Deathtrap

Title: 20 questions Segment type: roleplay deduction game Activity premise: The three of us are cops. We have captured Ethan for a crime. We do not know what crime he committed. Activity request: And we've got 20 opportunities to find out what it is. Rules: If we don't land close enough on the crime after 20 questions, he walks free. You're anti-cop, but you're telling the truth. Keep it to yes or no, please. Correct answer: Bruce the shark Final adjudication: But somehow we did it. Result qualification: Identity is accepted as the solution to the crime-deduction task.

Welcome to Reverse Psychology, the Fraser Rewatch podcast, where we go backwards through every episode of the show. Tonight, we are covering Season 9, Episode 19, Death Trap, which originally aired on April 2nd, 2002. Is this an episode to be or not to be? We'll find out. I'm your host, Curtis Sheck, sounding as healthy as always. And joining me, it's our resident Upside Downer, it's Ryan Sansone. Curtis, I am so excited to be here. And genuinely, you sound great. You sound much better than usual with that intro. I don't know what it is. Don't change a thing. Yeah, I've got some gravitas with this cold. You sound a little Shatner-y with your intro, so just do the Shatner voice the whole time. I mean, well, we'll get into that in a minute. Also with us today is our Crane Boys mystery. It's Bradley Kirkston. Thank you, Curtis. And thank you for that intro that had about 75 different pop culture references that you tried to pull all into one. So I appreciate it. It's going to be a great episode. You're going to just reference this actual episode? I didn't follow any of that, yeah. He chose the weirdest, smallest things and made them a bigger deal, so I appreciate that one. Sure. It's going to be great. Okay. Well, we also happen to have a special guest joining us tonight. It's my brother, Ethan Sheck. Oh, hey. I'm feeling very special. Why is that? You sound like you feel special. Why are you feeling so special, Ethan? We feel the enthusiasm. Did we put a gun to your head? Are you here under duress? Is this like fourth or fifth episode? I don't even know. At least four. It feels more special each time in fact. Oh, okay. Great. That's good. You're the only person who said that. For the audience listening at home, this is not the same brother that was on two episodes ago. This is a different brother. We've laid out the Sheck family tree, I think, pretty well. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I know that mom's been on here and Kenny's been on here. The mother of pot, that's right. We're getting Megan on here at some point. I know Anna's been on here. I don't think she gives any two shits about Frasier. So will she be on the show? I mean, that's a fun time. Yeah, she's a perfect candidate. I like some of the guests we've had that had no Frasier experience. It's fun to hear their takes, like in the middle of a season. That's true. Brian, you mentioned my Shatnering this episode. Yes, I did. And I always will if it is relevant. When I was in high school, I had an English class where we were forced to, that sounded more, uh, we were forced to. Finish the sentence before we judge you. Memorize a poem. Ew, that is upsetting. Yeah. Cruel and unusual punishment if I've ever heard of one. Everybody had to perform the poem. So everybody would have to get in front of the class and recite a poem. Is that just performing or was there like a dance element too that you had to do? Well, most people just sort of read it monotone or I guess they weren't reading it. They were like reciting it monotone. But I could, you know my memory, you know how bad I am at remembering things. I couldn't memorize this stupid poem. It was not possible. What I could do is memorize it if I kind of put on a Shatner voice. Something about the cadence of the poem felt like something Shatner would say. So I started doing the cadence of Shatner while memorizing this thing and went to the teacher kind of expecting her to be like, take this seriously. Like, no, you can't do a Captain Kirk voice for your, for your poem. But I said to her, I go, can I, can I read this in that kind of Shatner way? Like do an impression of William Shatner. Oh, you asked? Never asked. That's a little disappointing. I was kind of expecting her to, to be like, no. And like force me to like, take this seriously. And, and somehow that would get me to memorize it without this voice. But she was, and nobody's ever been more on board with one of my ideas. She loved this idea. I was going to ask Ethan, like, did you know your brother was a legend? And it turns out he's not. He asked her mission. It's so disappointing. Is this when you decided you wanted to be an English major because of this class? It didn't hurt. I'll tell you that. Like it was one of those wild moments where I think just because it was weird and different, the very thing acknowledging the existence of William Shatner that should have gotten me beat up seemed to go over really well with the class. Curtis went from class clown to class crown. Okay. Knock it off, Brad. What, uh, what age, what age were you? What, what year was this? This would have been, I think ninth grade, 14, 14. I think what you're missing is most people aren't as nerdy as you. And in ninth grade, most of us didn't know William Shatner. Yeah. I don't know how many people in that class understood what I was doing. They probably just thought you were getting weird because that's what I would have thought. Do you have any communication with any of them and could they join the pod so we can get their thoughts on it? The only person I went to high school with that I have any connection with as my sister-in-law and I'm pretty sure she was not in that class. Well, you just booked her for the pod. So that's perfect. Exactly. Is that the whole thing? That's your whole intro? You don't want to talk about how we broke into a house once? We can do that. We can, we can, we can make it relevant to the episode. Sure. I just wanted to share that because he brought up William Shatner and me down here. I think one of the two of you have to tell the story since I was not there. Yeah. Curt has to tell it. He does a better job, even though he sounds like shit right now. He does do a good job of telling it. So this episode of Frasier. Sorry, wait, before you tell the story, Ethan, did you know your brother's a legend and here's a real reason? Well, I was thinking about his butter protests. You know what? Pause the story, Curt. I would like to hear about the butter protests, please. Because I mean, the butter protests. Should we hear from Ethan's perspective on this before? Yeah, Ethan, what is the butter protest? Because Curt has probably asked for permission, whatever the fuck it is. Here's what I recall of it, which is I think it was high school at this point. I don't think I was there with you because I think I was. Yeah, we never overlapped in high school. Yeah. So I was in middle school. You were in high school. But I remember the way you told it was basically. He heard tell that it got down to the middle school. I heard legendary tale, probably from directly from him, that they had taken away the butter for people to butter their bread. Were you in medieval France? What are you talking about? They took away the butter. And I think it's probably prank related or something. Well, I can give some context for why. So they didn't have butter every day. It was not that common that we had butter, but sometimes they would serve like bread. What is the story? And so they would have little packets of butter that you could spread butter on the bread. Yeah, like in the gold wrappers from like Italian restaurants back in the 90s. Sure. I'm assuming you went to a school where people bought lunch. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I did not. This one time a group of girls or a girl, we don't know. Somebody went to the girl's bathroom and smeared the butter on like the mirrors. That's the worst prank ever. That's really dumb. I don't get it at all. There's no reward for that prank. It might have just been someone bored and frustrated. Like this is how. Oh, do you think she was just having a bad day? I think so. I mean, like, I don't know. What kind of prank is that? I'm so mad. I buttered the mirror. So after that incident, because they didn't catch anybody. They didn't catch anyone. In the butter scandal. Buttergate 2004 or whatever year it was. They basically had come forward or we're not going to serve butter anymore. So nobody cared until like a few weeks later when they finally had like a reason you would want butter. They had served bread again and there was no butter to spread on your bread. Stupidest. It's a bunch of eyes full up, nigga. I am so glad we got this story. Thank you. This isn't the story. This was the setup. Sorry, that was the setup. Because then reportedly Bert went to, I don't know if it was a vice principal or the principal's office. And basically. It was the principal. It was the principal's office. Okay. Then. And you showed up with a slice of bread and you asked her what was missing. Basically, you just were like, there's something missing from this bread to her directly. Oh my God. It's the most curtest thing ever. I like that there's an element of you're really following like the admin properly. You're going to the right people and then just being a psychopath. Before that happened, we were sitting at lunch with me and a group of folks. I was going to say friends, but I changed it to folks for some reason. I don't know why. Me and strangers were sitting at a table. I assume a good representation of your friend group in high school. So we're sitting around and we're all bitching about the lack of, we all think it's ridiculous. We all can't believe we don't have any butter. We're all like annoyed and I'm riling them up. I'm like, this is absolutely insane. And you're using your Shatner voice, I assume. I'm Shatnering. And I seem to have convinced them all that we all need to go as a group and like confront the principal. But as soon as I stand up to like actually go do it, everybody got timid. Everybody's like, oh, we're not actually going to confront authority. Like we're children. So I went, I think by myself. Did you march like just by yourself? I probably did. Knowing me, yes. I actually don't remember bringing the bread and confronting her with a question. What's missing? But I do remember saying even prisoners get butter with their bread. Oh God. There's no way that you weren't holding a piece of bread while shouting this at the principal. Did it work? I'll say next time they offered bread, there was butter to be had. Oh, so good job, Curtis. Yeah. It was a successful mission. The optics of a kid shaking bread at the principal. It's not very good. They can't have that two, what, two weeks in a row? I don't know how frequent was it? I really told me it was even as frequently as every week. I don't know how often it was, but it was not that common. You know what? Props to you, Curt. That actually was pretty cool. Thank you. Too bad we don't have time to tell our break in the story. I guess we'll have to do that later. Yeah. Stay tuned, folks. Eventually it will come out. It's probably our best story and you're not going to hear it until you keep listening. It's insane that it hasn't come out already. It used to be every third conversation we would bring it up because we were so proud of it. Well, we've got two more folks who feel strongly about justice. Frazier and Niles. Should we talk about what they did this week? Let's do it. Try that again with enthusiasm. We've got two more folks, Frazier and Niles, who also believe in justice. Should we hear what they have to say? Yeah. Hell yeah, Dr. Phil. I like the Southern twang you have going today. It's going to be great. That's just my cold. He actually had some enthusiasm about us just to do that the whole time. We open with a shooting star over Seattle. We got a title card. Bryce Academy, 1964, about 3 p.m. A young Frazier and Niles steal a theater skull for their production of Hamlet and crack the skull in the process. So I read the title card this time and I'm glad I did. It's just intel for the upside down. I thought this was interesting because it's very rare that you get a title card on Frazier that sort of mimics the style of an It's Always Sunny title card. That was my exact thought. Yeah. It didn't have the It's Always Sunny payoff, if that helps. Ryan, what were your thoughts of watching two children essentially act like Frazier and Niles? They did a great job. I'll tell you what, those kids were spot on. Definitely had the dynamic. Like they even did the You Cracked My Skull line, but didn't hang on it, which I thought was really good. Have we up to this point seen any flashbacks? Have we had any flashbacks like that previously? There was a whole episode about flashbacks when Niles was going into surgery. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. And I don't think we had those two kids, but they were probably slightly older in this one than that flashback. Yeah. I think they were slightly older. I agree. I was thinking that too. I said they were probably eight and 10. So I think this would put him at like, this would put Frazier in like the 45 to 55 range. I'm guessing he's 50 at the end of the show. Are you doing math right now? No, I already did it. I said, so 1964, he was probably 10-ish. And the show was what, 40 years later, right? Yeah. I do think in real life, he, Kelsey Grammer is like oddly old. I don't know. You said that. He looks old. He's 69. I thought he was older. He looks older now. And he looked older then. Yeah. Fair enough. Frazier tests the limits of the barista. Niles and Frazier consider buying their old childhood home. And Roz was up all night with Alice's noisy new hamster. So this barista is like the seventh character of the show, right? He's now spanned, I think, all three seasons we've seen him. That's true. He's had to be in at least 20 episodes of the ones we've seen. And that actually seems a little low. But this has got to be his last one, right? Right? Because their whole thing is about this new barista is like really good. They didn't say new, did they? I don't think they said new. They just thought he's amazing. Did he just suddenly become good? Or like, let's apply this new trait to him that he's a good barista? Yeah, I guess you're right. It would be weird to do that nine seasons and that would be pretty bananas. I'll put money down. I don't think we're ever going to see him again. All right. I didn't have that. I have him go on at least two more seasons as our seventh man. I didn't think the order he threw at him was all that crazy. Yes, may I get a double latte, please. One shot of decaf espresso, one shot of regular espresso, some steamed low-fat milk, and some non-fat foam. You go to Starbucks, like, you'll hear anyone do that now. No, Ryan, you're right. In today's world, I don't necessarily think in 2002 it was so common to have such a complex order. I think that was the, like, if we were watching it back then, we would think it was crazy. But I get what you're saying now. It didn't seem that unique nowadays. That was Fraser trying to trip him up. I feel like, obviously, in the Upside Down, it's hard for you to relate to this, but I think even early season, we have Niles making very specific orders that were probably, you know, more complex than that one. So I would agree with that. I mean, the order he said as, like, he tested him last week was, I don't know what that was. It sounded very exotic. A chai spice ristretto americano con panna. The chai spice ristretto americano con panna. I marked it down. I'll be honest, I didn't even really blink at the order because it didn't strike me until we find out a minute later that he's testing him. It just sounded to me like Fraser being pretentious. I didn't really think it was a test. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought, too. Ethan, did you look up what that drink was? I'm assuming, you know, chai spice, like a chai latte. Oh, I thought you said chai spice. Three spices. Pick your own. So which three? A ristretto apparently is like basically like an espresso, like a concentrate type of thing. I don't know much about it. And then con panna is like with cream. So it's honestly not that incredibly complicated. It's just like if you put it into Fraser Translate, it's like, oh, there's fancy words in it. Does that exist? Can we go to www.frasertranslate.com? If not, we should make one. Pretentious thesaurus. I love that. It's the exact opposite of Urban Dictionary. Right. So this scene, we actually had a real interaction with Roz for the first time in a couple episodes now. We have a real Roz storyline. Yeah, she comes in yawning. She comes in yawning because she was up all night due to a hamster. The hamster bit is interesting. Did any of you have a hamster growing up? I did not. No. And I don't know the difference between a hamster and a gerbil and a guinea pig. I can tell you the difference between a hamster and a gerbil. I had a hamster, Ethan, and a gerbil. Yeah. Kenny had a hamster as well. And so I was like, well, I need to do that. I need to do the same thing as my older brothers, but I need to be a little different. So I will go gerbil. I just assumed your parents loved you more and that was like the better one. No, I wouldn't say necessarily better. Hamsters are probably cuter, rounder. Do you still have the hamster, Curtis? Did it go to hamster heaven? It went very much to hamster heaven. I don't know how long they were supposed to live, but I don't think 30 years is the hamster. But that gerbil is still ticking. I actually have a horrible story to go with that. Yes, please. So one day I woke up and found, I had two gerbils and one of them had passed away. Oh, I thought you were going to say one-eighth other. I really thought that's what you were going to say. So I put the dead gerbil into an empty Boy Scout popcorn tin with the intent of going outside and finding a place to bury it. I would hope. People are like, I'm going to keep this for a while. This will be fun. As soon as I step out of my bedroom, Curt is there and I think he's maybe talking with Kenny. I don't know what the deal is. But he is completely oblivious to what was going on in my world. Then he looks at me and he slaps the top of the popcorn tin and says, what is that? Curt, no. I had composure until that moment and then I was like, my dead gerbil. And Curt is completely guilt-stricken. He's like, well, now I have to go help him bury his gerbil. Which I was going to do it in solitude. Oh my God, I completely forgot. I block that out of my memory. You're a man who talks back to authority. Of course, your little brother having a problem doesn't matter. Yeah, that happened. There is no embellishment in that story. That is a horrific story. Thank you for telling us, Ethan. Is that the end of the story? Pretty basic. Then he yelled me bury it because he felt bad. He doesn't have any skills. I imagine he botched that in some way and then yelled at you. So here's my question for the two of you that have actually owned these animals. Are they really that loud at night? Like, are they really going to keep you up at night? I mean, the wheel can be annoying. I think they are sort of nocturnal. So I think they are more active at night. And if you have a squeaky wheel, that can make an annoying noise. Did yours keep you up at night, Curtis? No. I mean, how hard does it take care of a squeaky wheel? Why don't you get it to quiet a wheel? Or oil the squeak. Or take the wheel out at night. Or put the cage in another room. Yeah, a little vegetable air there. What were your guys' thoughts at the end of the scene when they were arguing about rats? You mean just Daphne going off? Yeah, Daphne going off about the rats. When I was raising show rats, my most prized one was an Andalusian Blue named Lady Prissy. That was amazing. Like, this is the only real character bit we've gotten from Daphne, like, at all. And it's such a funny thing to have. I googled Andalusian Blue, and it is an actual, like, breed of rat. Oh, that's actually kind of cool. Didn't Andalusian come up before? Wasn't that, like, a mountain goat or something? Yeah, I think so. Like, something like that. Yeah. I think it was an episode I was on. Yeah, I remember you saying the word Andalusian. The Diego sweater made from the chin hairs of Andalusian mountain goat, which apparently that's an area in southern Spain. And I looked up those types of mountain goats, and it doesn't seem to be a particular actual type of mountain goat. I think it's just implying mountain goat that may be from there. It's not like a specific genus or whatever. Are you going to join us for all the Andalusian stuff? Every time they make an And-illusion, I'll fill up. Hey! This is Curt's version of Star Trek. I think that it is, out of nowhere, very strange. It doesn't quite make sense. Like, what we know of Daphne, it's not like it's wrong for her character, but it's like, why is that part of her character? But it is so weird that it's delightful to me. This doesn't give anything away. They do call back to it in a future scene in this episode, which makes me happy. She plays it very well. I love how defensive she got about it. I'll sit here and listen to you prattle on about wine and opera, but when it comes to rats, you're in my house. I wish it came up more in future episodes. I think it's such a funny character bit. We'll have to look out in the Upside Down, like when we see her interacting with people. Will it be about late performance? Will she have references that seem somehow related to rats? Will there be any foreshadowing that they did? There's been no evidence in the reverse, so. I can't imagine. I'm excited to look out for it, though. Why didn't they buy Daphne's mom a house? That seems like a very good idea, because it solved most of season 10's problems. And the end of this season. I mean, we can get into it later, but why didn't they buy this house? Because. Well, I assume because they got arrested. Well, yeah. At their old house, Marty is still mad about the security deposit. Niles and Frasier reminisce and ask to rip up the floorboards to uncover a long lost memory box. Mr. Laskov isn't having any of it. It was nice to see the Habitat for Humanity set. Okay. We were curious. Like, I wasn't sure if the outside corner was also there, but like, it seemed likely that it was the same. It felt very familiar. Like, the inside house was a little different, but not even a ton. Yeah, I didn't think about it, but you're right. Did you guys recognize Al Landon Jr. as Mr. Laskov? I noticed he was old. He was old. I recognized him, but I wasn't sure what from. And so when I looked it up, he was Ted's dad in Bill and Ted. No way! Oh! He was also in some other stuff. And the other thing that I was like, oh my gosh, he's that guy. I didn't play this game, but if you're aware of the game L.A. Noire? I did not. Those two idiots don't play games. I didn't play it, but it looked awesome. Ryan, you make it seem like you're such a big video game. You play two games. Okay, but I play them a lot. In the game, he like, played a character like who's motion captured or something. Like, they based it on his face. Apparently, there's a part of the game where you kind of have to read people and decide if they're lying. And it became kind of a meme, like this image of that guy making this almost like sad Joe Biden face where he's just like... He's got a kind of Biden-y look to him, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he's just like... A little bit. And he's contorting his face so much that like, this character must obviously must be lying. Like, it couldn't be hard to figure it out. Yeah. So, I noticed that right away. I was like, oh, that guy, he has a very familiar face. Apparently, he was in a racer head as well. So, just shout outs to Al Landon Jr. Big props to Al Landon. Way to go, Land. Woohoo! Martin is complaining about never getting a security deposit back after being a perfect tenant for 10 years. But Niles says something very offhand, which Marty kind of reacts to, but doesn't have time to interrogate. He goes... Once we turn this place into a B&B, you'll make it all back in tips. What the hell is that supposed to be? I liked that one. Fraser, I think, kind of chuckled a little bit. I liked the didn't get my security deposit back runner. I thought that fit well for Marty. I mean, it made you feel good when you heard that. You were like, finally, someone else is on my side. What? Like, that he didn't get his security deposit back. Like, someone else screwed him over. I am sure he did something stupid, and that's why they didn't get it back. I was expecting, Ryan, for you to sort of... This would be another thing on the pile of hating Marty, because you kind of live under a philosophy of security deposits do not ever come back. And so, the idea that he is upset about it must annoy you. I think it's a funny thing for him to hang on to for however long it's been. I think they may have laid it out, but I missed it. I think it's a very funny thing to him just be very mad about, you know, 20, 30 years later, whatever. No, 40 years later. Sorry. I guess I do know when they lived here. Yeah. Yeah. Good work. 40 years. I'm confused. I don't know if they've covered this. So, they lived in Seattle and then moved to Boston? Or Frasier moved to Boston? Frasier moved to Boston, I think, for school, right? Harvard, yeah. Oh, so Marty was always here. Marty has never left, yeah. What did he do when he was old and decrepit and Frasier was hanging out at a bar in Boston? You got nine more seasons, right? These are his old and decrepit years. What do you mean? He's been old and decrepit for a long time. They covered that. They've covered that many times over. He's been useless for at least 25, 30. When have they covered that? What are you talking about? What? 25, 30? Throughout the last three seasons, they've really built up how terrible he is at everything. Including, what was it, like three episodes ago? They're like, he doesn't even know what tools are. You know he destroyed this house. What does that have to do with him being decrepit for 20 or 30 years? Well, there's this other stuff that has happened that's led me to believe this. Well, all right. I don't know what to do with any of that. Nope. So, what do you guys think the Crane Boys mysteries are really about? You think they're like real mysteries? I'm surprised no one's created like their own version of them. I did see online, there were some posts people had made where they made like Party Boys style covers for Crane Boys mysteries. Make it into that more in the later scene. I think we'll just vaguely mention it here, right? They do mention it, and that's when they talk about how they snuck off to check on girls, a.k.a. foreign films. Did Frasier say that Niles had a shawl-colored sweater? I think it was the thing I heard. Is shawl a color? I don't know. I don't know what you're referring to. Something he says. I think he said a shawl-colored, like the collar. Is that a collar? Yeah, like a spread-open collar. That's how I took it as. I thought a shawl was like a scarf, basically. Well, that would make sense to me. It definitely wouldn't make sense if it was a collar. I'm looking at all the pictures that came up. Yeah. Shawl collar. Shawl collar. We're saying that's a thing? Collar. Yes. I'm looking it up. Do it. That's disgusting. Yeah, it looks very Niles. This sweater is my nightmare. I'm melting looking at it. Well, that's really good for a podcast to talk about an image that is driving your face. It's just thick. It's just like a really thick collar. And it basically has a built-in scarf. Look up a shawl collar, like a tuxedo with a shawl collar, to be like very European feeling. Oh my God. First result, if you Google shawl collar. $9,000 doll collared shearling jacket. What the hell? So as exciting as that is, going back to the scene. It is exciting. Were any of you surprised that this guy's moving to the Cayman Islands? No. I didn't think anything of that. I thought that might come up again. It really was not that interesting. I really thought this guy was going to move to like Montana. But you're right. You would think it would come up again. And it was just a throwaway joke. I do appreciate the attempt at sort of small talk that Marty does and just being shut down at every turn. The best being asking if he's planning to do any scuba diving. And he's like, I'm lucky I don't need a tank to breathe on land. I think they do the Cayman Island bit to throw in like the air of intrigue, right? Around the murder. And that's more about making an escape, getting out of the country type of thing. Yeah, but they never like feed into it. So it is just this weird throw-in they have. But it does. Curtis is right. It has one good joke in there. Yeah, but you don't have to do the Cayman Islands for that. You could just go to Florida. Do they have good scuba diving in Florida? Is Florida known for scuba diving? I assume. I don't know. I don't know if that's true. Is Cayman Islands? He was asked. The Cayman Islands are known for scuba diving. Shut up. Ryan, you asked if the Cayman Islands are known for scuba diving. The answer is I don't know. But the episode tells us that it is. And I don't know enough about the Cayman Islands to question it. Whereas if they said Florida, I'd be like, really? No. They're known for Florida men. Yeah. They barely have water in Florida. We get another title card. If these floors could talk. Niles and Frasier break in to recover their memory box. Instead, they find the Hamlet skull and convince themselves it was murder. I did think it was fun that they broke into the window that they normally broke out of as kids. I thought that was a nice move they pulled. Yeah, that was the only part of the scene I actually enjoyed. But yes, I agree with you. What? Things I liked in it were that Niles lays down a handkerchief to needle down. Oh, I missed that. But that is fun. I did see that. Yes. But to me, when I see those type of things, it's just such a brand for Niles. Oh, yeah. I don't know. I wonder if like David Hyde Pierce brought that to the table because he was like, he would do this. And then I also love the way that they zoom in on him right before he says murder. The zoom in is good. Going back to Niles, we get some great hand acting. Like Frasier is in the floorboards trying to trying to get this job done. And Niles sort of motions as if he's helping, but he's not doing anything. And I love that. I'm sure that the owner was just trying to, you know, get them to stop trying to get under his floorboards. But they were clearly not all nailed down. Clearly not nailed down. And I'm actually disappointed that they didn't push back farther. But yeah, they were not nailed down at all. I thought that was going to come up as a problem. Like they were just going to pull it up and be like, I guess you didn't miss this one. Not what happened, was it? Yeah. As they were essentially destroying the house. Stop trying to get under my floorboards. Sounds like a thing a woman says to a man who's being too aggressive. Back in old man Cayman's days. Yeah. Old man Cayman's days. Yes. Old Mr. Laskoff. That you know. Half the characters, you don't know their names, but you know Mr. Laskoff. I did. I think you did on it. It's a great name. I like that when we pull the skull up from the floorboard. It was very clear after that. We were doing a Hamlet thing. I like that when they referenced Hamlet in the opening, I didn't think it was going to come up at all. And then it ended up giving away exactly to us what was going to happen in the scene. So at least we had a roadmap. We definitely had a roadmap. It's been so long since I'd seen this episode that when it opens with basically explaining the skull, I thought it was ruining the joke. I thought like, oh no, this ruins it. Because now we're going to know that they're waxing poetic about a murder that clearly didn't happen. But I'm completely wrong because when you get to the scene and you see how much they think it's a murder, but we all know it's just a Hamlet skull. It is very funny. I wondered about that. I wondered if a shakeup of the, if they would have presented it at a different order and we thought maybe it was a real murder. I thought that could have been a little fun. I feel like when I was younger, like the first time I saw it, I don't know if I missed the opening or just didn't make the connection. But I was like seeing it later as an adult, I was like, oh, I guess they kind of like give the game away a bit there. I think the dramatic irony is, yeah, it's still funny. Well, so how did young Ethan, did you think that, did you think they'd really uncovered a murder? I mean, I figured there'd be some reasonable explanation, but I just felt like, oh, the reveal was so clever and it still played very well. Interesting. By the way, I want to talk a little bit about young Curtis because I also, Ethan, you can corroborate this. I have a memory of seeing this when it aired. Like this was an episode that I watched live, I saw live, but this was my birthday. Like this was my 13th birthday. Sounds about right. And I was watching a Frasier episode. Is that when it aired? April 2nd, 2002. Yeah. Oh yeah. April 2nd. Wow. I don't think this shook up anyone's image of you, Curt. You did a lot of character building for Curt in early in this episode. And I don't think this changed any of it. I think we were all would have guessed. That's how you spent your 13th birthday. Absolutely. Now, butter protest Curt. I don't think he would have done that. I think it might have been the exact same Curt. It could have been the same day. I don't know. That is the age. I did the butter protest for sure. Had a long day protesting for butter. I just want to sit down and watch more stories. More true than false. Roz arrives at Frasier's looking for advice on how to tell Alice her hamster was half eaten by the dog. Marty watches the kid. We need an Alice appearance drop because it happens so infrequently. I'll consider it. Thank you. What would you do to precede the drop for Alice? Who's that? She's here. These are terrible ways to introduce a drop, guys. Who the fuck is Alice from that one song? What song is that? Right. Just that song. Yeah. It's that one you shout at bars sometimes. I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Alice. Oh, that fucking Alice. So Alice is alive. We know Alice is alive and apparently into hockey. Thanks to Marty. I found the hockey interesting because Seattle now has an NHL team, the Kraken. The Kraken. But they're a recent, you know, invention. So at this time, there wouldn't have been a Seattle hockey team. And Marty's just like, is he just a neutral observer? Apparently, he likes to gamble. Yeah. It's a Canadians game. It's mentioned later. I think Marty's just the type of guy. I think they've literally showed him as like a guy that just loves sports. So he's going to watch whatever's on TV. And I guess hockey was just on that day and he was just super into it. Ryan was busy sending us a text. So he is not paying attention. You know, I've got my classic Marty thoughts. In fact, I was actually a little surprised. He wasn't like, oh boy, cartoons. I'm weird. You know, you're right. When he was like asking her about cartoons, I thought it was going to be that he was going to turn on cartoons. So I do agree with you on that one, Ryan. I like the payoff that Alice is now into hockey. I thought that was fun. But yeah, this bit was real bizarre. And I tell you what, we could have thrown out the entire B plot. Would have been fine. The whole hamster thing. Yeah, it wasn't necessary. We open this episode with Roz complaining about the hamster. Hamster's ruining her life. The very next scene, hamster's dead. Do you think she fed it to the dog? Yeah. I mean, she was definitely not upset about it. We know that. Like you guys haven't been without sleep enough. If you're like three days without sleep, you'll do you'll do some crazy stuff. If this was like two weeks in, you know, is this your record at this point, Ryan? Three days without sleep? Oh my God, no. I said three days is when things start to turn, right? Got it. Got it. Got it. Oh, my record is horrifying. How many animals have you fed to other animals? Well, thankfully I'm allergic to all of them or it would be a lot. That's exactly what I was thinking when I think Curtis asked if you had any animals. I was like, Ryan can't have animals. Thank God. So I don't remember when the concept of death was introduced to me when I learned about death. It was when Ethan's gerbil died. If I was a young six-year-old child, then is she six? How old is Alice? Do we know? Yeah, I think they say six. I think she's six later too at the end of the series. She doesn't age. Perpetually six. Yeah. She's born as a six-year-old. If I was a kid and my dad said, death is just going to sleep and never waking up. And then he said, good night. I think that would be pretty traumatizing to me too. Yeah. When Ross said that her dad handled it the wrong way, I was like, all right, you're being dramatic. And I was like, oh yeah, no, that's a horrifying way to put it. Very funny. I mean, you were putting down this B-plot, but that's a pretty funny line. All right. Yeah. Yeah. But I could have done without that one line. Sure. Okay. I'm willing to sacrifice it for the rest of it. Niles wants to involve the cops, but Frazier wants first to do some sleuthing on their own. They guess Mr. Laskoff killed his wife, but need more evidence. So this is where we find out about the Crane Boys, what was it, like mystery workbook or something? They talk in more detail about that. Yes. Are you forgetting item one from Top Truths for Teen Sleuths, a Crane Boys Mysteries workbook? Yeah. The idea that they were creating their own stories like the Hardy Boys is funny enough. The idea that they got so far as to create a workbook about it is hilarious. And they had catchphrases and stuff for the workbook. I think it's so funny to reference a workbook you made with your brother. Rarely elementary, but always evidentiary. It was a great line. It was really fun to watch. It's disappointing we didn't get a Crane Boys mystery every season. I think they could have done that once. We certainly could have got it in 10 and I probably fit it into 11. Yeah, that's one of those things that I feel like a modern show would be more intentional about carrying forward ideas like that and making use of them. And this is like everything in a 24 episode season is throw away. Everything is bring it up, use it because we need it, and then move on to something else. I think I would have said that modern shows cannibalize that type of stuff. That's the phrase I would have used to describe it. Dark. Is that what cannibalize means? Not the most appropriate word, but... Actually uncomfortable. It would have been a fun Crane Boys mystery, though. You know, I'm pretty sure every season I use a word that write questions and I somehow used it right. So it's my one... It's your ballywack. Yeah, so they bring up that they were evicted. I don't know if they talked about that earlier. It was weird how it came up where it's just like, oh, this is a weird reveal. I would have declared it up. Were they saying they got evicted from this house? Or were they just saying they got evicted in general? Yeah, they were saying that Laskov evicted them. Okay. They go into detail about it. We get this whole episode of them sort of half remembering things from their childhood and making assumptions based on that and sort of getting it wrong. I wonder if they were evicted, if that actually happened, the idea that they warranted a security deposit is even more like, maybe there's a reason they were evicted. Maybe they're terrible tenants. I thought it was interesting they didn't really explore it. It was very casually like, yeah, we got evicted and then moved on. I think that's why I was unclear if it was this house because they talked about it so quickly. Based on what we know about this family, it feels odd that they would have been evicted. It does not seem on brand. It doesn't track at all. It would be a more violent or like not explicitly violent, but just like a more extreme thing than they would have experienced in their childhood. And also, if they did get evicted, I feel like it's something Frazier would use like constantly. Like, don't give me a hard time. I got evicted when I was 14. Oh, yeah. Definitely. It also seemed like in the intro that they were in a prep school. I think they were in uniform. There was a lot of things that don't really add up to the eviction thing. Having torn up the floorboards and walls, Niles finds a pointy rock he thinks could be the murder weapon. And Frazier finds a box with financial documents pointing to a murder over money. I know he said the garage, but where do you think he found that document pile? Yeah, it was like a banker's box with just papers in it. There's nothing in the house, but apparently left a box in the garage. The garage must be very crowded with crap, apparently. I mean, we did not see that, so we have nothing to base that off of. But let's just go with that theory. Well, we see the house is empty, and we see that they've torn up the floorboards fine. They've torn up the walls as well, which is really crazy. I assume that they tore up some paneling in the garage or something crazy. I assume it's not just sitting there in the garage. Do you think this is plausible that Frazier and Niles have the handyman capability to break something like this? Absolutely not. Without them getting injured? No, no chance. It felt unrealistic when he was pulling up the floorboards. So if you're just doing some damage to a building, I think anyone could do that. I think the truth is, out of all of us on this call, I'm probably the one who's as uncoordinated as the crane boys are. Yes, correct. Stipulated. And I know if I started destroying a house, I would end up in the hospital because I would trip over my own two feet and my head would end up in a wall. You'd hit that pointy rot. Who would take you to the hospital? I would have to call 911 through the wall, probably. Sounds like you're not that hurt. Well, you know, only one way to find out. I will actually, I'm going to take back my comment about them because here's what I think is happening. Niles is also in the floor, which before he didn't even want to put his hand down there. But now he's like full body in. And I think what's happening here is they are so excited about this solving of a mystery that they have, like the same way like a mother can like lift a car. Oh, they have insane agility and like real strength just because they're so excited to be solving a murder. They're high for being the crane boys. I like that Frasier could reach down and grab a skull, but then Niles can stand up like his full body length in this hole that they've dug. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know if mom's strength is going to help him have stretchy arms. But I did like how quickly the two of them worked together to create a crazy over the top story of what they think actually happened. Oh, my God. I love that. Loved this bit. Yeah. It's great because Frasier asks Niles to sort of explain it. And then Niles gives a, I thought, fairly plausible explanation. And immediately is like, close, but you're wrong. Here's what happened. I love that he's just so quick to dismiss Niles. Niles just hangs on his every word and is ready to support his theories with his impression of what she could sound like. Why don't we go and see in what condition the cranes have left the house? You go, you lazy parasite. I'm having my nails done. It was so good. Also, like when he's having, I don't know exactly what he was explaining, but for some reason they're walking towards the hole. And Niles is like doing the impersonation of Mrs. Laskov, but not saying anything. He's just like bobbing his head along. Oh, it was so funny. That's like at the end of the scene when Frasier is like talking about getting published their like childhood fanfic. You think that would ever happen? Are you kidding? Once this hits the papers? He's leapt all the way from a murder happened to we have solved the murder to we're going to be such heroes that we're going to get a multi-book deal to publish our childhood series. Like we're that impressive. It continues to be astonishing how confident Frasier can do anything in his eyes. Like it is really impressive how confident he gets. People love true crime though. Like if there's any sort of smoke, people buy a true crime story. No questions asked. It is the only thing people can't get enough of for some reason. What the fuck is in Bo's mouth? Becky's panties. I think it's a wonderful little insight to the character that like ultimately he does not care about the justice of a woman brutally murdered. He's just after the glory of we could get the Crane Boys published now. You goddamn true crime fucking numb nuts. That's very Frasier. I mean he was his former landlord you know. She was probably mean to him at one point. He doesn't have to feel bad for her. While Roz buys a replacement hamster, Marty is telling Alice about death. Roz is upset he took this major parenting moment from her until Alice seems chill about everything. Marty hugs his aging pet. That is such a good way to describe this scene. He takes a major parent moment and shits on it and then you know she just eventually doesn't care. Very neat Bo for the limited time they were giving this B plot. But I do kind of yeah I like that moment at the end where Marty calls Eddie over saying he's just a puppy but he's 10 years old. Like in denial as an old man about his own dog's mortality let alone his own. It's just kind of a just a sweet little somber moment that you know that that plot doesn't end on a punchline. It just ends on like a little sad moment with the man and his and his plot. See this is what I was going to ask you because I know you're you're a dog. You're a dog owner a dog man. You're a dog man? I mean part man part dog? I'm my own best friend. Well that's a movie coming out from Universal soon based on a day pill. So dog man. Is it true? Yeah it's part dog part kung fu ka. Yes please. Sign me up for that. No but I was wondering when you said earlier that you thought that you liked the the kind of way this wrapped up in sort of a somber way. I wondered if you were talking about the dog bit or the heart to heart with a child bit because I feel like the the whole Alice side of it was way too rushed. And like I get that a kid could like hear about death and quickly be like I want to watch hockey but that a mom would be like so chill so quickly after this major milestone was taken from her. That didn't seem plausible. But yes I agree the dog part is nice. For some reason in my mind even though I've seen this episode multiple times I always think like Roz is mad longer. The fact that it's like such a quick turnaround. Yeah and she should. And like we saw that it was an accident but she doesn't really know how accidental it was. Like he kind of he kind of really blew this for her. And like I don't think this is the end of Alice's processing of death as a concept. Oh no it is. Then we covered it. I don't know I'm trying to think about for myself because this isn't a conversation she wanted to have right. It's it felt too early for her. She was nervous about it and Marty handled it well. I think when she first hears about it she's like oh Marty's an idiot. He handled it poorly. She's going to be up every night. But he didn't. He landed it fine. And she probably would have done it bad because it was something so scarring for her in her childhood. So I don't know. Yeah that's kind of how I looked at it as too Ryan that she felt a little relieved that she didn't have to have that difficult conversation. Now if it would have went poorly yes. She would have been mad at him for two seasons about it. Yes. The fact that it went well she could she could give it up. I think I agree with you that the the part that I think tripped me up was that that's not how it's presented. Like she doesn't make the case to Marty hey like this kid's going to be traumatized. She makes the case of hey I'm the mom I'm supposed to get to do that. So that that's kind of where I was a little from. He just says you don't have those conversations. Those are conversations for me to have which is true. But if it goes well if it's something you don't want to do I don't know. As Alice called him the whole episode her uncle Marty. Yeah felt weird every time. Yeah. Ryan how do you feel about the idea of introducing the concept of death to your children through Brad. Oh my god it'd be horrible. That would never happen. I thought you were going to say through Curtis. I actually think Curtis would be worse at it. I definitely don't want either of you two involved. We learned Eddie is 10 which means that he should be able to outlive the show. I assume we just start with him. I don't know. You have done so much math in this episode. This is the most math episode Ryan has done. They did a lot of little bits like that this episode. I don't know. There's a lot of flashbacks. I didn't think we get flashbacks. We're going to have to figure that out. You're really our numbers guy. You're what? My quantitative. My math specialist. It did follow right after Marty was like well my dog's just a puppy. He's like shut up Marty's 10. I mean he gets immediately contradicted by a six year old so. Yeah he gets bested. Yeah true. So I guess I did. It did help. At the house the cops arrest Mr. Laskoff and collect evidence on the scene. The crane boys finally open their memory box to find the Hamlet program and slink out. Oh man this is not where I thought we were ending. This is quite a move to go off of a hunch. Yeah I blame the cops more than the cranes at this point. Oh it's this is the cops fault. This is totally the cops fault. We had like six cops there that we saw. The fact that they're in the middle of the crime scene as the cops are setting up shop. Like I mean they broke and entered. The fact that they take their memory box is crazy. Yeah. That could be evident. Should be. The cops don't know. Are we to believe that this is an actual skull but it's only meant for theater purposes or is this like plastic? Because that everybody including cops are buying it as a real skull seems odd. They drink it out of a science class. It was a science class. I thought it was like already the theater skull. Oh that makes more sense. I had actually marked down in the that opening scene there were some molecular models and there was also an Archimedes quote. Give us the quote. Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the earth. That's the problem I read is Shatner. I think that's just to establish it's a science classroom. Yeah. I didn't follow any of that. And on the subject of like real skulls in theaters I do know a fun bit of trivia about Del Close who was a like improv pioneer and like actor and stuff. And apparently when he hit in his will he wanted his skull to be used in theaters. Oh wow. Like he willed his skull to be a Hamlet skull. So I mean probably not the only guy to do that. You're telling me the Hamlet skull isn't a plastic skull? I mean I'm sure it is in some instances but I bet there are times when they get their hands on a real bad boy. That is a real bad boy. That is something. I feel like in Shakespeare times if you want a skull your only option is to cut it off of a body. But I imagine today like if someone's like okay do you want to use the plastic one or do you want to use Del Close? I'm not picking Del Close. Oh I'm definitely. Are you kidding? Like we have a real skull prop? Yeah I would be using that. Of course I would be. It's what he wanted. So it would make me feel less weird about it I think. Do you think he wanted to be stuck in a science class hutch that I guess exists? Who would want that? I just if it hit Frasier's head like young Frasier from high up like it would have knocked him out if it was a real skull. It clearly was lightweight. Although I guess it cracked which is interesting. Yeah. It cracked on Frasier's head which I think was funny. I think one of the best lines we've gotten in a while. You dug up my wife? I'll bet you thought nobody ever would didn't you? No! You think he actually killed her? He did not seem that surprised. I don't know. I kind of agree. I don't know. I'm not sure. I took the surprise as when they thought she divorced him she probably died young and it was a traumatic moment in his life. And now here they are 40 years later. Because he doesn't know the context. He doesn't know they're talking about a skull on the floorboards. He just hears that you didn't think anybody would dig up your wife. And he's like why would you do that? That's not how he acts. He doesn't act why would you do that. He said how. How could you? And the way that they wrote it it kind of did seem like maybe he did kill her. Obviously this wasn't his doll. I agree with Ryan on this one. How could you? I think that he was like shit demons are going to come out. I'm not sure if it was the murder thing but I think he realized demons were going to come out. I guess I took it as like a how could you do that? Some simple deductive reasoning. Yeah. What do you mean demons are going to come out Brad? Like other secrets that he has. That's my bet. I thought you thought they were opening a portal to hell. Oh no. Oh no. See Ryan doesn't understand my high level English that I bring on the show. Yes. Of course. That third grade reading level is hard to keep up with. Well two English wagers here Curtis and I. Actually I would agree with you Ryan. I just realized that. Oh. Great. They've not paid off. I also love the subtle way that David Hyde Pierce closes the program upon realizing what they've done. The idea like if you told me that you can get a laugh out of a folded piece of paper I would just not believe you. But what David Hyde Pierce is capable of is so great. That is such a great moment. You can see on both of their faces. I think it was well played from both of them. It was just this double realization like oh we've really screwed up. And then like he's like oh we should probably go tell Mr. Laskov and then they just left. On to ruin someone else's life. They don't accuse anyone else of murder the rest of their lives that we know of. I think. We know of. I mean there's still time right. The show's still active so anything's possible. Yeah. And I have a season two of New Frasier so. Well I'm counting that as part of the As We Know Of. Oh got it. Got it. Okay. Frasier plays us out with Frasier giving a complicated order to the barista who sets his coffee on fire. Oh my god. I was so mad at the start of this and this was easily the best scrambled egg we've ever had. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Fire coffee? Yes please. I was kind of surprised that we went back to the C plot. Did not see that one coming. It should have definitely been the B plot right? I was with you Ryan because when this scene opens and it's it's the whole point of these is that they're silent. And that you have to come up with something funny that's purely visual and it doesn't involve dialogue. But they open it with pure dialogue. Just Frasier talking. Right. And that doesn't mean anything to us. But you're right. It pays off incredibly. I thought they were going to do like another Benny Hill of him running around the coffee shops because this is stupid. And nope. Nope. They crushed it. What if all of these were just Benny Hilling? I actually think I would like them more. Yeah. What I found fascinating is that it's clearly the Kelsey Grammer actually holding a flaming cup of Joe. And like I just wonder how much went into that day on set because my understanding is that like when fire is involved it's like high stakes. He wasn't clearly holding a flaming cup of coffee. That would be incredible. He was clearly holding a flaming cup. I'd be very shocked if it was real coffee. I love this semantics. This is hilarious. My point is he held the prop. That was on fire. Yeah. Okay. That I can agree to. They didn't have a shot of just like an arm holding it or something. They didn't try to work around it and use a stuntman. That's what I'm saying. We've all held flaming shots. I don't know if you have, Ethan, but I know that the other two on here have. You've held a flaming shot? Yeah. We've all done them at the Venice. I've had flaming shots. I don't know if I was the one holding the flaming shot. What the fuck? What are you talking about? No, I remember taking it from the table. I don't remember picking it up either. You're saying the fire went out and then you take it? No, I'm saying like, I didn't really pick it up from the table. How did you drink it? What are you talking about? In my mind, I was picturing that when I would get a flame, because it's usually like you drop it in another drink. No. I mean, it can be. Oh, then how do you do it? You pick it up and drink it. What are you talking about? You drink it while it's on fire? Yes. That's what the flaming shot is. Yes. I won't say I'm normally of sound mind when I do it. They would light a shot on fire and then dunk it into like as a bomb into another into like a beer or something. Why? What's the point of the fire? It's cool. What's the point of the fire? Otherwise, you're drinking fire. It's amazing. I'm trying to not, I am questioning if that's how flaming shots work. Does the flame go in your mouth when you drank it? Or did it like go out because of the thought take? I think it goes out as you tip it back. Yes. You know, I'm more at the time more like there's fire. You know, I'm not worried about how it's going to burn me to death, which probably is incorrect. How to drink a shot that's on fire. Yeah. I don't know. Quick Google. Seems to happen. I Googled this and this only gives me more questions. It says most modern flaming drinks are only lit on the surface. Fully submerging the straw keeps you from directly swallowing the fire. What the fuck are they talking about? Only the surface is on fire. True. Is it a metal straw? You don't normally drink a bonfire, I guess. If the bottom's on fire, you're in trouble. Listen, I'm all for a good peeling of the onion, but let's pace it up, people, please. All right. Well, Brad, what do you think? Was this a good episode? This was hard for me because I can tell that, Curtis, you really liked this episode and Ryan wasn't even watching this episode. I got the detail. You missed major plot points throughout the whole episode. I thought, you know, as the new cool young kids say, I think this episode was kind of mid. Like it was like, it was fine. What does mid mean to you? Like middle of the road. Like, yeah. I think this was like, it was an okay episode. It flowed well. It had good stories. I didn't hate the B plot as much as others did. I love the C plot and the A plot was a very typical Frasier, you know, miscommunication, confusion, hijinks arise. So I'm going to give it B minus. Ethan, what about you? First of all, it was on the list. Yeah. Everyone you should show up for should probably be a very good one, right? I mean, yeah. Unless it's you're desperate for a guest type of situation. Well, it would be fun if you have a list of ones that you absolutely hate. You're like, I got to show up so I can get some of that out. But yeah, I would maybe just say like a B of like a solid B or even a B plus, like definitely not top tier, but a really fun episode introduces fun things. And just the reveal of the, you know, the Hamlet realization at the end. Very, very fun. And it's it's one that Hannah didn't really enjoy because she is often annoyed by dramatic irony and also doesn't like when they make Marty sad. So when he was sad at the end, she does not like that. So but for me, I, I, I enjoy sad. So it was fun. How many crane murder mystery novels would you purchase? Let's see. Zilch. I'm not a I'm not a mystery novel person. How many crane murder mystery movies would DVDs would you buy? Six. Feels right. Feels like the correct amount. You mentioned Hannah. I don't know if this is something that she said on the show. I don't think it is because it was a surprise to me and deeply troubling. I'd be surprised if she didn't say it on the screen. She said over Christmas that she does not like hijinks. Today is not today for cunning plans or crazy capers. That's such a fun stance. I know. Anyway, for me, I would say I'm pretty much in agreement with you all. I think that this was a lean's good episode. It was not the best, most funniest thing ever. I actually remember liking it better. I might I was excited for this one. I think not knowing how it's going to end, like when it's new to you, it is really exciting to see them going way too far over what is clearly a misunderstanding. Less fun the second time around. I put this 19 out of 64. That feels high, doesn't it? That feels so high, yeah. From what you were saying? This is not the first time that what you're saying and the score did not really add up to it at all. Imagine it. Well, yeah, yeah. Like the top third. I don't think that's. Yeah, and it seems reasonable. That's in line with what I said, I think. Top third. I thought you were going to go more middle. Yeah. I think so too. And also, it is top third. I think it's better than that, though. I don't know. With mid, I feel like there is a connotation of, yeah, it's not the road, but it's kind of a dig. Like you're saying, oh, it's mid. It's just mid. And this one, I would put a hair above. You know, it's like it's in the good category rather than the okay category in my opinion. Yeah, I would agree. And so this is not as good as Don't Go Breaking My Heart, which is now is recovering from the surgery. But it is better than Moons Over Seattle, which was this season's season finale, which. That's that high? That got 20? Yeah, I remember him saying that. Even this far into season nine, I realize what a mistake that ranking was. That was very much. It's been a while since I've gotten a Frasier, and I'm just happy to have a classic Frasier. Ryan, you seem like you might be going higher than the rest of us. Where are you at with us? You know, I really liked it. And but my mother in law's over and I had it on. We were both watching it. And at the end, she turns to me and she goes, well, that was a stinker. I was like, oh, I was liking it. And it's like sort of like making me rethink. I was like, was it a stinker? Am I? Is she just not getting it? It's like, where am I at in my Frasier journey? You know, important question. How does she feel about hijinks? Oh, she fucking hates hijinks. Are you kidding? Is there a mother in law out there that enjoys hijinks? The ones she's seen have been very interesting. Like she sat in on the Niles going into surgery episode, like the the one we referenced earlier with all the flashbacks and that was really weird. You know, so she's had like she's seen, I think, maybe like eight episodes and she did not like this one. I loved it as I was watching it. And again, colored almost immediately by her reaction. It was like, is it worse than I'm thinking? For a season that's been a real dud, this is this is a standout. I think all the Hamlet stuff was so fun. We just cut out some of that extra fluff, like the B plot, focus on the C plot. We got a real episode here. Give me an eight three. Oh, wow. OK. OK. Roughly equivalent to a 19 out of 64, but whatever. Yeah, but your 20 is bad, so. No, he would say. Yeah, it was more about the way you described it. I know. Equal the score. Anyway. Then again, the mother-in-law downgrade. I don't know what to do with that. Without your mother-in-law, would it be like an eight seven? There would have been like a nine, nine seven. I'd be like, yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. OK. Of course, it wouldn't have been that high. It's still it's nowhere near horny Metcalf, but like it was really good. Many crimes were committed in this episode, but not any of the ones investigated. But what crimes might have Ethan committed? We're going to interrogate him now to find out. Oh, tough intro, but I get what you're saying. I wrote this as we were like doing our pre show. Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. Here's what we're going to do. We're doing a game of 20 questions. The three of us are cops. We have captured Ethan for a crime. We do not know what crime he committed. We just know that he committed a crime. And we've got 20 opportunities to find out what it is. If we don't land close enough on the crime after 20 questions, he walks free. What? Ethan, are you ready? Sure. This can't be how the law works. I was skeptical, too, but I did Google it. And it turns out this is exactly how the law works. This is the law told to you by reverse psych pod. This is one of those amendments. You're not allowed to lie to cops. Oh, yeah. That's true. Same way that a cop has to tell you if he's a cop, a criminal has to tell the truth to the cops. I mean, we've got Ethan hooked up to a lie detector. We're just not going to ask him to tell the crime because he wouldn't do that. Well, it has to be asking a question. Brad, why don't you go ahead and start us off? Sure. Hi, this is Officer B. Radizzi from Alibizzi. There's supposed to be a detective. This is, I got demoted. I think this is the uniformed officer. Did this crime happen in the evening? I thought you were just going to ask, did this happen? Yes, evening I was involved. Great. Thank you for being so... The evening was involved. Thank you for giving me very much, lots of details. I appreciate that. The evening was the accomplice. Detective Sansoni, would you like to be next? It was actually Detective B. Radizzi. B. Radizzi. Got it. Did this happen in Andalusia? No. Thank you for wasting a question. What do you mean waste? What if it was in Andalusia? That might be really narrowed down. Detective Seabags McGee, you're next. Ethan, I'm just going to suggest, try to put on some kind of a persona. You're anti-cop, but you're telling the truth. Be aggressive. Don't tell him how to crime. Okay, got it. Yeah. Give it a note. Ethan, you're too flat on this night of nights. Is this crime... All right, Ethan, I want to know. All right, I want you to throw in some pizzazz when you ask this. I want to know the truth. Was this crime of passion? No. Ooh. So take that. I don't know why. That really thickens things up for me. It really confuses me. All crimes should be crimes of passion. I have a different philosophy and crime. Mr. Criminal? Mr. Criminal? If that is your name. My question for you is, did you have any assistance in this murder? I did not. Sorry, do we know that it's a murder? In this crime. You said murder. I know I did. Does that count as a double answer? Did we trick him into answering two questions with one? I was asking to be clear. Did you murder one person, Mr. Criminal? It depends how literal you want me to be, cop. I'm going to say no. I want you to be litigious with your answer. Mitch Hedberg rules yes, but otherwise no. That is difficult to parse. I'm probably supposed to say yes and no anyway, so I've already given you too much. Good news. Didn't help. Point of order. What? Mitch Hedberg? I've heard of Mitch Hedberg, but I don't know. Don't ask us a question. You're going to waste a question. I've watched at least two Mitch Hedberg full sets. No idea what you're talking about. Mitch Hedberg has a classic show. I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too. Oh, I see. I see. So you've probably killed more than one person. Oh, maybe. Yeah, you asked it weird, Ryan. I was wondering why you didn't just say, is this murder? And then narrow it down later. You started with, was this exactly one murder? I wanted to start there. I wanted to really get to the meat of the problem. Was this exactly two murders? Was this exactly three murders? If he says yes, you murdered one person, it's probably the president. You know, easy peasy. It's weird we haven't heard about it. I'm going to count what is Mitch Hedberg because that was pretty revealing. I think we can safely assume murder was involved. Got it. Was there a weapon? No. Sorry, did you very softly off mic say no? I mean, yes, I said no. Okay. You murdered someone without a weapon and maybe multiple people? Is that a question? No, it's not my, oh, it is my turn. Shit. You'll never catch me even though I'm presumably in an interrogation room. No, we caught you. We just won't be able to keep you. Ah, right. Catch and release. Sorry, your question was repeating Brad's question. I think, yeah. And Genie Law, yeah. I think I, I think I stepped it in. Yeah. But then you responded with a question. You do have to answer. What's the question? Did you murder without a weapon? Yes, I murdered without a weapon. Interesting. Keep it to yes or no, please. Okay. But when you're confused about what the yes means, don't come crying to me. We're not going to come cry you. We're going to do louse you or something. If it wasn't a crime of passion and it was a murder without a weapon, then I'm really struggling to figure out where this is going. It's really confusing and affected multiple people probably. I want to know. Oh, yeah. I want to know, was this done in a public place? Yes. Uh-oh. I like this new persona criminals found. I'm not going to ask my next question because that would make no sense. You know what? Maybe float throughout three or four of them, Brad. Um, actually, fine. I can ask this ridiculous question. Here we go. Or that. Or do whatever you want. Were you wearing shoes? No. Okay. What? Whoa. Whoa. Fricking it. Whoa. Why are you two on the same page? I'm, I'm getting concerned. Have we seen all our questions to Brad? Why, why am I still good at this? This is, you know, that episode of Always Sunny when Charlie gets all of the right answers in, uh, Family Feud. Can I ask one more to see if I'm like on a roll? Yeah, sure. Okay. Was there a witness to your crime? I'm going to say yes. Brad, does that help you? I'm asking Brad. I'm not asking you criminal. Thank you for clarifying. No, that is not the direction I thought. You were hoping he was shoeless and witnessless. Yes, correct. Because now I think I've really screwed you over because I don't know what your follow-up's going to be. All right. I'm just going to give a quick recap because we're about halfway through it. We've got, we've asked 11 out of 20. So far, the suspect has told us that this did happen in the evening. It was not in Angel, and, and, and, and, and, and, just skip it. Keep trying. Get it right. This is a professional endeavor. Under no circumstances was it a crime of passion, nor was there any assistance. It was at least one murder, but there was no weapon. I repeat, there was no weapon. It was a public place, but without shoes, and there may be witnesses we can find. Detective Ryan. It's weird that without shoes throws me the most. Right? I like, I like that I said Detective Ryan, like that's, detectives tend to go by their first name, right? Yeah. Detective Rydog. I find it interesting that shoes were asked about at all if there was no, like, follow-up. No follow-up? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I find that interesting as well. Oh, shoes. Again, I'm asking this to my fellow detectives, not the, not the suspect, but do you think this is like a beach crime? I was going to ask the beach. That's right. I was going to beach with it. Did this, Mr. Criminal, did this occur on sand? No. See, this is where, Ryan, I feel like your specificity is really fucking with us, because I feel like he probably did it like in the ocean or something. If you had said beach, he probably would have been like, yeah, I was at the beach, but you said sand. So he's like, well, technically I was floating in the water. Was this in a body of water? Yes. I mean, please ignore the way Curtis said water. Was a bottle of Wawa involved? Were you on a boat? I've been on a boat. He asked if the crime was on a boat and he said, I've been on a boat. We've established that there may have been multiple. So I'll say a boat, uh, maybe this involved in one of them. So it seems like a drowning of some sort or man overboard. I think it's more iceberg. Is he the iceberg? First of all, you came to where I live and you hit me. Is there a chance that this isn't about people? You're asking us, right? I'm asking not the criminal. Yes. Okay, good. I mean, at this point, I'm not even convinced that it was a human being that Ethan may not be playing the part of a human being. Well, no, I think he's trying to allude that he's killed multiple people. I'm like, he's like more of a serial crime person. Oh, is he the shark from Jaws? Again, asking my detective friends. But I would mind if you wasted that question. I guess you wouldn't have a weapon if you were a shark, would you? You wouldn't even say my teeth were the murder weapon. I think we got to do it. I'm asking the question. Criminal, are you the shark from Jaws? I will only answer if you say my name. Shark? Did the shark from Jaws have a name? Maybe your brother who works in an entertainment industry would know that. Was the shark from Jaws named Ethan? Nope, that's not the name. I'm looking this up. Is this real? Are you a shark? Aw, you're cheating. Who said detectives could use Google? Oh, was he named Bruce the shark? That is correct. I am Bruce the shark. Isn't that the shark from Finding Nemo? Yes, it's a reference to Jaws. Oh. It was only the name of the mechanical. They named it on set. I don't think they ever called him Bruce in the movie. I am not sure if there was a game that the three of us did where we equally were as good and bad as we were all on the same level as ridiculousness. If you came into this, if I was like in the know and you're like, hey, Curtis, I'm going to be shark the jaw. I'm shark the jaw. Shark the jaw. Call me shark the jaws. I'm going to be shark the jaws for this game. I would be like, no way we will ever get there. Not possible. That's too far. But somehow we did it. It's all the shoes. Come in. My shoes help. That's crazy. Brad really like monked this, didn't he? Yeah. Brad being a psychopath made this a lot easier, I guess. And Ryan asking super specific questions helped us too. Well, I'm at a loss for words. But Ryan, you're not because you're going to tell us what to expect next week when we cover the previous episode. It's season nine, episode 19, War of the Words. Yes. Shark the jaws is going to jump the shark. No. It's game night at the Cranes and a game of risk escalates. A game of risk? A game of risk. The game of global domination. Yeah. In War of the Words, wouldn't it be Scrabble? You know, we have not had a lot of board game episodes. You would think that they would have a lot more board games. I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's time for a board game. I had a hard time with this. Like I'm getting War of the Worlds vibes, but I don't think we're getting aliens. You know, that'd be weird. That would be weird. The crossover with Third Rock and the song. That would be fun. That would be good. I like that we're both on board. Brad, you're weird about that stuff. Does the timings overlap enough? I'm not sure when Third Rock ended. Let me see. 2001. I don't think it did. I think it still aired. This episode was in 2002, so no, there was no crossover. Damn. Well, that will do it for us. Thank you to Ethan for joining us. Got it, baby. You got him, baby. I have more toos than on this show. For myself, for Ryan, for Brad, and for Ethan. You killed his hamster, bro. Or sorry, Gerbil. Of course. Thank you. Thank you for your listen. I mean, that did happen. You didn't kill it. You were just insensitive, unknowingly. You killed his child. Oh, right. I didn't kill him. I just was a jerk about it having died. Okay. Thanks to Gavin McLeod for our theme music, and thank you for listening. I suppose you don't really care if this podcast is successful. You would never take five minutes out of your precious day to go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. You don't use Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, or TikTok. You aren't curious what happens if you search for Reverse Psych Pod. Lord knows you can't be bothered to shoot us an email at reversepsychpod at gmail.com. For myself, for Ryan, for Brad, and for Ethan. And Ethan's Gerbil. I'm ungrateful. Do you hear the horn going off in my... No. Is it a mental horn? No. There is... It's like a car alarm, a horn, that's just going off repeatedly. And I looked out my window, and I see somebody in a car moving weirdly. Weirdly moving like they don't know what to do. They don't know how to turn this off. What do you mean moving weirdly? Describe that more. Their hands keep going up and down, and they keep like... They're just kind of shaking their body around. They're in like shock. They like don't know what to do. You might want to check on that, man. Like it's their car, and they got inside. Somehow they triggered the alarm, and they don't know how they triggered it, and they're not sure to turn it off, and they're just sort of freaking out about it. Are they doing a lot of Brad mannerisms? It's very Brad. Yes. It's very Brad. Then they're definitely stressed about something. Picture Brad sitting still in a car. That's what this weirdo looks like. Yeah. I got it.