When Frasier and Niles attempt to return a birdcage to a mall, they attempt to leave immediately when Frasier discovers he's going to run late for work, but he ends up in a spat with the gate guard George on account of paying entry to the mall even though Frasier decides not to park.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Zig-Zagged. Frasier does manage to leave the mall without paying and destroys public property via the gate bar at the mall, though he's most likely going to face embarrassment when he exacerbates a sex story about himself and Roz when she inadvertently clues in the listeners about it.
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Broken Aesop: The episode teaches a lesson about being the bigger person and end a petty dispute, but just as Frasier decides to give up and pay George, the latter raises the price from $2.00 to $4.00 since Frasier prolongs giving up the $2.00 by giving George a "Reason You Suck" Speech, which goes over the 20 minute mark. Frasier, deciding to just throw what he learns out the window, drives through the gate bar without paying and destroying it. - Character Filibuster: Frasier does this as part of his protest. He spends over an hour refusing to move his car and lecturing George and the other drivers about why he's doing it. Niles eventually calls him out on his need to explain to others why he's right, which finally gets through to Frasier and convinces him to back down.
- Double Meaning: Martin talks about Eddie's probably acting out because he's having a hard time adjusting to her moving out after she's been so present in his life. As he's talking, Daphne realises that Eddie was just upset because she'd accidentally packed one of his tennis balls, so Martin is actually talking about how he is going to miss her.
- Internal Reveal: Roz accidentally blabs to all of KACL's listeners that she and Frasier slept together.
- It's the Principle of the Thing: Frasier takes this to epic levels in the episode. When George charges them $2.00 for the one minute they were in there (The fee is $2.00 for every fraction of 20 minutes). Frasier adamantly refuses to pay, refuses to let Niles pay for him, and even refuses to let George himself pay. Somehow Frasier believed that he was "standing up" against this "injustice", when obviously he was being petulant and downright rude. Finally Frasier relents and agrees to pay the $2.00, whereupon the attendant tells him that the fee is now $4.00 because he stayed over a half hour protesting. Frasier floors the gas and charges through the gate bar.
- Never My Fault: This line from Frasier regarding him holding up the line to avoid 'unjustly' paying George.Frasier: You know, we wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for you and that ridiculous birdcage.note
- Shout-Out: Frasier's plot is basically one big reference to a scene in the movie Fargo when Steve Buscemi's character Carl Showalter decides not to park in a parking lot but is forced to pay the entry fee anyway, though not without giving the gate guard in the movie a "Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Though offscreen, Martin more-or-less becomes a catalyst in the episode's conflict by messing around with the buttons on Frasier's car when trying to find his radio station which end up making the clock on Frasier's car wrong.
- Special Guest: Luis Guzman as George the Gate Guard.
- The Tag: Niles appears to George at the mall and pays for both the entry fee and the broken gate bar.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Frasier, when he soon decides to give in and just pay the $2.00 to George, gives George a long-winded speech about how his 'nefarious' policy commits 'high-way robbery'. However, when he ends the speech, George raises the price to $4.00 since Frasier's speech caused him to go past the 20-minute mark.
