Episode 15 - Louie Sees The Light

Weird way media. Ni miss is she that guy with it? Now? He's an actor at the phone, I can drive. I'm the only camp driver in his place.

Hello everyone, and welcome tonight mister Walters Taxi Podcast. I'm your co host HP, and with me as always is my other co host, father Malone, Father m Alone. How are you hey, everybody? I don't have anything fun to this. Well, that's okay.

We are talking this week about episode fifteen, Louis Sees the Light. It was written by Ruth Bennett, and it was, of course, it was directed by James Barbs. The reminder that we are doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming, and this is a Louis centric episode, which I'm actually very excited about. I don't think we've had a Louis centric episode since his high school reunion. Is that my remembering that correctly?

No? Absolutely, I wrote in my notes, Oh my god, I love a Louis episode. Yeah, no, this is always cause for celebration. So we start in the garage. I don't think we've ever seen this kind of I think we're led to believe that it's Louis starting his shift, because we see him walking in.

He's got his overcoat on and we see him take off the code and enter the cage getting ready for his shift. And a new Cavey is starting. His name is Goodwin. He's starting today, and Louis instructs him in the three things that he needs to remember. First of all, it's John Dicaccus.

I was getting to that. I was going to get to that only know from John's two. Baby. Well, let's get into this. You want to talk about this clumsy set up for a payoff later in the episode with this sure, this non character we're never going to see again.

Yeah, let's dig in Goodwin. This new Cabby is played by John Doucaccas. He is the nephew of Olympia Ducaccus. He is the adoptive son of former Massachusetts governor and US presidential candidate Michael Ducaucus. I think you had said that he was in Jaws two.

I didn't see much else in his CV. What else was he in? I don't know. I just remember at the time that movie playing on cable like one billion times. In every kid in my neighborhood, for some reason, knew that John Doucaccus is one of the kids on the boats, John do Cock.

Look there he is. There is John Ducaccus, because what we knew the name of his dad, so it became important for some reason. I don't you know. He started a lot of episonic television after that, and I think he's producing now. He's still working.

So we can't overstate what a popular governor Michael Ducaccus was in those years. He even did a guest spot on Cheers, if I'm remembering correctly, I think it was like the Cold Opening basically, and in walks Michael Ducaccas. He was enormously popular, and the name Ducaccas is so specific and unique that you can't help. But there are too many docaucuses I would think that aren't related in some way, shape or form to Michael or Olympia d Caucus. Let's say that we were talking about this clumsy sort of scheme to bring in these three rules so they can pay off later in the episode.

So Louis says, there's three things this new Cabby Goodwin needs to remember and they'll get along. He said, Number one, keep your bookings high. Number two called at least twenty four hours ahead of time if you're going to miss work. And three, and Louis makes a meal of this three. Most importantly, there's a word that he never wants to hear.

And what is that word? Fatherm alone, It's Chekhov's accident. If you mentioned an accident in the first act, you have to reveal an accident in the third. This goes on for a while. He makes a show of asking the cave's what the word is, and of course they remain silent because they know that Louis hates the word accident.

Goodwin walks away, never to be seen in this episode or in this show ever again to my knowledge. So in walks Burns, who gives Louis his bookings. As we've seen in prior episodes, Louis is livid at how little Burns has for driving all night. He proceeds to start chewing Burns out in front of the other caves. But in the midst of this tirade that Louie is throwing at him, Louie grimaces in pain at his midsection.

He grabs at his midsection and he has to stop. The Cabby's ask him what's going on? Has this happened before? And Louis confesses, yeah, this has been happening for about a month, and Alex recommends Louis si a doctor, which Louis replied, eyes incredulously see a doctor for a simple gut wrenching pain. He's really really a misery.

So Louis finally relents and says he's going to head off. He literally goes from there out to the doctor. Okay, Burns is clearly there to stir up the medical condition within Louie. He's been observing him for weeks, and he has deemed that this is the morning he's going to strike now on a realistic level, on an actual Naxi show level, that is the only explanation. It's the only realistic explanation, because nothing else can excuse Burns' behavior leading up to Louise's attack while Louie is dressing him down.

Watch how disaffected and dopey Burns appears while all this invective is being thrown at him. He's not even there. So either Burns is the devil or Carver is a terrible scene partner. Yeah, it's interesting because in other sitcoms, in other movies and so forth, that you see this situation play out in where somebody inadvertently causes something to happen to someone else, a medical thing, maybe they collapse or they have an accident. What normally tends to happen in those cases is the character that precipitates this situation blames themselves and is guilt written and even says, Oh, it's my fault that such and such had an accident, or it's my fault that he fell and now he's in the hospital.

This never happens with Burns. Burns makes an appearance at the hospital, we'll talk about that momentarily with the rest of the cabvies and Burns has interactions with Louis, but never once does Burns express remorse for Louis having this terrible medical situation unfold as a result of getting shootout right, I'm not wrong about that. So the conclusion we have no choice but to draw is that he doesn't care. And perhaps this is due to some design, this long design that he's been playing out, and it's finally coming to fruition, rather chilling when you think about it. At this point we cut to a great b roll shot.

Did you note the hospital the name of the hospital that Louis has gone to. I did not. It is University Hospital. I don't know if they still exist, but that's the signs. It's interesting because the cab we see drive up to the hospital is not one of the checker cabs that we're used to seeing the one that drives up to the hospital.

I don't know if we're supposed to believe that's Louis or when the CAB's but it's like a very modern like Crown Vic or something. I thought that was interesting. It's the only time I can recall seeing a new version of a cab that part of the b roll I did notice. In fact, I could never have noticed the name of the hospital because I was so fixated on this boxy, gross eighties k car looking cab that they're trying to pass off for one of these beautiful old checkers. So the cab pulls up and we cut inside to Louis.

He's surrounded by the cabbys by Laca there. Now, I have another side note for you. Now, throughout this whole season of Taxi, we're led to believe that they hate Louis with a passion. They're miserable. Louis takes such glee in making their lives miserable.

Why on Earth. Are all of the cabbies gathered around his bedside like some sort of adoring family. It didn't make sense to me. Job security listen. Riager is there for the right reasons, Nardo is there for the right reasons.

Wheeler wouldn't be there regardless. Banta I don't think would be there either. I think Laca would be there because he has a weird bond with Louie, and Burns of course would be there because he's just reveling in not only the pain that Louie is exhibiting, but he has a whole hospital to feed on. Everybody despises Louie. It didn't make sense to me that they Burns a particular Burns.

Louie threatened to fire Burns just before he had this attack. Why would I just don't know why Burns would unless he's taking some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing Louie suffer, which is possible. Of course, he offered driving them there himself. As an additional side note, you mentioned this in the previous podcast episode that Bobby is wearing quite a fancy trench coat, like a London fog. It's so different from his usual leather jacket.

It's it's almost as if a leather jacket could not conceal a harness. I thought it was odd that he's wearing this fancy, baggy oversize trench for who knows what reason. But anyway, well, let's keep an eye on that. It bears watching for the rest of the episode. Louis thanks the Caves for coming, and Nardo says, of course they would, because he sent a note that said, quite plainly, please come see me before I die.

And Alex tries to comfort Louis and say, Louis, it's just an exploratory operation. You're not going to die. But Louis is having none of it. He's scared. He's frightened of the whole prospect of being in the hospital.

And as he says it, he's never even been in the hospital before. Bobby counters with, hey, you were born, weren't you. You've been in the hospital before. Here's where we learn another interesting detail about Louis. Louis says, I wasn't born in a hospital.

He was delivered on a kitchen table by a midwife, well only half of a table, because he says his father was eating dinner on the other half of the table. But what a world we're learning about young Louis de Palma all the time. This is, as it turns out, his first visit to a hospital. What I think is odd about that claim is, let's assume for a minute that Louis has had no significant health issues. He's never broken his leg, he might not have ever been to a hospital, but he was in the military, so he has had examinations.

Sure. I guess my point is even before the army, we know that Louis is diminutive, right, couldn't one assume that Louie's mother might have taken him to the hospital or to the doctors to look into why his son was not growing the way he should as a child. Maybe he was diminutive as well, and trying to figure out is there some kind of nutritional issue? Why is he not growing? I'm surprised to hear that he's never been to a hospital before, and I'm going to call bullshit on that.

Well, at a certain point on this series, does not Louis to Palma's mother show up on the show, and is she not played by Danny DeVito's actual mother. That's a yes and yes, right, And he towers over her so knowing that she would never take that kid to the hospital because to her he was a giant. But then again, we've already met Louie's brother in a full house for Christmas Nicki, and Nicki is much taller than Louie, so one would assume that, knowing that the hype disparity, there might be something going on with Louie. I don't know what happened is they took Nicki to be checked out because he was so they thought he was suffering from gigantism, and they said, no, he's normal, and your other son is a normal too.

Here's I keep cutting in with these side notes, but this one was a little alarming. They as they're having this sort of discussion around the hospital bed, they cut to a wide shot of the whole assemblage, And did you notice Bobby's behavior during this wide shot? It was totally bizarre. He starts scratching his head this big mane of hair that he has and shaking it violently. It almost looks like he has head lice.

He's just like he's scratching his head like very violently. Did you notice that, Well, yeah, I did notice him. And what I chalk that up to is Jeff Conaway was given nothing to do in the scene, and you're gonna look at him anyway. God damn it. That's probably true why Laurence Olivia was a blonde hamlet.

Louis offers the group some chocolate along the way, making time to insult Burns because Burns says, no thanks, I only eat natural things, to which Louis replies, how'd you like a sack of dirt? Which is apropro of nothing. He just comes at Burns like a shot. Did you notice that? Yeah?

Oh, I agreed with him, though I thought, yeah, good for you his face. No, I don't need know natural things. Sugar is naturally dummy. Eat a piece of fruit without sugar. Maron, this is but this is a great piece of physical comedy on Andy Kaufman's part.

Is it great physical comedy or is it just galuttony? I think it's great physical comedy. He gives the box to Loca, and Loaca proceeds to eat. Oh, and this takes what like thirty seconds? It's a long time.

He eat one by one, and they're supposed to be chocolates. He pops them into his mouth and eats them one after one each one, maybe taking a half second to eat, goes through the whole box except for one, much to Bobby's consternation, because Bobby, again to your point, he has nothing else to do in this scene. So Jeff Conaway makes a big show of looking with astonishment at this display going on. Oh, I didn't think. I didn't think Bobby was waiting for his turn for the chocolates.

I thought he was completely disgusted watching him do it. He seems genuinely nauseated, like he watching him do it. Yeah. No, I thought Jeff Conway's his actorly instincts there are great. I'm not suggesting that he was waiting for his turn.

I'm suggesting that in registering the disgust, he goes over the top so that you notice him. Laka eats all of them except for one, which that's the joke. Louis said, I told you only have one, and Laca misunderstood that I want you to eat all of them but one. It's almost like chuggle Ug Guy from the High School Reunion episode, where it's such a prodigious thing to watch any Kaufman eat these chocolates. There's like thirty of them or something, and what's interesting is there was a This was written about in the Lovey's book, The Official Taxi Fan Guide.

I didn't know this. According to Dandy DeVito, Haufman insisted on having special sponge sugar candies that look like chocolates to be made up because he wanted to be able to eat the whole box and register it. So these things look like chocolate, but because they were spunge sugar, they would just dissolve when you ate them. But evidently Kaufman ate them during run through, he ate them during rehearsals, he ate them during filming, and he also ate them during pickups. So according to DeVito, he went through six or seven boxes of these things, just one after the other after the other.

That's commitment, if nothing else. I think for the second rehearsal, I'd be like, and here's the chocolates and we'll just take those back. He just here's a fake box. Yeah, that's why he's Andy Kaufman. So he finishes the business with the chocolates and the nurse comes in and says they have to leave.

It's time for them to leave again. Astonishingly, Nardo even gives Louis a peck on the cheek. It's ridiculous. The things that Louis does to the Cabby's and Nardo in particular, can only be described as reprehensible. And yet here she is tenderly comforting Louis and giving him a kiss on the cheek to make him feel better.

I'm not sure how I feel about this, Father Malone. Listen, you're always going on about what a sweetheart Nardo is, that she's always pure and trying to lead everyone in the right direction. So this is actually in keeping with that philosophy. I believe that she knows that he's going to come back a changed person, and he's going to remember those who were around the bed. She's going to get better bookings since she can map around her other career and work her way out of that goddamn garage.

I think it's all calculation on Nardo's part, So Nardo's playing along con as well. Hell yaat that makes sense. They go to leave and Louis asks Reager to come back because he wants to talk to him alone for a minute. Again, this is underscoring the idea that Louis and Alex have a very unique relationship. This isn't something that he can feel comfortable to talk to Banta about or a certainly wheeler, it's not going to happen, but Alex, he knows that Alex is not just an underlink, that he sees him as more of a contemporary.

Alex kind of protests and says, well, the nurse said it's time for us to go, and Louis says, well, this won't take long. This is just about life and death and God, to which Alex replies, well, good, then I guess I won't have to sit down. Louis confesses to Alex that he's really he's not just scared, he is terrified. He's convinced that something's going to go wrong, that he's not going to make it off that operating table. He asks Reager if he's a religious man, which Alex cryptically responds in a way, I am, which I thought was kind of fascinating that he would describe himself as usly.

I mean, are we to believe? I mean, I guess, first of all, I don't know if it's ever called out, but I've always thought that Rieger was Jewish, right, Yeah, he's saying he's not explicitly Jewish as his religion. I think, as we both know, Riger worships the giant bat that lives under riager manner that inspired him to become the Batman. He's the crime fighter. Right.

When I think about Rigor, though, I guess if I'm imagining his religious sort of outlook, and maybe this isn't called out. I always assumed that maybe he was Jewish, but now kind of considers himself an atheist because he's a pragmatist, he's a realist. I guess maybe in the interest of comforting Louis, maybe he's playing along. You know, he could also be a Buddhist and he just doesn't feel like explaining himself. Rigor was in his prime in the sixties.

He might have leaned toward Eastern mysticism. It could be he was maybe raised Jewish then became more philosophical in his religious outlook. It's possible. Louis then proceeds in Riger's presence to pray to God. He confesses how rotten he's been all his life.

He vows to be the best person he can be if he lives through the operation, He's going to be a whole new Louis to Palma, He's going to be honest, he's going to be generous, he's going to be kind, all of these things that he aspires to be. Let's remember exactly what he said, which you just enumerated, going to be a whole new person, going to be generous, going to be kind. Not that that's important, not that that's the setup here, sure, but technically, and I was careful with how I said this. His exact words are something more along the lines of I will be the best person that I can possibly be. That is not what he says.

That is what Riger says. And if you go back and listen, he says, I'm going to be a whole new Louis de Palma behind I'm going to be generous, I'm going to be these other things. At the end of the episode, Riger says, you didn't say any of that. You just said You're going to be the best you you can be. Thus, the moral of this story of this episode HP is a broken vow can easily be mended through lies.

The nurse arrives to take Louis into the operating room, which I think is odd because in my own experience, not that I've had many hospital visits, but in my experience, the time before you go to the operating room, they're usually giving you something to calm you down, to prepare you for the operation, but none of that happens here. That's the way they're bringing him. They're bringing him from his room to the anesthetist, that's his first stop, and then he'll be going to the surgical suite. What's more concerning is the state of those rickety fucking gurneys that they're just heaving him onto and then rolling him through the hospital with those things look at dangerous. Last night I was watching the Colombo episode with Leonard Demoy, So Nimoy plays a surgeon who's trying to kill He's trying to kill his partner in this research project, this old benevolent doctor.

Anyway, the doctor has a faulty heart valve, and Nimoy stitches him up with dissolving stitches so that he will die days later and no one will ever suspect that he's responsible. It'll look like a heart attack. Janius, I'm watching this with my brother and my nephew, and we're watching this play out. At the beginning, this old doctor is getting taken by ambulance to the hospital because he's having this heart episode. The way they convey him on this stretcher from the ambulance to the oar is shameful.

It's like you said, it's rickety. They're actually like when they get to his room, they actually make him get up off the gurney himself. Everything doing is what you're taught not to do in modern day medicine. I was horrified, how about the old swinging Doris, that they would use the gurney to batter through as if the patient might not enjoy that. The gurneys themselves were really low to the ground, to the point where they have a little bar like a luggage going through the airport.

They're just kind of hustling this guy anyway. I just had to mention that in the context of this because it was similar. And now we cut back to the garage. Tony is asking the rest of the cabbys if Louie's back yet again. This is so weird because they all hate Louis up to this point, but Nardo was expressing admiration for how quickly Louis bounced back from his operation.

The only one who maybe sees through this charade is Bobby. And there's Bobby he's wearing his mysterious trench coat. Still we don't know why yet, we haven't seen why, but he's loving his trench coat. It's not covering up anything I know, No, definitely not. Turns out that all Louis had were gallstones, which I understand are very, very painful.

I'm not downplaying that, but certainly not life threatening. So that's good. Nardo mentions Louis deal with God and wonders to the rest of the cabvies if he'll keep it. Now here's where the King asshole comes into this. Bobby.

In a way, this episode, in the previous one, Friends, is a two part episode about how far can Bobby take being a jerk? Right? Yeah, because in Friends he kills his best friend's fish and it's just an overall self absorbed asshole. But here he's trying to push Louis to break his vow with God in the interest of winning a bet. Bobby basically says he's doubtful that Louis can keep up this charade for more than ten minutes.

Hb this is more than just showing us more of what a prick Bobby Wheeler is. They've now made this mythological a mini version of the Book of Job with Alex Rieger as God and Bobby Wheeler in the role of the accuser. Of course, Louie to Palma is going to be good for right now. He doesn't have any of these things taken away from him yet wait till we see what happens. Alex, of all people, sticks up for Louie and he says he's gonna make it because he was there.

Let's not forget he was there with Louis when he made his solemn vow to God. Bobby puts fifty dollars on the table and says Louis can't go one day without abusing someone in the garage. And to this Alex is incredulous. He says, would Bobby really make a bet against a man's solemn vow to God? And then what does Bobby do to just seal the deal about what an asshole he is?

Oh? I don't know. What does he do? He offers two to one odds oh okay, which immediately entices Alex to take the bet. Alex is betting that he won't break his vow and Bobby is betting that he will.

And it's two to odds, so Alex stands to win a hundred bucks if he wins. A cheerful Louis comes in. He comes strolling into the garage to everyone's immense joy. Everybody's happy to see him. He's smiling from ear to ear.

He really he certainly seems to be a new person. Louis asks everybody how they've been. He even asks Burns about his bookings. Burns, ever the trickster, says well, not good. In fact, he's had his worst night ever last night.

Louis kind of typically says, it's only money. This kind of starts to freak out Bobby a little bit. You can see it in his face. He wasn't expecting this. It might be a harder nut to crack than he thought.

Louis walks over to Nardo and asks Nardo about her kids, and even offers to have the kids come out to visit the garage, because, as Louis puts it, quote, a man is never taller than when he stoops to help a child. And then Bobby replies, rather devilishly, he says, and no one stoops lower than you, DePalma, and Louis simply replies, thank you, my friend, which now is really bothering Bobby even more. It's not enough. Now that Bobby has flattened the dining hall where all of Louie's extended family are. Now he's going to have to take the stables where all of his livestock are too.

Bobby's got to push your head. It's not good enough to wait. Louis buys Loaca a cup of coffee. Can I just say, this scene starts up and it's Louie and Loaca, and it's going to be more foreign man gibberish, right, Yeah, we've seen this a lot. And then he starts telling a story in Gibberish and he's acting out characters and everything.

And then I was mad at myself for being so terse at the beginning of the bit. It is such a good bit because Loca tells him a joke that his cousin Bashi told him, and of course that the entirety of the joke is going to be in Laca's foreign language. But like you said, he's got characters. He goes hi, he goes low. It's just it's so delightful.

Louis is delighted, but we of the audience are just as delighted. I still remember, even now before even watching this. The punchline to this whole joke, which Louis parrots back about eight times because he's so delighted by it, is in ye manya kosha beat, which we don't know what it means. I don't know what the punchline really means, but it's funny. The way it's delivered.

It's hilarious, right, and you did it better than Louis does it. He keeps saying it back to himself and laughing, and I think Jeff even comes in and he's like, what's so funny, And Louis does the punchline for him and he's just having a great old time. Jeff has like three lines in this episode. Man, Jeff is on the come up. I really like that we're seeing more of Jeff.

So it's a wonderful little bit of comedy between Laca and Louie. It's just it's a lot of fun. And so after seeing all of this play out, Alex asks Bobby if he wants to pay up now, because in Alex's mind it's unshakable. Louis is keeping his end of the vow. Mentioned Bobby looking devilish in just a moment or two ago.

Right, Yeah, he's full fucking devil. Like the trenchcoat suits him here now. Like as he's about to launch into this false accident story in his bid to drive Louis de Palma over the edge and revert to his former self, he might as well have been the Bobby Mephistophiles. At this point, you get the feeling it's less about winning this bet. It's more about Bobby just pushing Louie beyond his limits and making him break this oath to God.

It's really it's kind of disturbing in a way because it's for the sake of fifty bucks. He's destroying what this guy has built in his mind as being a very important thing, you know, this religious volity made. But he's convinced. He says, he's convinced that Louie is going to revert to his old ways, and as you said, he sidles up to Louis. His acting skills take over and he basically convinces Louis in a nervously acted sort of state, that he had a really bad accident.

After he says accident, you can see this is great physical comedy on Divito's part. He's trembling with the effort to hold it together once he hears that this accident happened, and Bobby couldn't look more smoke because he feels like it's like a house of cards. He's ready to fall at any moment. Right Louis leaves the cage, you think he's gonna yell at Bobby, but all he can muster is just a flustered I'll be darned. And then he says, don't worry.

Some careless trunk rams into you in your car. What can you do? But Bobby says, well, it was his fault. He ran a stop sign because he forgot to turn his headlights on. So he's really he's trying to twist the screws and really put Louie to the test.

In this whole situation, Louie kind of crouches like mister Hyde with the effort to keep the bad Louis inside. It's agony. It's just you can see how much forrests and how much effort it's taking him to hold it together. All the while Bobby is just rubbing his hands together in anticipation because he knows that he's going to crack in a moment. Finally, Louis gets together enough to say, oh, well, accidents happen, and he walks away.

And at this point Bobby admits defeat to Alex. He knows that it's over. He's not going to try to push it anymore. This is now the second time that the third act has involved an elaborate tale on behalf of mister Bobby Wheeler. At least this time it's for somebody's soul, and not to prove what a great thespian in it he is.

But not Bobby, like, give it a rest man, we know you're good. I think that tendency of his to prove what a great actor he is. I think that's ever present, whether he's trying to convince Louis that he had an accident to try to push him to the dark side, or if he's trying to play the part of a concerned friend. I think that's just who he is. Louis overhears him talking to Alex about Okay, you win, I'm done.

Bobby explains to Louie that he didn't believe that he could change the way he wanted to change, so he even bet Alex that you wouldn't last the day, so Louis says, well, so there was no accident at all. And at that point Bobby finally admits, yeah, it's a lie, openly mocking Louie with his laughter. Even now. I got the sense, as he was sort of mockingly laughing at Louis that maybe he thought that he still had a chance to win the bet after all, like maybe this was his final opportunity to push Louis over the brink. Well, in effect, that's what happens.

I mean, he does win the bet. He does. It's true he ought to be rejoicing here because he pushed him over the edge, just not in the in the pointed way he was hoping to do it. So this whole time Louie is smiling very uncomfortably, but we can see as the audience it's the old Louis coming out finally and all the while, and this is a little bit stagy. I have to admit, the music should have been done done as he was like, and he should have been tiptoeing with the claw.

Alex and Bobby are kind of wrangling, spending way too long settling the bet, giving each other their money or what have you, and all the while, apparently unnoticed, Louis is creeping behind them and he grabs like a winch, like this giant metal winch that you used, probably to pick up engines or I I don't know what, and he grabs his winch and he proceeds to hook Bobby to the winch and pull him off the ground. And this, everybody is what this has been leading up to, this trench coat business, because it's the only thing that he could wear that would hide the obvious harness that he's been forced to wear to be lifted off the ground. It was killing me that it was so telegraphed even from the prior episode, was it not?

Oh yeah? And Devido mimes that he's hooking it to the belt loop on the coat because it's a raincoat so it has a belt on it, like this is that's how we got him, and then hoist him up high. It's kind of embarrassing just because if this was the real world, all Bobby would have had to do is just, you know, just shove him away with his elbow and say, what do you get out of here with this? What are you doing? But because of the confines of the comedy, he's forced to overact and go whoooooo, what are you doing?

What are you doing? I think you're doing conaway and disservice there because he's screaming stop now, stop it, right now, stop now. I actually found it very effecting if in that world there were no chance for him to actually kick Louis out of the way, or just grab the chain himself and lower himself back down, or take the coat off, anything that any normal human being would have done in this situation, at least those with those taken away. His emotionality is perfect. At the same time, he could have just reached out and grabbed Louis by the shoulders or by the arm and said, don't do this.

Of course, like I said, lower yourself down by the chain, just grab hold of it. You're a giant man. It was a little goofy and and interestingly though, like this brings up another odd directorial choice by James Burrows. I don't know if you picked up on this, but picked up on what the fucking bird's eye view? It's supposed it's supposed to be Wheeler's point of view, but like, we're above Wheelers, so what are we a crow in the rafters of the garage here, whose point of view is this?

So Louis finally explodes. He's been holding this in all day and he finally just lets it all out. He calls Bobby scum. He vows to make Bobby regret the day that he was born. Louis's going to give him the worst cabs available in the summer.

The windows will roll down in the winter, There'll be no heat, right, It's gonna be I think. He at one point even says, I'm going to give you the smelliest cab I can find, and if that cab isn't smelly enough, I'm going to go into that cab and smell it up for you before you take it out. He's just so pissed about the whole and who can blame him, right, because this is a bridge too far with what Bobby's been doing to him. It's like trading places. You destroyed my entire life over a dollar.

That's right, one dollar. The wrap up to this is that he says to Bobby, I'm gonna make you the second most miserable driver in all of New York City. The most miserable cab driver will be the one who lets Bobby down or feeds them. That's a good line, but what follows is so disgusting that it's almost beyond the pail where Rieger comes up and says, well, basically, hey, you won, and he jams these crinkled green backs that if they've gotten from all the different passengers, they've been taking it all around New York. He puts it in his mouth, and then weirder still, as if his hands are bound, he leaves it in his mouth.

Take look, if you don't want to make a mess, or you don't want to risk the the cabby's running over and snatching up your crumpled stack of ones. Okay, I get that, but take it out with your free hand. Remove the money from your mouth. Okay, I do like that. As the scene is ending, Bobby makes this motion to like swim his way out of his predicament, like while he's dangling there.

He makes this crazy like Australian crawl motion, which I thought was good. But again, the solutions are obvious. Slip yourself out of that coat, buddy. It's a matter of fact that money is one of the dirtiest things that you can have on you, because everybody's touched it, it's falls on the ground. You don't know who's been in possession of it before you.

I mean, he has this giant trench coat, he has a million pockets. He could just take the money out of his mouth and throw it into any one of the dozen pockets that he has in this thing. But he leaves in his mouth and starts growling at Alex to let him. It's very weird. He's talking with his mouthfully, let me out of here.

Kind of a thing, you know. But oh yeah, yea, this conclusion is a little odd. We now cut to Marios. Louis is drinking alone. He's at a table and he's drinking by himself.

And who comes in? Obviously it's mister Sensitivity. It's Alex. By the way, Marios has returned to the corner. That's good.

I noticed that it was a familiar b roll shot. We've seen it before. I was actually now disappointed to see that they're show I guess what they were initially giving us as Marios. I hope they don't continue that consistency. I want to get Madison Square Garden and then and then cut to the checker table class and everyone sitting around drinking beers.

Alex comes in and starts talking with a very dejected Louis, and Louis asks Alex again, Louis is thinking about very deep thoughts. Louis upset that he broke his promise with God, as you'd expect, and Alex tells Louis that he gave it his best shot. Let's just go home, let's just forget about it, but Louis doesn't want to. Louis says something to the effect of he he believes God is just outside the bar waiting for him. No, no, no, no, it's my favorite line in the show.

It should be the name of a novel or a movie. God's waiting for me outside, That's all you need to say. I mean, he continues on with he's got brass knuckles and he's going to lay into me and whatever. But like, God's waiting for me outside is such a scary concept of a thought. It reminds me hp of a teacher I knew who told me a story about a kid saying to another kid, disquissed escuela, and it was like the most terrifying thing that the kid could have heard, you know, after school.

So anyway, that's just occurred to me. He's genuinely frightened. And I think Louis believes that once he leaves that bar, that all bets are off, and it's kind of like a final destination, like he'll God will find a way to deal with Louis no matter what, you know, He'll find him some way, somehow. He broke a val How can we repair that? Vow?

I brought it up earlier. Rieger has the solution. He says that, look, if you remember, Louis, your exact words were, I'm going to be the best person I can possibly be. Maybe Alex kind of wonders, the best person that you can be is a rat. In Alex's reasoning, if God had a reason for creating mice, lice and vermin, then surely he had a reason for creating you, Louis.

And Louis actually thinks this is a beautiful thought. He brightens up immediately and he stands up, and the way they've staged it, there's this there's a light that kind of comes down on his face. It's like a divine light coming across his face. He bids Alex farewell, and he says he's going to go back to the garage to quote continue his divine purpose. On the way out of Marios, you even see he passes an empty table and he even scoops the tip that's been left for the server and takes it for himself off the empty table, so we know that Louie is back.

The rest of that sequence with Danny DeVito realizing his divine purpose is to be the biggest prick he can possibly be. That actually makes sense in a divine order sort of a way. It's a great sequence. So that's the episode. That's the end of it, and now we want to talk a little bit about the yellow lights.

What does a yellow light mean? Just a reminder, we score on a scale from one yellow light to five yellow lights, no half lights. Five yellow lights is the perfect taxi episode. One yellow light is the worst taxi episode, So follow alone. How many yellow lights do you give?

Louis sees the light conflicted on this one because I want to give it three yellow lights because Danny DeVito's performance is so good, and we get to see a sign of Louis heretofore unseen scared. Louis to Palma like he's genuinely terrified that he's not going to survive the operation. During that sequence, it's very vulnerable. That's all really good. The third act, when he realizes that he doesn't have to be a nice person.

In fact, it's better for him to not be a nice person. He's also really solid. There's some good character bits all through it. But ultimately this is a two light episode because it's all very formulaic. There's no b plot going on here at all, and once again, the most criminal and the most egregious is Nardo is completely sidelined.

Maybe says two things, and it's always just the forwarding plot in a boring, non committal way, just like asking characters what they're doing, just so we know where they are from the last scene going into this scene. It's insulting. I could not agree more. I will echo your thoughts on this because I was just as conflicted, because I really want to give this one three yellow lights because the veto is great as always. I love that they're asking this question about what would it take for Louie to change his ways, or even if he could change his ways, because all we've seen of him through this whole season so far is, you know, not all of it, but mostly what we see is He's the bane of the Cabby's existence, and he's just even in eight oh four we see even before he was a dispatcher, he was not a good guy.

So it was an interesting what if to see what would how far could he be pushed to try to change his ways? And the bits with Alex and Louis are great. I love that we see their relationship build and this is another great example of that. But beyond that, it also continues to underscore just what an insufferable prick Bobby is. This is, like I said, if you put this back to back with the previous episode Friends, it's really just a double feature on what a jerky Bobby is in the lengths that he will go to prove himself right and to make himself the main character of his own movie, if you will.

I have to grade this episode on rewatchability. Is this an episode that I would be happy to watch again? And that's really the minimum for what I would get out of a three yellow light episode. This is an episode that if it came on TV and as a rerun, I'd have to sit down and watch the whole thing. And I have to say, despite whatever historical merits, in terms of character development this episode has.

I don't think this would be one that I would want to rewatch so eagerly, So like you, Father Malone, I'm going to give this one two yellow lights. Like I said, I was prepared to give it three just on the basis of character development and comedy overall, but this would not be one that I would be so eager to sit through again. So I'm going to give it two yellow lights. That will do it for this episode of night Mister Walters, Father Malone. When you're not puttering around the garage, where can folks hear you or see you?

Well, you can. The entire month of September of the Culture Cast I got to program there. It's all sketch comedy movies. HP was on one with us. We did The Groove too.

We're also doing Kentucky Fried movie and Mister Mike's Mondo video, and then Amazon and Women on the Moon. So you can go check all of those out at the Culture Cast a weirdingwaymedia dot com. Very nice, and I would also encourage people if they're checking out Father Malone's other projects, please check out Dark Destinations, his audio drama podcast. It is fabulous. If you love great audio drama.

Look no further. As for myself, I can also be found elsewhere on Weird and Way Media. We do the Noise Junkies podcast, like Father Malone mentioned with Heather Drain from Mondo. Heather and I've also done a few things here and there for the Culture Cast, some guest spots, just like Father Malone also mentioned, and I also have a band camp site called Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. If you want to go and check out some of my audio nonsense, you can feel free to check that out.

Thank you so much for listening. I would encourage you if you could. If you liked this episode and want to give us some feedback, please feel free to subscribe to this podcast. You can write a review also or rate us. We'd love to hear from you.

So whatever platform you're listening to this, please feel free to reach out and give us some feedback. We'd love to hear from you. Give us five come on you we would, I guess if you know we're shameless, so please feel free to give us some feedback and we look forward to that. As for myself HP and for Father Malone, thank you again for listening and we will see you next time on night Mister Walters nine Mister Walters