- Niles is persuaded to get a new lawyer, Donny Douglas, for his divorce proceedings, but Frasier's compulsive honesty may present a problem.
- Niles's divorce proceedings continue to go badly; the lawyers representing his wife, Maris, have motioned to postpone the trial date for eight months in order to drain money from him with Niles's lawyers more than happy to allow this since it means more cash for them. Frasier recommends he find himself new lawyers, and Roz suggests an ex-boyfriend of hers: Donny Douglas, nicknamed "The Piranha" by the legal community. Niles is desperate enough to swallow his distaste and go along to meet Donny. At first, the cheery, uncouth, slobby lawyer seems to confirm his worst fears, but he is immediately impressed by the sheer steel and ultra-aggressive manner that Donny displays in dealing with Maris' high-brow lawyers, who are immediately cowed into submission, and this persuades him to allow Donny to represent him. Proceedings now having been brought forward, Donny begins preparing the family for deposition. In the process, it is revealed that Frasier is incapable of lying under oath. As it is soon revealed that one of the questions will revolve around Niles' feelings towards Daphne, this poses something of a problem; Maris' lawyers are claiming that Niles was in love with Daphne throughout the period that the marriage was breaking apart, and that this had a negative impact on the marriage. Daphne and Donny are unconcerned, but Niles panics and hides underneath Frasier's piano after he realises Frasier is having serious ethical concerns about lying under oath to help Niles. As Niles prepares for the inevitability he may have to come clean to Daphne about his feelings for her, Donny discovers the true source of Maris' family fortune - urinal cakes, rather than lumber as she had always claimed. To spare herself embarrassment, Maris agrees to a quick divorce to ensure Niles' silence. However, his happiness is quickly quashed upon discovering Daphne and Donny have started dating.
- Niles' and Maris' divorce proceedings heat up and Niles hires Roz's ex-boyfriend Donny Douglas, a cut-throat lawyer who soon has Maris' legal team on the ropes. However, when Maris claims that Niles was in love with another woman through their marriage, Niles fears he may have to come clean about his crush on Daphne.—Anonymous
- When Maris' lawyers make the proceedings in her and Niles' divorce drag on and his lawyers do nothing helpful about it, Roz recommends him to hand the case over to one of her ex-boyfriends, Donny Douglas, a.k.a. "The Piranha", a tough and sharp lawyer by all accounts. Frasier and Niles go to visit him at his office. At first, they think he's too much of a slob, but when they hear him make a phone call to Maris' divorce lawyers, decimating the proceeding time, Niles hires him in a heartbeat. Later, rehearsing for the depositions at Frasier's apartment, Donny becomes bothered by Frasier's refusals to bend the truth while under oath. Near the end, Donny gets a phone call informing him that Maris is about to cite alienation of affection, claiming that Niles was in love with Daphne while they were married; they base the accusation on their pas de deux in the episode "Moon Dance".
Niles immediately feels like he is going to lose. This is made even worse when Frasier states that he will tell the truth about Niles' feelings if it is brought up when he is under oath. In an attempt to change his mind, Martin tells his eldest son a story of when he saw a criminal shoot someone and arrested him. While Martin was reading him his rights, he slipped out of the cuffs before he could finish, but was caught again. During the trial, Martin was asked if read the shooter his rights. Because he would have gone free if he told the truth and the shooter had been in and out of prison his whole life and definitely knew his rights, Martin lied under oath and stated that he had read him his rights in full. However, Frasier is still unwilling to lie on the stand.
On the day of the depositions, Niles informs Frasier that he is going to tell Donny all about his feelings for Daphne and let him proceed how he sees fit. While alone with Niles, Donny reveals that he has been digging into his and Maris' financial records and discovered that, though Maris has been letting everyone, even Niles, believe that her family fortune comes from timber, it actually comes from urinal cakes. Realizing that Maris will give anything to hide that fact from her wealthy, elitist society friends, Niles calls her and tells her he's "flushed out her family secret". Maris quickly becomes cooperative and Niles gets a wonderful settlement. Unfortunately, he finds out that Daphne has started dating Donny, making her unavailable to him again.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content