The problem arose when crazy Buddy, wrongly believing Aries to be his friend, tried to get closer to the QB by becoming the Spartans mascot. In his zeal to support his "friend," Buddy accidentally knocks the ball out of bounds with his Spartan sword on a crucial Kostopoulos pass during the state championship, earning his enmity in the extreme. The rejection of Aries is so painful, it drives Buddy crazy and makes him murderous. Years later, after years of orthodontics and steroids, Buddy had finally come to be the man he wanted to be. But among his successful frescorts, he developed a new but all too familiar obsession with Joe. Now, though, Buddy was the big man on campus, and could call all the shots. Except then Joe had to go and ruin it and quit the company to be with Barb. The realization that another friendship had been another lie, drove Buddy newly crazy, and he arranged one last sports date with Joe to kill him in the same old way. He tried to preserve Joe like he had Aries, but the formaldehyde triggered his asthma. Nerd. And Barb, of course, had taken Joe from him, and thus also had to die.

Of course, he'll be happy to kill Ned, too, especially after an impassioned Let's Hear it for the Weirdoes speech Ned gives in a fit of standing up for his own outsider life. Emerson, unmoved by all this ridiculousness, saves the day, taking Buddy down with a baseball bat.

Ned, still riding high on his geek revenge, goes in search of Randy Mann to offer a necessary apology. Meat pies in hand, he even takes Digby along. "Such a nice boy," Randy says to the dog. "So unlike your owner." Ned admits he deserved that. He just wants Randy to know that he doesn't need to pay for friendship from anyone -- there are plenty of weirdoes out there. "What makes me unique has brought every person I love into my life," he says. "Maybe it will be the same for you." Randy agrees, but says he knows that also, there's nothing wrong with being alone. Joe taught him that -- you're no good for anyone else until you can be good for yourself. Ned has an epiphany. Back at the Pie Hole, the gang throws a party for the poor Best Friend clients who are now so friendless. It begins as a disaster, of course, but after the first hour, the goobs come out of their shells and make friends with each other. Chuck is relieved. "In another ten minutes," she says, "I was gonna pull out the tequila shots, and if that didn't work, pull the fire alarm and call it a day." Ned asks her to give Digby a hug, extra tight, and she says that, actually, she can hug him all night when she comes to sleep at Ned's place, permanently. Apparently, she and Olive went to town with their feelings and flogged their friendship to death with a big ol' truth club. Ned admits that he has missed her terribly, but says that selfishly he's going to have to turn her down. He may be her king-sized duvet -- in fact, he wants to duvet her right this second -- but he's got to work on being alone for a while, and she really needs to work on her friendship with Olive. "We might not like it," Ned says. "But it's the truth." Chuck sighs. "Well," she says, "I'm gonna need a pie."