The next morning at the Sherman hotel, Alan is being paid an early visit by Gelati and his goons (or is that goonissimos!)
Alan sits in a large armchair in his dressing gown..
Gelati: I never allow anyone to disobey me twice. Should I make an exception in your case? (Alan doesn’t answer) …Or in your sister’s case.
Alan: No.
Gelati: Don’t tell me what to do. You do what I say. And you do it today, huh? I’ll make sure your American does not distract you.
Alan: Amanda has nothing to do with this. I haven’t told her anything
Gelati: You told her how beautiful she was. How much you wanted her. Nothing else?
Alan: Why should I? She’s only a tourist for God’s sakes.
[interesting.. yes why tell her anything else. she’s just a woman he was trying to pick up for a fling 
okay he’s trying to convince the baddie here..but I think there’s some truth in it 😉 ]
Gelati: Stupid men like you are dangerous. (well Gelati what do you expect? he’s not use to this cloak and dagger stuff!) …Tourist – maybe! Agent – maaaaayyybe!!…
…I’m going to find out. And if she is, I’m going to have to kill her and it will be your fault!
The scene ends with a tense close up on Alan..
Ohhh dear would you look at that.. once again Amanda is in danger and a baddie is threatening to kill her.
I find it incredible that Alan was planning to meet Amanda for breakfast on the very day that he was going to take the Declaration of Independence!!! Dinner the night before is one thing but breakfast that day?!!
Not only is he putting Amanda at risk, he’s putting his sister at risk. Stupid Alan! Just can’t bring myself to admire this guy! The early morning visit from the baddie while the guy is still in his dressing gown? reminds me once again of Service above and beyond..
where Hollander threatens Delano and then tells him to have his cuticles seen to or something.. lol..
Oh and LOL at Alan having no chest hair btw – is that outlawed on smk??!! (ah no wait.. I can see Delano has a bit… maybe only baddies are allowed chest hair and facial hair on smk? 😉 )
Cool edit here between these two scenes.. it edits from this:
to this:
nice touch! [with those nails Sophia should be able to scratch herself free!!!]
Back at IFF.. and they’ve ID’d the girl in the wheelchair Gelati was pushing around..(literally and figuratively)
This outfit of Francine’s is beyond Awful.. I just had to do a couple of memes about it on Neds to get it out of my system. A fashion police arrest just wasn’t adequate!!!
Francine explains it’s likely the girl in the wheelchair is Sophia Vessi – Alan’s half sister… The agency didn’t know about her because they’ve been living apart since they were children. [Red February was able to figure it out though! ]
Lee: We can’t pick him up because they’ve got his sister. Agreed?
Billy: Agreed. You took Mrs King off the case?
[‘Mrs King’ Billy? why so formal Mr Melrose?!]
Lee: Yeah, first thing.
(wait a minute.. nooo Lee didn’t take Amanda off the case.. oh dear.. what’s gone on here?? Is Lee outright lying to Billy?? or is this a boo boo with the script,episode, entire story rewrite?? )
Billy: Good. Now listen; I want you and Francine to cover this Chamberlain like a circus tent….
…Two teams of watchers for 24 hours. I don’t want him to pick up a case of dandruff in DC that we don’t know about.
Pick up a case of dandruff? lol! I think with Alan’s method of distracting himself he could maybe pick up a case of something else. eww.
This should have happened the moment Amanda saw Alan screaming into the phone: Sooophiiiiaaaaa!!!!! and then running like a mad man after that van. but noooooo.. it’s like that never happened. (I wonder if that was added in late- to faciliate Alan meeting Amanda.. I never did think it made any sense! Is it in the script? )
Lee: You got it.
Lee and Francine exit Billy’s office to find a circus tent Well well well.. look who immediately notes Lee’s coming out of Billy’s office??
Why.. it’s Congresswoman Faber!
She seems to motion to Lee and Francine (well mainly Lee!) but he keeps on walking
Seems Lee is back on the case.. and Faber is left to deal with her underwear problem by herself 
bye byeeee Faber!
Back to Amanda.. and whooo look! the trellis no longer has any leaves on it.. no thanks to Lee?
Amanda is rushing around in the kitchen getting the boys their cereal, while the boys wait at the dining room table. Oh purlease.. what they can’t do this themselves? what are they? four??!!
Amanda’s in a tizz.. me thinks she didn’t get much sleep last night she makes the cereal then puts the cereal in the fridge and tries to give them the milk! 
Dotty would be excused for concluding this is because of her date last night with Alan – Amanda has her head in the clouds but noooo I think it’s because the midnight rambler stopped by
Dotty reacts to Amanda bringing the boys milk, not cereal!
Dotty: That’s very clever.
Realising what she’s done, Amanda wordlessly brings the boys their cereal.
Okay I randomly captured this image and I couldn’t resist!
Jamie: How was your date last night, mom?
Amanda: Sweetheart, it wasn’t a date. It was business.
Jamie: That’s not what Grandma said. [lol Dotty gossips with the boys about Amanda’s dating life?? Ooohhhh deeearrr!!!]
Phillip: Yeah.
Phone rings and Amanda answers: Hello.
Alan: Hello, it’s me, Alan. How are you?
(Chamberlain is calling from his hotel room with all the goonissimos listening in)
Amanda: Oh, uh, hello. I was just getting ready to leave…
(to the family) Could I have a little privacy, please?
Phillip: I never get any
Dotty: Turn around.
Amanda turns around to talk to Alan again but is interrupted by Dotty behind her calling out to her: Darling, you can have all the privacy you wish. [rofl!!! Dotty is incredible!]
Amanda (into phone): How about 20 minutes by the pool.
[oh hey.. did Amanda give Alan her phone number?! Maybe the agency is rerouting it.. but what if one of the boys had answered?!]
Alan: Uh no no I’m , uh, glad I caught you. Amanda, there’s been a change of plans. We can’t see each other.
Amanda: No breakfast?
Alan: No I’m afraid not. You’ve – got to stay away from me, Amanda.
Amanda: Alan, what is the matter?
Alan: No, I’m sorry. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m sorry. [LOL why not say – I won’t be there??!! I guess he says stay away from me because he was ordered to- as a test to see if Amanda is an agent.. okay.. that’s making sense! ]
Amanda dials a number..
Woman: International Federal Films.
Amanda whispers: Lee Stetson, please.
Woman: I’m sorry, he’s out of the office.
Amanda: Thank you.
Oh nooooo so she didn’t get through to Lee because he’s at the breakfast.. so Amanda is going to go to the breakfast! eek!!! which will reveal to Gelati that she’s an agent!! double eek! Stupid Alan!
Alan: Well, I’ve done everything I can.
[Ohhh Purlease!!!! That’s a laugh. no he hasn’t. he pursued Amanda.. and he is to blame! Compare Alan’s shifting of responsibility here with Lee’s tendency to take it on too much. Alan has done very little to keep Amanda out of trouble. meh!]
Gelati: Well, let’s hope for her sake and yours that you have succeeded. Is it done?
They walk over to check something under a coloured lamp (we don’t see what it is).
Alan: Uh, it needs more time. It’s curing.
Gelati: More time?!
Alan: Look this is my business. If it’s not perfect, they’ll spot it in a minute. I figure another hour…
(Alan turns to leave and Gelati cocks his gun)
…I’d like some coffee.
Gelati: Perche no! We will be following your every move with the greatest interest.
Seems like a lot of trouble for coffee.. when dealing with dangerous men…I’ll cut Alan some slack.. I think he’s going down for coffee on the off chance that Amanda does show up – so he can warn her away. He is quite a flawed everyday guy placed in a situation which requires him to be heroic- involving Amanda in all this? totally unheroic!!! but.. maybe now he’ll make it up to her a little..
The scene ends with all the baddies following Alan down to coffee.. and a close up on the coloured lamp,
the shot then pans down to reveal it is curing the declaration of independence.
Rofl at the ink pots and quill sitting on the document – if they spilt or anything the whole thing would be ruined!!! ridiculous!
On to Cafe of the Nations… We find Alan drinking coffee at a very rumpled looking table lol!
Francine and Lee are at another table.
We see Gelati is disguised as a waiter, monitoring if Amanda shows up.. (see the guy in the foreground in the pic above eating?? he’s using a plastic fork!!! whahahahaaa!!! )
Amanda suddenly approaches Alan: Alan, I know you said not to come but I thought maybe we could just talk.
Alan freaks out!!!
Alan: believe me Amanda. you should not have come here!
Gelati with his machine gun hidden in a newspaper approaches.
Oh dear.. you’d think Francine and Lee would have spotted Gelati earlier.. Hmm.. oh well..
Amanda and Alan see him approaching.
Chamberlain: Amanda, we’ve got to get out of here, now.
They run for it.
Lee and Francine are on their feet immediately, Lee shoulders Gelati, sending him flying onto a table and dropping his gun.
Francine grabs hold of Gelati and she’s not letting go! She cries: help! somebody help me please!! like Gelati is attacking her!
[Call me crazy but that looks like an Australian flag there on the left side of the pool!! whoo hooo!!]
Alan and Amanda reach the street and Alan turns to talk to Amanda.
I can’t remember where I found this, but here below is a picture that was released as a promotional photo from CBS for this episode.. Interesting that it says the episode will air Dec 23- when it ended up airing 23 Sept! A typo?? or was it at first destined to not be the season opener like many think?
[Also- it says Alan is a former diplomat? eh?? and what’s this about frequent visits behind the iron curtain?! lol.. sounds like there were some major typos on this promo material.. or the episode had a major re-write!]
Chamberlain (by car) Amanda, where’s your car?
Amanda: It’s right here!
[I think when Alan grabs Amanda by both arms here.. it doesn’t have the same effect on Amanda as it does when a certain spy does it ]
Chamberlain: Listen to me. Stay as far away from me as possible. I am poison for you. (and runs off across the road rah rah..)
Whoa.. ‘I am poison for you’ remind you of anything? Walking through the episodes has given me the chance to note things I never would have noted before..
This line is almost exactly the same as what Lee said to Amanda in Burn Out!!! – right after the slap, when Lee is trying to push Amanda away from him- for her own protection-
Lee: I hit you…
…You’ve just gotta stay away from me…
…You’ve seen what I’ve been doing lately. I’m…
…You see what I’ve been going through. I am poison at the agency.
Can it be a coincidence that once again, a man is pushing Amanda away from him in order to protect her?? from his poison???!!!
I doubt it – the two situations highlight how different Amanda’s relationship with Lee is compared to hers and Alan’s.. well.. really.. there is no comparison! After everything Lee and Amanda have been through, really, Alan was never even in the running.. (even if he had been a good catch.. which I am not convinced of )
Any thoughts on this stay away from my poison theme here??? Do tell!! Anyone have an Alice Cooper song in their head now?! Alas.. I checked that song was 1989! I am sure SMK was the inspiration! ahem..
Francine back at cafe continues wrestling with Gelati crying: Somebody call the police. This man is attacking me.
A bystander tries to grab gelati: We know how to deal with people like you…
But he gets tossed in the pool and Gelati gets away. Drat!
Lee (by Amanda’s car): Where’s Chamberlain?
Amanda: Uh he ran across there.
Lee: Right, what went wrong?
Amanda: I don’t know. He called this morning and said breakfast was off. I tried to call you but you weren’t there.
I found the photo below somewhere.. years ago! Now I can see that this moment does not appear in the episode at all!!! Either it got cut or.. they hyped up the competition for Amanda in the promos something fierce! Look how possessive Lee is in this pic? I prefer how he actually was in the ep.. much more mature.. and only a tiny hint of jealous (not a fan of overdoing the jealousy to progress a romance!) 
Back to the scene we got – Lee finishes the scene by explaining to Amanda: The terrorists have grabbed his sister. They’re holding her for ransom.
Amanda looks worried for Alan and his sister..
We cut back to Lee- he shares that worry too! I like that there is not a hint of jealousy in Lee, he too is concerned for Alan, his sister, and the national monument that’s at risk.. 
Hey.. I just noticed.. Lee has on exactly the same shirt and tie combo that he was wearing to the garden party in Mr Brand!
A slightly different jacket.. (ignore the pink pj’s!)
Soooo what do you all think? do tell!!! Oh my.. doesn’t Lee look tanned and healthy in that lovely jacket of his?? I think this episode was filmed first with Mr Brand..– but mean’t to be aired fifth.. yep that’s what I’m going with!! 
Looking forward to hearing from you- byeee!
"Just walk with me.." 
I had a thought to day about this episode… Remeber how we said that Amanda seemed to be sleep walking through life when we alked about the costumes for The First Time? Well here she was in a nightgown again and I kind of get the feeling that both Lee and Amanda are really beginning to wake up now. Maybe they are becoming more alive and aware of life and their own emotions. Maybe before they both were sleep walking in a sense? From this point on do their actions change? are they more aware and awake? It will be interesting to watch and see.
Other than that, I don’t have many comments to make about this part, they seem like trasition scenes.
I like the insight from the preliminary scripts, but I am glad we got what we did.
And I am enjoying the comparisons between Lee and Alan that are being made. Lee is looking like a really wonderful gentleman right about now compared to Alan.
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Hi Morley.. this comparison between Lee and Alan may not have been so obviously in Lee’s favour had the script not been changed no?
Ah yes.. what’s ahead for these two? it’s tempting to look ahead! I have my theories.. but lol because it’s been a long time I’m going to have to share them with a disclaimer- that it’s subject to confirmation in light of future episodes! lol!! 🙂
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Yes, increasingly I am seeing that this episode is pointing to:
1. How Lee and Alan appear to be similar
2. How Lee is actually a better man than Alan and
3. How differently Amanda feels about Alan and Lee (to her surprise)
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Actually there’s not much I have to say. Alan is made to seem worse by how he sort of admits to Necci how he only told Amanda how beautiful she was and that he wanted her. He then gives that line about how Amanda was only a tourist. So for Alan he was only interested in a distraction, a fling, a lovely little affair. For some reason I used to like this guy. Not even sure why now.
I’m wondering why they even filmed the part about Lee supposedly taking Amanda off the case when he didn’t. If he had then when he ran into her outside of the cafe he would have asked her why she was there not what went wrong.
The look Lee is giving Amanda in the black and white photo is similar to the one he gave in OMIT as he is gauging Amanda’s reaction.
I think I am just going to go back and just review the last post, enjoy some good swoon time.
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Is Alan lounging in silk PJs?! They look awfully shiny to me…..
Still not linking him much more…..and when I first watched this I was confused. Is Alan an antiquities man or a master forger?! I confess I wondered if it was the latter because he makes the comment “this is my business”. Really faking documents is your business lol
Disappointed in his lame attempts at cancelling. Really….he’s lying through his teeth to officials about mould spores and he can’t give a convincing excuse to Amanda?
That is a serious set of talons his sister has!!!! Really long nails set my teeth on edge 😮
Interesting to see the promo photo suggesting Lee was being possessive. I agree IWSOD much better the way they did it.
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Agree about the pjs. They look a bit like what Hugh Hefner would wear.
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Another reason Alan comes across as sleazy.
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Definitely!!
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Haaaaa! That is what it reminded me of, Hugh Hefner!!!
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Ah well, at least this post gave me a flashback to my favourite baddie – Hollander. “Soak your cuticles, James.”
Love Francine’s outfit – it’s so bad it’s actually good. Awesome shoulder pads! I think that necklace doubles as some sort of martial arts weapon. So it’s a practical outfit as well as being the height of 80’s style.
“Cover Chamberlain like a circus tent.” Waaa-ha-ha-haaaa! ROFLMBO. Who writes this stuff? Kudos to Mel Stewart for being able to say that line with a straight face.
I think Amanda is “in a tizz” not only because of her late night bedroom visitor, but also because she’s clearly already been busy in the garden this morning removing that pesky plant off the trellis. Perhaps to encourage and facilitate more night-time visits? 😉
I like Amanda’s outfit – nice blouse and very styley 80’s pants. Then she goes and spoils it by putting on that dreadful sweater. Maybe she wanted to cover up a bit more (ala the previous night) so she didn’t give Alan the wrong signals.
Agree with you Iwsod, it looks like this episode was not intended to be the first episode aired. The second photo with L, A and Alan may have just been a promo shot, not an actual scene. But maybe they had started filming before the re-write and had to re-shoot some scenes. Seems a bit mickey mouse. I would have thought the idea is to get the script finalised before they start filming, but I don’t know how these things work. Anyone know? I imagine it would be much more efficient and cost effective to get the script right first rather than having to re-shoot scenes.
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“I think Amanda is “in a tizz” not only because of her late night bedroom visitor, but also because she’s clearly already been busy in the garden this morning removing that pesky plant off the trellis. Perhaps to encourage and facilitate more night-time visits? ;-)”
Works for me. 🙂
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LOL Francine is wearing nunchucks!
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Billy’s lines are pretty bad. Agree that Mel Stewart did a good job with saying them, because hearing them was not good.
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ROFLMBO kiwismh!!!! Amanda’s been doing gardening?? that’s genius!!! whwhhahahaahaa!!! that made my day- goodone! 🙂
I think there was a whole heap of chaos going on in these first 5 eps.. lots of eps being filmed and rewritten all at once. Thank goodness we got what we got! I mean it’s not perfect..but to think out of all that chaos came that wonderful bedroom scene..Wow!! and all the poignant progress of Wizard, OTL and ALLA- I feel bemused by what they tried to get away with- but also very grateful!!
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As for the trellis and a certain late night visitor to Amanda’s bedroom, though it is not canon, I believe those visits became much more frequent after Stemwinder, since meeting in the backyard had become passe and not quite risky enough for Lee’s adrenaline charged existence. Amanda would have had the trellis repaired and reinforced just for that specific purpose. The fanfic writer in me speculating again and my muse having a joygasm.
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Hey DeEtta – just letting you know.. one reason why JWWM can (IMHO) take it’s time and explore all that there is to explore on this walk- is because we don’t jump ahead with where the story is up to – not even in the events of an episode.. (So please no comments about future episodes till we get there 🙂 )
– I’m trying to blog as fresh as I can.. and haven’t seen many later episodes in years – I remember the big moments, but I don’t really remember exactly how an episode unfolds..
I think it encourages us to explore all the possibilities for characters, rather than skipping to the end of the story. Am I making sense?
So enjoy away!!! very happy to hear you are being inspired by this walk we are all taking together here – head on over the Nedlindger’s to discuss fan fics and I hope you will share with us your thoughts on The wrong way home- the episode we are currently walking through – everyone has had some great ideas on things so far.. maybe you’d like to share what you think of the episode and what others have shared?
Bye for now!
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No, I’m not going to call you crazy for seeing the Australian flag. I think it really is there. I suppose in a Cafe of Nations, part of the theme might be to display flags from many nations, no?
I can’t beleive that Alan couldn’t come up with a better, more natural sounding excuse to break off his breakfast date with Amanda. Come on, really? And then, if he was really concerned for her safety, why did he have to go for coffee to the place where he was going to meet her, and lead the bad guys right to her?? It was either very selfish or very idiotic. Alan grabbing Amanda by both arms is exactly the kind of move Lee makes, but I agree that it isn’t having the same effect on Amanda. Look at the second (marvelous) screencap — her fists are clenched tight! Another good place that shows how Alan isn’t anywhere near the man Lee is, is when Alan “saves” Amanda from the skateboarder. Actually, he just yells, and she accidentally moves in the right direction (it didn’t look like she was going to get hit anyway). Contrast that to the times when Lee tackles Amanda out of the way, literally putting his own body between her and danger. I don’t find Alan creepy; I think he’s maybe an alright guy, but he’s no hero. I think Alan’s the one Francine should be telling to wear his little tennis shoes, because Lee is running circles around him.
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thanks for confirming I wasn’t seeing things happycamper! 😉 It is unusual for Australia to be included amongst the nations 😉
good catch on the clenched hands!!!! it’s much easier to catch these little meaningful things when looking at screen caps huh! 🙂
Agreed! Alan can’t keep up with a good man!!! 😉 ‘little tennis shoes’? whahahaha good call happycammper I love it!!! 🙂
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Quick comment, will be back later. But maybe, just maybe after Necci tells Alan that Amanda may be an agent Alan starts to think that Amanda could somehow help him out of this situation if it’s true and sort of tries to give a subtle message or hint. He’s got to be thinking that he’s in way over his head. And maybe by the time Amanda arrives he thinks better of it. I’m probably grasping at straws, but Alan just comes off as such a jerk in all of this in regards to Amanda. Maybe when they reworked the script the removed any of the redeeming qualities Alan had. Because right now there is nothing underneath and the only thing working for him is his ownhair.
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Maybe this it is. That would explain his extremely lame attempt to get he to go away. I agree that the rework of the script removed any redeeming qualities for Alan but I expect that was unintentional since I think we are supposed to think Alan is great.
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I wrestled with these questions too (about the warning off Amanda thing)! I came to the conclusion that Gelati told Alan what to say to Amanda on the phone- Alan’s words were intentionally a plea and not just an outright ‘I won’t be there’ for a reason – it was intended by the Italians to test if Amanda was an agent. A date would stay away, whereas an agent would jump at the chance to ‘help’.
I think the baddies would have gone to café of nations to wait and see if Amanda showed up- and if she did they would know she’s an agent and kill her. If she didn’t – well she was just a date..
I thought it was slightly redeeming of Alan to make the excuse of going to the café for a coffee of his own.. plus saying the declaration needed more time… this was so if Amanda did show up- he could warn her off – which is what he ends up doing. I agree with you all that are finding Alan not so great – but I did see a slight redeeming moment here! though it’s all quite convoluted I think.. lol!
It’s true the way Lee and Francine react is quite strange and delayed.. I was thinking that Amanda’s phone conversation with Alan still fits if the bedroom scene didn’t happen, and as learjet noted in the script, Lee had forced Amanda to cancel against her will or whatever is (man sure glad we didn’t see that)- it’s really interesting.. the cheeky way Amanda says to Alan-by the pool in 20 is like she agreed with Lee not to go but well she’s going to go anyway.. the tone was slightly off- and now I know why! [and it would have seemed that morning that alan was the reason for her absent mindedness- whereas now I see it as Lee – phew!! I know which man I prefer Amanda to be distracted by!)
I’m going to need to check out the script. Thank goodness they got smart and slotted in that bedroom scene.. someone give that person a medal!!! ahem.. someone give the script editor a kick up the pants! 😉
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Iwsod, the bedroom scene does still happen in the script, and Amanda does bicker with Lee about him trying to take her off the case, but basically he is very assertive and she folds (I can transcribe it here today if you want – I’ve got time). But there is no handshake and no sizzling moment (Amanda puts on a t-shirt before he sees her). It almost feels like the scene by the lift (?elevator) in OTL where she is really angry with him (except there Leslie is involved too) and then goes off and does her own thing, without his knowledge. I notice that they seem to swop elements in the draft scripts from one episode to another a fair bit in SMK. Maybe in the name of ‘coherence’ (as you endlessly get told to do in writing courses) but it often seems to turn out incoherent.
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Hi Learjet, I think you are right about elements being swapped between these episodes!
Okay.. so they had a bedroom scene.. where Lee asserts Amanda decline the invite.. I am very happy with the version of the bedroom scene we got – I think everything else I said still applies 🙂 some of the scenes play out like it’s the originally written bedroom scene.. so don’t quite gel with the wonderful bedroom scene we got 😉
I don’t really mind actually – I’d rather they screwed it all up and we got that fab bedroom scene, than it was all consistent and we got the original bedroom scene.. does that make sense? 🙂
you can transcribe it if you like Learjet – completely up to you 🙂
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Generally I’d prefer to think about the filmed version but a quick quote from jealous Lee: ” He [Alan] might be one of those square-jawed, superficial male model types…”
and from Amanda: “Just like that?…the mighty Lee Stetson snaps his fingers and that’s how it’s going to be?”
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whoa!!! I see what you mean about the mood being shifted to OTL!
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argh I keep forgetting to ask! how does Alan meet Amanda in the script?? it seems Amanda seeing and hearing the whole ‘Sopppphhhhiiiaaa’!!!! thing is completely forgotten plot wise!
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In the script, Amanda doesn’t notice the tape recorder or that anything is unusual with the priests. After he gets off the phone (“Sopheeeeee-a”), he starts rushing towards Gelati, in his priest’s garb and Amanda gets out the way to avoid being seen. The van with Necci in it nearly knocks Amanda over and Alan pulls her out the way.
In this case, the draft script is actually makes more sense that what they filmed, IMO (she had more to recover from hence the proverbial cappuccino to calm down makes more sense).
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So much to be annoyed about in these scenes LOL….First, I am really angry with Alan here and his inability to shoo Amanda away. How hard would it be to say ‘My business meeting got changed and I have to be at work so there isn’t time for breakfast’. I mean really. She knows he’s here on business. I think he’s still divided in his loyalty between saving his sister and what his ‘little Alan’ wants. He’s hoping he can still keep Amanda on the hook. He has to know it will worry her to hear him say ‘you have to stay away from me’. That’s not a break-up line. That’s an ‘I’m in trouble’ line. Even if he’s not being as bad as I think he his and hoping he can still string Amanda along, he’s clearly not putting her safety at the forefront. He got her into this and he is not even trying to get her out.
Then the scenes with him ‘aging’ the paper. First, the copy of the Declaration that is in the Archives wasn’t written on paper. It’s parchment. You can’t age under little lamp and make parchment since it’s animal skin. There are many copies from 1776 that are on paper but the one he’s replacing isn’t. I can see the baddies not knowing that but a big shot like Alan would. It could mean that he’s decided not to actually switch out the Declaration but it pretending but then he snaps that it has to be perfect of they will spot it. This is when I really start cracking up. I wasn’t sure if I should point this out here or in a few scenes with more of a close-up but you can tell here. The real Declaration has faded so much it is practically illegible, especially at the top where it says ‘When in the course of human events’. You can’t read it at all… but in Alan’s ‘give it an hour and it will look just like it’s 200 years old copy you can read everything. The print doesn’t even look the least bit faded. This guy is pretty lousy at his job and his baddie friends are pretty stupid.
One question that struck me during the breakfast scene and I hope it’s ok to ask since it references upcoming episodes. Amanda can’t get ahold of Lee. That is a common tool used in the episodes so far that obviously isn’t used in tv shows anymore because of cell phones. But at some point in the series Lee gets a car phone. Does anyone know when that is? I’ll be watching to see when that happens.
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I agree with you about these scenes, Allofakind. It’s like everything is a little off-kilter. Lee says he took Amanda off the case when he didn’t. Alan’s work with the document is ridiculous, Billy’s lines are horrible, Amanda can’t get the breakfast right and Lee and Francine seem to wait to react to Necci at the cafe. It’s like what is going on? Maybe they didn’t have time to really review what was rewritten.
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The thing about Lee taking Amanda off the case is a relic of the draft script I read. In the draft, Lee bamboozles Amanda into not see in Alan again (no sizzling moment…) but Amanda comes to the restaurant when Alan calls to say he can’t see her again. Lee is at the restaurant following Gelati ….
Why do we get to see bare-chested Alan in his dressing gown but not bare-chested Lee in his? Why? WHY? Maybe they thought that, after the previous scene, it might prove too exciting?
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BTW Amanda’s jumper looks much better in the black and white photo
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thanks for sharing this learjet- how interesting!!!! it explains a lot!!! See my reply to allofakind.. but I think this change to the script explains a lot of what happens in a few other scenes also that seemed a bit curious- now I can see what they were doing.
I will forgive lack of bare-chested Lee.. because we got that bedroom scene 😉 when we could have gotten cranky pants immature Lee demanding Amanda break her date with Alan. Ugh.. I am loving this ep even more now I know what it could have been – and loving the maturity Lee is showing!!!
thanks again Learjet for the transcription!!!
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