Hi All! Are you ready to finish up this episode?? Brace yourselves.. this post is biiiiig. But, I want to finish up.. so here goes!
It’s time for the sting!!!
(Trent squeezes into the Kenley Club. We can see Lee and Amanda sitting at a bar noting his squeezy arrival. 
Lee gives him a nod, and Trent squeezes further into the casino with Lee and Amanda following on.
There’s lots of general casino chatter about letting it ride. lol. I really wanted someone to yell Snake eyes!!!
So, over to the craps table..Well my goodness.. it is Francine!!) [haaaaa.. I must have had a vague recollection of this and not realised. I think it would have been more fun to see someone from the agency in this role other than Francine – she’s too serious. Then again, who else could they call on?! (Anyone? who would you like to have seen?) Hmmm.. Anyway, I am getting distracted!]
Lee: Here we are, here we are… (laughs) …Yeah, boxcars… for 10 grand (Lee throws a pile of cash on the table. Amanda rubs her hands together.)
Francine (as staff): You got it.
Trent: That’s a sucker bet, friend. Three hundred thousand on the pass line (he puts a wad of cash down on the table).
[rofl I thought passing over the $$$ in the game was supposed to not look suspicious. really? 300,000 and handing it over in one bet? Nothing suspicious about that haaaaa] 
Craps Croupier: I’m afraid you can’t do that, sir. Table limit’s a hundred thousand.
[someone sack that staff member lol]
Trent: I’m sure you could bend the rules for a regular customer.
[I was super keen to hear Trent ask to be ‘Squeezed’ in just this once haaaaa]
[Trent’s complete lack of excitement here is pretty funny. Couldn’t squeeze out even a tiny bit Trent?! Especially compared to how excited Lee and Amanda are. haaaaaa.. Feeling the squeeze Squeeze?!]
Craps Croupier: I’m sorry, sir. It’s club policy.
Francine: Uh, but we can check with the manager 
(Francine raises her finger authoritatively.
The red-headed woman who brought Trent the phone in a previous scene comes over and checks through some of the notes that Trent has put down on the table. [The manager is the telephone lady?! lol]
Manager: Your bet is covered, Mr Trent. Good luck.
[Oh yeah. Squeezy Trent is excited! haaaaa. not!]
Amanda and Lee look excited.
Amanda (claps her hands): All right.
Lee: All right. Come on, come on. Send them down.
Craps Croupier: New shooter, coming out. Crap 11, any seven.
(Lee blows on the dice in his fist and hands them to Amanda. She shakes the dice.)
Amanda: Yeah.
Lee: Give it a throw.
Amanda: OK – You want boxcars?
Lee: Yeah.
Amanda (throws the dice): You got ‘em (the dice stop with two sixes showing).
[Someone want to explain boxcars? I guess that’s two sixes is that right? I can’t be bothered to look it up!] 
Lee: Yeah!
[This may be really dumb, but how did the agency make sure Amanda threw boxcars?! tee hee..]
(A cheer goes up. Lee and Amanda celebrate and hug each other.)
Craps Croupier: Craps. Line away. Double the field. Straight up pays 30 to one.
Francine (smiling): Three hundred thousand on your ten. Congratulations, sir.
[I don’t follow this game at all btw. but I can’t find it in myself to care really, I get that they are winning so I figure that’s enough. Also seeing Lee and Amanda have fun is enough too!]
Amanda: All right. Let me just…
Background person: … Come to daddy… [rofl!!!]
Lee: Ooh, yeah. [I’m sorry Lee being anywhere near the line ‘come to daddy’ has led to me needing a reboot! Family show. Family Show. FAMILY SHOW!!!!!]
Amanda puts her hands on the piles of money and reacts to it: Oooooh!!! [oh rofl!!!!!!] 
…Let me roll those dice again.
[KJ is brilliantly funny here!]
Craps Croupier: All right. Same shooter, coming up.
Lee: Yes (laughs heartily).
Amanda: OK. Place your bets. Here we go.
(Amidst the excitement, Lee opens the paper holding the thousand dollar bills together.
It shows a series of telephone numbers typed on the inside. [ah I guess that’s the client list] Suddenly Billy and other agents burst into the room, guns cocked.)
Billy: Federal agents. Nobody move.
(Women scream loudly. Lee pushes Trent toward Amanda who is hidden around a corner,
He then turns back, approaches Billy trying to go for something in his jacket…
Billy appears to shoot Lee
Lee is very dramatically shot! [rofl!]
Trent and Amanda make a getaway.
Lee collapses back onto the floor. The money having been scattered all over the place.) Whoooooooo dramatic.
[Um are the onlookers all in on it? because Lee has no bullet wound lol – no fake blood this time, I guess he likes that shirt.] 
Out in the alley, Amanda and Trent try to figure out what’s next here..
Amanda: OK, look. There’s a guy down at the end of the street. You pin him down with a couple of shots; we can probably make it to my car.
Trent: Whoa, whoa, where’s my information?
Amanda (pointing to her temple): Right up here…
…Look, I just lost my partner and $300,000 in there. You take me to your buyer, I’ll dictate it to him in exchange for safe passage out of the country (waving her pointed forefinger at him).
[It’s quite a statement to have Amanda take on this role and go with Trent alone like this isn’t it. Shows the agency has total confidence in her!]
Trent (pointing a gun at her): That wasn’t part of the plan.
Amanda: Yeah, look, neither was that. How do I know you didn’t set us up? You better make up your mind fast, mister. [Amanda is fully committed to her cover here, though Trent at one point aims his gun at her. Go Amanda!]
(Trent squeezes past her on the stairs. He shoots at the man in the alley,and disappears around the corner. Trent and Amanda run down the stairs on the side of the building. As they reach the bottom of the stairs, the man in the alley shoots from around the side of the building, and runs towards Trent and Amanda as they rush towards a car, get in and drive off. The man shoots out the rear lights of the car as it disappears away.) [whoooooo that was a tight squeeze!]
Back in the Kenley Club, Lee gets up and brushes himself off.
Lee (to Billy): We all set?
Billy: Yeah, smooth as silk. We’re tracking her now, but there’s a little breakup on our transmitter.
Lee: All right, then let’s go.
[of course! can’t have things go too smoothly, that would be boring!]
On to the mansion with a never ending stream of SMK residents! Right now: Eddinger! 
Eddinger’s mansion… Trent and Amanda walk out into the back garden.
[Eddinger seems to be having a cup of something.. since he’s a baddie- we’ll go with tea!!!!] 
Eddinger: What the hell are you doing here?…
(Trent explains there was some trouble. As there always seems to be with Trent. He explains Amanda is his source. )
…What about the Berlin Shipment?
Amanda: Listen, I got all the information you need but I’m gonna need some cash and a passport out of the country.
(Simons the baddie’s right hand man joins them)
Simons: Hey, that’s the woman that was at Van Hagen’s house yesterday.
[uh oh. Amanda hesitates. for just a moment.. but.. it’s enough to set off Eddinger’s baddie senses. Drat. I wondered why the heck that Simons dude was always around! lol.
Also, so what her cover was she worked with Van Hagen!]
Amanda: ….Yeah, that’s, uh, right, uh. We were there. We were working for Van Hagen- 
Eddinger: -Shut up. Take his gun (to Simons). I don’t know what’s going on but I certainly don’t intend to wait to find out. Make sure he keeps his mouth shut. And this young lady, I’ll take along for a bit of insurance.
Lee (appears around the side of the house, holding his gun): Nobody move!
We cut back to the baddies, but lol Amanda seems to have gone into invisible mode here while the guns are out. Umm she has ummm vanished??!!!
(Simons lifts his gun. Lee shoots him. Lee rushes forward and stops Trent from going for a gun. Lee gives his gun to Amanda -who is visible again whoooo- so she can cover Trent and Simons while Lee runs off after the suddenly surprisingly spritely and agile Eddinger who has taken off over a wall lol)
[Okay, I am not going to go look – just a guess.. but I’m thinking maybe this is the house here where the party was held in Always look a Gift horse in the mouth? Anyone? Ahhhh I remember the days I would have gone hunting. but nope- right now RL is too darn busy so I hand it over to you good people to pursue- if you like!
Soooo this is one of those action sequences where Lee is up against an old dude and things probably shouldn’t take as long as they do.haaaaaa]
Lee tackles Eddinger, Eddinger grabs an axe and gives it a swing, Lee tackles Eddinger, they fall into a random pile of firewood, Eddinger grabs a stick and tries to hit Lee. Lee tackles Eddinger.
But hey, Lee it’s not your fault it’s taking so long to beat the old dude, you can blame your stunt guy!!!
yes, we are supposed to believe this is Lee here! haaaaa.. He really needs to get his act together!!
Phew lots of grunts in this fight. Oh purlease, when will it end.
Finally Lee lands a reasonable punch. Stuns Eddinger, and manages to get in another punch to finish him off.
Eddinger ends the fight face down in a water trough. That’s poetry right there. 
Not just because baddies should drink from water troughs but because this reminds me of how the baddie in Murder Between Friends (Tucker) ended his fight with Lee – also supposedly at this very same mansion. Face down in the cake haaaaa!
Lee being the good guy pulls Eddinger out, and in rushes Billy and Francine to finish things off. [i.e -take the dirt bags downtown!]
(Lee re-joins Amanda, shoving a subdued Eddinger in front of him.)
Amanda (to Lee): You OK?
Lee: Yeah. But I think this fella’s luck just ran out.
[That line is a real clunker. I kinda wish they’d said nothing!]
It’s tag time!!!!
Harry: Can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.
Dotty (shrugs): You’re safe. That’s what I wanted.
Harry: Oh, I’m more than safe. I’ve had a second chance, thanks to Mr Van Hagen. There are no charges against me, and I’ve got a job waiting for me in Europe.
[What?! Harry is leaving??????!!!!!]
Dotty: Oh Harry. It’s wonderful. I mean, you’re going to be living in Gstaad, and… and you’re going to be a Swiss banker’s chauffeur. I mean, you’re a very lucky man.
Harry: I don’t know about that. A really lucky man wouldn’t be going anywhere. (They both look sad)
[cue the sad music! I get what he’s saying, how can I be considered lucky when I am leaving you? But.. meh. it falls a little flat for me. Considering the big mess he got himself into, but then really didn’t have to pay any other consequence for. Okay okay, the consequence is that he doesn’t get to be with Dotty! But.. that stinks because she was all head over heels for him!] … Listen, after I get settled, maybe you could come visit me. Do you ski?
Dotty: No.
Harry: Perfect. Neither do I.
[the man’s got game haaaaaa. He may not ski but he’s still smooth! haaaa] 
(They look at each other, then kiss briefly but very sweetly. Harry strokes Dotty’s arms. Dotty looks sad.)
Harry (gently): Bye, Dotty.
(Harry leaves. Dotty pauses a moment.. and is joined by Phillip..)
Phillip: Hey, Grandma, you all right?
[well knock me over with a feather. Phillip gets a moment where he’s a good young man! I think this is a first! lol.]
Dotty (tearily): Yeah… I’m fine.
(They walk into the kitchen, Dotty sniffs, collects something off the tv [a good dictionary maybe?!] and sits on the sofa.
Amanda walks in, and sits on the sofa.) 
Amanda: Oh, come on, Mother, don’t look sad. It’s not the end of the world. You’ll see Harry again. (She sits on the couch and Dotty joins her.)
[Maybe it’s just me but this line from Amanda bugs me. It may not be the end of the world, but give Dotty a moment to process feeling like it is! And.. I kinda suspect she won’t see him again – it was just talk to ease the goodbye.]
Dotty: Huh. Maybe… but it won’t be the same. You know, when the moment’s gone, it’s gone.
[Soooo this man who she felt a magical connection with, like she did with Amanda’s father- it was just a moment and then it’s gone?! Ummm.. help???]
The doorbell rings.
Amanda (quietly): Oh
Phillip: I’ll get it. [lol so that’s why Phillip is in this scene haaaa]
Dotty: Amanda, let me give you some advice. If you ever find that you have a good thing going, don’t hesitate. 
[yeah!!!! with Lee don’t hesitate!]
Amanda smiles tenderly at Dotty.
Lee (off-camera): Hi, you must be Phillip.
(Amanda looks around, then starts walking towards the front door.)
Phillip (off-camera): And you work with my mom?
Lee (off-camera): Yeah, Lee Stetson.
Phillip (off-camera): Phillip King.
Amanda: Hi, come on in (she smiles and holds out her hand to Lee).
Lee: Hi.
Amanda: Hi.
(Lee takes Amanda’s hand briefly and then lets go. He walks toward Dotty, holding a large bouquet of flowers behind his back.)
Dotty: Well… Mr Stetson. I’m surprised. Er, I mean, I’m delighted.
Lee (raising his hand in a “stop” sign and then placing it on his chest): Would you please call me Lee?
Dotty (surprised): Oh, uh, of course, Lee.
Lee: All right. (He produces the flowers from behind his back.) These are for you.
Dotty (looks charmed and glances at Amanda who smiles broadly): Well… Thank you.
[So um this is super charming and all but, umm why is Lee giving Dotty flowers?! is this a custom I don’t know about? I mean clearly it wins her over and is an awesome move but help me out here peeps?] 
Lee (to Amanda): You ready to go?
Amanda: Yeah. Let me just grab my coat.
Lee: OK.
[Lee cannot contain his massive smile! Adorable!!]
Dotty: Is this, ah-uh, another premiere?
[someone needs to tell Lee he has already spilled something on his tie. I mean what is that pattern?!] 
Lee: No, just dinner.
Dotty: Dinner… Dinner. That’s nice.
(Amanda reappears. Lee looks very happy and gives a huge smile to Amanda and then to Dotty.)
Amanda: OK.
Dotty: Have a wonderful time.
Amanda: See you later, Mother.
Lee: Bye-bye (to Dotty). Bye, Phillip.
Phillip (off-camera): Bye.
(Lee and Amanda disappear towards the front door. Dotty gazes after them, and looks down at the flowers with a smile. She smells them and looks thoughtful.) 
The episode finishes here….
I cannot wait to hear your thoughts when you have time to share! I understand this post is being published at a very busy time of year, so no rush but please share when you can if you like!
I think they are going for a vibe of: isn’t romantic love great – don’t hesitate to take risks and pursue love!
I look at Lee and Amanda here at the end and I think to myself – wow. They are really owning their relationship and wearing their heart on their sleeves now huh. It’s kinda what we hoped to see right from The First Time.. only weirdly – I find myself thinking way too much, and not enjoying it as much as I thought I would lol!!! And.. its because of the flippin secret marriage and the rationale behind it. If you are going to be introduced to Amanda’s family as the love of her life and go on public dates and give her mum flowers – doesn’t that mean you are important to each other in a romantic sense? Sooooo is it really that much more of a leap to publicly marry?!
Earlier smk the writing IMHO made for a more satisfying whole in terms of the emotional themes and character’s journeys.. not that I’m an expert or anything I’m not! but… Dotty’s pep talk to Amanda about not hesitating seems dropped into the tag and doesn’t really flow for me.
Maybe this is because Dotty and Harry’s relationship didn’t gel for me. I’m going to finish up here though and let others expound on the plot lines in this episode way more eloquently than I ever could. What did you think of Dotty and Harry’s story in this episode?
What’s next? Ah yes, Santa’s Got a New Bag which aired before this one but we switched around – We will be walking through this ep at a swifter pace to celebrate the holidays… SGANB starts 18 Dec!
"Just walk with me.." 
I couldn’t root for the whole Dotty/Harry thing. I just can’t fathom staying with a guy after being conned like she was. I thought she was kind of idiotic in that regard. And I get that he wasn’t as bad as we thought, but still, I just can’t root for a relationship with a guy like that. I was thankful they sent him overseas. When I see her taste in some men, it makes me seriously wonder what Amanda’s father was like!
And don’t even get me started on trying to understand the logic with the whole Amanda’s family/Mystery Marriage thing. I was thinking about putting Man Who Died Twice after this and the Christmas ep as well, until I thought about the fact that Amanda says on that ep, “You haven’t even met the boys yet.” Plus we see on at least one ep after (Rumors Of My Death) that Lee is still openly hanging around the house. To say nothing of the fact that people have connected Amanda to Lee personally (even if they were wrong at the time) on both Dead Pigeon and Playing Possum. Plus Stemwinder and the KGB files. It’s a little late to try to distance themselves from each other. Not to mention that who says the KGB wouldn’t come after Amanda’s family to get to her, even if she wasn’t involved with Lee? She’s an agent too.
Personally, I think Lee and Amanda overreacted when it came to thinking they needed a secret marriage. I don’t think it was necessary — I highly doubt every secret agent retires from the field just because they have a spouse and kids. I think the writers wanted to keep the secrecy somehow of the past two seasons, but all they had to do was just let Lee and Amanda get married and then have both of them hiding their careers from Dotty! It would have been hilarious.
The only possible explanation I can come up with is that the scripts were written so closely together that the writers behind Santa and this ep didn’t realize there was a secret marriage being planned. So by the time they got to Rumors, it was kind of, “Oh well, we have Lee having met Amanda’s family already — nothing we can do.”
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One thing’s for certain. Leatherneck would never have put The Agency transmitter in the tail light.
After all the times Lee trampled down her flowers outside, Dotty deserves way more than one measly bouquet of cut flowers! Also, Lee’s bright smile for Dotty is because they acted together in 1976 on “How the WEST was Won.” I figure that’s why S&MK gave Dotty’s character the last name WEST.
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I love the tag. I think it was incredibly sweet of Lee to bring flowers to Dotty. He knew she would be hurting, and he was comforting her – a trait that I really love in Lee.
His smile brightens the whole room. The grin he gives Amanda when she comes back with her coat shows he’s totally in love with her. They both light up. They look so good together.
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Without getting into other reasons (but I will more fully in a few months), this episode among others is why I would have put “The Man Who Died Twice” and the decision for the Stupid Mystery marriage after the Christmas episode. A little more of a sense of anticipated happiness snatched away and less of these odd family scenes and obvious dating.
I really love Dotty in this episode – Beverly Garland just does such a great job of walking the tightrope of humour and heartbreak.
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I’ll toss in my two cents about the secret marriage and the writing… It’s disappointing and kind of frustrating. The Season 4 arc (so far) feels kind of forced when it really doesn’t need to be! Just let them have fun with each other and with Lee getting to know the family – the “secret” stuff can be about their jobs.
I have much more clear memories of the end of Season 3 and the first half of Season 4 from watching when they originally aired, so these episodes are dear to my heart… But after doing a full re-watch (up through Mission of Gold so far), they don’t ring nearly as special. Which isn’t to say they’re not still a load of adorable fun. It’s just been interesting to zip through the episodes during this “stay at home” year to really get a sense of how the show started, found its footing, really gelled, and then evolved as Lee and Amanda’s relationship got to this step.
Anywho… On Lee bringing Dotty flowers – I think he just wanted to do something nice, knowing that she’d been through a really rough time. (what a guy!) The close ups on Beverly Garland are fantastic – her face looks so sad.
And YAY for Phillip checking on Dotty. He looks so much the 80s teenager here! Are those Vuarnets around his neck?
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I’m in complete agreement here peacockdancer… Characters in costume bonus points! Where is Fred? And Harry and Dotty may have chemistry (not that I really saw it), but he’s kind of a doofus. And not in an innocent “I stumbled into something I shouldn’t have” way! Not exactly an upstanding guy!
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Now for some over-thinking on the relationship side of things…
No, it is not. I’m in total agreement with you, iwsod. This makes no sense at all. Nothing about the “mystery marriage” makes much sense to me, and this scene is less satisfying as a result.
I guess I can accept the premise that being openly married and living as a family could place Amanda’s children marginally more at risk of being kidnapped or otherwise harmed by Lee’s enemies than they would be if Lee and Amanda are “just” boyfriend-girlfriend. Maybe. But come on – the risk is only marginally different, especially when other intelligence agencies are already aware they are partners. I would think the very slight increase in risk would be far outweighed by the joy that comes in living openly and honestly as a loving family, protecting each other, with supportive colleagues watching your backs.
I had thought the “mystery marriage” meant keeping their relationship secret from everyone (“the softball games in the backyard are gonna have to wait”). But now it seems they are changing the rules, at least where Amanda’s family is concerned. Which – great, the “rules” were stupid – but they should at least acknowledge that they have changed their minds about what exactly their secret is and who they are keeping the secret from.
As it is, it seems really weird for Amanda to only now be introducing Lee to her family as her romantic partner, with no explanation for the audience as to why they have suddenly decided this is okay. If it was always okay for her family to know they are a couple, then introducing Lee to the boys should have happened much earlier. At the very least, it should have been their first order of business after getting engaged (not planning a secret vacation).
Somehow, Amanda and Lee have talked themselves into believing that by marrying in secret, they will be undertaking a noble “sacrifice” to protect the family. To me, it is starting to seem like they are selfishly denying the hard but obvious truth that they need to face. Their jobs are extremely dangerous, especially Lee’s. Both of them decided a long time ago that they are willing to live with that danger – for themselves. But if they truly believe their jobs place the children in unacceptable danger, then the logical way – indeed, the only way – to make them meaningfully safer is to quit those jobs. Not by getting married in secret. I feel like the writers have written themselves into a hole here, and they are making Lee and Amanda’s choices very difficult to rationalize.
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Some Observations:
Yay for Francine as the craps dealer! Any episode where a main character gets to wear a costume gets bonus enjoyment points from me.
Yes, “boxcars” is double-six on the dice. The odds of rolling boxcars are only 1 in 36, and the payout in craps is 30 to 1 (you win 30 times what you bet). Amanda is using weighted dice – that’s Francine’s job as the undercover dealer – to pass the trick dice to Amanda.
I love that the Agency took over the whole Kenley Club. It’s always fun when we get to see a larger team than just Lee and Amanda working undercover. I also wish there were a few more recurring agents that we could see from time to time, beyond just Francine and Billy. Whatever happened to Fred Fielder?
The thousand-dollar bills are funny. The U.S. stopped printing thousand-dollar bills in the 1940s and started removing them from circulation in 1969. How does this bad guy have so many of them? He must be a collector. (Except, real $1000 bills do not look like these bills in the money stack.)
I pretty much always find myself cringing when Lee and Amanda try to use fake accents in their undercover roles. They are often … not good at it. What is going on with this on-and-off New Jersey/Italian American accent that Amanda is suddenly employing? Is this the Sopranos? LOL.
Harry seems to have a nice personality, but in no way is he anywhere good enough for Dotty. He is an illegal gambler who lies about his identity! I wish they could have made him more… upstanding.
I love that Harry is now going to end up with a job in Gstaad. It immediately made me think of Service Above and Beyond, when Amanda inadvertently blew her cover as Victoria Greenwich by failing to familiarize herself with the Gstaad snowfall history. Her nemesis city!
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