Season 11 Episode 5: Requiem for a Chevyweight (2)

The conclusion opens with a funeral. The Dodge is buried in the back yard, Ike plays “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes, and Griff and another mourner fold a beaded seat cover into a triangle and present it to Al in the manner of a flag at a military service. The eulogies are the best thing in the two-parter: Griff’s fondest memory of the car is the time they tried to run down his ex-wife, Peggy’s contribution is four words, and Al’s own speech starts as a tribute to a young man of endless promise and curdles into a description of his marriage before he catches himself and moves on.

With the car gone, Al leases a replacement, a Testica from Cal Stevens Motors, and the arrangement goes wrong immediately, ending with Al driving it back through the dealership window. Jefferson, meanwhile, has gone to Cuba for the fuel pump, which produces the episode’s most unexpected scene: he drops through Fidel Castro’s roof, holds a knife to his throat, and is greeted as an old friend. The exchange that follows confirms what season eight’s “The D’Arcy Files” had only alleged in photographs: Jefferson worked for the CIA, was assigned to kill Castro, failed, and was fired for it.

Peggy and the children spend the half-hour continuing to shop the Dodge’s parts to an international collector, with Peggy supplying her own version of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” while she digs. Michael Sorich plays Castro, a part he had already played on Seinfeld and would play three more times in films around 2000, and the Kiwi that turns up in the dealership subplot is a real vehicle: a Norwegian electric car called the Kewet El Jet, introduced in 1991.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: Sunday, November 17, 1996 on FOX
• Season 11, Episode 5, part two of two
• Overall episode 243 of the series
• Production code 11.09
• Written by Russell Marcus
• Directed by Amanda Bearse
• The title puns on Requiem for a Heavyweight, from the Rod Serling story
• Al states he bought the Dodge twenty-five years earlier from a used car lot on Route 12

Guest Cast

• Rick Overton as Dr. Fisher
• Michael Sorich as Fidel Castro
• Gary Grubbs as Cal Stevens

Jefferson and Fidel

The Castro scene resolves a dangling thread from three seasons earlier. Season eight’s “The D’Arcy Files” had Walter Traugott turn up with photographs of Jefferson meeting foreign leaders and an accusation that he had sold classified information. The series never followed it up directly, and here it simply confirms the backstory in passing: Jefferson was CIA, his assignment was Castro, he did not complete it, and the two of them are on perfectly good terms about it. Michael Sorich plays Castro warmly, which is the right choice for a scene that only works if the reunion is genuine.

The funeral is the better half of the episode, and it is a good illustration of how far the series would go to service a joke about a prop. There is a eulogy, a congregation, bagpipes and a folded-flag ceremony conducted with a seat cover, and the show plays the ritual straight while the content of every speech undercuts it. Peggy’s entire tribute, that her husband is a moron, gets congratulations from both children, and Al’s threat about how she will cope when Oprah dies is the only comeback available to him.

The replacement car plot is thinner but it has a nice piece of production trivia attached. Al’s new Testica is a 1996 Ford Mustang, and the dealership exterior had been used before, in season four’s “Oh, What a Feeling,” as Scott N Gary Motors. Gary Grubbs, who plays the dealer, had also been on the show before, as Delbert in season two’s “Poppy’s by the Tree.”

Famous Quotes

• Griff: “Al, we’ve had some great times in this car. I think my favorite was the time we tried to run down my ex-wife.” / Al: “She outran us, but the Dodge gave it her best shot.”
• Peg: “My husband… is a moron. Thank you.” / Kelly: “That was beautiful, Mama, really.” / Al: “See how you do when Oprah checks out.”
• Al: “Twenty-five years ago, a young man of endless promise was going places. All he needed was a way to get there. He found it on a used-car lot on Route 12. And through the years, the journey had some unexpected turns… and some unwanted passengers.”
• Al: “One kind of love begins with misplaced lust. And degenerates into a raging hell OF MISERY AND DESPAIR! But I digress.”
• Fidel Castro: “Ah, Hefferson! My old adversary!” / Jefferson: “Fidel, mi compadre!” / Castro: “Still with the CIA?” / Jefferson: “No, no. When I couldn’t kill you, they fired me.” / Castro: “Oh, sorry. But you still got the moves!” / Jefferson: “That’s what the wife says!”

Notes

• Michael Sorich had played Castro once before, on the Seinfeld episode “The Race,” seen only from behind, and played him again in three films around 2000.
• Ike appears but does not speak: he is occupied with the bagpipes.
• The “Kiwi” in the dealership scenes is a genuine vehicle, the Norwegian-built Kewet El Jet electric car introduced in 1991 and later sold as the Buddy. Al’s “Testica” is a 1996 Ford Mustang.
• The Cal Stevens Motors building had been used in season four’s “Oh, What a Feeling” as Scott N Gary Motors; Gary Grubbs had appeared in season two’s “Poppy’s by the Tree” as Delbert.
• Peggy sings her own version of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” while digging in the back yard.
• Goof: the American trade embargo on Cuba took effect in February 1962, so a Cuban supplier should not have parts for a 1970s Dodge.
• Goof: Al’s claim to have bought the car twenty-five years ago puts the purchase in 1971, which conflicts with the previous episode showing him with it in high school and with Kelly’s 1971 birth.
• Goof: the bagpiper’s hands never move through the note changes.