Inside we find a Marvin’s Registration stand..
Lots of red and yellow and veiled references to Mc D’s!
We see Lee and Amanda walk into the lobby and to the registration stand..
Carla: Hi there! I’m Carla, your Marvin’s hostess for this weekend. And you’re…?
Lee: I’m Lee Stemson; this is my sister, Amanda.
[Aie!! these names Lee Stimpson/ Stesmon/ Sampson/ Stemson!
Did I miss any?! anyone keeping track of all these fun little bits of trivia?]
Amanda: Amanda Keene. Married once, cured forever.
[whooo watch Lee as she says this!! Why didn’t Amanda just go with the same last name? Is this a test?!]
Carla (laughs): Yup. Here we are; last ones on the list—Lee and Amanda…
…Oohhh… all the way from Bangor, Maine!
Amanda: Yes.
Lee: That’s right.
Carla: Well, how did you find out about the weekend?
(same time) Lee: Friends. /Amanda: Newspaper.
(Love how Lee looks at Amanda.. and Amanda is NOT looking at Lee!! whahahahaaa..)
(Carla looks at them both.)
(Same time again!) Lee: Ah, she’s right… newspaper. /
Amanda : Well, actually, it was…
Carla: Well, we did have an ad in the Bangor Bulletin. Maybe you had a friend who… read about it and told you?
Amanda: Absolutely!
[I’m guessing there was no ad..and there is no Bangor Bulletin.. and Amanda just walked into a trap.. no idea about this plot whatsoever..but I think Carla is a baddie.. ]
Lee: Yes, that’s exactly how it happened.
Amanda (same time): It was our friend Pearl, at the coffee shop.
[Wasn’t Pearl the waitress in A relative situation?!]
Lee: Yes, Pearl.
Yep! (Or as Lee said: Yes Pearl!)
Found Pearl.. Here she is in A Relative Situation..
[“no pie?!” Actually.. here back in A relative situation is a moment where someone (Pearl) assumes Amanda is Lee’s spouse.. hmm interesting given this ridiculous siblings cover 
] back to FFFT.. focus iwsod!
Carla (laughs): Heh, well, however you heard about it… welcome.
Carla: Now, uh, these are your information packets…
… got everything you need to know, and we’re gonna start the fun with a little get-together in the multipurpose room over at Corporate Headquarters. Seven o’clock, sharp.
[Multipurpose room? sounds like a fun place! whoo hooo! Sarcasm? Yes.
Why wouldn’t they have the get together at the hotel where all the attendees are staying?! random.. there must be a plot reason..lol..]
Lee: Ah.
Carla: Now, let’s see… Two T-shirts. (picks up T-shirts) Two hats. (picks up hats) Two buttons. (picks up buttons)
[Oh please don’t make us look at Lee in that uniform! then again it was pretty funny when he wore the Moby’s Dock uniform!]
Carla: There you go. Now you’re really part of the Marvin’s family. [Umm if buying a Franchise means I have to wear that? and join this weird family? I’m out! Especially if I need to wear matching ear buttons like Carla!]
Carla: See you at seven.
Lee: All right, seven. (clears throat)
Lee and Amanda head over to the hotel check in as Lee comments to Amanda: Corporate Headquarters… It might give us a chance to get inside the offices. [lol.. ahh so that’s why it’s not on at the hotel where it normally would be!]
Amanda: Right.
Back to Carla.. and she’s no longer smiling.. A guy has joined her [KC says his name is Barry.. thanks KC!]
Carla: Do you see those two checking in over there?
(We cut back to Lee and Amanda checking in) 
Carla: They’re the ones who signed up at the very last second… right after those sudden cancellations.
[what were the sudden cancellations? did the agency make someone pull out so Lee and Amanda could go?]
Barry: Carla, stop being so paranoid.
Carla: They said they heard about the seminar from an ad in the Bangor Bulletin.
Barry: Yeah, so?
Carla: We never ran an ad in Maine.
[gah!!! They’ve blown it already.. I thought that line about the friend reading the newspaper was too weird! I thought Amanda learned this lesson about not taking her cue from baddies in A Service Above and Beyond – the skiing in Gstaad almost cost her her life!! ]
Barry: Big deal. They made a mistake.
[Oh boy.. this guy is clearly not the brains in this operation!!! The baddies know Eddie had evidence against them, they searched his hotel room for it and didn’t find it… so they know someone could be on to them.. makes me think Lee and Amanda should have been more burger flippin careful!]
Carla: No… They don’t look like patty-slappers to me.
[Patty slappers?! Love it! err no offense to anyone named ‘Patty’ ahem!! tee hee..]
Carla: Find out what you can about them… Now.
[Love how sweet and quiet Carla’s voice is and yet she is a baddie bossing Barry around – clearly.. she’s the boss here!]
So off Barry goes to find out what he can- now!
Is it just me or is the bespectacled burger on the lapel just plain creepy?!!
Oh and by the way..
How do you think the siblings are going so far?? I thought after Flight to Freedom they had learned to wing it better. Or they should have sorted out the cover story in the car park rather than the windows.. Hmm they need to come up with a system in answering these questions.. take turns or something!
Also, I really like this blue jumper (sweater) soooo much better than the awful grey ones we’ve seen of late – is this a new look on Amanda? she wore a lovely blue outfit in Sour Grapes too.. but those drab grey sweaters have been a constant I think.. Hmm what do you all think?
That’s it from me for the moment.. looking forward to hearing from ya!
"Just walk with me.." 
It just occurred to me that I have no idea why hamburgers are called so when they contain beef….I can now got to bed having learned something new today rofl.
Tsk tsk tripping up on cover story is so rookie agent. Why not let one agent take the lead if you’re not going to do your prep work. It feels really jarring when Amanda has to explain her surname is different…..if you over explain something then if looks more like a lie.
I mean no disrespect to the actress playing Carla but she’s got quite a wide Ronald McDonald-esq mouth to me, she looks like a clown…..
Badges…..they are badges here. Buttons are what you do up your cardi with 😉
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LOL, no offense taken, Iwsod! When one’s name sounds like “Potty” or “Petty” in other English-speaking countries, you learn to just accept it! 🙂
Lee’s response to Amanda’s “Married once, cured forever” line reminds me of Car Wars when Amanda tries too hard to defend a story to Gino about the car being “Cherry, just cherry.” [An odd expression by the way] Here Amanda clearly feels she has to explain why they are brothers and sisters yet their last names are different. Maybe she feels that her being single is vital to them being able to work within their cover (i.e. she could flirt or have dinner with a guy or whatever) so she is making sure that folks know this. Lee, on the other hand, is just wishing she’d be quiet before she blows their cover.
As for them never planning their cover story, maybe Amanda was sincere is SOS when she said, “We like an element of mystery in our relationship!” No matter, I do usually get a giggle rather than a cringe as they trip over their covers. Keeps the show from taking itself too seriously 😉 [But yeah, I agree, it’s not very realistic.]
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Whahahahahaa!!! so glad you could stop by and hear about the Patty slappers! 🙂
Yeah true.. I guess there are different options open to them if they are not together.. but.. somehow I’d still prefer they were together 😉
Oh I agree I figure Lee is saying ‘Amanda!!!! shut up!!!!’ mentally.
I think I try not to take the show too seriously, but at times it is so not realistic, it borders on farcical.. and therefore IMHO must be paid out on! 😉 tee hee… Oh SMK.. I’ve found a doozie coming up post 5 – next!!! and I LOVE SMK because of these doozies!!!! 🙂
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I forgot to add.. Maybe Lee’s response to Amanda’s line about ‘married once, cured forever’ is to think to himself – no way. I know her. She really doesn’t mean that..
Ahem- she may be having a bit of fun playing her cover here and is having a little dig at me about how we aren’t married for our cover!
They had just come straight from that little revelation 😉
Phew.. it’s late here..bye!
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Haha, I like the idea of a little dig! “You blew it, baby!”
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Well Amanda couldn’t say Amanda Stemson-too close to Stetson, and WE would go all swoony if we heard that.
They were thinking of us. (lol)
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Yes very considerate! 🙂
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Yet again, not rehearsing/discussing their covers ahead of time is going to cause them grief. You would think Lee would figure it out after this has been happening pretty regularly for almost 3 years now. Maybe Lee is counting on the bad guys being pretty stupid like Barry and not evil masterminds like Carla.
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First of all, love Pearl! She cracks me up. Secondly, what is it that Amanda and Lee are discussing or talking about when they are traveling that they cannot get these cover stories together? Maybe they are too focused on other things, distracted by each other, or assume that they are going to be able to just pull it together at the last moment. Since Lee set up the cover, Amanda should have just let him take the lead and wait to hear what he says. They come off as more amatuerish than professional. The ad libbing is not working here. And Carla just sort of led them down this path and they blithely followed. There must have been some sort of discussion on the way in about their last names since I would think they wouldn’t just be listed as Lee and Amanda on the registration sheet.
I’m not too bothered about the gathering in the multipurpose room. If they are trying to get people to be franchise owners I would think that part of the weekend would be to cover all the bases as far as the company is concerned. Doing things at the headquarters would be a way to get to know how Marvin’s works as a company and get to know the ins and outs of how everything is made and produced. I would think you need to know how the company works in order to be a part of it.
It’s funny how much you can already figure out from these beginning scenes alone. Amanda and Lee have already blown their cover and so have Carla and Barry, at least to the audience anyways. So is Carla thinking of herself as a “patty-slapper” especially since she knows what one looks like? That Marvin’s burger on the jacket is not only creepy, but it’s huge!!
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“Married once, cured forever.” What does Lee think of that?
When will those two learn to discuss the cover first? They did it in Sour Grapes. Good grief.
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Yes, I wondered about that line and what Lee might think. Not that he is thinking of marriage at this point but it might be a comment he stores away in the back of his mind. Perhaps he might think Amanda is averse to actually getting married again, or that the comment is a clue to her feelings on getting married again. Then again, it could just be a throw-away comment as part of the cover. Lee doesn’t know which, but he will keep that comment in mind I’m sure, along with all the others things he is learning about her, of course. For Lee, trying to understand Amanda is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle – there are still some key pieces he doesn’t have or can’t figure out where they fit. 😉
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I like the jig saw image, Kiwi. True, I don’t think Lee is planning to propose….yet. But I do think he has permanence on his radar at this stage. I think he wants to go forward into a relationship with her and he knows that means it will lead to marriage. I think the events in WWH took him to the place where he was at peace with that. I would think that he would be very aware of what Amanda said there about marriage and would think about it a bit. Although seems to me to be the kind of man that wouldn’t let a little breeze like that comment of Amanda’s shake him too much from his path.
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I agree kiwismh – I see Lee as enjoying trying to figure Amanda out 🙂 he loves a good Mystery!!!
Whooo this is interesting.. so glad you brought this up 🙂
Remember in Service Above and Beyond – Lee said: Lee: Billy . . . James Delano is a man with money, contacts, women on every continent. Beautiful, exotic, mysterious women. You really think he’s going to be fascinated by a wholesome mom with a mortgage and a station wagon? (replace ‘James Delano’ in that sentence with ‘Lee Stetson!’)
Billy challenges Lee to consider Amanda as fascinating I guess..
Lee closes his eyes and tries to picture..
Lee: Amanda… Exotic… Mysterious..
And sure enough – here in Season 3 we find Lee is indeed finding Amanda fascinating! Mysterious! and.. maybe Exotic.. and no doubt beautiful 🙂
Very happy thoughts!
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I think it’s because there would be no room sharing in SG 😉 It seems to be THE taboo subject for them to talk about ahead of time. Or just way too uncomfortable.
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I am having fun thinking about Lee preparing to discuss this with Amanda… Trying out different scenarios and finally choosing the path of least resistance. Hmmm…. these stories will be fun to write 😉
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