replaced the students by the teen talent show

    Director:Craig Zisk
    Writer:James Duff

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Popular Season 2 Episode 19 - I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #6 - I Know What You Did Last Spring Break!

    S2:E19

    Ms. Glass wants all the students to write down where did they go for Spring Break and how many they slept with, so, in her own words, she can judge them. Most of the gang say they went to Cancun, and Harrison writes that he went to Yemen as his nose starts to bleed. Ms. Glass deduces he has been infected with the Rift Valley fever that is contaminating everyone in Yemen. Just as Sam was trying to talk to him by his locker, they are both isolated from the rest of the people and the school is shut down in quarantine. During Chemistry, Mary Cherry receives a call in her cell phone from someone who knows what she really did for Spring Break - a low-budget soft porn scary movie - and she has to run for her life as she is chased to be killed. Meanwhile, Lily tells April what they really did for SB. They intended to go to Cancun, but they all stayed in LA and had SB in different ways. Nicole is elected to attract the killer, but since she's not a virgin, and only virgins get chased by killers

    Director:Ryan Murphy
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Popular

    READ
  7. Popular Season 2 Episode 20 - You Don't Tug On Superman's Cape...You Don't Spit Into The Wind...You Don't Pull The Mask Off The Ol' Lone Ranger...
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #7 - You Don't Tug On Superman's Cape...You Don't Spit Into The Wind...You Don't Pull The Mask Off The Ol' Lone Ranger...

    S2:E20

    Sam and Brooke have a quick but intense argument over what each one has done to/with Harrison. Sam does not forgive Brooke for having slept with him, and Brooke puts Sam against the wall saying Sam turned him down so there were no strings attached. They both realize none of them is really wrong, and if there's anyone wrong there it's Harrison. At school, they give him the cold shoulder and George does the same to Sam. Sam and Brooke plan to stood up Harrison at a restaurant, but Brooke shows up and is caught by Sam talking to Harrison, which leads into a huge food fight. At home, Jane is trying to fix things between the two of them when her water breaks. Josh's mom announces she is moving away, and Josh has to either come with her or go live with his dad - which he does in order not to leave Lily. She suggests they get married, and although his mom tried to warn him that he was too young, he goes ahead and gets married to Lily right before prom. Mary Cherry accidentally bumps into Big

    Director:Lawrence Trilling
    Writers:Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Popular Season 2 Episode 21 - Promblems
    2.0/10(2 votes)

    #8 - Promblems

    S2:E21

    Sam and Brooke help deliver Jane's baby (in one of tv's fastest labors) and realize that they can't fight over Harrison, so they both agree on going with him to the prom (ménage?). Nicole is thirsty for revenge and gets George into asking her to the prom, since he is hurt by what Sam's doing. Josh and Lily are trying to handle their marriage, and decide they should get a place of their own, since Lily's mother disapproval has become unbearable. So they move to the now available Ms. Glass's basement. But they have too much pressure on their hands, since Ms. Glass is using them for house chores and they are totally broke, to the point of Lily having to sell organic soap at the school and Josh getting a job as a window salesman. And they're still trying to consume their wedding. Mary Cherry is touched by the sisterhood of Brooke and Sam, and decides she wants a sister too. She asks Nicole to be her sister, but the Devil turns down the offer. Suddenly, Mary Cherry's long lost twin sister (

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Popular Season 2 Episode 9 - Are You There God? It's Me, Ann-Margret
    1.0/10(2 votes)

    #9 - Are You There God? It's Me, Ann-Margret

    S2:E9

    Josh and Lily get cast for a play at the school where they have to appear nude in front of each other and everyone, which makes them uncomfortable. Brooke is at hospital again for treatment for her anorexia. Harrison is frightened when he walks into a room in the hospital and finds a ghost who seems to know a lot about him. Meanwhile, Carmen runs into Nicole in a metting for teenagers with alcoholic parents, but Nicole totally ignores her.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Oliver Goldstick

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Popular Season 2 Episode 10 - The Consequences of Falling
    1.0/10(2 votes)

    #10 - The Consequences of Falling

    S2:E10

    Clarence dies peacefully while talking to Harrison. His death has a deep impact in Harrison's own view of life, and he decides is not worth to keep the treatment for his cancer. He goes to extreme measures and decides to put an end in his agony, attempting suicide. But Clarence comes back as an angel to give Harrison a view of what the world would be if he had never been born. We see that April would have become a rich successful owner of a fish market (Tunaville); Brooke would have died from anorexia, Lily would have married Josh after pregnancy and they would have become the first family, and among other twisted things, Nicole and Mary Cherry trying to make a living as whores with Sugar Daddy as their pimp.

    Director:Michael M. Robin
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Popular Season 2 Episode 11 - Fire in the Hole
    1.0/10(2 votes)

    #11 - Fire in the Hole

    S2:E11

    Sam decides to take her relationship with George to the next level, and he gets scared and says they should wait until they're both ready. Bobbi Glass decides to make all her students act in a play she wrote herself (""That Burning Sensation: A Cautionary Tale"") about STDs, as a part of the ""National STDs Week"". The students are cast: Lily as gonorrhea; April as syphilis; Josh and SD are worrisome warts; Mary Cherry and Nicole are crabs; Brooke is herpes; Carm is unsightly yellow discharge and Sam gets the part as the whore, with Harrison (now back at school) as the lonely virgin. Josh and Sugar decide to give Harrison a ""virgin certificate"", since he is the only virgin boy in the group, but he gets offended and embarrassed. Instead of taking the certificate, he decides to ask Nicole to sleep with him, but she says no. so he decides to use his certificate, but the prostitute is so old that they decide just to have Chinese food instead. Lily runs into George at a clinic and finds out he

    Director:Randall Miller
    Writers:Eric Preven, Ari Posner

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Popular Season 1 Episode 1 - Popular, Round One
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Popular, Round One

    S1:E1

    In the series pilot, social opposites Sam and Brooke are paired as lab partners, to the delight of Carmen, who sees it as a chance for Sam to help her get on the cheerleading squad. Meanwhile, Brooke and Nicole plan the first party of the school year and star quarterback Josh tries out for the school play.

    Director:Brian Robbins
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Popular Season 1 Episode 2 - Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems

    S1:E2

    Carmen ditches school the day after the cheerleading roster is posted, and Lily refuses to dissect a frog in science class. Meanwhile, Josh's father embarrasses him at rehearsal; and Mary Cherry stalks Nicole.

    Director:Michael M. Robin
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Popular Season 1 Episode 3 - Under Siege
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Under Siege

    S1:E3

    Sam writes an exposé about the cheerleaders' school budget, leading to the squad's termination and its remaining funds being redistributed to the drama department. The exposé also heightens the tension between Brooke and Sam as they prepare for their first dinner together with their parents. Meanwhile, Josh must decide between starring in the school musical or playing in the homecoming game.

    Director:Perry Lang
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. Popular Season 1 Episode 4 - Windstruck
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Windstruck

    S1:E4

    Sam and Josh have an embarrassing encounter during a play rehearsal, starting rumors that they are interested in each other. Meanwhile, Brooke confesses to Nicole that she and Josh are still virgins, and Harrison's hope for a relationship with Brooke gets a boost when she turns to him for comfort.

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writer:Oliver Goldstick

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. Popular Season 1 Episode 5 - Slumber Party Massacre
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Slumber Party Massacre

    S1:E5

    Members of the cheerleading squad agree to attend Carmen's slumber party, causing Sam to question their motives. At the party, Nicole tries to impress Carmen's older brother, Leo, and a party game takes a disturbing turn.

    Director:Michael M. Robin
    Writer:Wendy MacLeod

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. Popular Season 1 Episode 6 - Truth or Consequences
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Truth or Consequences

    S1:E6

    Sam discovers that Nicole, Poppy and Mary Cherry stole the answers to the biology midterm, and she sets out to gather the evidence she needs to turn them in. Meanwhile, Mike and Jane's sneaking around angers Brooke and Sam.

    Director:Marc Buckland
    Writers:Eric Preven, Ari Posner

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. Popular Season 1 Episode 7 - Queen B.
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Queen B.

    S1:E7

    Brooke, Poppy, Mary Cherry and Carmen are nominated for the Junior Court Homecoming Queen and Nicole pressures two of Brooke's opponents to halt their campaigns. Meanwhile, Sam and Jane move into the McQueens' house, causing an instant turf war between Brooke and Sam.

    Director:Matthew Harrison
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. Popular Season 1 Episode 8 - Tonight's the Night
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Tonight's the Night

    S1:E8

    Sam and Brooke wager on whether or not Sam can land a boyfriend by the end of the week and whether Brooke can prove that her relationship with Josh is more than just physical, with the loser publicly joining an embarrassing club. Meanwhile, Lily hands out condoms to her classmates in response to the popularity of a new singer whose sexual image is mimicked by some students at Kennedy High.

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writers:Ryan Murphy, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. Popular Season 1 Episode 9 - Wild Wild Mess
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Wild Wild Mess

    S1:E9

    The students embark on finding nominees for "Principal for the Day," while a custodial strike leaves the school a mess. Meanwhile, Brooke fears she may be pregnant; and Sam, Carmen and Lily discover something personal about Harrison's mother.

    Director:Lev L. Spiro
    Writer:Oliver Goldstick

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. Popular Season 1 Episode 10 - Fall on Your Knees
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Fall on Your Knees

    S1:E10

    Brooke and Sam are forced to hold their annual Christmas parties together, and Carmen is injured just weeks before the next round of cheerleader tryouts. Meanwhile, Nicole's brooding over the yuletide season leads to visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

    Director:Elodie Keene
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. Popular Season 1 Episode 11 - Ex, Lies and Videotape
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - Ex, Lies and Videotape

    S1:E11

    Sam gets a chance to produce a segment on a syndicated TV show--with one catch--Brooke is the on-air talent. Meanwhile, Josh must tell his father that he can't make a dinner with college scouts, which is scheduled for the opening night of the musical; and April Tuna becomes obsessed with Carmen.

    Director:Arvin Brown
    Writers:Eric Preven, Ari Posner

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. Popular Season 1 Episode 12 - The Trial of Emory Dick
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - The Trial of Emory Dick

    S1:E12

    Emory puts the popular kids, Bobbi Glass and the lunch lady on trial for harassing him. Sam and Lily volunteer to represent him at the school's mock proceeding, which leads Principal Hall to ask Brooke to lead the defense. Meanwhile, Josh and Sugar look forward to the start of the wrestling season.

    Director:Perry Lang
    Writer:Oliver Goldstick

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. Popular Season 1 Episode 13 - Hope in a Jar
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Hope in a Jar

    S1:E13

    A Sadie Hawkins dance has most of the students obsessing over their appearances, while Brooke considers inviting a young man of substance. Meanwhile, Nicole, Poppy and Mary Cherry follow a dangerous crash diet: the one who loses the most weight gets to ask out the gorgeous guy they all pine for.

    Director:David Petrarca
    Writer:Wendy MacLeod

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. Popular Season 1 Episode 14 - Caged!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Caged!

    S1:E14

    Mounting tensions between Sam's friends and Brooke's clique lead to a proposed rumble, but the guys intervene and lock the ladies in a school bathroom in an attempt to make them reconcile. Meanwhile, Josh, Harrison and Sugar Daddy get an education on ovulation from a nature film provided by Bobbi Glass.

    Director:Jamie Babbit
    Writer:Ryan Murphy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Best Episodes Summary

"Timber!" is the best rated episode of "Popular". It scored 9/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Ryan Murphy, it aired on 9/22/2000. This episode scored 7.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Style and Substance Abuse".