Recap / Cheers S 11 E 23

Episode: Season 11, Episode 23
Title: Rebecca Gaines, Rebecca Loses
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: May 6, 1993
Previous: It's Lonely on the Top
Next: The Guy Can't Help It
Guest Starring: Jackie Swanson, Richard Doyle, Frances Sternhagen, Paul Willson

"Rebecca Gaines, Rebecca Loses" is the 23rd episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.

Woody and Kelly come back to the bar after an evening with Mr. Gaines, at a classical music concert. As Kelly checks whether there's a booking at Melville's, Rebecca and Mr. Gaines strike up a conversation about Mahler, and he invites Rebecca around to his mansion at the weekend. Naturally, Rebecca becomes convinced it's the start of romance, despite Sam's attempts to warn her about making an ass of herself yet again.

Of course, once Rebecca gets there, she learns why Mr. Gaines invited her around: She's tending bar for the guests at his party. Upset and totally humiliated, Rebecca starts helping herself to a bottle of wine... and another, and another. By the time Sam gets to the mansion to help out, Rebecca's in no fit condition to tend bar. Sam tries putting in a word for her with Mr. Gaines, but Rebecca's too drunk, and soon finds herself kicked out.

In the B-plot, Cliff comes into the bar acting weird. Or weirder, fighting with his mother yet again. So when he comes in a few days later acting very suspicious, the others come to the conclusion that the bar blabbermouth has finally snapped and murdered his mother. Actually, what Cliff's really done is checked his mother into a retirement home.

Last of eight appearances by Richard Doyle as Mr. Gaines; last of seven appearances by Frances Sternhagen as Esther Clavin.

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Tropes:

• Aesop Amnesia: Rebecca has learned absolutely nothing about her Gold Digger tendencies, and by the end of the night's humiliation... she still hasn't learned anything, and tries to trail after Mr. Gaines.
• Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Inverted. Cliff suffers pangs of guilt over putting Ma Clavin into a home. He goes back to visit, and discovers that the place is awesome, and Esther is having a grand old time, and just maybe, living apart from her son is liberating for her. Cliff turns to leave...and then he sees the bill, and then he drags Esther out of the home bodily.
• Brick Joke: When he checks Esther into the home, she tells Cliff to follow up on her gardening. As the gang wonder whether Cliff has snapped, Frasier notices his hand has some dirt on it. Cliff's explanation doesn't help him look sane.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Mr. Gaines tells Sam that while he misunderstood the man's offer to Rebecca as well, frankly he's not the smartest man in the world, which Sam does cop to.
  • When the gang stumble over how to put it delicately to Cliff, it's Woody who just says they thought he'd brutally murdered Esther.
• Chekhov's Gag: The googly eyes Woody uses at the opera. Norm's using them at the end to ignore Cliff.
• Comically Missing the Point: Rebecca, gold digger she is, sees the story of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer's acrimonious divorce as a success story. The curse of hindsight.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Sam gives Woody some fake eyes so he can sleep through some music. Apparently he used them a lot while dating Diane.
  • The Angry Guard Dogs that were such a menace to the gang in Season 10 finale "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" are still on the grounds of the Gaines mansion. Sam has to run past them to get inside, and they chase Rebecca around after she's thrown bodily out of the house.
• Deadpan Snarker: Esther isn't taken with Cliff's choice of retirement home.
  Esther: How thoughtful, you've given me what every mother dreams of: A tasteful place to die among total strangers.
• Dramatic Irony: Sam believes that he has smoothed things over between Rebecca and Mr. Gaines. On the phone he tells Carla "There's no way you could drag Rebecca out of here." Right behind him as he says this, Rebecca is being literally dragged out by the Gaines servants, after making an ass of herself at the party.
• Drowning My Sorrows: How Rebecca spends her evening at the Gaines mansion, helping herself to the drinks she's meant to be serving. By the time Sam fills Mr. Gaines in on what she'd been expecting, Rebecca's totally blotto.
• Exact Words: Cliff comes into the bar, talking about how he's doing something he's been thinking about for a long time, going for a long drive out to the woods, and his mother is "in the car".
• Extra-Long Episode: Usually split into two parts for syndication and streaming, but this episode aired on NBC as a single double-length episode.
• Forgetful Jones: Woody. At the beginning of the episode he has to do something, but he can't remember what. The gang tosses suggestions at him, but nothing sticks, until Woody finally remembers: he's late for graduation from his memory improvement class.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Sam has a technique he used to sober himself up during the Sox days, a harsh slap in the face. When he tries it on Rebecca, she's too drunk to even notice he's slapped her.
• Gold Digger: One brief conversation with Mr. Gaines has Rebecca convinced she can romance him and be happy.
• Hidden Depths: Paul used to be in the navy.
• Humiliation Conga: Yet another round on the Rebecca Howe line. She's utterly humiliated by Mr. Gaines asking her around to his mansion to schlep drinks, then makes an ass of herself after getting drunk and miserable, then gets dumped out in the trash by the Gaines servants.
• Hypocritical Humor: Cliff says "Well, you can't put a price on a mother's happiness." Yes you can, as Cliff sees the bill for the retirement home and immediately takes his mom out of there.
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Cliff, wracked by guilt over putting Esther in a retirement home, starts crying into Sam's shirt.
  • And Rebecca, yet again, when she's pouring wine in the Gaines kitchen.
• I Reject Your Reality: Rebecca tries to convince herself that even though she's in the Gaines kitchen pouring drinks, it could still be a date.
• Kick the Dog: After Rebecca makes an idiot of herself, and collapses drunk, she's carried out of the Gaines household and dumped in front of the dogs.
• Lady Drunk: A bitter, weepy Rebecca gets into the wine at the Gaines house, which just makes things much worse when a bitter, drunk Rebecca is allowed to come back out for the concert.
• Never Heard That One Before:
  • Sam's heard Rebecca going on about how this time it's different, and it'll be a "whole new life" for her that he can recite it in time with her.
  • At the episode's end, Rebecca declares she's never going after a rich man as long as she lives. Sam just smiles knowingly.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently in high school, Woody's drama teacher tried to seduce Woody. And might actually have succeeded. Later on, he also casually recounts how he's seen enough body parts to choke a horse, "literally in one case".
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: How Esther Clavin makes her exit from Cheers, being carried out from the retirement home by Cliff after he gets a look at the bill.
• Poor Communication Kills: It's not surprising Rebecca came to the conclusion she did, when Mr. Gaines invites her around to his house for an evening of classical music without bothering to clarify why. He even admits it at the end.
• Spock Speak: Mahler always brings salt-water to Lilith's eyes. Tears to everyone else, saline solution to her.
• You Need to Get Laid: Apparently Carla's been having a dry spell, after she goes into a paranoid rant about how all the guys seem to have non-existant wives and thinks she's surrounded by ax-murderers, she mutters that she needs a date and soon, or she's going to start turning weird.