The Way We Met

 was the 25th episode of Season 1 of The Golden Girls TV series, also the 25th overall series episode and the finale episode of Season 1. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Bob Colleary with Terry Grossman, it originally aired on NBC-TV on May 10, 1986.

Summary
After watching Psycho, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose come into the kitchen, spooked. As they eat cheesecake, Rose comments on how they aren't alone. This leads to a series of flashbacks about how they all came to live with each other. The first flashback starts off with Blanche meeting Rose in the supermarket by the want-ads board. Rose had been evicted from her apartment because her landlord didn't allow pets and Rose couldn't part ways with her cat. At first, Blanche finds Rose's goody-two-shoes attitude annoying and decides to keep looking for a roommate but when she sees Rose give away her cat to a boy; whose own cat had recently died, Blanche considers showing Rose the room. The next flashback starts with Dorothy arriving at the house for an interview with Sophia tagging along. After Sophia's comments about the house, Dorothy was sure she made a bad first impression but still got the room. The next day, a trip to the supermarket brings out their differences. They decide to do their own shopping from that point on. After an argument about where they should store the Raisin Bran, the girls begin to think that they weren't meant to live together. This leads to Rose telling one of her St.Olaf stories, which causes Blanche and Dorothy to laugh hysterically. Noticing Rose with a cheesecake, they soon realize perhaps they can get along. Back in the present day, after finishing most of a cheesecake, the girls decide to go back to bed when Sophia scares the girls with a knife mimicking Norman Bates.

Guest Cast

 * Shirley Prestia as Madam Zelda

Trivia

 * Rose's story on "The Great Herring War" went viral on Twitter following the death of Betty White in 2021.
 * A rumor emerged following this that White was improvising the story, hence Ruth and Blanche's hysterical reactions. This was disproved when the shooting script for the episode was shared online, showing that the scene, including Ruth and Blanche's reactions, were scripted, and a script supervisor on the show later explained that there was rarely any improvisation on The Golden Girls. Whether Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan were actually breaking character, however, is unclear.

Quotes
Rose Nylund: I'll make it up to you, Dorothy. I promise. Listen, if there's ever a night where you can't sleep, I'll come to your room and sing "Kumbaya."

Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak: Rose, I don't know what to say. Yes I do... Don't ever do that.

Blanche Devereaux: Hey, I think we'd get along great. I got a feeling you're a wild woman.

Rose Nylund: Oh, you bet I am! I eat raw cookie dough. And occasionally, I run through the sprinklers and don't wear a bathing cap. And at Christmas, I've been known to put away more than one eggnog.