"Feelings" is an episode in the sixth season of The Golden Girls.
Dorothy is pressured to give a passing grade to the school football star. Rose suspects she's being taken advantage of by her dentist.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Rose recalls her earliest childhood memory, which involved a man shooting a gun in front of several farm animals. It's suggested her memory involves seeing an animal killed for meat...but the gun was actually a starting pistol for a race between all the farm animals.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When Rose first confronts the dentist, he tells her that it was likely just a misunderstanding due to her being under the medication. She apologizes...and then the dentist continues to behave inappropriately and she snaps. She calls him out for treating that way even after she believed his lies and was willing to let it go. He tries to apologize but she tells him off.Rose: Darn you! I believed you, I apologized to you!Dentist: Rose, I forgot myself. It will never happen again.Rose: You're damn right, it won't happen again. Not to me or anyone else. I'm reporting you to the State Dental Board.Dentist: Rose—Rose: There's just one more thing before I go...Dentist: What?Rose: DANCE! (squirts water at his feet, making him jump)
- Comfort Food: After Dorothy refuses to cave in regarding a failing grade that would keep one of her students from playing in a crucial football game, Sophia remarks that, in all her life, she's never been prouder of Dorothy...Sophia: Can you believe it? My whole life, and this is the proudest I've ever been. I'm depressed. I need a cookie.
- D-Cup Distress: Rose expresses a mild form of this:Rose: I wish men could find out what it's like to have breasts, for just one day. Then they'd know how it feels to be judged by some physical trait. I mean, just because I'm built like this, you wouldn't believe how many people think I'm dumb.Sophia: Rose, you're too hard on yourself. I know people who think you're dumb over the phone.
- Dead Animal Warning: Dorothy is harassed by the the staff and students alike of the high school where she's teaching, trying to pressure her into passing a failing football star so he can win a big game for them. At one point, she receives a fish wrapped in newspaper; while she makes light of it by quipping to have white wine with it, Sophia is upset by this, believing that they would harm her. This is justified as the latter's from Sicily and knows what's the big deal about this gesture.
- Destination Defenestration: After Sophia objects to Dorothy kicking a priest out of the house, Dorothy reminds her that she has multiple relatives who threw priests out of windows.Sophia: That was business.
- Depraved Dentist: Dr. Norgan sexually harasses Rose while she's under sedation. Don't worry, though, he gets it in the end.
- Game-Breaking Injury: The school football star suffers one late in the episode, rendering him hospitalized and unable to continue playing until his leg heals.
- Plaster Cast Doodling: Dorothy refuses to give a passing grade to an athlete, who has not earned it, despite being pressured to do so. He ends up breaking his leg at the game, and then she visits him at the hospital. His cast is already signed by the rest of the team.Kevin: Are you signing it?
Dorothy: Correcting it. There is no "K" in "victory". Oh yeah, and we'll just change this to "Ms. Zbornak eats shiitake mushrooms". - Screw Public Opinion, I'm Doing What's Right!: Dorothy, as a teacher, is doing the right thing in refusing to change a student's grade simply so he can play in a big game. The rest of the school (as well as a portion of their town) disapproves, and continuously try to get her to change his grade. Sophia admits that she's proud of Dorothy for this.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After much of the conflict over passing or failing the school football star, he ends up getting a Game-Breaking Injury that prevents him from participating in the sport further until his leg recovers.
