This episode has some good moments between Karen and Al. There are many episodes dedicated to showing Karen how shallow and superficial she is, yet, in spite of learning her lesson by episodes end, she still falls back to her old ways, which is where we find her here.
It seems as though the writers didn't know what to do with Karen on the show beyond her being the popular, pretty girl in high school. Season 1 clearly depicted her being in high school with Dana and JT, in fact Angela Watson (Karen) and Staci Keanan (Dana) were both born in 1975 with Staci being only a few months older. The show set Dana up as the older sister and season 2 (model, daughter episode) established that Karen is 15, while Dana would just turned 17 or about to. Each season portrays one school year, however, Karen hasn't graduated yet. Even though Karen puts her priorities in her looks and being popular, it is never hinted at that she is bad at school. In fact, there are many episodes showing her studying with Dana and Mark and getting upset when the Lambert kids are disturbing them. So it makes no sense that she would still be in high school. At worse, she should have graduated at the end of season 5.
This seems to have limited Karen's storylines during the seasons when she could have evolved as a character.
It seems as though the writers didn't know what to do with Karen on the show beyond her being the popular, pretty girl in high school. Season 1 clearly depicted her being in high school with Dana and JT, in fact Angela Watson (Karen) and Staci Keanan (Dana) were both born in 1975 with Staci being only a few months older. The show set Dana up as the older sister and season 2 (model, daughter episode) established that Karen is 15, while Dana would just turned 17 or about to. Each season portrays one school year, however, Karen hasn't graduated yet. Even though Karen puts her priorities in her looks and being popular, it is never hinted at that she is bad at school. In fact, there are many episodes showing her studying with Dana and Mark and getting upset when the Lambert kids are disturbing them. So it makes no sense that she would still be in high school. At worse, she should have graduated at the end of season 5.
This seems to have limited Karen's storylines during the seasons when she could have evolved as a character.
