Now we move on to the third and fourth season of a different world. There’s more lessons to be learned, more quotable scenes, and it’s the start to D’Wayne and Whitley, and if there’s one thing that everyone remembers about A Different World, it’s D’Wayne and Whitley.
Season 3:
Episode 1. Strangers On A Plane
Whitley sees D’wayne differently for the first time, and there’s multiple times where you can see the show hinting at their relationship, but I would say that this is for sure the first moment where you’re like “Oh, D’Wayne and Whitley are for sure gonna get together,” that is if you didn’t already know. Also, you won’t be able to hear the lyrics “I was on the plane with D’Wayne, you can call me Whitley, I go to Hillman,” without thinking of this episode.
Episode 4. To Have and Have Not
When Whitley volunteers to teach ballet at the children’s recreational center, the first thing one of her students says is “she’s not a ballerina, she’s black!” Even though Whitley thinks she can’t really do much to help them, Walter assures her that being a role model is good enough. A person like her shows them that there are black ballerinas, and that there are successful black college students, and they don’t have to expect to live in poverty forever.
Episode 5. Forever Hold Your Peace
D’Wayne and Whitley go on a trip together, D’Wayne goes to visit Denise and Whitley goes to her dads wedding and they’re both left disappointed. D’Wayne gets the news that Denise got married and has a stepdaughter (yes, we get to see Raven as Olivia) and Whitley was heartbroken after her dad didn’t go after her to stop her from leaving. When they get caught in a snow storm on the way back to school, they share a kiss, so yes, it can also be argued that this was kind of the start of D’Wayne and Whitley’s relationship.
Episode 7. Wedding Bells From Hell
This episode focuses on Jaleesa and Walter’s wedding, but being the fan of D’Wayne and Whitley fan I am, I focused more on what was happening with them this episode. When he asks her what kind of guy she likes, thinking her answer would be superficial, Whitley responds with “I would like a man who is educated, enterprising, and ambitious.” Thank you Whitley Gilbert for describing the perfect guy.
Episode 14. Pride and Prejudice
Another episode with a life learning experience, and people say you can’t learn anything watching TV. When a store worker does everything to avoid assisting Whitley and Freddie, giving the impression that she thought that they were too poor to shop there, Whitley buys just about everything to prove her wrong. It took a lot of convincing, but Whitley decided to take it all back so that the woman didn’t earn commission off of her, and tells the manager she’s never shopping there again because she wasn’t very welcoming of people of color.
Season 4
Episode 8. Love Thy Neighbor.
D’Wayne kind of spends the beginning of the episode trying to avoid Whitley but quickly gives up – and Whitley is determined that now D’Wayne is free for the taking, she was gonna be the one to take him. They admit their feelings to each other, and she gives him all the letters she wrote back to him over summer that he simply thought she ignored. So here we see the true official start of D’Wayne and Whitley as a legitimate couple and not two friends who like each other and won’t do anything about it.
Episode 9.
Two things. One, D’Wayne realizes that he’s spending too much time with Whitley and it’s starting to have a negative impact on his grades, he takes it out on her a little harshly and because she doesn’t know what’s going on she doesn’t know what she did wrong and oh so dramatically thinks that her life is over, then they come to an agreement that they need to learn to divide their time better. In other news, the rest of the characters are working on things to put into a time capsule when. Everyone thinks that Ron didn’t bring anything, but tells them he has a condom and it’s in his back pocket (they could talk about them back then but they couldn’t show them on TV). Everyone thinks he’s just being the pig he paints himself to be, but he wanted his item to represent responsibility. Who would’ve thought that Ron Johnson would actually teach the audience a lesson in responsibility.
Episode 11. I’m Dreaming of a Wayne Christmas
D’Wayne brings Ron and Whitley home to spend Christmas with his family. Realizing that she got D’Wayne’s mom (played by Patti LaBelle) a Christmas present that she would hate, Whitley goes out into the streets of New York to try and find her something better that she would actually like, in the hopes that getting her a good present would make his mother who refers to her as “Ms. Thing” like her a little more. After getting lost and mugged by Santa, Whitley returns with a broken cup and a more welcoming Mrs. Wayne.
Episode 23. If I Should Die Before I Wake
It’s D’Wayne’s birthday and Whitley think she’s ready to take a really big step in their relationship until one of their classmates Josie, played by Tisha Campbell, comes forward to share that she has HIV. D’Wayne tells her that it’s OK to wait until she’s ready and the rest of the episode takes time to talk about AIDS awareness.
Episode 25. To Be Continued
Summer comes and Whitley gets a job offer in New York. In the beginning, they think that maintaining a long-distance relationship until the next school year will work out, but Whitley suddenly gets hesitant and thinks that breaking up will be easier for both of them. D’Wayne doesn’t want to see her go, so he asks her to marry him before she gets on the plane.