So where were we.. Lance got killed.. the Triumvirate were not happy.. Harriet and her cat were not happy.. and Lee found Lances’ only paper in his mobile office..
Billy hangs up the phone….
Billy : Thank you.
And Lee and Amanda enter.
Billy: That was personnel. We don’t have an agent code-named King in the Bahamas… [Do you have an agent code named King anywhere? I mean really, it was just that the bank account that was in the Bahamas no?] …What about the paper?
Amanda: Uh, sir, this is a blow-up of the paper. As you can see, there’s a grocery list on it and the names of some girls and their phone numbers that we think Lance was probably dating.
Lee: Yeah we checked – nothing.
Billy:What’s “GUARDIAN”?
Amanda: I don’t know, sir.
Lee: This thing is a dead-end, Billy. And everything on Lance’s computer has been erased. So until we find him …
Billy: If we find him…
There’s a knock at the door..
Francine enters with a man..
Billy: Karl, what have you turned up?
[Karl is Jay Armin undercover!! How could Lee and Amanda have forgotten Our eerrr Armin?! The bad guy from Weekend?!]
Karl: Uh, nothing. No Jeffrey Brown in our employ; no alias under that name. Mrs King, I’m Karl Eagles, senior staff administrator.
[Jay’s done alright for himself.. senior staff administrator huh.. lol okay.. maybe he’s a different character in this episode! Karl! He’s Karl!! but is he playing to type and a bad guy? or is he good? Uh oh look out Lee – he’s a pencil pusher!!!]
Amanda: How do you do?
Eagles: This man came to your house?
Amanda: Yes he did, uh, after dinner.
[So this was yesterday was it?]
Eagles: Could you identify him if you saw him again?
Amanda: Oh yes, sir.
Billy: Maybe the Inter Agency Ident files can help us there.
Francine: Lance Dorn’s computer log indicated he accessed an account file numbered 666 last night…
…and then he was promptly locked out.
[the 666 account? that can’t be good!]
What.. is.. she.. wearing!!!! Looks like Francine is off to a party! Fashion Police arrest? what do you all think? the shiny camisole is the worst part me thinks..
Billy: What do you make of it, Karl? [Francine’s outfit?!]
Karl: Well, maybe it’s some sort of embezzling ring. I feel particularly bad about this because it seems to be from one of my departments.
Billy: No-one’s blaming you, Karl.
[Even if maybe they should be?!]
Karl: I suggest we keep this amongst ourselves… ‘til at least we can find out whom we can trust.
[At this point of the episode.. and I’ll try to keep to what we have learned so far – this is the first time we meet Karl.. and he is right.. we really don’t know who we can trust..]
Everyone seems to agree that Karl is wise to suggest this..
Lee: Hmm.
It does tend to be the outsider who says you don’t know who you can trust.. who can’t be trusted.. so I’m worried 🙂
but.. enough on that for now! 
We next find Lee and Amanda on a computer – in the bullpen? Not sure.. but Lee whoo haaaa has taken his jacket off Lovin the Jeans!
Amanda’s working the microfiche.. ahhh brings back memories of the Artful Dodger – that I actually don’t mind remembering lol.. Remember?
Lee seems to have learned not to rush Amanda.. and.. that whistling is rushing
Amanda: OK, that’s it for 1967.
Lee: Oh, Amanda. My eyes are so crossed I can barely see these things.
[such pretty crossed eyes! ]
Amanda: Here, look, just hand me ’68.
Lee: Here.
Amanda removes a film from the microfiche machine and hands it to Lee. Lee hands her a new one from the stack he’s holding.
Amanda: OK, thank you.
Lee: You know, the way we’re going, this is gonna take forever.
Amanda: Mr Melrose wants us to check all the inactive accounts, right?
Lee: Hmmm.
Amanda: OK, so that’s what… right there.
[why does Amanda find it when looking at 1968? It was 1967?]
[phew.. Joe Cutler had a fantastic pay rate.. Is he a hitman?! and Louis Carry worked for free lol!]
Lee: No wonder it was closed.
Amanda: What are all those little symbols?
[Invisible little symbols? I’m not seeing any symbols.. and the microfiche is on screen quite a while!]
Lee: The symbol right there means it was a secret fund file for Wet Operations. Some pretty heavy stuff. Dirty tricks; even political assassinations.
Amanda: The Agency?
Lee: No, I don’t think we ever got that far but, uh, in the ‘50s and ‘60s they had their share of coup d’états. Congress clamped down and that’s why I imagine 666 was closed down.
Amanda: Yeah, but I got a cheque written on it.
Lee: Yeah, and Lance got into it last night and disappeared right after. Why?
Amanda: I don’t know; I sure would like to know what he found out.
Lee: I’d like to know how he got in. Yeah, but no way. Lance was an original. You saw the way he worked—his mind was going 40 different directions at once. Girls, rock ‘n roll, megabytes, girls. [rofl! love how Lee repeats the girls ]
Amanda: Bananagrams.
Lee: Yeah.
Amanda: Bananagrams. Remember he said he thought “onion soup” was the answer to that Bananagram and then he wrote the word “guardian” on the little piece of paper. “Guardian” has eight letters.
[but guardian doesn’t have the same letters no? I thought they had to unscramble the letters that were in the tree? me confused.. but.. I’ll continue.. ]
Lee: And all the agency computer passwords are eight letters.
[Are they? good to know! makes it nice and easy to hack!]
Amanda: Here— scoot over a minute; let me just…let me see.
Lee moves scoots out of the way, so Amanda can input something on the computer next to the microfiche..
We see the following screen:
Amanda: Closed. OK. Guardian.
Amanda types in ‘Guardian’
The screen reads:
Amanda: We’re in.
We cut to Falkan at his desk.. just like with Lance, he sees the file has been accessed uh oh..
Falkan: Oh, damn.
Falkan types something.. then we see:
He types some more and then the screen reads:
USER LOCKED OUT
Falkan picks up his phone receiver and we cut back to Lee and Amanda..
Lee: We’re out.
Cut back to Falkan..
Falkan on the phone: Jepard? Falkan. I’m gonna need your services again.
Jepard (voice on the phone): I was told to back off; so were you. [Yeah I was kind of wondering about that myself!]
Falkan: They’re getting too close to home for that.
Jepard: Who is?
Falkan: Amanda King.
Whoa.. so this Falkan is acting on his own? What does he think the triumvirate will think of this when they already told him these sorts of actions are not acceptable without a vote?
Uh oh… Amanda’s in big trouble now!!! (bet she wishes she held on to that cheque I mean- she’s earning that $100,000 now!)
Okay all.. that’s it from me for now.. looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this section or the episode so far.. or heck.. the show so far!!!
"Just walk with me.." 
Awww, I’m so bummed to see everyone hating on Francine’s white outfit! Confession time: When I first saw this episode in or around 1990, I absolutely LOVED this ensemble — I thought it was beautiful! It was probably my favorite outfit of hers throughout the entire show. I also thought her curly hair was adorable. Basically, the whole ensemble reminded me of something Maddie Hayes would have worn in Moonlighting — my other favorite show of the 80s.
So even now, in my 2020 watch-through, as soon as Francine came on the screen in this get-up, I got all happy and was like, this is the one where Francine looks so pretty! LOL.
I agree with the comments about how beautiful Amanda’s hair and make-up look in this episode. I wish these late-Season-3 makeup artists could have kept her in this look for the rest of the series. Her hair color in particular is especially flattering, I think, as is the length. And I like the way it is pulled back with the barrettes.
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I love how effective Amanda is with the microfiche and computer. Lee can really see her as an asset and partner.
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Hey all…..am sooooooo behind on this episode. Life is just getting in the way of things.
Anyway I never understood how if the Agency was never responsible for wet operations why a) Lee would recognise those invisible symbols (that sort of stuff I imagine is well above his pay grade and hardly bandied about by the water cooler) and b) why it would appear in the Agency accounting records….did Lee not ever think it was a bit strange?
Amanda is looking gorgeous here. No wonder Lee had to take his jacket off….probably got hot under the collar 😉
Francine appears to be channelling her inner Dolly Parton. Only with smaller boobs lol
Urgh the Bananagram to Guardian leap is sooooo clunky….it spoils what would be a lovely little interaction between the two.
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Yep, Lee hot under the collar. Makes perfect sense. Our poor boy is a bitbedazzled. And this could explain why he makes some obvious mistakes in protocol. Love the Francine/Dolly comparison, LOL.
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Forgot to say that Amanda is looking absolutely beautiful in the close-ups in front of the computer. Whoever did her hair and make-up was fabulous. Lee’s looking mighty fine too, but he always looks mighty fine – even in a stripey tie 😉 This hair/make-up here is one of Amanda’s best of the series, IMHO.
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Agreed!!!!!! You’ve summed it up perfectly for me BJo!
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Lee, Lee, Lee!!! What were you thinking? You weren’t thinking. You were caught up in Amanda’s excitement and just let her use her account to log into the 666 account. This is one time Lee should have remembered he was the senior agent with all the training and not just jumped up to follow Amanda. We’ve not seen a computer in her house, so I’m guessing she may be unwise to the fact that TPTB can find out whoever accessed the account. Lee’s instincts should have told me something was up with trying to access that account given that Lance has disappeared.
I get that the word Guardian would have stuck out to Amanda on that paper because it is obviously not related to the Banagram and it was not written on the paper when Lee/Amanda saw it at Lance’s place. But her line that she uses to tell us she’s realized that – makes no sense at all. Either bad writing or no one caught it.
I have no idea what Francine is wearing. It’s too bad Amanda didn’t say her mother had one like it – when she went off for the weekend with Mr. Conrad.
Love Amanda’s energy and excitement. She’s besting Lee in that department. She is like a dog with a bone and she’s going to keep at it until she gnaws it clean.
And I am ashamed to admit it, but I completely forgot about Armin being Eagles. I’m hoping I knew it at one point and just forgot because I’ve not watched either episode in a very long time!
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good call BJo!
I’ll put down Lee and Amanda’s recklessness here to the idea that they don’t know yet that Lance is dead and maybe they don’t understand the full extent of the danger.. will that do?
BJo you had me laughing on the bus with this one – genius!! (evil genius) but.. genius!!! (I’m evil too 🙂 teee heeee!
No shame! You are just getting into the whole JWWM philosophy now you are not watching ahead 🙂
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Well, I’m not sure that I can completely let Lee off the hook just because he doesn’t know Lance isn’t dead. Not 24 hours after Lee asks Lance to take care of Amanda’s check, he is no where to be found. They find an 8 letter word on the only piece of paper in his trailer. And Amanda is involved (big clue right there – hahaha – ok, not really). Seriously though, I would expect Lee to know or maybe have been given some computer training, at least enough to know that TPTB can tell who’s accessed a system. Whether or not they know Lance is dead, I think he should not have been snooping around with Amanda’s computer ID. Especially not in an old covert/wet ops file. Amanda still only has a guest pass (sorry to remind you 😉 ) – hello? How is that not going to send up a big fat red flag?
The fact that he lets Amanda do the snooping with her ID and the way they are working together just shows how far they have come. Things have obviously changed for these two and how they trust and work together. Evidence of his changing view of her professionally.
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Hi everyone! Got to get into my work day here and I’ll be back later to read through all these lovely comments!!!
just quickly..
BJo wrote:
I agree with you 🙂 but I like to try in vain 🙂
I think it’s because the script has called for this major boo boo.. the plot requires it.. but I want to defend Lee’s professional abilities 🙂
What if Lee didn’t realise the true extent of the danger because it wasn’t until they accessed 666 that they knew it was (uh oh) wet operations and not (yawn) embezzlement like Eagles suggested it was?
Does that reduce the severity of Lee’s boo boo here? 🙂
Or.. Lee could have been assuming Amanda was signing in under his clearance (again 😉 ) tee hee!!
gotta run! byeeee!!!
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Yeah, I guess any of those scenarios could work if you really wanted them too 🙂 I think I’d rather think that Lee is thinking of Amanda more like a partner than a naive suburban housewife with a guest pass. If he’s thinking of her like a partner, he’s not as worried about her safety and security like he was before she had partner status in his mind.
Lee could have assumed Amanda was using his ID, but we see it plain as day on the screen that it is her ID. Maybe his eyes really are going cross-eyed 😉
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They also mention on a later ep that Lee isn’t as computer savvy as Amanda. It could be he doesn’t realize how traceable computer ID’s are or at least, that’s why the precaution isn’t first and foremost in his mind.
It’s like I never hid my diary for years growing up — just kept it in a drawer with my other notebooks until I decided it was more fun to have it in a secret place. But I also had no siblings and my parents were respectful of my privacy, so I had no reason to think about it. And it never occurred to Amanda or her neighbors (or many other people in that time) that keeping a spare key where anyone could find it wasn’t very smart.
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Oh BJo, did you have to choose that wording, “Senior agent?” Now all I can think of is Tony and his blasted “I’m the senior field agent” crowing every two seconds on NCIS. LOL
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I agree with Morley and Michele about Amanda and Lee working so well together. Things are just flowing and it’s nice to see them in this mode. There’s such a comfort zone there now. I think that Amanda looks very pretty in this pink.
I’m wondering if Francine was somewhere doing her “Happy Hooker” routine before she came into the office. That’s the only reason I can think of for wearing that outfit. Amanda’s in soft pink and Francine’s in harsh white.
Joe Cutler’s check was dated in December, maybe it was his Christmas bonus. I was just watching Beverly Hills Cop and the actor playing Karl played the police chief in it.
What’s the purpose of this Triumvirate meeting and voting if Falkan just unilaterally make decisions. Whatever he plans is just going to raise more questions and cause more and deeper digging.
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I was laughing away when I read this Valerie – good call! Kapow!! 🙂
Whoooo that must be it! Christmas bonus! Umm.. does that mean Amanda’s $100 000 was a Christmas bonus too? cos it should be!!! 🙂
Yep! So true… and there were no consequences for Falkan that he didn’t get the vote- not even a really severe talking too IMHO 🙂
The triumvirate doesn’t seem to have the expertise to carry off their plans! too dopey!!
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Some lovely screen capping here -:)
Nice catch on Armin (or Our Man) holding a second job in the agency. I didn’t cop on to that at all and have seen both episodes many times. (I did recognise the Saved by the Bells villain when he re appeared as an inept hit man in Playing for Keeps so I can notice things )
It is hard to believe that any one could have a slush account numbered 666- or that they wouldn’t change the password after Lance had accessed it. But the personal and professional rapport between Lee and Amanda more than makes up for my annoyance that the baddies are so stupid.
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Agree about not changing the password – I guess they just assumed Lance was the only one with knowledge of it, and that knowledge died with him. I would still be inclined to change the password but then maybe changing passwords is something that the Agency IT Department checks on, so maybe the baddies decided to leave well enough alone and no raise any further suspicions.
I think she is due for a quiet overnighter in the fashon police cells. 😎
The worse issue is that all the Agency passwords are 8 characters long – ummm, wouldn’t a baddie hacking into the agency computer system be able to uncover all the passwords pretty quickly with an simple algorithm? I’m not techy enough to know the in’s and out’s of such a scheme, but it seems a bit ludicrous to have a set number of characters for passwords.
I’m surprised Lee let Amanda check out the guardian password using her own log-in. That would place her in the same danger that Lance was obviously in when he accessed the secret file. But maybe he wasn’t quick enough to pick up on what she was doing before she had typed in the info.
Francine looks like she has been out at an evening soiree – undercover? In any event, her outfit is more evening than work-a-day. For me it’s the hair that warrants the arrest – and the wide eyed crazy-lady look isn’t helping.
Meanwhile, Lee needs to lose that jacket and Amanda needs to retire that cardigan. I have a feeling we will be seeing both again in the future though… sigh. (Lee should have hung onto the jacket he was wearing in Dodger.
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Your comment made me think of a question… Does Lee know that anyone else has died beside the returned agent killed by the beer kegs. I can’t remember if he is aware that there is a connection between Amanda’s incorrect check and anything else. Well, other than the fact that there is always a connection and he should know that by now, hehe.
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In the beginning of this, Lee says, “Until we find Lance,” and Billy counters with “IF we find him…” Billy’s less optimistic, but Lee seems to know Lance better (???). Not sure if that makes a difference or not. So maybe Lee tries to stay hopeful, but I think reality sets in when he sees the types of activities on the computer (i.e., secret fund file for wet operations, etc…). That’s when he realizes it (and that Amanda’s in danger.)
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ah! I just replied to Morley regarding whether Lee thought Lance had run off. See my response to her Sara 🙂
I think Lee is worried for him and thinks something has happened to him
– I guess that could be Lance had run off to get out of danger or Lance had no escaped the danger..
But yep! agree nothing like a bit of wet operations to instil fear!
Yeah I think Amanda just logged in not realising the possible risk.. and Lee wasn’t able to realise and what she was doing and stop her in time.. Oh boy!
Back to work for me!
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Yeah, I agree with you, Morley and BJo. Lee should have caught on and stopped her in time. No way to defend our boy on this one, (darn those dimples, though.) 😉
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Yeah.. true! Though I’ll still make excuses for him 🙂
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Exactly! Lee should know better than to introduce an agency asset to Amanda and one of her random problems – they are usually a whole lot of trouble 😉
Lee knows there is a connection with the incorrect check yes and I think at this point Lee knows Lance is in some kind of trouble – because he found his mobile office/home tossed over – someone was looking for something.. and his computer had been erased..
He accessed 666 then was booted out.. and then Karl comes in and suggests embezzling.. could Lance be a part of it? It’s implied by Karl I think.. but if he was booted out it doesn’t sound like Lance is a part of any embezzling..
I think Lance and the cheque are already connected, because he accessed file 666 and was then booted out.
I think! 🙂 But! At this point they have no idea where Lance is and if he is okay..
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…Although Lee did switch into the past tense when talking about Lance: “Lance was an original.” It always struck me as slightly odd, makes we wonder if BB twisted the line up by accident. It seems premature to assume him dead, even if Billy is being pessimistic.
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Whooo raffie!!! this is a super clever catch!!!
There’s only one thing in can mean.. Lee killed Lance!!! 😉 No? Errr No. Yeah might be a fluffed line.. maybe they changed the order of how the episode unfolds.. it would make sense for them to think Lance had found the answer if he had already turned up dead.. anyone checking out the script- Is there any clues for us?
I hope you are all well.. I’ve had a massive day and the brain needs a break so sadly, not going to get to read all comments today – I’ll look forward to exploring them tomorrow – bye!
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Lee killed Lance, LOL! Put me in the club of those who need to be careful while reading these posts over breakfast 🙂
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Good catch, Raffie! That slipped passed me too. It could be scripted that way or else like you said, BB missed the line (I’d rather blame the writers than BB. 😉
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Yep!! silly agency! What I find even more ridiculous is that the 8 character password was a word! an actual word! and not something like: “A8gei3x0” !!!!!
The both look so gorgeous I can’t really mind the jacket.. nor the cardigan.. at least the cardy is pink. I love Amanda in pink.
And Lee’s jacket I don’t mind – I’d rather this that the vinyl ones!! lol!! Their a fire hazard 😉
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At least the password wasn’t ‘password’ which is also 8 letters. 😉
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Thanks Michele!
-great point!!! lol.. it is a bit of give away huh.. and yeah! why didn’t they change the password? too hard to come up with another word that’s 8 letters?
If that Bananagram was 8 letters I’d swear that’s how the agency comes up with new ideas for passwords.. there must be such a need for all words with 8 letters in it there! lol!!
Loved this 🙂 Personal and professional is spot on 🙂 and it definitely makes up for any annoyances 🙂
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MMMMM. Lee can scoot over to me anytime. He’s looking mighty fine. 🙂 And it’s really nice to know that the U.S. has not been interfering in other countries’ governments since account 666 was closed in 1967. cough
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I posted something on Ned’s about espionage and assassination. The CIA started attempting to assassinate Fidel Castro in the 1960s. More than 50 years later, the guy is still alive and about to turn 90. >.>
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whooo I’ll get over there when I can Jestress! .. life’s been suspiciously busy! I’ve gotta stop saying I’m not going to be busy – I jinx myself!
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rofl!!!! this cracked me up Cindy..
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I like Lee and Amanda working together like this. Lee with his jacket off and letting Amanda be the one doing the computer work. Maybe after her research in Pharaoh’s Engineer he knows that she is the better one at this stuff. I like the way their brains are working together. I never understood the bananagram and Amanda’s lightening intuitive leap to guardian, but , whatever. I sure do like how how Lee is leaning over her to look at the computer screen. And I also appreciate how easily and completely Lee explains things to Amanda about the Agency, and the history of wet operations etc.He does that often now a days. he never begrudges Amanda’s lack of knowledge about things he just fills in the blanks whenever she gives him that question mark look and I think it is important to him that she have the same info that he does.
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I took that bananagram to guardian leap as just Lance’s mind multi-tasking. Lee does say that Lance’s mind goes in 40 different directions (with girls taking up probably half those directions). “Guardian” may have jumped out at Amanda because she couldn’t figure out how it factored into the bananagram. Obviously it doesn’t because of the letters. Now I get why both Lance and Dottie were working on it. It’s not the puzzle itself, just a way for Amanda to be a witness to both and then figure out that guardian would be the password.
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I agree fully, I think you have nailed it.
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Yep.. just another one of those random smk connections that help the plot along 🙂
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Loved this Morley!!! Soooo true 🙂 It’s a delight to see how far Lee has come – I think he is finding it a wonderful freedom to have Amanda as his equal partner – someone he can share anything with and not have to worry.. Hmm I don’t think Lee may have had that ever ( well okay maybe if you include Little Lee aged less than 6 years!)
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