The Squash Courtship Of Freddy’s Father – Episode 5 begins with a small gathering at Doctor Frasier Crane’s (Kelsey Grammer) apartment to discuss the first draft of his memoir. As he steps aware to check his brie en croute, Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoye) stresses over not having yet read the work. Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst) makes light of the issue and suggests she simply come up with a positive response because Frasier is likely feeling vulnerable. She asks what Alan thought and later uses his response, verbatim.
Lucky for everyone, David Crane (Anders Keith) is more than happy to provide a distraction, with what looks like to be a book of notes on its own left by his father, Niles, in his absence. Having had to wait for the babysitter, Eve (Jess Salgueiro) shows up late and although she’s read the book, she apparently didn’t understand a good deal of it. It is David this time who suggests comparing the book to other works of literature. The problem with that is the first book that comes to mind when Frasier asks what she thought is, ‘The Very Hungary Caterpillar.’ Despite that, she words her response carefully enough that Frasier assumes she is comparing it to Kafka’s, ‘Metamorphosis.’
When consulted on his thoughts, Freddy Crane (Jack Cutmore-Scott) takes the exact opposite approach and brings up a quote in the book where Frasier refers to him as his ‘funny little alien.’ Frasier attempts to laugh this off and claims it’s a term of endearment, indicating how different they are. This segues into an entirely separate debate about father/son activities they can do together. This continues for what appears to be quite some time and is only settled when Olivia steals Alan’s suggestion of squash. With that decided, Frasier rushes off to prepare for his evening at the opera with Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris).
Frasier is already settled by the time Bebe shows up. She’ll briefly tease him about quitting the TV show before revealing that Bebe has invited her daughter, Phoebe Glazer (Rachel Bloom), along. Frasier supposedly didn’t even know Bebe had a daughter but when she shows up, it takes little time before Frasier realizes how much he and Phoebe have in common.
Shorts Story – Olivia tries to apologize to Alan for taking credit for his suggestions before Frasier and Freddy join them at the bar. It appears that squash was an excellent suggestion. In addition to winning every game they played, they plan on racket shopping together later that evening. Despite the success, Frasier later tells Olivia and Alan that the outing only further proved how vastly different he and Freddy are. Frasier will not only comment on how effortlessly he and Phoebe got along but he’ll end up cancelling on Freddy to spend time with her.
Parent Trapped – Before Phoebe joins Frasier and her mother, Bebe will once again fail to convince Frasier to give up the memoir and come back to TV. Despite the millions to be made, it’s clear he has no interest and when Phoebe shows up, she becomes the main attraction. By this point, Frasier and Phoebe’s shared similarities have become so prominent that he comes right out and asks Bebe if he could be her father. It’s hard to be 100% sure from Bebe’s reaction but his curiosity appears to simultaneously trouble and excite her.
Heebie-Phoebes – Olivia and Alan are in the middle of disusing Frasier’s unhealthy avoidance of Freddy when he shows up, looking as if he’s seen far better days. He’ll be completely honest about his and Phoebe’s shared similarities, but neither Olivia nor Alan believe it’s enough proof. Before Frasier ultimately decides to tell Phoebe the truth, Alan even suggests that Frasier is psychosomatically using the similarities to avoid facing how different he and Freddy are.
Much to Frasier’s surprise, Phoebe has already come to the same conclusion about him being her father. She will however bungle the entire thing by suggesting how easy it would be for them to spend time together being that she lives in Bushwick. It would apparently only be a matter of finding an activity they could share. This is about the same time Bebe turns up and Frasier realizes the whole time has been an elaborate ruse to get him back on TV. Although Frasier is distraught by the discovery he immediately gets over it after learning that Phoebe actually loved his memoir and that was how she learned enough about him to mislead him. Frasier once again declares that he’ll never be returning to TV but he insists on Bebe adding Phoebe to the team.
The happy little reunion is soon interrupted by an outraged Freddy, dressed in full official squash regalia. Once he whisks Frasier away to the car, the episode ends with Bebe and Phoebe celebrating their win and future plans to get Frasier to return to TV.
Frasier Review
I really enjoyed the father/son theme of the episode. It was incredibly effective to bring attention to how different Freddy and Frasier are for the simple fact that they are different. Although I had a feeling it would turn out that Phoebe wasn’t Frasier’s daughter, I didn’t expect the twist we got. I also like the possibility of a main storyline this creates. Being unfamiliar with the show, I don’t know if there has ever really been a main story theme. The first season just appeared to be random episodes. This episode easily made up for the last and I’d have to give it a 6.3 out of 10 for that.
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