We cut to the Cumberland aka the Russian Embassy
A wall clock shows it’s 4:33. Zhmed standing at a blackboard covered in numbers. 
Zhmed: I’m certain Colonel Hannigan will be flying tomorrow, the second shift, thirteen hundred hours. The stress curve for him is at its low ebb. The biorhythms are regular.
Tolst: Run your computation again. 
Zhmed: I’m certain.
Tolst: I have to have the exact rotation sequence of the crews.
(Sasha and his sexy vest enter the room, and he and Tolst move away from Zhmed to consult. ) 
Sasha: The incident on the street was reported to Moscow. I got word that they plan on cancelling the mission.
(Whooo is that a tea machine or something in front of them boiling away?!)
Tolst: Do they honestly think I went to these extremes just to have my mission cancelled? 
Sasha: No sir.
Tolst: Then we will proceed as if we haven’t heard a word. Tomorrow night I’m going to be eating black beans and rice at the Embassador Hotel in Havana while our tech team strips out every code and command sequence from the Looking Glass computer. And that’s a fact. 
Sasha: And him? 
[rofl. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Zhmed is looking at a script haaaa]
Tolst: Tomorrow morning, I want him out of the Embassy. You can take care of him any way you like. 
Muahahahaaaa!! The scene ends here.
The next day….
More of Janet’s descriptions: [Thanks Janet!]
A limo is approaching. Sasha and Zhmed are in back seat.
[LOL at Sasha with his finger nails.. He’s so bad! 
but.. not as bad as the red vinyl jacket Zhmed is wearing. Hope he doesn’t get close to a naked flame!]
As the limo moves into intersection, another car drives in front of it and stops, blocking it. Beaman gets out of car.
(Janet notes: Fun fact: The plates here are replicas of the actual licence plates on diplomatic vehicles in DC. 1983 was the year they started using them and each country had a two letter identifier so you knew who they were.
“TH” as seen here means this would actually have been a car from the Egyptian Embassy. The identifier for the USSR was “FC”. The letters on Canadian cars was “TG” which our American friends always said stood for “Too Good”) –Janet if referring to Canada I’d say TG stands for: thanks God! 
Canada rocks!
Stopped at an intersection, the limo is suddenly blocked by a green sedan. 
[Random. Noticed the ‘Corcoran’ sign on that shop in the distance.. another crew shout out!! Kevin Corcoran the regular assistant director on 11 smk episodes.. and yes on this episode too! I bet he filmed this shot with the green car lol]
The driver gets out (Lee?)
Sasha yells out in Russian. lol.
He gets out of his car. 
Sasha: Back up this car!
Oh it’s Beaman!
Beaman: What a remarkable stunt! I had the right of way, you cretin! I probably wrenched my neck in several places!
[I don’ t think you’d see ‘Cretin’ be used today!]
As Beaman complains loudly, we hear tyres squealing in the distance, and in the background a taxi pulls up next to the limo. Zhmed watches on depressed as usual.
Sasha: Did you see the stop sign? There was a stop sign there!
Suddenly, Zhmed looks up at cab beside him to read sign on top “Maverick: Go for it Cowboy!”. Amanda is in the back seat.
Cue the soaring music!
(As Sasha continues his rant at Beaman, Zhmed looks over and sees Amanda in the back seat of the taxi.. He makes a move..)
Sasha: You ran it! We have an embassy car! We have immunity! [Immunity from stop signs? from other idiot drivers? me confused at your point Sasha!]
(Zhmed opens limo door as Amanda opens cab door and Zhmed runs to jump in cab.)
Sasha: Now move your car or you’re going to be in a lot of trouble! Now! 
The taxi drives off, Sasha hasn’t noticed anything.. Beaman turns and tries to open his car door..
He smiles… 
Beaman: Heh, I locked the keys in the car.
[ROFL. great to see Beaman be useful rather than a whingy little worm! funny delivery here!! 🙂 ]
(Around the corner, cab pulls to a stop.) 
Amanda: Are you okay?
[Oh my. we actually see some animation from Zhmed!]
Zhmed: I am now. When I saw Maverick, I knew it was you.
[Funny that.. Would have worked just as well if he’d seen Amanda sitting on the backseat – he would have known it was her. rofl! I find this whole little maverick thing simultaneously so smk and but also ridiculously redundant! No need to signal a secret message: she’s sitting there!]
(Amanda shows Zhmed a folder..)
Amanda: Did Tolst show you pictures of any of these men? They’re pilots and you looked at their charts.
Amanda flicks through the pictures..
random.
LOL
[there was a D. Dugan on the crew.. does that count as a shout out?!]
Imagine if you were one of these people! 
Amanda keeps flipping, until Zhmed stops her.
[Hmm maybe Browning is a nod to David G. B. Brown smk writer.. he was script consultant on this ep.. but then again.. it could also be nothing]
Zhmed brings her back to the second last pilot.
Zhmed: Wait, wait, wait a minute. This cannot be right. This man is Tolst. 
We cut to a close-up on photo of Tolst with label “Col. Gary Hannigan”
And the scene ends there..
Can I just ask – is it just me or was anyone else hoping we’d get a joke where Zhmed innocently comments about how hard core dedicated the hospital volunteers are in America to help their patients?!!! Whahahahahahaahahaaaaa!!!!
"Just walk with me.." 
Almost forgot…
Is anyone else able to read that sentence and NOT tack on a “ooh na na” after it? 😀
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Why am I thinking we’ve seen this Sasha before? I think the baddie driver in ATWAS was a Sasha, but a different actor. Maybe I’ve seen this Sasha in something else.
Love Beaman in this scene! He’s great!
Could Mr. Browning in the photo be the guy in the gray suit/pink tie in a previous post?
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I saw Flashdance recently and the actor who plays Sasha was a cook/comedian. Such a different character.
The cretin line reminds me of Monsters Inc where one character mispronounced it and was corrected by the one being threatened. It was a funny scene.
This is kind of a throwaway scene. Not very dramatic for a rescue. The baddies paid better attention when Zhmed tried to pass the message.
Tolst seems pretty arrogant and sure of himself. Not sure it’s a good idea to ignore the message from Moscow. I wonder who in the embassy reported what happened to Moscow. After pulling off what he was trying to pull off I think he would want to eat something more than black beans and rice.
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Sasha is my favourite character I think. Zhmed is unlikeable and Tolst has none of the panache required to be a good baddie (No Golden Teacup for you!) but Sasha just wanders along acting as the liaison with such world-weary ennui that he makes me laugh.
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Am enjoying Beaman here too. Sadly, don’t feel sorry for Zhmed at all. After a whole episode of trying to feel some sympathy. It feels like he’s a small child – which is why Amanda, in top mothering mode, seems to handle him so well. Lee just doesn’t have the patience (and I wouldn’t either).Maybe Amanda can take him shopping for a new jacket? 😉
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Beaman did play his role perfectly and locking the key in the car added to the fun! Will getting a little field experience prompt Beaman to cut Amanda some slack? Nowadays, it’s not so easy to lock the key in your car, but back in the 1980’s when two sets wisdom teeth were removed, I managed to do it quite often! Policemen carried a long, slim metal piece they slid down the window to release the lock.
Here’s a thought that may explain Mr. Human Computer’s colossal brain that doesn’t leave much room for adult social skills, learjet1. Might Zhmed have Asperger’s syndrome?
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I bet that is what the writers were going for – a savant at computation and pattern recognition, obsessed with a few topics like Maverick and chocolate – (though I seem to share the latter with Zmed). But it is like the director and actor only heard about the term and really didn’t know how to execute the script.
I know I am in the minority, but I really don’t mind Zmed.
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Zhmed doesn’t bother me either. He seems rather realistic for a genius to me. I think the director got the Asperger’s part right but missed the section on how to jazz it up for TV ala Numbers, Scorpion, and A Beautiful Mind.
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I actually kind of like Zhmed. He seems like a nice guy, and I really did want to see him get to come to the land of cowboys and chocolate 🙂
Of course I almost always find myself agreeing & relating with Amanda. Like seriously, if I had an ex-husband and 2 kids, I’d be starting to wonder if they based her character on me. 😄
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(Well, I should probably qualify that I’m not nearly as observant or quick on my feet as Amanda is, and my thirst for adventure manifests itself mostly in the form of watching tv & reading books instead of doing anything interesting in real life. I have Amanda’s quirks, not her brilliance.)
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LOL – good thing Limos don’t have child locks on the back door or poor Zmed would be S.O.L.
Yes, I got confused with the Maverick signalling as well. It would have been neat if Maverick ads had been plastered on multiple buildings and billboards and then Amanda pulled up in the Maverick cab. It seems not a very impressive show of agency resources. “Hello, cab company? I would like to buy an ad on top on one of your cabs. Oh and can you send that cab to 4247 Maplewood Drive? ” For plot creativity, I have to give it to the Russians.
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