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Classic Frasier · Season 7 · Episode 24

Something Borrowed, Someone Blue — Part 2

The Reverse Psychology hosts discuss Part 2 of Frasier’s “Something Borrowed, Someone Blue” and create an awful hotel room in Hotel No.

IN THE ROOM

CurtisRyanBrad(ley)

NO COMMON DENOMINATOR

Episode ratings.

Brad(ley)B+Letter grade
Rating context
  • Generally likes the episode. He guesses that returning after a break may have lifted his reaction from a hypothetical B− to B+.
Curtis#76 of 117Ordinal ranking
Rating context
  • Finds the sitcom dated and contrived, and not especially interesting or funny. The source explicitly corrects “76 out of 17” to “76 out of 117.”
Ryan6/10Numeric score
Rating context
  • Finds mostly good scenes and plenty of positives, while saying the Daphne–Niles storyline suffers when watched backwards.

Original rating systems, exactly as represented in the archive. These scales are not interchangeable.

By way of introduction.

Curtis

Introduces himself as the host. He later says he is trading insults for accuracy in his introductions.

Original introduction wording
  • I want a journalistic integrity about what I call Brad.
Ryan

Introduced as “a man back in the Upside Down.” He welcomes the return to watching in reverse.

Original introduction wording
  • I am so much more comfortable here in my natural state of confusion.
Brad(ley)

Introduced as “a drunk wedding guest,” Bradley Kirkston. He takes it as an apt introduction.

Original introduction wording
  • I’ve been drunk at both your weddings.
Read the full performed opening

Welcome to Reverse Psychology. We are once again a Frasier rewatch podcast where we go backwards through every episode of the show. Tonight we start season 7 with episode 24, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Part 2, which originally aired on May 18th, 2000. Is this when Daphne ruins Donnie's life? We'll find out. I'm your host Curtis Shuck. Joining me is a man back in the Upside Down. It's Ryan Sansone. Curtis, it feels so good to be back. I am so much more comfortable here in my natural state of confusion. Yeah, you're very comfortable being confused. It was weird for me. Yeah, you're awkward about it, but I'm cool about it. Speaking of awkward, rounding us out is a drunk wedding guest. It's Bradley Kirkston. Thank you. I've been drunk at both your weddings, so that is perfect. Thank you for that amazing introduction. Yeah, drunk wedding guest, not an insult, right? That's just actually like my preferred guest. Curtis has stopped being able to insult people many years ago. Now everything he says just sounds like a compliment. Yeah, what is that, Kurt? I've decided this season I've been so bad at the insults that I'm foregoing the insults and just being as accurate as possible. I want a journalistic integrity about what I call Brad. That would be impressive if you are accurate but also connect to the episode like you did this time. Yeah, I don't know if that would be impressive or not. I don't really care, but I think that's a good idea. I think you should just try to be accurate because you're a natural crazy person. It'll be good.

Someone brought rules.

The games, the premises, and what everyone brought to the table.

Game / activity

Hotel No ↗

How this one works

How it works
  1. Pitch an awful hotel-room feature. The group decides whether to adopt it.
  2. For each adopted idea, its proposer chooses a minibar item.
  3. Prices stay hidden until the item is selected; the spreadsheet tracks the bill.
  4. The largest final minibar bill wins. During disputed decisions, the group states that rejection requires agreement: “Tie goes to the runner.”
Recorded activity context

Niles and Daphne find themselves in an unfortunate hotel room. Can Curtis, Ryan and Brad make an even worse one? Curtis facilitates; all three propose ideas and take part in the decisions. Pitch an awful hotel-room feature. The group decides whether to adopt it. For each adopted idea, its proposer chooses a minibar item. Prices stay hidden until the item is…

Read the full archive excerpt

Niles and Daphne find themselves in an unfortunate hotel room. Can Curtis, Ryan and Brad make an even worse one? Curtis facilitates; all three propose ideas and take part in the decisions. Pitch an awful hotel-room feature. The group decides whether to adopt it. For each adopted idea, its proposer chooses a minibar item. Prices stay hidden until the item is selected; the spreadsheet tracks the bill. The largest final minibar bill wins. During disputed decisions, the group states that rejection requires agreement: “Tie goes to the runner.”

RESULT STATUS

A winner is actually on the record.

Winner: Brad(ley)

Brad(ley)39.50minibar bill ($)
Ryan31minibar bill ($)
Curtis25minibar bill ($)

See how they answered

Within the recorded rounds · 15 recorded contributions

3 attributed voices

Follow the round structure (5)

Round 1 · Build the world’s worst hotel room

Ryan starts, followed by Brad and Curtis.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

Fresh cookies in the lobby

Rejected. I think one of the worst things you can do as a hotel is you can offer fresh cookies in the lobby. I do not almost ever need them offered to me for no reason.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A glass door with privacy beads

Adopted. I think in the worst hotel room, you know, instead of having a real door, this one only has a sliding glass door with beads coming down. Because it's a clear door. So you have to have something. So it's privacy beads. So I'll let it pass as being awful. Minibar choice. Brad chooses a miniature whiskey bottle. His bill starts at $14.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A lamp with no switch

Rejected. And I would like to suggest that the lighting in our hotel room comes from one lamp that has no on or off switch. It must be plugged and unplugged, and it is not sat next to the mattress. It's like near the desk.

Round 2 · Another turn at the worst hotel room

Curtis says “Ryan, go ahead.” Brad and Curtis follow.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

Uncontrolled temperature

Adopted. Not a broken air conditioner unit, but a poorly calibrated one, so you just can't tell what the fuck temperature you're setting it to. Yes, it changes throughout. uncontrolled temperature I'm going to let you claim, but I'm staging this as thermostats broken because that's all you've really described. Curtis says “Ryan, go ahead.” The proposal and drink…

Read the full archive excerpt

Adopted. Not a broken air conditioner unit, but a poorly calibrated one, so you just can't tell what the fuck temperature you're setting it to. Yes, it changes throughout. uncontrolled temperature I'm going to let you claim, but I'm staging this as thermostats broken because that's all you've really described. Curtis says “Ryan, go ahead.” The proposal and drink choice belong to Ryan. Minibar choice. Ryan chooses the drink transcribed as “orange Gina” (Orangina in the earlier discussion). The announced amount is $13.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

Sheets full of holes

Rejected. You think it's polka dot, but it turns out there's just little holes in the sheets throughout all the sheets. I'm not saying it's a good, but if we're talking like the worst hotel room ever, like, if you're rejecting my lamp, I'm rejecting this.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A saloon-style bathroom door

Adopted. You know how in old-timey westerns, they go into the bar and they got that swinging door? That's your bathroom door. And there's no fan, no, like, noisy fan to turn on in the bathroom. If you're with some other person, right? That's the big, that's the asterisk to this one, which I think is fair to assume you are. Tie goes to the runner. Minibar choice. Curtis chooses a champagne split for $25. A later explanation describes a split as a 187 ml bottle; that explanatory speaker is unidentified.

Round 3 · “All right, what you got, Ryan?”

Ryan, Brad and Curtis make another set of proposals.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

An overenthusiastic hotel worker

Adopted. An enthusiastic hotel worker who wants to check up on you frequently and offer you tours and make sure there's nothing you need. Comes to your sliding glass door all the time, repeatedly. Minibar choice. Ryan chooses a miniature bottle of expensive red wine. His cumulative bill reaches $31. The $35 remark is a joke. No unit price is inferred.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

Baths only—no working shower

Adopted. You know, you go into the bathroom, and only the tub works, but not the shower. So for you to do anything, you have to use the tub. I think you have to agree to reject it for it to be rejected. Minibar choice. Brad chooses white wine, bringing his cumulative bill to $32. No separate item price is supplied.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A view into another hotel room

Rejected. Well, we also have one on the other side because there will be a window that faces another facade of the building of the hotel. And you will just have a straight shot at another hotel room's window. That's all you've got for a view. You'll notice I didn't mention a curtain.

Round 4 · Food only

The group agrees to forego alcohol and choose food-only rewards.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A poolside buffet left sitting out

Rejected. If you were at a place that offered pool snacks, like maybe a poolside quesadilla. It's like a poolside buffet. It's just sitting there. It's just sitting out. The proposal’s recorded outcome remains rejection. Brad says he does not like the buffet idea; this is not a final answer or award decision.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

An intermittent, untraceable chirp

Adopted. So you're in the room and there's a chirping noise, but you can't figure out where the chirping noise comes from and it goes off like every five to seven minutes. It's not a fire alarm and you can't figure out what it is. Brad makes an annoying chirping noise and performs it a second time after the repeat request. Precise acoustic boundaries are not asserted. Minibar choice. Brad chooses mixed nuts. His bill reaches $39.50; a following remark mentions $7.50.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

Scalding and freezing taps

Rejected. I think there are his and hers sinks in the bathroom, which sounds nice, except for one of the faucets is scalding hot water and the other is frostbite cold. There's no mixing the two faucets into one warm temperature.

Round 5 · Pop

The conditional pop phase becomes an enacted round after food. No proposal in this round is adopted.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A blinking smoke-alarm light

Rejected. Whenever you get the smoke alarm that is doing the green blinky light right over your head for some reason. It blinks like every 13 seconds, so you can't even quite get the rhythm right. It's bright enough that you see it through your closed eyelids somehow. Ryan attempts to claim an award, but the later group response rejects the proposal.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

The bellhop loses your luggage

Rejected. So mine is, yeah, you check into your hotel, and you put your luggage at the bellhop, and then you get to your room, and you're waiting for them to bring your stuff, and they've lost your luggage. So you don't have your luggage for the whole rest of the trip. It wouldn't necessarily be everyone's room, but it happens a lot more often than it should. Yeah, this is objectively horrible, but I'm worried it's disqualified. It's not really counting for what we're doing here.

WHAT THEY BROUGHT

A television with only religious channels

Rejected. There is a television in the room. A nice one. A 65 inch. All it gets are religious channels. But nowadays, you can just watch things on your iPad or your computer. In fact, I welcome it.

View source wording — how it was explained on the show
  • The title gets two encores; the performer is not locally identified. The second delivery is preferred, though all three are praised.
  • Final hotel: Your hotel room has a glass door with a beaded curtain. When you get through and run to the bathroom, you will find a swinging door and no noisy fan to distract. When you get chilly or warm, you go to the controls on the temperature and they don't really help you. They just make it whatever temperature they want. There is an overly enthusiastic concierge constantly knocking on your door and trying to give you more information. There is no opportunity to take a shower. You are bath only. And when you try to go to bed, you will hear a chirping noise that will never be found and never stop.
  • Brad wins with $39.50; Ryan has $31 and Curtis $25. Missing individual item prices are not inferred. The group wonders whether its room is worse than the one on the show.

Elsewhere in the conversation.

More of the recorded conversation, kept in the speakers’ words.

Read the preserved conversation excerpts (4)

Episode conversation.

Drinks and minibar stories

The opening moves from Orangina and Orbits to personal experiences with hotel minibars. The anecdote remains separate from the later game.

    Episode conversation.

    Daphne, Niles, and the closing scene

    The hosts recap and discuss the episode, then pause ratings to cover the scrambled-egg closing-credits scene.

      Episode conversation.

      A sleep callback

      A brief return to sleep habits interrupts the lost-luggage discussion before the group resumes judging the proposal.

        Episode conversation.

        After the sign-off

        The hosts help Brad find a link, choose “Bradley K.” and join. The last spoken instruction is “Hit the one that makes the most sense.” Only laughter follows; joining is not confirmed.

          Previously, next week.

          Predictions as made on the podcast—not claims about what actually happens.

          Looking ahead

          Ryan looks back to Part 1

          Ryan is asked what to expect from Season 7, Episode 23. He jokes: “Fraser's best friend Greg dies and we have to move on quickly because there's, like, a lot of weddings that have to happen.” He also says: “He was in the first seven seasons until this episode.” This is playful speculation, not a factual episode claim.

          Listen to Part 1

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