Title: The Arrival
Directed by: Lee Lochhead
Written by: Jordan Moffet
Air Date: February 25, 1982
Previous: Hunger Strike
Next: Obituary
Guest Starring: James Gregory, Carina Afable, Andrew Bloch, Alan Oppenheimer, Mario Roccuzzo
"The Arrival" is the 14th episode of the eighth season of Barney Miller.
Harris interviews a Mr. Deluca, who was was leaving an old folks' home (he was reading to the old people) and stopped to help a woman who'd collapsed on the sidewalk, when her companions mugged him. (If that's not sad enough, he only has one leg.) The other wacky case is that of Mr. Brysom, who was arrested for robbing the local chapter of MENSA. It turns out that Mr. Brysom is a member of MENSA, but he left the group because he can't stand them.
But both of those cases take a backseat to the A plot. An attractive, thirty-ish Filipina, Perlita Avilar, comes to the squad room. Everyone is surprised when she asks for "Frank". It turns out that Perlita is Inspector Luger's Mail-Order Bride.
Tropes:
- Brick Joke: Mr. Deluca, who is sweet and kind and also kind of a loser, sees Luger make a panicked exit after meeting Perlita, and says that if Luger doesn't want to marry her, he will. At the end of the episode, as Luger and Perlita are leaving together, they open the door to find Mr. Deluca standing outside. He says "Everything worked out?"
- Call-Back: The episode begins with Wojo fiddling with a Rubik's Cube (a little '80s trivia at the end of what was mostly a '70s show). At the end, Mr. Brysom the MENSA apostate picks the Rubik's Cube up, quickly solves it, then hands it back to Wojo and says "I couldn't help it."
- Continuity Nod:
- Another mention of the Season 8 ongoing plot about Luger wanting a mail order bride, as she shows up.
- Wojo, a little embarrassed to be talking to a MENSA super-genius, says it took him three tries to pass the sergeant's exam. Wojo's trouble with and stress over the sergeant's exam was an occasionally recurring plot thread in previous seasons.
- Mail-Order Bride: The Season 8 plot thread about Luger wanting a mail order bride, and strong-arming Barney into both picking for him and writing a letter to the candidate, reaches a turning point. The bride, Perlita, shows up at the 12th Precinct looking for Luger. He initially panics, but then recovers himself, and as the episode ends they're going out to dinner.
- Mal Mariée: Mr. Diets is revealed to be a sneering, arrogant asshole. But he's gotten some karma in life, as his Trophy Wife Ruth "likes her men young," like construction workers and cops.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: The smarmy, insufferable Mr. Diets says that he'll drop the burglary charges if Mr. Brysom attends his personality workshop. Mr. Brysom refuses, and goes to jail.
- Shout-Out: Wojo takes a call from an agitated woman who wants to know what happened to The Waltons. Harris says he thinks the mom is a nurse. Michael Learned, who played the mother on The Waltons, was then starring in a CBS show called Nurse.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: How poor Mr. Deluca was mugged. He stopped to help a woman who'd collapsed on the sidewalk, but it was a trick; her partners jumped him and robbed him.
