Ebbtide's Revenge

"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy." This article is incomplete. You can help the Golden Girls Wiki by expanding it.

Ebbtide's Revenge is the twelfth episode of the sixth season of The Golden Girls and the one-hundred and fortieth episode overall. Directed by Matthew Diamond and written by Marc Sotkin, it premiered on NBC-TV on December 15th, 1990.

Summary[]

Dorothy's brother Phil dies and Dorothy must travel to New York to give the eulogy. At the funeral, the long-running feud between Sophia and Phil's widow culminates in Sophia's revelation of her true feelings about her son‘s cross-dressing lifestyle.

Plot[]

The ladies are prepared to go to the funeral of Dorothy's little brother, Phil. Dorothy and the rest of the family are in shock, as he died unexpectedly of a heart attack while trying on a dress at Big Gals Payless. Sophia has been showing little emotion, worrying the other ladies.

At the funeral, which is in Miami at the Family Plot, Sophia and Angela, Phil's widow, aren't talking, carrying on a feud for twenty-six years, exacerbated by Phil being buried in a black teddy. At the cemetery, Dorothy gives a eulogy praising the man Phil was, but breaks down when she admits she's a little angry that Phil died, leaving her to give the eulogy at her kid brother's funeral, something she never wanted to do. To cheer Angela up and hopefully end the feud, Dorothy invites Angela to stay, but clearly Sophia is remaining cold. Angela confronts her about how little she visited Phil or their children after she married him, and every time Christmas and family events came, Phil pretended to be happy but part of him was sad because he couldn't be with the rest of his family.

Angela questions Sophia's hatred of her, and Sophia tells her that her $47 dowry check bounced. Angela writes a check for $47, exclaiming that she doesn't know who she's more angry at -- her father for thinking he needed to pay a dowry, or Sophia for letting the feud go on for so long. However, Sophia demands to see a driver's license and a major credit card, as she's been given an out-of-state check. Angela storms back into the kitchen to book the next flight home, but Dorothy brings Angela back to the living room to learn the real reason for Sophia's disdain.

As Sophia and Angela refuse to speak, Rose uses her experience in grief counseling to learn the truth: Sophia wanted Angela to stop Phil's cross-dressing. Angela insists that it didn't begin with her. Sophia becomes defensive, and Rose asks if she felt it was embarrassing to her, which Sophia confirms. She asks Angela if Phil was a good husband, a good father, and a good provider, which Angela affirms. Rose paraphrases a story of a cousin that was different, and his mother was ashamed to the point where it ruined her life. Rose encourages Sophia not to let that happen to her, and that it was okay that she loved him.

Sophia admits that she did love Phil, but always wondered what she said or did that made Phil the way that he was. Angela insists that what Phil was a good man. Sophia cries "My baby is gone!", and Angela gives her a consoling hug while the other ladies look on in tears.^[1]

Tall Tales[]

Back in St. Olaf...[]

To be added.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

• Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
• Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
• Betty White as Rose Nylund
• Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo

Guest Stars[]

• Brenda Vaccaro as Angela
• Earl Boen as Father Salerno

Notes[]

• This is the final episode of The Golden Girls to be released in 1990.
• Dorothy and Phil's sister Gloria doesn't appear at the funeral.

Production[]

• Estelle Getty had the writers remove jokes about Sophia insulting Phil being a crossdresser because she didn't think a mother would be that heartless.
• Earl Boen, who plays the priest at Phil's wake, also plays the priest at Dorothy's wedding to Lucas Hollingsworth in the series finale.

Continuity[]

• Dorothy asks Rose if she's ever given a eulogy. Rose gave a eulogy for her Aunt Gretchen but she does so on the plane, as a tropical storm diverts the flight to the funeral.

Goofs[]

• Angela tells Dorothy that she just received a promotion as Chief Makeup Artist at Bamberger's in Newark, New Jersey. However, by the time this episode aired, Bamberger's had been defunct for four years, being absorbed formally and rebranded as Macy's. This included their flagship store in Newark.
• After Angela leaves the living room with the check, Dorothy stands up and slams the photo album down on the coffee table. The sides of the album are in line with the corners of the table, but in the next shot, the album is lying on the table at an angle.
• At the funeral scene, when Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose are at the casket (not visible) they notice Phil is clothed in a teddy. When the priest arrives and views the body (and is startled by the sight), you can see that the lid to the casket was removed altogether for the entire scene.

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