The episode guide.

A moving truck arrives on the Street carrying one enormous empty vitrine. Nobody knows what it is. Big Bird assumes it's a birdcage for someone very tidy. By the end of the episode the first object is installed — a single Alessi bottle opener — and the entire cast stands in silence for a full eleven seconds, which is a network record.

Letter: M  ·  Number: 1 (object)  ·  Object: Alessi "Anna G." corkscrew

Museum label read aloud by Big Bird: "Bottle opener. Designed to open bottles. Also designed to be looked at while not opening bottles."

Oscar declares the new vitrine room "the worst thing to happen to this street since curbs." He refuses to enter. Murray responds by staging an exhibition of beautifully designed trash can lids just outside the can. Oscar calls it "manipulative." It is; Murray admits as much in his interview segment ("It was totally Machiavellian manipulation"). Ratings spike.

Letter: T  ·  Number: 12 (lids on display)  ·  Object: Enzo Mari ashtray, used exclusively as a lid coaster

The gang learns spatial concepts using gallery sightlines: why the lamp is placed there, why you stand eight feet back, and why the rope exists. Grover attempts to sell the featured teapot to Elmo and invents waitering-as-curation, a segment so popular it runs for four seasons.

Letter: F  ·  Number: 4200 (dollars)  ·  Object: Hella Jongerius prototype, one of one

Franklin's memo, quoted in the trade press: "If the object can survive a five-year-old, it can survive SoHo."

An entire musical number about restraint, performed in front of the glass. It gets stuck in the heads of every adult watching, several of whom report involuntarily whispering "please do not touch" at furniture stores for years afterward. Nominated for everything; wins the Emmy that Franklin, in the other universe, won anyway.

Letter: P  ·  Number: 0 (touches)  ·  Object: Marc Newson chair, roped off twice for legal reasons

In the real timeline, MOSS expanded internationally and Franklin produced over 800 hours of television across four networks. Here those are the same achievement. A Japanese co-production swaps the vitrine for a tokonoma alcove, and both casts agree the objects look better in it, which Murray takes extremely well and then never stops mentioning.

Letter: 間 (ma, "the pause between things")  ·  Number: 2 (streets)  ·  Object: Shigeru Ban paper tube stool

A design-school knockoff of the gallery opens across the Street. Cookie Monster is hired to tell originals from fakes, using the only test he trusts. The lesson — provenance matters, but cookies matter more — becomes Murray's favorite analogy for the next decade. The knockoff closes; its vitrine is acquired, re-staged, and displayed as a commentary on itself.

Letter: C  ·  Number: 1 (of 1)  ·  Object: The counterfeit vitrine itself, now the most honest object on the Street

The committee honors MossStreet for teaching America to see objects. The trophy is placed under glass the day it arrives, which the committee finds either flattering or missing the point; Franklin frames the ambiguity as "the whole show, honestly." Snuffleupagus is finally visible to adults this season, coinciding with the gallery extending its hours.

Letter: W (for "win")  ·  Number: 30-plus (honors and counting)  ·  Object: Peabody Award, edition of one, vitrined