Recap / The Golden Girls S 04 E 12 The Impotence Of Being Ernest

"The Impotence Of Being Ernest" is an episode in the fourth season of The Golden Girls.

Rose tries to do something about her boyfriend's sexual dysfunction. Meanwhile, Sophia becomes listless after receiving a feather in a letter from Sicily.

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Tropes:

• Analogy Backfire: Zigzagged. Rose claims not to know how to be romantically aggressive, so Blanche tells her that "it's as easy as riding a bicycle". When Rose responds by saying she's never learned how to ride a bicycle, Dorothy says "it's as easy as falling off a bicycle", which finally gives Rose the confidence boost as intended.
  Dorothy: Just a hunch.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
  • When Sophia receives a feather in a letter from her cousin in Sicily, she claims it's no big deal, but Dorothy isn't convinced:
    Dorothy: A feather. That's a message of some kind, isn't it?
    Sophia: What are you babbling about?
    Dorothy: Don't play dumb with me, Ma. Everything from Sicily means something. A black rose means "a family member is dying". A white carnation means "a newborn is on the way". A dead rabbit means "my husband knows; get out of town".
  • Rose's reveal of Ernie's impotence to Dorothy and Blanche is presented this way:
    Rose: First, he said I was a very attractive woman...
    Dorothy and Blanche: *enthused* Yeah?
    Rose: And I was fun to be with...
    Dorothy and Blanche: *still enthused* Yeah?
    Rose: Then he said he was impotent.
    Dorothy and Blanche: *grossed out* EW!
• Check, Please!: Rose calls out for the waitstaff to bring out the check when Ernie tells her during dinner time at a restaurant that he's ready for sex.
• Dead Animal Warning: According to Dorothy, who learns of the Sicilian message coding system from Sophia, a dead rabbit is code of warning that the sender's husband has realized his wife has had extramarital affair and that it's time for the recipient to skip town for dear life.
• Exact Words: Played for Laughs. After Ernie proposes to take Rose away for a romantic night to make up for postponing their date without Rose having to make the suggestion first before leaving, Blanche and Dorothy congratulate Rose for the plan panning out. Rose accuses them of eavesdropping, and they promise her they never did that... right before Sophia claims that they made her do it.
• Joke and Receive: Blanche, upon learning that Rose has a date while she is dateless herself, claims that there must be something wrong with Rose's date at first and then says that he must have been lousy in bed. Blanche turns out to be right about Rose's date later on in the episode, when Rose tells her and Dorothy that her date is impotent.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode's title references the play The Importance of Being Earnest.