Dotty: Options, Amanda, options!
Amanda: Options. He has options!!
Dotty has given Amanda an idea of how to help Lee.. and off she rushes to Lee to help him know he has options! ….The next second we see are the watergate exterior shot while listening to Lee’s cranky (but gorgeous) tones-
Lee: I am not interested in options, and definitely not import/export, okay?!
It seems Amanda is visiting and going through the job classifieds with him.. and he is getting aggravated with her..
Amanda: Okay. Forget it. Now how about, uh . . . marketing! Marketing would be — Or, um . . . insurance! Oh, Lee, there is absolutely the best ad for insur—[Amanda reads what Lee is writing as she speaks]…Machine guns. Lee, that says machine guns.
Lee: Hey, hey, hey, hey. It is not polite to read other people’s —
That’s upside down, you read that upside down. When’d you learn to do that?
Amanda: I’ve been practicing.
wow.. that must be stunt Lee.. He just wrote that with his right hand and Lee is a leftie!!! ( Oh nooooo they have swapped good Lee for sold out greedy but dressed really well Lee who writes with his right hand!!! argh! get out of there Amanda!)
Why is Amanda shocked at the machine guns? he was talking rocket launchers before when he was on the phone right in front of her. I don’t get it.. Rocket launchers? no prob! Machine guns? Hey!! that is out of line!!! (Hmm she must not have been listening to what he was saying because he had that magic robe of his on )
Love how Lee realises she just did something clever.. Ha! reading his list when it was upside down..
I think here Lee can’t help but be impressed that she has learned this new skill…but .. at the same time, it is a warning to him- Amanda is getting too involved here and he needs to get her out of the picture. You can see the resolve as he snaps his book closed and says ‘forget it!’ Lee has decided this has to stop.. and it is time to push Amanda well and truly away!
Lee literally snaps his book shut here and says: Forget it! forget it! Now I do not want to peddle insurance.
Amanda: no I will not forget it, I think it is a heck of a lot better than selling rockets to unsavoury people. I mean if you.. ask my opinion
(We see Lee take a huge breath and look down here..bracing himself, before launching into this: that’s exactly what
I don’t need right now. go on home run a couple of loads through the spin dry, I’m expecting someone.
Amanda: no I won’t do that because we’re friends
Lee: we’re business associates. Former business associates
(and we then hear a knock on the door..) Now look Amanda, I want you out of here, when he comes in you go out. Now have you got that?
Amanda whispers: Yes.
Ohhh poor Amanda here!! I really feel for!!! I hate watching this!! At the same time, I know what game Lee is playing here.. I see that Lee realises Amanda is clever and getting too involved here in what he is doing.. so he ‘closes the book’ on her involvement at any level and well and truly puts her in her place ‘spin drying’ and sends her on her way.. and.. ouch.. snubs her friendship.
Last week ( In the Mole) Lee denied their friendship – but it was because he hadn’t accepted it yet. At the end of the episode he had accepted it though..
This week we see Lee, knowing Amanda is his friend –telling her they are not friends!!! Just so she will get out of the way and out of what is most likely a dangerous situation here.. this is what is best for Amanda.. ( mind you- best would have been filling her in from the start, but I figure Lee had no idea what a feisty friend Amanda would be!!)
It is obvious that Amanda is really hurt here.. Lee isn’t showing his emotions as much as he was the last time she came.. I think he was prepared for this moment to happen and that he knew he had to do it- most likely for her safety, as well as for the good of the case he was working on.. Anyone have any thoughts on this??
The big head baddie Ballon is at the door.. and Lee introduces ‘Mrs King’ (grabbing her coat and handbag and trying to get her out of there)- and Ballon explains he has heard about her.
Amanda is shocked at this and can barely contain her temper here.. when she knows Lee has told Ballon about her.. she has one last go at Lee as he kinda shoves her out the door for her own good while she repeats that he has options.. oh poor Amanda!
*ETA on 1 May 2012 – When Lee closes the door behind Amanda – the whole door frame wobbles!! LOL!! those pesky set doors!! 😉
Now that I watch this again – I can’t help but think shut up Amanda!!! as she continues to rant at him on the way to the door.. because Ballon has well and truly taken note here and is going to use the fact that she wants to help Lee against Lee and herself.. poor Amanda..
But not poor Lee- he could have avoided the whole situation if he had just told Amanda he was onto something top secret and couldn’t explain before he went off and pretended to go bad.. (or Billy could have said this.. bad Billy!)
Lee apologises to Ballon for Amanda’s little scene.
Ballon responds: Don’t be. I was very, very glad to meet her. [ugh! he really was happy to meet her..for all the wrong reasons!]
Lee: Ha, well, she’s a civilian, use her on the milkruns. You know, easy stuff.
Ballon: Yeah. Well, she seems very loyal to you, very — seems very dedicated to you. [and he’ll use that fact
]
Lee: Yeah.
Love how Lee describes her.. easy stuff huh Lee.. I don’t think Lee really means this, I think he is just wanting to deflect Ballon from Amanda.. Lee doesn’t want Ballon noticing how loyal Amanda is and dedicated… but too late.. Ballon seems to be mentally taking note of how he might use this knowledge to his own advantage.. (Lee could have at least gotten someone to fill in Amanda and get her to stay out of things.. I realise he may not have been able to do that in his apartment as it may have been bugged..)
Lee: does he wear his shades to bed too?
rofl! I was asking myself that very same question
Lee’s reaction to Ballon’s request for Saviour is rather obvious.. for Mr top spy cool as a cucumber… he was kind of obvious here!
Lee tries to get info on how Ballon plans to get the saviour out of the country.. nice try Lee .. Ballon may be a baddie, but he is not stupid- knows what your up to..
I’ll leave it there for now.. Any thoughts or insights?? Please share them with us!! Back as soon as I can!
You can literally see Amanda’s heart breaking in this scene – and Lee knows he’s doing it but can’t figure out another way to make her go away. When I first watched this as a teen, my heart was breaking too – I totally believed Lee had left the agency and couldn’t fathom him selling out to the baddies.
Yay! Mrs Marsden! She intimidated me through the screen, too. She looks so innocuous, too.
I can’t get past the fact that Ballon is the principal in The Breakfast Club. I keep thinking Anthony Michael Hall is going to jump out.
I didn’t know that reading upside down was actually a skill. I’ve been reading upside down for years – any teacher can read upside down. When I taught years ago, I could read an entire picture book upside down, vertically – meaning, I held the picture book in front of me for the kids to see and read it from that position, not lying flat on a table. I thought everyone could read upside down.
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All this receipt writing business, surely paper trails are what eventually prove your guilt in court, that little pesky think called “evidence” LOL
Does that order book self destruct if required?!!
😦 the scene between Lee and Amanda is not nice to watch. Part of me thinks he didn’t let her in on the secret lest she end up dropping herself in it with one of her Amandarambles. What is the term “plausible deniability”….still it’s horrible to see him being deliberately hurtful 😦
Great line about wearing shades to bed 🙂
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To me the whole scene between Amanda and Lee where he is trying to “get rid of her” is so reminiscent of Burn Out but with the appropriate acting for their relationship. Here there is some sort of relationship between the two – not sure that either of them knows how they really feel – but it only takes some hurtful words to get Amanda to leave. In Burn Out Lee knows its going to take something more to get her to back off. I do believe he is doing it just to keep her out of danger and not because he feels they are only business associates…but ouch, it hurts!
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BJo–I totally agree with you on this–the comparison to Burn Out and the level of their relationship in this episode versus that one! Nicely stated.
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Thanks, KC! And I’m so glad he didn’t have to slap her here! Wonder how Amanda would have reacted at this point. I think it could have irreparably damaged/altered the course of their relationship! Guess that’s why it didn’t happen, huh?
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They should have just clued Amanda in. Don’t they know by now that she’ll be up in his grill trying to set things right? 😀
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I think that this scene was just as much hard on Lee as on Amanda. I really don’t think that he wants to hurt her feelings, but he doesn’t want her to get involved in this situation either. As for not telling her I think that Lee does not understand Amanda’s loyality to her friends yet and he is back into his business mode. I don’t think Billy knows where their friendship is either (like in Burn Out…he tells Lee not to tell her) to him it is Need to Know.
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I wonder how much the stunt hand double for Bruce got paid. Pretty dangerous stuff — I mean you might get a paper cut or something!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I really enjoyed the major and Ballon as bad guys. Such over-the-top-cheesy goodness — I mean badness.
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paper cut? whahahaah!!! yes this arms dealing is a very dangerous business! 😉 writing receipts or orders or whatever could be dangerous! love it.. hope you are well Cindy! How is your take on the scripts going? no hurry or anythng..but at the same time, I look forward to hearing what you find and think about it!
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I am making good progress on the first one and trying to find a non-crumby keyboard (literally!– but of course none of my kids ever eat by the computer. No one has an idea who could have done such a thing). I am trying to keep the word count down and not be too over analytical.
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Hmmmm… stunt/hand double sucks… Lee/BB has very nice hands. Very nice hands, indeed. Drooooollll………….
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Hi! I just subscribed to you last week, and thought I would let you know I am thoroughly enjoying your analysis! I have been a fan of SMK since they were originally on in the 80’s. Thanks so much for doing this!!
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Hi Naomi! So glad you found me! Thanks for letting me know you are reading -it’s really encouraging!! 🙂 Look forward to hearing your thoughts,
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