Sooooo Francine and dodgy Stone are getting cosy again..
Next thing, we see a night exterior shot of IFF. 
Inside, Lee joins Billy in his office. He seems to have at least shaved, kinda? lol. but those are the same clothes Lee has been wearing since the night before. Aie. Lee! 
Anyway, Dr Pfaff’s questioning of the baddie has produced meeting place details that can help Lee get into Brody’s organisation.
Lee has instructions for how to do a meet, and it’s all set up for tomorrow.
Billy reminds him to go home and rest. Lee says he’ll do that but no one is really buying it. lol. He leaves.
We cut to the next scene, and find Lee sitting parked outside Francine’s in his corvette [Sure Francine would never notice that car!]
This would all seem a bit creepy except that this isn’t just about Francine at this point, now Lee knows Stone was on that flight, he suspects him of being a link to Brody.
Looks like Lee has changed his outfit which is a start lol.
So brace yourselves.. Let’s see what’s going on inside Francine’s apartment..
Hmmm.. So – ta da! this is Francine’s apartment I guess! 
uh oh… the fireplace is going.. aka – sexy times alert! 
This scene makes me want to gag. Peacockdancer I don’t know how you transcribed this!! Here goes:
(Now we are in Francine’s bedroom. Jonathan is standing by the bedside table, placing a cap on a small brown vial of liquid. His dress shirt is unbuttoned. He looks unhappy. He pockets the vial and checks his watch. Then he picks up another nearly-empty brandy snifter that is resting on what appears to be a giant ashtray. He uses a handkerchief to carefully wipe out the remaining liquid, then puts it back in its place.
The camera has panned out. We see Francine. She is propped up in bed, wearing a white satin negligee, her eyes closed. 
She is breathing unnaturally, not fully conscious. Her head bobs slowly from side to side. Jonathan sits down on the bed next to her, recorder in hand.)
Jonathan (whispering): Francine, can you hear me?
(Francine’s eyes remain closed. She mumbles something unintelligible. Jonathan holds a small tape recorder up to her face.)
Jonathan: I want you to go back in time. Forty-eight hours ago. It’s May 20th, eight a.m. You’ve just arrived at the Agency. (A beat.) Good morning, Francine.
Francine (eyes closed, mumbling as though she is dreaming): Morning.
Jonathan: What’s on your agenda today?
Francine (in a semi-conscious state, speaking very slowly): Uhhh… Eight forty-five… It’s the staff meeting. Morning report, briefing…
(Jonathan settles down and picks up the phone as Francine continues to mumble into his tape recorder. The situation is eerily reminiscent of SMK pilot “The First Time,” when Francine was drugged by Mrs. Welch. Hopefully she won’t get a bunch more of her colleagues killed this time. Jonathan starts dialling.)
[So true Peacockdancer, we’ve seen this before! SMK is really repeating itself!]
Francine (murmuring): Nine thirty… Have to meet … Dr. Dunleavy…
and the scene ends there..
[Well! I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say about this!!!
Warning- I’m pretty steamed about this guy!!!!
Soooo this Prince Charming is physically drugging Francine to get information to prove she is innocent and not a traitor? And, he’s doing it because he loves her?? and he looks really sad when he drugs her too.
– I have no idea how this was received in the 80s but this is super creeper abuser territory right here. It seriously makes my skin crawl.
The fact she is laying there in bed like that after they have clearly been intimate makes it even worse. She’s not even dressed properly and this is a serious violation of her trust.
I kinda hope Stone dies or at least loses a limb lol.
I suspect SMK is wanting portray Stone as a good guy misled. But seriously, this scene here is a bridge too far!
These days I’m guessing they would be careful to not put sexy times and drugging this close together in any way!
Aaaaaand to bleach my brain here.. I’ll finish up by noting Francine would look flippin hilarious in the mornings when she wakes up after going to sleep with all that make up on haaaaaaa]
The next morning, Lee is still outside.. only he seems to have realised the corvette might stand out so at some point so during the night he magically switched cars. cough.
While scruffy and gorgeous Lee is looking a bit worse for wear.. and at any moment I suspect he is going to give that famous line “I’m too old for this!”
Lee gets out of the car, does a few stretches, it’s all a bit random.. 
He walks around to stretch his legs and happens to walk behind some bushes when Lee sees Jonathan exit Francine’s place, 
and get into a car that was waiting for him. Lee tries to follow, does a U turn straight into a taxi he didn’t see. And he loses Jonathan. Oh boy Lee. You are too tired. You could have gotten yourself or the taxi driver killed!!! He’s making mistakes because he is too tired! And.. I guess this explains the random walk behind the bushes, he had to be out of his car, to run to his car and fall behind and lose him. whatevs. too soon to follow Jonathan or the plot would be over. got it.
I guess Francine would be still drugged up or she would have heard that prang right in front of her house!
Back to Brody and Jonathan. Jonathan has the tape to hand over to Brody..
but.. it doesn’t feeeeeeel riiiiiight!!! he doesn’t know if he can go on with this!!!!
Brody convinces Stone to continue (or gasp, it’s prison for Francine!), for Francine’s sake, and that they are almost finished.
[Stone is such a whiny little wimp. I cannot fathom what Francine sees in this creep.]
I just remembered, we had this scenario before in All the World’s a Stage! Mon Dieu Mon Dieu! Tony drugged Maria to get the info about her secret project or Tony and Maria were going to be killed!!! (okay initially it was to fund his play but he got cold feet tried to pull out and then the baddies just plain threatened to kill them both lol).
Yeaahhhh smk really is starting to repeat itself not just with the same old your jobs are on the line!! You have x hours to solve it!! kinda vibe..
But the romantic interest drugs you and steals your secrets for your own safety is clunky the first time much less the second.. gag.
Time for that meet up… and yep it’s a trap. Lol Billy is Lee’s back up?!
Brody shoots at Lee and the blond baddie from afar, and gets away.
Looks like Lee gets shot, 
and blondie is left in the most bizarre position for the ad break! lol. 
Ah no. Lee’s okay, he had a bulletproof vest on.. but blond baddie is in a bad way.
Lee: Listen to me. Brody never intended for you to live, you got that? Now, you don’t owe him anything… (Blond Bad Guy is close to losing consciousness. Lee gives the guy’s head a shake.) ..You’ve got two choices, you can lay here and bleed to death, or you can tell me what he’s after and I’ll get you some help.
[Ouch, actually that line is kinda brutal!!!]
Blond Bad Guy needs no time at all to think this over.
[which is good because he doesn’t have much left!]
Blond Bad Guy (just hanging on): Stone. Working the woman.
Lee: What woman?
Blond Bad Guy: Francine Desmond.
Uh oh!!!! The scene ends there.
‘working the woman’ – I’d say that’s a fair description!
Lee was already thinking that so not sure why the reaction, not a shock to Lee. but oh well maybe Lee is sad because someone died, and he has a big heart! Even though he wouldn’t get help for him unless he spilled! haaa..
Sooooo given they now have the (little needed) confirmation Stone is working with Brody, and has been targeting Francine, the agency will take a look at what she has been working on.. maybe move Dr Dunleavy to a different safe house location right? no biggie.. easy fixed!
Back to Billy’s office – France seems to have already been delivered the bad news. She’s had bloods taken already to check for drugs.
Francine tries to revert to ultra professionalism here to cope.
Francine (interrupting): No, sir, it isn’t, I have already submitted my blood sample to the lab, here are the cases I’m involved in (she hands him a folder), my resignation is on the bottom.
[Good on Francine for taking care with the cases she is working on. cough cough.]
Billy refuses her resignation, Francine gets into a tit for tat with Lee, and Billy cuts them off.
Billy: Hold it, hold it. (A beat.) This isn’t getting us anywhere. (Another beat.) I’m going to follow through on all of Francine’s cases. I want you two to take a walk and just cool down!
Lee and Francine head outdoors to walk and talk… Lee is a sympathetic and non judgemental ear here. Go Lee.
I think this is the most introspective and open we see Francine in the whole show! I cannot wait to hear what you all make of this scene between these two.
For fans who love Francine this must have been quite the moment.
For me? I am happy to keep Francine ambiguous and mysterious.. On her own she isn’t interesting to me, but what she brings to the Lee and Amanda dynamic is interesting..
Share your own thoughts please! I know many will not agree with me on this!
I’ll go with peacockdancer’s transcription here for part of this walk and talk..
Francine: Do you ever think maybe you’re just not cut out for this line of work?
Lee: Well, I do think that everybody has twinges of self-doubt from time to time. But I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do ever since I can remember. 
Francine: Oh, I wish I could say that. I never even felt I had much of a choice. My father… He wanted me to compete in a man’s world, right? So … I worked twice as hard as any man I ever knew. And I succeeded. If I hadn’t been so driven to please him… Things could have been different with Jonathan.
[Hmmm nope, Stone is still a wimp and it wouldn’t have mattered IMHO!]
Lee (kindly): Hey. You and I have known each other for a very long time, haven’t we?
Francine (nodding, quietly smiling): Yeah.
Lee (giving her arm a gentle shake): I just want you to know, whatever happens… I’ll be here for you.
(Francine smiles and covers his hand with her own, appreciating his friendship.)
Francine: Oh thanks. That means a lot, really.
They look at each other meaningfully for a moment. Then Lee breaks away, smiling.
Lee: Come on, let’s go see what Doc McJohn has for us, huh?
Francine: Yeah.
Doc McJohn? the military dr? I guess this is the result they are waiting on to confirm if Francine was drugged.
Well the scene ends there.
Do share your thoughts! Any gems in here.. Everyone?
Some interesting thoughts about women in a man’s spy world.. glad we hear this, though it all seems a bit tagged on and not very intentional. Might be just me but with this whole camera angle, all shot in one shot with one camera from a distance? Screams – let’s give Francine a touching backstory scene so we can insert an arc for her. Make something up about your dad and being a woman trying to make it!
I find this a very important message, and I wish it had been treated with more care. I am aware I’m being a bit negative about this..
So on the positive side of things – it is a treat to see this side of the Lee and Francine friendship in this episode, it is quite lovely – they really are close. No wonder papa Billy often calls them children!
Can’t wait to hear everyone’s take on this part of the episode 
"Just walk with me.." 
Back in the ’80s, I had stopped watching by this point, so it’s fun to (finally) see these episodes! There’s at least some interesting direction in this one, which perhaps I notice because I just finished watching Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which features a lot of long takes (where the camera just keeps going). That long walk with Lee & Francine is interesting in that it seems to be done in one long take, which probably required some extra camera work, I would think….
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I get why Lee was staking out Francine’s apartment – he was following Jonathan. It still comes off as a bit stalker-ish. Overall, I think Lee handled the situation with Francine very poorly. He was way too accusatory when he confronted her in the bullpen about the dirt he’d pulled up on Jonathan. He told her that Jonathan was on the same plane with Kleiner, but he never bothered to explain why that was so suspicious – i.e., that Kleiner had said he would be bringing an “outside contractor” on that same flight. (And Francine was probably thinking, why would Kleiner bring an “accomplice” on the same flight? It was a dumb thing for Kleiner to do.) Then he pulled out the CIA thing, but the fact that Jonathan once did civilian work for the CIA seems more exculpatory than incriminating, when you think about it. What Lee should have done was sit down and have an actual respectful conversation with Francine about his concerns, rather than just flinging accusations. If he had bothered to do that, maybe Francine would have been more on her guard and the drugging would never have happened.
For all this to culminate with him lashing out at her in front of Billy (their boss!) – with “it’s too late for objectivity – he spent the night!” – when she already felt completely humiliated – yikes. And then to say that he was following Francine in order to “protect” her from herself – please. He was following Jonathan because he thought it might lead him to Brody. All in all, this was not Lee’s finest moment, IMO.
Actually, it was very interesting to see Lee lose his temper like that. It reminds me of how he used to act with Amanda. I think part of it came from a sense of guilt. He wishes that he had been able to protect Francine. Maybe he could have, if he had handled that first conversation better. Instead, he ended up sitting in his car outside her apartment building all night while she was being drugged and interrogated.
But the conversation where Lee and Francine make up, and Francine confides in him about her doubts and second-guessing the choices she has made in prioritizing her career… That was wonderful. I come back to that quote from William Jennings Bryan: “Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” Here, Francine says she “never really felt like she had much of a choice” – but of course she did. She chose to excel, and to achieve. She chose to hone her talents and serve her country, and the fact that this ended up scaring off a mediocrity like Jonathan should be evidence that her choices were great ones. I hope when this is all over, Lee sits down with her to tell her that. And I certainly hope that she ends up dumping Jonathan to the curb. I expect she will.
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And Lee’s judgement is probably impaired because he’s overworking and not sleeping enough. What a cycle!
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Jonathan is a weak and gullible person. It is unbelievable that Brody’s henchmen (Chase and Vernon, I guess) were able to convince Jonathan that he, of all people, was the only person who could save Francine from being arrested for treason. He, who left her at the altar five years ago! Did Jonathan go into this thinking that he really had a chance of getting back together with her on a long-term basis? I think probably not. He loves her, but he doesn’t think he is good enough or strong enough for her (and he is correct). He wants to save her life.
We know now that Jonathan knows what Francine’s real job is: she is a covert operative who works for the Agency. Did Francine tell him that when they were still together, I wonder? The way that Lee told Eva who he really was? Or did he learn it from Brody and his men? I wonder about this because when he first telephoned her at the Agency, it was on the “IFF line,” and when they were at dinner he asked her how things were going at IFF. I wonder whether they were both using that as a shorthand, or whether Francine has never been fully open and honest with him about her work (as he has not been fully honest with her).
I said in an earlier post that I think this all happens at a time when Francine is feeling particularly vulnerable and lonely, which is horribly unfortunate for her. When Lee confronted her with the information that Jonathan had once done some civilian work for the CIA, I wonder if that actually reminded her, in a way, of Amanda. It might actually make him seem more trustworthy, not less.
Ha. The bedroom scene. Honestly, I rather like it when SMK delves into the seamier side of things. I disagree that they wouldn’t “go there” if this show were on today. But if I am understanding you correctly, iwsod, I think I see the scene a little differently than you, in that I don’t think Jonathan actually had sex with Francine before administering the drug. He is still wearing his clothes, and we know he spends the night. I think he was setting it up so that when Francine wakes up in the morning, she thinks she must have had too much to drink and doesn’t remember the night before. Poor Francine.
Actually, the one thing that really does upset me about the bedroom scene is the realization that we never, ever got to see Lee and Amanda in bed together. Sigh.
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Agreed and we were soooo close to seeing it because the coveted bedroom scene for Amanda and Lee is in the original honeymoon script. Alas, at least we get to read it.
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This is going to sound so silly but one of the things I hate the most with that is we don’t know who sleeps on which side on the bed. It makes it hard to visualize for writing fanfic.
Going from when we see them in bed by themselves:
– Amanda is ON the right side of Lee’s bed on Never Been A Spy but she might have rolled over
– On A Lovely Little Affair Amanda looks like she’s near the center
– When we see Lee lying in his own room on Eyes Have It and Unfinished Business, he’s on the right.
– He’s also on the right in the hotel on Fast Food For Thought
– And his body is turned to the right when he’s asleep in his hospital bed on Eyes Have It when Dr. Cretin brings the pills.
Based on that I assume Lee would be on the right and Amanda on the left. The only thing I don’t like with that is based on what we heard on Utopia Now, if they’re on their sides they sleep with their backs to each other. And I’ve heard a lot of husbands like to be closest to the door. But under the circumstances it makes the most sense to my head.
(And I’m working on a story where this actually matters a LOT!!)
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I think Lee would opt to be near a door in case he has to get up quickly during the night. Plus, he’s afraid of the dark (Flight to Freedom?). So a light source from a window or a hallway? Amanda’s more flexible and would take whatever spot is left. Snuggled up next to Lee is all that matters though, right? (Okay, I’ve digressed enough. Out of the rabbit hole and back to the episode.) 😉
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I would say he’s on the left and she’s on the right, mainly because like 99% of their embraces and kisses on screen Lee is always on the left. Figured if they had ever filmed a bedroom scene, they would have kept up this habit lol.
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I’m prettyy sure we do get confirmation that they slept together. Unfortunately.
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I wish I had more time to comment, but work is piling up. I’m still remembering this episode. Just re-watched it, and what I liked most was Francine and Lee’s friendship (almost brother/sister-like) and the brief sweet moments with Lee and Amanda. I’ll be back to comment more. But that shooting scene is somewhat hysterical. Blonde bad guy getting shot and falling back into the vehicle just doesn’t quite work. But the softer, more emotional side of Francine is an interesting change in her character.
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Until you guys brought it up, I really never thought of the awkward way the blond guy died. I was too focused on the scare we had with Lee! At first I thought he’d just dove for cover but then you hear him cry out and he doesn’t get up. And I LOVE the way he says “D*** that hurt!” This means Lee has been shot four times during the course of the series, since the bullet technically hit — it just didn’t break skin. He’s going to be sore for a few days! I’ve looked up Kevlar injuries for writing. (You should check out photos!)
P.S. If you want a really awkward GSW death, watch the opening of the old black and white version of Mata Hari. I shouldn’t laugh but it’s REALLY bad!
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I usually don’t like when the male lead is shown scruffy, but Lee…WOW!
I had a bad feeling when I saw that scene in Billy’s office that the meeting wouldn’t be a good one.
I wasn’t bothered by Lee’s stakeout at all. We know his heart and we know he has reason to be concerned.
Interesting house for Francine. Seems kind of modern for that time period. I think the interior was in a Mary Higgins Clark movie once.
I usually just fast forward through the scene of her and Stone. Just…no.
That shooting scared the living daylights out of me the first time I watched. I should add that even though you didn’t include a photo, in the earlier scene on the highway we see Lee pull up his jacket zipper and he doesn’t have the vest on in that shot. He sounded so sexy when he told Billy about how even if it was a trap, they had to do it to get at Brody.
Love the tender scene of Lee and Francine. It’s interesting to know Francine was kind of forced into this line of work and I love that Lee has wanted to do this ever since he can remember. And is it just me or does Bruce sound like he has a cold in this scene?
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