Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 9 -> Episode 9.18

Deathtrap

We begin with a flashback of a young Frasier and Niles taking a skull from a classroom for their backyard production of 'Hamlet', before cutting to the present day where we see Niles and Daphne in Cafe Nervosa joined by Frasier. He tells Niles that their childhood home is on the market which starts them thinking that they could buy it and turn it into a B & B. They take Martin along to take a look it, who is still aggrieved at not having his security deposit returned 20 years ago, which starts them all recalling memories from when they lived there. Frasier and Niles discover the house is too small for a B & B, but then remember they buried a box of mementoes beneath the floorboards. The landlord refuses to let them prise them up, forcing Frasier and Niles to return during the dead of night. They prise up the floorboard, reach into the ground and pull out .... a skull !!

This sets Frasier and Niles' imagination running wild as they start to remember that the landlords wife disappeared around the time they were asked to move out. They explore the possibility that the landlord murdered his wife to get her inheritance after they discover financial documents in the garage. Once they have thought it all through, they call the police but after they have arrested the landlord they find their box of childhood mementoes - and the programme for their backyard production of 'Hamlet'.......

- Everyone chimes in with ways to keep Roz's hamster quiet:
Roz: Where were you all at 3 o'clock this morning when I was trying to shove an Insomnex into a carrot (!)

- Niles doesn't want Martin to mention not geting his security deposit back:
Niles: When we open this place as a B & B, you'll make it all back in tips!

- Martin asks the landlord if he is going to go scuba diving when he retires in Florida:
Landlord: Do I look like I scuba? I'm lucky I don't need a tank to breathe on land!

- Frasier wants to Niles to put his hand into the space beneath the floorboards to get their box:
Niles: There could be rats!
Frasier: Maybe they're just down on their luck show rats!

- Roz tells Daphne how her father told her about death:
Roz: Dying is just going to sleep and never waking up. Then he turned off the light and said good night!

- Roz is angry Martin told Alice about death after her hamster dies:
Roz: I don't want her to be scared or confused.
Alice [pointing to her new hamster]: I like this one better

I have often enjoyed the antics of Frasier and Niles when they work together but I found this episode almost ruined by the flashback right at the beginning where a young Frasier and Niles take a skull from school. This means that we as a viewer realise that the skull they discover is the one from the flashback, but Frasier and Niles spend half the episode concocting a story before realising the truth. I think it would have been funnier if they had done away with the flashback, which would have made the story they concoct seem more realistic and funnier and made then ending where they realise what the skull really is a lot funnier too. As written, the over acting of Frasier and Niles became a little grating and by the end, I was bored by the storyline. The sub plots of Alice's hamster and Daphne's show rats were amusing enough, as was Hal Landon Jr's performance as Mr Laskoff, but neither were enough to make up for the rather torturous central storyline.

Rating

69 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 67.0%
Total Number of Reviews: 4