For Richer or Poorer(1997)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

Through helping out Intercourse’s Amish community in various ways while masquerading as Jacob and Emma Yoder, the Sextons – Brad (Tim Allen) and Caroline (Kirstie Alley) – realize that helping others instead of themselves was what caused them to fall for each other in the first place, and they rekindle their love and spend a night sleeping together. Then, while they are attending Rebecca (Carrie Preston) and Henner’s (John Pyper-Ferguson) wedding, Brad silently shows Caroline that he still has their wedding rings, and they hand their rings to each other to signify that they are going to stay together.

Unfortunately, moments later, the I.R.S. Inspectors Lester (Larry Miller) and Hall (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) show up with some state policemen, having randomly found the stolen taxi cab that the Sextons fled New York in, which was still lying in the pond outside Intercourse. Lester tells the assembly that they are looking for Jacob and Emma Yoder, and at the exact same time he says this, the real Jacob and Emma show up, and they tell Lester that they are the Yoders. Samuel’s (Jay O. Sanders) daughter, Anna (Katie Moore), yells out to Jacob and Emma that Brad and Caroline are the real Yoders, but when she asks Brad to confirm this, both Brad and Caroline remain silent and wear guilty expressions on their faces, and the assembly realizes that they are not who they said they were and immediately turn their backs to them. Brad and Caroline then surrender to the authorities.

The Sextons are next shown in a New York courthouse waiting for their trial to start, but their attorney, Phil (Michael Lerner), is not there to represent them. The trial begins moments later, and the Sextons tell the judge that they both want to be held accountable for what they have done and that they are prepared to accept the consequences. Just then, Phil shows up, and he soon tells Brad and Caroline that he just returned from Zurich and he has some good news for them: He found Bob (Wayne Knight) while he was there. Just then, Bob is forcibly brought into the courtroom by a couple of police officers, and Phil explains to the Sextons that he arranged for Bob to be extradited back to this country. Bob publicly admits his crimes to Brad, but Brad genuinely thanks him for framing him and Caroline, telling him that it wound up saving both their lives and their marriage. However, still feeling the need to get a measure of payback on Bob, Brad punches him in the face after he says that. The charges against Brad and Caroline are soon dropped.

A day or two later, Brad and Caroline return to the Amish community and pay a visit to Samuel and Levinia (Megan Cavanagh) at their farm. They apologize to Samuel and Levinia for betraying their trust and hurting them, but they also tell them that coming up to their community ended up being the best thing that ever happened to them, and they consider them true friends, which are very hard to find in the big city. Samuel soon reveals that he and Levinia knew all along that they were not Jacob and Emma Yoder; they put up with their façade mainly because it was planting season and they needed the extra help. But, Samuel also tells them that he and Levinia put up with them because they looked like they needed help, too.

Brad eventually offers Samuel his grandfather’s pocket watch out of gratitude for being a true friend to him, but Samuel informs him that, in their Ordnung, they do not accept gifts. Therefore, he and Brad decide to barter, and Brad gives him the watch in exchange for some corn and Big John, a large Belgian horse that he tamed through dumb luck. He and Caroline also go to the local general store and trade in their ’97 Jaguar for a ’54 Ford truck that was for sale there, along with a horse trailer for Big John, and then they leave the community.

During the credits, Brad and Caroline stop back at the land with the pond that they crashed the taxi into, and Brad takes a look at the real estate sign posted there and tells Caroline that he thinks that he can get this piece of property for a good price. Caroline replies that it is a terrific place to raise their baby, revealing that she is pregnant with their first child.