Titus/Locking Up Mom

Locking Up Mom
Season 2, Episode 5
Airdate	November 14, 2000
Production Number	2ADK-06
Written by	Christopher Titus
Directed by	Jeff Melman
← 2x04 What's Up, Hollywood?	2x06 → The Perfect Thanksgiving
Titus — Season Two

Locking Up Mom is the fifth episode of the second season of Titus, and the fourteenth episode overall. Titus' mom is up for release from the mental hospital and he leads the charge against letting her out.

Starring: Christopher Titus (Christopher Titus), Cynthia Watros (Erin Fitzpatrick), Zack Ward (Dave Titus), David Shatraw (Tommy Shafter)

And: Stacy Keach (Ken Titus)

Special Guest Star: Frances Fisher (Juanita)

Guest Starring: Richard McGonagle (Dr. Phine)

Co-Starring: Tom McCleister (James), Phoenix Forsyth (10-Year Old Titus), Dylan Capannelli (5-Year Old Titus)

Plot Overview

Opening Monologue

My mom's in a mental hospital. There's a fine line between genius and insanity: Winston Churchill, Mozart, John Lennon. These people all had a touch of crazy that fueled their brilliance. They were not locked up for it like my mom. Then again, Winston Churchill never tried to kill my dad.

Schizophrenia alters the chemical balance in the brain and can make some people super strong. Lucky for Dad, before Mom caught him, the cops caught Mom. Of course, nobody was there to catch the cop.

See my mom. See the doctors release my mom from the mental hospital. See Titus. See Titus run to the mental hospital to make sure Mom stays locked up. Run Titus Run!

The Show

Titus, Erin, Dave and Tommy have all arrived at the mental hospital to attend Juanita's competence hearing. Although Titus and the guys are there with the notion of making sure she remains locked up, Erin is still holding onto hope that Titus is overreacting about his mother belonging in the hospital. They try to talk to the receptionist, but it turns out to be Juanita herself. Immediately, Titus figures that she's killed Ken and taken over the hospital.

It turns out that Juanita is a trustee now and they're letting her run the front desk because she's "so darn good at it." From all appearances Juanita isn't nearly as mentally disturbed as Titus believes her to be, although he still worries that somewhere, Ken is stuffed in a mason jar. Despite him not being there, the doctor insists that they begin the hearing early without Ken. But Titus doesn't want to be the one who goes down in history as being the one who locked away his own mother, he'd feel much better about it if he could blame it on his father.

One by one, Titus and the others go into the hearing to try and prove that Juanita shouldn't be released. Erin winds up being subdued by talk about grandchildren, Tommy has no spine in the first place and manages to bring up his evidence and shoot it down at the same time and Dave may actually be admitted into the hospital. It all comes down to Titus, who is so jumpy that he needs to be sedated.

After a while, Ken finally shows up and demands that Titus go back in with him. Ken outlines all of the times when she was released so that Titus can tell the stories of what happened, which usually involve somebody getting stabbed. At some point, the doctors say that they've already got all of that information and Juanita tries to reconcile with her son. She mentions sending letters along with Ken when he visited, but Titus never got any of those letters since Ken threw them all out. He also never told him about any of the visits he made and Titus suddenly reverses his position. He figures that maybe Ken has been causing Juanita's craziness after all.

Despite Ken's protests, Juanita is processed for release and allowed to return to normal life in the world.

Arc Advancement

Referbacks

• Mom's Not Nuts: Tommy outlines the exact happenings of the last time when Juanita was let out of the mental hospital. Though she appeared to be sane, she actually drugged their food with Myocet and attempted to kill Ken without their interference.

Tommy: ...After you broke into the house, drugged us and tried to kill Mr. Titus with a bottle.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Recast: The role of Juanita was originally played by Christine Estabrook in her lone appearance during the first season. She has since been recast to someone who looks wholly different from before.

Allusions and References

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Titus refers to a time when he and his mother watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest together. The movie is an adaptation of the novel by Ken Kesey about a mental institution that is dominated by an unfeeling nurse. Despite the attempts of a con man who was sent to the hospital instead of prison played by Jack Nicholson, the place remains much like jail and he, the hero of the film, is eventually lobotomized by electroshock.