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Ebb Tide

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Betty White as Rose Nylund
 "It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy."

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Ebb Tide is the eleventh episode of the fifth season of The Golden Girls and the one-hundred and thirteenth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Marc Sotkin, it premiered on NBC-TV on December 9th, 1989.

Summary[]

When Blanche goes back to her childhood home for Big Daddy's funeral, she argues with her sister, Virginia, and decides not to attend. Meanwhile, Sophia tries to raise cash for a TV and rents out the girls' rooms in their absence.

Plot[]

Blanche has been chosen to be Queen of The Citrus Festival, which she was about to get her age reduced by sleeping with the Journalist. Sophia is looking in the ads to rent out her room in order to pay for a big screen TV that none of them could afford. Then Blanche gets a call from Big Daddy saying that he's ill and wants Blanche to come, but the festival is more important to her and so she declines to claiming he sounded a little weaker.

After the festival, Blanche is gifted an extremely rare plate, and then she gets the news that Big Daddy has died. After pretending it's a joke she realises it's true and she feels stupid for neglecting his plea. She and Dorothy fly out to Atlanta. However Sophia goes ahead to rent the house out and convinces Rose to help her with a sob story.

At Twin Oaks Virginia confronts Blanche about not being there, Blanche tries to claim that she wasn't always there but Virginia tells her that everybody expects her to make the moment about her and so out of spite Blanche refuses to go to the funeral. However as she and Dorothy look at old photographs, she clearly does want to go and Dorothy sees that Blanche has overdrawn the truth mainly because Big Daddy would do. As Sophia's renters have a party, Sophia gets even closer to getting her TV but then one of the renters breaks Blanche's rare plate.

After the funeral Blanche goes to Big Daddy and Big Mommy's graves and pays her respects. She talks to Big Daddy and admits she was selfish and that she should have thought more of others. Dorothy tells them it's time to leave and Blanche admits her flaws as nobody will flatter them now. Sophia's renters leave the house and it's spotless, but for the broken plate. She was going to let Rose take the fall for it but instead Rose manages to find a collector with one to sell. As with anything, there's a catch. Because the plate is so rare, buying the replacement takes all of the money that Sophia managed to earn from renting out the home while everyone else was away in Atlanta. Determined that she is going to change her selfish ways, on her return, Blanche takes the plate and smashes it.[1]

Tall Tales[]

Tales from the Old South[]

Blanche: “Oh Dorothy, there's so many memories connected to this room. We used to have our big family reunions in here. Generations of Hollingsworth would gather round Big Daddy with his bourbon and branch. And while he sat there in front of a roaring fire regaling everybody with stories of the Old South, I'd sneak away up to my room and make out with cousin Abernathy.”

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest List[]

  • Sheree North as Virginia Warren
  • Steven Gilborn as Howard
  • Paul Eiding as Peter
  • Brandis Kemp as Maddy

Notes[]

Cultural references[]

  • The breaking of the plate and the twist at the end might have been based on the plot of The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.

Goofs[]

  • Twin Oaks was sold in "Big Daddy" so Curtis could pay for his singing career, but the manor is suddenly back in the family with no explanation.[2] There is also no sign of Margaret Spencer, Curtis's second wife, and no explanation for her absence.[3]

Site Navigation[]

V - E - H
List of The Golden Girls episodes

Season 1 The Engagement • Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding • Rose the Prude • Transplant • The Triangle • On Golden Girls • The Competition • Break-In • Blanche and the Younger Man • The Heart Attack • The Return of Dorothy's Ex • The Custody Battle • A Little Romance • That Was No Lady • In a Bed of Rose's • The Truth Will Out • Nice and Easy • The Operation • Second Motherhood • Adult Education • The Flu • Job Hunting • Blind Ambitions • Big Daddy • The Way We Met
Season 2 End of the Curse • Ladies of the Evening • Take Him, He's Mine • It's a Miserable Life • Isn't It Romantic • Big Daddy's Little Lady • Family Affair • Vacation • Joust Between Friends • Love, Rose • 'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas • The Sisters • The Stan Who Came to Dinner • The Actor • Before and After • And Then There Was One • Bedtime Story • Forgive Me, Father • Long Day's Journey into Marinara • Whose Face is This, Anyway? • Dorothy's Prized Pupil • Diamond in the Rough • Son-in-Law Dearest • To Catch a Neighbor • A Piece of Cake • Empty Nests
Season 3 Old Friends • One for the Money • Bringing Up Baby • The Housekeeper • Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself • Letter to Gorbachev • Strange Bedfellows • Brotherly Love • A Visit from Little Sven • The Audit • Three on a Couch • Charlie's Buddy • The Artist • Blanche's Little Girl • Dorothy's New Friend • Grab That Dough • My Brother, My Father • Golden Moments, Part 1 • Golden Moments, Part 2 • And Ma Makes Three • Larceny and Old Lace • Rose's Big Adventure • Mixed Blessings • Mister Terrific • Mother's Day
Season 4 Yes, We Have No Havanas • The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo • The One That Got Away • Yokel Hero • Bang the Drum, Stanley • Sophia's Wedding, Part 1 • Sophia's Wedding, Part 2 • Brother, Can You Spare That Jacket • Scared Straight • Stan Takes a Wife • The Auction • Blind Date • The Impotence of Being Ernest • Love Me Tender • Valentine's Day • Two Rode Together • You Gotta Have Hope • Fiddler On the Ropes • Till Death Do We Volley • High Anxiety • Little Sister • Sophia's Choice • Rites of Spring • Foreign Exchange • We're Outta Here, Part 1 • We're Outta Here, Part 2
Season 5 Sick and Tired, Part 1 • Sick and Tired, Part 2 • The Accurate Conception • Rose Fights Back • Love Under the Big Top • Dancing in the Dark • Not Another Monday • That Old Feeling • Comedy of Errors • All That Jazz • Ebb Tide • Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas • Mary Has a Little Lamb • Triple Play • Clinton Avenue Memoirs • Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-Tom • An Illegitimate Concern • 72 Hours • Twice In a Lifetime • Sisters and Other Strangers • Cheaters • The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present • All Bets Are Off • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 1 • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 2
Season 6 Blanche Delivers • Once, In St. Olaf • If At Last You Do Succeed • Snap Out Of It • Wham, Bam, Thank You Mammy • Feelings • Zborn Again • How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia? • Mrs. George Devereaux • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... Before They Die • Stand By Your Man • Ebbtide's Revenge • The Bloom Is Off the Rose • Sisters of the Bride • Miles to Go • There Goes the Bride, Part 1 •There Goes the Bride, Part 2 • Older and Wiser • Melodrama • Even Grandmas Get the Blues • Witness • What a Difference a Date Makes • Love for Sale • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 1 • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 2 • Henny Penny — Straight, No Chaser
Season 7 Hey, Look Me Over • The Case of the Libertine Belle • Beauty and the Beast • That's For Me to Know • Where's Charlie? • Mother Load • Dateline: Miami • The Monkey Show, Part 1 • The Monkey Show, Part 2 • Ro$e Love$ Mile$ • Room Seven • From Here to the Pharmacy • The Pope's Ring • Old Boyfriends • Goodbye, Mr. Gordon • The Commitments • Questions and Answers • Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan • Journey to the Center of Attention • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 1 • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 2 • Rose: Portrait of a Woman • Home Again, Rose, Part 1 • Home Again, Rose, Part 2 • One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 1 •One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 2

References[]

  1. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 5, Episode 11, "Ebb Tide". Sotkin, Mark (writer) & Hughes, Terry (director) (December 9th, 1989)
  2. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 24, “Big Daddy”. Fanaro, Barry and Nathan, Mort (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (May 3rd, 1986)
  3. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 6, “Big Daddy's Little Lady”. Marcus, Russell (writer) & Steinberg, Marcus (director) (November 15th, 1986)
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