"All Bets Are Off" is an episode in the fifth season of The Golden Girls.
Following Blanche's advice, Rose pleads with Dorothy to take her to a horse-race track when Rose takes up painting and has trouble painting a horse by memory, but trouble ensues when Dorothy's gambling addiction resurfaces following said visit. Meanwhile Blanche goes out with a male coworker in the museum, only to become disgruntled due to him turning down her advances.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: This time, it's Blanche who responds in Sarcasm Mode, not Dorothy as is the usual case.Rose: [sees Blanche in her pajama] You're not gonna go to work dressed like that, are you?
Blanche: No, Rose, I'm gonna put on pumps instead of slippers. - Cool and Unusual Punishment:
- After Rose reveals that Dorothy had made bets when the two of them went to a horse-race track, Sophia asks to talk to Dorothy in the kitchen to address the danger of her falling back into her gambling addiction. When Dorothy refuses to talk, Sophia makes her comply by threatening to talk later in Dorothy's bedroom after consuming a bowl of chili. Dorothy complies at once.
- When Sophia insinuates that Blanche is old and refuses to play along with Blanche's insistence that she's not old once too many, Blanche threatens her to play along with "it's either that or a big rent raise".
- Compressed Vice: Dorothy's addiction to gambling.
- The Gambling Addict
- Dorothy. According to Sophia, she was one in the past, though she managed to get out of it.
- Dorothy inherited the problem from her father, whose last words were apparently, "ten bucks says I don't need this oxygen tank." Unlike Dorothy, Sal's gambling problem is referenced in other episodes.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Sophia busts Dorothy after finding betting slips in her purse. Her reason for going into Dorothy's purse? Stealing money from her daughter.
- Sophia's warning to Dorothy about her slipping back into her gambling addiction is mooching off her children, moving in with them, and having her children taking care of her... only to realize all of these words apply to Sophia herself.Sophia: OK, bad example.
- I Warned You: Dorothy reacts to Blanche dating a male coworker at the museum with skepticism, arguing that it's not a good idea. When Blanche tries to seduce her coworker at his place at nightfall, her coworker turns her down and takes her home, leaving her feeling, in her own words, "humiliated and degraded". It's only at the end of the episode that Blanche discovers her coworker has a strict personal policy against having sex with coworkers, much to Dorothy's vindication.Dorothy: I told you.
- Like Father, Like Son: "Daughter" in this case: This episode reveals Dorothy as The Gambling Addict like her father Sal used to be, and Sophia desperately tries to prevent Dorothy from slipping back into the addiction.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Rose of all people manages to do this successfully. When Dorothy needs to borrow money, Rose blithely offers her own bank card with no limit on when she could pay Rose back. When Dorothy protests Rose's apparent naivete, Rose keeps brushing her off until Dorothy finally blurts out that she is stealing Rose's money. Rose says that she knew that all along, but hoped that Dorothy wasn't so far gone that she would take advantage of someone who cares about her so much. This is what prompts Dorothy to finally admit how bad things have gotten and go back to Gambler's Anonymous.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: Blanche is told this by her coworker when she's nude at bedtime. She feels quite offended by it.
- Playing Hard to Get: Rose's advice to Blanche after the latter felt humiliated after her male coworker reacted to her naked body by telling her to Please Put Some Clothes On is to be less direct, citing a female opossum in St. Olaf that lures her mate with more subtle displays of sexual lust, which is included in a painting of hers, as an example.Rose: She plays hard to get. And, believe me, it works. I mean, men find them attractive.
Blanche: You mean "males".
Rose: No. I mean "men". - Understatement: During Dorothy and Sophia's dialogue regarding Dorothy's gambling addiction in the kitchen, Dorothy claims to have "a small problem" with gambling. Sophia, having lived with Dorothy and through her gambling addiction in the past, doesn't buy it.Sophia: "A small problem"? You even bet against your son's Little League team!
