Hiya.. We move on to the exterior of a home..
..and we hear Lee repeating his last phrase aimed toward Amanda -wherever she is-: Don’t give it up. Please!
Inside we see Amanda.. she hears Lee’s voice in the room. [Uh oh. things are not lookin good for Amanda! this place where she is – is the Odessa Funeral home!! tee hee.. remember that? in Playing Possum?! Here it was:
I bet we’ve seen it before in other episodes too.. anyone think of another? ]
But.. back to Amanda..
Lee [voice-over]: I’m coming to get you, just don’t give it up.
Amanda: Lee? 
{A figure of Lee standing with his hands folded together materializes across the room.
Relieved}: Oh!
Lee’s Image: It’s all right. You knew I’d come, didn’t you?
Amanda: Yeah, heh.
Lee’s Image: Did he hurt you?
Amanda: No.
Lee: I’ve come to take you home, Amanda. But you’re going to have to wait a little while longer. I love you so much! I can’t stand this…
… it’s killing me. Remember, I love you.
(Lee fades away…)
Amanda: Oh! Lee? Don’t go! Lee!
Birol: Lee isn’t here, Amanda. [ta da. Birol is present to spoil Amanda’s lovely vision.] It’s funny how the mind plays tricks on you when you’re tired, but, uh, sleep deprivation is a disturbing thing. [How long has she been kidnapped? Has it been more than one night? just how long do you need to be sleep deprived to get these kinds of mind tricks happening?]
Amanda: I’m a reporter for CSN. I’m doing my job, I don’t know what you’re doing.
Birol: I’m trying to find a few things out.
Amanda: I thought you wanted an interview?
Birol: I got one. You. How did you find out about the airport? [nicely done. Birol begins his ‘interview’]
Amanda: A tip.
Birol: From your lover? From Stetson?
[I’ll never get tired of Lee being referred to as her lover. lol. but I really don’t want this creep to know anything about them!]
Amanda: No. From a source.
Birol: That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? But we’ll get to that. So, Stetson thought he had me, hm?
Amanda: I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just trying to do a story.
Birol: About me? About catching me and putting me up for public display, is that your cover?
(Birol approaches Amanda, and slams the chair down on the ground closer to her.)
Amanda: Why don’t you call CSN? Just call the station.
Birol: You and Stetson, uh, cut me off from anything that would make this, uh… [He tosses her purse at the wall violently and steps right in front of her. Amanda jumps slightly.]
…easier on you…
…Drugs, hypnotic inducers….
…Let’s look at some pictures. [He moves the chair right in front of Amanda and puts his foot on it as he pulls some pictures out from his shirt pocket.] …You tell me who you know, who you don’t know. If you don’t feel like cooperating…in time, I’ll insist.
{The first two photos are of Phyllis, one posed and one candid. Amanda averts her eyes momentarily on the second picture. He holds up a picture of Mara. Amanda’s face has no reaction. Lee’s picture is next. Amanda blinks and her mouth opens a bit. NOTE: As Lee’s picture is shown, a few notes of the “engagement theme” play somewhat out of tune. Birol smiles.}
Birol has a very nice pic of Lee! lol.
The scene ends here.
So, I guess we are learning that Lee is on a quick time frame here before Birol starts ‘insisting’. Hang in there Amanda!!!
I miss smk baddies who are not truly threatening- who were kinda funny! This guy makes my skin crawl. Oh well it will be more satisfying when Scarecrow takes him down I guess!
What do you make of Amanda hearing Lee’s voice? It’s some kind of hallucination due to her sleep deprivation, but.. I think it’s implied that they are connected – because she is hearing words he has just said to her, in his mind.. Either they have a spiritual connection (like Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester), or they know each other so well – she can accurately hallucinate what he would say to her to keep her strong. Either way: I’m a happy shipper!!
{Leland Hutto, an older man in a tweed jacket and bow tie, is sitting at his desk sorting through a glass jelly jar full of brand new Dixon Ticonderoga pencils, all sharpened to a perfect point. (NOTE: The script specifically mentions that they are in a banberry jelly jar.) They are placed point-up in the jar Lee is seated next to him, hunched forward holding his hands together.}
Lee: I want you to keep this thing quiet, Leland. I don’t want you to trot it out one night at your Banbury Society. 
{NOTE: Here too, the script version spells this “banberry,” like the fusion of bananas and strawberries (or perhaps the archaic of barberry). However, given that he’s now speaking of a society, it might refer to a club based on Banburismus, which is a cryptanalytic process named for the town of Banbury. It might be a Leland-esque pun.}
[Yeah my guess is that they were trying for a pun. Heaven knows this episode needs a bit of lightness inserted into it!]
Leland: You know the Crypto motto: the riddle’s the thing. I can keep my trap shut.
Lee: Then how did he spot Amanda? We were both supposed to be under Contact Zero.
Leland: Perhaps the Cat’s Eye principle.
Lee: The what?
Leland: In the dark there’s light. But you can’t see it, until you see it in a cat’s eye.
Lee: It’s like an obverse prism.
Leland : Mm-hm-mm, you have a stolidly literal head on your shoulders, don’t you, son? Think inside the puzzle, like Addi Birol. He couldn’t see light until he saw the cat see.
Lee: See what?
Leland: When a woman is in love, she sees with special eyes.
{Leland hands Lee the sketch pad he had been drawing on. Lee looks down and sees four hearts, interlinked like petals on a flower. Lee looks back at Leland with understanding crossing his face.}
Lee: Yeah, sure. Sure. She yelled out my name at the airport because that was the only way for her to save my life…
…Now…if Birol had us under surveillance…he might’ve seen.
Leland: There’s always a key.
[and apparently, for Leland there is also always a pencil]
Lee: Thanks a lot, Leland. You just earned yourself a coupla dozen Ticonderogas.
{Leland smiles and his attention gets drawn up above Lee’s head. A billow of smoke is rising up from behind it.}
[before we follow that puff of smoke, I’ve gotta say that for me this whole scene with Leland is a great big puff of smoke that stank. Yeah stank. Sorry if you love it but I find it is trying too hard to be clever, and it’s just dumb dumb -shout out to Cindy!-. I kept thinking: Ugh just say it already – Birol saw something because there was something to see! hello!!! Definitely doesn’t deserve a coupla dozen Ticonderogas. But.. I’d say moving on to the next part of this scene and leaving Leland behind does!!]
We are going to pause here before following that puff of smoke.
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!!!!
Don’t forget how the formatting works:
{what the transcriber has written}
[Iwsod’s commentary]
(Iwsod written descriptions)
All clear as mud?!
"Just walk with me.." 
I’m with most of you on the Leland scene and how unnecessary it seemed. I think when I saw it the first time it just confused me. Here is some random guy that we’ve never seen before. Didn’t make much sense to me.
Didn’t like the scene with Birol and Amanda. He was just so much more menacing than some of the other baddies. Not sure if that was done on purpose.
Amanda has read some of those cheesy romance novels like Dotty has. Remember she was able to conjure up Victoria Greenwich, I think. Maybe those have sort of invaded her thoughts as well as she thinks of Lee rescuing her.
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My thought aligns closest to your “or they know each other so well …” I do believe Amanda “can accurately hallucinate what Lee would say to her …” Where I get tripped up is thinking about her mimicking Lee’s voice! She’s done that often enough over the years, hasn’t she? Recalling that kept me laughing for days!
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Oooo, Jane Eyre! I can get into that analogy
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So funny you mention Jany Eyre and Mr. Rochester – I’ve just started watching that series today! I guess I’ll know what you mean in a few days – ha.
But if Leland in crypto knows that Amanda is in love with Lee…then surely it’s the worst kept secret at the Agency? I could understand if Leland was the Agency shrink – confidentiality and all (although I bet that’s not even sacrosanct at the agency).
I agree, iwsod, total stinker is that scene with Mr. Ticonderoga. Boo.
Is it just me or does this guy remind you in a way of Ernie the camera? He seems to be happy with a bunch of Ticonderogas, much like how Ernie seemed to be happiest just watching Wile E. Coyote pursue the Roadrunner.
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Yep, it looks like his cover is pretty much blown by now.
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Why suddenly introduce Leland when his dialogue could have been said verbatim by TP and been in character? Just replace the Ticonderogas with some tuttifrutti ice cream or truffles.
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That is an awesome idea, Cindy!!
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Yes! Excellent observation.
Must confess: I do favor more Lee and/or Amanda interactions with TP (Leatherneck, too).
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Like Iwsod and Sara, I also am not fond of the Leland scene. Can anyone imagine two men having a conversation like that in the workplace?? Seriously??? Sounds like gobbledygook to me as well (ticonderogas 😀 )
Also find the initial scene a bit heavy going. IMHO, KJ overdoes the wide-eyed scared look a bit. And the fading in and out Lee reminds me of scenes in UB, but I think UB did it much better. But I like that SMK is conveying that Lee is being supportive and loving, and that Amanda feels comforted by it.
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This scene with Addi & Amanda? Yes, I agree, it is among the absolute most terrifying of the series. Skin crawling, fear-inducing scene. I’m actually not a big fan of the Lee vision- his speech always seemed a little unusual for Lee, even in that situation. Maybe borderline cheesy…
The scene with Leland? One of the most confusing ones of my younger years. I remember the heart drawing vividly, but even still feel like I need a crypto guy to decrypt what on earth they are rambling about. I may have just imagined this, but somewhere once I feel like I read this scene had a bit of a longer intro in an original script or something where Lee actually confides in Leland about his and Amanda’s relationship before getting into the scene we ended up with. Which would have helped it make SO MUCH MORE SENSE. But hey, if we had to edit that out to get more Lee and Amanda awesomeness in later parts of the episode, than I’m totally cool with it. 😉 But does anyone else remember this information or did I just invent it?
Also, Iwsod, AWESOME catch spotting the reuse of this building from Playing Possum!!! I totally missed that!
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It’s not in the shooting script and that’s all Petra has for Nightcrawler in her Steno Pool. Even checked a few fanfics, but didn’t find such a scene. Perhaps someone else remembers it. If not, in your dreams might you be an S&MK ghostwriter?
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After the mess at the airport went down, the Agency KNEW some of Birol’s people were on site.They also saw there was a person, aside from them filming. Even if the Agency wasn’t really filming (and they should have been) law enforcement procedures would have had them obtaining info on the filmmaker and getting a copy of what she filmed. There should not have been any question that Birol’s people observed a reporter calling out Lee’s name.
Maybe I missed something, but does everybody in the baddie community know that Lee Stetson is Scarecrow? If so, time for Scarecrow to hang up the towel. The Leland scene, for me, showed only that Lee was reaching out for help. This is important because he tends to be an island unto himself with the exception of Amanda helping him and him working his family for information on the street.
More than anything, Leland’s scene tends to show that others at the Agency are well aware of Lee and Amanda’s affection for one another. It’s nice that Lee does not try to deny it.
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Bottom line: Lee needed an answer and was willing to seek “outside the box.”
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Iwsod said, “How long has she been kidnapped? Has it been more than one night? just how long do you need to be sleep deprived to get these kinds of mind tricks happening?”
Lol, it sounds like you are wanting to try this out to conjure up some Lee! 🤣🤣🤣🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️
These scenes with Addi and Amanda in the empty room make my skin crawl. I can still remember and feel so clearly how terrified I was for Amanda the first time I saw this. I think I could see it a million times and it would still terrify me. Even when I tell myself it’s just KJ and some guy acting and he’s probably really nice, the 12-year old inside me can’t believe it and is still terrified. And it makes it even worse that she had to go from thinking she was talking to Lee to it being Addi. How horrifying for her!
And yes, totally agree on this scene with Leland. Lame.
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Same here. I think Addi scared me worse than any other bad guy on SMK.
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I’m with you on that Leland scene, Iswod. I think it was just to remind Lee that Amanda said his name and Birol heard it. And they wanted to show us that fancy hearts pencil drawing. Leland can have his dozen Ticonderogas for that then.
At work now. I’ll come back and comment on the rest of this later. 🙂
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