While rushing to clear his workload for a vacation, Oscar suffers another ulcer attack. Initially, Felix tries to care for his ailing roommate at home. However, after Oscar manages to circumvent his efforts to deal with his condition, Felix books them a cabin on a retirement cruise, where he drives everyone to the brink of insanity.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- An Aesop: Oscar spells out to Felix that trying too hard to force someone into doing things at one extreme can drive them to the other in defiance, even though both parties could have lived with a moderate approach. (For instance, one of the retirees would have preferred a short walk to a karaoke session or nothing at all.)
- Bird-Poop Gag: At the end of the episode, a couple of retirees tell Felix that they saw Oscar buying the contraband guy's coat. Before Felix can go to stop his roommate, Oscar appears, covered in a white-splattered trench coat. He grumpily explains that a bunch of pigeons attacked the coat.
- Black Comedy: While scolding Murray, Myrna, and Monroe for helping or letting Oscar get around his restrictions, Felix asks Monroe why he didn't tell Murray and his friends to leave so they wouldn't disturb Oscar's rest.Monroe: When was the last time you saw a Puerto Rican chase out three cops?
- Coat Full of Contraband: One guy has a trench coat stocked with normal (sometimes junky) food for sale, which Oscar naturally leaps at given the bland options offered by the cruise itself.
- Doctor's Orders: The doctor tells Oscar to keep his stress low and to eat a bland diet while he's recuperating from his ulcer. Felix tries to make sure he sticks to these instructions, and he hatches the cruise idea when he realizes that Oscar can get around the orders too easily in the apartment.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title refers to Sometimes a Great Notion.
- Shout-Out: Oscar calls Felix "Captain Queeg."
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Oscar complains about the dullness of the cruise, and Felix asks if the ship has an activities director. The captain confesses that they effectively don't, because the new activities director is spending most of his time at the ship's rail. Fortunately, this is neither seen nor heard.
- You Didn't Ask: Implied; Oscar is excited about how much fun he's going to have when he and Felix are boarding the boat, implying Felix didn't tell him that the cruise mostly included retirees.
