Time to head to the sports stadium for the big meeting.. 
I do not remember how this plays out at all!
I guess Billy is meeting Lee here.. but I’m a little confused about what Rostov is doing..
But whatever Rostov is doing, it seems Sonja will have told Alexi, so he’ll be gate crashing at some point.
Hopefully Sonja is on plane to Montevideo!
Amanda is watching on from a perch.. [her hair is suddenly shorter! 
]
Through her binoculars she sees Lee. 
Amanda: Back up into the shadows, you’ve got no cover.
(We see Lee follow her directions. He ducks back under the seating.)
Lee: How’s that?
Amanda: Better.
Amanda: I’ve got Rostov to your left.
[Amanda’s hair has grown again Ah okay, so Rostov is here to collect Lee.. I have no idea what Lee plans to do with Rostov! but.. I’m along for the fun ride! ]
(Through Amanda’s binoculars, we see her scan the stadium.. Rostov has brought his team)
[lol what’s with the guns being aimed?!]
Amanda: Two men with him, at the top of the bleachers.
[Are they aiming at Lee?]
Lee: Yeah, I see ‘em. Alexi?
Amanda: Not yet. Or Billy, or Francine.
[oh? Francine is going to participate?]
Lee: Well, maybe they’re dug in down here somewhere. 
(Lee comes out from his cover.)
Lee: Right, here I go. You see Alexi, sing out.
Amanda: Loud and long. Good luck. 
I’m going to rely on KC’s description of the events here.. big thanks to KC for writing this description for Operation Sandstorm!
Lee steps out from concealment and walks in front of bleachers. 
Rostov also starts walking.
Billy, holding a revolver, walks ahead of Francine. 
(they sneak up on Rostov’s back up)
Billy holds one finger up, then two, and starts walking towards Rostov’s men, revolver aimed in front of him.
Francine gets into a shooting stance, pistol held in front of her, covering Billy. Billy quietly approaches the two men, then waves a hand behind his back. Francine quietly runs up to join him. 
Rostov walks onto the grass. Lee and Rostov approach each other. Rostov’s two men are both aiming their guns toward the grassed area. Lee and Rostov stop, facing each other.)
-thanks again for the description KC..
Rostov: No sign of our friend.
Lee: You made sure he knew?
Rostov: I somehow doubt Alexi’s coming. Perhaps you should allow us to chaperone you to safety.
[ohhh so Lee’s agreement with Rostov was for Alexi to come huh. And Rostov has played a game within the game – double crossing Lee.. or at least, trying to! So Rostov plans to take Lee into custody forcibly huh.. thus the two KGB agents with guns drawn. Errr I think? anyone? ]
Rostov: My men have guns aimed at you, so… let’s keep this pleasant. All right?
(Right on cue- Billy and Francine approach the guns aimed at Lee and put them out of the game!)
Billy: Put the gun down… slowly.
Lee calmly takes his own gun out of his waistband and points it at Rostov.
Lee yells: Thanks, Billy…
…Take a look around, I got a bad feeling about this.
(Rostov looks up and to the side. Sonja appears on scaffolding above the stadium holding a gun.)
Amanda: I’m looking.
(Alexi is hiding under scaffolding, aiming a rifle. At who I don’t know.. Lee maybe?
Sonja jumps down onto the platform beside Amanda.
But Amanda is super fast – she whirls around, knocking the gun out of Sonja’s hand. (we must have a woman fight a woman!)
We see Lee look up at this fight in the distance. This means Alexi has arrived too.. Sonja pouncing on Amanda kind of announces his arrival no?! 
Alexi starts shooting at Lee from his perch, and Lee dives for cover.
That Rostov is like Yoda – for an old guy, he can really move!!!
Whoa.. did Rostov just get shot?!
We cut back to Amanda pulling her own gun on Sonja. Looks like Sonja’s is behind Amanda on the ground. 
[It’s going to take some getting use to seeing this action woman Amanda!!! I do remember the first time I wrote about this episode commenting that- Hoorah! That Charlie’s Angels training has really come in handy!!!]
(Sonja turns back to Amanda and finds herself at gunpoint.)
[Is there a Hollywood sign on that mountain behind her??? I wish..
Hip Hip Hooray!!! Girl, you should have flown off to Montevideo! You don’t want to mess with Amanda – she had to listen to you eating her man alive every night for a week – do not give her a reason to shoot you!!]
Amanda: Lee, I’ve got Sonja.
Okay – going back to KC’s description of events here. Thanks again KC!
(Lee crawls behind a greens keeping machine. [looks like his earphone wasn’t in his ear after he dived – does he know Amanda has Sonja under control?]
He pulls his radio out of his pocket and throws it and the earpiece and microphone away. [why? I don’t know why he had to do that..]
He pulls himself into a crouch behind the machine, holding his pistol ready, 
and looks up into the bleachers.
Alexi fires again.
Lee fires back, twice, then runs off the field. Alexi fires again. Lee jumps into the bleachers.
[make that stunt Lee! with hair much darker than Lee’s!] Alexi reloads. 
– Lee shoots and runs.. Alexi fires and reloads.. and this goes on for a bit.. [rah rah..]
Lee climbs up a metal stairway, then a wall-mounted metal ladder. 
[hey kudos to BB for doing that high climb up the ladder himself! I’m guessing BB is not afraid of heights!]
Lee walks onto a roof. Alexi moves away from the lights, running along a roof, now holding a pistol. Lee aims and fires. 
Alexi flattens himself against a wall, 
then runs around behind it opens a door marked “Fire EXIT” and runs through. Lee runs toward the door. Alexi comes out of another doorway, inside, into an announcers’ box. 
Lee approaches the fire exit door slowly, pistol extended in front of him.
Alexi looks around the announcers box. Lee kicks in the exterior door then ducks. Alexi looks towards the interior door, then backs away sideways, pistol held ready. 
Lee enters through the exterior door then opens the interior door and looks around. He kicks a rubbish bin just inside the door [and quickly takes cover]. 
Alexi fires toward the noise then pulls back.
Lee jumps forward from the doorway, fires, then ducks around the wall. He replaces his pistol clip… and is ready should Alexi come around the corner..
Thanks again for the action descriptions KC!
Apologies for cutting this action finale in half.. but it’s far too long to put in one blog post (and IMHO just plain far too long haa). Anyone else feel the same way? Any thoughts you’d like to share so far?! As this is rather drawn out.. I’ll publish this post and the next tomorrow in quick succession so this action sequence doesn’t drag on…
"Just walk with me.." 
In my comment on the grocery store scene in Stemwinder Part 1, I expressed my conviction that Francine has been as much on Lee and Amanda’s side as Billy during this entire debacle. While both she and Billy were confused early on about some of Lee’s and Amanda’s actions and Amanda’s evasiveness, neither would have actually believed that Lee and Amanda are murderers and traitors. No way. These four have worked as a team so many times over the last three years – there is a tremendous amount of history and trust there. That’s why I also think that when Lee said, “I trust you, Billy,” he was implicitly referring to Billy and Francine.
I think it is quite noteworthy that when Amanda is scanning the stadium with binoculars for people that may be lying in wait, she tells Lee she doesn’t see Alexi, “yet.” “Or Billy or Francine.”
Amanda is fully expecting to see not just Billy, but Francine too – even though the only contact Lee has had with them is the encrypted message that he delivered to Billy on the telephone, indicating that today’s events would be going down at the stadium. I suppose the message could have included a request to “bring Francine with you.” More likely, I think Lee and Amanda just naturally assumed that Billy and Francine would come together. It doesn’t really matter. Whichever way you cut it, Lee and Amanda expected Francine would be there to support them and they trusted her to help them, the same as they trusted Billy. She’s not going to rat out their plan to Dr. Smyth or anything like that. She will support them without question.
I guess I felt compelled to point this out because I think Francine has been subjected to some overly harsh criticism over this two-part episode, especially when compared to Billy. I myself did not see any major divergence between Billy’s and Francine’s attitudes or their treatment of Lee and Amanda during this time period. To be fair, I should also acknowledge that I am deeply fond of the character of Francine, so I tend to see the best in her and am rather forgiving of her flaws.
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I gotta be honest – I kinda wanted to get to see Amanda whack Sonja over the head with something or neutralize her in some other painful way. I certainly would have wanted to after having to listen to her with Lee for seven nights!!
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It doesn’t dawn on me until this post that there is very little action in this episode! Lots of dialogue with this more complex plot. So I guess that’s why the extra long action sequence. I feel like some of the action we do see in both Stems (this sequence maybe not so much) has a lot more of the actual actors doing the stunt work (KJ & BB running earlier, BB on the slow lift, etc) which is cool to see.
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I always like it when they’re outside, makes it seem more real somehow. At least we didn’t have to deal with seeing Mancine this time. Love that Amanda got in on some of the action. I often wondered if Lee had heard Amanda and agree that he probably didn’t know. Now that all the peripheral players have been neutralized it’s down to the two foes. They’re having their own version of the Peacock Dance…the Stadium variation.
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About the hair thing… At a distance, I just assumed KJ’s hair got tucked into her collar for a moment, then someone on the set crew came out and fixed it. With hair that length, I’m sure it happens a lot. I’m sure they could have stuck someone else in too.
I love when Amanda takes down Sonja. Yes, go Amanda! I think it would have been more fun if she had Alexi and Sonja both, then Lee shows up and takes down Alexi.
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This is a segment that actually looks much better via multiple screen caps than it does on TV. It would be at this point that I’d pop out to get myself a cup of tea/take down some washing/ do a few dishes. The big positives for me are:
1) Lee, looking great in his jeans and jumper (not so sure about those shoes though
2) Amanda, pointing the gun at Sonja. Go, Girl!!!
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Oh yea, Lee is looking mighty fine here! And Go AMANDA!
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“Amanda is watching on from a perch.. [her hair is suddenly shorter! …
Amanda’s hair has grown again”
Great catch, iwsod! The first screen shot of Amanda with collar-length hair must be the stand-in Amanda — she has longer forearms, too. The next screen shots are KJ’s Amanda with shoulder-length hair and shorter forearms.
“He pulls his radio out of his pocket and throws it and the earpiece and microphone away. [why? I don’t know why he had to do that..]”
Now that Alexi is on-the-scene, I think Lee wants both ears open and no radio transmission distractions: 100% focus on “The Sorcerer!” Alexi, initially, was using a rifle that’s superior for long distance shots, but does not have rapid-fire capabilities. Lee used the time in between rifle blasts to run out in the open toward a better position. Looks like Lee has a Glock 17 (a new technology design semi-automatic made in Austria and first marketed in 1982).
I doubt Lee heard Amanda say she’s got Sonja, but he knows Rostov and 2 other KGB agents are in custody. Without a rifle, which is heavy and unwieldy to handle accurately for most women, Sonja isn’t a viable concern compared to Alexi.
“hey kudos to BB for doing that high climb up the ladder himself! I’m guessing BB is not afraid of heights!”
Might I add that he looks so young (great skin) and so yummy (great physique) outside on that ladder with the green field background — intense, too!
No worries, iwsod, close up screen shots of Lee in action never seem too long or drawn out to me! 😉
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Thanks for the fire arm lesson. I learn something new everyday.
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I was surprised they let BB do the ladder but not the climb up the stadium, which didn’t look all that dangerous. (Maybe I’m wrong, but it looked like a stuntman when we see Alexei shooting at Lee climbing the stadium seats).
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Bye guys – I’ll be back online in about a week.. and if you need anything contact the mods 🙂 [thanks Learjet and BJo!]
blog posts are schedule to continue to publish as we come to the end of the massive two parter so don’t worry there won’t be delays. bye!
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Hi Everyone – I know my comments show up in fits and spurts, but I am in the background checking the blog for pending comments and any other issues – especially when iwsod is away. Enjoy your break from the net, iwsod!
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