Zoey 101: Chasing Zoey

Plot summary

Zoey's boyfriend, James, gives her a necklace with the inscription I love you – James. Zoey, however, is still unsure about how she feels about James. This leads to Zoey's eventual break up with James when she admits "something's in the way". When she offers to return the necklace, James insists that she keep it, saying he will still love her. They each agree to remain friends. Dateless for the prom, Zoey stubbornly refuses to attend despite the efforts of her friends to cheer her up. The night of prom, Zoey is wandering around the empty campus when she gets a phone call from Chase. During their conversation, Zoey turns around to see that Chase has returned to PCA. After making a clumsy entrance, Zoey and Chase share their first kiss. Zoey then realizes that the reason she didn't love James was because she was in love with Chase the entire time. At the prom, Zoey and Chase announce their relationship to their ecstatic friends. Zoey invites Chase to stay with her in Hawaii for the summer, which Chase gladly accepts.

Quinn and Logan decide to choose each other’s dates, and pair each other up with Dustin and Stacey respectively, so to not arouse any suspicion of them dating. At the prom, they find themselves miserable with their dates. Their relationship is finally revealed when Stacey tries to kiss Logan and he unthinkingly declares that he doesn't want to kiss Stacey as he loves Quinn. This leads to Logan and Quinn openly confessing their love for each other for the first time to the shocked student audience as well as their first kiss in public, no longer hiding.

Wanting to drive Lisa to the prom, Michael gets a classic car from his father. Trouble comes when the car turns out to be a stick shift which Michael cannot drive. A mysterious Asian man, Mr. Takato (James Hong), claiming to be the lower school math teacher comes seemingly out of nowhere to help Michael learn. He has Michael learn by stomping grapes and stirring tuna, which both help Michael with the gas pedals and shifting the stick (a reference to "Karate Kid"). No one but Michael knows who this man is and at the end of the movie, Michael sees him on a bull and asks him to tell his girlfriend he helped him, but the man says he cannot because he does not exist. He disappears into the dark of the night, leaving Michael stunned and confused.

Mark is crushed when his girlfriend, Brooke, dumps him saying he is not exciting enough. Michael tries to teach Mark how to drive stick using the same methods Mr. Takato taught him with, trying to take his mind off everything. Mark takes the wheel and hits an upset Stacey running out of the building. Her lisp is fixed as a result.

Lola is named head of the prom committee, but passes the work onto Stacey, while she relaxes. She agrees with her boyfriend, Vince, to arrive to the prom "fashionably late", but they end up becoming lost in the woods due to unforeseen events with their taxi driver. With the aid of the nerds, Lola and Vince make it to the prom before it finishes.

The final scene of the episode closes with the main cast dancing together happily: Zoey and Chase, Logan and Quinn, Lola and Vince, Michael and Lisa, and Mark and Stacey. The episode ends with a soft piano version of "Follow Me" during the end credits.

Zoey One-o-Win Week

Heavy marketing was announced to promote "Chasing Zoey" with a week long sweepstakes titled, "Zoey One-o-Win Week", where viewers can win props from the set like Chase's Bicycle or The Lounge's Foosball table and Pool table, PCA T-shirts and Backpacks, bean bags, and Scripts with Bonus Scenes signed by the cast. A "Chase and Zoey" mystery prize was revealed on May 2, 2008 around the end of the premiere, although the prize was actually a "James and Zoey" item as it was the necklace given to Zoey by James which read "I Love You -James".

Cast

Main Characters

Supporting

Special Guest Star