Recap / Cheers S 7 E 21

Episode: Season 7, Episode 21
Title: Sisterly Love
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: April 27, 1989
Previous: Call Me Irresponsible
Next: The Visiting Lecher
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Marcia Cross

"Sisterly Love" is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of Cheers.

Great news, Rebecca's sister Susan (Marcia Cross) is in town. The bad news? Rebecca hates her. Maybe it's because Susan is a highly successful actress (a Scream Queen, in fact), while Rebecca's working as an unappreciated corporate stooge. Or maybe it's because Susan also tends to steal every boy Rebecca's ever been interest in. Of course, Sam overhears this, and starts getting an idea on how to finally seduce Miss Howe... and the other Miss Howe, while he's at it.

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Tropes:

• And This Is for...: Rebecca, when she "shoots" Susan, citing the name of every boy she ever had a crush on. That she also cites Sam's name as she's firing probably should've been a tip-off to Sammy...
• Call-Back: In "Paint Your Office", Rebecca told Sam about her sister, and how she hated her. We finally get to see just why.
• Chekhov's Gun: Susan performs a scene from one of her movies for the bar. Sam doesn't witness it, meaning he doesn't realize she's faking it when Rebecca finally "snaps".
• Conflict Killer: Sam's thoughtless attempts at seducing the Sisters Howe allow them to reconcile, by means of humiliating him.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Susan using the same line—"I'm too young to die!", followed by a scream—that she used when performing for the bar, foreshadows that she and Rebecca are playing a prank on Sam.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Between Rebecca (smart, but not successful in anything) and Susan (glamorous, very successful, and more easily accepted by everyone at Cheers).
• Manchild: Prolonged exposure to one another soon reduces Rebecca and Susan to shouting at one another like teenagers. In public, in Melville's.
  Susan: Shut up!
  Rebecca: You shut up!
  Susan: Shut up!
  Rebecca: SHAAAADAAAAAP!!!
• Not So Above It All:
  • The normally sophisticated and upper-class Frasier has a fondness for B-movie schlock films about mutants. Who'da thunk it?
  • Joining in on pranking Sam and then laughing at his misery is... Lilith? Is she doing it for some psychological study, or scientific curiosity? Nope. Funsies, same as everyone else, and she's got no more sympathy for Sam as the others.
  Sam: This is the kinda thing that can screw a person up, right Lilith?
  Lilith: No, it was funny, Sam.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Frasier is making fun of Lilith's mother, something he's apparently been doing for some time, to score points with the boys in the bar. He makes the mistake of doing this when Lilith's there. Bad move.
  Lilith: You know I have a sense of humor about mother. Now say goodbye to your friends, you're grounded for six weeks.
• Old Shame: In-universe. Susan did two mutant movies, and she'd prefer not to talk about the other one, which given the level of acting she displays from the better one is more than a little terrifying.
• Operation: Jealousy: How Sam hopes to finally get with Rebecca. It doesn't work.
• Perfumigation: When Sam covers Rebecca's eyes to reveal the Susan surprise, Rebecca says "Sam, move your hand; your cologne is stinging my eyes."
• Screaming Woman: Susan's specialty, it seems, is being a scream queen in cheesy horror films. She demonstrates her scream for the bar.
• Trailers Always Spoil: A variation- on some services (like Stan in Australia), the episode description spoils the Plot Twist that the estranged Sisters Howe team up to “teach Sam a humiliating lesson”.