8/15 Season Four Episode Four: No Thanks for the Memory

Sooooo what’s going to happen to Zhmed? Do we care? Amanda cares.. and Lee wants to catch Tolst, so I guess I can sort care!
Moving on we see an exterior of an old building.. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001413179
The building is the Hotel Edison. Have we seen this before?
The shot pans down to the street..
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Across the street.. there’s a water truck..
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Inside.. Francine is doing surveillance. LOL Love how the sign outside had said ‘men working’ – ha! I guess women didn’t do that work huh?! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001429896
Francine: The KGB’s got the subject’s room bugged to the teeth. I got a line on their frequency.
The shot widens and we see Amanda and Lee are doing the surveillance too. Looks like Amanda is getting a turn with the camera (maybe some training?).4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001433566
Amanda: Why didn’t the Soviets just hide Zhmed in their Embassy?
Lee: Well, knowing Tolst,..  4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001438905
…the hotel just might be a temporary holding place…
[How does he know Tolst that well?]
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…The back-up team are prepared to follow if Zhmed is moved.
(We see Zhmed walking down street.)
Lee: Here he comes. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001447747
(Zhmed walks towards the entrance of hotel. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001449582
Sasha appears and grabs his arm, starts pushing him in a different direction.)
Sasha: Not that one. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001455922
Zhmed: This is my hotel. I have orders! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001456923
(Amanda snaps away good to see that photojournalism study coming in handy 😉 except when the plot requires her to be clueless of course.. )
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Sasha: New orders.
(A limousine pulls up and rear door opens. Sasha pushes Zhmed into the backseat. Zhmed looks over to see Tolst pointing a gun at him.)4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001465098
Tolst: You’ve got sixty seconds to account for the last six hours…  4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001467600
(Chick. chick. Tolst’s gun is ready to fire!)
…Starting now. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001473440
[ Or Tolst says you’re toast!]
(The limo drives off..)4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001473940

It’s action stations.4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001480280
Francine: They’re on their way. Okay, two surveillance teams are following the limo. They’re headed in the direction of the Russian Embassy. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001486953
Lee and Amanda leave the truck..
Lee: Alright, let’s get moving. Zhmed’s on his own now. Amanda: Right.

Looks like Zhmed has been taken to the Cumberland hotel..4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001490457Sasha: You’re damn lucky Captain Tolst is going to let you go ahead instead of using you for target practice.
[Captain? I would have thought he would be higher ranking, but whatev].
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(Sasha walks in carrying a box)
[whoooo sexy knitted vest Sasha! haa]
Zhmed flatly: I’m very grateful.
(Zhmed sits at a table, there is a two way mirror observing them..) 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001502135
Sasha: Some people from the Finnish embassy may be in touch, so go to your hotel, as a normal tourist. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001505472
Zhmed: Please I’m just trying to do the best job I can. But I don’t know what is expected of me. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001507140
(The next thing we know.. we see Tolst talking..)
Tolst: Tomorrow afternoon I’ll show you some classified files being transferred from one government building to another. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001516483[The shot widens and we see that Tolst is talking to Zhmed through the mirror- confusing!]4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001516983
…The material will be similar to what’s in the box in front of you.
Tolst: I want you to practice opening the file and finding the material. You’re to memorize the charts on the lower half of the third page… 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001524324
…You’ll only have ninety seconds to memorize thirty charts… 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001527327
…You can go back to your hotel in an hour. And remember, you’re a tourist. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001531331
…Practice makes perfect.

[Oh goody.. lets watch the amazing Zhmed flatly flick through pages.. the pretty knitted vest and weird set up with the mirror can’t save this. Yawn!!!
soooo what’s all this about.. There was something about having ‘looking Glass safely inside Cuban airspace’ and having ‘America’s strategic command and control system’ knocked out….. and getting their hands on ‘Air Force documents’ … yeah.. no.. still not very interesting to me! If it’s charts – how can it be better for Zhmed to memorise them than to just take a photo? lol. I’ll try and hang in there maybe there is a rhyme to this reason that’s just not clear yet. ]

The scene ends here.. and it’s back to the Hotel Edison, where the water truck is still around, Francine is at the camera, and we saw Amanda’s station wagon too.. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001550016

Francine: The rooster’s on the walk. Two mother hens in tow. Sector five, look for the egg to drop.
[cluck cluck!!!!!!!! Brace yourselves: we are about to see a miracle! A rooster is about to drop an egg!!! Winking smile rofl!!!!]

I’ll go with Janet’s description of the next sequence:
Zhmed sits on a bus bench, taking bites of popcorn from bag.4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001564197 Two heavies watch from nearby doorway. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001565365
Amanda, dressed as meter maid, is watching from further down the street. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001566366
We see a truck with trolleys pull up and back up toward Zhmed.4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001571037
We see Sasha arrive coming from opposite direction. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001572205
Another shot of the truck with trolleys coming to a stop. [Did you guys notice this truck with trolleys??!!!]
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Zhmed slips something from his pocket4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001575542 into the popcorn bag.4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001578211 [Blind Freddy would not have missed this!]
Lee, in coveralls, gets out of truck and starts to walk towards the cart behind the bench. [I gotta say, Lee looks like an agent dressed up as a trolley guy here, he just looks too darn good lookin]4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001581715 Zhmed hurriedly and clumsily throws the bag of popcorn 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001583717
into the bag in the cart.  4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001584217
First heavy pulls some kind of device from his pocket and pulls tab to activate it 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001585051
Heavy: He’s passing something! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001587387
Sasha watches on.. Lee approaches the trolley with the dropped egg in it Winking smile 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001588054
A heavy tosses his device into bag. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001588722
Lee races up to bag but as he reaches in to grab Zhmed’s message, device ignites, blasting smoke and fire into his face.
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Sasha in voice over: We warned you not to make contact with the Americans! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001592726
Soviets bundling Zhmed into a pickup truck.
[lol they stole Lee’s truck?! thanks for the description Janet! (aka Clagjanet!)]
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Lee (on walkie talkie): This is sector five – it’s a bust. I repeat it’s a bust! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001595962
Amanda rushes over with a fire extinguisher and hands it to Lee.
[I love that she’s concerned to get the message.. such a pro! ]
Amanda: Here! Are you alright?
Lee: Yeah, I’m alright, I’m alright. Follow Zhmed!
Amanda: Yeah! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001606139
Amanda runs back to her parking cop truck to pursue the pick up.. Lee finally attends to the fire..
Squealing tyres… Amanda continues her pursuit…. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001623823
we cut to some delivery men offloading a truck. we randomly see them put a piano on the side of the road. lol. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001631664
A baddie starts pushing trolleys/carts off the back of the truck.. Umm trolleys aren’t a problem, why swerve? Just keep going? 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001647847
Whatev. Amanda swerves around each one 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001658191
until she loses control and makes not so sweet music crashing into the random piano. 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001660527
Love the random piano notes at the end here as we see Amanda’s uh oh face! 4.04 NO THANKS FOR THE MEMORY.avi_001666032
The scene ends here.. Someone give Amanda  a parking ticket! Old SMK would have totally had a gag here of someone running out and yelling at her for her driving (and the parking ticket they got yesterday!).

Well seeing Amanda undercover and part of this operation was fun! Were Lee and Amanda the mother hens? I think the egg that got dropped is well and truly fried – will be wonderful with some Tolst Toast!

Okay I’m going to pause here while I get my head around this debacle – is it just me or was this all a pretty lame idea?! They knew what Sasha looked like, and yet they didn’t see him standing right there keeping a close eye on Zhmed? eh???!!! Thoughts everyone?

28 thoughts on “8/15 Season Four Episode Four: No Thanks for the Memory”

  1. Ugh – Amanda crashing into the piano and then making that uh oh face! It is more farce than funny to me. I see it as a stark contrast to how Amanda has been elevated during the discussions in this episode. I’m sure it’s just meant to remind us that Amanda is a housewife turned spy with no formal training, but I just find the contrast off putting.

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  2. Since Zhmed was able to memorize the codes so quickly, maybe they should have spent some time working with him on how to pass the messages without getting caught. How obvious could you be? It’s almost like they wanted him to get caught.

    Instead of Lee just telling Amanda that Zhmed is coming, he touches her gently as well. They can’t not touch each other.

    In looking at the comments for these last couple of posts about how serious this season has become I wonder if it wasn’t a reaction to the reception of the debut of Miami Vice. In “Unfinished Business” Lee referred to someone as Don Johnson in a negative kind of way. The shows weren’t on at the same time, but they were on the same day (Friday) for a while. And I remember that Miami Vice became must see TV. It was flashy, gritty, more dramatic, and certainly caused a change in television. The surveillance in SMK was certainly more subtle that Stan and Zito in Miami Vice.

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  3. As I type this, Minijet 2 is playing our piano. And I’m flinching thinking of our piano getting the same treatment that Amanda gave the poor, unsuspecting piano left on the side of the road. An expensive piece of out of control driving, Amanda. Back to Station one for more advanced driving lessons…

    Aren’t you suppposed to dress inconspiciously when you’re on surveillance. As stated previously, Francine looks like Mother Christmas or some huge Christmas decoration. She sticks out like a flashing neon light in the countryside. As for the rest, I’m struggling to stay awake. Iwsod, I salute you for making through this section of the episode

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    1. You have a valid point, I don’t recall Francine putting Amanda through grocery cart evasion procedures at Station One. Of course, she would assume a suburban housewife was born being proficient at grocery cart evasion, right?

      learjet1: “… unsuspecting piano left on the side of the road.”

      Look again, the piano was definitely on the RIGHT side of the road! 😁

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    2. haaaa thanks Learjet! Maybe Amanda was subjected to hours of torturous piano practice by her boys – and that explains her aiming for the piano?!
      Catharsis right there!!!! 🙂

      rofl yes Francine and Lee for that matter, never do inconspicuous!

      Ahhh sorry this ep is a bit arduous, when writing up new eps I will likely skim over some detail to speed up the process and keep us interested. I feel ya!
      Love ya smk but some parts of some eps are yawny!

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    1. Taking on this challenge, let’s see. That van’s interior is just …
      big enough for Francine’s clunky jewelry and fire engine red dress …
      big enough for Amanda’s puffy blouse sleeves …
      big enough for all of us to pile in to admire Lee’s handsome hands …
      and … oh yeah …
      big enough for surveillance equipment!

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  5. You’re damn lucky Captain Tolst is going to let you go ahead instead of using you for target practice.
    [Captain? I would have thought he would be higher ranking, but whatev].

    You’re not wrong, Iwsod – Zhmed literally just called him Colonel Tolst in the last update and he’d never get that wrong because he’s so a-may-zing…

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    1. Amazing, self-aggrandizing Zhmed is never wrong! Lowly Sasha was not yet in-the-know, but Tolst’s promotion to Colonel? Oh yeah, it was already a done-deal in Moscow.

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    2. Oh rofl! great catch!!
      I’m glad you are engaged with this ep Clagjanet I’m really not engaged with it at all! it is hilarious that one minute he is a Colonel and the next he’s a captain rofl!!!

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        2. Janet, this had me ROFL!! 🤣 This ep kinda puts the Zzzzzzzzz in Zhmed, eh? Like the writers said, “Let’s put a really great Lee and Amanda scene at the beginning and one at the end and fill in everything in between with nothing exciting.”

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  6. Why didn’t the Soviets just hide Zhmed in their Embassy?

    Jeez, Amanda, Season 4 is hardly the time to start asking intelligent questions that hammer giant holes into the plot… But I’m just happy this ridiculous plot allowed us so many long looks at BB’s hands. (see below)

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    1. Tolst had Zhmed smuggled into the USA from Canada instead of going through U.S.A-U.S.S.R. established diplomatic procedures. That makes me think Tolst was flying under Soviet radar because (1) his superiors did not sanction his mission or (2) his superiors looked the other way because they wanted immunity from his mission if it went awry.

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  7. *Love how the sign outside had said ‘men working’ – ha! I guess women didn’t do that work huh?! *

    I may not be working but I am definitely now singing “I come from a land Down Under” as I read the rest of the post…

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  8. Okay, so this is not episode related exactly, but I’m going to tell a story about the last SMK reunion here because I blame this episode entirely for having done this – – and I know you lot will appreciate the way in which I completely lost all hope of dignity in the situation.

    See that shot in the van and the way Lee has his hands crossed so beautifully while they spy on Zhmed? So keep that in mind and also that I had just finished transcribing this episode, shot by excruciating shot when we all went to LA last April.

    So I’m in the lineup and I’ve just had some stuff signed and I think I may have been waiting for someone else, but anyway, I ended up in conversation with someone else at that end of the table. It was someone I’d chatted to a fair bit that weekend because everyone was so friendly, so I wasn’t really watching what I said. And we’re watching Bruce sign stuff and she says, very dreamy like, “You know what I love most about him? His hands…” and I respond, equally dreamily, “Oh yeah…” and she says “You too?” and I say without thinking, because hey, we’re all in the same gutter here, right? … “Oh Sweetie, there are whole websites of women devoted to those hands” and she says “REALLY?” in such a surprised voice that I turn to look at her…

    And that’s when I remember I was talking to Verena… Bruce’s wife.

    So you’re welcome, SMK fandom, I took that bullet for all of you.

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      1. She truly is so sweet that I just laughed and said “You probably didn’t want to hear that,” and she cracked up. Also keep in mind that I was wearing a t-shirt at the time that said “When the hell did I go from being too young to sleep with Lee Stetson to too old to sleep with Lee Stetson?”. This was the same day I think where someone got video of Bruce while he’s being interviewed for a local channel, and out of sight of those cameras, sitting behind him, she’s entertaining the lineup by making grabby hands at his butt. She is a woman of great good sense. 🙂

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        1. Wonderful, and you handled the situation very well! I think Bruce’s wife Verena found it amusing, and maybe happy that you were not going or gushing on about other parts of her husband’s body. Being of a certain age with more than a few visits to Trekkie and SciFi ‘Events’, Dr. Who Coventions, and show reunions like ‘Schwarzwald Clinic'(German Soap Opera) where I saw ‘Fans’ saying and doing strange things, your comments were Sweet. BTW, I am a Hand Fan Too!

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    3. Verena is nice and apparently does not mind the lot of us drooling over her hubby. But if SHE says he has wonderful hands, they must really be wonderful! lol I wonder if she’s looking up the websites? We’ll have to ask her next time we see her.

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    4. rofl! I laughed and laughed when I read this clagjanet – well done you! haaaa..
      I didn’t know there was a reunion last year. Gosh I don’t remember. But hope it was otherwise a fabulous time full of smk fun – sounds like you have some great stories to tell Clagjanet! haaaaa

      I actually had no idea BB had married again! I don’t really follow the real person – I’m much more interested in Lee Stetson lol.

      But were I swooning over Lee’s dimples/hands etc. to BB’s RL wife, I would probably feel those lines becoming blurred rofl. I’d love to go to a reunion to meet my fellow smk fans and see locations etc. – but I have no desire to meet the actors in RL. I think it would ruin everything for me. rofl. I’m really weird!

      I can imagine being married to a famous actor who’s a bit of a heart throb you’d either have to go with the flow and enjoy the adoration/find it amusing… or you’d be best to avoid it. Sounds like Mrs BB found it fun and would have loved your comments 🙂

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So what do you think??? :)

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