YMMV / Only Fools And Horses S 3 E 08 Thicker Than Water

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Reg Trotter returns, and comes close to convincing his sons that he isn't really Del's father. Four years later, "The Frog's Legacy" suggested that Rodney was not Reg's son, which was eventually confirmed in 2003's "Sleepless in Peckham" — although this episode shows that both Del and Grandad already had some doubts about Rodney's paternity.
  • The Trotters are relieved that things are "back to normal" by the end of the episode, with Grandad's botched cooking acting as assurance of that. This would be the final episode to feature Grandad, as Lennard Pearce would pass away during production of Series 4, with the original dynamic of the show gradually altered from that point on.
• Moral Event Horizon: In Reg Trotter's sole appearance, he sends Del Boy and Rodney to get blood tests for fear of catching a hereditary blood disease. While they get the all-clear, they appear to have different blood groups, Del's being AB and Rodney's being A, implying that they have different fathers. Reg, having opened the letters before they read it, proclaims that Del is the "Lone Ranger" and begins to alienate Del at every opportunity. It transpires that not only did Reg have no such illness, but he sabotaged the letters by adding the B, just to spite Del and usurp him as the Trotter patriarch. Even Grandad, who was happy to see his son again, is disgusted.
• Tear Jerker: The final shot of the episode is one of Del embracing Rodney and Grandad in appreciation. This would become especially poignant given that it turned out to be Lennard Pearce's final appearance before he died in 1984.

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