Whahahahaaaa!!!! We cut to a jeep crawling along a road in the evil countryside.. and hear Francine say: There’s nothing at the original co-ordinates, Billy. Nothing. It’s like the earth just swallowed them up.
Francine is out all by herself looking around the countryside?? Is this the back up team that Francine was told to activate if Lee didn’t make the 630 check in?!! rofl!!! Do Lee, Amanda, Billy and Francine have to do everything themselves?! I find Francine driving around the countryside by herself utterly hilarious!!! Plus Francine is using an Agency map! She’ll never find them! 
We hear Billy over the CB radio respond: Keep looking.
Francine: It’s over 100 square miles!
[Wish you’d been a blue jay Francine??!!! I love that she has even changed her outfit for the occasion! from office high fashion to evil countryside chic!]
Billy flatly: Keep looking.
I guess it’s kinda sweet that Billy and Francine care that Lee and ahem.. yeah maybe Amanda, are lost out in the country and in trouble..I do love the thought that Francine is wandering the evil countryside alone with the sun going down and a rubbish agency map – looking for Amanda (and Lee )
Lee and Amanda stop for a quick rest.. Lee and Amanda managed to get all the chains unlocked, except for the one from her right hand to his left hand??.. whoa.. tricky.. especially since he is left handed and she is right handed!!
Lee: All right, you rested?
Amanda nods (move that stupid branch in the foreground will ya!! this really is the evil countryside! )
…Come on, let’s go.
they both take off.. in opposite directions! Ohhh dear!!! Talk you two!!
Amanda: No!!
Lee: Amanda, we’ve got to co-operate here.
[True.. umm that will involve talking Lee! I think Lee sees co-operating as ‘follow me’! I guess they’ve been so breathless from the running they’ve not bothered?!]
Amanda: There’s the swamp that way.
Lee: Yes, but the highway is that way. The-
Amanda cuts him off: Swamp is better.
Lee: All right, at least the trucks can’t follow us there.
Now this really does get them to work even better as a team! [In future IFF will send off it’s agents handcuffed into the woods for a weekend, in order to teach them to work as a team.. what’s that called.. umm.. torture? Oh yeah! Team building!! ]
With Lee in agreement about the swamp they both take off.. only Lee goes around the wrong side of the tree – not directly toward the swamp.. 
Amanda: No no no no no!!!
Amanda stops Lee. Lee realises what he’s done and comes around to her side of the tree to join her. They continue on for a while..
Until they find another tree – and Lee goes on one side and Amanda on the other..
Amanda doesn’t hesitate to give Lee a couple of whacks for that!! Wordlessly making her feelings known!
LOL! Love how Amanda gives Lee a couple of whacks!!
Lee apologises: alright! alright!
[is it my imagination or did Lee give a tiny grin when Amanda had whacked him?!]
I guess Lee switched directions at the last minute..
They work it out and keep running! They’ve certainly highlighted how much Lee and Amanda are having to co-operate with this running while chained together thing!
Somewhere else in the evil countryside, Sacker joins Rogan who is holding Hollis at gunpoint.
Sacker: Why didn’t you go after them?
Rogan: I figured you wouldn’t want this one getting away. Besides, they’re not going very far in those chains.
(Rogan holds up the key to the chains- hmm.. I think they can still run fast with their hands bound! Maybe he thinks their feet are still bound? hmm..)
Sacker walks around to the other side of Hollis to ask the all important question!
Sacker: Who’re you working for?…
[rofl! that seems to always be the first question a baddie asks! lol!!]
(in response, Hollis smirks)
…Well, no matter, you’re going to wind up with your friends.
Back to Dotty.. She’s is worried about Amanda.. and she confides in Buck who is still trying to fix the speaker – bad idea.. he is no help at all..
Dotty: Buck, I’m really worried. I mean, we haven’t heard a word….
…She is never gone this long without leaving some kind of a message.
Buck: Nahhhhh.. Easy, I know how it is after a hard day….
… Hit the first bar for a little Happy Hour,
(at this Dotty starts.. why am I listening to this boy/man?!)
… maybe meet somebody. Get lucky.
Dotty: Oh, Buck that may be you, that’s not my daughter!
Buck: Look, the chances of her being hurt are 
practically minimal. She’s probably just run off…. 
[she’s not hurt! she’s just run away! whahahahaa!! what an 
idiot!! Love the big eye roll Dotty gives in response!]
…Happens every day. Women can’t cope with the pressures of everyday living so they – split.
[Okay, I can’t remember what’s ahead for Buck’s character..(don’t tell!) but.. this dialogue makes me wonder if this is what happened to Buck – the woman in his life couldn’t cope with the pressure and so up and left.. I think this dialogue plants the seed for future revelations about Buck – if we get to see him enough!]
Dotty: I’m going to call the Police.
Buck: Forget it. Takes 24 hours before they’ll act on a missing persons report.
[How does Buck know that? Has he had to file one himself?]
So now, I don’t have time to add the detail here- someone else can maybe if they feel like it [Go for it!].. but I vaguely remember there was a whole little subplot here with Buck getting a buddy of his to work as a PI and look for Amanda or something-in the script only..
What was the point of all this?? A way to insert humour? but with Dotty so distressed I can’t find this very funny!
We cut to a moon.. a full moon.. a romantic moon!! [Hmm baby moon was the CB guy’s call sign.. is there something in that?]
Hey! How does the song go??
By the light… of the silvery moon…
Lee and Amanda have made it to the swamp,
(we can tell.. lots of splashing!) 
Lee: I think they’ve given up. Let’s see if we can find some place to dry out.
[Lol at the spooky ‘We’re in the swamp’ music!]
Sacker and his men have the search lights out looking for them..
(this time using their cars! dumb baddies!)Sacker: Keep your eyes open – they’re out there somewhere.
Rogan: Tighten up – don’t need to lose any of you guys. [oh go ahead!]
Anon baddie: This is as far as the trucks can go.
Rogan: Okay, go on foot from here.
Amanda was clever to suggest the swamp where the trucks couldn’t follow!
Sorry guys! I’m not going to get to the campfire.. this post is big enough already!! eek!! I don’t mean to tease.. but.. the post will be too huge if I don’t stop here.. soooo next one is the start of the campfire scene.. lots of good stuff here though.. I thought it hilarious Francine is out there looking for them alone! whahahahaa!!! What do you all make of Dotty and Buck?!!
I’ll post the next post sooner than usual I promise! byeeeee
"Just walk with me.." 
#2019 rewatch
Did some research to determine what swampy location in the mountains was S&MK trying to replicate? The famous Great Dismal Swamp on the Virginia-North Carolina border is in the flats near the Atlantic coast, so that wasn’t it. The closest I found was the Cranesville Swamp, which is 190 miles (a 3.5 hour drive) from Washington, D.C. This boreal swamp is at an elevation of 2,547 feet surrounded by taller mountains just inside West Virginia.
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So cool! Somehow I don’t think geography was the writers’ strong suit. LOL
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Ahhh, Francine and this scene. This is one of the things that irritates me about the 80’s and the way women were portrayed and treated. I’m not going to rant, but the fact that Francine changed her outfit to this stylish one? C’mon. I get that she changed from that hideous purple/yellow paisley get-up for a ride in the woods, but I think she should be wearing something a bit less fashionable and taken less time to do her hair and make-up. Urgh.
Amanda, just why is the swamp better? I get that the trucks can’t follow, but there are things in the swamp that want to eat you. Blech! And I can’t imagine they’ll easily find a way out of the swamp…this isn’t Florida, not many swamp roads in backwoods VA I would imagine.
Oh, Buck. Who are you? What are you? Can you get any ickier?
Hey, is it me or does that swamp music sound like Scooby Doo music???? Does it remind anyone else of Scooby Doo?? No, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Scooby fan!
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I have always liked this bit with Lee and Amanda chained together and the way they have to work out running together. I like the way Lee goes along with Amanda’s ideas. He is listening to her, taking her . It isn’t as if he is the brow beaten man who must follow the woman or get a constant earful of whiny complaints. And she isn’t afraid to let him have some of her fear and frustration. I love the way she is so comfortable with him that she can whack him. And the “Alright, alright” works with it so well.
When I think about it, Bucks comments about Amanda running off because she can’t take everyday life is kind of funny considering Amanda’s choice of employment and the company she keeps. She certainly doesn’t have a monotonous everyday life and she didn’t have to stop by a bar to find company, huh? Just taking a “friend” to the train station should do it.
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“She is never gone this long without leaving some kind of a message.” Ummm – I think Dotty is suffering some sort of memory loss — hasn’t Amanda been AWOL before? (I’m thinking Long Christmas Eve and The Times They are a Changin’ — and plenty of other times where she has suddenly disappeared). I’m surprised Dotty didn’t assume Amanda had an emergency “Save the Clams” meeting.
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ROFL! sooo true!!! (and hilarious!)
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I like Amanda’s assertiveness in this episode. More of her strengths are starting to come to the fore and she is not holding back in letting Lee know just what is what.
The whole Buck character is just so odd. I don’t like him and I don’t dislike him. I just don’t understand the need for his particular character other than to be somewhat annoying. He doesn’t seem to know much about Amanda or her character to suggest that she had a hard day at work and stopped off for a drink or that she got fed up and took off. He also has no tact or couth to say such things to Dotty. And since he doesn’t seem to know Amanda too well, why is he just seemingly hanging out at their house, speaker or no speaker? He’s just making it worse for Dotty.
Lee and Amanda being chained together reminds me of the movie “The Defiant Ones” with Sydney Poitier and Tony Curtis. They are prisoners chained together who try to escape after a truck accident. The plot is that they are forced to cooperate because they are chained together. They initially don’t like one another but eventually come to respect and like each other. Even when they are released from their chains they end up having a bond that can’t be broken. Someone once said that the theme of this movie was that “what keeps people apart is their lack of knowledge of one another and that with knowledge comes respect and with respect comes friendship and even love.” That’s the main reason I can sort of deal with Lee and Amanda being chained together. Otherwise it does seem a bit contrived. But then again we are in SMK land.
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I always thought it was silly that as they are chained together they run on either side of a tree. Sure this is a drama with comedy elements, but that’s lame. They’ve been running around part of the episode holding hands, so why quit now? Since the chains are long enough, holding hands would be the remedy.
Does everyone find Buck annoying? I was glad they dropped this character after a few appearances. This might be the last episode we see him.
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Great to hear from you Cyd!
so true.. no need for the contrivance of the chains! Ugh.. maybe it lent itself to some cool promo lines or something 😉
I find Buck annoying!! whoo don’t tell me what happens with him!!
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I am not a Francine fan but credit where credit is due: I think this is possible Francine’s most flattering outfits of the entire 4 seasons. If the shoulders on that jacket were narrower, it would be perfect. The colours look great on her and the ensemble (not non-semble IMO) has stood the test of time. (The practical side of me has to note that the colour scheme is wildly impractical for frolicking in the woods, though)
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I’ve never been on board with the whole “chained together” routine. They would have needed to remain physically close as they escaped anyway, so why force them together in this lame way? To me it would have been much more powerful if their “togetherness” (both physical and personal) in these scenes (and those coming up, say no more 😉 ) was not just as a result of their being chained together but rather because they chose to be “close”.
So, in my SMK world I imagine them not chained together.
Also, even if they were chained, wouldn’t it have been great for Amanda to have grabbed the key so they could unchain themselves when they get far enough away from the baddies? This would reinforce to Lee some of those qualities he admires in her.
And then of course, Learjet, there’s the – ahem – practicalities of being chained together for any length of time. So far so good, but what if this goes on oh, say, overnight and into the next day? gulp 😯
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Now this is interesting to me!! 🙂
This gave me an idea for something.. I’ll come back to this kiwismh!! 🙂
Yeah.. practicalities??!!
Already, we could be wondering , with them captured for hours or running – just what did they do when ‘nature called’ ( 😉 ) and I don’t mean just roaming the evil countryside.. There’s more we can say but.. probably best we hold off till we walk through the rest of the events as they are chained together..
[edited to fix typo. too early, can’t spell!]
Kiwismh sounds like you could do some awesome narky memes about them being chained together 🙂 go for it! haaa!
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‘When nature called’ ROFL. I’m going to share a hilarious book over at Neds. Don’t be put off by the title 🙂
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I’ll get to it! eventually!
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If I only had time to do memes. KC will have to do the honours – I’m sure she will do much better than I could anyway. 🙂
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I always thought that it was silly for just Francine to be out there looking…seems like you would have a whole division or something. I mean they are wanting to evacuate the President so they know Sacker is dangerous!
Lee and Amanda’s running always made me chuckle as she makes him come her direction…is this the start of her being more stubborn and getting her way? Actually this whole episode I feel that she is more in control, but then again I guess it is her assignment 🙂
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I kind of thought Francine was out there with a team and they’ve split up to cover more ground.
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But Francine being alone at this point is more fun!! 🙂
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Yep, definitely a little grin from Lee (or was it BB) when Amanda whacks him — makes me wonder if that was unscripted! 🙂
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OK, I really wasn’t trying to use my first day back on JWWM for shameless self-advertising, but you set me up so perfectly, Iwsod! (And hoping now that sonny-boy is out of my guest room and some other things have settled down, that I can get JWWM back into my morning routine. I’ve missed it and everyone here!!)
[Iwsod edited to adjust iswod’s handle 🙂 ]
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rofl! A raffie sighting??!!!! How wonderful!!!
It’s late here so I’ll check the vid out tomorrow Raffie – whooo you are back just in time for the campfire 😉 though I’m finding there’s lots of other good stuff in this ep besides!
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Yes, I just noticed that! Great timing! Although I need to go back and catch up with some favorites like OTLimit. In all my free time! G’Night.
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I’ve missed ya!!! Night!!
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Just lovely, raffie!!! Thanks for sharing the vid!
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