There's enough material here for an entire conference.
—Doctor Abbott
A psychiatrist and his wife – also a doctor – come to the hotel for a weekend break, and cannot help but notice the eccentricities of their host who is perturbed when he discovers their professions. An attractive Australian girl also visits. She goes on to have certain awkward interactions with Fawlty as he seeks to catch Mr. Johnson with a non-paying guest that Johnson has in his bedroom.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Accidental Pervert: Basil becomes this both in his desperate attempts to avoid any implications about liking the Australian guest, and his efforts to prove that Johnson broke the rules by sneaking his girlfriend into a room lead him into one Not What It Looks Like after another.
- Bait-and-Switch: Basil declares to Sybil that he is going to get the girl that Mr Johnson smuggled into his room; and immediately afterwards, a knock is heard at Mr Johnson's door. However, it is Mrs Abbott who then enters the room, to return Mr Johnson's guide to Torquay. Basil then accidentally ambushes Mrs Abbott with a broom.
- Behind the Black: This is once used to conceal the walls of the set wobbling, when Sybil storms into the bedroom, and slams the door. The camera zooms in on Basil just before this, and the door is heard slamming. An outtakes video shows the wall wobbling considerably, followed by John Cleese (remaining in character) testing the wall, as he did earlier in the episode.
- Broomstick Quarterstaff: When Basil thinks he is about to catch Mr Johnson and his illicit guest, he leaps out of a cupboard brandishing a broom, saying "Right! The game's up." Unfortunately, he has ambushed Doctor and Mrs Abbott instead, and covers by sweeping the floor and the wall, saying "a bit of game pie got stuck up there".
- The Cat Came Back: The titular psychiatrist Dr Abbott keeps appearing every single time Basil is up to something awkward: when he listens at Mr Johnson's door, when he sneaks into Raylene's room, when he tries to peer through Mr Johnson's window (and accidentally looks into the Abbotts' room instead), when he drops Mr Johnson's champagne bottle, when he shakes Manuel upside down in the corridor, when he tries to accost Mr Johnson's illicit guest by brandishing a broom.
- Closet Shuffle: This happens several times in the episode. Basil hides in a broom cupboard in the corridor, as he attempts to ambush Johnson's girlfriend emerging, but he ends up ambushing the Abbotts instead. Soon after this, he hides in the same cupboard, just before he pounces on Raylene, again mistaking her for Johnson's girlfriend. A few minutes later, Sybil goes into Raylene's room to apologise for Basil's behaviour, and then finds Basil hiding in the wardrobe there, telling her he is checking the hinges.
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: When Basil is convinced that Mr. Johnson is hiding a young woman in his room. He thinks he's finally cornered the offenders, triumphantly calls out this trope...and out comes his wizened little mother. This, for once, is a non-creepy example.
- Exiled to the Couch: Sybil suspects that Basil has been peering through a window at a pretty young guest, and banishes him from the bedroom, not caring where he sleeps that night. He is seen going into a broom cupboard, and the next morning, is found at the top of the stairs.
- Hollywood Darkness: A scene when Basil sneaks into Raylene's dark room clearly has a light shining on her in the bed.
- Jerkass Ball: Sybil grips it tightly in this episode.
- Long List: Sybil lists her mother's fears to Mr Johnson, in her habit of talking at guests.Sybil: Rats, doorknobs, birds, heights, open spaces, confined spaces, it's very difficult getting the space right for her... footballs, bicycles, cows, and she's always on about men following her. I don't know what she thinks they're going to do to her; vomit on her, Basil says... and death.
- Mistaken from Behind: Basil seizes a young woman from behind, believing her to be a non-paying guest. It is in fact the pretty Australian girl Raylene, with a different outfit and hairstyle from when he saw her previously.Basil: I'm sorry, I thought you were somebody else.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: Sybil banishes Basil from the bedroom. It is implied he sleeps in the broom cupboard that night.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Happens when Dr. Abbott, the titular psychiatrist asks Basil about holidays. Basil thinks Abbott is asking about sex (because that's what psychiatrists are "all obsessed with").Dr. Abbott: We were just speculating how people in your profession arrange their holidays. How often you can get away. (Basil isn't listening)
Basil: Hm?
Dr. Abbott: How often do you manage it?
Basil: Pardon?
Dr. Abbott: How often can you and your wife manage it? You don't mind my asking?
Basil: Not at all. Not at all. About average, since you asked.
Mrs. Abbott: Average?
Basil: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Abbott: What would be average?
Basil: Well, you tell me.
Mrs. Abbott: Well, um, couple of times a year?
Basil: What?
Dr. Abbott: Once a year? Well, we knew it must be difficult. My wife didn't see how you could manage it at all.
Basil: Well, as you've asked, two or three times a week, actually.
Dr. Abbott: A week?
Basil: Yes. Pretty normal, isn't it? We're quite normal down here in Torquay, you know? - Primal Chest-Pound: Basil beats his chest like Tarzan, saying he is just enjoying himself; he does this soon after Sybil has mentioned that monkeys know how to have fun and enjoy themselves. He does this in the presence of the titular psychiatrist, although Basil does not yet know this.
- Properly Paranoid: Basil is convinced that Mr Johnson has smuggled a girl into his room. He has, but Basil's attempts to prove it fail because no one believes him and Sybil thinks he's just trying to get close to the pretty Australian woman in the next room.
- Running Gag: Basil is often caught listening at walls in the episode, and each time, he covers by sounding the wall, in the manner of a doctor sounding a patient's chest.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Basil Fawlty mistakes a guest's breast for a light switch as he was trying to turn on the light from the other side of the door. Naturally, Sybil walks in at just the right moment. Later, Basil accidentally gets his hand covered in black paint just before he leaps out of a storage room intending to catch a girl who he believes has snuck into the hotel to spend the night with a male guest. He doesn't catch the girl he's expecting, but he does grab the same female guest from earlier, and he has just planted a black print of his entire hand on her breast. Once again, Sybil comes along just in time to see Basil's unfortunately placed hand print.
- The Unfair Sex: Played for Laughs; Sybil hits the roof when Basil finds himself inadvertently getting into all sorts of compromising situations surrounding an attractive young Australian guest. However, she has spent much of the very same episode shamelessly flirting with an attractive male guest, and she has frequently done so with other male guests in the past as well. Though Basil did appear to be repeatedly groping and making advances towards the women while Sybil never went beyond flirting.
- World's Shortest Book: Johnson says the guidebook about interesting things in Torquay must be "one of the world's shortest books," like "The Wit of Margaret Thatcher" or "Great English Lovers."
