Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 5 -> Episode 5.11

Ain't Nobody's Business If 'I Do'

Daphne finds an engagement ring in Martin's drawer suggesting that Martin is soon to propose to Sherry. Frasier and Niles find it hard to accept the idea of Sherry as their new Mom, and decide to find out more information about her. Niles secretly hires a private detective who finds out that Sherry has been married six times before. The brothers scheme ways of telling this shocking news to Martin without revealing how they got it. Martin is furious when he finds out about the detective and the six marriages (which he knew about all along). Frasier tries to make it up to Martin by showing full support for the marriage, and on the big night, when Martin leaves the engagement ring at home, Frasier runs to catch up with his father. However, Frasier arrives just after Martin has broken up with Sherry.

- Daphne shows the engagement ring she found in Martin's drawer to Frasier and Niles:
Niles: Dad must be about to ask Sherry to marry him. Do you know what that means?
Frasier: Yes - we're going to hear what Mendelsohn's 'Wedding March' sounds like on the banjo!

- Sherry's going through the list of party guests and gives Martin a warning about Lola Sherwood:
Sherry: Oh now Marty, try not to stare at her eye - she get's self conscious.

- Frasier tries to get across to Niles that Sherry doesn't have a hidden past:
Frasier: Try having a little trust in people!
[Frasier takes one of his statues with him as he walks out the door!]

- Frasier and Niles learn that Sherry had been married 6 times before:
Frasier: Doesn't bode well for the marriage, does it?
Niles: On the upside, it does bode well for Dad getting a yes when he proposes!

- Niles thinks they should tell their father what they have discovered about Sherry's previous marriages:
Niles: Maybe we could drop it casually into the conversation.
Frasier: And how would that go - "Oh Dad, you going to the Sherry ex-husband convention this year?!"

- Frasier is telling his father about the look a woman gave him when he told her he had been married twice before:
Frasier: I think it harkens back to a puritanical streak that still runs through this country. What do you think?
Martin: I think there's a yakkety-yak streak that runs through this family!

- After Martin has found out what Daphne, Frasier and Niles have been up to:
Frasier: Who'd have thought that spying on a man's girlfriend and rifling his underwear drawer could turn so ugly (!!)

- Frasier thinks Martin has asked Sherry to marry him, when in fact they have just broken up:
Frasier: I just wanted you to know that everyone is 100% behind this decision!

A superb episode, really, that is both funny and quite touching which begins with Daphne's discovery of an engagement ring in Martin's drawer, leading Frasier and Niles to do some digging into the past of their potential new mom. This leads to some brilliantly funny scenes - Niles' desperate cry of "Off to the roller derby, ma?!" as he wonders aloud at the prospect of Sherry being their new mom was great, as was the scene where Martin discovers that Frasier, Niles and Daphne know about Sherry's previous marriages and his engagement ring which leads to a very funny blame passing game over who was responsible. The episode ends poignantly as Martin breaks up with Sherry because he wants to get married again and she doesn't followed by a hilarious sequence where Frasier thinks he sees Martin getting down on bended knee (in reality he's picking up a napkin he knocked off the table) and rushes in to give Martin his forgotten engagement ring not knowing that Martin and Sherry have just broken up, and says everyone is 100% behind his decision! There's a nice bit of father/son bonding at the end that sees Frasier and Martin both having a beer while watching a basketball game, but while the episode was a very good one, it's quite sad really to see Sherry going as Marsha Mason has proved an excellent addition to the cast, providing a great new source of humour just when the show needed it and injecting a lot of fun into any episode she appears in - she'll be sorely missed, at least by this 'Frasier' fan.

Rating

86 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 80.0%
Total Number of Reviews: 1