While Frasier and Niles regularly offer up scenes of buffoonery that allows the audience to laugh at them while still being engaged and close to the characters, this episode highlighted the sad state of the two most prominent aide characters in the show: Roz and Bulldog. Neither came off as charming or endearing, but rather as sad and pitiable. Bulldog has sunk to where he probably deserves to be, and Roz's defiance against a more traditional lifestyle, as Frasier put it, while wallowing in loneliness just makes her seem like someone trapped in a perpetual juvenile state. In the end, no one came away better in this episode, and instead of character growth we were shown the stunting of development in these characters, due to being exactly who they are.
Bulldog to me is the worst character on the show, and I'm glad he's done. His portrayal of a hound-dog type was never close to accurate, and always came off more like a guest character from early seasons of happy days. He played more like someone who knew nothing about women figured guys would act like. In this episode when he sees a piece of an undergarment and quotes the Victoria's secret catalogue page number it was featured on, it is more the behavior of a basement dweller who spends all day online skimping for thirsty girls. Guys who get ladies regularly really dont act like Bulldog does, at all. But I digress, I just dont think his character was any good, and this episode did nothing to change that, only reinforce it.
The sub-plot with Niles and Frasier and Martin was strictly a paint by numbers plug-in to give them something to do, and didnt have any real depth or punch.
For a show that can often be brilliant and hilarious, this episode was definitely one of its lower ranks.