Title: Rebound, Part 2
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Glen Charles and Les Charles
Air Date: October 4, 1984
Previous: Rebound, Part 1
Next: I Call Your Name
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer
"Rebound, Part 2" is the second episode of the third season of Cheers.
Ten days have passed since Diane came back to the bar, Dr. Frasier Crane in tow, in "Rebound, Part 1". Sam has gone without alcohol and is going to AA meetings as well as going through therapy with Frasier. After Sam has a breakthrough, Frasier ends their sessions, telling Sam that he's confident that Sam will not backslide into drinking.
Diane comes back to the bar to tell Sam that she's finally over him—only for him to say the same thing. They act like they're indifferent to each other but the Belligerent Sexual Tension is still palpable. The episode ends with Coach successfully manipulating Sam, Diane, and Frasier into all agreeing that Diane should come back to Cheers.
In the B-plot, Cliff is still boring people about his trip to Florida.
Tropes:
- The Chessmaster: Coach, of all people. He convinces Diane to stay by telling her that if she leaves Sam will go back to drinking. He then convinces Sam to hire Diane back by telling him that if Diane leaves, she'll go right back to the nut house. Then he convinces Frasier to sign off on this by telling him that if Diane leaves the bar, Diane and Sam won't be able to stop thinking about each other.
- Continuity Nod: One episode and ten In-Universe days after the previous episode, and Cliff is still blathering on about his trip to Florida.
- How Did That Get in There?: Cliff pretends to not know why the Previously on… intro is illustrated with slides of his trip to Florida.
- Hypocritical Humor: Frasier says that Sam can call him any time, and is right in the middle of saying how all his old patients are welcome to do so when his beeper beeps. He looks at the number and snarls "I'll bet this is important!", before stalking off angrily to the pay phone.
- Meet Cute: A relatively uncommon use of this with a Romantic False Lead, as Diane and Frasier are shown to have met when he broke up a fight between her and another patient at the sanitarium.
- Multi-Part Episode: Second of the two-part Series 3 opener that introduces Frasier.
- Perfumigation: Upon seeing Sam again, Diane asks if he's using a new cologne. He says no, it's a roach bomb.
- Previously on…: Cliff delivers the "Previously On", recapping the events of the Season 3 premiere—but not with clips from the show. Instead we see slides of Cliff's vacation to Florida.
- Self-Serving Memory: Diane recounts meeting Frasier for the first time, saying that she was enjoying a pleasant game of croquet with another patient at the sanitarium when Frasier stopped to give her tips on her swing. While she's telling this story the scene shows what really happened: Diane got into a fight with that other patient over croquet, and Frasier grabbed Diane right before Diane was going to bring that croquet mallet right down on the other patient's skull. (And just to make it sillier, the other patient was an old lady.) It becomes a Brick Joke when a private eye Carla had to find out what happened to her is nervous that she's out of the sanitarium already.
- The Shrink: Dr. Frasier Crane himself, trying to help Sam straighten out his life.
- Speak in Unison: Sam and Diane do this for an entire scene, starting with both saying "I'm over you" together, then both saying "You're over me?", then "But you don't think—", then both dissolving in laughter and both saying "We keep doing it!"
