EPISODE EIGHT:

We open on Frasier, in a room in the police station, with Dunham and Pascal showing him files from the case. He seems conflicted, confronted, and nervous. “How can I possibly help?” he asks. Pascal says they have nothing else; a simple sketch of the man, and his phone number, which is useless unless the phone is turned on. They don’t know where he will strike next. Pascal says that the killer might have recognised Frasier when he had seen his picture on the sign, that he told Pascal he had called into the show back in the day.

“What we want to do,” Dunham says, “is send your picture to him. See if he’s still checking the phone. If he is, he might give us a call. We could prompt something.”

Frasier says it’s an absurd idea; Dunham and Pascal agree. Frasier has his photo taken with a copy of The Seattle Times, looking like a hostage, and they send the photo to the Killer’s number with a message:

Would you like to speak again?

“Now we wait,” Pascal says…

Niles and Daphne are walking through a park holding hands when a small Jack Russel terrier comes bounding past them, its owner in hot pursuit. They watch the commotion and smile. Daphne looks upwards, to the sky, and Niles asks what she’s looking at. She says that whenever she sees a dog that looks “like Eddie” she says hello to him. She asks Niles if he ever speaks to his father like that, and he says he doesn’t… he hesitates a little, and she prods him:

“Sometimes, I think about Maris like that. I try to keep her in my mind. I’m still not over her death, how it was so… well, suicide is never an easy thing to process… I’m still having those dreams.” As Niles finishes talking, we see that they’re about to enter a police station.

A computer beeps. The signal from the killer is live. “It’s only the general Seattle area,” The Technician says, “but if we can get him on the line for a few minutes, we might be able to track him properly.”

Frasier gets put in front of a phone on speaker. He’s sitting in a small room; on the other side of a window are several police officers watching the action. Dunham tells him through the intercom that they think he’ll call in a few minutes, if he calls at all. They ask Frasier if he needs anything. Before he can answer the phone rings. He picks it up. “This is Frasier Crane… I’m listening.”

Frasier and The Killer begin their conversation, but it gets heated quickly. The Killer tells him he called into his show back in September 2001, but that Frasier told him to speak to a real therapist about his problems; he seemed obviously bored by the call.

In the other room, there’s a knock, and Niles and Daphne are ushered in. Frasier smiles at them and waves. Still talking, Frasier tries his best to apologise, but says he couldn’t possibly remember what happened almost twenty years previous, and that he took hundreds of calls every month.

In the adjacent room, in a scene reminiscent of Roz looking to Frasier through the glass at KACL, they try to track the call. Dunham and Pascal pace nervously while The Technician types and types, but he can’t quite get a hold on the signal.

The Killer continues to berate Frasier: “You think you read one book and you can get a hold on people entirely. I’m an enigma, okay? I’m more than a book. I’m more than an idea.” Frasier asks him why he’s killing women. “Boring. Next question.” Frasier thinks for a while, then asks: “Why are you calling in your own crimes? Do you want to be caught?” The Killer laughs, and says, “I don’t want to be caught. I want them to be found. I need the validation. I don’t want to wait around all week for the mailman to call it in because he thinks he smells something.”

As they talk, we cut back to The Technician’s computer screen. A command-line asks him if he wants to trace signal: Y/N? Then we see what he’s really doing; mashing the keys and hitting N every time. He’s letting the killer get away. Dunham edges her eye across and looks on suspiciously…unsure, but not trusting what she thinks she sees.

Frasier disagrees that asking why he’s killing people is boring. “You’re choosing to end a life. It’s perhaps the most serious decision someone can make. You don’t think that’s worth discussing?” But The Killer just makes a snoring sound… he’s enjoying this, knowing he can’t be caught, hamming it up. Frasier asks The Killer if he has anyone other victims lined up. “Of course I do,” he replies. “I have several. I’m always working.” Frasier then asks if he’s considered talking to anyone about his feelings or his compulsions.

As soon as he says this, everyone in the other room cringes. Frasier doesn’t realise what the problem is. “Again!” The Killer screams. “That’s all you ever want to do. Push off your problems onto someone else. You don’t ever want to fix anything; it’s all a three minute conversation and then onto the next call. I thought you were supposed to be a psychiatrist.” Frasier stammers, tries to backtrack…

“You know what, fuck you, Frasier Crane.” The line goes dead. The Technician keeps typing and typing, but gives up. “He’s gone.”

The final “showdown” with The Killer happens over a phone at a police station

Everyone exhales, disappointed. Pascal’s phone pings with a message: he opens it, then cringes and flings the phone across the table, swearing. Dunham picks it up: it’s a photo of another corpse, with a caption.

“I won’t call this one in.”

Frasier comes back out of the room, shell-shocked. “I don’t know what happened…” The police are disappointed, but they knew it was a long shot. Pascal pats Frasier on the back and thanks him for trying.

As they exit, Dunham keeps her eye on The Technician... who is making crass jokes.

Later, Niles and Daphne are driving Frasier back home. Frasier seems to be in a relatively good mood for what just happened. In fact, he doesn’t address it at all. As they pull in, he asks them to come upstairs with him; he says he needs help with something.

They park in the underground garage at Eliot Bay Towers, right next to Frasier’s truck, which still has Martin’s chair strapped to the top of it. Niles and Daphne look on in awe. “I can’t believe you got it back,” Daphne says. “I haven’t seen this in… a decade?” Niles agrees; Frasier just smiles.

“Help me get it upstairs, will you?”

As “By The Sleepy Lagoon” by Eric Coates plays, we watch a montage of Frasier, Niles, and Daphne getting the chair off the roof of the car, onto a trolley, and into an elevator. We watch as they come out into a familiar looking hallway, and as Frasier opens the front door of his apartment, we cross through the threshold…and something in the show changes.

We’re back in sitcom mode. Back on the set of Frasier — and his apartment looks exactly the way it did the last time we saw it. With the chair back, things are finally back to normal. The laugh-track is back, too.

Frasier and Niles put the chair back where it belongs. They inspect it, wait for a beat, and Niles says: “Well, it’s garish, ugly, and completely out of place. Dad would be so happy.”

“Sherry, Niles?” Frasier asks. Niles says yes. “I must tell you about the latest niaiserie at Le Cigare Volant.”

Frasier raises an eyebrow, “Do tell.”

Niles continues, and it’s like we’re watching a lost episode of Frasier:

“Well, a certain Dutch sommeliere I loathe to mention was apparently offering stuffed artichokes with a Pay D’Oc Merlot…” Frasier scoffs, and as they continue in their old ways, Daphne wanders off to the kitchen and takes out her phone. She rings Roz: “Hi, have you still got David with you? We’re at Dr. Crane’s apartment, and we thought we’d make a night of it.”

We cut to a dark, rain-soaked alleyway. A car pulls up to one already waiting. Out of it comes The Technician… and waiting for him is The Killer. They’re not surprised to see each other.

“You bring it?” The Technician asks. The Killer hands him a bag and says, “It’s all there. Twenty grand.” The Technician smirks, nods, and turns to go. “Wait up,” The Killer says. “I have to ask. Why’d you help me?” The Technician stops, turns, and says “Why’d you kill all those women?” The Killer laughs. “Fair enough.” But suddenly, the entire alley is flooded in white. Someone shouts FREEZE and ten squad cars pull up. Dunham and Pascal get out of the car at the front. The Killer, and his accomplice, are caught.

As the credits roll, and “Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs” plays, we watch as Frasier, Niles, Daphne, Roz, and Lilith eat dinner at the table, while Alice and David sit on the couch watching TV. Frasier gets up and walks away from the table to pick up the ringing phone, and when he does, his face drops. He puts his hand over his mouth, almost drops the phone, and has to balance himself on the bookshelf.

We watch him say the words “Oh dear God…”

And then we fade to black.

The End.