Recap / The Golden Girls S 07 E 18 Journey To The Center Of Attention

"Journey To The Center Of Attention" is an episode in the seventh season of The Golden Girls.

Tired of seeing Dorothy lazing around at home, Blanche makes Dorothy visit the Rusty Anchor, Blanche's favorite hangout, for some socialization with the men congregating there, but problems arise when Dorothy becomes popular with the menfolk there and her newfound popularity threatens to upstage Blanche. Meanwhile Sophia decides to have a wake for herself after she and Rose attends one for someone else in the hope of receiving words of goodwill while she's still alive, only for the results to turn disastrous due to a misunderstanding.

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Tropes in this episode:

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: According to Rose, the Cheerful Funeral she and Sophia just returned from, where the body of the deceased was laid out in the open, was all in good fun "until one of the relatives got drunk and started slow-dancing with the corpse".
• Assurance Backfire:
  • After Rose recounts the incident where one of the dead person's relative slow-danced with the deceased person's cadaver after getting drunk, Blanche proceeds to cajole Dorothy to go to the Rusty Anchor with her. Dorothy frets over not being able to successfully socialize with the Rusty Anchor patrons, and Blanche's words of assurance do nothing to ease Dorothy's concern.
    Dorothy: Oh, Blanche, what if no one wants to talk to me? What if nobody asks me to dance?
    Blanche: Now, Dorothy, think. If there's somebody out there who's willing to dance with a corpse, there's somebody willing to dance with you!
  • In the process of cost-saving while organizing a Cheerful Funeral for Sophia, Rose volunteers to make the hors d'oeuvres. Sophia isn't pleased due to her lack of confidence towards Rose's culinary competence, though she agrees soon afterwards, if reluctantly.
    Rose: I'll make the hors d'oeuvres.
    Sophia: Some wake. Scandinavian crap on a cracker. [feigns a smile upon noticing Rose looking at her with a hurt expression] I mean, thank you.
  • After the guests for Sophia's wake have left in anger due to a misunderstanding about Sophia's still-alive status, Blanche and Rose try to cheer Sophia up. It's zigzagged here: Blanche manages to get Sophia to recognize the intended purpose of the wake despite its Epic Fail status, but Rose's words fail to cheer Sophia up at all.
    Blanche: The important thing is they came. And when they thought you were dead, they were sad. Now that counts for something.
    Sophia: Yeah, I guess you were right, but I still wish my wake hadn't been such a disaster.
    Rose: Look on the bright side. You'll have another one.
• Attending Your Own Funeral: Sophia decides to have a wake in order to find out how many people actually like her. However, it backfires when Rose forgets to mention in the invitations that Sophia isn't dead - and the guests arrive in tears and are actually mad when they learn that Sophia is in fact alive.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: One such example takes place late in the episode after all four of the girls arrive at the Rusty Anchor, with Dorothy getting the undivided attention and admiration from all patrons and the bartender. Possibly a variation in that Blanche interjects in between the setup and the punchline, but otherwise played straight.
  Blanche: Hey, what about me?
  Random man: Blanche!
  Blanche: That's more like it.
  Random man: Shut the door.
  [Blanche shuts the door behind her, looking absolutely affronted]
• Cheerful Funeral: Rose and Sophia describe a wake they returned home from at the start of the episode as such. Witnessing the joyous atmosphere in such a wake drives her to have one for herself while she's still alive.
• Epic Fail:
  • Blanche's singing performance at the Rusty Anchor ends with disaster, and she concludes her performance by running into the women's bathroom, visibly upset, causing Dorothy to follow her there to talk things out with her.
  • Sophia's wake ends up turning out badly because Rose neglected to clarify before sending out the invitations that Sophia is still alive. The guests are in for a shock when Sophia shows up, in the flesh, before their shock turns into anger.
• Erotic Eating: At one point Blanche does this by tying the cherry stem while men watch her at it at the Rusty Anchor. The first performance is fine, but the second one gets derailed when Dorothy shows up at that moment, resulting in all the men there immediately turning their attention to her and leaving Blanche alone, who nearly chokes on the cherry stem due to the sudden shift of focus.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Once Blanche chats with a guest in Sophia's wake and realizes that the guest believes Sophia has died, she takes Rose aside to ask her if she remembered to clarify to the guests that Sophia is actually still alive. Rose tries to defend herself... and fails.
  Blanche: Rose? Now, I want you to think now, very carefully. When you sent out those invitations, you did remember to tell everyone Sophia is really alive, didn't you?
  Rose: Blanche, I'm offended. How dumb do you think I am? I put it — (beat) I made the freaking hors d'oeuvres. Leave me alone!
• Gone Horribly Right: Blanche drags Dorothy to the Rusty Anchor in the hope of getting Dorothy more active socially, but she soon has second thoughts when Dorothy becomes popular enough in the place to challenge her status of popularity, culminating in Blanche trying to outperform Dorothy (musically, as Dorothy becomes popular after singing to the patrons there) — with disastrous results.
  Dorothy: I don't understand what you're so upset about.
  Blanche: The Rusty Anchor is my place, damn it, not yours.
  Dorothy: Blanche, you were the one who begged me to come down here. You were the one who told me to get a life.
  Blanche: Well, I didn't mean mine. I didn't know you were going to come in here and just take my place away from me.
• Hypocritical Humor: Sophia invites Dorothy to attend a wake, and Dorothy declines... until she learns the wake is Sophia's.
  Sophia: Dorothy, how would you like to go to the wake next Friday?
  Dorothy: Ma, you know how I feel about those things. It's sad and depressing. Whose wake is it, anyway?
  Sophia: Mine.
  Dorothy: What time?
• Ironic Echo: Blanche discloses to Dorothy early in the episode of an exercise Blanche uses to boost her self-confidence ("I'm Blanche Devereaux. I'm beautiful, men find me desirable, and people want to be my friends."), but it gets this treatment twice.
  • After Blanche tells Dorothy to try it out, Dorothy parrots the entire statement (except stating her own name instead of Blanche's), only for Blanche to tell her that Dorothy should talk about attributes that actually apply to Dorothy herself instead.
  • Blanche tries to use the same tactic late in the episode upon witnessing everyone inside the Rusty Anchor clamoring around Dorothy while ignoring her, but her self-confidence has plummeted so much that the tactic fails to cheer her up.
    Blanche: I'm Blanche Devereaux. I'm beautiful, men find me desirable... [on the verge of tearing up] and my life is over.
    Rose: [to Sophia] Boy, when that mask falls off, it really makes a thud.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Of a sort. When Dorothy becomes popular at the Rusty Anchor, where Blanche is known for being easy and the men usually tell dirty jokes in front of her, a man chides another for attempting to make such a joke in the presence of a lady... Dorothy.
• No Longer with Us: Sophia's wake turns badly because Rose, who's in charge of the invitations (and everything else regarding the wake), neglected to mention that Sophia is still alive, causing the attendants to harbor a somber mood at the wake. It only gets worse when Sophia greets the guests personally, unaware that said guests thought she had already died.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Seeing Dorothy being popular is unheard of for Sophia, so actually witnessing it at the Rusty Anchor late in the episode causes her to tear up.
  Sophia: My Dorothy is popular. After 60 years of bargaining with God, it's finally happened. *looks up* Per our agreement, I'm off to Calcutta to work with the poor.
• Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: During Blanche's singing performance (which ends badly), she asks a man with a hand in his suit pocket: "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" The man pulls a gun out of his pocket and places it on the table.
• Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Blanche does this late in the episode, complete with a red dress. It fails badly when she kicks one of her shoes across the room, nearly slides off the piano, and gets herself tangled up in the microphone cord.