I’ll just say it again – Kiwismh thanks so much for transcribing this episode!!!!
We see the truck come to a stop as Rogan indicates: This is the spot.
We see 7 helicopters in the distance.. and lol there’s a few helicopters on the ground there in the foreground!
haaa. I don’t think we were suppose to notice them!
Lee yells to Amanda: Cover him!
As he runs to the cleared field with his gun. Amanda quickly points her gun at Rogan.
Amanda: Yah.
Love the close up on Amanda pointing the gun at Rogan. You go Girl!!
Oh rofl.. seems Rogan has kept that toothpick in place while being bounced around in the back of the truck too.. whahahahaa
Lee is in position.. we see the helicopters again.. lol.. and we see Sacker is alone in the field with the stinger poised to shoot at the helicopter
(sooo umm how would he ensure that out of the 7 helicopters he actually hits the one with the president in it?!)
Lee yells : Sacker!
[umm is Lee’s finger on the trigger? where is the trigger on that thing..]
Sacker turns and Lee has Sacker in his sights..
Sacker aims the stinger at Lee… 
Lee shoots at Sacker, and Sacker blows himself up (Another polite baddie!).
Noooot Sacker.. Stunt Sacker!
whooo the stinger is a bright explosion!! [Ahhh so that’s why it’s a stinger… it stings the eyes!]
Lee squints at the ferocity of the blast..
Amanda turns and reacts to the size of the blast too..
Such a missed opportunity here.. haaaaaa I wanted to see Sacker’s two legs still standing there when all the smoke went away!
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
What was it Sacker said to Rogan earlier? “If blowing up the leader is the only way to make political change in this country then that’s what I intend to do.” – in the end.. this was quite prophetic! Sacker the leader gets blown up… and a crazy tax reformer’s plans are thwarted! 
All seven helicopters pass by unharmed.. but all of them looking very non-presidential 
More Apocalypse Now like!!
As Amanda watches the helicopters Rogan tries to sneak away…
but she stops him. 
Making a noise at him to not do that!! Still pointing the Uzi at him.. ahhhh I’m loving the new and no longer bumbling Amanda!!!
Whooo nice shot of Lee looking at where Sacker once stood..
Well well, Hollis and Francine pull up once the action’s over haaaa..
They rush over to cover Rogan –Francine with her little pistol and Hollis? He takes the gun from Amanda to guard him with the Uzi- why? 
He doesn’t know she’s not an agent..
oh wait.. he does know she doesn’t have a codename.. maybe that means the same thing? Ah well.. it frees Amanda up for Lee who is approaching err I mean swaggering towards Amanda
Hollis: That was close.
Lee quietly: Yeah.
Lee comes to stand right next to Amanda.. [close!]
Amanda: Only counts in horseshoes.
ha!
Lee turns to give Amanda look..
[The pic below is blurry because Amanda’s moving..to turn and look at Lee.. boooo!! but I like the look on Lee’s face here as he gives her a look! so I’ll include it anyway..]
Amanda teasing Lee..
Lee reacting to Amanda’s bad joke.. haa!
I don’t think this close counts in horseshoes does it??
Love Amanda’s teasing.. she’s very cheeky Lee ahem!
Lee starts to smile a little..
Then they are distracted by the helicopters (why I don’t know we just saw them go past..hmm maybe one did a loop the loop )
Amanda points at it.. celebrating their job well done..
[Lee looks so darn good.. he’s fixed his hair again!]
Breathe easy everyone!
The president, democracy and heck, the world as we know it- is safe again for another week thanks to Lee and Amanda.. whahahaaha..
As they look up at the helicopter, Lee puts his arm around Amanda and gives her a squeeze
(yes that left hand of his gives him away yet again )
Love how he does this without looking at Amanda.. just looking up at the helicopter contented, proud of the job that the two of them have done together!! Have we seen this before??
Ahhh yes.. in Murder Between Friends at the end (Another moment where Lee was proud of the job they had done together and proud to have Amanda by his side on the case oh and lol they had just saved a different president! haa!!)
Ignore the ear buttons! Hooray! They’re gone!
-any other times guys?
Interesting that Amanda doesn’t put her arms around him here in Utopia Now.. she puts her hands in her pockets (To save them from wandering where they shouldn’t go again maybe?? cheeky Amanda..)
Wise Amanda just gives a chuckle here and says no more..
[They do seem very much a team huh… no more Lee basking in his own job well done.. their efforts now inseparable on the job]
Amanda looks at Lee..
Fiiiinally, Lee turns to her and gives her big smile of dimpled warmth and goodness!!!
Everyone sighing??!!! I know I am!!!
What a gorgeous picture they make!
Hmmm.. a close call with the horseshoe.. and with Sacker.. and.. a close call with THAT near miss Kiss.. and now Lee pulls Amanda close for a side hug?!!! so much so close!!! And.. close only counts in horseshoes right?! Soooo what do you make of all these near misses and closeness??!!!!
BTW- I love how Amanda responds with a private joke: close only counts in horseshoes- I just love that these two now have private jokes
BTW.. Lovesmk has done a fabulous header of these moments.. I”ll share it here in the post and make it our header for a few days – thanks Lovesmk!! Great work!!
There’s another gorgeous header which covers a wider range of scenes from this finale to Utopia Now..
I’ll make it a header after Utopia now is finished but put it here for all to enjoy..
The action Lee header can wait.. whoooo!!
It’s tag time.. but don’t get too excited.. I’ll need to stop before we get to the swoony part!
whooo we see a Harley drive by IFF.. that’s a first!
We find Amanda in the bullpen making apologies to Dotty on the phone.. (man why couldn’t Billy have just given her a quick call to make up a cover? bad Billy! He could have said he was from the phone company! )
With real life being a rush right now, I never did get to stop and think through what the subplot with Dotty missing her daughter extra bad (because of the missing note) had to do with anything.. umm anyone got any suggestions?
Amanda: Mother, I’m sorry. Look, I just couldn’t call you, okay…
Amanda is being very firm and direct with her mother here.. is it just me or is this slightly more assertive Amanda than we’ve seen in the past with her mother? Amanda really seems to be a bit short with her..
…No, there was no telephone…
…Mother, I am very sorry,…
…I was up to my neck. [in Lee Stetson.. Umm.. in err being chased by bad guys!]
Dotty: Amanda,…
…you know that I trust you and that I love you very much, and I know that you wouldn’t purposely do anything wrong but—
[What is the point of all this?? Contractual obligation to give Beverley Garland more dialogue?! Hmm.. I guess at the very least, it reminds us Amanda has a family who loves her and cares for her.. but that Amanda can’t share her work with.. but I confess I find Dotty annoying here!!! Can’t Amanda talk about it when she gets hone?! Aie!!]
Amanda: Mother,…
…I’ll talk to you later, okay?
Amanda actually cuts Dotty off.. whoa.. now that is unusual!!! Amanda makes a fist here when she cuts off her mother.. Hmm.. she’s finding the conversation difficult me thinks..
You guys notice the little smile Lee gives when hearing that Amanda is talking to her mother?! awh.. [but Lee her mother is being annoying!!! ahhh welcome to having a family! ]
From her reaction – Dotty doesn’t seem terribly surprised though..
Were the writers looking at making Dotty more cluey about Amanda’s advancing career? I guess I’ll keep an eye on Dotty in future episodes.. thoughts anyone?
Having basically cut her mother off and hung up on her – it seems to me that Amanda has run out of patience.. she’s probably just wanting to go home for a bath and a good meal..
Then.. Lee comes along.. so some more patience is required on Amanda’s part.. will she mention what happened in Vegas err I mean in the woods?! Will Lee?? Now they are back at IFF, is everything as it was??
I don’t mean to tease you – honestly!!! but.. hold this thought guys.. this post is going to be incredibly long and not easy on people to read so I’m going to stop here before we get into the best part – why rush any of this right?!! We’ll savour the final moments of this episode very soon – in great detail!
Plenty to discuss anyway in that little moment they shared as the helicopters went by no?!
I’ll be back with the final post very soon. it’s all written so there won’t be delays!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! byee!
"Just walk with me.." 
#2019 rewatch
Yep! Francine wants the opportunity to add her name to this vital mission’s success.
I’m thinking this snafu will put an end to Amanda just leaving a loose note on the counter. It’s easy to imagine that note blowing right off when the kitchen door opened. She should have used a post-it note!
Even more vital is Buck’s return to the swamp he crawled out of and that can’t happen soon enough for me!
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It’s already been mentioned a couple of times, but I’m still bothered a bit about the note. Amanda did take the time to leave Dotty a note and then we get that silly scene of the boys accidentally getting rid of it while cleaning up the spill. I don’t see the point of that spilled milk scene if the note wasn’t going to come up again later. Plus, if Dotty really trusts Amanda why is she giving her so much grief? And why is she letting Buck get to her so much that she would question Amanda so? Buck most likely played into Dotty’s own suspicions about Amanda, but she sees that Amanda contacted her as soon as she could. If anything Dotty is going to make Amanda clam up even more.
I wonder if Sacker thought that because the helicopters are flying in such close formation that he might be able to take out more than one helicopter with one missile.
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yes why the note was there and lost? what was the point of it all? I figure they wanted to bring things with Dotty to a head in some way..
Ha! Sacker was slightly psychotic… so anything is possible! 🙂
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The note. I always assumed they wanted us to know that Amanda hadn’t been irresponsible and yet they wanted Dotty to think that she was. Like you said, bring things with Dotty to a head.
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A really great post – i really enjoyed it especially as it is a part of UN that I dont remember that well.
love the arm around Amanda and the shared joke and closeness.
Wasnt convinced by Amanda and the uzi – it didnt look as if she wzs holding it right.
laughed at Iwsod ‘ s comment about L &A saving the free world again ☺
unlike most of you i actually felt sorry for Dotty, I appreciate Amanda is an adult but i would worry if someone I lived with didnt come home when expected especially if i had to look after their kids. Having said that Dotty probably should be used to it by now – maybe she had a hot date lined up and had to cancel.
great segment -only downside being that the tag wasnt included! I can understand why but it would have being nice.
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phew! I see what you mean. I was thinking I’d keep scrolling and get the tag too haaaaa… I don’t remember what I put in posts this long ago haaaa..
This was a fun part of the ep – and such closeness!!!!
True. Yes poor Dotty.. it can’t be easy!
I figure she could have spoken to Amanda about it when Amanda got home though.. and at this time in the walk I was sensing an overall tension in Dotty over Amanda’s new life – well I figured that’s how it would seem to Dotty.. and I think she actually says something about feeling like she doesn’t know her anymore (reach for the sky). I eventually came up with a flow for this plot that informed my view of the episode order of these mid-early season 3 eps.. I can’t remember if I’ve put it on JWWM yet..
Nope. It doesn’t look like I’ve posted on JWWM about ep order yet..
I found where I outlined Dotty’s little subplot here: http://nedlindgers.proboards.com/post/4345
[in case anyone else is interested]
I’ll eventually get these thoughts on ep order into a JWWM blog post too..
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I am definitely behind everyone else on this, but wanted to comment here about Dotty’s reaction at the end of Utopia Now.
I do think interfering neighbor Buck’s little comments eventually got to Dotty – especially since she’s probably spent all night worrying about where Amanda is and what could possibly be wrong. In my mind, this is when Dotty begins putting together the little pieces of information that cause her to come up with some options as to why Amanda is not as open as she once was. Obviously, they had a very close relationship with Amanda sharing a lot about her life. Along comes this job with IFF, and suddenly Amanda is keeping secrets more and more. I’ve got my own theories on Dotty, but i’ll wait to share them as I get caught up and the show goes on.
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I must be clueless. I never picked up on how clean Lee and Amanda looked after spending how many hours chained together, running and sleeping in a swamp. Maybe I was still back at the near miss kiss.
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In both of those little side hugs Lee and Amanda both got to tell one of those bad jokes. In MBF Lee made some crack about ruining dessert and Amanda just shook her head and smiled. In UN Amanda makes the bad horseshoe joke. In one instance they are looking down, but now they are looking up. Not that it means anything, I just noticed it.
I like how expressive Lee is with Amanda, even though Francine in present. And he is so focused on her. It’s as if they’re the only two there. Maybe it’s the residual effect of the night before. They’ve shared a good amount of closeness on this assignment and as usual they are drawn to one another.
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Valerie I love this!!! good call.. this time around the bad joke is Amanda’s.. I really like that observation!!
Ohhh I figure Francine doesn’t notice – she’s focused on taking the dirtbag downtown 😉
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I realized we don’t hear the whole conversation with Dotty but shouldn’t Amanda at some point said that she left a note? I realize she didn’t come home much later than the note would have indicated but Dotty is acting like she disappeared with no word at all and Amanda is concurring.
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Dotty, you know I love you, but this dialogue won’t make the cut for a future Dotty post. It feels like the writers got lazy and just churned out some old Dotty dialogue. The only theme I can come up with is that Dotty has been searching for Amanda throughout the episode (along with L&A searching for Hollis; the baddies searching for L&A).
And Dotty’s talons!! Clearly Amanda is the one who does the housework in that household.
Iwsod, don’t you think Amanda is channelling Fi with that Uzi 😀
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Do you mean Fi from Burn Notice? If so… if she was channelling Fi she would have hit the baddies 🙂
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Yup – some of us are watching BN @Neds. And this is as close to Fi as Amanda ever gets.
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I might have to join you… I love BN. And yea… Fi and Amanda …. not really two peas in a pod 🙂
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Allofakind please come join in!! we can discuss this over at Neds.. Love Fi!!! and .. Love Amanda!!
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I know I’m just nit-picking but – how is it that Amanda kept those lovely white cuffs absolutely pristinely white throughout this adventure? Lee at least has a slightly grubby looking vest on now. Amanda literally looks like she has been on a picnic!
Imagination time again – gorgeous grubby Lee and attractively mussed up Amanda. Sigh… I have to use my imagination a lot with SMK.
I’d reach for the wine and dark chocolate except it’s only 7am here – a wee bit early in the day to be indulging. Then again, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere in the world… 😉
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Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. But not in Stinger hand held missiles, or kisses… I wonder how far that inside joke was meant to go? were they only thinking of the cranky wife at Cob’s Corner or were they also thinking of the night before?
Love Amanda’s uh uh to Rogan, such a mom thing to do. And really love Lee’s arm around her, in front of Francine and Hollis. Makes me think that it might have surprised Francine more than Hollis, he was there for the “darling” wasn’t he? Another reason why I think the Darling wasn’t for a cover. I am thinking Lee’s sub conscious has moved all the way through his pre conscious and is coming out into his conscious… What holds him back, I wonder?
And Dotty? I am thinking that Buck’s theory has caused some of Dotty’s suspicions to take shape. It will be interesting to watch her from here on, I agree.
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I agree with you, Morley, about Buck possibly causing some suspicions for Dotty regarding Amanda’s disappearance. I wonder if this caused Dotty to reconsider and think about all of Amanda’s behaviors that have caused her to rush out or be very late in returning, etc. That might be why Dotty told Amanda that she loved her and trusted her. She most likely wants to let Amanda know that she’s there for her and can confide in her.
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I need to get going with school but I do have to mention that the President’s helicopter always flies in a pack of anywhere from 3 to 5 additional helicopters just for this exact reason. You wouldn’t know who to blow out of the sky. I always thought it was interesting that they got that part right (or mostly right – that’s a lot of copters – but never mention either how Sacker will know who to shoot down or at least have several other baddies out there shooting down the other ones as well.
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Yes, Sacker was a very polite baddie to blow himself up like that. :-). I am very much looking forward to the tag.
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And I love the idea that Dottie is starting to piece together what Amanda is really doing during her mystery disappearances.
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Sacker sacked himself…. oh I know, corny, lame, SMK-type joke, but I couldn’t resist. 😉
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😀
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Aughhhh-you stopped too soon!!!!
(Be patient…be patient…be patient…..)
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