Episode 201 - 4/3/67

Roger makes his way downstairs and asks Burke what he's doing there. Burke tells him that he and Sam both came to see him. Roger says he'll talk, but Liz stays out of it. Burke counters that Liz stays in, and they step into the drawing room.

Sam finishes telling his story, noting that Roger was behind the wheel of the car. Roger denies it, and says Sam couldn't have seen who was driving. Liz asks if it's the truth. Roger says they're trying to ruin the family name. Roger says Burke is paying Sam to say this. It's another bribe. Liz asks, "Another bribe?" Burke says if he wasn't driving, why did he bribe Sam for his silence.

Liz asks if the paintings were a bribe. Roger says it was not. Sam asks if he wanted his paintings, why would he throw them away. Roger claims it was extortion. Sam threatened to lie if he didn't pay. He tells Burke he can't prove it. Burke says if Roger was innocent, he would have taken on Sam in court.

Roger pleads with Liz not to believe them. Burke says she's known all along, and she agrees. She says she's always known deep in the back of her mind. She asks Burke what he's going to do. Burke asks her what they should do. She tells him he can call the police if he wants to, and Burke leaves it in Liz's hands. She says she's going to call the police. Roger is terrified.

Vicki finds Jason lurking outside the drawing room. He says he was looking for a book, but the drawing room was shut. He says he'll do without, and return to his room. She asks if he's seen David, who's not in his room. He says he has not, and retires to his room.

Despite Roger's begging, Liz begins to phone the police. Burke stops her. He says he just wanted to see if she had the guts to do it. He says he'll never bring up the subject again. He says he will not go to the police if Roger confesses to him, in front of he, Sam and Liz. Sam reiterates the story. Burke asks him to say it. Roger admits that he was driving, he hit the man and killed him. And that he gave the money to Sam to hide it.

Burke tells him to say he sent an innocent man to prison for five years, and Roger does. Burke says that it's over. He says he thought he wanted to see Roger rot in prison, but people like him rot wherever they are. Burke and Sam leave, and Roger asks Liz not to look at him.

Jason calls Willie and lets him know Liz may be calling the police, and to be ready to move out fast.

In the basement, Jason begins working on the locked door. David surprises him, and says no one goes in there. Jason says he was helping look for David. He asks if David was playing hide and seek. David says he was looking for a ghost. He invites Jason to wait with him. Jason suggests they go back upstairs, as Vicki was looking for him. He asks David what's behind the door, and David says nobody knows. He says he likes it that way, because it's more scary. Jason counters that sometimes the truth is scarier than the mystery.

Roger asks Liz not to send him away from Collinwood. He reminds her that David is a Collins. Very upset with him, she tells him to please leave her alone. He does, and she sees David. He asks her if the truth can be more horrifying than a mystery. He says he thought he was referring to the locked door in the basement, but he said he was just speaking generally. Liz asks when this happened, and David says it's where he found him in the basement a few minutes ago. David says that Jason said he was looking for him, but he thinks he was trying to get into the room in the basement.

Vicki tells Carolyn that Jason found David in the basement. Carolyn asks what he was doing there. She says he told David he was looking for him, but she doesn't believe it. She says she has to stop believing that everything he says was a lie. Carolyn says he's up to something. She says she doesn't like or trust him. She thinks he's making her mother lie.

Jason is back down in the basement working on the lock when Liz interrupts him. He asks who it is, because he can't see them through the shining flashlight. He says he was looking for David, and she says he already found him. She reminds him that she told him no one goes in that room. She tells him she wants him to leave. He says he was considering leaving on his own, but now he doesn't think he will. He says if he were to leave, he might see people, like the police, and talk to them. He asks why it would bother her for him to look behind the door, since he already knows what's there. He says he wants to pay his respects. He says it's a pity she had to kill him. And how lucky she was that she had a friend like him to bury him.

Our thoughts

John: Wow! After 200 episodes, some amazing revelations in Collinwood! Roger finally admits to his role in framing Burke, and we find out once and for all what happened to Paul Stoddard 18 years ago.

Peter: I missed the first 200 episodes, sadly, but that first glide down the stairs convinces me that Roger is the long-lost brother of Frasier and Niles Crane. I hope we get to the wine-tasting episode quickly.

Christine: Great to have a big cast assembled for this epic episode. I love when Roger gives himself away by saying, "it's just another bribe." Whoops! As if that weren't enough, we get to hear Jason say that Liz killed Paul Stoddard and he buried him for her.

Peter: And how about that dialogue? At 3:03, Burke says something along the lines of "You're all a bunch of hippie... er, dippie... er... hippiecrits," but my favorite scene this episode may be when Burke goads Sam into "refreshing" Frasier's Roger's mind and Sam coos into the browbeaten magpie's ear, "You were driving, the car was weaving all over the road..." Evidently, worried that Sam won't get the entire incident recalled before the Hostess Ding-Dong commercial, he grabs his pawn by the arm, mutters "Okay, that's enough..." and finishes the story himself!

John: So Burke finally has his satisfaction, Roger gets away with murder, and Sam—Sam gets screwed. He doesn't get his paintings, allowing him to achieve the fame and fortune that was teased. Sadly, something tells me that we've probably heard the last of those paintings...

Peter: Cut to: Mister McGuire eavesdropping through a door fourteen inches thick.

Christine: It's hard to believe that he'd be simply satisfied with Roger's humiliating confession and would not want to seek to have his name cleared, but I guess it would be inconvenient to have the rest of Roger's scenes filmed in jail.

Peter: Those who think the kid playing David went to any kind of acting school, raise your hand. Now leave the auditorium, please.

John: It did feel like, after Liz took a stand regarding Roger to avoid being bullied by Burke, that she might do the same with Jason. But in the long run, it's still more dramatically exciting for him to be able to use his leverage against her.

Christine: I wonder how and why Liz killed Paul Stoddard, and how Carolyn would react to finding that out.

Peter: I gotta say, not having the patience of a Scoleri (he who has sat through every Godzilla flick at least a dozen times and she who had to grow up with the guy), I thought the episode was more enjoyable for the dialogue fumbles rather than any kind of a story. Sure, we avoid the usual soap opera shenanigans, but just about the entire running time is given over to a lot of talk about talking. I will say that the strange door in the cellar is intriguing but I sense we'll hear about it for a while rather than see what's behind it.