Title: Spellbound
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Kimberly Hill
Air Date: January 22, 1987
Previous: Diamond Sam
Next: Never Love a Goalie, Part 1
Guest Starring: Dan Hedaya, Jean Kasem
"Spellbound" is the 15th episode of the fifth season of Cheers.
Loretta Tortelli (Jean Kasem) comes stumbling into the bar one night in tears. It seems that she caught Nick (Dan Hedaya) cheating on her. Carla chortles with amusement, while Diane tries to be supportive. Eventually Nick comes back and nearly gets Loretta to come away with him, but with Diane providing some courage, Loretta refuses.
Of course, that leaves Loretta homeless and with no job skills. Diane gets a highly reluctant Sam to give Loretta some work singing at the bar. When Nick comes back, Sam stands up for Loretta and tells Nick to get lost. Loretta kisses Sam on the cheek, which causes Nick to proclaim that if Sam is going to steal his woman, he's going to steal Diane.
In the B-plot, resident egghead Frasier beats everybody at the bar at chess—until he plays Woody.
Fifth appearance of Hedaya and Kasem as Nick and Loretta Tortelli. They would appear on the show only once more, in Season 11 episode "Loathe and Marriage".
Tropes:
- Desk Sweep of Rage: Frasier sweeps the pieces off the chessboard in a fit of rage after losing once again to Woody.
- Foreshadowing: As Norm and Frasier are playing chess Woody tells Norm to move a bishop, then says "Not that one!" as Norm reaches for the wrong bishop. This foreshadows that Woody will be surprisingly good at chess.
- Gilligan Cut: Nick tries to use his Hypno Pendulum to make Diane fall in love with him and go away with him. On his way out he says "Oh yeah, and bring a six-pack." Diane rolls her eyes and says "God, the man is insane to think that anyone would be gullible enough to fall for that idiotic nonsense." Cue Woody walking to the door with a dazed expression and a six-pack in his hand, before Sam stops him.
- Hypno Pendulum: Nick swings a pocket watch in an effort to hypnotize Diane into falling in love with him. It doesn't work...but it does work on Woody.
- Hypocritical Humor: After losing to Woody several times, Frasier says "it's time we took off the gloves." He says that now he's going to play seriously, and that Woody can learn lessons in defeat, and "Chief among them is how to lose gracefully." Woody then follows with an immediate Surprise Checkmate, followed by Frasier's Desk Sweep of Rage.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Loretta's loud, high-pitched wailing and blubbering when she comes in with the news about Nick.
- Mathematician's Answer: Diane's trying to encourage Loretta to talk about her feelings after catching Nick with another woman.Diane: The best therapy is to tell how you feel about it.
Loretta: I'm against it! - Obfuscating Stupidity: Every so often the show would suggest that Woody wasn't as dumb as he acted, and this episode, in which Woody is revealed as a chess whiz who thrashes Frasier, is one of those times.Frasier: Woody, you must be an idiot savant.
Woody: Yeah, but I cover it by smiling a lot. - Smart People Play Chess: Played with. Frasier humbles everyone at the bar at chess—except apparent numbskull Woody, who beats Frasier every time. Frasier sweeps the pieces off the table in frustration. (Ironically he misses Woody's king the first try.)
- Surprise Checkmate: At least twice Woody drops a checkmate on Frasier out of nowhere. The second time, after Frasier makes a pompous speech about how Woody's going to learn to be a good loser, triggers Frasier's Desk Sweep of Rage.
- Time Dilation: Discussed Trope, as Cliff yammers about time dilation, and how if he took a spaceship at the speed of light for ten years, and came back to the bar, he'd be ten years older but everyone at the bar would be 80 years older. Norm says that would finally make Cliff the best player on the bar softball team.
