The episode opens with Ms Walker and her red handbag strolling by IFF.. LOL just when does she get to her destination? maybe she is IFF security doing the rounds! 
Anyway, we see inside IFF, is completely deserted.. not a soul to 
be seen, nor a sign hanging anywhere -creepy!
Amanda arrives and knocks on the front door, looking up to greet Mrs Marsden on the CCTV.. 
but.. it’s not there! Confused, Amanda tries the front door, and it’s unlocked. She makes her way inside to find it is empty. 
Completely empty! (whoo nice to see the stairs to the Q bureau though.. just remembering all the err good times that Amanda and Lee will have up there! 
)
She calls out to Mrs Marsden, but no one answers.. she tries the coat elevator door..but that one’s locked and then.. Argh! She is surprised by a stranger who also arrives..
He apologises for startling her. But Amanda denies being startled.. it’s obvious she was though – 
she’s on edge trying to work out what’s going on!! You know, it is lucky ( err Amanda is lucky!) that this guy is not a bad guy- Amanda is alone and defenseless here.. Left Vulnerable by the agency IMHO! Hmm!!
This stranger, asks Amanda if she recognises an address.. he speaks with an accent.. but is very polite. Amanda says she was just leaving.. it’s obvious something is weird here but they are both pretending everything is fine! LOL! When you first saw this did you think he was a bad guy? I can’t remember! drat! 
Anyway.. he exits with Amanda, and watches her leave. Then he pulls out a notebook – duh duh duuuhhhh!! 
With a picture of Amanda and Lee!! ( Taken in Tegernsee – that hot bed of spy business and intrigue I guess!Amazing.. the photo was taken from right where Harry was standing- haa!)
Well, back to the King home.. Dotty is calling out instructions for the boys who are assembling a tent in the family room! She calls out to drive the peg into the ground, and just as Phillip swings the hammer, Amanda swoops in and stops him, LOL!
He was about to drive the peg into the family room floor?! What was Dotty thinking?!
Dotty can’t understand the urge to go camping.. and Amanda gets Phillip to try on his backpack.. LOL.. Phillip is so over the top here in his dialogue..
but the boys are excited to be going camping at Uncle Herman’s so I guess it works! As usual, Phillip points out what Jamie did wrong last time ( he ‘got some poison oak’) but.. hooray! Jamie has a come back! Go Jamie!! [ Is it my imagination or is he starting to give as good as he gets now??!!] Seems Dotty is annoyed by Phillip’s jibes too!
Jamie quips: Not to mention you broke your finger falling out of a tree.
Phillip’s comeback? He sticks his tongue out and waves his arms around..
Aie! Amanda smiles at this – err I find it kind of annoying! Not charming at all.. Do you guys find this funny? to me this seems bratty – but err maybe it is cultural?? or maybe it is just a different time when this would have been considered cute and funny? help??!!
I love Dotty! Dotty: … It’s a throwback to the Neanderthal macho instinct. Burning food over an open fire ignoring civilized bathing practices.
( Dotty the curious anthropologist, absently picks up a stick to look at it..)
Jamie: Watch out for that snake stick!
Dotty throws down the stick like it is on fire: Snake Stick??!!
Jamie: for rattlers
Dotty sighs and clutches at her heart- LOL!!
She’s so dramatic!! 😆
Jamie: There are some big suckers. They’re all over Vermont.
Phillip excitedly joins in scaring Dotty: 7, 8, 9 [they’re gettin bigger!] feet long. Yeah!
Amanda puts a stop to teasing Dotty, and sends the boys up to wash their hands. ( is it my imagination or do these boys wash their hands a lot! )
Amanda: Mother, it’s just boy talk. They’ll be in the tent and we’ll be in the house 20 feet away.
Dotty notices something is wrong with Amanda.. the nail-biting apparently is a dead giveaway! Amanda denies anything is wrong.. but.. it seems she is stressing about the agency vanishing.. and wondering what she should or could do! Poor Amanda – it is very perplexing situation! Dotty: …we could start with an explanation of why you left the house this morning all up and happy ( Amanda bites her nails) and returned this afternoon all depressed and confused.
Amanda potters around the kitchen busy with supper – Notice: different yellow flowers! these are pretty! anyone know their name?
Dotty: I am not going to talk about your work with this film company because I agreed it’s none of my business. But I do have the right to be, uh concerned about your well-being. Film people are different, Amanda. They have strange views and attitudes… 
( At this moment – Amanda is at the sink getting a glass of water and Lee pops up at her 
kitchen window suddenly and suddenly disappears. So funny! Yes! here is one of those weird film people now! )… I’m not so sure that they are the kind of people you should be with.
It’s funny to hear Dotty telling Amanda film people are different have strange attitudes- when both Beverley and Kate are ‘film people’!
Wow.. it’s been a while since we saw Lee pop up in Amanda’s window! I’ve missed it!! Lee motions with his head for Amanda to come outside!
Amanda quickly turns to her mother. There goes KJ with her funny expressions again! she is even funnier when you are looking at frames to choose pictures!!
Dotty: film people are not always what they seem.
[Ohh Dotty! Sooo much truth in that statement! IFF is definitely not what is seems! Love it!! such irony!] Amanda: right.
Dotty: aaaand- Right.
Amanda: yes Mother, You’re right. And I think maybe I better just go outside and think about what you just said because it is… so right. 😆
Dotty accepts this: right! ( and gets on with slicing the bread)
Amanda finds Lee around the corner, ohh looks like Amanda has a little gardening nook!
Lee whispers: hey Amanda over here!
Amanda: You’re all right. I was so worried. [Sweet! I bet she was more worried about Lee than the agency!]
Lee: I’m fine, I’m fine. I was away on a classified mission. Have you been to the agency? [I love that Lee doesn’t mind Amanda expressing she was worried about him! Maybe this is some confirmation bias in action, but things feel different between these two – like this is post Brunettes!! ]
Amanda: Yes, everything is gone.
Lee grimaces: I know it, I know it. Have you talked to Billy or..or anyone?
Amanda: no no no. Everbody is gone. Lee what happened? What’s wrong?
Lee: it’s operation Possum.
Amanda: what’s that?
Lee: I’ll explain later. Now I need help.
Amanda: right.
Lee: do you bowl?
Amanda confused: do I bowl?
Lee: yes. Do you bowl?
Amanda: Yes I bowl. I was on the parent-teacher team the year we took third in the league.
Lee: alright alright. Good. ( Lee grabs both her arms) Now, can you get your bowling things together and come with me right now.
Amanda: Now?
Lee: Right now.
Amanda: right. Yeah. [It’s great to see how well Amanda takes all this in her stride.. IMHO she does very well here at not questioning, getting over her surprise and getting moving – all while Lee is holding her like that? Amanda is a strong woman! ]
Amanda heads back inside to gather her things, and Lee leaves the yard, giving Amanda a final glance as he leaves.
He does that a lot doesn’t he!! I love that Lee came to Amanda.. sounds like it was the first thing he did.. seems like they are now starting to act like partners!! although.. I am sure there will be lots of backwards and forwards! I like to think Lee was worried about Amanda when he realised operation possum had been put into action ( after all she was left vulnerable by this, especially with Lee away on a classified mission.. ) ohh and did you notice Amanda didn’t prod him for information about it!
Amanda searches the hall closet for her bowling bag. 
Dotty is too cute with her encouragement of Amanda doing some bowling to lift her mood! tee hee.. It’s an interesting observation: as her mother notices Amanda’s mood has lifted! – we know it’s because Lee is back in town!!! hooray!
No green beans no dessert? Nooooooo!!!! Amanda and the boys are very cute here!
though I protest.. I think Green beans are delicious!
So off Amanda goes.. to do some bowling and lift her mood by helping Lee!
Okay I shall finish up there for now.. Comments? thoughts? insights? questions? I’d love to hear them!! byeee for now!
"Just walk with me.." 
I’m kind of surprised Amanda and Dorty don’t crack down more on the boys for their insults, especially Phillip. I can’t remember if that kind of thing happened with my cousins or not and I was an only child.
We know Amanda hates to scold — maybe she wants to choose her battles and figured this was normal? It does seem like boys argue a lot.
Okay I just checked with my aunt who grew up with two brothers and she said they were a lot like that and her parente parents sometimes cracked down and sometimes didn’t, so basically similar to Amanda. So I guess this is normal.
Maybe the key is the effect it has on them. Jamie doesn’t seem devastated but takes the teasing in stride. Amanda does seem to step in with direct insults though.
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When I first saw the blurb for this episode I thought “Oh no, this is going to be SO STUPID!” I mean, come on! The Agency is empty and “Hey, let’s go bowling!” It sounded like the most drippy storyline ever.
Then someone posted a shot of the last hug and I thought, “Okay, maybe this will have a slight redeeming quality, because that photo looks awesome. Fine, I’ll give it a shot.” And all I can say is WOW and did that blurb undersell it!
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You know, I watched the beginning of this episode again..it seems to me the stairs to the Q bureau are turned the wrong way. I seem to remember them being parallel to that short wall where the door to the secret elevator is….can someone confirm this?
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Hi Gruvy Granny – In the pic above in the post, I’m pretty sure the stairs are in the right spot. When you come in the front door, the secret elevator is straight ahead and the stairs to the Q-Bureau are on the right – behind where Mrs. Marsden’s desk is. Anyone else out there have any thoughts on this?
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HI BJo! welcome back 🙂 I’ll have a squiz and get back to you and groovy granny soon 🙂
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Hi Gruvy Granny ( sorry think I called you groovy granny before LOL.. you are still groovy!) I took on this assignment of yours! It didn’t require me drinking copious amounts of alcohol, faking screwing up assignments, not shining my shoes, ruining my reputation and sending my life down the drain so I figured: Why not! 🙂
I had a look at There goes the neighbourhood. There is a scene early between Lee and Amanda in the IFF foyer – though there is no Mrs Marsden yet.
As you walk in the front door of IFF, the coat elevator was on the opposite wall, and the stairs leading up to the Q bureau were on the right hand side of the room. Starting at the end of the room the coat elevator is at.
I had a look at Playing possum, and this seems to coincide with what I saw in There Goes the neighbourhood.
I am wondering if some strange things happen with Mrs Mardsen and her desk.
I’ve checked and I think we meet Mrs Marsden in Saviour. And her desk is on the right as you walk through the front door. but we don’t see what is behind her desk. Same with Filming Raul. we don’t get to see that angle.
Aha! In Waiting for Godorsky you can see the staircase behind Mrs Marsden – and it looks to be in the same direction as the other times we saw it.
In Amanda’s dream in Doa where Dotty is Mrs Marsden? Mrs Marsden’s table seems to be on the left as you enter the foyer, now opposite the stair case.. whether that is because it is an upside down dream.. or in future it is that way – I don’t know..[but the staircase is in the same location it always was] Maybe in later episodes it is different? we’ll keep an eye out. but I don’t want to look beyond what I’m up to blogging..
I hearby submit my report on this assignment and stamp it completed 🙂 Hope my boss Gruvy Granny is happy with it tee hee..
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I am sure the boys go to their rooms a lot because the U.S. has strict labor laws especially for child actors..they are only allowed a specified amount of time in front of the camera…at least it used to be that way…back in the 80’s.
They are rambunctious little boys…too much energy and too mouthy for me…Dottie caters to their every whim but then again, she is pretty much parenting them single handedly because Amanda is busy spying all the time! Remember she misses the Rumpelsteilskin(sp) play because she was pulling an overnighter.
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The flowers look like some type of chysanthemum to me.
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Make that, chrysan . . . Oh, you know what I mean — mums!!!
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I think Amanda should have asked Mrs Walker with the red bag where they had all disappeared to…..after all she must have seen something she’s there so often 😉
Wow doesn’t the hallway look so much bigger! Ah and the steps up to the Q Bureau 🙂
Well Amanda may claim she wasn’t startled but he sure startled me! I’d be freaked out more than Amanda if a strange guy followed me into a building! His story was rather lame about the address….why would you walk into what looks like a private house asking for directions. Way too creepy!
I sure wish I could drop everything at a moments notice and go bowling, especially if it was with Lee 😉
Dotty: what a difference a few words can make. Sure does. I guess it depends on WHO is is saying those words as well. Amanda is suddenly a great deal happier thanks to Lee popping up at her window. Can’t imagine why 😉 (I’ve missed that too IWSOD)
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In the script Amanda goes to Lee’s apartment and the Russian follows her. She is then more up set when the doorman explains that Lee has been gone awhile.
I love that scene of them at home. IMO the boys need more discipline, but they have no male role model around. I know this is TV but my boys give more trouble than my girls and my husband helps a lot to enforce that they respect and obey me.
My friend I was laughing that sometimes if life was like TV kids would go to their rooms right after supper to do homework or to bed. Anybody watch the Dick VanDyke show their son has already eaten and in bed when he gets home. LOL
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This always makes me giggle, when Lee pops up at Amandas window.
Oh yes, the boys do a lot of handwashing and homework upstairs.
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Yeah, I think that is always funny him popping up. But, I really can’t believe that Dotty never heard him knock or her or the neighbors never heard them talking outside. What about his car, wouldn’t they notice that there a lot? LOL I know TV 🙂
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Red pursed lady = Agency security — LOVE IT! Bet the purse is actually contains super spy cameras, etc.
First time I saw the opening I was as confused as Amanda and very relieved when Lee popped up at her window. (I did think I did think the stranger was a bad guy, but I thought he was going to be a good or entertaining baddie.)
I love how Lee came to her (only to keep his cover, riiiiight!). I am sure that was a serious breach of protocol on many levels.
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The purse actually is weapon itself!!! When she descries a bad guy, she’ll start swinging her handbag around, then throw it at him to knock him out!!! Yeah! 😀
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