diff --git a/src/client/datascience/jupyter/jupyterDebugger.ts b/src/client/datascience/jupyter/jupyterDebugger.ts
index afa7df942137..796dd18ab771 100644
--- a/src/client/datascience/jupyter/jupyterDebugger.ts
+++ b/src/client/datascience/jupyter/jupyterDebugger.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 'use strict';
 import type { nbformat } from '@jupyterlab/coreutils';
 import { inject, injectable, named } from 'inversify';
+// tslint:disable-next-line: no-require-imports
+import unescape = require('lodash/unescape');
 import * as path from 'path';
 import * as uuid from 'uuid/v4';
 import { DebugConfiguration, Disposable } from 'vscode';
@@ -473,8 +475,10 @@ export class JupyterDebugger implements IJupyterDebugger, ICellHashListener {
             if (outputs.length > 0) {
                 const data = outputs[0].data;
                 if (data && data.hasOwnProperty('text/plain')) {
+                    // Plain text should be escaped by our execution engine. Unescape it so
+                    // we can parse it.
                     // tslint:disable-next-line:no-any
-                    return (data as any)['text/plain'];
+                    return unescape((data as any)['text/plain']);
                 }
                 if (outputs[0].output_type === 'stream') {
                     const stream = outputs[0] as nbformat.IStream;
diff --git a/src/datascience-ui/interactive-common/cellOutput.tsx b/src/datascience-ui/interactive-common/cellOutput.tsx
index b9a9d5bb2eee..8b545eac7086 100644
--- a/src/datascience-ui/interactive-common/cellOutput.tsx
+++ b/src/datascience-ui/interactive-common/cellOutput.tsx
@@ -314,7 +314,12 @@ export class CellOutput extends React.Component<ICellOutputProps> {
             input = JSON.stringify(output.data);
             renderWithScrollbars = true;
             isText = true;
-        } else if (output.output_type === 'execute_result' && input && input.hasOwnProperty('text/plain')) {
+        } else if (
+            output.output_type === 'execute_result' &&
+            input &&
+            input.hasOwnProperty('text/plain') &&
+            !input.hasOwnProperty('text/html')
+        ) {
             // Plain text should actually be shown as html so that escaped HTML shows up correctly
             mimeType = 'text/html';
             isText = true;
diff --git a/src/test/datascience/notebook.functional.test.ts b/src/test/datascience/notebook.functional.test.ts
index aeec51594400..b8ff1d720cbd 100644
--- a/src/test/datascience/notebook.functional.test.ts
+++ b/src/test/datascience/notebook.functional.test.ts
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ suite('DataScience notebook tests', () => {
                 const error = cell.outputs[0].evalue;
                 if (error) {
                     assert.ok(error, 'Error not found when expected');
-                    assert.equal(error, errorString, 'Unexpected error found');
+                    assert.ok(error.toString().includes(errorString), 'Unexpected error found');
                 }
             }
 
@@ -757,7 +757,7 @@ suite('DataScience notebook tests', () => {
                     await server!.waitForIdle(10000);
 
                     console.log('Verifying restart');
-                    await verifyError(server, 'a', `name 'a' is not defined`);
+                    await verifyError(server, 'a', `is not defined`);
                 } catch (exc) {
                     assert.ok(
                         exc instanceof JupyterKernelPromiseFailedError,
@@ -1031,7 +1031,7 @@ a`,
                     mimeType: 'text/plain',
                     cellType: 'code',
                     result: `<a href=f>`,
-                    verifyValue: (d) => assert.equal(d, escape(`<a href=f>`), 'XML not escaped')
+                    verifyValue: (d) => assert.ok(d.includes(escape(`<a href=f>`)), 'XML not escaped')
                 },
                 {
                     markdownRegEx: undefined,