Title: The Girl in the Plastic Bubble
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan O Shannon
Air Date: November 12, 1992
Previous: Teaching with the Enemy
Next: Ill-Gotten Gaines
Guest Starring: Peter Vogt
"The Girl in the Plastic Bubble" is the 7th episode of the 11th season of Cheers.
Events follow up from the previous episode, "Teaching with the Enemy", in which Lilith confesses her affair with Dr. Louis Pascal (whom she calls, to Frasier's disgust, "Googie") and tells him she is leaving him. After getting good and drunk Frasier wound up sleeping it off in Sam's office. Lilith meets him at the bar and says that she's done what she's been told to do her whole life, what was expected, and with Googie she feels free for the first time. She wants a trial separation. Lilith will be giving Frasier sole custody of Frederick, because she is going off with Dr. Pascal to live in the "Eco-Pod", an experimental underground closed ecological system
.
Frasier isn't very happy about this, but he wishes Lilith well. The next day, however, he's standing on the ledge outside a third-floor window of the Cheers building (above Melville's, it seems), threatening to jump.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Googie arrives at the bar to pick up Lilith, then says that by the way, he dinged Frasier's BMW. The episode then ends with Frasier and Lilith saying goodbye, and Frasier getting off a final zinger.Frasier: There's just something I'd like to say. I know you've got a rough year ahead of you. You're in for some rocky times. I'm sure you'll experience some very painful moments, and when you do, I'd like you to feel free to call on me for sympathy and understanding.
Lilith: Thank you, Frasier.
Frasier: I was talking to Googie. - Bestiality Is Depraved: The shock of Lilith's infidelity leads Woody to mention Hanover's biggest scandal, when the mayor's wife ran off with old Mr. Smithers. The others don't think that's too impressive, until Woody explains that Mr. Smithers was a goat.
- Continuity Nod: Cliff read a newspaper article about the "Eco-Pod", an experimental closed ecosystem, just three episodes ago in "The Magnificent Six". It turns out that the Eco-Pod is Dr. Pascal's experiment, and Lilith will be living there with him.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Lilith tells Frasier that "Googie" is going off to live in the Eco-Pod, his experimental underground dwelling, with one other person. A contemptuous Frasier says "And where in the world do you expect to find oh no," as he realizes that Lilith is the one going with Googie into the Eco-Pod.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Frasier creeps out of Sam's office going "oh God, my head", after his night of drowning his sorrows at Cheers.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Frasier's threat of suicide gets Lilith to promise not to leave him after all, which is followed by a repentant Frasier letting her go and wishing her well.
- Pet the Dog: After Frasier has a long night drowning his sorrows, it's Carla who puts him in Sam's office when he can't go home. Of course, it just as quickly turns out Carla helped herself to the doc's watch and class ring while she was at it.
- Put on a Bus: Lilith leaves not just Frasier, but the cast of Cheers, off to the Eco-Pod with Googie.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The whole Eco-Pod bit was Cheers riffing on Biosphere 2, a highly publicized experiment that also inspired the film Bio-Dome.
- Sarcasm Failure: Cliff, of all people, perceptively diagnoses the Crane marriage, noting that Lilith has been spending her nights at the lab, Frasier has been spending his nights in the bar, and all the Cranes do is bicker. Frasier says that he needs to hear "the cold water of reality" as explained by Cliff.Frasier: On the other hand, at least I'm not a career-stagnant, middle-aged mama's boy with little or no sexual experience.
Cliff: I know what you mean, Doc. We have a few of those at work. Very sad. - Skewed Priorities:
- When Cliff gets a hold of the police bullhorn, he decides to mess around pretending to be an announcer at a ball game.
- Norm, meanwhile, just asks Frasier if he can scull a beer Frasier left on the bar.
