Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 9 -> Episode 9.18Deathtrap
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Episode Details |
Written by: Jon Sherman Directed by: Kelsey Grammer |
Original US airdate: 2nd April 2002 Original UK airdate: 3rd May 2002 |
Cast Information |
Main Cast
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Recurring Cast | |||||||||||||||
Guest Cast
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Guest Callers |
Episode Synopsis |
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'.......
Episode Title Cards |
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Episode Highlights |
- 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
Frasier Online Episode Review |
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 %
Latest Viewer Episode Review |
Avg. Viewer Review:
70.4%
Total Number of Reviews: 5
Top Truths for Teen Sleuths: A Crane Boys Mysteries Workbook, May 21, 2013 |
Reviewer: Sammy J from Melbourne, Australia |
"Deathtrap" is a very peculiar little episode of the show, as others have noted, giving us an unusual structure and concept. It's one that I wanted to dislike for all the conceptual reasons, but ultimately ended up enjoying it. (Although admittedly, in spite of rather than because of those elements.) |
Rating: 84%
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