Hi everyone, I start this thread as we walk through the episode Life of the Party.. we’ve walked through all the Long haired episodes of season 2, because instead of recapping them in airing order, I put ARSituation and CWars ahead of ALSALScandal.. it was obvious they had to be before her haircut! The rest of the order.. is not so obvious!!! so I’d love some help if you find this kind of thing fun!
I have a few ideas.. and we’ve already had a discussion about the order of Car Wars and Brunettes are in.. You’ll see that I have posted the production order of Season Two previously, and in the production order, CWars way much much earlier in the season! I think this was discussed as we recapped CWars.. stop by that episode if you want to see what we discussed.. but I basically wondered if it should go before Brunettes and Lee and Amanda’s big shift.. and others ( feel free to post here) thought it fit better after. What do you think?
Then, there was some discussion about where ARSituation fits, before or after Spiderweb? What do you think?
Now we are into the short haired episodes.. I’m liking having ALSALScandal followed directly by LOTP.. but.. Morley has posted in the comments the following and made me wonder if this is in fact a good order:
Morley wrote: I was wondering about the episode order and I went and looked at each short hair episode and the length of her hair. I sort of thought her hair was softer and looser in this episode and I was actually wondering if it came a little later. It looked to me like her hair in DOA was most similar to her hair in ALSALS and I actually thought Dead Pigeon looked like it would have been before this one too.
So it would be ALSALS, DOA, Dead Pigeon and then LOTP (according to how her hair looked like it was growing, to me). But it is hard to tell and I want to take the time to watch them in that order and see what happens.
The only thing that would make more sense to me in this order is Francine’s comment about Lee dating Randy in DOA. If anyone else wants to, I would love to hear what you think about Amanda’s hair length and episode order [submitted 9 Aug on 2/ LOTParty thread]
In reply to Morley, I (iwsod) responded:
I have written in my notes that there is Spiderweb, ARSituation, then ALSALS, then LOTP..
After LOTP we see that Billy has a new chair in his office – at least these are the notes I’ve made.. so from this I have deduced that ALSALS and LOTP come first in the short haired eps.. followed by the others.. I haven’t had time to think about these eps beyond LOTP – so your ideas about Amanda’s hair are really interesting! Maybe DOA directly follows LOTP? could it?..
[there was something I just picked up in the 3rd post of LOTP that makes me think ALSALS and LOTP were filmed together.. ] you know.. they tended to film two episodes at a time.. and cross over a little..
I’d be interested to see if someone can check if we see Billy’s office (and his chair) in the eps from now on?.. if someone can confirm if my notes are correct?.. or if there is an ep where we don’t see his office? (I think there was a time where I only saw it through the bullpen window but I can’t remember sorry)
Well, if anyone would like to take this and run with it that would be fab! I don’t have a set order for the end of season 2 and am completely open to ideas (well I always am- but this time I’m also devoid of my own ideas! tee hee)
I just had another look at DOA to try and see if I get a glimpse of Billy’s chair.. you can just make it out behind Lee as he takes his phone call from Hans Redzick in Billy’s office (while Amanda digs into Lee’s sandwich!).. here:
The chair’s not easy to see, and on the right of the screen..
To me it looks like ALSALScandal and LOTParty are the two short haired episodes we see where Billy doesn’t have his new chair yet.. If someone doesn’t beat me to it, [btw, I’d be happy if you did – I’m really busy! 
] I’ll check out the other short haired eps to confirm the new chair is in them..
Soooo here is one place to collect all our thoughts on the season 2 order – so a list get put together!
Any ideas?
Feel free to discuss them here.. of course, other than looking for Billy’s chair I haven’t watched ahead – so I’m not going to be much good on what else is in later episodes.. so I expect to add to this thread as we walk through to the end of season 2.. but if you think of anything feel free to list it here and I’ll keep it in mind! Thanks for raising this again Morley!
Byee all!!! 🙂
"Just walk with me.." 
The other thing for me is that if you put 3 Faces Of Emily before Brunettes Are In then you also have to put Das Geisterschloss before it and they just seem too close on that ep for me. I feel like Das Geisterschloss has to be after Brunettes because Lee seems so close and accepting of Amanda and they really seem to have a bond on it, like it has to he right after the “Partners” conversation. In fact, I’d put all the European eps except Mongoose after that for the same reason. I know they were filmed first, but there’s just such a difference in their closeness. For me Brunettes is the big milestone change in S2 just like Service Above & Beyond and later Artful Dodger for S1.
SAAB is Lee accepting Amanda as a coworker and more than just a pain in the neck tagalong kid sister he’s been saddled with.
Then Dodger is when we see the last of pain-in-the-neck Lee and that he’s really changing into a friend. There’s a difference before that — especially in the “crisis trio” of LCE, ROTP, & LAF but after Dodger it’s just taken a step up. He still has moments of aggravation, but they’re more like how everyone gets irritated with people sometimes. And then finally he admits on Brunettes that she is his partner and after that their friendship truly becomes the Lee & Amanda we know and love.
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One thing that comes to mind that I’m pretty sure Car Wars has to be the last pre-haircut ep and that Life Of The Party & A Little Sex And A Little Scandal (I wish SMK didn’t have such long ep titles!) are the first two with a haircut, simply because of the way you hear a head cold being passed through the cast. KJ clearly has it first on Car Wars. Then on LOTP, all four main agents have it at various points (although BB sounds like he got hit the hardest). And he still seems to have it when the other three seem better on ALSALS.
You can also hear a cold passed between BB & KJ on To Catch A Mongoose (BB has it) and Times They Are A Changing (KJ) has it, so those two eps had to be filmed back to back — not sure what order though!
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I remember wondering the first time or two that I saw ALSALS why in the world they cast a female baddie, Rita, who looked so very much like Amanda in build, coloring and hairstyle. It seemed too striking to me to be just a random thing, especially when Amanda’s hairstyle was changed at just that point to be the same as Rita’s. And in Dead Pigeon, it was a bit of a stretch to think that anyone could look exactly like Amanda with just facial surgery and study of Amanda’s gestures and voice. Then it occurred to me that this order of episodes was important and that they were trying to plant in the viewers minds with Rita’s character in ALSALS the idea that there could exist a female baddie with the build, bone structure and coloring/hair texture that would make Dead Pigeon more plausible–what do you all think?
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Hmmm, that is an interesting theory, Colleen! I haven’t thought about these hair don’t episodes in a while. I think it’s possible that was what TPTB had in mind. Although I agree with you, it is quite far fetched to think that someone could duplicate Amanda with just facial and vocal cord surgery and studying her. But then again, this is SMK where things just seem to magically happen!
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Hiya.. just wondering.. what did we end up figuring out?? has anyone finished the order of season two? Any reason why I shouldn’t stick with the airing order from now to the end of season two? I’m open to hearing any arguments for switching!
At the moment.. I’m thinking Odds on a Dead Pigeon is next. 🙂
I have nooo transcript for it 😦 boo hooo.. this means I’ll be writing it as I go along.. so posts are going to be shorter (as they’ll take longer for me to write)
Has anyone done an order for season 3??
byee!
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Iwsod, I started a tread on Ned’s about episode order. I hope that is ok? I am specifically wondering about the order for the beginning of season 2 right now. If we should bring the discussion back here we can, no problem. I posted an order for season 2 there as well, but I was wondering what we had come up with here. I think the discussion in this post is mostly about short hair episodes. What did we do with the European episodes and the funny placement for Class Act, 3 Faces of Emily and Brunettes? I was also wondering about Double Agent and that odd Porsche, shall we just ignore it?
Ps. I do have a different order for season 3, do you want me to post it here?
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Hi Morley – that’s a great idea! It’s much easier to go back and forth on a large topic like a season’s episode order on Neds.. I’ll head over there and check out your post – good thinking!
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If anyone else wants to join in the discussion feel free to pop over to Ned’s. It would be great to hear as many people’s thoughts as possible.
🙂
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All right, I think I have it. In the beginning of DOA Dotty indicates that she is going to be late for an appointment to get her hair done. Her hair is sort of up at that point and it actually already looks like it’s been done. Near the end of the episode you see that she has had her hair cut and it’s sort of a bob style. It also looks smooth and not frizzy. This leads me to think this comes after Dead Pigeon.
In Dead Pigeon Dotty is going through the boys’ bags prior to the camping trip. Her hair is pinned up and there looks to be more of it. It also looks a little frizzy. You can see her with it up several times in this episode. It looks longer here and shorter in DOA. I guess it did all come down to the hair and the chair. But this is all supposition and my opinion. Feel free to disagree.
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Actually I watched them last night and the progression of Lee’s responses to Amanda make sense in the original order (excepting the ridiculous placement of Car Wars). I guess the only thing I need an explanation for is that comment about Randy that Francine makes in DOA. But I bet we will have fun with that one when we get there… sigh.
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Okay, so I’ve done a little investigating with the DVDs and tried to look at what might be the episode order for the short hair shows. I do think that Brunettes comes before Car Wars though. Prior to and during some of Brunettes Lee is still iffy about Amanda’s participation at the Agency. He goes back and forth with his attitude and it all sort of comes to a head in Brunettes. He becomes a kinder, gentler Lee who’s more accepting of Amanda and at the end of Brunettes calls her partner. In Car Wars he uses “we” a lot in referring to him and Amanda. They are very couple like in the episode and more in tune with each other.
Spiderweb and Relative Situation are a little trickier. In SW Lee is a bit jealous and in RS Amanda shows a little jealousy in the beginning. Lee opening up to Amanda in RS could be part of the cause of some of his consternation in SW when Amanda is accused of being a double agent. His trust in her possibly increased and he opened up more which may have led to some of his distress in SW. Also, there was the incident of breaking into the hotel room in RS and Amanda was indicating how displeased she was about it and commented about how she would feel if it happened to her. In SW we know that Lee ended up searching her house which led to her being hurt. It was not brought up in RS which could mean RS came before SW and might also explain some of Lee’s displeasure at having to do it.
As far as Billy’s chair, it is a fabric type desk chair all the way through ALSALS and LOTP. It becomes a leather chair in Dead Pigeon and DOA and for the rest of the season. I think that ALSALS comes just before LOTP. You also have the congestion, stuffiness issue of BB/Lee, which means they were probably filmed together. In LOTP you have Francine and Amanda working together and maybe becoming friendlier which leads Francine to being a bit nicer in DOA where she takes care of Amanda and is a bit more congenial towards her.
Trying to decide the order of Dead Pigeon and DOA is difficult. In both Amanda ends up suffering because of Lee, Lee gets irritated a bit with Francine in both. And Lee is distressed about Amanda’s predicament in both. Amanda wears the white top from ALSALS in Dead Pigeon, and in DOA the Amanda needs a raise issue comes up for the first time. And of course there is that wearing all white thing again.
The hair is definitely a conundrum. I think it depends on how it was styled. Sometimes it has more curl to it and therefore looks a little shorter. Sometimes it is more relaxed and therefore looks longer. I was trying to see where it fell on her collar, but with the big collars and shoulder pads of the 80s it is hard to say. Even within the same episode the hair tends to change. I even tried to look at Dotty’s hair to see if I could see some differences. She has this weird bouffant thing in the dream sequence in DOA that completely threw me off. Maybe she was supposed to be channeling Mrs. Marston.
Francine does mention Randi in DOA, but I just think with Lee’s increasing closeness to Amanda he doesn’t share as much with Francine as he used to and therefore Francine may not know that Randi is no longer in the picture. I don’t want to dissect too much more as I’ll wait to chat about the episodes as we walk through them. I could go either way on the order of Dead Pigeon and DOA. I may specifically look at them later this evening for one more look see. Does anyone else have any thoughts?
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The chair is the smoking gun, isn’t it? I will be interested to hear what you think after watching DOA and Dead Pigeon. I think I want DOA to come before. I guess I want the dreams to come closer to Amanda meeting Randi and having cake with Lee, and I want Francine not to mention Randi too far after ALSALS. Can I manipulate the show to my wants, I guess I do, but I can only make it work to a point. Great work KC…. I wonder what you would do with the first part of season 3?
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The key to early season 3 is the Q bureau 😊!
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Yes, but also the necklaces and Amanda’s hair length…
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It could put OTL in a different place 😉
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LIKE!!!! Valerie you just read my mind!!!!
Hey.. wondering what ep to do next after LOTParty.. If we come up with a different order I’m happy to go with it.. just sayin.. 🙂 and.. I think I would really like to do Petra’s order for season 3! Maybe I should get a thread up for that.. LOL.. I’ll add that to my long list! 🙂 byee all!
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Ack! iwsod, I would love to spend some time looking out for the “hair and the chair” (too funny!) but I have way too much other SMK stuff to catch up on! I am bound and determined to get those other two SAAB stats posts done today! My kiddos are back in school as of today so I have decided that other than laundry and getting food at the grocery store to cook for dinner I will be on the computer catching up on SMK! I feel like I have missed so much over the weekend.
My only off the cuff thoughts on episode order here are that LOTP seems to me to come toward the end of the short hair eps in terms of how Lee treats Amanda, especially at the end – we can discuss more when we get there in your posts. And I wonder if DOA didn’t come before ALSALS because of the Randi comment – sort of sets us up to find out who Randi is. Just a thought but there’s probably something obvious I’m forgetting or missing to make ALSALS come first.
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Heading home today from vacation to focus on prepping for school. What better way to get in the mood for homework than to have an SMK assignment to work on. Any reason to check out the DVDs is fine with me. I’ll have a look see about the hair and the chair.
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the hair and the chair.. rofl! they rhyme! whooo hooo Valerie.. welcome to the detective team 😉 haaa!
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