From Amanda visiting with Zhmed, we cut to outside in the ward’s front desk.. We see a man in a suit walking past the nurses’ station. [Janet identifies this man as Sasha. Ohhh this is that guy who silently watched the two baddies argue back at the Russian Cumberland hotel. Same tie.. Same day?!]
He helps himself to a chart from the rack, opens it, finds what he’s looking for and walks on taking the chart with him. 
[Honestly – the privacy and confidentiality practices in this hospital are atrocious! 
]
Cutting back to Zhmed’s room.. Uh oh.. Amanda has the family photos out!
Amanda: The little one on the left with the Hollywood shirt is Jamie and then the one on the right with the big glasses is Philip.
(She hands the photo to Zhmed and we see a close up)
[Ugh.. this is her family. Me no like to see Joe in the picture and not Lee!! 😉
‘little one’?! LOL.
Oh hey –what did she say? the one on the right is Phillip with the big glasses? oh rofl! what’s this?? The glasses are on the left, and.. Jamie is the one who wears glasses.. as done since ATWAS so his mother ought to know haaaaa! I guess Amanda could have switched the names for security reasons haaaaa but then why not give them false names?! hilarious!!
Actually, from the clearest image I could get of the photo before we see the close up – it looks to me like there are only two people in the photo – One last thought – lol at calling them ‘big’ glasses, whoever they are on! 
]
Zhmed: Very handsome boys.
(As Amanda responds, Zhmed turns over the photo to read the back)
Amanda: Well thank you, they look like Joe. That’s their father.
[Meh. I preferred when he lived OS! Amanda in saying this is saying Joe is handsome. Meh! Maybe she needs big glasses. lol. I’m just kidding and regressing back to an 8 year old’s level of maturity don’t mind me 😉 ]
(Amanda takes back the photo)
Amanda: Do you have any children? 
Zhmed: Not but when I do get married, I hope to have strong handsome boys just like yours. 
Amanda: Aww thanks so much.
(Just then, in saunters Sasha..)
Sasha: Hi there. Mr. Stringell, I’m Ron Landers from the hospital business office…
(Zhmed’s smile fades…. Sasha has an American accent)
…Your embassy has agreed to cover our financial guarantees. I just need a few signatures. 
Amanda: I’ll get out of your way. See you later Mr. Stringell. Mr.…Landers.
(Amanda gives them a nod farewell and wheels her trolley out of the room.
She parks herself right outside Zhmed’s room…) 
[lol at the suddenly crowded with staff front desk there behind her!]
(From where Amanda is standing we hear Zhmed speak in Russian.)
[Anyone able to translate what he says?!
He says a few things..]
(The camera pans down and we find Amanda turning up the volume on her tape recorder.) 
[Whoooo she was probably taping that whole conversation! clever girl I hope we hear what Zhmed said in Russian once it’s translated.]
(She hides the recorder in the flowers by Zhmed’s door and we hear Mr Landers aka Sasha answer Zhmed in English.)
Sasha: Speak English. Always. I’ve made arrangements for you to be released. Go to the hotel and wait to be contacted.
(As Sasha spoke, we saw Amanda walk away leaving the tape recorder).
We cut to inside the room. Zhmed has retrieved his clothes from the closet with Sasha’s help.) 
[Zhmed looks totally crestfallen!] 
(He doesn’t answer Sasha.. and Sasha leaves. Zhmed seems frozen in place.)
uh oh!!!!! He’s so close to getting the help he wants and needs from Amanda! But.. how to bridge that gap?
Hope Zhmed doesn’t forget his candy bars! lol.. but then again he does have a fantastic memory huh.. but.. maybe it’s not that kind of memory he is great at
Moving on.. elsewhere in the hospital, Amanda walks through a door. 
She walks to a payphone and inserts a coin.. she dials a number, looks up and sees Sasha/Mr Ron Landers walking toward/by her.. they exchange smiles. 
The moment Amanda’s back is turned Mr Landers’ smile vanishes. whoooo he’s bad! He’s really really bad! 
Once he’s beyond her, she turns to watch him. Still waiting to place that call. 
The scene ends here.
How wonderful is it to see Amanda on the job, independent and doin great?!
Any thoughts you’d like to share everyone?
"Just walk with me.." 
Amanda’s glowing at this point of the series, IMO. I adore seeing her growth and confidence and honing her ability. She is relaxed, yet professional in her approach. It’s really such a great character development.
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Oh, the days when hospital privacy was only an “on your honor” thing. Thank goodness we now have HIPAA laws in the US – makes it oh so much better….
Mr. Landers looks familiar. Surely we’ve seen him before. I just can’t place him. Anyone know?
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I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the guy playing Landers was the chef/comedian Richie in the movie Flashdance. But I was just watching When Harry Met Sally and he’s a minor character in that movie as well.
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That pay phone is so outdated. I can’t even remember when I saw one last. The actor playing Sasha was the fry cook/comedian in Flashdance. He was such a goof in that movie and so serious here.
I blame the continuity people for the picture. I don’t even see a Hollywood shirt. Not even sure why Amanda would have a picture, maybe as part of her cover and the interrogation. Technically, Amanda didn’t really call Joe handsome, she just said the boys look like their father. But the the whole picture thing is kind of odd.
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Jamie is Jamie and Phillip is also Jamie??? {Learjet is very confused} Also find the inclusion of Joe and Amanda’s mention of him very irritating. Why was this necessary? And how can she imply that Joe is attractive when she’s got Lee???
It’s good to see Amanda on a job. But life must be so much easier for the spy when you have a mobile phone, instead of constantly hunting for callboxes. I wonder if learning the location of all the callboxes in DC is part of an agent’s training?
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“Jamie is Jamie and Phillip is also Jamie??? {Learjet is very confused}”
This particular confusion is VERY confusing — contagious, too! We’ve all caught it. Maybe the continuity person let the boys pull a prank? Both Amanda and Kate surely know who’s who unless this is some Class C mandatory diversionary tactic. Phillip’s never worn sunglasses in an episode that I can recall! Did notice that Phillip’s got a closed-mouth smile so maybe he got Jamie’s braces, too!
“Also find the inclusion of Joe and Amanda’s mention of him very irritating. Why was this necessary?”
It’s a mystery to me. They’ve been divorced for a while. Maybe it’s the most recent photo of Phillip and Jamie? STILL doesn’t sit well with me.
“And how can she imply that Joe is attractive when she’s got Lee???”
Yep, this is another unsolved mystery case for the Q Bureau to solve!
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I agree, what Amanda says here is very confusing, and it seems almost like a betrayal for her to just whip out a photo of Joe – even if it is with her kids. But I’m guessing once she got her assignment, she went home to get her cover outfit and grabbed a few props from home to use as part of her cover during the interrogation. She can’t show a picture of Lee with her boys – she doesn’t have one 😀 Plus she probably shouldn’t be using a photo with the top US agent in it anyway. I prefer to think of this whole discussion as a complete cover on Amanda’s part even though it is a photo of real people she knows.
Good call on the callboxes! lol I bet spies just love cellphones!
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I thought Amanda was going to offer him a chubby wubby bar or whatever she offered Lee in ITCK.
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Now THAT would have been hysterical! 😀
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“He helps himself to a chart from the rack, opens it, finds what he’s looking for and walks on taking the chart with him. [Honestly – the privacy and confidentiality practices in this hospital are atrocious!]”
In the Season 1 episode with the loooong title (IANNNHIEB…A Spy) when Amanda had partial amnesia, didn’t Lee Stetson pull a similar stunt? IIRC, Lee told the nurse he’s Mrs. King’s private physician to gain access to her. It seems intelligence operatives just do whatever it takes to get what they need. Lee succeeded on good looks and charm. Sasha/Ron Landers has neither good looks nor charm to his advantage, so he resorts to theft.
Mega kudos to Amanda for donning her Bedside Bluebell disguise before beginning her Class C interrogation of the phony Finn.
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LOL, I am hoping the privacy laws were a little better IRL back then, but who knows?
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Nowadays nurses and technicians have electronic devices and scan the patient’s plastic bracelet and scan the code on the meds, vital signs, physical therapy, etc. Back in the mid-1980’s, there was paperwork on a clipboard at the foot of my bed and nurses/doctors/technicians wrote stuff down. At least, that was true when I had surgery then. My friends would visit and grab the chart for a look, but it was impossible to decipher much of the doctors’ notorious chicken scratch. So they’d teasingly make up a dire diagnosis or the need for a ludicrous test. Aside from being hacked, today’s technology seems to offer better privacy and accuracy in the administration of meds.
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Plus there’s that little thing called HIPAA which results in significant fines for the person who breaks it. That’s the driver behind the need for technology to help ensure privacy where possible.
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