Frasier – Moving In

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

We open with a toy playing “Baby Shark” song while Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) tries to sleep. The toy belongs to John of course and his crying is also keeping Freddy and Eve (Jess Salgueiro) from leaving. Since Freddy’s still crashing on the couch, it seems he hasn’t taken his father up on his offer to live with him. When Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) comes over for breakfast he wonders why but not before sharing some words of wisdom with Eve. She’s lamenting that John won’t sleep, but Frasier says a day will come when she misses this time in John’s life. As Frasier talks about how all parents find themselves longing for when their children were babies, the sound of his voice makes John fall asleep.

When Freddy goes into the kitchen Eve asks Frasier why Freddy hasn’t moved in. She says she loves him, but he’s not easy to live with. When Frasier asks Freddy the same question when Eve is taking care of John he says he can’t leave her after everything he’s been through. However, he admits living with a baby is kind of rough. Frasier points out that both of them are sick of living together but won’t admit it out of fear of hurting the other person’s feelings. At first they deny it, but then they reluctantly agree and Freddy starts packing his bags.

We see Freddy moving in with Frasier with David’s help. David (Anders Keith) thinks Freddy’s really lucky to get to live with Frasier and Freddy changes the subject. He sends David to the basement to find his pencils and Frasier wonders why he asked his bookish cousin to help him move as opposed to the strong firefighters he works with. Freddy opts not to answer the question. Instead, he gives his father suggestions about where he put his stuff and it doesn’t go over well.

From his dumbbells to his beer sign Frasier thinks Freddy’s belongings clash with everything. They argue over the Fenway dirt Freddy has in a glass cube from the World Series in 2013. It means a lot to Freddy, but Frasier who isn’t a baseball fan wants it to go in Freddy’s room. He says if he’s going to be living there it’d be nice if everything he owned didn’t have to be hidden away. Frasier says that he doesn’t have to hide anything, but then tells him he can’t sit on the couch.

Later, Frasier goes to see Corny (Nicholas Lyndhurst). He shows him a picture of Freddy at Harvard, but he doesn’t know why Freddy dropped out because he’s so smart. Corny says this is why he doesn’t have children, but Frasier reminds him he has four which doesn’t phase him. Olivia (Toks Olagundoye) comes in and says she wants him to do an interview for The Boston Globe. She wants to get the word out about him, which he agrees to.

Once Frasier gets home he finds Eve waiting for him and he misunderstands why. She says she’s been desperate for him to come home and needs him. Frasier thinks she’s coming onto him, but really John’s crying and she just wants him to talk so he’ll go to sleep. When he gets inside Freddy surprises Frasier with an air hockey table which isn’t Frasier’s idea of an appropriate table. He eats on it though and he and Freddy have a passive-aggressive off. Eventually, though they have a fight and Freddy tells Frasier he knows that he’s embarrassed of him. Frasier says he just wants to provide him with “nicer” things, but Freddy doesn’t like that what’s important to him is meaningless to Frasier. He storms out and says he’s moving back in with Eve. Frasier says he wants him there, Freddy says, but it’s not true.

Frasier still has the interview with The Boston Globe, but he’s distracted by his fight with his son. When he talks to Corny about his Freddy troubles. He says Freddy hates all things tasteful and refined like his father did. Then Corny says he understands and instead of telling Frasier what his real problem is, he writes on a notepad and lets Frasier talk things through himself. Frasier says he loved his father, but his father cringed at everything he was. He was hurt that his father seemed to find everything he loved so embarrassing. Frasier realizes that he’s treating Freddy like his father treated him and it bugs him a little that Freddy is so much like his own father. Then he starts using a lot of metaphors about hitting and smothering his son with his expensive things. Unfortunately, the reporter (Danice Cabanela) for the Boston Globe comes in and she takes him literally. Frasier is so keen on fixing things with Freddy that he rushes off before he can explain.

Once Freddy arrives at the bar to find Freddy he meets his firefighter friends. They’re in awe that he’s the Frasier Crane, they’ve all watched his talk show. Then they say they want him to meet their friend whose father died when he was little and he’s so broken up about it years ago he can’t talk about it. The friend in question is Freddy who is shocked that Fraiser’s there and now knows he pretends he’s dead. Frasier thinks that he’s embarrassed of him, but doesn’t immediately reveal that he’s been lying. Freddy admits that he’s not embarrassed by Fraiser he just casts a large shadow. He talks about being overwhelmed by his father’s big personality. When Moose (Jimmy Dunn), Smokey (Renee Pezzotta), and Tiny (Kevin Samuels) start wondering if Freddy lied to him Frasier saves him. He steals the plot of Mamma Mia, meaning Freddy tells many different stories about his father because his mother wasn’t sure which man was his father. Frasier claims that recently he took a paternity test and knows he’s Freddy’s father. The firefighters buy it.

Sometime later, when Freddy and Frasier are back in the apartment Frasier wonders why Freddy’s friends didn’t question them sharing a surname. Freddy points out they didn’t question them already living together when they came to get the table. They’re nice, but not terribly observant. Frasier assumes Freddy left Harvard because it was hard being known as Frasier Crane’s son, but Freddy says he didn’t like how snobby everyone was. He fits in with the firefighters. Then Frasier apologizes for not making him feel welcome and puts the cube full of World Series dirt on the piano which Freddy appreciates.

After the father-son moment, Eve comes over with John.  At first, Frasier still thinks she’s hitting on him, but she says his voice makes babies fall asleep and she can’t sleep until John sleeps. Fraiser pretends he’s known that all along and starts talking which causes both Eve and John to crash.

The last scene of the episode is of David playing the piano. Presumably, he hasn’t been told the significance of the dirt and he dumps it into a plant.