Frasier deals with the loss of his job as though it were a loved one, moving through the five traditional stages: denial, anger, bargaining, grief and acceptance, each with some weird results. Original airdate, September 24, 1998
Examples:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Niles to Frasier, "You're not famous anymore!" Cue Frasier just bursting in tears.
- Berserk Button: Losing the talk show job to Gil causes Frasier to go nuts.
- Big Eater: Frasier stuffs his face with food when he falls into a depression. Going as far as to eat baby Alice's food when he's babysitting her.
- Blatant Lies: Frasier saying he put on only a pound or two, and can control his eating habits, while in "Depression". Then Roz puts on the video showing him eating baby Alice's food and drinking her apple juice.
- Brick Joke: At the start of the episode, Martin tried and fails to get Eddie to play dead when he aims a finger gun and says "It's all over". At the end, when Frasier admits his grief and how it's all over for him, Eddie successfully does the trick.
- Brutal Honesty: As Frasier still refuses to cry, Niles delivers to Frasier the harsh truth about him losing his job and not being famous anymore. As harsh as it was, it helps Frasier finally cry and accept reality.
- Ear Worm: Martin gets one of the songs from Frasier's operetta stuck in his head. He doesn't realize he's been singing it to himself until Niles points it out to him.
- Fat Suit: Kelsey Grammer wore padding under his shirt to portray Frasier's depression-induced weight gain.
- Five Stages of Grief: Basically the whole episode is about Frasier going through these. The episode ends with the implication that Niles is going through them regarding his divorce from Maris by flashing the "Denial" card after he says he thinks it's going smoothly.
- Here We Go Again!: Each segment of the episode is labeled with a different stage of grief. In the final scene, Frasier has finally accepted losing his job, and Niles is also happy, as he believes that his divorce with Maris is going smoothly...which cues the "Denial" title to reappear.
- Innocently Insensitive: While at the picnic party he's hosting, Frasier finds out that Kenny was reappointed his old job. Kenny then gifts Frasier with a poster he removed from a bus stop, mentioning an older poster of a previous broadcaster that was found underneath. When Frasier wonders what happened to said broadcaster, Kenny says that he doesn't know either, since it's so easy for people like that to be completely forgotten about the second they're no longer on the air...and then he leaves without realizing how incensed this has made Frasier.
- Lethal Chef: Gil and Kenny think so after tasting some of Frasier's cooking at the picnic party.
- Loony Fan: During the "Bargaining" stage, Frasier contacts his fan club in the hopes that they can help him make a comeback...only to be dismayed at not only the fact that it consists of only 3 obsessive people, but also that they already staged a "protest" that gets mocked on the news.
- Loophole Abuse: While discussing the "Bargaining" stage with Niles, Martin admits that he bargained with God that he'd never drink another bottle of Ballentine's if he survived his injuries. When Niles points out that he still drinks Ballentine's, Martin states that he no longer does so from bottles.
- Mama Bear: Roz when Daphne insults her baby.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Everyone in the apartment when Frasier finally cries and just won't stop crying.
- When Frasier starts unleashing his fury on a pinata, all the parents and their birthday kids in attendance immediately back away.
- Painting the Fourth Wall: This was the first episode to air after Seinfeld ended, taking its former time slot. The very first scene has Frasier looking like he's addressing the audience, but he's actually auditioning for a new job as a TV host for a show called Medical Minute.
- Rule of Three: Frasier is heard beginning to sob in the kitchen, causing Martin, Daphne, Niles and Roz to question the noise. As Frasier tells them there's a freshly prepared Monty Cristo sandwich made, he begins to sob a second time as his feelings are coming to the surface. Just as he falsely assures he is fine, Niles tells Frasier that he is not famous anymore and this makes Frasier break down crying for the third time. And not stop.
- Staging an Intervention: One occurs when Frasier is depressed from losing his job and refuses to acknowledge his feelings about it.
- Tempting Fate: Frasier's display of "Anger" occurs when he's talking with Roz at a picnic party he's hosting about how they're at least still doing better than former coworkers like Gil, only for Gil to announce his recent hiring (at a station Frasier had applied to himself). This immediately leads Frasier to obliterate a pinata with a stick and his bare hands.
