My goodness. Here we are – the final episode of SMK! I can’t believe we made it… I’m glad we did, it’s been a fun ride, and I’m looking forward to walking through the show all over again with you!
I’ll post about what’s ahead once we’ve finished the walk.
For now, let’s focus on The Khrushchev List!
Thanks to Learjet for transcribing this episode for Operation Sandstorm, and sharing it with us all. I hope you enjoyed it!
A formatting reminder as we get started:
Learjet’s descriptions : (xxx)
My descriptions are in this format- xxx .. I think.. I haven’t been terribly diligent so just assume if it’s dumb it’s me and if it’s clever it’s Learjet 
My comments are in this format- [xxx]
I saw this episode a few months ago, never got to write it up and now I’m writing it up I’m finding I don’t remember much anyway. rofl. I have a few old notes from the first time I saw this episode that I may draw on from time to time..
If you would like to discuss anything I’ve not included from this episode, please jump on in and share, don’t be limited by what I chose to cover.. I look forward to hearing from you.
Starting off this episode, we are in the dark! lol.
Turns out, we are at the USSR-Finland Border and we see Harry Thornton there with a woman, sneaking around. Some guards are out patrolling and seem more interested in capturing a photo than capturing them. But once they are discovered it escalates into a gun fight, and see Harry and the companion cross a barbed wire line and run away. They pause far enough away for a joyful hug and kiss. 
Whooooooo I like where this is headed. Romance!
Back to Washington DC and Lee’s apartment.
[Do you think that’s Lee out the front of his apartment?! Maybe a scene we never saw?]
We hear Amanda talking to Lee from the other room, while Lee is trying to read the paper, and eat a breakfast which appears to be not so appealing to him.
Amanda (off screen): Mother and the boys are in the mountains for another day so we have another 24 hours to be Mr and Mrs Stetson. 
Lee: Ah. You know I shouldn’t complain, but our marriage is like…
Amanda: What?
Lee: I said, I know I shouldn’t complain but our marriage is kind of like working for the fire department – two days on and four days off.
(Amanda enters, in a long pink dressing gown, with a mug in her hand.)
Amanda: Oh come on. We knew what it was going to be like.
[More complaining about the secret marriage. Hmmmm sometimes people sign up thinking they know what it will be like, but find out it isn’t what they thought.
Not that Lee would rethink the marriage to Amanda, but rather how they are doing it.. Lee, you know what you can do about it if you don’t like it.]
They kiss.
Both: Hmmm
(Amanda heads into the next room while Lee continues to call out to her)
Lee: Amanda, ah, I really wish you wouldn’t go to all this trouble to make such a big breakfast for me. I’m kind of a light eater in the morning.
Amanda: It’s no trouble. Besides that, I’ve seen what you eat – day-old coffee and a stale roll.
(she goes back to the other room)
[BTW- Amanda is looking lovely in pink!
Uh oh. Amanda’s not listening. Lee’s telling her he doesn’t want it politely not that he doesn’t want to trouble her!
Aahhhh she’s trying to change things? no no!
I figure Amanda is used to nurturing those she loves with meals etc in the home… but Lee is not really looking for this at least not with his breakfast. Beef Wellington he can do haaa.. if it’s hot! with his wife! ]
Lee: Well, I like day-old coffee and stale rolls.
[Didn’t Lee say something at some point about not eating breakfast? anyone? I bet someone knows this off the top of their head!]
Lee goes to check the time, but realises he doesn’t have his watch on. He walks through the apartment, calling to Amanda.
Lee: Amanda?
Amanda is sitting doing her make-up as Lee walks towards the bathroom.
Lee: Have you seen my watch?
Amanda: Top drawer of the dresser.
Lee: Oh, I like to keep my watch on the bathroom sink. It’s…It’s waterproof.
Lee puts his watch on. [There could have been a gag here about how it also has an x ray function or something lol. Just don’t touch Amanda’s pens rofl. ]
We see Amanda searching her makeup bag.
Amanda: Have you seen my eye-shadow?
Lee: Eye-shadow? Uh? Yeah, I did. I saw it the other day. It looked all used up so I threw it out.
Amanda: You threw it out?
Lee: Yeah.
[I’m pretty sure Lee would not have been going into Amanda’s make up bag to check if anything was empty rofl. So she must have left it out for him to see it’s empty and toss it? but I get what they are trying for here… ]
Amanda: Oh, no no, that’s OK. It’s just that, you know, eye-shadow’s kind of tricky. It looks like it’s all used up but it’s not really all used up. If there’s even just the tiniest little bit in there, you can still use it. It’s probably good for, you know, another couple of weeks.
[Yeah Lee only really knows about guyliner haaaaa]
Lee: Yeah, I…
Amanda: It’s OK. Uh…
(Amanda rubs his arm affectionately. While Lee hunts around for something in his desk)
Lee: OK.
Amanda: What are you looking for?
Lee: My car keys.
Amanda: They’re on the table next to the front door.
Lee: Oh.
Amanda: Yeah.
Lee: I kind of like to keep the car keys right here on the desk.
Amanda: We’re having a little problem, aren’t we?
[Blind Freddie can see this. It’s kinda hard to miss. SMK writers are not being subtle!] 
[whoooo Virginia slims world championship series mug?! I’ve never noticed that before.. ]
Lee: Yeah. Amanda, I think it’s because I have been a bachelor so long, that I have gotten myself into habits, routines-
[Feel free to disagree but I don’t think this is a character flaw of Lee’s. Amanda moves into his space and starts moving things around without talking to him? I would be annoyed at that too!!!]
Amanda: Yeah, well, I have-
Lee: -You know it’s nothing. I was just being a little picky there.
[Nope. I don’t think he was doing anything terrible, and he wasn’t being all huffy about it. I thought he was being pretty good natured with her moving about his things lol. Okay okay smk writers I get it!]
Amanda: Yeah, and I – Yeah, I understand
Lee: Ok.
Amanda: Yeah, I understand.
Lee: Look, I’m sure that there are lots of things about me that, you know, that bother you.
Amanda: No…well, come to think about it, there is that little noise you make when you’re drying your hair.
[Do you guys find this exchange funny? ] 
Lee: Well, that little sound is, uh, singing.
Amanda: It’s very good.
Lee: Hmm.
He ain’t buying it.. so glad to see him smiling here about this tension.
haaaaaa Amanda knows she is busted.. and responds with a lovely big smile.. great to see her smiling like that and looking gorgeous..
Amanda: Yeah.
Lee: Hm-hmm.
Amanda: Well, heh. Maybe we need to really talk about a couple of these things, huh?
Lee: Mm-hm (Lee approaches Amanda)
Amanda: I mean not that they’re a problem.
Lee: No.
Amanda: Keep them from being a problem.
Lee: I tell you what, I will agree to let you keep the bedroom window open just the way you like it if you promise me not to hide my watch and car keys.
[whooooooo is this a reference to Fast Food for Thought and There Goes the Neighbourhood?!]
Amanda: I didn’t hide your watch and car keys.
[Putting them somewhere he doesn’t know about? = Hiding Amanda!! haaaa]
Lee: Oh?
[Lee’s enjoying teasing her… even when she is complaining about his singing.. now that is love..haaaaa..]
They kiss. Then the phone rings. Lee picks up.
Lee: Hello.
Harry (over phone): Lee, It’s Harry Thornton, I need to meet you at the regular drop, ASAP.
Lee: I’ll be right there.
Amanda: What’s wrong?
Lee: That was Harry Thornton. He wants to see me immediately.
The scene ends here. Harry Thornton. More continuity!!!
[Two weeks in a row of a former episode star returning!
Before I move on.. It’s good to see them turn their annoyances into a light-hearted exchange but after having so little of Amanda I’m finding I don’t have much appetite for them having conflict of any kind. Come on…
ok.. I figure the point here is that they are both doing things that mean the other person has had to change in some way the other’s usual habits.. But it seems to me more like Amanda is trying to change Lee.
I’m super curious to hear how others are experiencing this!!]
Uh oh. We cut straight from Lee having taken a call from Harry, to someone parked out on the street, listening to the phone call from his car. Uh oh..
Looks like he’s not just listening, he’s recording the call. double uh oh.
Lee and Amanda drive out to meet Harry. The vette pulls up, and Harry in another car pulls up a bit of a distance away having arrived from the opposite direction. 
Lee and Harry meet in the middle of the two cars, while the two ladies wait by their respective cars.. 
A friendly Harry and Lee reunion!
This line is a little ominous- Harry: As of late, I’ve discovered that no-one retires from this business.
[Oh nooooo this is not good when I want Lee and Amanda to break free and retire from the agency!]
Lee (motioning to Harry’s companion over beside the car): Ah. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the lady.
Harry: Christina Golitsyn.
Christina smiles. 
Cue Amanda and her massive shoulder pads..
[Whoa. Are they the biggest shoulder pads Amanda has ever worn?!]
Amanda sees a car approaching at speeeeeed.. she screams ‘Leeeeeeee!!!!!’
The speeding car starts shooting at everyone. Lee dives down into the bush, Harry gets in his car… and yells to Lee he’ll get back to him later.
Okay!
Harry’s car, and the baddie car races off too.
Back to IFF. Billy has a picture of Harry and Christina from the USSR-Finland border paparazzi!
I love how they posed for this stealthy photo!
Lee: Just an hour ago, someone tried to kill Harry and the woman in this picture. What the hell is going on?
Billy: That’s what the Soviet Embassy’s been asking all morning long. Our side of the fence isn’t too happy either. Everyone from the NSA to the CIA wants to know what a supposedly retired agent is doing playing tag with Russian border guards.
[LOL Lee seems to have a different photo to the close up]
Francine joins them.
They figure out their phones are probably tapped if someone found out about the meet. Someone with access to their files is involved but they can’t figure out who yet it could be too many people.
Billy: Francine, did you find anything on the woman?
Francine: I ran the photo through the computer and I came up with a bit of a mystery. A photo taken 28 years ago indicates that she might be Christina Golitsyn. Now, if so, she was Harry’s Soviet contact during the late ‘50s. She worked out of the Russian Embassy.
Lee: So, what’s the mystery?
Francine: Christina Golitsyn was killed 27 years ago.
Whooooooooo. So has Harry trusted the wrong woman??!!
You know what, I do not remember this plot at all. I just hope it’s less annoying than A Matter of Choice… and.. Suitable for Framing!
We find Harry and Christina at a house in the countryside.
We find out that it’s been years since these two were together. 
They were unable to be in contact due to the danger, so Christina had to wait for her mother to pass away before it would be safe to reach out to Harry.
Harry: Now, just remember, 24 hours from now we’ll have the list, and you can go back to being Christina Golitsyn again.
Christina: After what happened this morning, they must know I am alive. The Americans named on the Khrushchev List will not rest until they are certain I am dead with their secret.
Harry: When we find out who they are, Lee will put them out of business. [Love his confidence in Lee!]
Christina: I never should have put you in this danger. Even your friend Lee cannot contact you now.
Harry: Well, I’ll get in contact with him when we have the list. Just keep thinking how good it is to be free. We’re going to be spending the rest of our lives together.
A list with American names on it that don’t want to be on it.. Ohhh kaaaaay.
A car pulls up… some more reunions for Harry and Christina!
Harry: Meatball. You remember my old friend, Meatball.
Christina: I could never forget. This man stole the Bulgarian ambassador’s car right from under his nose.
Meatball: And this is Gretchen Stromberg. You might remember her mother, Joanna.
Christina and Gretchen hug.
Christina: Of course, of course. Oh. Your mother was one of the bravest women I know.
Gretchen: I can’t wait to tell her I’ve seen you.
Harry: Meatball will be our eyes and ears. Gretchen’s working with the GAO. She’ll get the plans and guard schedules for the warehouse. It’s just the four of us so we got a lot of work to do. Let’s go.
The four walk toward the house.
[Learjet identifies that the GAO is the Government Accountability Office- thanks Learjet!]
Oh my, Christina is wearing funky boots – just like Russians do in smk rofl!!!
Hmm lots of people we don’t know that Harry trusts.. but are they still trustworthy? I honestly have no idea!
Okay all. Time to pause! What do we think so far? Anyone else’s head spinning at the thought we are now onto the final episode and about to finish the first walk through SMK??!!
"Just walk with me.." 
I was very much hoping that they could have told Amanda’s mother, and Philip and Jamie that they were married. At one point he talked about buying a house for all of them, whatever happened to that idea? Maybe if she hadn’t Kate Jackson that is, hadn’t gotten breast cancer, maybe he would have Bought them a house ? Then they could all have been together as a family?
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Hi Mary Ann, welcome to JWWM!
I guess one silver lining is that we get to make up for ourselves how things unfold after the show!
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I LOVE seeing Cinnamon from Mission Impossible again! What a nice salute for the final episode — bringing “home” and out of the spy business an actress from one of the most iconic spy series ever.
Lee and Amanda even argue cute. They are so darned adorable! I could watch them over and over. I just don’t get her comment about his singing — Amanda was next to Lee and therefore heard his voice on both Long Christmas Eve and Fast Food For Thought. And on Long Christmas Eve at least he sounded great. (I couldn’t hear on the other). Maybe Lee pretends to sing Russian opera as a joke when he’s drying his hair or something.
And my blurb for the episode on my DVDs says “Lee and Amanda blend their professional and personal lives,” so my expectation watching this means a marriage reveal, right? That’s going to be in the last scene? We get to relax and know they live happily ever after? Lee’s comment at the table even hints how frustrated they’re getting with it, so I know that has to be foreshadowing. I mean, they wouldn’t put a line in like that and just leave us out in the cold with no resolution, right?
(I am posting this as though I’m living in the moment — I know nobody can answer that and I actually have seen the whole ep. Just keeping my reactions for what I was thinking as authentic as possible…)
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That would be interesting to see how it went. I only saw bits and pieces of this episode. Again, with the absence of KJ, it just wasn’t the same for me.
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What bothers me is that they aren’t wearing their wedding rings when “at home.” I really like the Harry Thornton character and that he waited so long to bring the love of his life to the USA!
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This whole secret marriage was just stupid to me. Again, they’re in the house, and yet they’re not wearing their wedding rings. This last season I really could not get in. Understandably without the medical issues of KJ, it may have turned out better.
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I don’t mind the Lee/Amanda conflict so much because they’ve had little tiffs throughout their entire relationship. I do mind that it’s kind of a weak tiff, largely because the whole secret marriage is weak. It could have been cute, watching them try to settle into life together and merge their two routines — everyone goes through that — even better if they were trying to do that with her entire family underfoot.
I didn’t see this episode when it aired, because the CBS affiliate aired a basketball game instead and the local station never bothered to air it at all, so it took until 1995 or something when someone sent it to me on tape. And I was so disappointed when I saw it, even though I was also excited that Barbara Bain was in it and I thought the whole spy story was going to be a great nod to her as Cinnamon Carter. But the whole thing is just flat.
What’s not flat in these two scenes is Kate’s wardrobe, shoulder pads aside. The robe is lovely and the green outfit would get a solid thumbs up from me without the upholstery (which is obnoxious, actually) because considering the era I think it was actually pretty classic: the color is great on her, the fabric looks nice, the cut of the dress or whatever is underneath is fairly timeless, and the belt is a nice touch. Her hair and make up are lovely.
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Okay, yes it seems to me Amanda is trying to change Lee. This secret marriage gets me. Amanda indicates they have some time before her mother and boys get home, so they can play house a little longer. This is just too stupid! Amanda cooks breakfast for Lee, it’s sweet, but she already knows Lee doesn’t eat breakfast. That was mentioned during the first season, episode twelve, Lost and Found, in the kitchen scene when Lee and his first love were up talking the whole night, Amanda walks in and sees them fixing their clothes. She brought over a poppy seed cake, she was told then, he doesn’t eat breakfast. Now about her moving his things, and the conversation between the two of them. They’re acting like two young people playing house for the first time. So, Amanda has stayed over at his place before, she knew then how he was, why would she start to move things? That whole scene reminded me of the movie, “About last night”, with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore. Those humongous Shoulder pads, I don’t know what’s worse, that blue shirt, or that hideous maroon sweater she wore during one of the last three episodes. They were both hideous, then again, given what she was going through Medical-wise, I suspect they put her in those huge shoulder pads so she wouldn’t look too much thinner than she was. Again, I am not a fan of the last season and not the ones she made cameo appearances.
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It’s great seeing Lee and Amanda in the morning just being them but the secret marriage was always a stupid idea cause the family was always safer with Lee in the picture,not hiding him away, Amanda does seem to want to change Lee but Amanda has always accepted Lee for who he is, unfortunately Lee mentions his aversion to breakfast in LAF, they’re clearly adjusting to each other and possibly not a smooth transition but he’s gentle with her and teases her,Lee has his routines and there’s nothing wrong with that but it’s sad that the writers decided to show how our of sync they are when we get so little of them together in the end of the series,Lee is being a good communicator, he’s become such a good man,oh what the love of a good woman does to a man,so he mentions a compromise and they miss,they both are growing and it takes time and let’s not forget they are very strong and stubborn people but they love each other so much and we got to watch that fantastic journey.
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