Recap / Barney Miller S 2 E 07

Episode: Season 2, Episode 7
Title: Grand Hotel
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Danny Arnold and Chris Hayward (story), Danny Arnold, Chris Hayward, and Tony Sheehan (teleplay)
Air Date: October 23, 1975
Previous: The Arsonist
Next: Discovery
Guest Starring: Linda Lavin, Robert Mandan, Adam Arkin, Queenie Smith

"Grand Hotel" is the seventh episode of the second season of Barney Miller.

The Hotel Greenwich, one of the more upscale hotels in the 12th Precinct, is suffering a series of robberies of guest rooms. The head of security, ex-cop Charlie Huntsinger (Robert Mandan), has gotten nowhere, so the NYPD is being called in. Wojo and Wentworth (Linda Lavin, in the third of five appearances) go undercover as a well-to-do married couple, with hopes of busting the thief. Having to stay together in a hotel room overnight causes an escalation in the unspoken sexual tension between the two of them.

In other cases, Wentworth is tremendously annoyed when the man she hauls in for an armed robbery, Mr. Kelso, turns out to be a fantasist who has made false confessions to dozens of crimes. And Huntsinger, feeling the pressure at work, hauls in a college kid named Howard Smith (Adam Arkin in one of his first roles) who took his 17-year-old girlfriend to the hotel for sex.

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Tropes:

• Ambiguous Syntax: Chano says "You ready to go, Fish?" as they're leaving for a call. Fish, who has been eating prunes at his desk, takes a Longing Look at the restroom and says "Yeah...but business before pleasure."
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: The BST between Wentworth and Wojo continues in this episode. At first they're sniping at each other (Wojo: "If I wanted to insult you I'd make a comment about your hair"), but the sexual tension builds to them kissing each other in the hotel room, and its implied that they had sex as well.
• Book Ends: The episode begins with Wentworth arresting Mr. Kelso for armed robbery, only to be infuriated when he turns out to be a serial false confessor. It ends with Mr. Kelso getting arrested for purse snatching, which he's definitely guilty of since he has both the woman's purse and the woman's little poodle.
• Chekhov's Gunman: It's not hard to guess that either the bellhop or the maid is the thief, and it turns out to be the maid, who is smuggling out stolen goods in the bag of her vacuum.
• Covert Pervert: Mrs. Heartstone, a wholesome-looking middle-aged woman, spends hours leafing through the mugshot book looking for the photo of the man who robbed her. Finally she gives Barney a list of four maybes. When Barney sees sixteen additional names on the list and asks, Mrs. Heartstone says "They're all sex offenders."
  Barney. Do you know any of them?
  Mrs. Heartstone. (cheerily) No, just doodling.
• Curse Cut Short: Wentworth, furious after Kelso wasted her time by confessing to armed robbery, shouts "You know what you are? You're a—". Then she sticks her face in her purse and screams.
• Death Glare: Fish apparently puked while in the car with Chano. Wojo thinks "maybe it's your ears — all your balance is up in your ears" and gets up close and looks in Fish's ears. Fish gives him a Death Glare and says "Get away from me!"
• Dirty Cop: Huntsinger left the NYPD a while back, apparently on some sort of corruption charge.
  Huntsinger: If I wanted to spill my guts to the Knapp Commission, they would have called that movie Huntsinger, not Serpico.
• Dramatic Irony: Barney is trying to convince Wojo and Wentworth to let Huntsinger get the bust on the maid, so that he'll agree to letting Howard Smith off the hook. Barney says "Hey, just for a minute, try to imagine how those kids felt. Put yourself in their position." What Barney doesn't know is that Wojo and Wentworth don't have to imagine it, as they kissed in that same hotel and, it is strongly implied, had sex.
• The Jailbait Wait: Howard Smith is only a few years older than his 17-year-old girlfriend, but the jail bait wait proved too long, as the two of them got busted by Huntsinger.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Barney shows why he is best employed as the straight man, when he attempts to make a joke about the hotel maid getting busted for theft.
  Barney: Well, you really have been cleaning up!
  (Barney chuckles. No one else does.)
  Barney: (annoyed) Book her, Wentworth.
• Malicious Misnaming: The bellhop pronounces Wojo's name as "Woj-now-its." This was a Running Gag throughout the run of Barney Miller, with Wojciehowicz giving his usual response ("It's spelled just like it sounds! Woe-juh-hoe-wits!"). But Wentworth gets the last laugh when she dials the front desk and says, "This is Mrs. Woj-now-its."
• Oddball in the Series: One of only thirteen episodes in the entire 8-year run of Barney Miller that included a scene outside of the squad room (in this case, the hotel suite).
• Office Romance: Start of an arc about Wojo having a romance with Wentworth, an arc that was cut short when Linda Lavin left the show for a starring role on Alice (1976).
• Shout-Out: The title is a shout-out to Oscar-winning movie Grand Hotel.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Wentworth panics when someone starts fiddling with the doorknob of the hotel suite. Wojo pulls her into a kiss as the maid opens the door.
• Smithical Marriage: Subverted. Huntsinger sneers at the young man he arrested for registering at the hotel as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." The young man's name? Howard Smith. (Howard and Shirley are engaged and waiting for her to turn 18 so they can get married.)
• Undercover as Lovers: Wojo and Wentworth pose as a married couple checking in to the hotel. Like with most examples of this trope, this brings out the unspoken sexual tension between the two of them.