On to a mansion..
We find Jerry talking to the man with the grey hair from the park. Ah yes.. Jerry – the leak within the leak!
Jerry: They’re after me Mr. North. I’ve been so scared. I didn’t want to tell you this at the office, but I should have come to you before now.
Grey haired man has a name! Oh good!
No baddie phone? oh boooo!
North: Look Jerry, it’s ok. You did the right thing believe me….
…Now just tell me what’s happened so far. Who have you talked to?
[oh noooo Jerry! Don’t tell him anything! gah!!]
Jerry: I called the Agency, no names…and arranged a meeting with Mr. Stetson….
…Except someone else was there. I think he had a gun.
North: But you haven’t really made contact with him yet?
Jerry: Not really, I just threw him the papers. I didn’t have time to explain.
[Aie! Jerry going to be killed? Leak of the leak going to be plugged? permanently?]
North: And they don’t know where the papers came from?..
[North seems more concerned with who Jerry has spoken to and what has been said, rather than the leak! Big red flag there Jerry! gah!!] …Well I’m very concerned about all this. I mean, we have cooperate fully of course. But if somebody in our company has national secret that he shouldn’t have, I want it stopped and I want it stopped now!…
…Ok here’s what you do. Call your contact and arrange an appointment. Just be circumspect on the phone. And after you talk to him you come back to me and we’ll take it from there ok?
[Uh oh.. looks like the plan is kill the leak’s leak and the guy the leak’s leak leaked to! rofl! I think my brain is leaking 😉 ]
Jerry: Yes Sir.. (Jerry leaves)
North gives Jerry a long look..
LOL at the choice of statue behind North! On the surface he is cooperative and supportive of Jerry.. but really, he is at war with him.. North seems adequately creepy and evil – so far not a lame baddie.. though he is a little bland! I do wish he had a baddie phone.. at least he has the baddie refined tastes and a mansion! whoooo!
We cut to Zernoff on the telephone (phew.. he doesn’t have a baddie phone!).
Zernoff: No No No It must be immediately. This afternoon at 2. Yes, Rock Creek Park. I’ll look for you.
(speaks in Russian.. rah rah.. Dasvidanya!)
How does Zernoff know he can get to that park at 2, he knows he is seeing the sights with Dotty.. Hmm maybe he has a plan for that..
We cut to Lee and Francine listening from the stakeout house.
Lee puts a tape in a player and we hear a voice speaking Russian as it runs through a voice analyser.
Francine: It’s a match. It’s Stanislav.
Oh okay. so that machine is a voice print/matching machine. So Zernoff wants to meet with one of the other defectors huh..
[whoooo Lee has his hip holster on and is doing that pose again! oh my.. only this time no dimples 
]
Lee: And Zernoff’s desperate to meet him today.
Francine: Think you better check it out.
Lee hands Francine the tape and leaves. I guess Lee was going to follow Zernoff around anyway!
Cut to King house. Amanda finds Dotty packing the goofy picnic basket..
Amanda: Ah geez the boys forgot their lunch!
Dotty: No but they left the basket thank goodness, because Andrei and I are going on a picnic!
[As Dotty responds, Amanda reaches over to grab Dotty’s purse and holds it behind her back. ]
[Hey, I saw Phillip take the basket. Hmm they must have left it somewhere else.. that kinda makes sense- Phillip thought it was goofy and didn’t want to take it – so he found a way to get what he wanted: lunch! but no basket]
Amanda: I thought this was going to be a tour Mother
Dotty: Dorothea.
[eh? is that what Amanda is suppose to call her? why say ‘Dorothea’? I guess Dotty is having a little adventure under her proper name! She’s not Dotty, she’s… Dorothea!]
Amanda: Dorothea?
Dotty: Dorothea, that’s what Andrei calls me. Your father used to call me that when we were especially close…
[close? what do you all think this means?]
…Now where’s my purse?
Amanda: Oh, here it is.
[Amanda holds it up but doesn’t want to hand it over]
Dotty: Oh good. What’s the matter darling is something wrong?…
…You seem very nervous.
Amanda: Ah, well I am a little nervous Mother. I’m a little worried that you might be cold, you know the ground is damp and I think you probably oughta get a blanket.
[Amanda takes the basket and purse off Dotty]
Dotty: Oh, yes that’s a good idea. There’s one in the , uh, laundry room.
[Dotty goes to collect the blanket, leaving her purse with Amanda]
Amanda: good good
Amanda scrambles to put the bug in Dotty’s err Dorothea’s purse. We see a close up of it. Looks like it’s two pieces of paper with the metallic bug sandwiched between them?
Amanda: Did you find it?
Dotty: Yep
Amanda: Oh good.
Dotty: Here we go
Amanda: Oh good Mother. There’s your basket and here’s your purse.
Dotty: Right
(Amanda holds on to Dotty a moment making her pause)
Amanda: Now Mother, have a wonderful time, and uh, just don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the newspaper!
[Rofl! I think this is really: don’t say anything Lee and I wouldn’t want to hear!! gah!!]
Dotty laughs: No, of course not.
Dotty suddenly stops laughing, seeming to realise what Amanda just said – and she gives Amanda a look – lol!
Amanda awkwardly smiles..
knowing she’s just gotten a warning – don’t push it Amanda!!
Amanda shrugs and smiles trying to look innocent 
Very funny!!
Dotty takes her basket and blanket and leaves Amanda..
rofl love the look on Amanda’s face as Dotty leaves – ohhh this is soooo awkward! [But hilarious!]
She starts rubbing her hands together again.. hopefully things will work out okay! Lee and Amanda will be close by.. and.. fingers crossed Dotty doesn’t say anything too embarrassing After all she doesn’t know much, right?!
Okay everyone. I’ll stop here for the moment.. would love to hear your thoughts! byeee for now!
"Just walk with me.." 
Nice mansion. Have we seen that before? I think we see it in a future ep in S4, but won’t say more.
Is it just me or does the baddie with the gray hair look a little bit like Mitt Romney? Esp. in the pic with the statue in the background.
There better not be dimples with that pose…he is with Francine!
Love that little scene between KJ and BG – BG is hilarious! She is so excited about her “date” with Andrei. If she were a dog, she’d be jumping up and down, braking like crazy, and spinning around in circles! I think she is so excited that she’s going to the park with a RUSSIAN – almost like she’s getting her version of the character in that book she was reading. Too cute is our Dotty 🙂
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This is Dotty’s Victoria Greenwich!
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I didn’t think of Mitt Romney but the villain who is the turncoat that settles them in and gives them the card for the tearoom reminds me of George W Bush in both looks and his voice.
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I love this exchange between Dotty and Amanda – it highlights an aspect that lifts SMK from being just about Amanda and Lee (and a few spy stories) to being really special. Both KJ and BG have such amazing facial expressions and they play off each other so well. Dotty is so shrewd and yet so clueless (or maybe she’s not so clueless…)
(Side note: her red talons do rather distract me from the ladylike ensemble)
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I sooo agree Learjet. I find myself thinking – Hmm I thought I only watched the show for Lee and Amanda? but no! Amanda’s exchanges with Dotty are a real highlight! and one of the great charms of the show 🙂
Red talons is spot on- scary!!
Yes I can’t decide if Dotty is very shrewd or very silly! Maybe she’s both 😉
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I always thought a bit a both 🙂
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I love that ALLA header!!!
I never liked that North character, not because he was a bad guy, he just seemed rather thick in the head. I don’t know, I think it is his voice quality. But who cares? He is the bad guy and I don’t watch the show for them anyway.
I think Dotty is a bit taken a back by Amanda’s comment. She thinks it is odd. I guess I think it feeds into some of her comments about Amanda’s choices and weird behavior. Dotty isn’t too sure what to make of her daughter. But the funny thing about that is that Dotty herself is trying to embark on some eccentric adventure like the character in her book. How would Dotty react if life turned out to not be so dull after all.?
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which header is it Morley? I’ll make that one the permanent one for a while.. I’ve currently got it on random because I haven’t had any new ones and so thought why not!
I don’t watch smk for baddies either..but somehow the kookie cheesy baddies add to the show! (as Cindy’s posts on the baddies would attest to 🙂 )
Yes adventure can be uncomfortable.. just how will Dotty cope?! 🙂
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It was the header from the bedroom scene in ALLA.
I love Cindy’s baddies posts. True the kookie ones are fun, this guy just seems like a wet noodle.
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whoooo okay I’l update it and we’ll enjoy that one or a while 🙂
wet noodle? exactly! a bland wet noodle.. I like the baddies with some personality. this North is personality-less! well.. so far.. I guess he may yet surprise me!
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For me, the baddies of S1&2 were overall more gritty and/or edgy – think of the genuinely scary Hollander (SAAB), or the somewhat effeminate, slightly psychopathic Bobby Bouchard (TGTN).
S3 baddies are much more cartoonish and formulaic, not really genuinely scary and/or disturbing. It’s like someone made a decision that they needed to keep it all exceptionally PG – perhaps as the show became more popular and TPTB wanted to keep it appealing to the widest possible audience.
BTW, I just realised that the actor who played Bobby Bouchard was none other than Ronald Lacey who played the very disturbingly nasty Nazi agent in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I knew that Bouchard was familiar somehow, but figure out why. Now I know. 😈
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Too bad Bobby Bouchard didn’t show us his palm – it would have given him away! LOL! (Nice catch!)
If the S3 baddies just aren’t baddie enough, maybe there’s an SMK baddie rating system/status level and North hasn’t achieved baddie phone status yet – or baddie tea set status… He’s only graduated to the baddie desk set. 😉
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Maybe you can document the baddie rating system, KC?
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ROFL would that be something like the Scoville Scale? Except rather than measuring the heat of chillies, we would measure a baddie’s coldness?
LOL we could have some fun with this!
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Kiwismh- thanks for sharing that Bobby Bouchard was in Raiders of the Lost Ark! Now I love that baddie even more!!!! One of the best movies of all time 😉
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Thanks for pointing out that connection! Never would have guessed!
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Just thought of something, kiwismh. I agree with your assessment of the SMK baddies, but it just hit me that these guys do meet in front of a carousel in a park for their baddie meeting. Yeah, it could be that it was an unlikely place for baddies to meet up, but can’t shake the idea that mr. gray might have pedophile tendancies…eeewww.
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Done! You know what I love about that moment – Lee’s big lightning bolt attraction to Amanda in that ALLA scene happened when Amanda had no make up on.. I think this is fabulous and way better than the whole ‘she has a makeover and then looking her absolute best he realises she is the one for him’ scenario.. am I making sense? Lee falls for Amanda – not what she looks like.
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YES!!! I love that too. And I think a lot of the foundational work for that lightening bulb moment was done while Amanda was sporting that hair don’t. Lee has fallen for Amanda, plain and simple. And I also like that in TWWH he falls even further for her in the context of Amanda as a family woman. And I kind of like watching him be with her , here, in the context of her relationship with her mother. He knows it is important to her, he really has no first hand experience dealing with mothers. But it will be interesting to watch him during this episode.
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Oh Morley stop! I’m getting dizzy here.. too much swoony goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think Morley has given me a reason to love the hair don’t… yep.. I really am not thinking clearly 🙂
I am a little worried Morley – and everyone! How will I cope with all the swoony goodness that is ahead? What am I gonna do?! eek.. I need to toughen up here and brace myself.. Hmm I guess walking at a slow pace will allow for recovery.. I’ll manage.. somehow.. it’ll be a struggle and a huge sacrifice.. but.. if I must! tee hee!
On a serious note though: Lee and mothers- now that is a fascinating thing to think about – what do you all make of Lee and motherhood? Lee and a child’s relationship with their mother? Lee’s first hand experience with mothers is as a five year old – that’s interesting!
I’ve always thought Lee was very protective of Amanda as the boy’s mother – because he knows the pain of losing his mum at a young age..I’m thinking Lee would better understand a child’s relationship to their mother.. but an adult’s relationship with their mother could be a very different concept for him.. I don’t know what’s ahead in this ep, but I’ll be curiously watching what Lee makes of Dotty and Amanda’s relationship here..
Makes me want to go back and think about all the times Lee has seen Amanda and Dotty interact – there were probably a few times listening in from outside that Lee got to hear them interact..
Anyone got any insights on this they’d like to share? feel free 🙂
Oh dear. I’ve actually got to get on with my work here.. would much rather ponder Lee and this SMK world.. but alas.. the real world is calling me! byee!!
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Ah, Iwsod, we will be here for you in your swoon fits (we may not be of much help in the recovery process, but we will definitely be here 😉 )
Lee has been on his own for a long time. Even living with his uncle was probably more a lesson about being on his own than nurture. I think that part of the maturity that we see coming out of Lee now has to do with how Amanda has connected him to others. First it was herself and I think in TWWH his feeling for her connected him to a family. He has had Emily in his life, but that was also a professional mentorship. I guess it is interesting to watch Lee have more people to care about personally. I like what it does to him.
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I like this question about Lee and mothers. Whenever Amanda was concerned about the safety of her family she would always refer to them as such or say “mother and the boys”. Lee would sometimes have handled that situation before Amanda even had to express it. Over time he had to see that they were considered as a whole, a unit, or as some have said, a package deal. In reviewing some of these earlier episodes I’m seeing that one of the ways Amanda got her way with Lee was to express her concern over her family. He couldn’t say no to her.
I agree that Lee’s initial protection of Amanda early on was based a lot on Phillip and Jamie and not wanting them to have to go through what he did. And somehow maybe he didn’t pick up on the fact that Dotty would be there in a different way than his uncle was. And we’ve heard a lot about other family members that Dotty and the kids have visited or been sent to. Lee seemed to have no one but that uncle in the way of family.
Lee also have to have learned early on how close Dotty and Amanda were, especially with all the times Amanda reiterated how much she hated lying to her mother. Lee has picked up on the family’s schedule though and learned quite a bit about when there are other things going on (OTL).
One of the things we don’t get to see is Lee’s reactions or thoughts as to Joe’s leaving of the boys and the effects of that on them. This was not a father who died, but one who made a conscious choice to leave. We get to see his reactions as to Joe and Amanda, but not Joe and the boys. Lee is being drawn further and further into that family unit, however.
Okay, ramble over.
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I am thinking that Lee starts really thinking about the boys in TWWH. I have written him having a couple of thoughts about that in Scotch Thoughts for that episode. I just wrote it this past weekend 😉
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Gah. I need to take to reading your fan fics on the bus.. that way I’ll get into a routine. When I’m home on the computer I have too many other things to do that I don’t get to it. and that’s a bummer! 😦
I think Lee has always thought about the boys: maybe the contents or direction of those thoughts has changed? 🙂
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Yes, I think that is it. I think something inside of him has opened up and so I think the direction of his thoughts is freer to change.
And no worries about the stories. They will always be there, just like the show. 🙂
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I think that Amanda “mothers” Lee a little bit in the first season or so. I don’t think she is overtly trying to, but it just comes out – that is a big part of who she is and what she does. She clearly recognizes Lee’s need of a woman’s presence in his life and she would only offer that to him in the form of friendship that comes across as mothering to me. I’m thinking about ACMKid, SBTBells, especially. I’m sure there are other times, too.
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TLChristmasEve, ROTPast … lots of mothering throughout S1. I love the tag of SAABeyond and its reference to mothers on the TV show that is playing in the background. (Wouldn’t it be helpful if I could remember it now? I think it’s someone who is about to meet the mother they have not seen in a long time.) Someone picked that background sound with very special intent! Think how different (and I think less interesting) SMK would have been if Amanda had tried to have a true romantic interest with Lee in S1 rather than a spy fantasy mixed with motherhood instincts.
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Dotty’s an eccentric, and I sometimes think that she must be used to dealing with other eccentrics in her family (like Uncle Iggy, maybe others?) because of the way she kind of lets some of the things Amanda says and does slide. It’s like she kind of notices that it’s a little odd, but she doesn’t want to press for details. She seems to just kind of shrug it off as one of those odd things people do that’s better not to question too closely.
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I agree with you, Jestress, about Dotty’s eccentricities and what she has seen in other people. If you think of all the things that Amanda has told her when she first started with the Agency and Dotty just sort of accepted all of it, no matter how outrageous it sounded. My two favorites are when Amanda tells her about saving the clams and when Francine supposedly has a chimp that Amanda takes care of. Even when Amanda tried to tell her the truth in Playing Possum, Dotty just attributed it to Amanda’s childhood wild storytelling.
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Yes, Dotty does seem to willingly accept oddity in people and life. She is very willing to go with it unless it has to do with safety – e.g. when she called her congressman in BAIn. She definitely has a quirky side for sure!
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“…have a wonderful time, and uh, just don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the newspaper.”
This is one of my favourite lines of the whole series. Words to live by. 😉
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And especially with J. Edgar’s Ghost not having been so long ago…
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I say a variation of that to my girls all the time.
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“No baddie phone? oh boooo!”
Don’t worry, iwsod… he still appears to have a baddie desk lamp, and baddie ?pen set? and baddie ?ashtray?… The baddie phone is probably just away for cleaning/polishing/fixing. 😀
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No tea either, now that I think about it.
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No! This time the good guy, Andrei is drinking the tea!
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I love it- yep.. Tea for Three! 🙂
Hey I wonder if they are trying to hint at this point in the episode that maybe Zernoff is really not a good guy. He is Russian, he just made that strange phone call.. he doesn’t trust government.. and he drinks tea!
I suspect the first time I saw this I was wondering if Zernoff was a good guy.. and I was a little apprehensive about Dotty’s safety.. but of course in time this effect gets completely lost!
Does anyone remember what they first thought of Zernoff?
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Rofl! I love it! The baddie desk set! whoooooo!
I’ve seen the baddie phone a number of times in Columbo! 🙂
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