Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 4 -> Episode 4.13

Four For The Seesaw

Frasier is having his flu jab live on his show, and despite his fear of needles, is determined to go through with it. Martin and Daphne are also there to get their's, but Martin is late for meeting Duke and so they leave without getting their jab. Roz, meanwhile, has designs on the doctor administering the injections. Later, on a particularly busy day at Cafe Nervosa, Frasier and Niles struggle to get a table and so decide to share a table with two attractive young women. Niles is a little apprehensive, still worrying about his separation from Maris, but Frasier convinces him that he needs to be spontaneous once in a while. The two women, Beth and Laura, turn out to be kitchen designers - much to Frasier and Niles' delight! The four of them seem to be getting on very well, with Beth taking a particular fancy to Niles, and Laura seemingly interested in Frasier. The two Crane boys, however, are unsure how to read their signals.

When Martin can't go to a mountain cabin with Sherry, he offers it to Frasier and Niles, and in the spirit of spontaneity that had got them this far, they decide to invite Laura and Beth to the cabin with them. Once there, they are still worrying about misreading the signals the women are giving them, but when Laura and Beth invite Frasier and Niles to bed, they finally get the signal they have been hoping for. It is at this very moment Niles starts feeling guilty about his separation from Maris, and decides to phone her to clarify the exact nature of their separation......

- Frasier suggests sharing a table with two women at Cafe Nervosa:
Niles: We can't sit with strange women.
Frasier: Why not - we married strange women!

- Frasier and Niles took Beth and Laura to the Seattle Rep:
Martin: Oh, what'd you see?
Laura: "The Man Who Came To Dinner" - it's about an ill-tempered invalid who moves into this person's house and just drives them crazy.
Martin: Comedy?
Frasier: I used to think so (!)

- Niles is finding this new spontaneous attitude to dating quite exhilarating:
Frasier: Feel like a new man?
Niles: I feel like a new woman - and thank God I remembered to pack one!!

- Frasier and Niles have trouble interpreting the women's signals:
Niles: They could be thinking Platonic - together in one room sleeping like babies.
Frasier: Yes - us in another, crying like babies.

- Niles phones Maris to clarify the nature of their separation:
Niles: I know we're allowed to see other people - my question is: how much of them are we allowed to see?

- Maris phones Niles to tell him he can't see other people:
Niles: You see what's happening here?
Frasier: Yes - your ex-wife is ruining my sex life!!

A fairly run-of-the-mill episode that ends up being slightly disappointing because I felt it could have been funnier - most of the lines came across as amusing. The only really funny scene comes right at the end when Frasier is urging Niles to forget Maris and see Beth as little more as a piece of meat - unaware that Beth and Laura are both listening. Martin and Daphne get little to do in a dull subplot about the flu season after Daphne comes down with it - the scene where Martin finds it uncomfortable to read Daphne's book out loud to her because it's the sex scenes, is fairly amusing but goes on too long. All in all, then, fairly average 'Frasier' that doesn't quite fulfill it's potential, though it's interesting to see Megan Mullally in a pre-Will and Grace part.

Rating

74 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 81.7%
Total Number of Reviews: 7