Title: Rat Girl
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan O Shannon and Tom Anderson
Air Date: March 28, 1991
Previous: Pitch It Again, Sam
Next: Home Malone
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Paul Willson, Beth Toussaint
"Rat Girl" is the 24th episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
Frasier and Lilith are looking to get little Frederick into a hoity-toity preschool (and they're getting a pretty early start, since Frederick was born barely a year and a half ago in "The Storks Send a Crane"). Meanwhile, Lilith comes into the bar looking depressed (well, as depressed as the emotionless Lilith can look—Frasier says he took a lucky guess). It seems her lab rat, Whitey, has died, and Lilith was attached to the animal.
In the B-plot, Sam hits on a good-looking woman (Beth Toussaint). She shoots him down, which is one thing, but Sam is offended when the hot babe instead goes out with short, bald, tubby Paul. In the C-plot, Rebecca is on a health food kick, and she tries to get the guys at the bar to eat healthy snacks like carrots and rice cakes.
Tropes:
- Big "WHAT?!": Lilith lets out a "You did WHAT?", as Frasier tells her on the way out of the bar that he threw Whitey in the garbage.
- Chubby Chaser: Eventually the mystery of why Paula preferred Paul to Sam is revealed: she has an attraction to portly gentlemen. (In fact Paul actually calls her a "chubby chaser".)
- Exact Words: There's an emergency with one of Lilith's patients. Turns out it was a false alarm—as in, her patient pulled a fire alarm.
- Exiled to the Couch: Even worse, as Frasier spends the night on the couch in Sam's office. (Why didn't he just go to a hotel?)
- Lab Pet: Lilith is deeply upset when her lab rat Whitey croaks.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lilith displaying any kind of emotion is already rare, so her visible anger for much of the episode shows just how pissed she is at Frasier.
- Oh, Crap!: Frasier is pretty shocked when he opens Lilith's purse and finds a dead rat in it. Lilith eventually explains that she wanted to give Whitey a dignified funeral, as opposed to leaving him in the lab where he'd be dissected.
- Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Everybody laughs when Paul's girlfriend is revealed to be named Paula—except Paul, who has never heard the song "Hey Paula" by 1960s act Paul and Paula, and gets irritated when the others keep quoting the lyrics.
- Sophisticated as Hell: How the episode ends, as Frasier and Lilith, taking stock of things after Whitey's death, decide to try for another baby.Frasier: (thoughtful) It's all so strange. A seemingly innocent creature lives and dies. A marriage is threatened. A child's education is almost destroyed. Yet somehow, some way, I'm getting some action out of it.
- Stuffed Into A Trash Can: Frasier, via Lilith, gets thrown headfirst into one outside of Cheers for throwing away her rat.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Frasier's already rolling his eyes when Lilith mentions how one of the baby hamsters looks just like Whitey, so he's not at all surprised when Lilith starts in on him over how he disposed of Whitey, again.
