Back to Lee and Amanda sneaking around New Utopia. A dude with a big gun checks the lock on a building and then walks off.
What Luck! Lee finds a ladder laying on the ground. Right where he wanted and needed a ladder so he could get in!!!! 
Lee starts climbing.. (whoo love Amanda’s hand on his back or hip?? encouraging him to go??!!). So much touching going on!! 
Amanda bends down to get the pocket knife out of her backpack while Lee continues to climb the ladder.
Whoa.. what a view!!! tee hee..
[Given the gag that’s coming.. I think it’s totally deliberate!]
Having reached the top of the ladder, Lee cheeks err I mean checks out the grill there.. butt err I mean but how will he get in?
Amanda has the pocket knife down on the ground..
Lee pads his pockets and realises he needs it. 
He turns to look at Amanda.
Amanda realises she needs to climb the ladder and give it to him.
She hands it to Lee.. and he sets to work on
the grill with it..
while Amanda, still on the ladder, nervously looks around hoping they won’t be discovered.
She turns her head to look around and seems to forget Lee cheeks are right in front of her on the ladder 😉 .. she reaches out to grab the ladder and instead.. accidentally grabs a butt cheek! whahahaaaaa!!
You know what Freud says.. there are no accidents!!!!
whahahaha!!
LOL! Amanda snaps her hand away quickly and smiles to herself like – I didn’t mean that! oopsie!!!
It’s so funny what you find when you slow it down to take pictures.. the way Amanda snaps her hand away from his butt,
and then shyly smiles and looks up at him.. tee hheeee
and then she watches herself put her hand on the ladder,
and then she takes a fleeting unobstructed look at his butt
(boy.. could we make some memes out of this shot!)
whhaaaa haaaa..
Lee doesn’t seem to even notice haaaa.. too funny!!!
[whooo check out the muscles in his forearms.. he must play tennis!! ]
Isn’t this a fabulous little moment? And hey is it in the script?
LOL.. okay I had a look. Here is how the script describes this amazing little scene:
“As Lee and Amanda approach, he shoves a painter’s ladder against the building and climbs up to an air vent. Lee fiddles with the vent screen, but can’t get it off until Amanda takes off her backpack, extracts a Swiss army knife. He works the screen off, then climbs inside.”
I think KJ is at her funny best here!
I’m reminded of the little moment in Magic Bus, when they are tied to the jeep and Lee is trying to cut the ropes.. and apparently touches Amanda’s butt or something? ‘Watch your hands please!’ tee hee!!!!
Another moment in the great outdoors!! 
and lol Lee ignored that remark of Amanda’s too! [I notice I did 3 posts on Magic Bus??.. ugh!!! the shame!!! the shame!!!! what was I thinking?!! I’ll fix that!! eventually ]
Lee unscrews some screws.. Amanda patiently waits… nods a bit encouraging Lee on.
We see Lee look inside…
and then.. Guess we have to wait to see what Lee can see.. instead.. we cut away to IFF..
Billy intercepts Francine as she enters the bullpen..
Billy: Francine, have you heard from Lee yet?
Francine: No, it’s ah— he’s not due to call until 2.30. Why, is anything wrong?
Billy: I’m not sure. I was talking to one of my sources – he’s telling me that our benign Mr Sacker once pulled a gun on his opponent at a political convention, and spent six months in a mental institution.
Francine: I didn’t read anything about that in the papers.
[whoa!!! we get a very close up look on that paisley monstrosity here!! ] BJo I am sure your puppy dog is much cuter than Francine’s outfit!
Billy: According to my source it was hushed 
up in the interests of party unity.
Francine: That’s just terrific. So now 
we’ve got Lee out there looking for a whacked out agent and an even whackier, probably dangerous, tax reformer, with a housewife for a partner?
Billy: Stay on this please, will you Francine. I want to know their every move.
[I think this is partly a dig at Billy here.. his wry smile to me seems to suggest this too.. what do you think?]
Love how Francine takes the chance to worry about Lee’s safety (never Amanda’s!) and the fact that he is out there with a housewife for a partner.. mooooo Francine! Can you just imagine if Francine had gone with Lee?? Lee and Francine would still be back at that pond trying to work out where the heck they are.. ugh!!
Francine! You should have known you wouldn’t have a good day when you left the house in that outfit this morning.. it has catastrophe written all over it!
Back to Lee and Amanda.. and they make their way into the shed, to find it is where the weapons are stored..
Love how when Lee helps Amanda down by putting his arms around her waist,
they both keep holding each other absently as they take in the room..they did this in Sour Grapes too when the wine case crashed down.. hmm! (any excuse.. ) They can’t quite believe what they have stumbled into.. yes Lee this is no rookie assignment now!! [I think it’s the ultimate irony.. after all – Lee should know by now that if Amanda is involved in any small way at all in a case that sure enough- it will end up being a huge case where they will need to save the country! save the world! or okay.. maybe a head of state or a microchip or something! ]
Amanda: Wow.
Lee: Look at this.
Amanda: Yeah. Why do they need all these computers?
Lee: Or all the explosives and anti-personnel landmines? And look at this. Anti-aircraft – handheld.
Amanda: Why do they need that?
Love the computers.. soo out of date..haa!
[Rofl! I love how Amanda whispers but Lee talks in a totally normal voice!! It’s like they shot the two separately and forgot to tell BB that he needed to whisper! lol!!]
Lee: It’s a good question. What’s this stuff over here?
[ I know! I know!! it’s battleships!!]
Amanda: I don’t know.
Lee: Army Field Radar Units. Does this make any sense to you?…
…There are X’s on the White House, Senate Office buildings, the Capitol, Library of Congress, Pentagon….
…Then there are these X’s out here in the middle of nowhere.
[okay Lee hand fans! Is that really his hand?!]
btw- I’m glad to see the baddies are not using a junior trailblazers map they might get lost!! bonus!!
Amanda: I don’t know but I got a feeling there’s a lot more going on here than tax reform.
[rofl! great line Amanda!]
Lee: Yeah, you can bet on it….
…C’mon, we’d better get outta here.
call me crazy but what we saw in the close up doesn’t match what we saw in the wide shot here.
Lee leads the way back to their way out.. lol.. we catch just a flash of Lee climbing again in front of Amanda.. hoo hhaa
tee hee!! I wanted to see how they got up to the window there! but alas.. they cut to the baddies outside..
Next thing, we see Lee and Amanda ( Holding hands! Holding hands!) sort of running in the woods again..
Amanda: Can we stop for a minute?
Lee: Yeah….
Amanda takes a seat leaning up against a tree, while Lee crouches down next to her rubbing his eyes. Amanda absentmindedly looks around, and picks up something off the ground nearby.
Amanda brushes the dirt and dust off her find. 
Lee: …What have you got here?
Lee reaches out to take it for a closer look.
Amanda: I don’t know.
Lee: Amanda, those— those Stinger rockets we saw.
Amanda: Yeah, that’s a—
Lee: Yeah, a safety cap off of one of them…
Ohhh looky.. in all those bushes, woods or whatever, Amanda happens to want to take a break next to a safety cap off the surface to air missile, just laying there on the ground, out in the open…. Ahhh smk..
…What are they planning up here?…
They look across the way and see this:
…Look, this whole slope’s been cleared away.
Whooo hooo!!!! Amanda grabs Lee’s arm.. she’s figured it out! 
Amanda: Power lines!
Lee: Power lines?
Amanda: You know those X’s on the map? They’re power lines – they’re right next to 245….
[Love how Amanda grabs Lee’s arm when she works it out.. and kinda leaves it there.. what’s the touch count now guys?? must be at least 7!! tee heee..]
… You know
how you drive past that spot..
…your radio goes crazy with the static?
Lee: Yeah.
Amanda: Well, the X’s are power lines. That (she points to the cap) – I don’t know. [LOL Lee does Amanda have to figure everything out?! ]
Lee: Power lines and rockets. We’d better get this back to the—.
Uh oh.. I see movement behind them… duh duh duuuuhhhhhhhh…(that and the music tells us something is up!)
But what is it? We’ll have to wait to find out!
Before I finish up though, just wanted to mention: The whole ‘Amanda runs, then sits down to rest, and randomly puts her hand on the ground to discover a clue’ is officially a laaaaame SMK plot device!! It moves the plot along and introduces clues with very little need for writing skills at all.. : hmm lets sit. Oh? what’s this?! a clue!!! [Now that’s what I call a stinger!!]
Yep remember we saw it already in A Class Act (an ep I try hard to forget!) .. almost word for word!
Here it is in A Class Act: Amanda reaches down and absentmindedly picks up a bolt in her hand to hold.
Lee: what’s that?! (Lee points at what’s in her hand)
Amanda: I don’t know a nail or something.
Lee takes it to have a look: Yeah! this is it! I knew it had been doctored!
UGH!!!!!! Nearly exactly the same! And just as lame the second time!
I better finish here for now.. we will pick up right where we left off
Sooo anyone not love this moment on the ladder?! tee hee!!!!
Okay- looking forward to hearing from you byeee!!
"Just walk with me.." 
#2019 rewatch
Lee and Amanda both wore layers of clothing for their autumn trek into the mountains. Lee wore long johns under his jeans. So when Amanda impulsively made tentative contact, he didn’t feel it. IMO, Amanda’s playful reaction to her own bold move was just perfect!
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#2019 rewatch
I never actually thought about the layers of clothing aspect, which makes perfect sense. Would he have said something had he noticed? No idea. All these years, I assumed he did notice but just stowed this bit of information in his mind for later in the episode. 😉
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I think Lee didn’t acknowledge the “butt touch” simply because he didn’t want to embarrass her. I think that he would realize that it wouldn’t be something that she would do on purpose in this situation. I also agree that it is often difficult to tell what time of the day it is supposed to be or even what time of the year it is supposed to be in many of these episodes.
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Hmmm? How will I have Lee deal with the butt touch???
All I can say is that this little chicken feed assignment that was tossed on the commando trained top notch agent with the average housewife sure has taken him into some dangerous territory. No wonder he was cranky or nervous. It feels like this episode is like a 45 minute recap of their whole history together. I can’t help continuing to remember how on simple touch from Amanda caused so much electricity in ALLA which wasn’t that long ago. And now here she is in close proximity touching him like that. I think the guy is using alot of patience and control. Its a good thing he is so good at that. 😉
Man, I wish I had time to spend with these comments and my ideas about what is going on so that I could develop my thoughts better.
Cute Paisley 😉 Much better than Francine’s
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OMG! I never noticed Amanda touching Lee’s hip before! There is a ton of touching going on in this ep! If I ever make it to this episode with a stats post, I wonder if this will be one of the ‘touchiest’ episodes? Anyone out there want to do a stats post?
Love the cheek touch! And Amanda’s reaction. I have a feeling Lee did feel something, but being a professional and all he kept soldiering on. I guess that touch couldn’t really be acknowledged. Too much for him? I wonder how Morley will handle it in her Scotch Thoughts stories?!?!
Oh heck yeah! My Paisley is much cuter!! Don’t you agree?
Yep, I agree. I think Francine is making a dig at Billy here. Although it is kind of funny how she delivers her line.
Hmmm, not sure about those hands. It’s hard to tell, they aren’t close-ups. It’s possible, but he’s been out running around in the woods and all, so if his hands looks a little dirty and his manicure off, it’s probably because of that. 😉 Acutally, I don’t believe those are Lee’s hands. In the next shot, we can see Lee’s watch on his right wrist. It’s not in the picture where he’s pointing to the map. So, definitely NOT Lee’s hands. Phew! I’m glad!
Ugh – I’m with you on that lame-o plot device!!! Why hasn’t she graduated to spotting it on the ground and realizing it’s something she should show Lee rather than just randomly picking it up and having no idea what it is???? Grrr….
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Your dog is huge hit on this side of the world with my kids (more begging for a dog….). But why is s/he called Paisley??
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Because her tail has this little kink in it at the very end that causes is to sort of bend like the traditional shape of a paisley! My husband came up with it…don’t ask.
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Drat, iwsod! I don’t know why that picture is SO huge! Go ahead and delete if you want to.
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Paisley is adorable!! I’m not touching the pic! 🙂
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Hi all, been busier than a one armed paper hanger with the beginning of the fall semester. (The older folks will get what I mean 🙂 )
Boy am I glad I didn’t miss the best parts of this episode discussion, one of my favorite episodes of SMK,
I was disappointed that they didn’t show Lee’s reaction to Amanda’s butt grab, at least an eyebrow raised or something. I have a feeling that this might have been an impromptu move on KJ’s part, and a reaction from Lee would have required a different camera shot that wasn’t scripted. A mention after they jumped down into the room maybe? And speaking of that, where exactly is Lee’s hand while they are holding each other? Ahem… It’s a little high to be on her waist me thinks. (Cyd tries desperately to pick her own brain out of the gutter. It’s wet and squishy and keeps falling back there.)
And the bit about Amanda putting her hand on the cap. It was lame… and unnecessary. I always wondered why we needed that clue anyway. We already saw a handheld Stinger rocket launcher. Did the writers think we couldn’t figure out rocket launchers = rockets? And rockets can’t be launched through trees, duh. There are times I think this show wouldn’t have lasted four seasons if it were not for KJ and BB’s subtle little character development moves that kept us coming back for more (Doesn’t hurt that Lee was so easy on the eyes either.)
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Gutter Alert!
Maybe Amanda was just checking to see if he had dimples there too! 😉
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Ok, guess which question will be occupying my thoughts all day? 🙂
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gutter alert?! we’ve all been very restrained I think!!! and smk was practically begging for us to be ‘extra cheeky’ with this gag!!! 😉 dimples indeed kiwismh!!! 🙂
This smk gag is an open invitation for a race to the bottom (pun intended!) or indeed.. a race to the Butt-er errr I mean gutter!! 🙂
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Amanda flinched as if she’d been burnt – from touching those hot buns 😉
Personally, I’m surprised Lee didn’t react – the location of this touch is way more intimate than all those previous touches.
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Hey Learjet! great to hear from you!
I see there are a couple of interesting ideas for why Lee didn’t react.. or just didn’t hear here..
I tend to view this one as a case of it just being funnier without Lee reacting.. the focus is all on Amanda’s reaction.. so while it’s a bit weird he doesn’t notice, I think it does make for a good joke!
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To generalise, men are better at compartimentalising so maybe he was so focuesed on what he was trying to do that he didn’t notice. If Lee had touched me on the… [break in transmission as learjet loses the power of coherent thought]
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Learjet! did you hear the roar of laughter coming from the other side of Australia????!!!
That was meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
whahahaha!!!
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And the roar coming all the way across the Pacific??? ROFL!!
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oh and lol.. hoo haaa! hot stuff! tee heee..
I think most of us when thinking about Lee’s hot buns tend to have no thoughts at all.. as in – they fly right out the window!!!! ahaobujboiahboa’abh!
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buns and butt-er
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ROFL!!!!!! My husband has come in the room twice now to find out why I’m howling … love all the references about Lee’s buns and Learjet5’s momentary lapse of coherent thought … too funny! 🙂 Glad to be back on the journey with you all! I was away from SMK-land way too long.
Happycamper, I think you may be right about KJ ad libbing with the butt cheek touch. I’ve heard from other SMK fans that KJ often squeezed/ touched BB’s butt. She liked to get a rise out of him and apparently, it always made him smile. I can totally see her thinking, “I’ll grab BB’s butt and see if he can hold it together long enough to make it through the scene!” LOL Maybe that’s why we don’t see his reaction. Just a thought.
🙂
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KJ often squeezed/touched BB butt to “get a rise out of him”!!! 😯 iheartsmk, you’re knee deep in gutter territory now!! 😉
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Comments are getting a bit below the belt… A healthy dose of Australasian influence?
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“Below the belt”? lol! 😀
And the puns can get steadily worse from there . . .
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“Take your belt off. Take off your belt. Take. . . your . . . belt. . . off” 😉
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Kiwismh, I walked right into that one …. didn’t I!!! 🙂 ROFL! And here I thought I wasn’t quick-witted.
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“Dimples”, “cheeky”- now I won’t be able to think the rest of the day! does a swan dive back down the gutter, chocolate clutched tightly in hand Arghh&iu#gvbahgle!!
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Yes! Love the brief and light butt grab. How could Lee not feel that? They both, for the most part, are so focused on this case at the moment that all the touching seems to have just become second nature. Such a change from the early days when they were so hyper aware of any touching. Now it’s just a part of who they are with each other.
I guess the best part of Francine’s comment is that at least she refers to Amanda as Lee’s partner.
Amanda miraculously finding clues just laying about is a pretty bad plot device. Why not have either Lee or Amanda trip over it as they are walking or accidentally sit on it as they rest? To repeat this from Class Act took no thought or effort at all.
The cut to the baddies outside shows an RV in the background. Since Magic Bus has already been mentioned it made me think of the Vigilant.
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lol Valerie I thought of the vigilant too! I had a few comments talking about it but I took it out- it seems to move around in the compound – but I figured it was too convoluted for me to go there.. and so I left it.. soooo I’m chuffed to see you raise the vigilant!! 🙂
Francine called Amanda Lee’s ‘partner’ OHHHH MYYY GOOOSHH!! that went right past me! how could I have missed that?? soooo fabulous!!! And typical that Francine would make this admission of sorts while degrading Amanda! but.. she said it none the less! 🙂
I’m away for the weekend so I probably won’t be around much.. but I’ll keep an eye out for anything needing moderation..
byee guys!
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I thought it was a little odd at first that Lee didn’t turn around when Amanda touched him, but then, when he focuses on something, he tends to ignore other things that are unrelated to what he’s doing. There have been times when he’ll seem to ignore something that Amanda says or does while he’s focusing on something else, but he’ll bring it up later to show that he really was paying attention the entire time (ex. hiring Pretzel for Jamie’s party showing that he was paying attention to Amanda’s rant about the clown while they were looking for the house where she was held captive and remembering which muffler shop Amanda had taken the car to in Car Wars even though he hadn’t commented on it while she was rambling about all the different problems the car had). It’s like a part of his brain just files away anything that isn’t immediately useful for him to think over later when he’s finished with whatever he’s currently doing.
Lee’s lack of reaction to Amanda’s touch is probably partly due to how comfortable he is with Amanda (he doesn’t mind her touching him 😉 ), but I think it’s also partly that he’s filed the incident in his brain as something to think over later when he has more time. I’m just kind of sorry that we don’t get to see him bring it up later to tease Amanda about it. (Actually, now that I think of it, that would be a very Castle/Beckett thing to do.)
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I agree with you, Jestress about how Lee is focused on what he’s doing and is comfortable with Amanda (and her touches) by now. And I agree about how he sometimes seems to be ignoring her, but is actually listening and filing away. It’s always a nice little surprise when he later shows that he’s listening. It’s also one of those things that make him so endearing. Too bad we didn’t get to see that little touch brought up later. It would have been interesting to see the responses of both Lee and Amanda.
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I agree with Valerie that Lee is probably so focused on work that he didn’t react to Amanda’s touch. If that had happened to me at work, I would have blown it off as an accident that can easily happen when two people share a ladder (not a scenario most people have at work, I admit, but actually something that happens to me on occasion). They were out in the wide open, and this wasn’t the time to react or call attention to it. However . . . Cyd mentioned that once they get inside, Lee doesn’t appear to be holding on to Amanda by the waist?? Maybe that’s his subtle comeback?
I also agree with whoever said the moment might be an ad-lib by Kate Jackson. Or, I thought it could even be a genuine accident — her response leaves that possiblity open.
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Just thought I’d add a curiosity from the script.
The Billy/Francine scene at IFF in script is all the way back before Lee and Amanda arrive at Cobb’s corner!
They’ve moved it waaaay back.. Interesting.. because the time seems off – by now it seems to be later than 230pm – and Francine makes it sound like that is ages away..
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I was going to make this comment back with Philip and Jamie’s scene, but it can go with your comment here. For me it seems later than 2:30 because I always saw the scene with the boys happening after school say around 3:00 – 3:30. I guess I saw Lee and Amanda starting out about mid-morning between 10:00 – 11:00 because the first thing in the first scene of them together she asks if he wants a sandwich. But, I don’t think SMK pays much attention to times and days too well.
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Also, the Bow-and-Arrow-Boy scene would have to have been after school, unless he’s playing hooky . . . or his county had a teacher work-day . . . or he’s homeschooled. If this is all after school, then it’s going to get dark pretty fast. Whew. I’m not seeing a way out of this time warp.
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Hee hee one of the best oopsies. Lee had to have noticed that but chose to ignore. Definitely a LOL moment
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