Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 5 -> Episode 5.13

The Maris Counsellor

Frasier reminds Roz it's ratings week, whicche she's forgotten about, so tries to get the juciest calls for Frasier's show. Back at Frasier's apartment, Martin chickened out of asking out Mrs Crowley again, who's a little younger than he is, but she then calls Martin and invites him to dinner. Niles then drops by with patient files as Frasier will be joining his brother in his therapy session the next day. However, when everyone else is out of earshot, Niles tells his brother that his and Maris' new marriage counselor is just terrific, and having pinpointed his primary failing of being too predictable, he is going to show Maris just how spontaneous he can be by letting her find him in her bed for an afternoon of passion!

Just one problem with his plan - it seems Maris has been having ana ffair with their counselor, Dr Bernard Schenkman, who has the same idea and they both end up in Maris' bed thinking the other is Maris! Patently angry about his counselors betrayal and unprofessionalism, Dr Schenkman tries to explain what has happened between he and Maris, before Niles has to leave and join Frasier with their couples therapy group but some of his patients comments about not being able to trust their partners leads to Niles breaking down in front of them and Frasier trying to save face. Niles explains what's happened to Frasier once he has cleared the group from his office, and Niles rationalises that Maris falling fo Schenkman could be a classic case of trasference and goes off to try and speak to Maris and convince her she's making a mistake.

Niles comes by to Frasier's apartment and tells his brother that it's over between he and Maris - he realised he had grovelled and pleaded with her more times than he could remember and wasn't prepared to do it any more. Martin arrives home at that point too and reveals that his evening with Mrs Crowley was very nice until she introduced him to his date - her mother! The three Crane men join together over a drink and lament their love lives.

- Roz is going through the callers to Frasier's show to try and get some good ones for sweeps week:
Caller: Well.... I'm kind of ..... indecisive
Roz: Well, I'm not!
[Moves on to next caller]

- Frasier finishes his intro and turns to Roz for the first caller:
Frasier: Roz, who do we have?
Roz: On line 1 we have a bed wetting adulterer, unless you'd rather speak to Roger on line 2 who's a transexual running for Congress!!

- Frasier thinks Martin couldn't ask Mrs Crowley out as all the Crane men are a bit gun-shy at the moment
Daphne: Gun-shy, sensitive, picky - you're all full of excuses. You know, sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get any of you married off and out of this house!

- Daphne is telling Frasier that Martin is asking somone out:
Daphne: A certain someone is inviting a certain someone else to dinner!
Frasier: Yes - where would the world be without you Brits and your knack for code cracking (!!)

- Niles is thrilled with the progress he and Maris are making with their new psychiatrist, Dr Schenkman:
Niles: It's as if he's discovered the magic elixir to repair the shattered fragments of her psyche. I don't know what to call it exactly...
Frasier: The words 'crazy glue' leap to mind (!!!)

- Schenkman tries to explain to Niles why he and Maris are having an affair:
Dr Schenkman: Put yourself in my place
Niles: I very nearly did!

- Schenkman is telling Niles what he sees in Maris:
Dr Schenkman: I've never known a woman so warm, so nuturing, so unselfish.
Niles: Is it possible this is all a case of mistaken identity (?!)

- Frasier's way of getting Daphne off the phone by ringing his own bell

- The 3 Crane men are lamenting their love lives, with each one trying to top the other in the pathetic stakes:
Niles: 15 years with Maris, and I end up in bed with her lover!!

A tumultuous episode that sees Niles finally end things with Maris, and gives David Hyde Pierce a chance to shine in all departments - his physical comedy skills as he prepares Maris' bedroom unaware Schenkman is doing the same, and drama in the scenes where he faces up to the realisation that he and Maris are finished for good - I find it hard not to get a bit choked up in the final scene where Niles is telling Frasier what he shouted at to Maris and you hear his voice slightly break as he's telling it. The opening scene where Roz tries to juice up some of Frasier's callers for ratings week is good fun, while the mini-plot about Martin and Mrs Crowley is amusing too - it's always good to hear John Mahoney's 'Oh Jeez'. The final scene, where the 3 Crane's lament their love lives is pretty downbeat but never unintersting and is a suitable way to end a superb episode.

Rating

83 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 91.5%
Total Number of Reviews: 4