Title: The Recluse
Directed by: Bruce Bilson
Written by: Chris Hayward and Reinhold Weege (story), Reinhold Weege, and Danny Arnold (teleplay)
Air Date: November 11, 1976
Previous: Werewolf
Next: Noninvolvement
Guest Starring: Florence Staley, Arnold Soboloff, Ivor Francis, Denise Miller
"The Recluse" is the seventh episode of the third season of Barney Miller.
As is often the case the 12th Precinct has two cases to deal with. In one, Wojo brings in a man named Graham Roberts, whom Wojo saw creating a disturbance by kneeling down and praying in the middle of a busy street. It seems that Mr. Roberts is under the impression that the world will end that day, at 5:30 in the afternoon. In the second, Wojo and Harris are sent to fetch a Mr. Unger, who has ignored a summons for jury duty. When they bring him in, Wojo tells Barney that the reason Mr. Unger didn't go to jury duty is that he hasn't left his apartment in 35 years.
Meanwhile, Jilly Pappalardo, the sassy young orphan last seen in season premiere "Evacuation", turns up again. She and her teenaged boyfriend Victor want to leave the Children's Center orphanage, and Jilly asks Fish for $100 to travel some place out west. Fish, for his part, is again contemplating the looming specter of retirement.
The reappearance of Jilly and more talk about Fish's retirement were both laying the ground for the spinoff Fish, which premiered in February 1977.
Tropes:
- Bad to the Last Drop: The Running Gag about Yemana's awful coffee. Yemana offers Mr. Unger some coffee and Mr. Unger says he hasn't had a cup since 1944. After taking a sip Unger frowns and says "It's funny, I don't remember it tasting like this."
- Comically Missing the Point: Five-thirty comes and goes. Barney points out to Mr. Roberts that the world did not end. Roberts grins and says "And you didn't think prayer would help."
- The End Is Nigh: Mr. Roberts was arrested for waving a Bible around and proclaiming the end of the world in the middle of the street. He continues to rant and rave about the coming apocalypse while in his cell, greatly irritating the detectives.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: In her second appearance Jilly Pappalardo is still wearing her wide-brimmed, eye-obscuring hat.
- Failed Future Forecast: In-Universe and played for a gag. Mr. Unger says he's been so isolated that he hasn't even heard any news since shortly after Pearl Harbor. He takes one look at Yemana and says "I assumed we won." Yemana shoots back "We did."
- Heel Realization: Wojo doesn't say as much but he's clearly thinking it, after he comes back from the hospital in shock, after Mr. Unger died from exposure to the outside.
- Incurable Cough of Death: After Miller has a talk with Mr. Unger, who hasn't left his apartment for 35 years, Unger suddenly comes down with a sickly cough; Harris informs Barney that the air is on second-stage smog alert. Later on, after Wojo takes Unger from the squad room to the hospital, Unger, who was unable to adapt to the air after living so many years in his plant-filled apartment, dies on arrival after he stops breathing.
- "Knock Knock" Joke: Averted. Yemana irritates everyone in the squad room as well as Mr. Roberts with the knock-knock joke that he read in the paper, but no one will actually say "Who's there" and let him tell it.
- Ludicrous PrecisionMr. Roberts: The world is coming to an end!
Barney: I'm sure you're right, Mr. Roberts, but the question is when?
Mr. Roberts: 5:30. - Racial Face Blindness: Fish talks about how he doesn't like Japanese restaurants (he doesn't like raw fish, or sitting on the floor to eat), and Yemana frowns. Fish then asks Nick Yemana if he knows of a good Chinese restaurant, and Yemana suggests "Yamamoto's". Later in the episode, when the Fishes take the two foster children with them to a restaurant:Jilly: Where are we gonna eat?
Bernice: Boy, are you gonna love it. It's called Yamamoto's.
Jilly: I never ate Japanese food before!
Fish: [looks back at Yemana in surprise]
Yemana: [grins slyly] They all look alike to me. - Reluctant Retiree: Fish continues to depressed about his NYPD retirement, which is coming soon. He tells Barney that he was late to work that day because he took the ferry to Staten Island, because he wanted to feel what it was like to not come to work.
- The Shut-In: Mr. Unger, the man who didn't answer a summons, hasn't left his apartment in 35 years. The shock of exposure to the outside kills him.
- Take That!: Yemana says he has tickets to the Jets-Tampa Bay game, and Harris says "Why?" The Jets were bad in those years and Tampa Bay was a brand-new team, working on a 26-game losing streak, a record that still stands.
