"Sophia's Wedding" is a two-part episode in the fourth season of The Golden Girls.
In the first part, Sophia falls in love with and marries Max Weinstock, her late husband Sal's widowed business partner, but Dorothy doesn't approve of their marriage. Meanwhile Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy start an unofficial Elvis Presley fan club, and Dorothy gets expelled after making an unflattering comment about Elvis.
In the second part, Sophia and Max open a pizza-knish stand on the beach, while Dorothy has gotten into the habit of smoking cigarettes.
Quentin Tarantino cameos as an Elvis impersonator.
Tropes:
- Bitch Slap: Sophia gives one to Dorothy when she smells that she has been smoking cigarettes. When Dorothy denies it, she slaps Rose as she is the only other person whom she suspects could be the source of the odor. When Dorothy admits to smoking after all, she slaps Dorothy again for lying.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: When Dorothy relapses on her tobacco addiction due to the stress brought on by Sophia's marriage, she resolves to quit the addiction a second time. To her irritation, Rose describes in extended detail the feeling of elation derived from smoking a cigarette, prompting Dorothy to cover her head with a saucepan and hit it with a wooden spoon in frustration.
- Comically Missing the Point: This exchange:Rose: Oh, Dorothy, I know exactly what you're going through. I smoked for years.Dorothy: You smoked, Rose? That's like finding out Lassie was an alcoholic!Rose: Lassie was an alcoholic? I guess that explains why she always leaned to one side whenever she waved goodbye to Timmy.
- Compressed Vice: Dorothy's smoking is only referred to in this episode isn't hinted at before, and isn't mentioned afterward, either.
- Estranged Soap Family: For once given a perfectly reasonable explanation when none of Sophia's relatives attend the wedding... because Rose mixed up the guest list with a list of Elvis impersonators.
- The Gambling Addict: It's revealed that the Petrillos' and Weinstocks' pizza-and-knish business went under due to Sal's gambling.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Dorothy, visiting the concession stand Sophia and Max are running, worries that the weather might cause Sophia to get sick. Sophia responds by saying, "Please, I haven't had a cold for 40 years!" Cue the cut, followed by Max and Sophia being sick and treated at home, while the latter moans: "This is the worst cold I've had in 40 years."
- Locked in the Bathroom: Sophia does this when she is about to marry Max, but Dorothy refuses to give her blessing to the marriage.
- Parent with New Paramour: Sophia marries her husband's widowed business partner Max, and Dorothy is not happy about it for a while.
- Reaction Shot: Famously inverted by showing the reaction first. When Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy are carrying out the wedding procession, they clearly see something bizarre, then it shows that all of the guests are Elvis impersonators; Rose mixed up the guest list with the list of impersonators for their Elvis fan club.
- Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: Played for Laughs; Blanche, who's famous for her long list of gentlemen callers, says that she might consider getting married again—but only if the man in question had "the body of Mel Gibson, the personality of Johnny Carson, and the financial resources of Donald Trump." Rue McClanahan herself, who played the character, remarked that she interpreted Blanche as someone who was entirely spoiled by her wonderful marriage to her late husband George, and while she had a lot of lovers, her standards for dating someone seriously were based on that marriage and thus nearly impossible to meet.
- Shower of Awkward: Max walks in on Dorothy at one point while the latter is showering, assuming it was Sophia. Dorothy has a Delayed Reaction before screaming in terror after she fully realizes Max is in the shower as she is. Blanche and Sophia, coming to the bathroom after hearing Dorothy's scream, react with a scream of their own upon seeing Dorothy and Max sharing the shower. After Max is handed his eyeglasses because he's, in his own words, "blind as a bat without them", he screams upon seeing Dorothy in the shower as well.Dorothy: Oh, shut up, Max.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Sophia and Max stays with the Girls until they can find their own place. Max's inconsiderate behavior makes the Girls extremely uncomfortable, but he and Sophia consistently keep stalling for more time to stay there.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The caterer reads Dorothy the riot act for holding up the wedding. For once Dorothy has no idea how to respond.Blanche: The wedding is off.
Max: She (points to Dorothy) doesn't approve.
Caterer: She doesn't approve?! Now look here, stretch. I have a hundred cheese puffs and a sensitive assistant both on the verge of collapse, so whatever the problem is, overlook it. My mother did with my marriage! (Dorothy looks at him in surprise) And if you say something smart, I'll slap you silly.
