4/7 Season Four, Episode Nine: The Man Who Died Twice–Scarecrow & Mrs King

Back to IFF..
[What proves it? me confused.  I guess they are certainly making it easy for us to follow the possible big bang bang with the map all the time. ]
Billy: It proves the Vietnamese are going to make a bloodbath out of the Trade Fair. It’s the way Diem works and he hates the current Chinese leaders. We can’t keep the Old Man in the dark. We’re courting disaster!
[It’s the way Diem works? huh? ummm okay! ]

Lee: Come on, Billy… if you tell Dr. Smyth, he’s going to move on Diem, and Diem will have nothing to lose… but Khai sure will… his boy. Now come on, if I wanted Dr. Smyth to know, I would have brought Khai back in.
[tell Dr Smyth what? I still don’t think Dr Smyth would act lol. I keep hearing if Dr Smyth knows about Khai he will act on Diem, and Diem thought if they thought Khai was dead that would discredit the information he had given. But, I don’t really follow that logic. Is it just me? I’m not convinced. In the first post Billy was convinced they didn’t have enough just because Khai said so, now because he is alive again and his son has been kidnapped they do?
What proof do they have that his son has even been kidnapped? Lee forgot he even existed- rofl! I mean don’t get me wrong I want to help Khai I just don’t understand why things are so different from the agency perspective now Khai is alive again. Ohhhh just go with it iwsod.]

Billy: Just exactly how long do you expect me to hold off?
Lee: The opening ceremonies aren’t for eighteen hours. We can use that time to find Kim.
[ahhh finally we get some kind of tangible countdown going on here. I was wondering about that! 18 hours. Got it!!]
Billy: Look, you’re an Occidental in an oriental community. You’ve got two outs and two strikes.
Lee: I gave Khai my word.
Billy (yells): You have a job to do!
[Me… still confused.. yet again. sorry I know- I’m a broken record here! What exactly is Lee’s job here that he can’t be working on helping Khai? won’t that help stop the big bang bang plot? I thought he was trying to gather more evidence so they would take the plot more seriously, doesn’t helping Khai get his son back do that? ]

Lee: Since when is my job more important than the life of a seven-year-old boy, huh?
[Lee is adorable. it’s true. so noble… and hot. haa]
Billy: All right… ..All right. Twelve hours…

(Lee smiles at Billy and gives him a pat.)
[Yes! that’s the Billy I know and love! err don’t know where he went for  a second there but who cares! he’s back. for 12 hours. haaaa]
….Twelve is all you get!
[Sorry to nit-pick, this whole situation just feels a bit….. contrived? whoooo Lee is working against what the agency wants to help Khai save his son.. and he only has.. 12 hours to do it!!! whoooo]

Lee is all smiles as he leaves the office.

We cut to Lee and Amanda in an apartment block, they approach a front door and knock.

Lee: She’s not going to see me, I know it.. I met her once when Khai was hiding me out, after an MIA hunt into Cambodia.
[Someone add that to the ‘snippets from Lee’s past’ file! Is there anything Khai hasn’t done for Lee in the past?! I bet he donate one of his kidneys to Lee!]

{The door opens. A Vietnamese boy and girl in traditional mourning outfits are looking at them silently.}
Amanda: Hello.
Lee: (says something in Vietnamese)
{The boy shakes his head “no.” }
Amanda: Is your mother home?
{They shake/ He shakes again: “no.” }
Lee: Look, we’d like to see her. Would you tell her that Lee Stetson is here?
(Sen, Khai’s wife appears behind them and seems unhappy with his arrival)
We cut to a close up on a shrine where Sen is lighting a candle.
[That is a very popular photo of Khai. He must have been having a good hair day]
Sen: Your police have already been here, as well as officials from my own government. They’re watching.
Lee: Our people want to help you, Sen.
{Sen pours tea for them.}
Sen: (bitter) I’ve heard those very words in the past, ten thousand miles away… Ever since you recruited my husband, we have lived in fear. At least my children can live without danger.
Lee: look, it wasn’t my choice. I had to try and save myself. [Yeaaaah that one isn’t the most convincing defence! Usually Lee would go for the whole – Khai is my friend I want to help you and him. I know what I owe you both! Hmm.. ]
Sen: I suppose that’s what the snake says that once inside the gopher burrow… ‘To save myself being bitten… I must bite instead.’
[Yup I actually think that’s a reasonable response to Lee’s argument! lol]
Amanda: Where is your other son?
{Sen is immediately wary.}
Lee: Yeah, Kim… Your youngest?
Sen: Kim is with relatives. He’s too young to understa-
Amanda: (interrupts) -We know that isn’t true. We know Kim’s not with relatives, we know that Diem took him.
Sen: Yes, Mr. Diem took him away yesterday morning, before Khai’s meeting with you. He said it had something to do with our dependent visa. I haven’t seen my son since.
[They seem to be calling him Mr Xiem, not Mr Diem? or is this just my western ear that has it all wrong?]
Lee: (stand up to pace) Look Sen, there’s much, much more to this than you know, than you should know.
Amanda: We’re not gonna be able to tell you anything else. We’ll have to ask you to trust us. Can you tell us if anything at all unusual happened yesterday morning when Mr. Diem came and took Kim away?
Sen: (thinks) It was a normal morning. The boys were about to leave for Mission school when Diem arrived. All smiles. (beat; then to Lee) Now Khai is dead.
{Lee looks down, guilt-ridden.}

The scene ends here.

[Okay, what did this scene contribute to the story? really? What didn’t we already know here?! Oh well, I guess maybe there is something significant here and I just don’t know it yet? At the very least, they are trying to get us invested in the wellbeing of Khai’s family by letting us get to know them I guess. but knowing Khai and seeing Kim was enough for me. IMHO. I find this scene.. strange! Maybe this is feeding into the whole idea of family and this business not mixing. Yeah maybe that’s it?
Anyway, moving on..

(Next thing we see is Lee and Amanda driving along in the corvette.
The mood is sombre. Very sombre.)
Lee: That could be you one day…
{Amanda closes eyes and looks pained as he continues speaking.}
[Okay, ahhhh Yep so the previous scene sets up this scene. Got it now.]
(We cut to Lee as he continues talking, and see that Amanda actually has her hand on his shoulder as he talks)
Lee: Talking to strangers about your dead husband. Trying to unravel the truth about his death, knowing you’ll never find it.
Amanda:  I know.
Lee: Not your typical two career family, huh?..

…One of us might not come home for dinner… ever.
{Amanda is visibly fighting tears.}
Lee: They’ve got Khai’s little boy, Amanda… it could be Phillip or Jamie.
Amanda replies quickly: I know.
(She sighs, it’s clear they are both feeling really intense emotions right now as a result of that meeting with Sen)
{They exchange a long look. Amanda gives him a weak smile of support.}
Amanda: (repeats softly) I know.

Amanda goes back to looking out her window, and nothing more needs to be said. This is sucky!

[okay all please share what you make of this!
I will share what I think, but I don’t expect my take will be the right or only take. I can see what the episode is trying to convey, and what they are aiming for emotionally between these two. But, I don’t feel it.
I could say to myself hey accept the story as it is given to you.. characters are not linear in their development.. but for me I keep wondering: why are you worrying about this now? How is this different to previous intense scary events they’ve worked through together to get to this point?

In Stemwinder II we had Lee cleaning his gun and talking about them being a spy family. We had them both on the run, their lives on the line, and Amanda having chosen to leave her boys for their safety and to go with Lee into hiding. We had Phillip and Jamie almost kidnapped in Wrong way home- and it wasn’t even because of Amanda’s job.. in fact, they were safer because of Amanda’s job. And we’ve seen this many times in the past.
Even, Amanda thinking Lee was dead for real when he faked his death..sure they weren’t in a relationship then but it would certainly have not been forgotten! We even had Lee and Amanda together faking his death scene in The eyes have it.
At this point they’ve faced these risks, these demons before – why is this any different? Why are we back here again? It feels redundant and contrived. When I can see I’m supposed to feel the angst and bitter sweetness here..

I am sorry if you are loving this episode, and totally feeling it, and then have to read my thoughts! I hope I’m not too much of a downer! Maybe re-ordering the episodes could possibly make this less jarring for me. I guess. we’ll see! 

Let’s head back to the Vietnamese mission and hopefully we can end on a more upbeat note! ]

So looks like Binh is a greedy bad guy.
Diem: My time is rather limited tonight. I trust you will not waste it. [I am very, very busy holding exotic random ornaments so I am more interesting!!!] 

[lol it’s been a while since I noticed a really random prop making a cameo like this haaa.. Lol and look at that dapper white carnation. Nice. ]
Binh: This time my price has doubled.
[lol that the plan is right there on the door like that. Binh could take that information to the agency and get double his doubled price!]
Diem: Depends upon what I’m paying for.
Binh: Ten thousand for Tranh Van Khai… and ten more for Stetson. I could get them together.

Diem: I don’t wish Khai any harm. He was very valuable for many years, but Stetson swayed him away with money… But Khai did what I told him to do and he repaired the damage.
Binh: Mm-hmm.
Diem:  Now I want an end to this. You will give Khai back his son. And I want them back together tomorrow night on our charter flight.
Binh: Mm-hmm.
Diem: All is forgiven. Deliver this message and will you get your money.

[soooo the plan isn’t to kill Khai’s son anymore? oh well that’s good I guess. Soooo Diem wants Khai and his son on a plane back to Vietnam, and I guess Lee Stetson dead.. Okey dokey.]

(The scene ends with a close up on the map with the X’s on it.. I thought there were six bombs, but  only see 4 X’s. Whatev. It’s right there – where Binh could see it. Did he see it? I don’t know.. but maybe Binh is a double agent too.. We’ll see! Sorry if I’m saying something obvious or ridiculous, I have no idea – I am writing as I follow the episode and can’t remember what’s ahead! Then again, I figure that’s probably obvious to you guys who do remember all the time so maybe I don’t need to say it haaaa!!]

Diem: (O.C.) And I can go to the concert with a clear mind. The program’s a favorite of mine. Mozart’s ‘Requiem.’

Ahhhh a classical music loving refined baddie! If he sips tea this Diem will be the typical smk baddie!

Any thoughts on this part of the episode you’d like to share? I’m really curious to hear your take on things!