…Francine: Pizza? …No no no no. That’s not what we had in mind…
[‘we’?]
At this Lee looks up at Amanda confused at where Francine got that idea.. and Francine reaches over to collect something.. (possessive hand touching his arm no less)
…Ah, Lee, Do you know that the Blue Fox actually caters to parties of two now?…
…Now I stopped and got their takeout menu on the way over here.
Lee turns away prayin for patience.. and a little exasperated.. He lets out a big sigh..
[Blue foxes.. dancing bears.. and big bad wolves.. lots of animals so far!
So what do you make of Francine here? Parties of two means – not parties of three!!!! so don’t expect to eat with us you’re not welcome!! We’re way too good for pizza!
IMHO! What do you think?]
Amanda: Francine, you can’t have the Blue Fox deliver here three times a day,…
(we hear a doorbell ring in the background- at Zernoff’s) 
… the whole neighbourhood will notice. Now I brought you groceries,
(we cut to the wide shot.. Lee is wisely keeping his eyes fixated on what’s in that grocery bag and out of trouble while Amanda sets Francine straight on the suburbs! whahahaahaah!!)
…you can, you know just whip something up.
[I like this.. I think Lee knows Blue fox three times a day is a bad idea – from his previous stints in the suburbs, he has learned what’s normal in the suburbs – Francine is way behind here! Maybe Lee never would have ordered Blue fox? Hmm.. what do you think? I don’t know! I was surprised Amanda didn’t make them something to eat – but then she would have had to explain it to Dotty.. and she couldn’t say she was giving Zernoff two home cooked meals really.. that’s a bit weird no? I guess when Amanda said she was going to the market she was trying to be truthful with Dotty.. as much as she could.. and she did go- for Lee and Francine…I digress!]
So Amanda says Francine can just ‘you know whip something up’ (love how she says that like anyone can do that – lol because Francine probably can’t! or won’t!)
Francine repeats: Whip something – ?
She cuts off what she’s saying when we hear Zernoff has a visitor.. rofl!
I love it! Just as Francine is trying to get rid of Amanda, Amanda points out that Francine doesn’t know what she’s doing in the suburbs.. Amanda is needed.. and..we suddenly hear Dotty’s voice in their little stakeout room.. uh oh!!!!
Dotty’s voice: Hello, I’m Dotty West.
Lee and Amanda share a look.. uh oh!!!
…I, uh, I live a few blocks over.
(Love how they just can’t believe what they are hearing and look down at the machine! lol!!)
Zernoff: Helloooo!!!! How are you?
[Oh my gosh! Zernoff sounds like Count Dracula from Sesame Street! If only he had said: Grreeetings!
rofl!! If he wears a Tux in this episode I’ll kill myself laughing!]
Lee and Amanda exchange a look.
This can only be your fault Amanda! Unless those blue jays went door to door selling information too!! whahahahaa..(I suspect they are evil sleeper agents!)
Amanda: (whispers) It’s Mother!
[Hilarious!! I love that she whispers! Amanda.. she can’t hear you 
]
Amanda looks at the machine again.. Lee and Francine look concerned.. I can’t see Francine’s face but I can imagine she’s rolling her eyes at how this non agent told her mother where Zernoff was.. ugh… only..
How did Dotty know where to find Zernoff? Was there only one furnished place up for rent on Magnolia? lol.. I like to picture Dotty bribing the Blue Jays to tell her if they’d met any Doctor’s speaking Russian!!! whahahahaa.. err it would be for the good of the Blue Jay’s fundraising of course!
I like how Amanda keeps hold of the groceries Lee is carrying.. 
We cut to intrepid Dotty.. walking a tightrope of her own Dotty: Fine, thank you …I hope I’m not intruding
Zernoff: Intrusion? Oh my dear Mrs.West…..a visit from a beautiful lady is never an intrusion…. [He’s Count Dracula I tell you! Muahaha!] … May I get you a cup of tea? It would be an honour.
Dotty: Ohh!! That would be lovely…
…And you, uh, you can call me Dotty.
[hooo haaaaa.. Dotty is crunching on the count errr Zernoff!]
Zernoff: And you may call me Andrei…
[Let’s count the names! Muahahahaa…. eerr the Count has an evil laugh but really he’s a good guy/puppet no?]
…Dotty. Uaghh… it is such a humble name for such a gracious lady.
Dotty:Well it’s short, for Dorothea.
Zernoff: Then I shall call you Dorothea!
[rofl.. so dramatic! ‘Let’s count the letters in the word… Dorothea!’ Don’t remember the count and have a minute or two to job your memory? see HERE. ]
(Zernoff’s doorbell rings)
Zernoff: Oh, excuse me a moment.
We see his front door open and before Zernoff can say Grrrreeeetings! Amanda launches into her welcome speech!
Amanda: Hello Dr. Zernoff. I’m Amanda King. I’m here to say ‘Welcome Neighbour’ and welcome you to
the neighbourhood.
Zernoff: That’s charming! Come in come in
[Yes! these Americans are so rude!!! not!!]
Amanda: Thank you Sir
We cut back to Dotty in the living room. Having heard Amanda has arrived – she looks rather smug! haaa!
Amanda gets as far as the doorway and comments..
Amanda: Oh, I see you’ve already met my mother. 
Amanda gives Zernoff the basket. Hey check out those heels Amanda has on.. snazzy huh.. not dowdy at all..
Zernoff: Oh thank you. This is your mother?
Amanda: Yes.
Zernoff: Please come in, sit down. You are every bit as lovely as she.
[Hmmm this is probably perfectly normal and lovely manners.. but I find all the commenting on how they look to be ick, too over the top. It’s probably just me.. At the same time.. I like the idea that Francine is listening to this haaaaa ]
Amanda: Oh…..
Zernoff: Now, we shall have tea for three! [Three!!!! yes now it’s three!!! One! Two! Three!!]
We’ll stop here and give Zernoff time to count to three I’m guessing he serves: Russian Caravan Tea!
So now we’ve finally covered the Francine/Blue Fox scene.. what do you make of it?
I think OBDOBD can be before FFFT and FFFT could be a continuation of her antics here..
or Francine in OBDOBD could be a reaction to what took place in FFFT and she’s decided to try again to exclude Amanda?? At this point I’m not sure which I prefer.. but it’s fun to ponder!
What do you guys all think?
If you don’t really care, feel free to say so too! 🙂 tee hee.. Okay bye for now everyone!
"Just walk with me.." 
Cute scene with the count and Dorothea and Amanda. I love how the count says, “So this is your mahther?”
I do think that Lee knows the Blue Fox is a bad idea for the neighborhood – he is clued in. He now knows enough about the suburbs to realize that pizza or chicken on a stick is the way to go if you want to fit in. Francine is just trying to be a snob here and exclude Amanda.
I really don’t care about the episode order (tee hee, iwsod, you said we could say we didn’t care! 🙂 ), but Francine’s antics fit for me if this ep came after FFFT. I’ve not seen them in the reverse order, so I’ve not got an opinion yet about the reverse order.
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I posting on the fly here, and haven’t had a chance to read anyone else’s comments yet, so please forgive me if I have repeated what everyone else has said.
Go Dotty! Beautiful counterpoint to Lawrence’s (?) assertion that Americans are very unfriendly and Andrei will be very lonely (which was, of course, a manipulative way to get him to come to the restaurant). I found nothing ‘ick’ about Andrei commenting on Amanda and Dotty — maybe because I never assumed the ‘loveliness’ meant their looks. I get more of an old world charm from him rather than sleezy vibe. 🙂
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Yes, I agree about the “loveliness”, Cindy. I guess I felt it incorporated the whole being of Amanda and Dotty, of which their charming smiles is just a piece. And given his “gentlemanliness”, I am convinced that if a woman with a face that frightens small children had shown up in his doorway, he would still have pronounced her lovely.
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Hey guys! I’ve been enjoying everyone’s comments.. sorry I’ve not had time to respond 😦 oh well..
Raffie I think I wasn’t clear with what I said about Zernoff- I don’t find him creepy at all. Sorry if I conveyed that..
I agree with you – he seems to be a very gentlemanly man – with lovely manners and he is very respectful.
What I find ick is the practice of complimenting women’s looks – especially a woman you just met. If you were picking up a woman for a date and complimented her on how lovely she looked that would be IMHO much better..
For me ‘you are every bit as lovely as your mother’ – bugs me.. It’s not Zernoff, it’s the whole tradition of complimenting a women’s looks – it’s very old fashioned, and I’m sure in the context of zernoff and this episode this is a compliment and mean’t to be so (which is why I was chuffed to think that Francine was listening in on Amanda being complimented! 😉 )
But I do see the smk Zernoff character as gentlemanly and I agree this is how the audience is meant to see him.
Hope i’m making sense.. and certainly don’t expect anyone to agree with my being bugged by compliments from strangers about women’s looks. Meh.. but.. I’ll move on I promise 🙂
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I like the way Amanda’s response to Francine isn’t catty in anyway. She doesn’t get her rough up about Francine’s apparent claim on Lee, she just answers logically about what would make sense for the two of them on this particular stake out. But she is holding on to the bag. I bet she and Lee talked about what Amanda should pick up at the store which would make it even more of a stinging situation for Francine since Francine and Lee hadn’t discussed the Blue Fox together at all.
I think this episode may also be about Lee recognizing Amanda and Dotty’s relationship. Just like Amanda’s being a mother to Philip and Jamie and Lee recognizing and accepting that role as being central to who Amanda is as he lets himself fall in love with her in TWWH, Amanda has all these other people in her life and falling in love with Amanda also means embracing them in some way. So here Dotty is inserting herself in a case unknowingly. How will Lee handle that, how will Lee react to Amanda’s reactions.
As for order. I am sure it could easily go either way. We aren’t done with the reassertion of Francine (but that is looking ahead). There are a few other scenes that work for me better when I think of this episode before FFFT, I will just mention them when we get to them. But I am not trying to convince anyone. I don’t think it matters much, this is just the way I like to play it. Part of the fun, you know.
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interesting thoughts Morley, yes It did seem blue fox was news to Lee lol!
I can’t say I remember how this ep plays out.. haven’t watched ahead at all. I’ll return to these ideas (and hope you will too 🙂 ) as the episode unfolds further..
Ah thanks Morley, Yes I know you don’t try to convince anyone of your ep order – that’s cool. I’m still open to seeing FFFT as after OBDOBD – because I don’t remember how this ep unfolds. I’ll be keeping my eye out for this.. and I enjoy hearing your ideas and pondering the possibilities – even if I don’t end up agreeing with you – but sometimes I do 🙂 and it’s all fun speculation and discussion – so please feel free to share all your ep order ideas as we progress 🙂
Byee for now!
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Morley, I love your thoughts on how this episode ties into Lee’s recognizing Dotty & Amanda’s relationship. Family is not a first-hand familiar environment to Lee. So having these episodes of WWH and OBDOBD delve into these elements of family dynamics/relationships – particularly Amanda’s family dynamics/relationships- and how Lee approaches them at this point in his character development really makes room to highlight Lee’s character growth. I love Lee in these couple of episodes – he has just matured into something so special. And as I mentioned in a previous comment on this episode, I really like your order of having OBDOBD follow WWH for all of these reasons. But of course, to each his own!
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“I like how Amanda keeps hold of the groceries Lee is carrying..”
That’s one of the things I love most about this scene – Amanda grasping the edge of the bag, which Lee is holding… I think of it as a surrogate for their usual touching of each other which they aren’t able/comfortable to do with the witch right there…
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Awhhhhhh.. yeah! Me tooooooo me tooooo KC! 🙂
bye for now!
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I like what Khell and Raffie say about where Francine could be at this moment and how this could come after FFFT based on that. Francine could have been more affected by what happened in the freezer between her and Amanda than what we really know. It’s obvious she thought about it and tried to discount it to Amanda in the Hall of Denial. She’s also had time to think about the fact that Lee did show up and what it may mean that Amanda gave her the chocolates. She may be surprised at how this is all making her feel and is trying to put some distance between her emotions and what happened. She’s trying to regain her balance and she reverts to what she knows.
She is comfortable working with Lee and may be attempting recreate how things used to be with them. It’s like she’s trying to realign herself with Lee. She made sure to get the takeout menu on the way there and continually refers to herself and Lee as “we” or “parties of two”. She seems to have this stakeout situation all planned out and none of it involves Amanda in her mind.
It’s funny how Francine reacts to the whipping something up comment. She might be having flashbacks to her derailed attempt at taking cooking lessons with the colonial cooking spy Mrs. Welch.
Considering the fact that there is a Welcome To the Neighborhood group or committee it wouldn’t have taken long for Dotty to know about the new neighbor. It seems that the neighbors pretty much keep tabs on what’s going on in the neighborhood. Remember how Amanda told Lee they wouldn’t have to check out the neighbors, because they would show up anyway in TGTN. Dotty had certainly checked out Lee in VM. I don’t think Dotty showing up is any reflection on Amanda as Dotty seemed to be in a lonely mood anyway and was looking for some action. She would have made her way over there eventually.
Love how Lee sort of disengages while Francine and Amanda go back and forth.
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There are a couple of things I’ve got to say for Iwsod’s benefit:
“Foxes and Wolves and Bears! Oh, my!” :O
Also:
“One bear! AH AH AH! Two bears! AH AH AH!” (Lightning Flash) 😀
Francine: If there are plans that only one person is aware of, you can’t call it a “we” situation. It’s like forming a team without even inviting the other person to join. It’s just in your own mind. 😛
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Grrrreeeetings Jestress! 😉
Jestress just had to say: “Foxes and Wolves and Bears! Oh, my!” had me in HYSTERICS!!! THAT’S FLIPPIN BRILLIANT!! 🙂
rofl.. glad to see someone else finds the Count fun – muahahaha!!
DOH forgive me, I’ve gotta rest my eyes and get off the computer….I hope you are all well!
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I have always loved the Count. I will forever hear him now when I watch this episode! Brilliant, Iwsod!
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oh cool! 🙂
I think the count is a bit of an old gentleman too no? Old fashioned, very formal.. so it wasn’t just the accent that made me think of him 🙂
Hey Dotty has always had a thing for titles no? or did she warn Amanda about them? lol.. I don’t remember! byeee
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I don’t remember either, but it would be from Waiting for Godorsky from season one, right. I think I would want to warn anybody about a person who carried the title of “count” especially if lightening flashed any time he spoke. But I do like Zernoff. He reminds me of my FIL. Maybe in today’s society he would be interpreted as a flirt and a dirty old man. Yet that confuses me, because now a days off color comments and leading remarks can be ok and also out of line. Kind of confusing if you ask me. But I think it was the gentlemanly thing to do then. And it is a good thing that the first American ladies he ran into were Dotty and Amanda because they would know how to handle him.
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“Foxes and Wolves and Bears! Oh, my!”
I don’t know if Francine will do much, but I’m pretty sure Scarecrow has the situation well in hand. 😉
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It was just announced that “Maria” from Sesame Street is retiring after 44 years on the show. They have been showing a picture of her with the Count. Very timely discussion about the count.
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This has always been a favorite scene of mine, and I enjoyed it even more as you walked through it, Iwsod. I even LOL’d a few times (especially that smug expression of Dotty’s — just like an impudent child!), so thank you!
I don’t usually get into the episode order discussions since I can never remember enough detail to make a case, but I really like this one after FFFThought for reasons very similar to what Khell stated. After the dust settled from FFFThought, Francine would have two choices: be friendly to Amanda, or re-stake her claim. Her claim in this case would be to her own authority over Amanda (at least as Francine perceives it), to Lee as a professional partner, and to Lee as a personal ally. I for one would be disappointed if Francine had a sudden reversal of character, so I am delighted to see her recover her old form. It’s a bit like a tennis match here where Francine tries all her tough shots and Amanda just easily volleys them back, keeping Francine running. I love Lee’s determination to keep his nose in the bag rather than watching the match.
I’ve never fully considered the significance of Dotty showing up in the middle of an agency investigation and how it reflects on Amanda professionally. I’d always looked at it as just an “oh, what is my mother doing here?” Amanda moment, but I can certainly see how it would (and should!) throw Amanda into some serious self-examination and conversation-replay to see how she could have better handled this agency secret that she had been entrusted with. I work a job where every statement made to a customer needs to be mentally screened to ensure it is not a red flag in front of a bull. Certainly being an agent is similar, but with the much greater added difficulty of having to be on your guard at home as well as at work. No wonder Amanda doesn’t want cross-over between her agency business and her home life.
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And no wonder Amanda wasn’t interested in Dotty coming along on the “welcome” visit. I kind of thought that Amanda”s visit was supposed to be a cover for some official contact, but now am curious as to why they decide she should hurry up and get over there when they find out Dotty is already there.
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Ah, yes, THAT scene. That’s one of those that always make me kinda cringe – every time I see it I’m like “Ugh. Francine. Common sense – I know you got it, so why don’t you use it? You can’t have food delivered from a place like that Blue Fox in the suburbs without anyone taking notice of it. You can get away with it once maybe – if you’re throwing a big, important party and have lots of important guests. Oh well, maybe it was Francine’s feeble attempt to avoid having to “whip up something” (read: make sandwiches – anything more elaborate than that would probably end with Francine setting the kitchen on fire or something … ;))
As for when exactly it’s set, I think this episode can work both previous to FFFT and after. Either way, I guess Francine had kind of an “okay, either you let me go in the field more often or I’ll quit” kind of talk with Billy since we’re seeing her outside the office more often. Maybe to take some of what she considers her “territory” back from Amanda? Or to prove to herself that she still can do it? (She must have been trained for field work at some point.)
Personally, I like to keep this episode right after FFFT because to me, Francine’s attitude makes complete sense. Only recently, she and Amanda were stuck in a giant freezer together and facing certain death. She told Amanda things about herself she probably never wanted her to know (kinda like “Oh, what does it matter? We’re gonna die anyways …”). I mean – they were stuck in that freezer for almost an hour if I remember correctly. Who knows what else they talked about other than the chocolate. Or maybe Francine realized that she’s actually starting to kinda-sorta like Amanda – which is just inconceivable! The housewife! Never! 😉 So now she’s doing her best to distance herself from Amanda again and not let herself be “drawn in” (like Billy or Lee) – which results in her being just as catty as ever or maybe even worse.
Yah. Another half-essay. sigh
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LOL, wasn’t Francine going to whip up some sandwiches waving a huge knife in DOA?
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