Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 10 -> Episode 10.02

Enemy At The Gate

Frasier is driving Niles into town to replace a cage for his two new birds - Niles and Daphne - and pulls into a parking garage. He then notices that the clock in his car is wrong, and he only has 15 minutes before his show is due to begin. So he immediately drives to the exit, but the garage attendant tells him that he has to pay $2 as that is the fee for any part of 20 minutes. Frasier protests that he has not parked for any length of time, but the attendant insists he has to pay $2. Frasier retaliates by beginning a protest by sitting in his car at the exit gate for the 20 minutes, dismissing Niles' attempts to pay the $2. He then phones Roz to let her know his situation, which leaves Roz to start Frasier's show by herself. The other drivers behind Frasier are starting to get irate, but Frasier is unrepentant and cannot believe they cannot see he is on their side - even when he tries to explain to them why he is doing it.

Finally, Niles manages to convince him that he would still be keeping to his principles if he left with time to spare but his speech to the garage attendant as he hands over his ticket pushes him into another 20 mins - meaning he now owes $4! This forces Frasier to take action and drives through the exit barrier without paying. Back at KACL, Roz has started taking calls and one about a caller having sex with his boss and the resulting uncomfortable atmosphere leads to Roz to say she has also been there but now it is much better. Another caller then pushes Roz on the 'now' part of her story and guesses that she has slept with Frasier! The man himself then bursts into the studio and when a caller asks about Frasier's situation, he thinks the caller was talking about his parking garage stand-off - and proceeds to tell his audience that it wasn't his finest hour and at least he got away without paying the $4 !!

- Niles is worried his bird Daphne will find some more birdly than the bird Niles:
Frasier: Trust me, no one is more birdly than Niles!

- Frasier's car clock is wrong and blames his dad:
Frasier: He starts pushing buttons like a lab rat on amphetamines!

- Frasier has plans for Daphne's room after she leaves:
Martin: He made it very clear it's going to be a reading sanctuary - a library implies sharing!

- Frasier phones Roz about his situation, who asks him what she should do in the meantime:
Frasier: Read some fan mail. There must be - check my inbox!

- Roz tries to fill in while Frasier is holed up at the parking garage:
Roz: That takes care of the St Victoria Elementary meal schedule for this month.

- A caller guesses the truth about Roz and Frasier:
Sheila: I think you did Frasier!

- Frasier decides to pay but insists on giving a speech first - driving up his fee from $2 to $4:
George: If you'd have spared me the speech, you'd have made it out on time.

- Frasier tells people about his situation at the garage, but his listeners think he's talking about his night of passion with Roz:
Frasier: At least I got out of there in time without paying the $4!

A rather dull episode, sadly, one that the writer presumably expects us to side with Frasier as he stands up for his principles but is fatally undermined by just not being very funny or interesting as the episode wears on. Daphne finally leaving Frasier's apartment was a quite sweet subplot, but even better was Roz's as she first had trouble filling in airtime and then manages to inadvertently reveal on air that she and Frasier slept together. This leads to the best scene in the whole episode as the callers are trying to find out what happened between Frasier and Roz, when Frasier burst in and proceeds to make the situation much, much worse by telling them about his situation at the garage with lines like 'It wasn't my finest hour' which makes for great foot-in-mouth material. It's only a pity that the rest of the episode isn't as good.

Rating

69 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 79.0%
Total Number of Reviews: 13