In this 2-parter, Frasier is conflicted between being with Lana and Claire and when he screws up both relationships, a retreat has him be helped by manifestations of Lilith, Diane, his first wife Nanette and his late mother Hester.
Tropes:
- Bottle Episode: Most of the second part takes place either in the confines of Frasier's car or the log cabin.
- Cameo Cluster: Trying to flee the cabin, Frasier sees a vision of "every woman I've ever dated." It's not quite every woman he's disastrously dated on the show, but it is a lot of them.
- Continuity Nod:
- The cabin is the same one the Cranes went to in "Momma Mia".
- The hallucinations of Diane and Hester hate one another over the time Hester threatened to kill Diane. Diane also paints a water-color of Sam.
- Lilith brings up how the real her and Niles slept together.
- "Every woman I've ever dated!" Not quite, but all 9 of the women seen in that brief shot had previously appeared in past episodes as Frasier's girlfriends.
- Ear Worm: At one point Frasier's vision of Diane starts singing "Falling In Love With Love". When the vision of Lilith gets annoyed by this and asks him to make her stop Frasier apologizes and says it's because he has that song stuck in his head.
- Epiphany Therapy: After having the hallucinations offer multiple ideas for why his romances always fail, they assure Frasier they'll always be with him. This causes him to realise that carrying around these four women have been the problem all along and he needs to get over them. Apparently all he needed to do was say it out loud, because he turns around and they're gone, with the end of the episode implying that he's finally past his issues.
- Freudian Excuse: Frasier initially tries blaming his romantic woes on his bad romantic history with Diane and Lilith, but then when Hester shows up to weigh in, he figures she must be the bad influence, the one none of his romantic partners can ever live up to.Frasier: [to his Mother] What are you doing here?!
Lilith: You have to ask? You're a Freudian. - From Bad to Worse: First Frasier hallucinates Lilith. Then they're joined by Diane. Then Nanette joins in. At the cabin, Hester eventually shows up, and all four start bickering with one another, until the hallucination of Lilith gets them to gang up on him.
- Funny Background Event: Diane starts singing. Lilith tries to keep talking to Frasier, but finds Diane's singing makes this difficult.
- Granola Girl: Nanette, being as Frasier remembers her from their college days (rather than played by Emma Thompson, as she was in Cheers).
- How We Got Here: The first episode begins with Frasier in a car, with Lilith and Diane with him. It takes a while before we learn they're hallucinations, and he's gone for a drive to clear his head.
- Let's You and Him Fight: When Hester appears and things slowly devolve into her yelling at and insulting the other hallucinations, Frasier just sits with a strained look on his face. Lilith realizes that Frasier is making them snipe and insult each other to stop analyzing him and trying to get him to confront his issues.
- No Sympathy: Thanks to Frasier's own bungling, he manages to nuke things with both Lana and Claire, and starts ranting about it. Martin and Daphne walk off mid-rant.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: In Frasier's hallucination, Diane holds a grudge towards his mother, Hester, for trying to use death threats to keep her away from her son. A fed-up Hester treats it like some empty skirmish she won't let go.Hester: Oh, not this paranoia again!Diane: You had a gun!
- Put on a Bus: Frasier screws things up with Claire, and she storms off, never to be seen again.
- Sanity Slippage: Poor Fras gets to the point he's hallucinating his ex-wives, ex-fiance and his mother.
- Shipper on Deck: Niles and Martin are particularly supportive of Frasier getting with Claire. Daphne isn't, until at the last hurdle an upset Claire mentions she'd always wanted a sister, and figured Daphne could have been like that. Only daughter Daphne is therefore furious with Frasier for screwing up again.
- Shout-Out: Dianne sings a song by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
- Status Quo Is God: Frasier learns an important lesson about self-destructive vacillating and nit-picking, and vows he won't let it ruin his relationships from now on... but he still has no luck with romance.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Frasier's Imagine Spot, his mother and exes spend most of the time bickering and insulting each other, until they realise that Frasier is distracting them from his issues and he is he one they must consult.
