Maybe a phosphate/nitrogen deficiency. Add some bone meal and that should help. The blacking on the stem looks normal to me. Hopefully the experts will chime in with better advice. You may also want to take that lil pepper off so the plant can focus on growing larger which in turn will equate to a larger yielding plant. I usually add a couple table spoons of bone meal and work into the soil.Oh and the bone meal i use has 13% phoshorous 4% nitrogen. Usually greens them up in a week or two.

I sure hope it's normal! My peppers have that, most of them. The Hot Cherries are far more black in fact but look healthy otherwise.

Ay, caramba! Have I been freaking out over something completely normal?! AWESOME! I hope you guys are right. I'll pick up some bone meal asap. Gracias amigos!

We Hope!

Ay, caramba! Have I been freaking out over something completely normal?! AWESOME! I hope you guys are right. I'll pick up some bone meal asap. Gracias amigos!

That's a normal condition caused by exposure to the sun and you don't need to do anything

man, had me scared for a minute there. Being new to the pepper growing myself, for a second I thought there is somethign wrong with EVERY ONE of my pepper plants

Oh my goodness, sorry for the scare guys... my plants had such a traumatizing beginning with all the wetness, wrong soil and transplanting that I was certain they were dying. I guess I was just looking for signs of death. Thank you so much fiedlermeister. I'm ecstatic to see a stem that looks like mine with a little pepper growing beside it!