High Anxiety

 was the twentieth episode of Season 4 of The Golden Girls, and the 96th overall episode of the series.

Summary
After Sophia accidentally knocks a bottle of Rose's pills down the sink, the girls learn that Rose is addicted. She battles withdrawal. Meanwhile, Dorothy and Sophia are hired to be in a pizza commercial.

Plot
Sophia announces to the girls that while shopping at the local mini-mall, she found a newly-opened pizza chain, and its owner offered Sophia to be in a commercial for them. Dorothy is skeptical at the production, and Blanche expresses disdain that they want to use her kitchen as the setting for the commercial. Meanwhile, Rose asks if anyone has seen her medication, to which the girls discover that Sophia had accidentally knocked them into the sink earlier. Being late in the evening and the next day a holiday, Rose has to go without her medication for at least a day.

The next day, the director for the commercial, Sy, arrives at the house to discuss the commercial with Sophia. He eventually recruits Dorothy to be included in the commercial, and placates Blanche to use their kitchen by offering $1000 per day for the location. As they head into the kitchen to begin planning, they find an irritable and angry Rose baking a cake. She becomes hostile towards Sy for being in the kitchen, and scares him away, with Sy calling the commercial off. As the girls ask why Rose is acting this way, she yells at them to get off her back and storms out.

The next morning, Sophia announces she is attending acting lessons, to the surprise of Dorothy and Blanche. Assuming Sophia wasn't going to be in the commercial any longer, they learn that Sophia has convinced the director to reconsider, but will not be shooting it in their kitchen. As Sophia heads out, Dorothy and Blanche discover Rose to be in her normal, chipper mood. They confront her about the difference in attitude from yesterday, and Rose assures that despite being "on edge," she would never be like that again. Dorothy and Blanche then notice Rose has her medication in hand, and questions her about them. It turns out Rose had been taking the same painkiller prescription from a doctor for a back injury she sustained nearly 30 years ago, and had never stopped. They suggest Rose has become dependent on her painkillers, which Rose takes offense for assuming she is being compared to a "drug addict." She tersely hands over her medication to Dorothy and Blanche, insisting she can prove she is not dependent on them.

Late into the night, Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia are awakened by Rose accidentally breaking something in the kitchen. Rose says she is simply cleaning the kitchen, but the others discover she had found her medication they had hidden from her. They insist that Rose needs professional help and to take herself to rehab, but Rose denies it, saying she would feel ashamed and embarrassed, and claims she can quit by her own will. Rose asks the rest of the girls to help keep her mind off of taking her medication for the rest the night to prove that she can do it, and they agree. They stay up through the night playing board games and telling stories to each other. As day breaks and they celebrate Rose making it through the night, Rose happily states that if she can't make it through more nights, she would need their help like this all over again, much to their chagrin.

Sophia and Dorothy are later at a film studio shooting for the pizza chain's commercial. As they rehearse their lines, Dorothy draws the ire of Sy with her unenthusiastic performance and her insistence on changing the script. Sy simply switches Dorothy's role with a pizza server's role. As Sophia takes a bite of the pizza chain's pizza for the shoot, however, she is offended by the pizza's quality. She refuses to say her lines lying about the quality of the pizza's taste, and walks out of the studio.

Back at home, Dorothy mistakenly assumes Rose is relapsing and taking her medication, which turns out to simply be a vitamin. Rose, however, admits that Dorothy is not wholly wrong, as she actually did relapse the night before and took one of her painkillers. She explains to a shocked Dorothy that she is finally realizing her dependence is stronger than even the support of her friends. When Dorothy offers to call a rehab center for Rose once again, she stops Dorothy, saying that she herself is the one that needs to make the call.

A month later, Rose is slated to return from being at rehab. The girls are excited to have Rose back, but Blanche worries that Rose might not be her same self. As Rose walks in, everyone is elated to greet her, and Blanche states that she is glad Rose is "cured." Rose, however, corrects Blanche by saying that she will never be "cured," but that she has learned she can live the rest of her life without her medication one day at a time. Rose then continues to drone on with anecdotes and tangents, showing she is still the same person as ever.

Guest Cast

 * Sy Ferber - Jay Thomas

Trivia

 * Dorothy remarks in the kitchen that Rose is allergic to cats. However, in The Way We Met, Blanche meets Rose for the first time at the supermarket when Rose has a pet cat with her.