Episode Guide

Season 3

Episode 31- It's A Wonderful Job


The Case

There is none.

What's Really Going on Chris?

It's almost Christmas and Maddie is feeling guilty and depressed. Her parents are upset with her because, although Maddie was only 4 blocks away, she hasn't made the time to visit her sick aunt because she has been too busy working. Maddie is her aunt's only relative in California.
The Blue Mooners are in revolt. Maddie cancelled their Christmas vacation because of all the work that has to be done. Maddie gets mad and feels that they are all ungrateful. She and David argue because she feels that he is on their side. He admits that he is. He can't believe that Maddie cancelled the vacation without asking the employees for help, she issued a memo instead. Maddie graciously would allow the employees to take Christmas off if they got all their work done. David tells her that that "the wrong things are important to you Maddie Hayes," and "if you want to be king of the hill, top of the heap, well that's fine but remember a good job won't love you back." The news of her aunt's death follows this and it's too much, Maddie decides to leave the office. On the way out she gets into a fight with Agnes, then with MacGilicuddy and fires him. She then wishes aloud that she had never kept Blue Moon open.
While at a bar attempting to drown her sorrows, she meets her guardian angel Albert. He volunteers to grant her wish and take back the last 2 years of her life. Maddie is thrilled that Blue Moon is gone. He offers to show her what has happened in the years following the closing of Blue Moon to catch her up to her new existence.
After being laid off from City of Angels Investigations, Agnes gets a job as a receptionist at "Rhymes for the Times" greeting card company. Her rhyming abilities help her to quickly rise to President of the company. Bert works for her (as Albert says," they were destined to meet.") Agnes is not the nice sweet Agnes Maddie has come to know. She has turned into a nasty, cold, manipulative business woman. Maddie is disappointed to see some of herself in the new Agnes.
Maddie repeatedly tells Albert that she is not curious to know what happened to David. She claims she knows what happened to David Addison, that he "is in the gutter trying to con the other derelicts out of their last drop of ripple." Albert shows her anyway. It turns out David had a very good year and bought Maddie's house as she had a very bad year and had to sell. As they walk through "David's" house there is a party going on and many of the people are talking about David's engagement to a beautiful model. Maddie is upset that her fate is to marry David but turns around to see that David is engaged to Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie is obviously more upset by this but pretends not to care. She and Albert then overhear a conversation between David and Richie. David says some really nice things about Maddie. She begins to regret losing the past 2 years, especially those with David, and wishes she can have Blue Moon back. Albert tells her it's too late and they must rejoin her new life in progress.
Maddie and Albert go to a bar and find "new" Maddie drinking. She is broke, lonely, and depressed. They go driving and it becomes apparent the "new" Maddie intends to commit suicide. Maddie demands that Albert return her to her real life, but Albert again tells her it's too late. Maddie's life flashes before her eyes, with plenty of memories of David. She wakes up back in the bar she originally met Albert in. She's estastic because Albert was able to give her her life back, Blue Moon and all. She rushes back to the office to find Agnes, David and MAcGilicuddy waiting for her. Agnes and MacGilicuddy apologize and Maddie then kisses David. They end the episode with David and Maddie turning to the camera saying, "and to all a good night."

Chris's Obsessive Analysis

To date Maddie has continued to mourn the loss of her money and her old life. She kept Blue Moon open but acted like it was an albatross. She's given the opportunity to see what her life would have been without Blue Moon in a tribute to Frank Capra's classic "It's a Wonderful Life." She finds out that her life is actually better off, rather than worse off, with Blue Moon. She also sees (through the ruthless "new" Agnes) that the wrong things have been important to her, just as David had said.
The encounter with David shows us how she pretends to be upset that her fate is to marry David, but is really more upset at the thought of him with someone else. This whole scene again shows us how wrong Maddie is about David. She sees him as a crude, lewd, amount-to-nothing smartass. In a way, he is. But she refuses to see the positive and the potential in people, in both Agnes and David. Albert shows her that David turns out to be the kind of man she always thought she wanted and is appropriate for her-successful financially with social status. Albert shows her that David can make a woman like Maddie (in this case Cheryl Tiegs) happy. What's more, no one thought it was 'wrong' for David and Cheryl to be together as Maddie thinks it would be for her and David to be together. In this episode Maddie makes 2 references to David being her "fate" or "destiny." Once at the party, and later when she asks Albert if those people destined to be together find each other and are together no matter what. Interesting words from a woman who claims to believe in neither fate, destiny nor God (or angels.)
It's important that Maddie choose to have her life with Blue Moon back. It's important that she realize that Blue Moon and David have been good for her. It's good that she finally stop wishing for her pre-Blue Moon life back and accept her current one. It's good that Albert forces her to start to deal with her real feelings for David. It's too bad she doesn't remember these lessons in future episodes. I think she passes this all off as a dream (although it is not a dream episode.)
Some people feel this episode is too harsh on Maddie as a character and working women in general. Maddie is rather "bitchy" in the beginning. I think they stretched Maddie's character a bit to make the plot work. I believe the point they were trying to make is that you can be a woman, have a heart, and run a successful business. It's fruitless to mourn the past, look to the future. Stay positive and look for the positive and potential in other people. And never to forget what is really important, not a job, but the people in your life. Kinda sounds like what David has been trying to tell her for the past 2 years, doesn't it?

Memorable Moments

Links

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The next episode, "The Straight Poop"
Brian's "It's A Wonderful Job" page
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