Hi Everyone! All set to walk through another SMK episode together?! Here we go!!!!
Thanks so so much to Clagjanet for transcribing this episode – for JWWM, but also for Operation Sandstorm. We salute you!!!
Formatting reminder! Clagjanet’s descriptions are in this format- {xxx}.
Clagjanet comments are in this format- {{Clagjanet: xxx}}.
My descriptions are in this format- (xxx).
My comments are in this format- [xxx]
All clear?! 
I’m going to aim to try and compress scenes that are not Lee/Amanda centric, due to time constraints on my part, but also because they kind of get bogged down in season 4 and it’s not worth it. I’ll see how I go with this and will be very open to your feedback guys! So please let us know what you think!
The episode opens with a night shot of a container ship loading or unloading, and then a shot of a different ship.
Down on the dock, we see a man in a DEA baseball cap talking into his walkie talkie. 
He says: Keep moving, Harris. Give the shooters a little breathing room.
[Is it just me or does this guy look really familiar? anyone? I don’t have time to go look! gah!! But if anyone else has the time or motivation: go for it! lol. ]
(A truck arrives at a loading dock watched on by a bunch of DEA agents in caps.. Clagjanet identifies the main agent as Agent Walker.)
[I thought agent Walker was always patrolling the IFF perimeter on foot! haaaaa.]
Agent Walker (into his walkie talkie): Coconut’s about to drop. Now you girls stay in your seats until the nose powder is in their hands or we don’t have a case.
[Whoa. I’m super confused by this code all! It’s soooo tough to crack. Like a coconut! What could the DEA mean by ‘nose powder’? gosh that one is gonna eat at me till I figure it out. –Sarcasm!-
meanwhile, I am not amused by the ‘girls’ comment!]
(There’s movement.. the truck is opened and a bunch of men jump out, and start loading it up.)
[Oh haaaa one of the men has on Lee’s two toned jacket. man that jacket gets around.]
(A limo pulls up.)
Agent Walker: Mr. Numero Uno, Raymond Peralta.
[those caps are pretty funny! Hey baddies!!! we are here… Hiding!! haaaa]
(A boring sedan pulls up and seems in a hurry. TP gets out…)
[TP??????!!!! Yep. TP!]
Agent Walker: Who the hell is that?
(TP gets in the limo.)
Peralta: Have a Havana. What’s the panic?
TP: I’m afraid you could be in for an arrest and confiscation tonight of such magnitude that you could make two or three of the national newscasts. {He takes a drag of the cigar Peralta has lit for him} …Definitely not the blend of the old Batista plantation. 
[Ahhhh TP and his props!]
Peralta: Not this time, Percy… [no batista plantation?! haaaa] ….I handled the security myself. Foster on the Coast is the only one who knows.
TP: Well, don’t exclude the DEA. Please, Raymond, inspect your confederate’s stable to find out who’s been feeding the Trojan horse.
[Ummmm… It’s not just Foster on the coast who knows – this TP aka Percy knows too!]
{Peralta nods and signals the chauffeur. The driver fires up the engine as TP opens the door and steps out. As he walks back to his car, the DEA agent is still taking pictures.}
Agent Walker: Stop them!
{The agents all scramble. As a gun battle erupts, the limo, TP’s car and the truck with the men all disappear into the night.} [Guess the bust is a bust. haaaaa]
The scene ends.
[What has TP gotten himself into?! On a first name basis with Mr nose powder?!! Is he working with another agency? Is he really a baddie? He does smoke, that’s an smk hint he could be a baddie no? lol. I can honestly say I do not remember this plot. but okay I do remember the general TP shenanigans but no details! I find myself strangely pleased that Agent Walker and his ‘girls’ didn’t get their successful bust! lol]
Moving on to IFF…
{Amanda and Lee enter, laughing. Lee is trying to evade Amanda’s hands a bit.} [hoooo haaaa!] 
Lee: Come on now. I told you! I’m not ticklish!
Amanda: Oh, come on now. Everybody’s ticklish.
{She turns and locks the door behind them.}
[Oh my gosh oh my gosh I had totally forgotten about this scene squeeeeee!!!!!]
{Cut to Francine, going through a file cabinet in the vault. She looks up as she hears Lee and Amanda from outside.}
Lee (offscreen.): Come on Amanda, what if somebody walks in here? 
Amanda (offscreen): I locked the door. 
{Francine’s expression now gets slightly panicky as she realizes what is going on.}
Lee: You’re asking for a retaliatory strike…. 
{He gasps as Amanda pokes him in the ribs again. Cut back to Lee and Amanda}
…AHH!!!..
(Lee pauses for a moment..) [ silent and deadly haaaaa]
…Ohhhhhh youuuuuu!
{He reaches to goose her back}
[I love the finger pointed at her ready to strike!]
Amanda: No, no, no! Stop it!
(Amanda swats at Lee with her paperwork to fend him off!
These two look like they are having a ton of fun! haaaa
Back to Francine in the vault and uh oh.. this sounds like it’s escalating haaaaaa.)
Lee of camera (again) : …. Ohhh you!!!!!!!
[Oh my gosh. The way Lee says this is soooo funny!!!! I think it’s even funnier when you can’t see him. ]
{Francine in vault girds herself to interrupt as the giggling outside the vault continues. As she goes to exit, she purposely knocks over a film canister. 
Outside the vault, Lee and Amanda look shocked and leap apart immediately. 
They give each other a glance then turn to the vault as Francine pushes open the door and exits.} 
Francine: Oh! I didn’t hear you come in!
[lol if they hadn’t reacted that way they could have tried to make it seem like there is nothing to see here but nope. they totally look like they got busted. haaaa!!]
…It’s, uh, it’s like a mummy’s tomb in there.
[Nice try Francine, try to make it seem like you could hear nothing in there huh!]
Lee: Yeah, you looking for something?
Francine: Yes, as a matter of fact, believe it or not, Legal sent down for a tracer on the old Dunlap file…
(Lee and Amanda share an ‘ohhhh yep. Dunlap!’)
…So I saved you the trouble of looking. I’ll let you two get back to work. 
{She moves quickly to the door and grabs the handle, obviously hoping for a quick getaway but the door is locked. She looks back over her shoulder…
with an embarrassed laugh.}
Amanda: It’s uh..
{Francine unlocks it and leaves quickly, leaving Lee and Amanda looking chagrined.} 
Amanda: Yeah.. You think she heard?
Lee: No, I don’t think so…
… It’s soundproof.
Amanda: The door’s open.
Lee: Just barely.
Amanda: You keep talking.
Lee: Alright… Amanda..
Amanda: Just keep talking. Talk.
{She goes into vault and closes door behind her}
Lee: Amanda! That is a blast proof vault…
(Inside we see Amanda can hear everything Lee is saying to her)
… It’s made of two inch boilerplate.
(Billy enters the Q Bureau, through that unlocked door haaaa… and he takes Lee by surprise as Lee was focused on the vault door)
Billy: Drop whatever you’re doing. That’s an appropriately dull suit.
{Amanda comes out of vault as Lee looks confused by Billy’s comment.}
[Excuse you Billy. Lee & wearing a dull suit is just impossible.. Lee makes a suit interesting and don’t you forget it!]
Amanda: Hello Sir
Billy: (smiles) Good afternoon Amanda… 
(hands Lee a piece of paper) …Dr. Smyth want to see you at the Orion Club. Now.
[uh oh word gets around fast! Dr Smyth know about Lee and Amanda already?! haaaa]
Lee: That’s odd. I’ve never been to the club.
Billy: Well, it’s not only odd, it’s a first. I’ve never been to the Orion Club. Nobody who has to work for a living has been to the Orion Club…
…If he asks you to stay for lunch, I hear that the French Dip is world class. 
[Billy knows the important stuff!]
Sooooo what do you think of Lee and Amanda’s little tickle fight? Do you think Lee is ticklish?!
He looked pretty ticklish to me!
What’s Francine going to do with this information??!!!
What’s this scene like in the script? anyone able to add anything here?
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!!
"Just walk with me.." 
New-ish reader and first time poster. I’m so delighted to find this site still active and people interested in SMK. It’s a fantastic resource!
As for this tickling thing, it was never my favorite scene, but I was struck this time by the contrast with S1 grumpy super
-don’t-call-me-a-spy Lee and this S4 endearing goofball. I think this shows how his defenses are down and he doesn’t care about external validation – or maybe that all the validation he needs is that he’s with Amanda, and she is happy and safe.
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Welcome Laura!! So glad you could join us!!! Sorry for the delay in approving your comment – should be no delays moving forward if you use the same details to log in moving forward.
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I’m so glad that the “walk” has resumed!
Am I the only one who thinks that Raymond Peralta bears more than a passing resemblance to Hans Gruber, the bad guy in Die Hard? Gruber was played by the late, incomparable Alan Rickman, perhaps best known more recently as Snape in the Harry Potter movies. Peralta doesn’t remind me of Snape at all, but whenever I first see him in this episode, I immediately think of Gruber. Something about the beard, the accent, and the voice make him seem strikingly similar to me, especially in this opening scene.
Of course I agree with everyone that the tickling scene is adorable and I would have loved to see much more of that type of behavior in Season 4! I find Francine’s reaction a bit odd, however. It is one thing for her to seem so ill at ease while she’s still in the vault — it is hard to tell from what she is hearing just how “compromising” a situation she is about to walk into! But once she sees that they’re just playing, why does she still seem so uncomfortable? In the past, when walking in on a near-kiss, the coin toss, etc., she has rolled her eyes at them and/or given them a knowing smirk. Why the change in attitude? What is her deal?
I will have MUCH more to say about the Francine subplot in this episode, but I will save that for later posts when the time comes.
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Perhaps Francine is off kilter having just been pranked with the fake break up and is now watching Lee save Dotty, spend Christmas with Amanda and now having sophmoric tickle fights in the office. And then to have her smooth getaway ruined by a locked door that ludly proclaims “we were planning to fool around in here”. I don;t think she’s surprised by it anymore, just still trying to figure out if Lee is serious or if Amanda is fantasizing about a real future with him.
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But the fake break-up “prank” hasn’t happened yet, right? That’s later in this episode.
It seems to me that given how long Francine has known Lee, and after all she has seen by this time — after Stemwinder, after Christmas (if she did know about that), and far above all, after what happened in Night Crawler, and seeing how much that affected Lee emotionally — I find it simply unbelievable that she would NOT at this point understand that their relationship is serious, and that Lee is in love with Amanda. I guess my question about “why is Francine acting this way” was rhetorical. I think she would not act this way, and her behavior in the rest of the episode only becomes less believable. I can write more about that when we move to later scenes.
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Doh! You’re right! I always think that happend at the end of Need to Know. I will withold my comments about what I think Francine’s mindset is until later too! Will be interested to see if we’re on the same page at all.
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I think Francine is uncomfortable because they locked the door (presumably she heard that) and isn’t sure what they are going to do.
And she has to walk into the middle of the situation, vs. All the World’s a Stage where she can easily close the door or back out.
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That tickling scene is SOOOO adorable! Oh do I wish we could see the outtakes!
And Lee is totally lying about not being ticklish!
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I like seeing the playful side of Lee and Amanda here too, not something we see much of.
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Although I didn’t see the whole episode (most of it), I think the episode is very cute, almost like high school kids or first crush. As far as Francine, I think it burns her up inside to see Lee acting like that. She still can’t believe that he has real feelings for Amanda, and not acting like the playboy that she’s use to him being.
Season 4 was a hit or miss for me. It was only a hand full of episodes I really like and watch over and over.
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Welcome to the blog juaneca!
whoooo I look forward to hearing what you think of future Francine scenes in this ep when we get to them!
I had never noticed she knocked something over on her way out on purpose so I’m grateful to Clagjanet for pointing that out!
Season 4 hit and miss? Yup! I think many share this view. Maybe at the end of season 4 we can take a look back at the season as a whole in light of this.
Sometimes the walk improves episodes for me… so I’m keeping an open mind about what my experience of the remaining episodes will be. Aka. I’m running an experiment! lol.
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I like a lot of S4 but I haven’t watched the last 4 eps, the Christmas ep, or Need To Know yet. I think the only ones I wasn’t very crazy about were Any Number Can Play and Billy’s Lost Weekend which I found a bit draggy.
And I don’t know how to feel about Mission Of Gold but I can’t get into that without spoilers.
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I like this cute little scene. I have other comments but I should probably save them for future posts for this episode. Lol
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HI Lauren, ‘cute’ indeed! I look forward to hearing your thoughts when we get to the relevant bits 🙂
Thanks for taking care not to jump ahead!
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I like this scene. Lee’s and Amanda’s playfulness is most welcome and adorable! I suspect Francine was gobsmacked at first and then the fun began!
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