3/7 Season Four, Episode Nine: The Man Who Died Twice–Scarecrow & Mrs King

Lee and Amanda move on to Chinatown.
[I guess this is the next day as they have both changed outfits. When is the parade? So far I’ve only heard ‘Friday at noon’ – so are they on a tight time frame here?]

Lee: T.P. said he’d be waiting with some information about Khai.  When I was with G-Two in Vietnam, Khai talked a VC out of putting a bullet through my head. It’s an insane system that kills a man like Khai.
[Ahhh one of those – ‘he saved my life once’ assets!]
Amanda: We know the risks, so did he. We still never give up.
Lee: Oh and who told you that?
Amanda: You did.
Lee: Yeah. Okay, if we’re going to take all the risks, we should get everything life has to offer in return. Right?
Amanda: Right
Lee: So what are we waiting for? When this thing is over, I’m gonna hock everything I own for that Rockville house…
[Whoa!!!]
…Amanda, what do you think about another big wedding, huh? I never had one.
[Whoa! Lee even I’m saying slow down.
So Amanda had a big wedding did she?
Umm Lee you’ve had a big wedding with Amanda already.

Okay okay it wasn’t a real wedding.. but.. I couldn’t resist. Just needed an excuse to publish this pic! haaaaa]
Amanda: (laughing) Now wait a minute…
Lee: Yeah, you’re right, ceremony isn’t important. We’ll have a backyard ceremony, for family and friends, your kids can be the ushers.
[oh my gosh! how adorable is he?! who is this Lee Stetson?! remember the days when he was anti family, gardens, normal?! I wonder if this is Lee maybe trying to fill a void he has from his own childhood. He had the house in the suburbs/white picket fence, but only until he was 5 or 6 years old. It’s like that dream life is suddenly within reach for him again, so he is just running with it!]
Amanda: Hold on a second. You’ve got us all moved in with two cats and a front porch swing.
[Oh really. I thought you loved all his ideas. cough cough.]
Lee: yeah, absolutely. We’ll play softball in the backyard and on the weekend, we’ll weed the garden.
[rofl. what kids say hoorah let’s weed the garden?! haaaa]
Amanda: (interrupting) Now wait a minute! Don’t you think we oughta talk to the boys about this first?
Lee: Yeah.
[Orrrr have maybe met them?!!!!! rofl!!!!]
Amanda: Yeah. You know what? Family life and the Agency don’t seem to go together all that well either when you come to think about it.
[What???? That big clunker is finally said out loud, after all her lack of enthusiasm, her dodging and putting off talking about it. I think this is such a big line- and… we don’t even see either of their faces when she says it because they walk off camera and it cuts to flippin TP! Ugh!!! 

This episode is starting to come back to me now. The risks they take, family and the agency.. I cannot wait to hear what you all have to say about this! But.. just sticking with where we are up to so far  – I get that Amanda has concerns, and isn’t as enthusiastic, but it seems Lee is the one who keeps bringing it up, but Amanda hasn’t really properly said what she thinks. She said she’d marry him, but keeps throwing cold water on everything. What do you think the show has had to say about this whole topic leading up to now? Do you think the show has been saying family and the agency don’t go together?]

Anyway, TP Aquinas has of course found himself something to eat. That’s what he does. That and information!
T.P.: (in Chinese) Hello, Mrs. King.
Amanda: Hello T.P.
T.P.: (In English) Load up on the Kung Pow chicken. Wu here uses a five spice mix that’ll make you see your ancestors.
Amanda: Thank you very much.
[I hope someone pays that vendor!]
Lee: Heh, what’s the word, T.P.?
T.P.: Oh, this is Chinatown, Lee. You don’t ever get the ‘word,’ you get signs and portents,  it’s very ‘jianli’ today.
(Clagjenet adds note: original scripts say this is pronounced ‘gemli.’)
…Literally, ‘seeing inside,’ the old Manchurian art of looking through your enemy.
Amanda: Who’s the enemy?

[Seems this trip to Chinatown calls for a heart necklace!]
T.P.: We are, of course… only because they’re afraid of Mr. Nol Diem and the Viet delegation. And he’s made it very clear that the ghost of your friend Khai has no friends.
Lee: A dead man can’t have friends.
[I hear they don’t leave trails either!]
T.P.: Nor, can a dead man be worth ten thousand dollars.
(TP motions to a shop)
Amanda: They’ve put a price on his head?
T.P.: Signs and portents… (to Amanda) Try the chicken, but watch out for the little green things. (Amanda freezes not taking the bite she was going to)
… They’ll raise a blister.
(Amanda nervously laughs and offers Lee some.. but he’s not silly. No thanks!) The scene ends there.

Lee and Amanda enter the store TP had motioned towards.
Lee: The last thing Khai said was… ‘Vinh biet’… Goodbye for this life… It’s a very Buddhist thing to say before you die… or kill.
{They walk through the store, looking around at the spices, etc.}
(to the pureyor) Lee: Hello
Amanda: Hello
Purveyor: May I help you?
Lee: Yes, just some information please. {Produces a picture of Khai} Do you know this man?
The purveyor looks at the picture. But doesn’t answer Lee’s question.
Purveyor:  I sell ginseng and sandalwood.

…Perhaps…

…This for the love bed?
Lee: No, no, thank you, no rhino horn, today…
[How does Lee know what it is?! rofl! Wahhhhahahahaha
Amanda doesn’t seem to react.. she usually would to this kind of thing.]

(The purveyor puts the rhino horn back in the jar.)
[not today. ahem.]
Lee: Have you seen him at all? His name is Tranh Van Khai. He’s Vietnamese.
The purveyor pulls out a pad of paper and starts writing on it as Lee and Amanda follow.

{A customer calls out a question to the purveyor, and he answers and walks away from the counter.
Lee and Amanda look at what he wrote.
It is covered in a pattern of lines and X’s}

Lee: (quietly) He’s left us a message… hexagram number twenty-six.
{He reaches and pulls a well-worn book on the counter towards him.} [good thing the book is handy!]
…I Ching…
{He flips through the book}
…Look at this: ‘The ritual has been performed, but the sacrifice has not been made yet.’

[I had to look up I Ching.. I don’t really get the lines and crosses, maybe someone can explain it, but I at least get that Khai was referring to the divination book to give a clue. That’s enough for me. lol. Signs and portents.. stuff is gonna go down! [lol] I’m still pretty distracted by the Rhino horn. I want to know how Lee knows what that is on the counter there haaaaa. Amanda could have asked him!
Then, I found that Clagjanet had very helpfully added this at the end of her transcription! Thanks Clagjanet! ]
Clagjanet adds: For those interested in the whole hexagram/ I Ching conversation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hexagrams_of_the_I_Ching

(They exchange a look. The next thing we see is Lee and Amanda outside.)
{Lee and Amanda start down the street. Camera pans so we see a Vietnamese man on a park bench turn and watch them, then stand up and follow them, keeping his distance. He quickens his pace.}
{Clagjanet: Note: This character is never named but the closing credits call him Binh, so for simplicity’s sake, he will be called that from here on in.}
Binh: Mr. Stetson.
Binh: I believe you dropped this.
He hands Lee a folded paper. Lee opens it and reads.
Binh: Things have a way of getting lost here in Chinatown.
Lee: But never found.
Binh: Take care.
(He leaves.)
Amanda: He a friend of yours?
Lee: No… but you get used to that around here… People know more about you than you know about them.
[whooo does that include why he was offered Rhino horn?! haaa]
{Cut to another street, still in the Asian district. Lee is still consulting the paper, obviously for the address of the building they stop in front of. }
Lee: If Khai’s inside, he’ll have more than one way out. You watch the street, okay.
Amanda: Yeah.
[This seems pretty risky to me. Some random person gives  you an address so you go there?! And go inside by yourself? Is Amanda his back up?]
(Lee enters the building leaving Amanda outside.)

{Lee is climbing stealthily up the stairs. He arrives at the top and knocks on an apartment door, then tries the handle. We cut to Khai inside the apartment, looking nervous.
Outside the door, Lee pulls out a lock pick and opens the door.

He sees Khai, who runs for the back door with Lee in pursuit.

Cut to exterior as Khai runs down the fire escape, Lee ten steps behind him. Lee jumps over the handrail to the ground and pulls his gun.
Lee shouts in Vietnamese.
Khai stops short and raises his hands in surrender.

Lee approaches and slams Khai forward so he must brace against the fence, kicks his feet apart to pat him down. After patting him down, Lee spins Khai around, still holding his gun.}
[Lee doesn’t go gentle! He’s not trusting him!]
Lee: Get around here
{He pushes him back against the fence.}
Lee: Khai, if I wasn’t so damn glad to see you alive, I would kill you myself. Why’d you do it?
Khai: For my family. Diem said he’d take them away from me. You know he’d do it.
{Lee puts his gun away with a sigh, then grabs a defeated looking Khai by the arm.}
Lee: Come on.
Lee helps Khai up to get moving and we cut to a close  up. {Close-up on a photo of Khai, a Vietnamese woman and three children, two boys and a girl. Shot changes and we see they are back in the apartment.}

[I remember way back seeing this blooper on youtube. I wonder if it’s still there! Lee said earlier that Khai had 2 children. Turns out Lee doesn’t know Khai as well as he thinks he does – I can see from comments so far that you guys had this blooper in mind too!!!]
Khai: My wife and children. Diem could put them in a camp… a slow death.
{Cut to wide shot as he hands the photo to Amanda as Lee watches. She is looking sympathetic.}
Lee: So you faked your own death.
Khai: Diem discovered I was betraying him. He needed to discredit what I told you. He had a body… a car like mine… I drove past and he blew it up. He wanted me to put on an act for you. And then he was going to extract everything I knew about you and the Agency.
Lee: (angry) You could have come to me for help!
Khai: There was no time. I couldn’t even help my own family. One hour after he found out, he took my son, Kim, and forced me to go ahead…
… After I faked the crash, I escaped. Now he’s keeping Kim alive as a lure for me.
Amanda: How old is your son?
Khai: Seven. How can he possibly understand what’s happened?
Lee: Look, you did the right thing. Now Diem probably won’t hurt your son… for now, anyway. He’s the only leverage that they have.
Khai: For now, anyway…
…until when?
Lee: Diem probably won’t need to bother the rest of your family, but I’ll put them under twenty-four hour surveillance. Ok, how much does your wife know?
Khai: Nothing. I couldn’t risk it.
Amanda: Well, we’ll tell her you’re safe…
Khai: No, no… Diem must think everybody is fooled. Even my wife must think I’m dead.

Lee: (to Amanda) Yeah, he’s right… (to Khai) Now look, you can’t come in… if Dr. Smyth finds out you are alive, he’ll move on Diem.
Khai: Then I must go deeper. There are places around here that I can hide. I’ll be safe for now.
Amanda: Is there anything we can do for you?
Khai: Find my boy.
[Okay! this is an assignment I can get behind! Save son. Got it.
all this other Diem found out, I had to discredit myself, then Diem was gonna do this and that.. aie. It’s pretty confusing stuff! and I’m not sure I’m interested enough to bother with it. Anyone want to sum it all up for us?!] 

{Cut to the outside of the apartment building. Lee and Amanda emerge and walk away.}
(We see Binh is following them and the scene ends there.)

More of the story about how family are in danger in this business huh… Hmmm… We’ll pause here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.