When Frasier and Niles reveal that they blamed an old bully of theirs for a transgression they did when they were younger, a guilt-ridden Frasier tries to reconnect with the bully, who is in jail and is going through marital problems.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Niles back injury, which is caused by him adjusting his car seat, and then later his reaction to the liniment Daphne applies.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Niles hurts his back and Daphne offers to rub it for him. Naturally he is enthused. Too bad the lineament she uses was the extra strength kind.
- Comically Missing the Point: Still afraid of their childhood bully, Niles makes Frasier agree to tell him very specifically that Niles has moved out of America in case of reprisals. Frasier informs the man Niles is "abroad", but he mistakenly takes him to say "a broad" (as in, a woman). Frasier just shrugs and doesn't bother correcting him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: John apparently beat a fellow prisoner within an inch of his life for touching his comb.
- Faux Horrific: Act 2 begins with Frasier and Niles meeting up, only to find they're wearing identical outfits. This causes them to wince in pain.
- Flat Joy: At the beginning, Roz is on the phone with her grandma ("gammy") after everyone's struck out at another award ceremony, but she lies that they won, and holds the phone out. Niles and Bulldog obligingly provide flat "yays" for her.
- From Bad to Worse: Frasier gets stuck with John's wife, who is turned on by danger, as the man's returning home, which only turns the wife on further. Frasier hides, hoping he can slip out at the earliest opportunity, but John wants to read some sappy poetry he wrote for her in the joint. Frustrated, Frasier just decides to set off the apartment's sprinklers.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: John has some serious anger issues, which is the reason the teachers so readily believed that he pulled the fire alarm.
- Irony: Frasier, in an effort to apologize to John for getting him expelled for setting off the school fire alarm, is forced to activate John's apartment building's sprinklers to escape.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Played for laughs when Niles scolds Roz for lying to her grandma. Significantly less so when Martin learns Frasier and Niles lied about what John did and got him expelled.
