Sarah: 0:18

Hold on a 2nd. Hold on a 2nd. There we go. Okay. We're good.

Eric: 0:21

54321. Punch in the button. Yes. Go live or go no. No. It's go big or go home.

Sarah: 0:33

And on that note I'm ready to never work. Oh, sorry. Okay. Yeah. Alright. 3, 2, 1. Welcome to Steele watching, which is a podcast for Remington Steele fans. My name is Sarah, and I am broken.

Eric: 0:48

Oh, no.

Sarah: 0:49

Back back stuff. My back

Eric: 0:50

is really sore. Not fun. Yeah. I'm Eric, and my replacement toenail hasn't arrived from Amazon yet, but at least I can wear a shoe now.

Sarah: 1:00

That's good. Yeah.

Eric: 1:01

I mean, you It is.

Sarah: 1:02

We're we're we're still in sandal weather here, which is insane because it's October, and it's 30 degrees Celsius out right now, which is, like, I don't know.

Eric: 1:11

80 something maybe?

Sarah: 1:12

Yeah. It's nuts. So I'm still wearing sandals, but, like, you I don't think you're in sandal weather still probably. So

Eric: 1:19

No. But I I do when I go out, I wear a t shirt and just a a lightweight short sleeve shirt over the top of it is kind of

Sarah: 1:27

a Right.

Eric: 1:27

Yeah. Jacket. But yeah. No. We're we're we're definitely getting down in temperature, but, yes, the shoes are good.

Sarah: 1:34

It's It's good that you can wear your shoe. Yeah.

Eric: 1:37

Ouch.

Sarah: 1:40

Well, we are going to be talking about season 4 episode 6, Corn Fed Steele. And this episode 1st aired on November 19, so definitely not sandal weather. 1980 well, I guess it would be in LA. 1985, and it was written by Pamela Norris. So we have another female writer here and directed by Don Weiss. And I don't think I've seen Pamela Norris's name pop up before that I can think of.

Eric: 2:03

No. We had some some

Sarah: 2:04

emails Oh, we did.

Speaker 2: 2:05

We did. My bad. Okay.

Sarah: 2:06

So sorry. Yes. Let's pause pause what I just said. We'll come back to it.

Eric: 2:10

Take 2. Yeah.

Sarah: 2:14

So well yeah. You go ahead with the emails, and then we'll

Eric: 2:17

Oh, well, I was I was I figured you'd start with 1, I'd do 1, and then we Oh. Back and forth.

Sarah: 2:22

And I have to actually open my email.

Eric: 2:25

We're prepared.

Sarah: 2:27

We are totally prepared. 100% on the ball. No issues here whatsoever.

Eric: 2:33

Well, I'll tell you what. I will start with the post that was made in the Facebook group.

Sarah: 2:38

Okay. And I will find my email.

Eric: 2:41

This is from a listener, and they say, listening again. You stopped listening? Well, okay. Fine. Can I say? Listen while I walk my dog, and your podcast is entertaining. In Steele's defense, I just want to say that he did leave a note in Steele Your Heart Away. Yay. Another supporter for me. He left a note for Loris to say that he was leaving for a long weekend, but that he'd be back on Monday or something of that sort.

Sarah: 3:07

Oh, right. Steele, you heard away. Yeah.

Eric: 3:09

Laura mentioned it when she finds him. Also, Sarah and Eric, because it's been of much debate, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how long you think Steele was absent before Laura and Mildred started looking for him. How long were they apart? I ask this because this will come up in a comment I'm about to make on your post for part 2, which is probably already there because by the time yeah. We're we're recording several weeks ahead. So it's probably I haven't seen it yet. But what do you what do you think about how long it was before Lauren Mildred started saying, I wonder where he's at?

Sarah: 3:47

I think in my response, I was going based on a couple of things. Because I mean, you there could be you could do the obvious thing and just assume length of time between the season finale and the season premiere Mhmm. Which is about 2 months. Mhmm. But it was pointed out because I did I did comment in the Facebook group, and it was pointed out back to me that it's unlikely that Laura would let it go that long before she started looking. And I do agree with that, but I don't think it was immediate either. I think there was some time there specifically because Mildred had that whole visual aid that she was making about where all of the aliases that he used had gone. And it would take him some time, not just to get to all those places, but to get to all those places and presumably to find the information he needed to find if that's what he was doing. Or like we posited in the episode, he could have just been trying to throw people off the track and London could have been his eventual destination anyway, but we don't really know that. So I'm assuming that it took them some time to track his whereabouts and Mildred to build that little visual. So I'm thinking maybe 2, 3 weeks before or in between.

Eric: 4:54

Yeah. I'm thinking it probably was was a week or 2 before they started looking. My guess would be that if you want to accept the totally bogus theory that he did not leave a note, that he probably

Sarah: 5:07

Never gonna hear the end of this.

Eric: 5:10

Probably called Mildred at the office and said, Hey, Mildred, I'm gonna be out of the office for a few days. Don't worry about it. And Mildred passed that along to Laura and it would probably been after they expected him back or after several days of not hearing from him that they would start wondering, making phone calls or whatever to find out where he's actually at. Now the fact that the apartment was empty basically should have clued Laura in and probably started her looking for him immediately. But

Sarah: 5:41

Yeah. I wonder if she started maybe privately doing her own inquiries before she involved Mildred because she did feed Mildred a line about how he was off on a case. Mhmm. And those names were theoretically connected to the case, but she wouldn't have been able to hold Mildred off for long, I don't think.

Eric: 5:59

No. No. Yeah. So she probably started looking fairly quickly. Yeah. You're right. Probably looked started looking immediately before she wrote Mildred in at the end of a week or something. So, yeah. Anyway, you wanna pick 1 of the emails?

Sarah: 6:13

Yeah. I've got and then there were names, which is a I love the title of that. So this person wrote well, addressed you. Hi, Eric. Enjoyed your coverage of Steele Searching very much. I think they may be the last of really great episodes of the series, and they provide so much insight into the characters for us and also for themselves. I was glad you and Sarah spent so much time analyzing every significant aspect of the episodes. Yay. Because some people don't think that. Yeah. Well Those who can't see, I'm pointing to my shirt that says, you know

Eric: 6:45

Yeah. Too many unnecessary opinions. Too

Sarah: 6:48

Yeah. Anyway, sorry. On a more trivial note, you mentioned the use of the name Armstrong and theorized as to whether someone had a special connection to anyone with that name. It's certainly possible they do, but in this case, I'm pretty sure it's Mr. Gleeson just playing a game. There are 5 character names for Maggie Christie's and then there were none sprinkled without comment through these episodes. Lombard, Bloor, Emily Brent, Vera Claythorne, and Armstrong. Gleason seems to have been a fan of the book since he wrote the script for Steele Trap also. Thanks. Thanks again to all your for all your good work, best to Sarah. And this person is correct. I had completely forgot about about this. And it's funny because when I was 1st watching the series back when I was a teenager, I had also been reading Agatha Christie at the same time and caught this back then, but completely forgot it this time around. And Steele Trap is another 1 because they use names from, they use the same names, but there's also another, trying to remember the name of the episode, it's an early season 1 episode where they use a bunch of names from another Agatha Christie book. So, yeah, this happens a lot.

Eric: 7:53

Well, that's a good catch. I'd forgotten about it if I'd even made the connection. I it's possible I never did. It's been so many long so many years since I've read Agatha Christie that I couldn't even begin to count them with a calendar. She's she's a very heavy read for somebody who writes mysteries. But Yeah. Yeah. They're I mean, she's a good writer, but they're they're they're your typical English mystery. They're very, very Yes. Detailed and intricate and very, very it takes a lot of work to get through them.

Sarah: 8:28

So Yeah. No. I I agree with that. But oh, they're also they also like to use names from older movies because Steele, who we know loves to mention films as they've they've also had deaf episodes that are paying homage to a certain movie where they've actually used character names from the film. Believe that earlier episode, think it might have been tempered. The 1 with the video game company Mhmm. Used names from North by Northwest, I think. So yeah. They've done they've definitely done that, and and you're right. You caught onto that. I completely forgot about the Agatha Christie connection, but it is those definitely are the names from the book. So

Eric: 9:05

And then we had another email that says, I don't know how this works as far as viewers emailing you questions and you possibly answering them on the air versus privately via email. Well, try to answer them on the If air whenever we

Sarah: 9:19

we can,

Eric: 9:19

we We also respond via email too, if I see it after it. It doesn't sit there for 3 weeks a month. But, yeah, we also try to respond to it to acknowledge it. And if it's if it's something that's not appropriate to be addressed in the episodes, we'll address it there. But anyway, this can writer continues. I may be the only 1 confused by this line about Steele's identity in the 2nd part in particular. Not only are we still in the dark as to who I am, but I no longer know who I was. Well, isn't the that the point of all this that he's never known? Yeah. Kind of it is, but I think well, obviously, part of that is a reference to the fact that he is not the Earl's son. He thought he might be the Earl's son. Now he's not. So in that sense, he doesn't know who he is. And in a sense, he also doesn't know who he was because that's who he thought he was. And yeah. So he was looking for his past, thought he'd found it. That was taken away. And so who he was is gone, and and he was looking forward to being the Earl's son going forward. That's who he was now. That's not there. But there could be more to it than that. I don't I don't know. What are your thoughts, sir?

Sarah: 10:39

I had a I had a slightly different interpretation of it because I sat there thinking

Eric: 10:43

You've gotta be contrary.

Sarah: 10:45

No. I think I think your interpretation could could presumably be the right 1 as well. It it really is 1 of those lines that's very open to

Eric: 10:53

Any medic.

Sarah: 10:54

It's vague. Right? It's it is vague. And I thought about it for a little bit because the person who wrote this email is right. It is a bit confusing. But when I really thought about it, I thought he was maybe making reference not to he knows I mean, his past or lack thereof, is not changing. Like, he's had his the childhood he had is the childhood he had. That can't be altered. However, I think he had a perception of who he was prior to becoming Remington Steele. Gentleman thief, con man, adventurer, globetrotter, whatever that was. Right? He didn't he felt like he was the guy that didn't need a permanent space. He didn't need a home. He didn't need to be tied down. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed that freedom of or told himself he enjoyed that freedom of being able to go wherever he wanted, con whoever

Eric: 11:44

Be whoever he wanted.

Sarah: 11:45

Be whoever he wanted. Take on whatever identity he needed to take on. And I think that once he started down that road of trying to actually find his name, he left that behind. And I don't think he realized he left that behind until, like you said, he thought he was the Earl's son, thought he had this identity, turns out it wasn't his. And now he's sitting there thinking, I can't go back to that life that I had before. That's not me anymore. But I don't know who I am going forward. So, I think that's kinda what he meant, that he doesn't know that person that he used to be anymore because he's not that person he used to be. At the same time, his name is still a mystery. That's kinda how I took it.

Eric: 12:25

Although, you know and we've kinda discussed this before. His past is what he is, what it his past is what it is. He is what his past was. That's not changing. And and even though he doesn't have a name, a family history, all these other things that other people have. He doesn't have those things, but his identity in his past is still his past. That is him. It's his past. That hasn't changed. It's just his perspective and his outlook on it has changed and his the value that he places in it, having been that, has changed because now he wants to have some other value to attach to that past.

Sarah: 13:16

Yeah. It's literally literally what I just said.

Eric: 13:20

But I said better.

Sarah: 13:21

Only just said said Eric Lee.

Eric: 13:24

Yes. Now that we're done with all the preliminaries.

Sarah: 13:29

No. But those were awesome preliminaries. Thank you so much for the emails because we I I don't know about you, but I really enjoy responding to them. And I've I've listened to a lot of other podcasts that have slightly larger listenerships than ours, where they do like separate email episodes just because they get so much mail. And we've never really gotten that much mail to do a separate episode, but it would be you know? So I I do like when we do get the mail and we can respond to them because it's

Eric: 13:57

Yes.

Sarah: 13:58

Yeah. It's awesome.

Eric: 14:00

Alright. Where were we before I so rudely interrupted?

Sarah: 14:03

No. No. No. That was my fault. I you had mentioned the emails, and I was like, yes. We'll mention that. And then I forgot. So that was my bad. We were I was remarking on the fact that we had a female writer for this episode, which is different. Well, not different. Well, we've had female writers, but not a lot of them. I think there's only been the the writer for for Vintage whose name is is escaping me, Susan something.

Eric: 14:30

Baskin.

Sarah: 14:30

Baskin. That's it. And then Robin Bernheim and Stephanie, and then this woman here, Pamela Norris. I think those are the only female writers I can think of. We had a female director Mhmm. Gabriel Beaumont, but I don't think we've had I think those are all the female writers we've had. So yay. And I feel a little bad for my for the way I feel about this episode. And I think it's only because I don't dislike it. I don't hate it or anything. But it's 1 of those episodes that I completely forget exists until I watch it. And I think it's because I I think it's because it's sandwiched between 2 really strong episodes. We had Forged, which I really enjoy. And the next 1 is premium, which is 1 of my favorites of the whole season. So I think this 1 just kinda gets the short end of the stick for me because it's kind of it's not bad. It's just stuck in between 2 really good episodes.

Eric: 15:19

It's it's like a person who's 6 foot tall looking short because they're standing next to a person who's 6 7 and 6 8.

Sarah: 15:26

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That's that's pretty even check because it's a good episode. It just it's between 2 really good episodes. So Yeah. Anyway, so I went with the TV Guide synopsis. Laura and Steele get caught up in a feud between corporate and family farmers when they try to find the swine who stole$2,000,000 worth of prize breeding porkers. And I do love all the pig puns. I have to say that's why I chose the the TV guide synopsis because I was like, the swine who stole 2,000,000 porkers? Come on. That's that's fun.

Eric: 15:55

Well and and, of course, during the course of this episode, somebody's out there telling porkies.

Sarah: 16:01

That's true. That's good. So there were some notes, in Judith's book, which is where I got the TV Guide synopsis. And 1 of the notes was the original price of $75,000 was reduced in this episode to 55,000. And sorry, that was the only note. The other note is 1 added by me because Harry Greiner or Groner, I'm not sure how you pronounce his name, is in this. He plays Preston from AgriTek. And it when you get that far, you will know him as the mayor of Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So

Eric: 16:32

I'd seen him before, but I couldn't place it.

Sarah: 16:34

Yeah. He is the e Yeah.

Eric: 16:36

I haven't gotten that far in Buffy. So

Sarah: 16:38

Yeah. The the evil mayor Buffy. But it what's funny about him is that he has this quality to him as an actor, and I've I've seen him everything I've seen him in, he has the same sort of quality because I've seen him in a few things. And he comes across as very sort of affable, likable, sort of nice guy persona. And that's the he he is in this episode. That's kinda his how he comes across, almost trying too hard to be light. And that's pretty much his persona on Buffy 2, only he's an evil demon that's immortal. So

Eric: 17:15

it really works. I guess the thing that kind of struck a chord with me is that in some ways, he reminded me of Jarvis, the actor who played Jarvis. And so I think that might've been the connection I was making in my head because when I looked at his credits, I didn't see anything listed that I could say, oh, yeah. I remember he was in that 1. This was there there was none of that. Yeah. None of the shows that were listed.

Sarah: 17:43

He's done some Star Trek. He's done some other sci fi stuff.

Eric: 17:47

Okay. Maybe it was in Star Trek. Maybe I missed that.

Sarah: 17:50

Yeah. He's been in Star Trek. He's been but like I said, it's usually bit parts. He'll he'll appear in an episode like this. Right? Mhmm. But except for Buffy where he was a regular on the entire season. But yeah, he always has that same sort of Jarvis y quality to him. And it works really well when you're an evil demon. Because he's so polite about it. He's just so nice about it. And here he's just so nice too. And he's so young here. It's just crazy seeing him so young. So, yeah, he's he's he's wonderful. And I really like him as a an actor. And he's in this episode. And that's 1 other thing I always forget. He's in this because when I went to watch it, I was like,

Speaker 2: 18:24

oh, yeah, there's the mayor. So,

Sarah: 18:28

yeah. We so the opening scene and I may need some help with some of the the stuff in this episode because there's a few things where I'm like, I don't know what that is or what to call it. This sounds crazy for me because I grew up in, well, I was born in in London, Ontario, which is a lot fairly it well, it's a large city by Canadian standards. When I say it's like 500,000 people, to many Americans, that's gonna sound like a small city. But for us, it's the 10th largest city in the country. So that's kind of I it's it's a a a middle sized city. But we moved when I was 10 to a small little village just outside of London called Belmont, where the population was like 2,000 people, maybe. And it was a rural area, and there were a lot of farmers and farms and stuff. So theoretically, I should know stuff about farms and farming because a lot of the students at my schools took the 1st week off for the tobacco harvest every year because that's what was the big farming thing. Right? Mhmm. I don't know what these machines are. So I'm gonna just say this right up front. I'm gonna have trouble with some of this. We start

Eric: 19:36

out would not be in my job.

Sarah: 19:37

Okay. It's night and we see a compound. I thought it was a compound. It turns out this is the progressive farms. But initially, when I wrote the notes, I was like, a compound of some what is this place? A security guard walking the perimeter. And just as they walked by, we see a shadowy figure outside the fence watching. Turns out this is Mel, which we find out later. The guard goes over to the booth, and the man cuts his way through the fence, runs over to hide behind a wall. We see him, And this is the thing, the hatch. He goes into the silo. Correct?

Eric: 20:07

Yeah.

Sarah: 20:08

How the heck does he get from the silo into because we see him come out a door. Is there a way into the farm through the silo? This is the part where I don't understand farms.

Eric: 20:20

That's what they're implying, but it really doesn't make that much sense

Sarah: 20:27

to me. Okay. So it's not just me.

Eric: 20:29

No. Mean, silo is generally for storing grain.

Sarah: 20:33

That's what I It

Eric: 20:35

comes in the top. It comes out the bottom. Kinda like your digestive system. Yes. You can

Sarah: 20:40

in and out. Yeah.

Eric: 20:41

Yeah. And, I mean, they're they they've got I think they've got hatches in there so that you can get in to inspect them from the ground level as we see. But but there's there's no. There's no secret tunnel

Sarah: 20:56

Okay.

Eric: 20:56

That you used yeah. No. This is where I

Sarah: 20:59

was confused because I was watching it thinking, okay. He's gone into this what we find out later is the silo, and then we see him coming out of a small hatch and or a door of some kind into the the room where the pigs are. And and I I thought, what? How? Where did he the only thing I can think of is maybe there was another scene because we don't have a script for this or at least I couldn't find 1.

Eric: 21:22

I couldn't either.

Sarah: 21:23

And the only thing I can think of is maybe there was another scene that got cut where we see him hiding in the silo until the guard is out of sight, and then he comes back out and goes in the building somehow.

Eric: 21:33

That would make more sense.

Sarah: 21:34

But we don't see that happen. So if we just see him, yeah, inside this room with all that machinery and then the pigs, He turns the light on, and we see a pen full of pigs inside what looks to be an incredibly sterile space for farm animals. He grows

Eric: 21:51

Well, I mean, they're scientific experiments. So

Sarah: 21:53

Yeah. They

Eric: 21:53

are. So they're gonna wanna control the environment, which raises a question

Speaker 2: 21:57

Yeah.

Eric: 21:58

Later on, not too far in the distant future.

Sarah: 22:01

Fair enough. Yeah. So we he grins in satisfaction, and then we switch scenes. At the office now, the only criticism I have about this episode, we'll get into a little later, but it starts here. Mhmm. We get Laura doing paperwork, still staring out the window, waxing poetic about how close they are to the ocean and how they never get to see it. It's obvious that he's trying to convince her of something. And I thought initially, because I had forgotten all about the boat side plot. So initially, I thought he was just trying to get her to go to the beach to see that red bikini again. But, turns out not so much. But what's funny about this scene is, of course, he's he's clearly driving this bus, and Laura's not even she she's not even getting on it. She's not

Eric: 22:47

even She's not even at bus stop.

Sarah: 22:49

No. She's not. She's like completely ignoring her, except for the or him. Sorry. Except for where he mentions the beach and she's like, there's binoculars in the drawer. Yeah. Just come totally oblivious to the fact that he has it's almost like and I couldn't quite figure out if at 1st, I thought she was doing this intentionally. And then later on in the scene, it looks like she just genuinely wasn't really paying attention to him. But it's almost like a parent who has a kid come up that's, like, wanting candy, and they're trying to you know, mom

Eric: 23:24

telling you a story.

Sarah: 23:25

If I don't eat every so often, I get kinda weak, and I feel kinda weak now, and there's some chocolate on the fridge, and maybe if I had some chocolate, I wouldn't you know, she's just over her head, not even acknowledging the fact that he's trying to get somewhere with this. He ignores her comment. He tells her that they need somewhere to entertain clients. An open setting with sea breezes perhaps. This is where he leans over her pretending to be puzzled and says, but where? When Laura doesn't respond, he continues as if coming to this conclusion on his own, they need a boat. He rhapsodizes about sailing on a tranquil sea days from civilization. She rises, goes topside in the salt fresh air to settle down and read the morning newspaper in the sunshine. And this is the only part where she starts to pay attention.

Eric: 24:17

Well, you know, the the thing is, at this point, it's obvious that he's not talking about a boat for clients. He's talking about another scheme to trick her into going away with him. And while he's at it, getting a free boat Oh, yeah. He wants

Sarah: 24:32

a boat. He just wants a boat. Yeah. So she bursts his bubble by asking, how do you get the newspaper for days from civilization?

Eric: 24:43

Tablets weren't invented by

Sarah: 24:45

back then. Which is a good point. That's right. So he and obviously, frustrated, Steele says, you can read a book, can't you? And that's where she looks at him as if finally seeing he again, this irritating child that's been poking at you, finally realizing he's there, and asked what he's drive what he's babbling about. He 's about to go for the hard sell when Mildred comes in. She stopped short and asked if she's interrupting something, and you can tell she's kinda nervous. Laura says, it's hard to tell. And Mildred, clearly upset about something says, oh, I can come back later. Laura asked if it's important, and hesitantly, Mildred says, new client? Laura asked about the case. Mildred says, multiple kidnappings.

Eric: 25:32

You know you know, that's that reminds me. It just when you said that, it just reminded me. There's an old, I guess it was probably a joke, but Brad Paisley turned it into a song about a guy who buys really expensive cigars. You know, these hand rolled Cuban cigars that probably cost him$50 a piece. He buys a box of them and smokes them and then reports it to the insurance as being lost in a fire. They burned.

Sarah: 26:03

That's accurate. That's funny. It actually made me think of that movie Homeward Bound when the I don't have you ever seen that movie, Disney movie?

Eric: 26:13

I've got it on my Apple TV media player drive. I I get a lot of movies that

Sarah: 26:19

Right. Yeah.

Eric: 26:20

Came from various sources that I rip and I put into my my Apple TV, and it's on there. I have not seen it yet.

Sarah: 26:25

Oh, it's a great movie. It's a great movie. You'll love it. But there's a scene where the whole plot of the movie is that this family, leaves their 2 dogs and a cat with a family friend of theirs at a farm because they have to go to like San Francisco for 3 weeks or something like that. They're coming back, but the dogs think they've been abandoned. So the dogs, like, jump the fence and try to go and find them. And then they end up on this long journey. And at 1 point, the boy goes to the police station to try to find the dogs. And when he goes up to the cop, he says, I'd like to report a missing family member or actually 3 missing family members. And the cop says, well, what do they look like? And he says, well, 1 is, has brown hair, that shadow. 1 is white with with black spots and the other is Himalayan. And he's By that point, the cop is realizing, wait a minute. This is this is not people. So that's what this made me think of multiple kidnappings. She's not wrong. But at the same time, she's not really not. Yeah. Not correct. So Laura insists they send them in and still gets up and moves her out of the way so that he's standing behind the desk. I liked this little subtle moment where he just kinda pushes her over and start shuffling papers.

Eric: 27:38

Yeah. To pretend like he's working so that it's clunky.

Sarah: 27:41

Yeah. Yes. So that they see him. Yeah. If you're shuffling papers, you clearly have a lot to do. They might be all be crosswords, but, hey. Mildred reenters with a woman and a man, Karen Steer, who is apparently a very fine attorney and Carlos Perez, an oral surgeon. Steele introduces himself and Laura. Laura asks if they're relatives of the victims. That's awkward.

Eric: 28:08

Yeah. Oh, the lack of information and what it causes us to do and say.

Sarah: 28:15

Exactly. Karen says very funny, miss Holt. And Laura, poor Laura, isn't sure how she stepped in it, but she knows she does. Steele assures him no offense was intended and asked him to tell them about the victims. Carlos says, what's there to tell? They're pigs. Laura now takes offense to this.

Eric: 28:34

If this is your attitude about these people.

Sarah: 28:38

This is like the royal bastard comment. This is I I like these these intentional may miss, like, mix ups. They're quite funny. Yeah. And he says, no. No. No. They're they really are pigs. Didn't miss Krebs fill you in? Oops. Laura looks over at Mildred who kinda cringes and says, apparently, not enough. So now the, pig is out of the bag, so to speak. Karen continues saying that she and doctor Perez are part of an investment syndicate sheltering income in progress of farms, an experimental pig breeder in grain I thought she said initially Greenville, but then I realized it was Greenville, which is a very on the nose name for a farming community, but okay. Greenville, Iowa. Carlos continues saying that 2 days ago, the pigs were stolen. The entire lot worth $2,000,000. Steele comments, that's a lot of pork. Yes. And Carlos insists it's not the quantity, it's the quality. The r and d that has gone into the quest for the perfect sow. And I kinda wonder exactly what they've done to the pigs to make them the perfect sow, because, I mean, aren't pigs pretty piggish on their own? Is there something that makes them extra piggy? Like

Eric: 29:49

Well, I don't know about pigs in general, but I know that at least with chickens, you know, there there's ways that they feed them to plump them up quicker. Right. And they've done some breeding things on them, and I imagine same thing has happened with pigs and cattle and turkeys and everything else. But they do, you know, breeding to try to improve the breed. And so they do selective breeding and scientifically controlled breeding and such. But, you know, farmers or animal farmers have been doing that kind of thing for decades, maybe centuries. Yeah.

Sarah: 30:33

Well, it's called animal husbandry.

Speaker 2: 30:34

That's

Eric: 30:34

the main On part. More unofficial I don't wanna say unscientific basis because there is some science behind it, but they're not trained scientists and they don't go in and do all the genetic testing and all this other stuff. They just Yeah. You know, they see things developing and they're able to see that, oh, if I breed this 1 with this 1, I'm going to get a few calves or a few pigs or whatever that are showing these more advanced characteristics that these 2 have by combining them. I imagine what is happening here at Progressive Farms is that taken to a whole new level.

Sarah: 31:11

Yeah. You've got corporate money behind it.

Eric: 31:13

Not to mention the fact that there's probably a little bit of early genetic manipulation going on.

Sarah: 31:20

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking too. I just wasn't sure how how what they knew or what what they could do at this point.

Eric: 31:27

What they knew and when they knew it?

Sarah: 31:29

Yeah. Exactly. Laura tries to let him down gently saying she's sure it's a blow to them, but this isn't the kind of case they normally handle. And it doesn't really seem that far out of there. Aside from being in Iowa, it doesn't really seem like that far out of their wheelhouse. They've located, missing animals in the past, and they've also located things that were worth lots of money that had been stolen in the past. So I'm I'm guessing she just doesn't wanna go to Iowa. That's my theory here.

Eric: 31:58

Or just doesn't wanna have to deal with pigs.

Sarah: 32:00

That's also true. That could be it. Yeah.

Eric: 32:03

You know, she feels like, I don't know anything about pigs. How would I even go about doing this? So, you know, rather than mess with it, just pass on it.

Sarah: 32:12

Steele adds that if he can give some impolitic advice, avoid colorful tax dodgers. They attract a lot of suckers. Yeah. Karen looks Steele.

Eric: 32:24

Stepping in it.

Sarah: 32:25

Yeah. Right? Karen looks at Steele and says, yes. 1 more than you might think apparently. And he realizes immediately he's not in on the joke and says that sounds suspiciously like a pointed reference. And Mildred, defensive now, says that he told me to diversify our portfolio.

Speaker 2: 32:48

Oh, no. Poor

Sarah: 32:50

poor Lauren Winces.

Eric: 32:52

Yep. I'm thinking that Mildred probably should have let them know before she she made the investments. Yeah. I'm say I'm I'm thinking there's a conversation that's gonna be happening here soon.

Sarah: 33:06

Yeah. I mean, this isn't the 1st time Mildred has done something with their money that has the casino in Cannes where she just blew, what was it, €200,000 or something crazy like that? Mhmm. I don't know if they're not euros. Euros didn't exist, but you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. There that probably should have been something that she ran by them. I get that they're trusting Mildred to do the financial investment stuff because of her IRS background. But even still, you'd think that you'd still wanna know what you're investing in.

Eric: 33:37

Yeah. You generally don't give somebody like that unless they're a professional investor.

Sarah: 33:44

Yeah.

Eric: 33:44

You know, like somebody who's managing your 401Ks or whatever, you don't give them just carte blanche to invest in whatever they feel like. Usually at this level, wanting some sort of You can make recommendations and referrals and we'll discuss it. And based on your expertise, we will probably defer to you, but we want to be the ones to say, yes, we are going to defer to you.

Sarah: 34:12

Exactly. Yeah. Because that's where Laura winces and says, you're not telling me these are our pigs. And Mildred insists they were a great buy 6 months ago, and she dipped into the discretionary fund. Laura asks, how big a dip? And Mildred cringes and says, $55,000. When Steele gets her to repeat it, Laura says, Mildred, that's a bath. Yeah. Karen tells him that they expect them as the only private investigators in the group to clear this up. Carlos says, yeah. If there was something wrong with the pig's teeth, he would gladly go in himself.

Eric: 34:47

No. He wouldn't. He's not a pig dentist.

Sarah: 34:51

I I I mean, I are there pig dentists? I mean, there's veterinarians, but I assume that veterinarian would cover the whole animal, including the teeth. I wouldn't.

Eric: 34:59

Well, yeah, they do. They I mean, they would handle the the teeth issues. They're they're that's it. You got the vet or nothing.

Sarah: 35:07

We call them vets, though, not pig dentists. Yeah. That'd be a great name, though. I'm a pig dentist. Anyway, Laura asks about the Iowa police, but Carlos shrugs and simply says, nada. Karen asks if they are not recover or sorry. Karen adds that if they're not recovered within the next 48 hours, the scientific basis of their breeding will be destroyed.

Eric: 35:26

I'm gonna take issue with that.

Sarah: 35:28

Yeah. I was just gonna say how.

Eric: 35:30

Well, no. It's already been destroyed. Once you lose control of your experiment, it's over because they've got to control the the every aspect of these animals' life, the the food that they get, the I'm sure they've got a deal that prescribes the amount of exercise that they get every single day broken down by the hour and amount and kind. And everything in a scientific experiment has got to be controlled because otherwise you don't know what other factors have been introduced. And so, yeah, basically their experiment is already destroyed unless they just want to paper over it.

Sarah: 36:13

Okay. Fair enough. I just my my confusion over it was the 48 hour deadline. I thought, what what is going to happen in those 48 hours that will that like you said, if it's happened already, if it's already like, is it the food that they're gonna eat? Is it

Eric: 36:29

Well, I'm thinking that that the 48 hour deadline is an official Right. Deadline after which the experiment is null and void. But again, that's just a matter of papering over the the truth. The truth is once they lost control of those animals, the experiment was over.

Sarah: 36:46

Fair enough. I don't think as for Steele, he doesn't really care as long as they get their money.

Eric: 36:51

They get their money back.

Sarah: 36:52

Right? Steele grabs Mildred, pulls her into the corner by the window of his office and says, to be perfectly clear, we have no liquidity, only swine in an undisclosed location. Mildred nods, clearly feeling awful. And he then says, so a check written right now from the discretionary fund would be a bad idea? And Mildred says, it would bounce to Mars, if that's what you mean.

Eric: 37:13

Why did she spend the entire discretionary fund? I mean, it it's that's kinda like the office slush fund where you it's it's emergency money. When you take something out of it, you use it for the immediate need, but then you need to replenish it so that it's there for the next time you need it. I mean, it's

Sarah: 37:31

Yeah. Well, I mean, Steele is also Steele is also planning to dip into said discretionary fund to buy his boat.

Eric: 37:37

Well, Steele's Steele doesn't care about protocol. All he cares about is I want a boat.

Sarah: 37:43

He does. He does. That's all he yeah. That's all he wants. Either way, like I said, he he asked her about a check written from the discussion. It would bounce to Mars. So now Steele is is on board with finding these pigs. He looks at the others and says, if they find the animals, how quickly could they sell them? Carlos tells them that he would be delighted to buy his share once they are secure.

Eric: 38:07

Okay. Which means that they're still gonna take a bath because if they're desperate to sell them, they're not gonna get offered the best price.

Sarah: 38:14

No. No. Probably not. He then says, by all means, let's secure them. He shakes their hands amid Laura's objections and sees them out saying they will be soon be living high off the hog again. I don't know why Laura like, she she tries to object here, and I'm not really sure why because this is her agency's money that will be lost if they don't get those pigs back.

Eric: 38:36

Yeah. There's the only thing I can think of is that it's once again making a decision about her agency. Yeah. Mildred's already made a bad decision about her agency and the and the contingency fund. But, yeah, here is Steele making a deal to take a case that she really doesn't wanna take. And he's just totally ignoring her despite the fact that it's her agency.

Sarah: 39:04

Yeah. I mean, they kinda have to take it though, or they lose a lot of money.

Eric: 39:09

Well, you know, sometimes sometimes it's it's less about the money and more about other things. But

Sarah: 39:16

anyway Well, when like, once the door is shut, he asks her if the agency can survive a $555,000 dollar write off, and she says no, Which brings me other questions later on because he if he says, the can the agency survive a $55,000 write off? Now, I interpret that to mean by survive, like, would this destroy us? Right? So he's asking, can we survive this? Like and she says no, which I took to mean that they need to get these pigs back or they're out of business.

Eric: 39:47

Well, the transcript we have, and I I don't remember the exact wording in the the video of the episode. The transcript we have says, can this agency withstand a 55,000 write off? Which is not exactly the same as survive.

Sarah: 40:00

True. I might've written it wrong, but I thought he said survive.

Eric: 40:05

But either way, I mean, if that's the case, if if they because this was supposed to be their discretionary fund. Yeah. That's not supposed to be their main financial basis, their their their foundation. So if the agency is in that much financial trouble, they've got a whole bigger problem to deal with

Sarah: 40:31

that they're not dealing with. A little the the episode is a little uneven here when it comes to the agency and and where they're at because later on, Laura makes that comment about the difference between the people losing their homes and them cutting back on luxuries, which is a very different thing.

Eric: 40:48

Right. Well, I can see how a $55,000 write off could seriously impact their ability to function up to the level that they have traditionally function. They may have to give Fred a very long vacation. They may have to sell the limo, cutting back significantly, which will impact their ability to do their business in the same manner they have.

Sarah: 41:14

But I

Eric: 41:15

just like I say, if they are that weak that a $55,000 loss from their discretionary fund is going to sink them, they need to be having other conversations with other people.

Sarah: 41:29

It it feels like the the agency's finances are dependent on what the script needs them to be. Because in some episodes, if you think about Diced Steele, for example, they couldn't get their hands on the money that they needed because they didn't have it

Eric: 41:42

Although, arguably, that was because of the time of day or the day of the week. But Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah: 41:47

But even still, apparently, they didn't have any more than a certain amount on hand anyway, and then the rest of it would have to be. So it seems like they're broke when the script needs them to be broke. And flushing

Eric: 41:57

their yeah.

Sarah: 41:58

Yeah. Exactly.

Eric: 41:59

They they can afford to jet set all around the world, but

Sarah: 42:02

Yeah. Yeah. Well, in this 1, they're jet setting to Iowa, so it's not really yeah. So then when she says no, he tells her that he suggests they start packing and save the bloodshed for later. Mildred leaves. Laura goes in her office rhetorically saying, pigs? And Steele rushes for his phone visibly sweating now as he repeats pigs pigs pigs pigs. He picks up the phone, and again, this name Marty is popping up. We've got Marty's restaurant, and now he's got a a friend named Marty that he's apparently Boat boater. Boat. Well well, dealer, but he hasn't officially bought it yet because he hasn't given him the check. Or he has, but he he hasn't deposited it. He's a he asked him if he has he have you deposited the check yet? And he almost cries with relief when he tells him no. He tells him he's transferring some funds and to wait a day or so when it will be smooth sailing. He hangs up, not looking impressed. So yeah. Oof. We have a scene change, and they've apparently rented the worst pickup ever.

Eric: 43:04

Yeah. You even U Haul has better pickups than that.

Sarah: 43:07

I wasn't aware you could go like, I I've I've literally heard of Rent A Wreck, but this this is taking that to a whole new level because they've rented a what looks to be falling apart truck.

Eric: 43:19

Well, I'm gonna say that maybe Mildred knew somebody that they could borrow it from. I can't see Laura or Steele knowing anybody that would have that, but Mildred, yeah, I can see her having a friend or, you know, like, maybe the husband of 1 of the dragon ladies.

Sarah: 43:37

So we've got them driving this old pickup, and, of course, they're they're literally in their farm clothes. They're they're outside LA denim Mhmm. Canadian tuxedo, whatever you wanna call it.

Eric: 43:48

Their country crime clothes.

Sarah: 43:51

Pretty much. They're driving across, very flat farmland in their country denim clothes. Laura rubbing her nose, her allergies having miraculously returned, at least briefly. She somehow loses them halfway through the episode. They enter Grainville and Steele tells Laura to chin up as they're bringing home the bacon. So many pig puns. She tells him that hay favor is bad enough without having to deal with his bad puns. Mildred wonders why they had to rent a pickup and Steele so she does say rent, but who knows? Maybe it was renting it from a friend who had like a junkyard. Yeah. Steele tells her it's to blend in and get into the spirit of things. Laura sneezes, and Steele insists that it's chic to be a farm woman, citing Jessica Lange, Sally Fields, Sissy Spacek. He says these days, have to be able to milk a cow to get an Academy Award nomination, which is quite funny. She insists that she doesn't wanna milk a cow or get an Academy Award. And Steele says it's not that bad. They're among farmers, salt of the earth, proud, independent, cheerful. Has he forgotten the last time they went to a small town?

Eric: 45:00

Apparently. Either that or the writer has.

Sarah: 45:05

Yeah. Well, this is a theoretically a new writer, but yeah. Like, we granted the last town they went to wasn't a farming town per se, but still, he thought salt of the earth, good people.

Eric: 45:14

Yeah. Well Not so much. You know, even in a place that is full of the salt of the earth people, you're you're gonna have a few grains of salt that need to be tossed out.

Sarah: 45:26

Yeah. Well, here's the thing. And this is something that I don't think Steele understands when it comes to small towns because he's he's going off of what he's seen in the movies. Oh. And having having grown up in 2 different places, 0.5 you know, the 1st 10 years of my life in a city, the 2nd 0.5 of my life or I spent 20 some odd years. By the time I went to university, we were still, my family was still in Belmont and we rented an apartment in Belmont for a while. And now we're back in the city. And small towns are very insular. They don't really welcome outsiders very readily. It's not that they're hostile per se, but I remember when we moved to Belmont, it took a good 10 years before any of the, you know, multigenerational locals would con would even consider us Belmonters. We were still outsiders that had moved into the town, to the village.

Eric: 46:20

Yeah.

Sarah: 46:20

And it wasn't until we had gotten a couple of decades under our belt there that we were part of the village. And they still sort of have that attitude even now to this day because whenever I go back there and I meet people who have just moved there, there's that sort of new and old divide. Mhmm. So I mean, they're they're friendly. They're like the I I always love going back to Belmont because everybody waves at you. They all say hi. They're very nice. They're very polite. They're But there is definitely a more, this is our community. You're not part of our community. So there's there's that feeling to it that I don't think you get really in a city because everybody is so diverse.

Eric: 47:02

Nobody cares.

Sarah: 47:03

Nobody cares. Yeah. Literally, nobody cares. So yeah. It's it's don't think A still gets

Eric: 47:11

part of it, though, I I mean, in the city, there's so many people and nobody knows who their neighbor is. So nobody cares literally. In a small town, I think part of it is that there's a history where people come into these small towns and try to exploit them. And so there's this kind of developed attitude that somebody coming in needs to be viewed with suspicion because they don't know the people there. Based on history, they may not care about the people there. And based on that same history, they may be there to exploit, which unfortunately is kinda true regardless whether it's Canada, The US, Ireland, wherever it is, you get people coming into these small towns, small communities, villages. And too often, not because they're wanting to be members of the community. It's because they're there to take advantage of people that they think are too dumb or not worthy of not being taken advantage of.

Sarah: 48:23

Yeah. Like, I mean, I found I found that being in the city I don't think it's that nobody knows their neighbor because I I find that that is that is the case, but it's it's because the city is so big. You can't possibly know the entire community. So you build smaller communities within communities. So the apartment building I live in, for example, I can get on the elevator and I know pretty much every single person I speak to because a lot of the people that live in my building are elderly and have been here forever. And I know all the dogs. I know their names. And, you know, yes, we get get new people move in that we don't immediately know. But when somebody dies, we the the news travels because we all talk to 1 another. And that's 1 but that's 1 building in a in a Also,

Eric: 49:13

you you mentioned that there's a a large population of the of the building are older people. Yeah. That changes the dynamic because younger people, they've got their own lives that they're worried about. They're rushing off here to do this. They're working 10, 12 hours a day. They're going out and partying with their friends. They're over down at the local sports bar, watching games with their buddies. Older folks tend to stay within their own area, in this case, their Yes. Apartment They go outside. They go grocery shopping. They do other things, but they spend a lot more time in that building than other people. Plus they tend to be more social because they're somewhat isolated for a variety of reasons, their age, their location, and all that stuff. And so there is more of a likelihood of people like yourself younger than them, but you're in that community, so they're gonna be interested in you and you're just by natural course of events, you're gonna start learning about all these people because they're being friendly toward you because they have the time to do that. Whereas, you know, you get get an apartment full of 20 or 30, it's not gonna be the same.

Sarah: 50:31

Actually, It's the middle because you've got you're right. The the older people, in fact, we jokingly call them the social club because they're always out when the weather's nice. They're always out in the back the picnic tables and sometimes they bring food and they have like their little gatherings and whatever. But I find that the young families are equally as community oriented within the building. We all know each other. We all know who's who's got small kids and we it's the ones in the middle, like you said, the 20 that are in and out, but we don't get a lot of those, even though we're close to the university, because I just think that our building doesn't really attract that group. But I do find that like cul de sacs and suburban areas within the city also have that same feel to them because you typically get to know the families on your street or at least here we do. But again, it's a city. So these are smaller communities within communities and not necessarily you go to the other side of the city, you're not gonna have that same feeling to it. But this is a small community of like a very, very tiny amount of people. So they're all gonna know each other. They're gonna be, like you said, they're gonna be wary of people coming in because they don't know if they're there for good or for ill. And in Steel's case, Laura's case, they start to realize they might not be on the right side once they get there. So, which brings us back to the town square.

Eric: 51:54

In actuality, Steele and Laura aren't on any particular side in in terms of the larger conflict. They're just there to solve a problem

Sarah: 52:02

Just get

Eric: 52:03

the involves them.

Sarah: 52:04

Yeah. Exactly. So they get back to the the the town square. There's a mob that has gathered. We've got Willard, the man inside the bank, we later find out was Mr. Willard, across the street. And somebody yells, I think it was Mel. I can't remember. He yells to someone inside the bank across the street that he will put up a cross for every farm he forecloses on. Another person yells that they can't drive them all out and angrily cheer. Steele, Laura, and Mildred drive up as the mob begins chanting, save our farms, save our farms, and someone else yells, this is our land. Someone else yells, how are we supposed to feed our kids? And then someone else, blood sucker.

Eric: 52:42

Yay. So friendly.

Sarah: 52:45

Yeah. This is Laura turning turns to Steele and repeats his words, proud, independent, cheerful.

Eric: 52:53

Yeah. And and then and then his response is, I've watched a lot of movies.

Sarah: 52:59

Yeah. Exactly. It kills me that he just assumes that, oh, it's fine. I've seen this in movies. This is how it's gonna go. Because he says there's nothing to worry about. Based on his extensive viewing, This is an important component of rural life. The bankers may oppress, but the people will prevail. There's more boos and yelling as the camera pans to mister Willard in the bank office. He closes the window and turns to Jessica, his secretary, who stands behind him. He says that he knows he shouldn't leave the window open to demonstrate or he should leave the window open, sorry, to demonstrate that he's listening and that he's sensitive to their needs, but he's not gonna. Yeah. We get Jessica telling mister Willard that she isn't going to tell him how to run his bank.

Eric: 53:38

Oh, sure. Right.

Sarah: 53:40

But she kinda does. He counters that she's been telling him how to run it for 2 years. And from what we later find out, badly.

Eric: 53:51

Well, yes, but not out of incompetence. Let's

Sarah: 53:56

No. I I well, I have some thoughts on on some of it, but, yeah, she's also embezzling from the bank. He counter So yeah, you've been telling me how to run it for 2 years. She argues that it's politically insensitive to refuse loans right now. So this is politically insensitive to refuse loans. I'm not on any particular side here. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm a fan of banks in any way, shape, or form. But if as a bank, somebody comes to you for a loan and you know that they can't pay it back, it's bad business to give the loan, is it not?

Eric: 54:36

Well, yeah. I mean

Sarah: 54:37

Insensitive or not, that's that's that's you're not gonna get

Eric: 54:42

You can't survive. Any business cannot survive unless it makes money. It has to pay its bills. It has to pay its people. And to do that, it takes profit. Yeah. And if you are in a situation, whether it's a bank or a business, and you're investing in things that are not going to pay for themselves with enough profit that you can stay in business, it does nobody any good because Exactly. In this case, mister Willard, he could give these people loans and give them loans and give them loans. Oh, I'm being a nice guy. I'm giving people loans. Well, they can't pay it back. So what's gonna happen? 1, they're gonna get foreclosed on. They're gonna lose everything. That's not a good thing for those people. 2nd, the bank, even as they foreclose on the property, they're not gonna get their money back. Gonna get part of it back, but not enough to cover their expenses. So then the bank goes out of business. So then all of those people who work at the bank, all the people whose businesses depend on the bank, they lose. Yeah. No. You can't and I will admit that sometimes there are formulas that banks depend on that make you wonder.

Sarah: 56:00

Oh, yeah. For

Eric: 56:01

sure. For example, to buy a home, you have to have a 20% down payment in most cases. Well, that would be great if I could afford the 20% down, but I can't. But you know what? I can afford the payments because, you know, you pay $2,000 a month for rent, but you're looking to buy a house that the monthly payment is $12.50 a month, you can make that work. The bank is gonna win on that, but the bank has this formula that says, well, if you can't do this, then we're not going to let you do that. And it's like, I could do that. I just can't get over this 1st hurdle because it's too high in relation to everything else. So, I mean

Sarah: 56:44

I agree with that 100%. The formula that that shocked me and 1 of the reasons that I don't like to let my credit cards like, I don't like to let them extend the amount on my card, even though I have an almost perfect credit rating. When we went into years ago, years ago, we went into the bank just to kind of talk to them about what would we what we would need to do to buy a home someday. And at this point, I still had my student loans. I hadn't paid them off yet. And my student loans were initially $50,000. I've paid them off now, but they basically told us because I had my student loans, which I was making payments on, like there wasn't any issue with that. And I had 2 credit cards, 1 that had like a, I don't know, dollars 6,000 limit, 1 that had $10,000 limit, something like that. The formula they use to calculate what they would give us as a mortgage was basically they assumed the amount of money per month that I would be paying if I maxed out all of my credit cards. They basically went, okay, if you maxed out these cards and you're paying this month for your student loan and this month, this is how much you'd be paying. That's more than this percentage of your salary. So therefore we're not gonna give you a loan. And I pointed out to the guy, I'm like, but I've never maxed out my card. Never, not once. I've never even gotten close to maxing out my card. I don't carry a balance on my card. I pay it off. And he said, well, yeah, but if you have this amount that you have available to you, then that's what they're gonna look at. And I said, well, then why would I wanna raise the amount on my card? Like, why is that a good thing? Wouldn't it be a better thing if I And he basically said to me, if and when you get to the point where you're ready to buy, drop the limit. Call up the credit card company ahead of time and drop the limit because that will

Eric: 58:47

Yeah. Because I

Sarah: 58:48

thought was bizarre because I was like, if you look at somebody's history and you see they've never maxed out their cards.

Eric: 58:53

Part of that history may not be available to them unless it's the bank that issued the card. So if it was the bank that issued the card, it was the same bank that you're looking at the home loan for, then they do have all that information. But as the counter, have to make certain assumptions at some point. And 1 of the assumptions is that if you have x number of dollars in your credit limit, you may use it all. And so they have to do it based on that. Now is that fair for somebody who, like yourself, has never maxed out their card, they pay off their balance every month, Is it fair to use that as a a factor? Maybe not. But, I mean, they they have to have some guidelines. And, unfortunately, knowing business people the way I kinda do, because I I've worked for big businesses for a long In fact, most of my working career, I've been working for a business of some substantial size in some manner, whether it be a corporate owned store or a franchise store. They talk a good game about giving people authority to do things, but they really don't because if they give somebody the authority to do something and it's not what they wanted them to do Yeah. Or what they expected them to do, or that seems to go contrary to a set policy, they aren't happy.

Sarah: 1:00:38

Well, think

Eric: 1:00:38

so. It's like you can do anything you want. And and somebody says, well, okay. I wanna do this. Well, no. You can't do that. It's against the rules. Well, but you said I could do it yeah. But not that. You you can do anything you want, but not that.

Sarah: 1:00:53

I think what I think just what made me shake my head was that when you pay off your cards regularly Mhmm. Then the credit cards come people come to you and say, hey. Good for you. You've paid this off. So I wanna increase your limit because you're such a good customer, and you're thinking, oh, great. I'm being rewarded for being so responsible that you're gonna increase my limit. And then you go to the bank and they're like, yeah. You could you this is a no. We're not gonna and you're just like, but I was they told me and

Eric: 1:01:17

What what's that old saying about banks only loan money to people who can prove that they don't need it?

Sarah: 1:01:23

Yeah. That's pretty much it because you're right too about the down payment. Right? When you look at what you pay in rent versus what you could pay at a mortgage. But in this case, the far it looks like the it's not the bank being super duper greedy, And and you kinda get the you feel a little bit sorry for Willard because he's really stuck here. He he knows these people need help. He says he hasn't refused a single loan to any of the people out there. So that tells you that he does have a heart that he's been trying to help these people. But he just can't he says the problem is they that's the problem. They all owe him. He says he can't keep approving all these extensions.

Speaker 2: 1:01:59

Mhmm.

Sarah: 1:02:00

And I'm gonna go ahead and assume because I was thinking about this. If this is a town where pretty much everybody's a farmer, Mhmm. Then that's a lot of competition as it is. Correct? Because theoretically, everybody else unless you're farming different crops, everybody else is a competitor for that particular crop, I would think.

Eric: 1:02:20

Well, not necessarily. I mean, boy, this is such a huge, huge ugly discussion.

Sarah: 1:02:28

Macroeconomics here. Like, welcome to our TED Talk for

Eric: 1:02:32

The fact is in in the cases let's talk about agriculture grain.

Sarah: 1:02:38

Right.

Eric: 1:02:39

Let's not talk corn because that's been so skewed with so many things, but like wheat. There is a demand for wheat. And unless the supply exceeds the demand, the price is gonna be largely unaffected by 2 people harvesting that same crop to the extent that there's still more demand that needs to be filled and even these farmers out here aren't fulfilling it. And so the price is gonna stay high. Now, eventually, if you get so many people producing a crop that it floods the market or the government comes in and starts paying people to grow or not grow sorry, I didn't mean to get political there. But I mean, unless you have these other factors that skew it, as long as the demand exceeds the availability, a little bit of extra competition really isn't going to be that much of a negative thing.

Sarah: 1:03:44

Okay. So I'm assuming they're selling their crops to larger companies. Correct?

Eric: 1:03:52

Well, the the small farmer does. Yeah. They they sell it to whoever. They like a flower company that you sell your wheat to a flower company. The flower company produces the wheat, and then they sell that to the wholesalers who then sell that to the stores. Now in the case of modern farming, 1 of the things that happens is that they these big companies either own, control, or strongly influence the entire chain. And so, yeah, that affects the economics entirely. But yeah. What people were talking about in this episode, they're all individual, like family owned farms that sell their produce or their livestock to some other company that's gonna handle the processing and manufacturing and such. Yeah.

Sarah: 1:04:45

Okay. Because I a bit confused in terms of that because I know that the plot is mainly around how agri tech has come in and agri tech being a much larger corporate entity is able to farm, I'm assuming the same crops more efficiently and quicker and able to and that's what's putting these smaller farms out of business. Correct?

Eric: 1:05:08

Yeah. You know, that's kind of the middle of the story, but, yeah, that's that's for the immediate case here with these farmers, that's what's happening is that this big company, because of the efficiencies of volume, they can produce more product at a lower cost and make more money than the individual farmers can.

Sarah: 1:05:32

Okay. Because I I guess my my confusion was mainly I was watching the episode wondering if AgriTek wasn't there Mhmm. Would these farms be going under? Because if if if that's not the case, why are all these farms going under? What is happening that is causing these farms to fail, that they need all these loans from the bank?

Eric: 1:05:51

Well, given the amount of large corporations that control farming, whether it be crops or livestock, if agri tech wasn't there, they would still be having problems, maybe not as extreme as they are,

Sarah: 1:06:09

but

Eric: 1:06:11

they would still be having problems. I believe that there's a lot of regional business. So for example, these farmers here would not necessarily be competing with farmers in, let's say, on the West Coast.

Sarah: 1:06:28

Right. Okay.

Eric: 1:06:30

Because they sell to different manufacturers, different companies that produce products from their grains or their animals or whatever. But it does have a kind of a ripple effect in terms of the the price of the goods because if a flour distributor on the West Coast is buying wheat from a local West Coast farmer and the West Coast farmers have more than this West Coast flour manufacturer needs, then they're gonna start selling some of their excess to the flour companies in the Midwest if their price is low enough that it makes it economically viable for them to buy that and ship it all that way as opposed to buying it from a local farmer whose costs to produce are naturally higher because of the economics of scale. So

Sarah: 1:07:26

Okay. So sorry for, like, hijacking this into, like, farm farm talk. But the reason I'm wondering, just all of this stuff, is is that I see all this I see this all the time in movies about like farms going under and America like Steele does. And we our farming industry in Canada is a little different. I'm not saying that farms don't go under, that they don't struggle, but we have supply management policies, specifically, like for things like milk, poultry, eggs. And by regulating the supply of milk by quotas and setting a price for milk and and and placing these and yes, again, not to get into politics of the tariffs and stuff, but like, there have always been really high tariffs on milk and dairy products because the government provides a guaranteed return investment for all of the dairy farmers in within Canada. And so the like, all the other farmers that have other products other than dairy products, they don't share that luxury. They have to compete in the global market. Whereas milk products, cheese production, was, like I said, the supply management chain is basically like, this is how much we need. This is how much you make. And it has basically meant that we don't really We've kind of taken a bad rap for the supply management policies, but our farmers do really well with it, because they typically don't ever have that problem where they've got too much product and nobody willing to buy it. So The

Eric: 1:09:06

the argument against that that is pointed out in in a lot of instances is that you cannot predict everything. So for example, in crop production, you don't know what the weather's gonna be like. And you could have an overabundance early in the season and then something comes along and destroys 0.5 of the crop and now you've got a shortage. And it can happen with livestock too because you've got an overabundance of pork, overabundance of cattle, and all of a sudden something happens that wipes out a huge percentage of it and you don't have any extra to fall back on. So yes, surplus has a negative effect on the price, which definitely impacts the farmers because a lot of times they wind up, you know, I can't afford to sell it because it costs too much to sell it. I might as well just keep it for myself. But if you don't have that buffer, then when something happens that takes and wipes out the excess and you suddenly need what was before excess to fulfill your needs, well, the supply chain management kind of failed. And that's kind of the It's a real tension there because the farmers obviously want the best price. The consumers obviously want their best price, which is the lower number. And so in theory, supply chain management solves that problem, but it really doesn't solve that problem unless everything is working perfectly. It's it's kinda like just in time manufacturing. I used to have a buddy who worked for an organ company down in Oregon. They made organs, musical instruments.

Sarah: 1:10:59

Yeah.

Eric: 1:11:00

And they went to this managed supply chain for their manufacturing. And it was all based on the presumption that everything's gonna work exactly perfectly all the way from the manufacturer of that small resistor that we need for this organ over here, all the way up to the shipping and everything else. And it's gonna save us all this money, make us more cost effective. We're gonna be able to lower the price of our organs and sell them to more people because more people can afford them. And yet what they found was that they were constantly ripping apart completed organs to build the organs that had already been sold because the parts that they needed didn't arrive or they were defective or whatnot. It just when you build a system based on the assumption that everything's gonna work correctly and nothing's gonna go wrong, you wind up with a car that drives down the highway and kills people because you assumed that it was smarter than the people inside.

Sarah: 1:11:57

Okay. Last thing I'll say here, just in terms of Sorry about that. In terms of this, you're you're absolutely right. I think that's why we only do it for dairy because dairy is a pretty it or dairy and poultry because we're not really growing anything. You've got cows. Yes. Diseases can rip through your your livestock and that and that can be something that happens. But the likelihood of that happening is, think a lot less than say, a bad year where your crops aren't growing and suddenly you don't have it. So, Googled it because I was trying struggling to explain it and thinking I was getting it wrong, but I actually had most of it right. Because what I found just here, our dairy supply management system balances domestic demand by controlling production through a quota system, setting minimum prices for milk and imposing high tariffs on imported dairy products to ensure stable incomes for farmers and a consistent supply of high quality milk for consumers. Created in 1972 with the Farm Products Agencies Act, the system is overseen by the Canadian Dairy Commission, which distributes national production quotas to provinces to prevent overproduction, to ensure a fair return for farmers and provide Canadians with access to high quality dairy products. So, the farmers have to hold a production quota, essentially a license to produce a set amount of milk to sell their product to a processor, which the system sets is a national limit on domestic milk production and determined monthly by the dairy commission. There's a minimum price that's guaranteed to farmers. It's set through negotiations between the provincial boards and the dairy processors. And then there are there's there have always been high tariffs import on imported dairy products because they want us buying our milk.

Eric: 1:13:30

Mean tariffs work?

Sarah: 1:13:32

Yeah. I I mean, it's 1 of those things where if you know what you're doing like, I'm not getting into that. But, like, we've always had that for dairy. It's always been a thing because as far back as I can remember, only recently did they increase access before the whole tariff brouhaha. I'm talking a couple years ago to American milk coming into Canada. And a number of people were were like, yeah, I'm not buying that mainly because it doesn't come in bags. But also because of

Eric: 1:14:02

Well, no. No. So why did why did they suddenly start allowing American milk into Canada?

Sarah: 1:14:10

I don't remember what they it was like, I don't remember. To be honest, I'd have to look it up because I don't think it made much of a change in how in in our, like, buying habits because I know I just grabbed the the brands that I always see in the stores, and I haven't actually seen a ton of American brands in there too much. So I don't think a lot of the grocery stores are really

Eric: 1:14:32

stopping Are they buying American milk and putting it in Canadian brand?

Sarah: 1:14:36

No. No. No. No. No. They they can't do that. I I just can't I'd have to look it up.

Eric: 1:14:41

But But, I mean, it it does beg the question, what changed? Because if if the system was working so well, then

Sarah: 1:14:47

I think it was just governments trying to make deals. I don't know. I'd have to look it up. I I don't know enough about

Eric: 1:14:53

it. Anyway

Sarah: 1:14:53

We'll go back to the episode.

Eric: 1:14:54

Enough of the politics.

Sarah: 1:14:56

I will find

Eric: 1:14:56

out That's not not what we're here for.

Sarah: 1:14:59

Mainly, the reason why I was trying to figure out why the farmers were struggling is because and I'm not saying this is the case for every farmer in Canada by any stretch of the imagination, but anytime I drive past a farm locally, anyway, they always have a real big fancy house. Like, we're talking 3 car garages and, you know, like, big mansions. And I and I always think to myself, wow, struggling farmers. Okay.

Eric: 1:15:24

Well, that might be It's

Sarah: 1:15:25

probably a really wrong assumption. I'm sure there are there are factors, and I'm sure there's again, sure there's places in Canada where the farmers are really struggling,

Speaker 2: 1:15:35

but not where I am. Yeah.

Eric: 1:15:36

And and and that may be also kind of a Canadian versus US thing. I'm sure that there are farmers in The US that also have some nice houses. But, also, you have to keep in mind that some of those houses were built years, decades ago.

Sarah: 1:15:49

These are brand new mansions. I'm talking huge, like McMansions with giant like, put ponds in the front and everything. And I'm like, what? How? I'm in a wrong line of work.

Eric: 1:16:00

I think in the American I may I may be talking out the backside, but I think the American farmers typically don't have new homes that are McMansions. If they have a larger home, it's probably been around for a long time. It's been in the family for a

Sarah: 1:16:16

long Don't get me wrong. There are

Eric: 1:16:17

those A here lot of them were probably built with local materials and local labor, which reduced

Sarah: 1:16:24

the

Eric: 1:16:24

cost of the manufacturing. Because, I mean, if you've got if you've got the resources on your own property that you can utilize to build a house, you've you've lowered the cost substantially. You know? So Yeah.

Sarah: 1:16:36

Don't get me wrong. Like I said, there are farm houses that are smaller and stuff. But for the most part, I just see these large lavish homes attached to farms, and I think to myself, again, I don't know enough about this. I'm yeah. I could be talking out my butt too, so we'll just leave it there. But

Eric: 1:16:51

Yeah. But the other question is, are they getting paid to to to not produce?

Sarah: 1:16:56

Who knows? I mean, I again, that could be that could be

Eric: 1:16:59

the case. If you're getting paid a lot of money to to not produce, I that gives you a lot of money to put into other things like McMansions and McFerraris and, you know, whatever.

Sarah: 1:17:10

The area that I live in is a lot of dairy farmers, a lot of tobacco farmers. Canola oil is big where I am. There's a ton of ton of farms that make

Eric: 1:17:18

Corn oil. Yeah.

Sarah: 1:17:20

Corn. Like, no. Yeah. Like, the oil for the yeah. So that's that oh, and corn, obviously. Mhmm. Tons of corn. All the corn. So, yeah, he can't keep approving these extensions. Back to the episode. Sorry about that, everybody. I apologize for that was our episode on how to be a farmer or how not to if you're if I'm completely wrong, which is could possibly very possibly be the case. She pleads with him to refinance a few of them, but he tells her he can't do it. He says her big heart would sink this institution, and then where would any of them be? Yeah. Big heart. It turns out he had the bigger heart than she did because Yeah. He's the 1 actually trying to thread that needle of maintaining the bank as a business and having them be viable to help the farmers, but also having to say no if the you know, if they can't make their payments.

Eric: 1:18:10

He he's kind of the person who at this point, we don't know this, but he's he's the person who who we find out later is telling the farmers, if you're in a hole, stop digging.

Sarah: 1:18:21

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Eric: 1:18:22

You know, let me have the shovel. Just no. No. Give me the shovel. Stop digging.

Sarah: 1:18:28

Yeah. Because it it doesn't know it it does it unless something is changing with your farm, unless there is a way that you're gonna turn things around, a loan is not gonna help. It's just gonna make it worse.

Eric: 1:18:40

Going in further into debt has never solved a debt problem. It's a behavior problem. It's a spending problem. I wish our politicians would learn this. Anyway

Sarah: 1:18:50

Well so Jessica insists the small farmer is the backbone of America, and he retorts that the small farmer is a dinosaur and he's not responsible for its extinction. He insists he's doing them a favor by stopping them from getting in even more over their heads, and he's right there.

Eric: 1:19:04

Mhmm.

Sarah: 1:19:05

If you know for a fact that you're you're giving a loan to somebody who can't pay it, then you're not helping them. He opens the window and yells at them, go home, all of you. The only way you'll save your farms is by harvesting your crops. That's maybe not helping.

Eric: 1:19:20

Yeah.

Sarah: 1:19:22

You gotta wonder if there was in addition to agri tech being opportunistic, if there was some kind of big blight or something that ruined a bunch of farms or some like, it just seems odd that so many of them are going under all at once. So I don't know.

Eric: 1:19:38

Well, you know, part of the problem is that the I think in the old days, the small community, farmer community, they kind of shared things. So, you know, if you have this piece of equipment and I don't, but I've got this 1 over here, we can loan it to each other. Or if

Sarah: 1:19:56

you need

Eric: 1:19:57

help with your harvesting and I've got some equipment that will help you with that, I'm gonna come over and help you because I know you're gonna come up over and help me when it's my turn. And so they didn't have to have all the equipment, which means that they had lower expenses. But when they started having to compete against these larger corporations, they wound up buying all this equipment to make their farming more efficient, but it increased their expenses. So, you know, they're getting to the point where they're spending so much per unit more than the big companies, and it's just yeah. It's it's not a good situation.

Sarah: 1:20:35

Fair enough. Fair enough. Do he turns back to Jessica. She tells him that 1 day he's gonna stick his head out the window and not have anything to pull back in. So we switch scenes. Steele, Mildred, and Laura approach a man in the town square. Steele asks about directions to Progressive Farms. The man spits on the ground and walks away, leaving Mildred to scoff at salt of the earth, We get Laura sneezing. The sheriff approaches him them, sorry, and introduces himself as sheriff Clifford. He tells them Progressive Farms has been closed down as there was a theft. Laura says she knows and that they were hoping to speak with the owners. Clifford tells them, well, I would be AgriTek asking if they're still interested. Steele asks if there's any reason they shouldn't be. And Clifford vaguely says, no reason, I suppose. He gives them directions insisting they can't miss it. And I always love country directions because they're always so different than every other type of directions. There There was a comedian, and I'm trying to remember his name. He was Canadian, Wingfield. And he had this whole series, comedy series called like Letters to Wingfield or Wingfield's Letter, something like that. And there was 1 bit where he went on about country directions. And he said that it kinda went like this. You go down the town line until you reach the old brick church, the 1 that burned down last summer, but you don't turn there. You keep going. And once you reach the bridge on the corner of the 5th Side Road, what's about 0.5 mile before that? So if you reach the bridge, you've gone too far. And that's kinda what I think of when it comes to these directions. It's like, yep, that's that's about right. You can't miss it. I assure you, I can. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So

Eric: 1:22:15

yeah. That's that's my wife and I have had discussions in the past about directions. And, you know, I'll say, go east for you know, what what where am I no. Which direction do I go? Go east. Well, no. I mean, am I going toward this store or toward that store? Yeah.

Sarah: 1:22:39

So, yeah. East, west, I don't I will freely admit I don't if someone says to me, go east, go west. I'm like, what am I? A sea captain? I have no idea what that means. Like, tell me left or right or give me a landmark to go by, and that's what I'll do. But I can't do this whole North South stuff. I don't know what it is. Yeah. I will admit that I'm part of that problem for sure. He then looks at Mildred and smiles at her asking, you with them? She says yes, and he gives them a warning for their own benefit. And I honestly think that if it weren't for Mildred, he might not have said this.

Eric: 1:23:14

Yeah. That's true. He

Sarah: 1:23:16

says, watch your backs around here if you have business with Agritech. So they've got a warning, thanks to Mildred's, I guess, winning smile. At AgriTek, a secretary introduced himself to mister Hayes. He immediately recognizes Laura jumping up and asking if she remembers him. And in my notes, I have, run Laura, he's a demon. I couldn't help it. She doesn't. And this is I feel this poor guy. He's like because he jumps up so eagerly. And he's like, hi, you remember me? And she's like, right. And then he keeps going. He's like, Stanford. Nope. She's still she's like, still, no. Sorry. And then, Kapusig? Nope. Still nothing? You wouldn't go

Speaker 2: 1:24:01

out with me? And then

Sarah: 1:24:02

she awkwardly remembers that he was the senior who tried to kiss her in the quad. He tells Steele it's a this this bit from Steele is hilarious. That is a Stanford tradition, and Steele goes, raw. I don't know why that's so funny, but it just is. It's he's raw. He's just not impressed. Laura asks what he's doing in Iowa, and he tells her that AgriTech recruited him. He says b school. I'm assuming he means business school.

Eric: 1:24:29

I'm sure that's what it is. Yeah.

Sarah: 1:24:31

Yeah. Okay. And then he asked how she's doing. Laura attempts to respond, but sneezes instead. Steele interrupts saying that he hates to interrupt the reunion, but they are private investigators from LA as well as heavy investors into progressive farms, and they're here to help them locate their swine. The way he says swine every time he says it is funny. Yeah. So yeah. Preston is happy to hear that commenting that the police didn't really take the theft of the pigs all that seriously and that AgriTek isn't very popular around town. Or so they've noticed and wonders how come. Preston tells her the bank has been foreclosing on a lot of small farms and AgriTek has been buying them up. Which leads me to, again, wonder if if the farms weren't able to stay in business, then why would AgriTek want them? I'm guessing it's not the land, but it must be what you were saying that they've maybe overspent beyond their means. Because if the land was no good, AgriTek wouldn't want it.

Eric: 1:25:25

Yeah. It's has nothing to do in most cases with the quality of the land. It's it's that they can't they're not making a profit. Right. And they're getting so far under that the only way out is to sell out. Yeah. And yeah.

Sarah: 1:25:39

So yeah. Agritech's been buying up the farms, so the farmers blame them too. Steele says he got the impression there was a little more than that. Preston argues that they wanna think that. And every time there's an accident of nature, they point the finger at Agritech. Accident of nature. Laura clues into that little phrase. And she's suspect you know, she doesn't she's skeptical. Mhmm. And he hedges before admitting, well, there've been a couple fires, floods, you know, nature. Okay. So I don't know about you, but like a flood, yes. That's that is sure. Fires though are not some of them, sure, when lightning hits and and you get wildfires and stuff like that. But farm country where the land is flat and you don't really see a ton of wildfires, I wouldn't assume accident of nature immediately.

Eric: 1:26:27

I I would think in this particular circumstance, there would be a lot of older homes that have a lot of, let's say, questionable wiring.

Sarah: 1:26:39

Yeah. That's fair.

Eric: 1:26:40

You know, for a long time there and I guess maybe in some cases, they still do. Instead of using copper wire inside of homes, they used aluminum. And there's some I don't remember the details, but there's some problem with aluminum wiring because of the situation of different types of metals reacting to each other. And so aluminum wiring homes with aluminum wiring have historically, I think, had this habit of going up in flames a lot more frequently than houses with copper wiring. And so yeah. I mean, there's stuff like that. That's is that nature? Kind of yes, no. I mean, that's

Sarah: 1:27:22

I just I Googled it because I was curious, and here here it is. Why aluminum wire wiring is a fire hazard? Homes with aluminum wiring face a significantly increased risk of fire due to the due to aluminum's tendency to expand and contract, leading to loose connections that overheat. Oxidation and corrosion further weaken connections, increasing resistance and the potential for sparks and fire. So, yeah, that's pretty much it.

Eric: 1:27:45

Also, if the house is really, really old, it had a different kind of wiring. It's called what was it? Tube and I don't remember the name. But, basically, nowadays, when you when you wire a home, you you buy Romex, which is the hot, the the negative, and the neutral, all wrapped individually and then wrapped in a larger outside protective cable. That's a whole single enclosed package. But it used to be that you actually had insulators mounted to studs on the walls and open exposed wire running from insulator to insulator. Those houses, if those haven't been updated, also have this tendency to kinda catch fire.

Sarah: 1:28:37

Yikes. That's not good. Yeah. Laura is suspicious either way. She doesn't really buy that this is an accident of nature, and they both give each other a look. They don't quite believe him. He insists that he doesn't they don't have anything to do with it. They they don't have any reason to drive them under, and that simple economics is taking care of that. He says it's sad. He feels for them, but agribusiness is the future. Steele redirects the conversation back to the swine. Preston says it was probably a disgruntled farmer as revenge. Turns out he is right. He says that they're still around. They know that. And the only thing the police could do after the theft was set up roadblocks, so they're confident that they're still somewhere in town. Steele points out that the clock is running down and he laughs saying that in 24 hours, you can kiss those porkers goodbye. Laura tells him that maybe he can afford to, but they can't. She tells him that they need to start at the scene of the crime. He says it's locked up, but offers to give her the key. As he goes to hand it to her, he asks if she's busy for dinner. Before Laura can respond, Steele snatches up the key saying swine before pearls. Yes. Which is a nice little twist on that phrase. And then as they walk out the door, raw. I would have loved to have seen the script to see if that was on it or if he improvised that.

Eric: 1:29:54

Oh, can can we hop back a couple of things real

Sarah: 1:29:57

quick?

Eric: 1:29:57

I we we got so involved in talking. Wasn't even following my notes.

Sarah: 1:30:01

Oh, yeah.

Eric: 1:30:01

Harry Groner here, what's his name? The guy at the bank, Progressive Farms.

Sarah: 1:30:07

Was- Willard is the banker.

Eric: 1:30:08

Willard. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. This guy here at the Progressive Farms.

Sarah: 1:30:14

Preston.

Eric: 1:30:15

In my notes, did find a reference. He had been on a Tool Time episode or Home Improvement episode. Yeah. And then also I had a comment in here back about at the sheriff, that badge that he's got on his shirt shoulder, that's terrible. That that's obviously a costume badge because a real sheriff would have a real sheriff's department would have a nice looking badge, you know, patch on the shoulder. It would look look fancy. It would look snazzy.

Sarah: 1:30:43

So Gotcha. Fair enough. We switch over to Progressive Farms where we see Laura and Steele looking at the fence that was cut. She sneezes. She moans that she can't believe they're they are investigating an experimental pig breeding farm. I do find it kind of funny that they've had all these episodes where they've gone on location to fancy locales, the Riviera, Mexico, Ireland, England, all these gorgeous places, Cannes, and now they're in Iowa. Mhmm. And this is the

Speaker 2: 1:31:16

you know? I I don't know

Sarah: 1:31:18

if that they actually went to Iowa if there's they're somewhere still in, LA, but I'm assuming that they probably did do some location. But it's just kind of funny that this is not exactly Laura's idea of a trip. Yeah. Steeler just heard to think about them as rotund stacks of a $100 bills. It does wonders for the spirit. Mildred runs up behind them telling them that the thief drove the pigs out the back and then loaded them into a trailer about 0.25 of a mile past the fence tracks like they wouldn't believe. Laura is impressed and tells Mildred good work. And I think Mildred is eager to prove herself useful because she feels bad here because she says she's gonna go take another look inside, insisting that no pig is gonna get the better of Krebs.

Eric: 1:32:01

Yeah. Well, right now, she realizes that she's kind of on their list. Yeah. And she's trying to do anything she can to kind of shovel some of that off of her.

Sarah: 1:32:13

Fair enough. Yep. I don't disagree with that. So Steele says to mush on as she rushes off, and they begin walking around the perimeter. Laura says the thief broke in here, but according to Preston's description, the guard would have seen him before they got to the building. Steele pauses and looks at the and I wrote the door hatch thingy in my notes here that he is saying, unless he didn't go right to the building. They both look up and Laura climbs through the hatch into the silo. Inside, she sneezes and finds something on the ground. She picks up a chewing tobacco wrapper, big boy or not sorry, not big boys, the other the other brand.

Eric: 1:32:48

Amsterdam.

Sarah: 1:32:49

Amsterdam. That's it. And Steele muses that the thief had a chew before continuing on. The door is shut, and they're trapped inside. Steele pounds on the door yelling that there's someone in there, but whoever did did it is gone. Laura asks, now what? Steele say this is probably the most recent movie that he cited yet. Because he cites the movie Witness, which came out that year, I think, or the year before it.

Eric: 1:33:13

Yeah. That year. Yeah. Because this episode is in 1985.

Sarah: 1:33:17

Yeah. Yeah. So he says Harrison Ford disables a renegade policeman in a silo by pummeling him with grain. As he says this, the chute starts making noise, and grain starts falling onto their heads.

Eric: 1:33:27

Mhmm.

Sarah: 1:33:28

Laura asks how the policeman and witness survived as the grain climbs higher and higher and higher and still yells, he didn't, he was killed. Yeah. Which is not what she wants to hear. It feels more and more and more covering their bodies until it's all the way up to their necks. Then it stops. He comments that they must have been low on feed. She sneezes again. And I've got a question. Was this a legitimate attack on their life or did someone just close it and start up the machine? Because you think if it was a legitimate attack on their life, the grape would have kept coming.

Eric: 1:34:02

I wouldn't think that I think it's in between. I don't think that they would necessarily check that door at the bottom before they started loading grain into the silo. I think they would presume that it was closed. I may be wrong, but I don't I don't see them doing that as part of their normal process of loading grain.

Sarah: 1:34:24

Right.

Eric: 1:34:25

But were they intended to be killed? I don't think so. Maybe just scared scared off.

Sarah: 1:34:30

Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Because, yeah, you'd think if they

Eric: 1:34:33

wanted death questions, but

Sarah: 1:34:35

Sure. Go for it.

Eric: 1:34:36

How did they get out?

Sarah: 1:34:38

Yeah. I wondered that too. I I mean, did Mildred come back and find them and open the door? I'm assuming

Eric: 1:34:42

find them and then they heard her she heard them banging on her or something.

Sarah: 1:34:46

Yeah. And if she opened the door, would the grain not spill out the door?

Eric: 1:34:50

It would. Yeah. And they would have kind of swim their way through it to get to the door.

Sarah: 1:34:57

Yeah. I was thinking that too. They'd have to, like, yeah, it'd be weird. Yeah. So I wonder how how do they get the grain out of the silos? They fill them, but then how do they get them out? Is there, like, another shoot? This is what I don't I don't know farms.

Eric: 1:35:14

I don't know. That's I

Sarah: 1:35:16

I hadn't thought about that. Anybody who is a farmer or who knows farms, please email us. We will we'd love emails to answer. And and I I I need answers here because I don't understand how silos work. So please tell us.

Eric: 1:35:32

Well, according to Google's AI

Sarah: 1:35:37

Well, you wrecked it. Now no one's gonna email us.

Eric: 1:35:44

Grain is unloaded from a silo using various methods, but the most common are auger systems and pneumatic conveyors.

Sarah: 1:35:53

Okay. I don't understand what any of that means. I don't know what that means. Those are what I see

Eric: 1:35:59

is that screw system.

Sarah: 1:36:01

You know?

Eric: 1:36:01

So it's it's like a giant a giant screw that moves the material between the ridges of the of the screw.

Sarah: 1:36:10

Okay.

Eric: 1:36:10

And a conveyor, I mean

Sarah: 1:36:12

I know what that is. Conveyor, you

Eric: 1:36:13

have what a conveyor is, we we don't we need we need

Sarah: 1:36:17

have an edge to carries it's the thing that carries your beer to you when you go to the beer store. There's a little conveyor belt as beer comes out. I know what that is.

Eric: 1:36:25

We don't do it that way. Here, you go to the shelf and you pick it up and you take it up to the counter.

Sarah: 1:36:32

Oh, we've got like a well, we had up until very recently, the only place you could get beer or or liquor in Ontario was in beer and liquor stores.

Eric: 1:36:41

Mhmm.

Sarah: 1:36:41

There wasn't any, like, convenience stores couldn't sell it. It was

Eric: 1:36:46

Same here.

Sarah: 1:36:47

Government controlled, but the beer store specifically would have this little conveyor belt that you would get your Yeah. Anyway. No. We our

Eric: 1:36:53

our our stores are are alcohol only stores. You can't go into a convenience store or grocery store to get it here in Alaska. You have to go into a special store, but they just they have it on the shelf. You just go get it, you know, pick it up.

Sarah: 1:37:05

That that was the truth for our liquor store, the LCBO, but not for the beer store. They changed it recently. Now you can get it anywhere. But

Eric: 1:37:11

I used to work at a I used to work at a store called Jafco. They're out of business, and it was what was called a catalog showroom. And I don't know what Jafco stood for. I know what people said it stood for in just another company. But they were a catalog showroom, and they had demo units of everything that they sold out. And you'd fill out a piece of paper, take it, and drop it off, and and they would bring the thing out on a conveyor belt, and that's how you'd get it. But I've never seen that for alcohol.

Sarah: 1:37:43

Anyway. Anyway. We're back in, Clifford's office. He's unsympathetic. He says he can't say he didn't warn them. Laura asks if they're supposed to be grateful, and Clifford replies that if he had known they were detectives, he would never let them get that far. He asked what makes her think she could just walk into his county and stick their noses what wherever they want. And Mildred, having turned traitor, says, Dwight has a point.

Speaker 2: 1:38:07

Well, then he's

Eric: 1:38:08

he's a no. No. Wait a minute. That's not necessarily being a traitor. That's called being

Sarah: 1:38:15

I don't know. It's called objective.

Eric: 1:38:20

Mean, you can't if you can't be honest enough to give your opposition credit for being right when they are right. I mean, they may be wrong most of the time, but if you can't give them credit for being right when they're right, I mean, come on. Grow up.

Sarah: 1:38:35

But then he calls her Millie, so they've obviously had some time to get to know each other. Oh, yes. Yes. Steele tells them that they were just trying to recover their the swine, something he seems unable or perhaps unwilling to do. The sheriff does not like that accusation. He tells them that he is 1 man with 2 part time deputies and sitting on a powder keg. And I'm guessing that the reason he's 1 man with only 2 part time deputies is this is probably 1 of those towns where nothing ever happens. And therefore, anything more than that would be a waste of funds. Yeah. Because, like and I'm again, I'm thinking back to Belmont. Belmont had a sheriff, I think, but he was like never there. And the only time we did ever encounter him was when I kind of took some chalk to my dad's car. He had a white 1984 Buick LeSabre, and he had hit a deer and went to the junkyard to replace the door. And all they had was a black door, so they put a black door on a white Buick. And I thought it would be funny to take some chalk, and I drew a little, little yellow star, and I wrote sheriff's department because I thought it was funny. Apparently, it's not because my dad got pulled over and accused of impersonating a cop

Speaker 2: 1:39:47

car. Didn't even know it

Eric: 1:39:50

was there. Didn't know what

Sarah: 1:39:51

he said. In chalk. In chalk.

Eric: 1:39:54

I'm sorry. But if anybody thinks that that is impersonating a police car, you

Sarah: 1:39:59

Like I said You're just

Eric: 1:40:01

trying to create a problem.

Sarah: 1:40:02

Our village's sheriff had very little to do. So so the competition. Yeah. Exactly. He says he walks softly when he can and that a few stolen pigs aren't going to ruin Agritech. Mildred then turns, and this is where Mildred uses her powers for good. I don't think he has the legal authority, but he can make things hard for them. And I think that's where Mildred is trying to, like, get them on their side. Well, that's fine. And he kinda bashfully says he never could turn down a pretty woman. So he agrees, but says they have to play by his rules. Laura sneezes. He tells them that they should get changed. And there's no motel in town, but Buck and Mary Shepherd might take them in. So over at Buck and Mary's place, Mary says they could use the money, but they don't deal with AgriTek. Laura tells them they aren't with AgriTek, and she's not lying about this.

Eric: 1:41:22

No. She's not.

Sarah: 1:41:23

But

Eric: 1:41:24

she does But then she starts to lie.

Sarah: 1:41:26

Yeah. They are with the Undermayer Agricultural Institute researching the plight of the small American farmer. Steele adds that they wanted to start with agri tech to get a sense of scale. Mary immediately becomes more friendly and offers her hand to Laura. She introduces Buck and says that they would be glad to put them up. Laura introduces herself as doctor Laura Lou Holt. Mean, it's his hair.

Eric: 1:41:50

That's that's so stereotypical. Every every guy down in the South is named Billy Bob or Billy Or

Speaker 2: 1:41:56

yeah. Or Buck. Right? And then, yeah,

Sarah: 1:42:01

I'm I'm Laura Lou and Billy Krebs and introduces Steele as Jed Steele. And I'm just trying to picture him as a Jed, and it's not happening. A colleague of theirs from Sydney, Australia? What? Why? Why?

Eric: 1:42:19

Why Australia?

Sarah: 1:42:21

Yeah. Because he doesn't, in any way, sound Australian. He has not been attempting to do an Australian accent. And did she just assume, they're in they're from the country. They're not gonna know the Was that the assumption? Like, why not say from London? It's equally as foreign in terms of not being American. I don't get

Eric: 1:42:41

why They don't have Acorn TV, so they don't have all those Australian and New Zealand shows to know what an Australian or New Zealand accent sounds like. So it'll fly.

Sarah: 1:42:51

That's not a knife. This is a knife. Like, what? That's I don't know. It's just bizarre that she picked Sydney, Australia. Yeah. Buck comments on how dusty Steele is and claims they have to, and he claims they have to immerse themselves in their subject. Laura sneezes and Mary tells him to grab their stuff and come on in. We have a scene change. We see Steele putting on a pair of boots as Laura comes out of the house after changing. He tells her that Dwight lent him the shoes. Laura tells him that she doesn't like lying to these people. She says it's agri tech and the bank versus the small farmers, and they're on the wrong side of this battle. As you pointed out, they're not really taking a side.

Eric: 1:43:28

Yeah. They're not involved in the battle. They're just trying to, yeah, find some some stolen property.

Sarah: 1:43:34

I think where Laura's coming from is that finding the stolen property helps AgriTek, and therefore, it feels like they're taking a side, even though they're not really. But to her, it does. It it feels very personal. And I

Eric: 1:43:49

Well, and and certainly for the people in the town, it would Yes. Would feel that way.

Sarah: 1:43:53

And I think she sees that. I think that's where it's kind of like she's empathetically looking at their situation and realizing that their benefit is gonna come at a cost to the people in the town. And she doesn't like that. It doesn't make her feel great. And I'm with her on that because I don't think that she should abandon that they should abandon their attempt to find the pigs because that, you know, can't afford to lose that money either, but it's it's a crappy situation. She doesn't like lying to them. Steele argues on the contrary. They've lost their agricultural assets and are going broke. They're in the same boat as the farmers. He tries to segue into talking about boats before it cuts them off. She argues it's not the same thing at all. These people are losing their livelihoods. Whereas if they lose the pigs, they'll just have This is the part where I was like, earlier in the episode, they said that they can't afford to lose the pigs. Now, she's saying they just have to cut out some luxuries, such as lunches at Cafe La Trec, Italian suits, and penthouse condominiums, which technically that's just Steele. Yeah. So, I mean, it there's a lot to unpack here in the sense that Laura is empathizing with these people in a way that Steele is oddly being very cold about. And it's supposed to kind of go back around to this whole, he's bought a boat and he might not be able to afford it if they don't find these pigs. And so he's trying to keep her eye on the prize. But it feels kind of antithetical to his character because he's always been the guy that sympathizes with those less fortunate. And he's always been the guy that that sees people who might lose everything or or or you know, he's been there.

Eric: 1:45:35

Yeah. I accept that maybe he just doesn't he isn't buying it. He he he doesn't accept the notion that they're really that desperate. They're really gonna be losing their farms. And, yeah, that's the only only thing I can think of is that he's just he's not that concerned because he doesn't think the situation is truly as dire as everybody's making it out to be.

Sarah: 1:46:00

It it's kind of unfortunate because it I I do like the the running joke about the boat, but it feels like they sacrifice a bit of his character in order to make it work. Yeah. Because when Laura says that we'd have to cut down on luxuries like lunches at Cafe Lautrec, Italian suits, and penthouse condominiums, Steele argues that she's talking about food, clothing, and shelter. But that's a really

Eric: 1:46:25

Sure. There's a difference between food, clothing, and shelter and luxurious food, clothing, and shelter.

Sarah: 1:46:32

Exactly. Like, he's being deliberately obtuse here in the sense that you can cut down on on your fancy lunches. You can buy your food elsewhere. You don't need the

Eric: 1:46:43

You you can bring your lunch to work in a paper bag.

Sarah: 1:46:46

Exactly. Like, there's not Laura. Right? And and and to be fair, the money that that that pays for his penthouse condominium comes from the agency Mhmm. And his Italian suits. And Laura, she's not living as luxuriously as Stila's day to day. Her loft, I'm guessing, is not nearly as expensive to maintain and keep as his as his apartment is.

Eric: 1:47:10

Probably not by quite a bit.

Sarah: 1:47:12

Yeah. No. Yeah. And so and Laura doesn't like, she she's always dressed well, but you get the impression that her clothing is not nearly as expensive as his. So, yes, it is pointed that she's commenting on all the things that he overspends on, but at the same time, he could afford to live in a cheaper place. Mhmm. Or the agency could could have him in a cheaper place. I get that he's there possibly to maintain appearances

Eric: 1:47:37

The image.

Sarah: 1:47:38

Because the image of Remington Steele being this very fancy private investigator, but at the same time, of the luxuries that the agency spends on, those are pretty much all his. Mhmm. Yeah. Laura doesn't really, aside from maybe the limo, partake in in the day to day heavily expensive stuff that he does. But he's being a bit deliberately obtuse by saying, oh, yeah. You're talking about food, clothing, and shelter. I mean, okay. Yeah. But it's not quite the same thing. Laura's not listening. She tells him that Mary said there's an auction in town, and it will give them a chance to see who uses that kind of tobacco. Steele says he hopes they haven't bitten off more than they can chew. He's all the puns. He's getting all the puns in this episode. At the town square, we see Steele on the phone to Marty again. He asked him to hold that check a little longer. He had to go out of town to clear up a financial snag. He tells him it'll only be a few hours. When he's asked where he is, he gets distracted seeing a farmer spit out some tobacco and tells him he's in Zurich. That I mean, that's out of town already.

Eric: 1:48:43

It is. It's definitely out of town. Unless there's a Zurich somewhere in 1 of the states in The US. That's always possible,

Sarah: 1:48:51

I guess. Entirely possible. I mean, you could drive through you can drive through Ontario, and you could end up in Paris, Munich. I think that there's a Munich, Ontario. Oh, no. Sorry. There's a Berlin, Ontario. There's a London, Ontario. I was like, we have all of these, like, towns here in Ontario. Isn't there

Eric: 1:49:10

a town somewhere, like, in Sweden or Norway called hell?

Sarah: 1:49:15

Yes. Yes.

Eric: 1:49:16

Because I remember I remember seeing something where somebody posted a sign that says, yes, hell has frozen over.

Sarah: 1:49:22

There's a town in Newfoundland called Dildo. I'm not making There's that also Conception Bay and Come By Chance. So you get the you get the impression that Newfoundlanders have a sense of humor, nothing else. So, yeah. That's random. But, anyway, he hangs up the phone and approaches the man telling him that he seems to have misplaced his tobacco. Tobacco. He asks if he can spare a plug, and I wonder like, I didn't realize they were called plugs until he said that.

Eric: 1:49:52

I don't know anything about it.

Sarah: 1:49:54

I don't know either, except that it's nasty. It's gross. The man pulls out his tobacco, big boy, and still thanks him, obviously, not having thought this plan through as he now has to put it in his mouth and chew it. Which he does, but he struggles to chew it, calling it piccant, but assertive. And I just have to think, like, we used to we're we're used to criticizing Laura for being bad at undercover, but he's terrible at pretending to be a small town man of the people. He's walking around like, Steve Buscemi in that 1 meme where he's, like, dressed as a kid holding a skateboard going, hi, fellow children. I am a child too. It's just not not happening. Like, there's no way you look at him and think, yeah, this is a guy that chews tobacco on the right hand. No. So it's it's quite funny. Laura, meanwhile, has taken a much smarter approach. She goes up to a man who is chewing and tells him that she's conducting a survey for the tobacco mastication institute.

Eric: 1:50:58

Be careful how you say Yeah.

Sarah: 1:51:00

I had to. I was like, wait a minute. Okay. Mastic yeah. We got that. And I'm pretty sure that she's assuming that the word being as large as it is, nobody will ask what it means. And she asked him what brand he choose or he uses. He looks at Laura leeringly and calls her a sturdy little thing and asks if she's new around here. She repeats a question, and he tells her he choose big boy, then asks her to remember he saw her 1st. I'm not sure you can call dibs on a human, but, hey.

Eric: 1:51:31

If he can, then he's got it.

Sarah: 1:51:34

Yeah. Maybe that's how things work in Grainville. So, yeah, he spits to make his point. Yay. There's a winner. Steele has approached another man asking if he can spare a chew. Man hands him his packet of big boy and Steele shoves it in his mouth grimacing as he declares it delicious. And I think at this point, realizes that this is not going to go well for him unless he brings up the brand that that they're looking for. Otherwise, he's gonna end up chewing a lot of tobacco.

Eric: 1:52:03

And gonna be very, very sick later.

Sarah: 1:52:06

Yeah. He tells them that he really wishes that he had some Amsterdam brand, and the man looks at him and says that stuff is disgusting. And by steel's lying. You mean relative to this? Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:52:21

That's a good 1.

Sarah: 1:52:22

I like that. And the man says, the only 1 they choose it choose that brand is Mel is it Bundage or Brundage?

Eric: 1:52:31

Brundage, I think. Yeah.

Sarah: 1:52:33

Okay. So I just heard that wrong the 1st time. He points to the stage where a man is standing, and he adds that this is his auction. Poor guy. Steele thanks him for his time and walks away where he bumps into Laura, who he calls Lori Lou. Okay. He asked her to stay there and then sort of goes behind her and spits out the tobacco. He then tells her that he thinks he found their thief, Mel Brundage. Perfect candidate. Embittered by the loss of his farm, he steals our pigs, the swine. Oh, this is that's just another good swine metaphor. I love it.

Eric: 1:53:08

Well, so so if Steele catches him, he's gonna grind him up?

Sarah: 1:53:12

Yep. Yep. Grind him into paste.

Eric: 1:53:16

Sausage.

Sarah: 1:53:17

Sauce. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That makes more sense. Laura declares that she feels sorry for him. And and again, this if if Steele didn't really believe it was this dire before, this should show him that it is. Literally, everything's being auctioned off, which I had some questions about. But if we take these things, if we take it at face value as is, like all of his possessions are gone. Clifford bangs a gavel and declares that they are there to auction off the farm equipment and household goods of 1 mar He calls him Marvin, which some people may be confused by why people call him Mel, but that is a common, nickname for people either named Marvin or Melvin. And I only know that because my grandfather, actually, no. My grandfather went by Mav, but he it was a similar short forming of Melvin.

Eric: 1:54:08

So Yeah. There are there are some nicknames for full names that yeah. They they're a little bit obtuse.

Sarah: 1:54:18

Yeah. Yeah. Like Dick and Richard, that 1 I've never understood. So anyway, here's my question. Because this part, when he said auction off the farm equipment, that made sense because if you've lost your farm and the farm equipment is part of the business, I get that that could get auctioned off. But household goods is where I was confused because I Googled and I looked it up to see if you could auction off like like stuff in your like your your possessions. And in Canada, you can't. When a home is foreclosed on, the home itself can be sold or auctioned and and and the equipment, if there's equipment and whatnot, yes, but not actual personal possessions.

Eric: 1:55:08

Well, I I think it depends on a couple of different factors in this particular case. 1 being, 1st of all, how is his farm business set up? Is it a separate business, or is it just, this is my farm, I own it? You know, he doesn't necessarily have a business license. He hasn't set it up as a LLC, limited liability company. He hasn't set it up as a corporation, which would separate the business's assets from his own personal assets. It could be that it's all rolled up into 1, in which case, once he took out loans from the bank and he couldn't afford to pay them, then everything's up for fair game because it's all part of the same business, if you will, that got the loan from the bank. Or if he has it set up as a separate company from his own household, you know, personal ownership stuff, did he take out loans on both sides of that? He took 1 out for the business side and then he took 1 out for his personal side and then he can't pay either 1 of them, so they seized all those assets on both sides. I don't know. But I can see how that would happen, particularly in a situation where you've got a person who's got a business, they're operating it as a business, but it's not set up as a legal entity. They're just basically operating it as their own business.

Sarah: 1:56:42

Right. So I just Yeah, it was confusing to me because here, that wouldn't matter if the government can auction your home, but it can't auction your possessions.

Eric: 1:56:56

Yeah. I think just a lot of it depends on how the farm business is set up and whether it's actually set up as a separate business or if it's just, I own this stuff, I grow this stuff, and it's all under my personal name. And so that makes everything fair game. Now there may be local or state laws that would restrict certain items from being sold, but I I think this this kinda used to be the case. You

Sarah: 1:57:23

Yeah. And I'm wondering maybe maybe if that's because I I looked up about now, but maybe, I don't know, maybe in Canada 40 years ago, this was the same. I don't know. But it's obviously meant to show us as the viewers that this is very serious. They're not just losing their homes. They're losing everything.

Eric: 1:57:40

They're not just losing their business. They're losing their homes and everything. Yeah.

Sarah: 1:57:44

And this is what I I mean by the like, Steele is seeing this. So clearly, if he didn't believe it was that serious before, this should tell him it is. Because all of his stuff, like everything he owns is out on this lawn. And yeah. And and he he tells them that they all have the chance to look it over. It's in good shape. Little smoke damage. Mel yells at Willard that it would be perfect if it weren't for Agritech. He accuses Agritech of setting the fire and says that Willard and Agritech ought to be burned at the stake themselves. Clifford tells Mel to sit down and shut up. He says it's not the time or place. They have a job to do and they need to get on with it. Laura watching, she's really having a hard time with this, just says that this isn't right. It's obvious she feels for them and Steele assures Laura that this is the scene where the rural community bands together and infuses to bid, thus closing down the auction. Clifford announces the 1st item is the tiller attachment and asks who will bid $80. At 1st, nobody says anything and still kinda looks like he's smugly right.

Eric: 1:58:44

Looks like he's right. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:58:45

Yeah. And then

Sarah: 1:58:46

the man who hit on Laura earlier offers 80. Someone else hails 85, brought up to 90, 100 and 5, 110, eventually, 120. As Laura watches angrily, we see Preston pull up in his car and Steele reminds her to think swine. She approaches Preston and he asks how she's doing. She says better than Mel Brundage. She tells him that he will soon have the whole town consolidated, adding that he must be so proud. Tells her he's saving the champagne for Buck and Mary Shepherd's place. Like, come on, dude. This is a really like, even if they're not responsible, that's

Eric: 1:59:22

read the room. That's cold.

Sarah: 1:59:24

Like, read the room. You're standing there

Eric: 1:59:26

It's not even a matter of reading the room. It's it's it's a matter of be human.

Sarah: 1:59:30

Well, yeah, I agree. I agree. Like, that might be too much, but even even if even if that is too much for you, like, you're standing there at an auction where somebody has lost all their their possession, like, their livelihood, their home, everything, And you're saying like, well, you know, I'm saving it up to get their like, dude, come on. That's you're right. That is cold. It's inhuman to to be like, I hope they go under so I can get their home. Like And

Eric: 1:59:56

it it isn't going to help his case if he's trying to not there's a difference between not trying to aggravate people who are not going to like you under any circumstances no matter what, and then there's just poking the bear.

Sarah: 2:00:16

Absolutely. He's poking the bear here for sure. With

Eric: 2:00:19

a very big sharp stick.

Sarah: 2:00:21

Yeah. And then then he says when he gets their place, it will be Promotion city. Laura asks what makes him so sure that he'll get it, and he says simple economics. He asks Laura if she would like to meet the bank president, adding that he has an appointment with him. Laura gives him a big smile and touches his arm saying, I would love to. She walks by Steele and gives him a thumbs up. Steele obviously doesn't look happy, but he just doesn't like Preston. Inside the bank, mister Willard tells Laura he wishes her luck, but not to expect any help from the people in town. He tells her that people are convinced they are the victims of a big conspiracy. Jessica attempts to argue on their behalf, but he tells her enough. He says, what about the poor enough about the poor farmers. What about the poor bankers? He says that every bank in the area is on the edge of disaster because of these poor farmers. Laura attempts to redirect back to the conspiracy theory, but Willard interrupts asking why he would burn down a farm. He points out that if they go under, there isn't a chance in hell that they can pay the bank back. And yes, like yeah. Like that part should be I would think Laura of all people would I I get that she's very sympathetic to what they're going through. And right now, she's maybe not too keen on the bank herself, but the bank doesn't wanna lose the money.

Eric: 2:01:42

They'll make it up in overdraft fees.

Sarah: 2:01:44

Yeah. That's true. Says he would

Eric: 2:01:48

Seriously, you know, banks used to make their money on interest on loans.

Sarah: 2:01:53

Yep.

Eric: 2:01:53

And so when bankers default or when when customers defaulted, the bank did lose. But now, I mean, they're so fee happy. Yeah. Everything. You overdraft your account for $1 and they charge for $1.

Sarah: 2:02:07

It's crazy. Like, oh, you're poor? Guess what? We're charging you more for being poor. Take that.

Eric: 2:02:12

Well, you know, used to be that you could justify an overdraft fee because the banks had to deal with physical money, actual cash. And when they had to cover an overdraft, it impacted their bottom line because they actually had to go in and grab that money and use it to pay that. But nowadays it's all done on a computer. It's not even real money. It's just theoretical money in a computer. And if they need to cover it, they just do a computer transaction that papers over it. So yeah. Anyway, sorry.

Sarah: 2:02:43

No. I agree with you. I agree with you. He says that he would be out of business right now if it wasn't for AGGRITEK. Preston winces the moment he says this, and Willard says, what is it? And then Preston says he just got off the phone with AgriTech. And once they consolidate the entire valley, they want them to do their banking entirely through Chicago. Willard is clearly angry upon hearing this. He tells Preston they need to have a little chat. Both men go into the other room. Jessica stands up and laughs saying that mister Willard's a bit excitable. Laura asks if the bank is really in trouble, but she assures Laura they'll pull through. She says that he isn't from this area and doesn't know how hard it is for a farmer to make it. Laura says she sounds like she's talking from experience. And Jessica says her family's farm went under when she was 12 and she knows what poverty feels like. And I I'm assuming this is why she's embezzling because she is basically has maybe vowed to herself she'll never be poor again, and therefore she's gonna be rich. If she's not gonna be poor, it's not really a very good reason to Steele from people, but

Eric: 2:03:42

You know, I've noticed that people tend to have 1 of 2 extreme reactions to an adverse situation, whether it be They financial or anything either become extremely sympathetic to others in that situation, sometimes to the point of being blinded to the realities of a situation, but they're very, very sympathetic or they become very hard and they turn everybody into, in their mind, that person that did this to them, who caused them this financial hardship, who cheated them, who did this other thing, they treat everybody like that. And, everybody's the villain.

Sarah: 2:04:36

Everybody's the I think it's similar to that idea of you're either 1 of 2 people. You either think to yourself, I had to suffer, like when you talk about your kids and their future, I had to suffer, so should you. Or I had to suffer, so I'm going to work hard to change things so that you don't have to suffer. Those are kind of the 2. And I mean, I don't mean like giving your kids everything they ask for or spoiling them. I just mean

Eric: 2:05:00

Unfortunately, for a lot of people that that is how how

Sarah: 2:05:02

far it in general trying to change systems that typically make things harder for people so that they aren't as hard for the next generation. There seem to be 2 types of people, those that go, well, I had to do it. So, you know, and that Yeah, I agree with you, but it seems like she's That's the kind of person she became.

Eric: 2:05:21

Yes.

Sarah: 2:05:21

The door opens and Preston and mister Willard come back in. Willard declares great news. Agritech is going to continue to do business with them after all.

Eric: 2:05:29

I have to wonder what he's got

Sarah: 2:05:31

on We know what he we find that out later. Well Booger. So

Eric: 2:05:39

yeah. I'm not well, does does Willard know?

Sarah: 2:05:43

Yeah. They see it later on, and that's yeah. Yeah. We'll get there because it's quick.

Eric: 2:05:48

But does Willard really have the authority or not Willard. Does Preston really have the authority to change the policy of the corporate because he has to answer the people that are above him. It's the people who are above him that made the decision that they're gonna move the banking. Maybe he's got There's gotta be something else.

Sarah: 2:06:10

Yeah. He's gotta have something to believe that he can do in order to change their minds because he comes back, and he it looks like he didn't agree willingly. So yeah. Who knows? We get a scene change. We see the pickup pull up to Mel's burned out farm. Mildred tells them Dwight wants them to be tactful. And if Mel hasn't done anything wrong, they don't want to offend him. Mel pokes his head out the window, armed with a shotgun. He demands to know what they want. Steele under under his breath says, you're right. We wouldn't want to offend him. Laura tells him that they wanna talk about the theft at Progressive Farms. Mel is not interested. He tells them to git. Steele sniffs then wonders if he smells bacon cooking. Mildred points out it wouldn't be polite to ask. Laura continues saying they don't care who did it. They just want the pigs back. Mel asks, why do they care about those pigs? Her cover is totally blown here. It's a small town. That news is gonna make the rounds in a day. Yeah. Yeah. Laura sneezes and says less and less actually, but they happen to own a part of them. Mel argues that they belong to Agritech and he doesn't know anything about them. But all of a sudden, we see a pig run across the yard and someone chasing it. Steele attempts

Eric: 2:07:23

necessarily Agrotech's pig.

Sarah: 2:07:26

It's it's not. It's not. But it's enough to kind of, I guess, clue Steele in. He attempts to approach Mel, but Mel starts firing the gun, telling him to get off his land. They get in the car, and they go back at the sheriff's office. Steele is incensed. Clifford has just told them he can't do anything. As you pointed out, it really isn't enough evidence. Steele says he almost killed them. Clifford asked if Mel wanted to kill him, he would have, adding that they were on his land. He asked if he had permission. Steele starts to say no, but Clifford interrupts saying they have a quaint tradition here called the law. And I found this really interesting because this this is kind of like that idea of what is it called? Castle law? Is that the term for it?

Eric: 2:08:09

Castle doctrine?

Sarah: 2:08:10

Castle doctrine. That's it. We don't have that in Canada. Our our system is very different in the sense that there was a a story in the news that made the rounds semi recently in which an intruder, came into somebody's house and that person basically beat them. The owner of the home beat them so badly that they ended up in the hospital fighting for their lives. Like they were in critical condition. And so both parties were charged. The intruder was charged with breaking and entering or trespassing, and the, homeowner was charged with assault. And it got everybody, of course, there was a lot of press and a lot of like hot takes and 2 sides and whatever else. But what people don't realize about our law system is that that doesn't happen with every case. It's not like if you break into somebody's house and they punch you, you're gonna get charged. Our system, which I was saying before, but when it comes to self defense is that you have to prove that your actions were proportionate to threat. And if it looks like they weren't, they can charge you. It happens almost never. But I think the reason why it happened in this particular instance is because the person was injured so badly, they almost died. So I

Eric: 2:09:25

that's where they think even in The US where the castle doctrine, if you will, castle doctrines are in effect, it still has to be appropriate and reasonable for the circumstances.

Sarah: 2:09:43

Right.

Eric: 2:09:44

And I don't think, you know, people who say, well, the castle doctrine, that's that's free rein to murder somebody. It's really not.

Sarah: 2:09:53

No. But I know a lot of people think it is, which is where, like, that happened when that happened here, there was a lot of sides that were like, we should be able to kill anybody that comes onto our land. Then there was another side that was like, well, no, that's not what it is, and that's not what it allows you to do. Like, that's that's not what we're Yeah.

Eric: 2:10:10

I I think the basic idea of the castle doctrine is that if somebody breaks into your home, that's your home. You're allowed to defend yourself and your home against somebody who has no legal right to be there. And basically by breaking in, that is a conveyed or an implied threat. So you have the right to respond accordingly and appropriately to that. But unless they've got a gun and they're making it obvious that they're gonna break in and they've got that gun and you fear for your life, you probably can't shoot them just because they bust a window and reach in and they're trying to Steele a pie off your shelf. That's not gonna fly.

Sarah: 2:10:58

And I believe the man I think it was a hammer that he had or something like that. So like I said, it was in BC and it says the homeowner allegedly used a knife. Lindsey Mann facing criminal charges after attacking a home intruder is accused of using a knife. So, it doesn't say anything about the intruder having a weapon. So, I think that's why they charge the homeowner. Because again, we have the same law that like, it has to be proportionate. The response has to be reasonable. If you're under No. Like, someone comes in with a gun, you can shoot.

Eric: 2:11:37

Now where that gets confused is where an intruder or somebody committing an assault has a knife because people say, well, a gun is not an appropriate response. But what most people are not aware of is that, I think it's 20 feet. They've they've been able to demonstrate time and time again that if somebody has a knife and they're within 20 feet of you, they are far more deadly to you than somebody with a gun.

Sarah: 2:12:06

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: 2:12:07

Absolutely. That's where things kinda get a little bit confused is is where people look at a situation and they they see what they perceive to be a difference in the level of danger because they don't truly understand that the optics are are not what what the actual situation are. But anyway yeah.

Sarah: 2:12:28

In this case, we had, like, legal experts pointing out there's a limit to what's considered reasonable force in the case of self defense. And then they said what would be unreasonable, the 1 of the officers that spoke to the news is that you've got them subdued on the ground already under control, continuously hitting them or hitting them or stabbing them. So Exactly. So that's 1 of the things where in a case where somebody is nearly killed, they have to lay charges simply because of the severity of it, but he could plead self defense. If he can prove it, those charges get dropped. So anyway, I just thought that was interesting because Steele obviously has never encountered that. Clifford was like, yeah. No. If you didn't have permission to be on his land and he told you to get off his land, like, obviously shooting them would be, I think, unreasonable proportionately because they didn't have a weapon. But he wasn't trying to kill them because Clifford says if he wanted you dead

Eric: 2:13:17

You would be.

Speaker 2: 2:13:18

He'd be dead.

Sarah: 2:13:19

Like, he just wanted to scare them off.

Eric: 2:13:21

Well, you know, and that that also kinda relates to the the warning shot thing. You know, everybody says, well, fire a warning shot?

Sarah: 2:13:28

Uh-uh. Because that's considered shooting at you.

Eric: 2:13:32

Yeah. Well, 1st of all, it's a violation of gun safety because any bullet that leaves your gun is gonna land somewhere.

Sarah: 2:13:40

Yep. True.

Eric: 2:13:42

And then secondly, a warning shot is a violation of, in most places, a violation of multiple laws because unlawful discharge of a firearm, it can be interpreted as a threat against that other person. So, yeah, there's a lot practical and legal reasons not to fire warrant agree

Sarah: 2:14:06

with you. Steele argues that he has their swine, but Laura doesn't care anymore. She says, let him keep them. Mildred agrees, saying he has nothing else. Both of them very sort of sympathetic to to Mel here. Steele is not interested. He says, this is a man who has stolen their property and tried to bury them in pig pellets, which causes Laura to burst out laughing. And I kinda wonder again, in absence of a script, was that intentional? Or did Stephanie just lose composure at at Pierce's they tried to bury us in pig pellets because it's funny. And maybe they just went with it. I don't know. But Steele asked her if he said something funny. And again, I I wonder if he'd be more like, and I don't necessarily think that they should just forget about the pigs the way Laura just said, forget about it. But he's also not sympathetic at all. Like, he he doesn't seem to give a crap that this guy has lost everything. And I wonder if he'd be more sympathetic if if it weren't for this boat situation.

Eric: 2:15:08

Yeah. Could be. I mean, because he's really obsessed with that boat.

Sarah: 2:15:12

Yeah. And there's like this it it feels like there should be this middle ground between Laura's soft hearted dad, just let him keep the pigs. They've he's got nothing else. And Steele being like, no. We need our pigs back, and we don't really I don't really care what happens to all of these people. Like, there has I don't know. It even just showing some compassion to what this guy's going through.

Eric: 2:15:30

Yeah. I mean, you're not gonna change the situation, but No. Like you say, at least show a little bit of of understanding and compassion and sympathy. Yeah.

Sarah: 2:15:39

Like, it just feels like he doesn't have any of that. And Laura

Eric: 2:15:43

And part of part of it could be and I I hear this from a lot of people about different things is that, well, it's not the same thing. I don't have pigs. I'm not a farmer. I I can't feel any sympathy for you because I've never been in that situation. Well, yeah, you have. It's not pigs. Yeah. It's something else. You know, just because I'm not exactly like you, I haven't gone through exactly the same thing that you have gone through or that you are going through

Sarah: 2:16:07

Yeah.

Eric: 2:16:08

Doesn't mean I can't understand it because I've gone through similar things.

Sarah: 2:16:12

Exactly. And that's Laura, I think, feels that empathy keenly, and we see it later on when Buck and Mary Shepherd's place is set on fire because she's lost a home. Mhmm. She knows what that is like to have all of her possessions gone in an instant. Worse. And maybe that's where

Eric: 2:16:30

A fire is very, very close

Sarah: 2:16:32

to

Eric: 2:16:32

an explosion. So to her, that would be hitting really close to home.

Sarah: 2:16:39

Yeah. I think maybe maybe Steele can't and like you said, it shouldn't take the same situation for you to have empathy, but he's never had a permanent home disappear. At the same time, he does know what it's like to never have anything of his own. So, you would think that he would be able to empathize in some way. But anyway, Laura says, no, you're right. Clifford says that they can't march onto Mel's land without more evidence. And he's 1 pig does not necessarily mean they have all the pigs. It's a farm. People have pigs. So he can't be sure he has agri tax animals if he only saw 1 pig, but he might have a compromise. So we switch. It's night. The pickup is parked in a clump of trees outside Mel's place. Steele and Laura are in the truck. Is it what what they're talking through. I called it a walkie talkie, but I'm guessing that's the wrong thing to call it. What is it? CB radio. CB radio. I knew there was a word for it, and for whatever reason, my brain was just not like, I know that word. I know that. I just couldn't think of it when I was notes.

Eric: 2:17:43

I just I I I I'm not gonna I'm gonna apologize for that because there are times I know exactly what it is, but I kicked the word out

Speaker 2: 2:17:50

of I knew

Sarah: 2:17:51

what it was, and I was like, all I could think of is walkie talkie. But I'm like, that's not a walkie talkie, and I can't remember the name of it. So I I wrote I wrote walkie talkie in my in my notes because I couldn't remember the word for it, but I I knew that was wrong. So we hear the CB radio make a noise and Mildred's voice saying, breaker 1 niner, breaker 1 niner. This is big mama calling the Steele man. She's got this really faux southern accent. I do love the fact that Mildred, who's kind of now, like, I guess, ideologically aligned with Mildred, plays along, where she wasn't really all that keen to play along at the beginning. She grabs the walkie talkie, and she she she also adopts the accent. No. Nothing yet. And then Mildred, you don't say that. You say negatory, big mama.

Eric: 2:18:41

There is there is a whole protocol for CBs, and it's

Sarah: 2:18:45

just Yes.

Eric: 2:18:46

Yeah. It's crazy. And it's yeah. And if and if you're on there and you don't use the right protocol, oh, man. You're you're gonna know it.

Sarah: 2:18:56

Yeah. Because my dad used to drive. Like, he like I said, he drove everything that had wheels. So so, yeah, we we she's in another truck with Dwight. Laura, like I said, in the same southern accent says she'll try to remember that. Mildred shakes her head and says amateurs.

Eric: 2:19:13

You gotta wonder if Mildred has a CB in her car.

Sarah: 2:19:15

I I think she's the kind of person who would, honestly. She has Mildred contains multitudes. You know? She's hat pin milly. She bowls. She's got a CB. She does everything. Yeah. Steele declares the country has gone to Mildred's head. And Laura laughs and then smiles and says, mine too, and realizes her hay fever is gone. And I don't I'm no expert here, but I don't think it just disappears.

Eric: 2:19:38

No. And especially not when you're out in an area like that where you've got a lot of Yeah. Of agriculture and a lot of livestock. I mean, those are the kind of things that I would think would tend to aggravate.

Sarah: 2:19:52

They would make they absolutely would because I am allergic to anything with fur, and that includes my cat, whom I love dearly, but I am deeply allergic to and keep her because she's cute. But anytime that I take my daughter to her horse riding lessons and I'm like, that horse riding lesson is at a farm and they have all kinds of other animals. They've got a highland cow. They've got a goat. They've got sheep. They've got pigs. They've got chickens, everything. And I'm always like a mess. Tuesdays, my eyes are watering. They're itchy. Like, there's not ever been a time when I haven't had allergies. So, yeah. I'm not really entirely even sure about why this is in the script that she her hay fever suddenly disappears and still starts sneezing. I know it's Somebody thought it would be funny. Funny, but it I don't know. This 1 doesn't really land for me because anyway, she tells him that there's something wonderful about the country air she's never been able to sense before. And he grins and says, perhaps she just hasn't found the right company to bring it out. She tells him he could be right and they lean into kiss before Steele sneezes.

Eric: 2:20:55

Mhmm.

Sarah: 2:20:56

Meanwhile, in Dwight's truck, he tells her he hasn't enjoyed a woman's company like this in some time. He tells her that his ex wife ran off to the big city about a year ago, Des But

Eric: 2:21:08

when we get people in town from villages around state, sometimes I'll be talking to them and they'll say, you know, they make some comment about Anchorage and being so much bigger and such than their town or their village, and I'll say, yeah. Well, welcome to the big city because we're not really that big.

Sarah: 2:21:29

No. And and neither is Des Moines. I just looked it up. It is 200,000 people, so it's smaller than my city. So, yeah, definitely not the big city. But actually, it's the same. It's comparable to Anchorage because I just also Googled Anchorage's population. And Des Moines population as of 2024 is 213,000. And Anchorage, it says 289,000. So similar. So yeah, the big city apparently is Des Moines. He tells her that she said she was bored with the country. He asked Mildred if she's bored and she says not at all. He leans into Kisser and for once she gets a taste of her own medicine when Laura's voice comes through saying, on your toes, big mama. We've got Mel driving a tractor trailer out of the barn. Looks like he's moving some pork on the hoof.

Eric: 2:22:18

Darn. Now I know how they feel when I do it to them.

Sarah: 2:22:22

That's funny. But also, I kinda feel bad a bit here for Dwight because she said she tells him that she's not bored right now, but clearly, she knows she's going back to LA. Mhmm. At no point is she ever considering staying there. So it sort of feels like she's leading him on a little bit, which is unfortunate for for poor Dwight. But

Eric: 2:22:43

Well, but it could also just be that she's saying, you know, if she was bored, it had nothing to do with you.

Sarah: 2:22:52

Yeah. No. I I don't disagree with that. I just kinda feel bad for the guy because he doesn't really have much luck with women. Yeah.

Eric: 2:22:59

Well, I would say also that he picked the wrong 1. But, anyway Yeah.

Sarah: 2:23:02

Oh, for sure. We see the tractor trailer driving down the road with Mildred and Clifford following, and then Steele and Laura following behind them. They all arrive at a place called, looks like, Tullworth Farm. I could get that wrong. I might have that wrong. Steele gets out and mutters great strategy, but Laura can hear something. She tells them to listen and we hear pigs. Steele runs up to the back of the tractor trailer in glee, exclaiming, you beautiful swine. And then he rushes over to the others, but we see Clifford, Mildred, and Laura staring down at the ground looking quite upset. The camera pans down to Mel sitting over the body of Willard. So that's not good.

Eric: 2:23:40

No. That's not good.

Sarah: 2:23:42

We get a a switch. Back at City hall, the town has gathered outside. Inside, Steele pleads with Laura to let it go, but she refuses saying it just doesn't add up. She insists that Mel was framed. Clifford though, is resolute saying that he was all alone out there with Willard's body. He was killed with Mel's hammer, which had Mel's fingerprints on it. He tells them that he doesn't know what they call it in California, but out here, they call it evidence.

Eric: 2:24:03

Well, you know, unfortunately, that's kind of the the that that's about as far as as some people carry things like that. Well, it's his hammer, he's got his fingerprints on it. Well, if it's his hammer, it's going to have his fingerprints on

Sarah: 2:24:20

It's his hammer. That's kind of the whole point. Yeah. And and I I agree with you. This is very circumstantial. It'd probably be enough to hold him for questioning for sure. But

Eric: 2:24:30

Yeah.

Sarah: 2:24:31

You get the impression that he's already been tried and sentenced. Yeah. So Laura points out, rightfully, that anyone could have stolen 1 of Mel's hammers from the auction or, you know, purchased it. She doesn't say that part, but like, if they were auctioning off his stuff, someone could easily have bought the hammer.

Eric: 2:24:50

Yeah. Except if they had bought it, they would have probably been handling it and had their fingerprints on it as well. But if it was stolen, they could have done that on the sly wearing rubber gloves or whatnot. That's how yeah.

Sarah: 2:25:02

Mildred asked Laura if she's taking things a little too personally. Laura admits she is and that she doesn't like being agri tech's tool. She says they found their pigs. Now maybe they can do something to help the people. Again, this is where Steele kind of like, dude, I get it. It's all about his boat, but I don't know. He just doesn't seem to care beyond what they wanted to do.

Eric: 2:25:27

Yeah. I mean, it how much is it gonna cost them to stick around for another day or whatnot and see what they can do? Yeah.

Sarah: 2:25:35

Oh, I I guess it would cost for

Eric: 2:25:37

a while. Other hand I mean, he may have a point yeah. It it could cost him some business. But on the other hand, he he may have a point that this is a situation that we're not involved in. We have no ability to make any kind of changes here. What are we going to do other than just be here?

Sarah: 2:25:54

I think in terms of what Laura is thinking is that she feels guilty that that they're profiting off of and, again, not intentionally. Mhmm. But agri tech is buying up these farms and and destroying their livelihoods and and getting the pigs back benefits Agritech as well as them. So therefore, she feels that by helping Mel, they're at least giving something back.

Eric: 2:26:18

Except Agritech really isn't the enemy here. I mean No. They have nothing to do with what is happening to the farmers from the standpoint of they're not the ones putting them out of business. They're just simply coming in and, okay, your farm is going, you've gone under, the bank has seized your farm, we're just buying the assets that you no longer own.

Sarah: 2:26:44

Yeah.

Eric: 2:26:44

So it's

Sarah: 2:26:46

I know. It's it's not a direct. I I just think she wants to help in some way that makes

Eric: 2:26:50

her feel bad. It's just a mistake to blame Agritech for circumstances that they're not really responsible for. Yeah. But yeah.

Sarah: 2:27:01

Steele basically, like I said, says that they're their swine too. He suggests they just go home, sell them, and let it be mission accomplished. Clifford, unfortunately, tells Steele that he has to impound the animals as evidence. Steele asked why. They can't testify. Clifford says they're material evidence. Laura, tells him that she would like to speak with Mel, and Steele says that he's got a phone call to make. Inside the jail cell, Mel tells Laura and Mildred that it was a man's voice on the phone who said he knew that he had the pigs and wanted to buy them. He was told to meet them at Tallworth, Balworth. I'm not really sure what the name of this farm is.

Eric: 2:27:40

I think it's Falworth.

Sarah: 2:27:41

Falworth. Okay. Because I couldn't really see the sign very well.

Eric: 2:27:44

It's very dark. But, yeah, I think it's Falworth.

Sarah: 2:27:47

When he got there, Willard was already dead. Laura asks, who else knew he had the pigs? And Mel admits he never was good at keeping a secret. Most of the town knew, but they would never tell the sheriff as they're his friends. He admits that he hated Frank Willard and that he has a mean temper, but says he didn't kill him. Laura tells him they believe him, and Mel says they're the only ones who do. He points out that there's been a crowd out there since 6AM, and Mildred kinda goes, Lynch mob, ugly scene. Mel gives a small smile and says, Lynch mob? He goes to the window to look out, and he's met with cheers and someone yelling, we're behind you, Mel. Way to go. Mildred and Laura are surprised, and Mel tells him that Frank Willard wasn't a real popular fella. Tells them that they think he's a hero for killing him. He points over to a table that's filled with pies and other baked goods and tells them that this is for these are those are from the ladies in town. Each pie is like another year on a sentence. Mhmm. Laura promises to do what they can to help, and he admits he doesn't understand her, but he's grateful. So we we see them leave the courthouse, and Steele sneezes. She asks who he was on the phone with. He vaguely says, just a friend. And then he changes the subject to telling her that Mel has the perfect motive. He wonders why she's so determined to turn this into Billy Jack Saves the Pig Saves the Pig Thief. Is that a movie?

Eric: 2:29:05

Billy Jack Saves the Pig Thief? No. However, there is a movie called Billy Jack.

Sarah: 2:29:10

Oh, okay. Cool.

Eric: 2:29:13

Because I thought remember the I didn't make note of the movie Billy Jack. I don't remember the premise of the movie. Let's see here. According to IMDb, ex Green Beret hapkido expert saves wild horses from being slaughtered for dog food and helps protect desert protects a desert freedom school for runways.

Sarah: 2:29:39

Okay. So sort of similar in the sense that it's about somebody trying to protect wild animals.

Eric: 2:29:45

Mhmm. I guess. Starring some guy named Tom Laughlin.

Sarah: 2:29:50

Okay.

Eric: 2:29:50

Or Lachlan.

Sarah: 2:29:52

Laura tells him it doesn't make sense. She asked why Willard would want to arrange to buy the pigs from Mel, and where was the car that Willard arrived in. Steele dismisses her by telling her she's always getting bogged down in details. Laura tells him that she won't help send send an innocent man to prison. Just then, Mary Shepherd walks up telling them that she baked a pie for Mel. Yeah. That man's got more pie.

Eric: 2:30:15

Like Put another year on my sentence.

Sarah: 2:30:17

There's lots of pie here. She says it's not much, but she had to do something for their hero. Before they can say anything, they look up and see a fire in the distance. Mary realizes it's her house and screams, it's coming from my place before dropping the pie and running. So I I part of me kinda wonders, how would you know exactly that that's your house? But I don't know. Maybe just because she can see it from that angle Yeah. On a daily basis or something. At the house, we've got Buck explaining to Clifford that he was in the fields when he saw it, and he was able to get back before it spread. So, I mean, knowing what we know about Buck. This is a very, convenient way of probably controlling the fire to 1 specific area so that they don't lose the whole house, but also creating enough of a circumstance for the 2 of them to split.

Eric: 2:31:05

Yeah. I mean, if you want if you want to portray yourself as as an innocent victim, just do something to your own property or whatever and Yeah.

Sarah: 2:31:17

See, it happened to me too. This is where you really see it on Laura's face. Stephanie is really good here because at no point does she actually mention what happened to her house. Mhmm. But you just can see the look on her face as she looks at their house. And it's not all gone. It's a lot of it was was spared, but you just you can tell that she's thinking of what happened to her. Mhmm. And not just because it was a fire and explosion, which are similar, but also that it was set deliberately by somebody that was trying to bully them.

Eric: 2:31:54

Yeah.

Sarah: 2:31:55

In Laura's case, that company that they were up against, in this case, she thinks it's agri tech, but it doesn't really matter the sense that it's the same idea. Somebody's trying to bully these people out of their homes or bully these people off of something by taking away their livelihoods and in this case, burning down their farms.

Eric: 2:32:16

Yeah. And she's smart enough to know that if this was an isolated incident, okay, maybe an electrical accident as the sheriff says. But when it happens time and time again to the same group of people. There are certain things that you know to be true, even though you don't necessarily have the evidence to prove it in a court of law. And when it's once, it's an accident. When it's twice, it's a coincidence. When it's 3 times, it's suspicious.

Sarah: 2:32:51

Exactly. Yeah. So and yeah. And and Steele callously no. I don't think he means to be callous here. I think he's trying to be reassuring, but he says it could have been a lot worse. And he's not wrong. But that it just doesn't come off. It I sometimes really hate it when something really bad happens that and you're in that moment where you're just like, you're upset and you're if your reaction is not proportionate, when somebody tries to minimize it by saying, well, it could be worse.

Eric: 2:33:24

Well, I don't think it's an attempt to minimize It's an attempt to make the person

Sarah: 2:33:37

Like, it,

Eric: 2:33:37

respect it. When you're focused on the bad part of something like this, it's an attempt to make them say, look. Yeah. It's bad. It's terrible, but it could have been worse. It could have been everything. Yeah. You lost part of this, but it could have been so much worse. And even though this is a bad thing and you're not thankful for it to having happened, you can be at least thankful that it didn't happen worse.

Sarah: 2:34:05

Yeah. And I and I think there's a time for that, but this isn't it. Well You know? This is this is

Eric: 2:34:12

If this isn't the time for it, then when is?

Sarah: 2:34:14

Well, I just mean, like, she's standing there and she's devastated Mary Mhmm. And seeing whatever portion of her home burned. I don't think she wants to hear it. It could be worse. I think she wants to just be validated in this that this is terrible. And then later on, reassured, yeah, could be worse. You still got this and this and this. But like, there's, I don't know, just there's a moment where your emotions are at their height and you just want to feel crappy. You just want to allow yourself to say, this is crappy and I'm upset and I don't want to hear that it could be worse. I just want to wallow for a minute. And then, you know, you move out of that and you move on to the next thing.

Eric: 2:34:52

Okay. Well, fair enough.

Sarah: 2:34:53

So I think that just I just think this comment is mistimed here from Steele.

Eric: 2:34:57

Okay. Yeah. I I mean, I I can I I don't necessarily agree, but I I I can see what your point is? Yeah.

Sarah: 2:35:04

Yeah. Buck tells them that it like, when Steele says it could be a lot worse, Buck says it is for them. AgriTek can take over the whole valley as far as he's concerned. Mary doesn't agree. She says they're not quitting. Buck says they are. And Mary tells them this is her family's land and she is staying. Buck retorts that she can stay by herself before storming off. You get the impression that this is probably not the 1st time they've had this argument because if it like, this wouldn't escalate so far from 1 incident if it was.

Eric: 2:35:36

Yeah. And if it wasn't for the fact that we know what's going on in the background, in the reality, this would be where I would say to this guy, You're scum.

Sarah: 2:35:46

Yeah, yeah. You know,

Eric: 2:35:47

you stick with her. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah, you've had problems, but you know, you don't because he's walking away from her and you just don't do that.

Sarah: 2:35:59

But he's scum either way. He's scum if he walks away and doesn't wanna stick it out, but he's scum as well because he's orchestrated this simply so that he can run away with the other woman and and keep their embezzled money. Like, what a crap human all around. Like, Buck is a jerk.

Eric: 2:36:17

Yeah. But if if he wasn't behind at all Yeah. This would still be a

Sarah: 2:36:21

It would still be. Yeah. I right. I agree. I agree. Not because like that Yeah, that's her whole life. Like her family's land. That's probably 1 of those farms you were talking about. That's intergenerational that gets passed down. There's no way she would want to just let it go that easily. She could save it. Clifford this is where Clifford walks over with a burned wire and suggests it might be faulty wiring, and that just sends Laura because

Eric: 2:36:47

Off the deep end.

Sarah: 2:36:48

Yeah. And, again, that's this this is her old trauma. This is her house coming back to haunt her because

Eric: 2:36:53

And it's also her recognizing that, like I said, once is unfortunate, twice is coincidence, 3 times.

Sarah: 2:37:00

No. No. She says in a pig's eye. And so she's made a pig pun.

Eric: 2:37:05

Finally. Yeah. She got 1 in Mary.

Sarah: 2:37:08

Aptly put, but he's not able to say anything else because she's furious. She's overcome with anger, possibly her own memories of having her house blown up in an effort to intimidate her. She gets into the truck and she drives away. They Steele tries to talk to her, but it's not happening. She's pissed.

Eric: 2:37:27

Oh, yeah.

Sarah: 2:37:28

At AgriTek, she has confronted Preston. She's obviously accused him of being responsible. He insists she's not making any sense, but she points out that he talked about buying Buck and Mary's place. Mhmm. He she then suggests they talk about Frank Willard. She demands to know what Willard had on him to convince him not to bank through Chicago. Preston says nothing, insisting that he managed to convince him that a local bank could do more for them. Laura's not buying it. She tells him someone set up Brundage, someone clever enough to use local hatreds as a smokescreen. She demands to know where he was last night, tells her he was out. She asks where. He says he doesn't have to tell her. She admits he's right, but tells him that she's going to find out and that she's going to nail him to the wall. Steele, meanwhile, he's walking around Buck and Mary's farm sneezing, and he accidentally walks by Buck and Jessica standing together a rather intimate and compromising way. And how dumb is he to do that in his own property? Like, I'm sorry.

Eric: 2:38:25

He he's he's yeah. Not He he's not all that smart. She's the brains of the operation. He's the muscle, and she should have had enough sense not to do it. Oh, yeah. Obviously, she didn't. He's not going to. So, I mean,

Sarah: 2:38:39

because he's Mary could have easily walked by and seen him. That was just really stupid that she would come out to their home, 1st of all, and then that they would get all snuggly and like, what? What is wrong with you? Steele apologizes and pretends he didn't notice. And Buck, attempting to save the situation, introduces Steele to Jessica and Jessica to Steele, who fills in that he is a private investigator from LA. She has it. Ms. Holt told her. Buck is surprised, and Steele apologizes for the deception. Jessica claims she was just telling him how sorry she was for his loss. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Steele agrees it's a tragedy and tactfully ignores the truth of what he saw. He asked if the bank is gonna help them rebuild. Caught off guard, she says, oh, if only we could. She just came from a board meeting where it turns out that Frank Willard was just as bad a banker as he was a good citizen. The bank is close to failing. And I really feel bad for Willard that his legacy is that he was a terrible human being and a crappy banker because he really got screwed here. I mean, really got screwed. The guy tried to do what he could. And, yeah, he got himself into a bad position, but he's also being embezzled from by Jessica. And so everyone in town is is sending this guy pies for killing him. Like, wow, that sucks that your legacy is is that. Yeah.

Eric: 2:40:07

I mean, there is kind of a obviously, Jessica is behind the smear campaign, and and that is a historically used tactic of making the victim the bad guy. There's 2 ways, 2 things that happen. The bad guy portrays themselves as a victim, and then the bad guy portrays the victim as the bad guy. Yeah. So it's a well worn well worn Trope. Trope. Yeah. Or tactic. I guess, actually, in this particular case, it's more of a tactic.

Sarah: 2:40:47

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Steele comments on how unfortunate it is, and she tells them that it is, but she has to be getting back. Buck offers to walk her out and they hastily leave. Back at the jail. So Steele, obviously, this is where he starts to get a little suspicious. Steele asks Mel to tell him about Jessica. Mel adds, she's a terrific gal. They all went to high school together. Steele comments, she's an attractive woman. And I have to say that that may be true, but nothing about her wardrobe or her hair suggests that. She, throughout this entire episode, is in these boxy suits that have like no Like, she got shoulder pads and they're just like and then their hair is so severely pulled back that it just all looks very mannish and it's not doing her any favors whatsoever.

Eric: 2:41:38

Yeah. I I mean, just based on on physical appearance, I would say Mary's got it all over her.

Sarah: 2:41:45

Yeah. Oh, 100%. Mary's got that natural beauty to her. And again, I'm not trying to, like, diss this actress, but, like, they've dressed her in such a way that it just Mhmm. Yeah.

Eric: 2:41:55

Well, I mean, even if they hadn't dressed her that way, I'd still say Mary's got it on her.

Sarah: 2:41:59

Fair enough. Mel agrees that she could have had her pick of the lot. He volunteers the information that she and Buck were studies for a while, but she didn't wanna tie herself down to Grainville. Comments that it's funny she ended up being a banker here. Steele points out that she's a very generous banker from what he hears. Mel says, yes, unlike that skin flint Willard. He says Jessica has always been there with the money, encouraging them to take out loans, try new farming techniques, hydroponics, stuff like that. So it sounds like she was guiding them towards more expensive techniques that maybe didn't

Eric: 2:42:29

Require more money, which requires more loans. Yeah.

Sarah: 2:42:33

Yeah. He says that she has tremendous faith in the American farmer. Steele says, yes. It's almost unbelievable. We switched scenes. Steele and Laura, we see them stopped at a dirt road. He's got the hood of the pickup open. This is what happens when you rent a wreck. Yeah. No. It tells Laura I wanna

Eric: 2:42:52

I wanna say I wanna say something here. It looks to me like Laura's got a hole in the back of her jeans. I I can't quite I

Sarah: 2:43:02

thought that too. I I wasn't sure about it, but

Eric: 2:43:06

I guess that's the country chic thing. You know? Eugene's got holes in them.

Sarah: 2:43:12

Either that or they weren't expecting us to be watching it on, like, HDTVs. Yeah. So we could notice it. But, yeah, he tells Laura someone put sugar in the gas tank, and she says, I wonder who. Now she obviously thinking that Preston did it. Mhmm. He's his why are they not comparing notes is what I would like to know here, but, hey, whatever. They apparently never do.

Eric: 2:43:36

Well, I think maybe a little bit of assumptions going on here. They they assume they're both on the same page, so they don't have to compare notes.

Sarah: 2:43:47

True. That could be. Yeah.

Eric: 2:43:48

Or it could be that, without getting too pointed, without naming names, there are some people that well, let let's let's say they they know something like from a through z, and they're talking to somebody else and they tell them A through D, A, B, C, D. And of course they know the rest of the alphabet, but they have it in their head that I told you about a, b, c, and d, so I must have told you the rest of the alphabet. And it's like, no, you didn't. It's like, but yeah, I I remember telling you because no, you knew it, and you only remember telling me that because you figured I already knew it or in your head, you told me. Okay.

Sarah: 2:44:41

Okay. It

Eric: 2:44:41

didn't happen in real life.

Sarah: 2:44:43

I'm in this story, and I don't like it. So let's just keep moving on here.

Eric: 2:44:49

I I did not use anybody's name. Ladies

Sarah: 2:44:53

and gentlemen, my ADHD in a nutshell. Thank you very much. I'll be here all week. They begin walking as Laura comments, what a place to be stranded, and Steele says it reminds them of something. She does say, so you're not gonna tell me yeah. She says, you're not gonna tell me your theory on who killed killed Willard? And he says, not until you tell me yours 1st.

Eric: 2:45:15

You show me yours, I'll show you mine.

Sarah: 2:45:16

Yeah. Basically. Yeah. She thinks for a moment that says she wants more evidence. Steele agrees and says again, there's something so familiar about all of this. In the distance, we see a crop duster coming towards them. Steele turns and says, that's it. North by Northwest. Cary Grant, Chief Mason, MGM 19 59. Laura says she never saw it, and he tells her, sometimes she's very difficult to talk to. And I've I've seen this movie, and there is this scene, and it is really well done.

Eric: 2:45:43

I've I've got the movie, and I've never watched it.

Sarah: 2:45:46

It's a good movie. It's a good movie. He says that Cary Grant is attacked in a cornfield by a crop duster. So as the plane gets closer, he grabs her and yells for her to dive. They dive into the corn as the plane dips over them, and they begin running as the plane circles around. They crouch down. Laura looks up at the plane only to see it gusting the crops. Doing what it's supposed to be doing. She tries to stand up, but he pulls her back down and tells her he will decoy them. She attempts to protest, but Steele isn't listening as the plane flies away. So, the plane is harmless, but Steele comes out of the cornfield just in time to see an orange truck pull up. He yells for them to stop and they do, but then a man sticks his head out with a shotgun and starts firing. I don't know if you noticed this, but Pierce nearly let out a word he shouldn't let out when he goes back into the cornfield.

Eric: 2:46:33

No. I didn't.

Sarah: 2:46:34

Yeah. He he says, oh, and then he turns and runs in. It sounded like he's Sugar. Oh, shit. He has sugar. But I and again, I wish we had the script because I don't know if that was, like, an instinct or if if if it's in the script, he's, oh, shit. And then he runs. But he does nearly he does nearly say a a bad word.

Eric: 2:46:56

Shookers not a bad word.

Sarah: 2:46:57

Yeah. Shit. Shitake mushrooms. That's what he was thinking. He runs back, grabs Laura, telling her right idea, wrong movie. It was easy rider. We see them walking, we then later see them walking through the cornfield as someone pulls up. He grabs her and tells her to stay down once again, telling her it's a trick. Once again, Laura stands up and replies, it's a pretty good 1. It's Mildred. And Mildred's driving Clifford's truck. So they're obviously close enough that he's allowing her to borrow the sheriff's official vehicle.

Eric: 2:47:27

She'd been hanging around with sheriff for a while.

Sarah: 2:47:30

Yeah. I guess so. When she sees them, she's surprised, telling them that she saw the truck and the tracks led here. She asked, what are they doing? And Laura asked if she's seen North by Northwest. Mildred says no, and Laura tells her to avoid it. It's not really North by Northwest fault. It's easy rider she should be blaming here. But in Clifford's truck, Laura tells him that they'll be at Preston's office in a few minutes. She asks if Steele is sure he doesn't wanna be in on this. Steele shakes his head telling her that he and Mildred have their own errands to run. Mildred asks where they're going, and he curtly says, bank. Mildred is confused. She says the bank is closed for the day, and Steele tells her that's the best time to visit. No lines. Mildred catches on, and she looks a little excited. Oh, goody. We're breaking into a bank. Back at AgriTek, Laura tells Preston that she's giving him 1 last chance to explain himself before she calls the sheriff to arrest him for the murder of Frank Willard and the attempted murder of 2 Los Angeles detectives. He insists that she has it all wrong, but she's not buying it. She picks up the phone and calls his bluff. He tells her that last night, he was in Des Moines with sheriff Clifford's ex wife. Just

Eric: 2:48:49

because you've got all the facts doesn't mean you've added them correctly.

Sarah: 2:48:52

Cliff I'm likes them older.

Eric: 2:48:56

Yeah. Well

Sarah: 2:48:57

because Clifford is is mhmm.

Eric: 2:49:01

Yeah. Because, yeah, she's gotta be in her sixties probably, unless the sheriff married a young 1.

Sarah: 2:49:07

No. No. Because then later on okay. So Laura puts the phone down, and Preston tells her that he was the reason she left him and Grainville for the big city. And Laura skeptically says, Des Moines? And he insists it was a case of opposites attracting. His sophistication, her country charm, his youth, her experience.

Eric: 2:49:26

She still could have been older than him, but much younger than the sheriff.

Sarah: 2:49:31

Cougar. Cougar. We got a cougar here, ladies and gentlemen.

Eric: 2:49:34

That's probably true. Cougar.

Sarah: 2:49:38

His salary, her love of clothes. And wasn't he trying to hit on Laura earlier? I'm guessing they're not exclusive.

Eric: 2:49:49

Kind of. Maybe a little bit.

Sarah: 2:49:50

Yeah. Laura's surprised that this was the secret Willard had over him, and Preston tells her that rural communities are very close knit, and he would never survive there if this thing came out. They don't like him there anyway. It's not like they're gonna like him any less.

Eric: 2:50:05

Well, yeah. But, you know, when your house is on fire, don't throw gas on it. Fair.

Sarah: 2:50:12

He does add that sheriff Clifford would kill him.

Eric: 2:50:14

So Yeah. That's true too. And probably make it look like an accident if if if his body was even ever found.

Sarah: 2:50:21

But yeah. Laura sits back and says, well, your luck with women hasn't changed. Ouch. She asked him if he is honestly telling her that Agrotech isn't responsible for the accidents. He tells her that he knows big business is an easy target, but he swears they're innocent. And again here, Laura technically doesn't have any evidence that they are responsible, but she doesn't really have any evidence that they're not beyond him saying, we didn't do it. So it's sort of like

Eric: 2:50:51

But in a sense, it wouldn't make sense for them to get involved in something like that because if it's inevitable

Sarah: 2:50:58

Then they don't need to do it. Yeah. Exactly. Laura asked if he owns an orange pickup with the head with headlights on the roof, and he tells her no. He tells her it sounds like the town's 1 and only emergency 1 and only emergency vehicle sounds like not enough, but okay. Yeah.

Eric: 2:51:12

Hey. Laura. The small towns, that that that's that's the way it works.

Sarah: 2:51:17

Even Belmont had a volunteer fire department with, like, 2 fire trucks.

Eric: 2:51:23

Yeah. Some rural communities don't have anything.

Sarah: 2:51:25

I hate that word. I hate that word.

Eric: 2:51:28

They've only got, the state police. They have no local police. They have no local fire.

Sarah: 2:51:34

Yeah. That sorry. That word rule is really hard to say. And there was a

Eric: 2:51:39

It is.

Sarah: 2:51:40

There was an episode of 30 Rock, where 1 of the characters, Jenna, she's this actress who's kind of like flighty and shallow and whatever else. And she she finally gets a part in a movie, but nobody can pronounce the name of it because it's called the Rural Juror. Oh, man. So everybody keeps saying the Rur Juror, and throughout the entire episode, that's the the punchline is that it's Rural Juror. Rur Juror. Rur Juror. Anyway, so Laura sits forward asking who owns it, and he tells her the town, but only 1 person drives it, Buck Shepherd. Laura stands up and asks if she can borrow his car. And he says, sure, gives her the keys. Like, this is ballsy because she's just burst into his office accusing him of, like, arson and who knows what else. And then she's like, by the way, can I borrow your car?

Eric: 2:52:27

Well, I mean, his his yeah. He's thinking with his mini me may maybe thinking if he's nice to her, he'll get some young ones too.

Sarah: 2:52:40

Yeah. But I guess. At the bank, Steele is picking the lock while Mildred's on lookout. I guess it is interesting.

Eric: 2:52:46

Broad daylight on Main Street.

Sarah: 2:52:48

Come on. But you know what? Everybody hates the bank, so they're probably all just looking the other way. You know? Like, hey, whatever. It's fine. That's probably true. They're not even in their crime clothes for crying out loud. Like, this is no effort here. Mildred is obviously annoyed she's not getting to pick the lock. She says, how am I gonna learn if you won't let me practice? Tells her some other time and opens the door. They sneak inside as Mildred asked what they're looking for. Steele tells her loan records. He kneels down to pick the lock to Jessica's office, adding that unless he misses his guess, there will be 2 distinctive sets. But before he can finish picking the lock, a door opens and Buck Shepherd knocks them over, his arms filled with file folders. He runs out the door and Steele follows with Mildred commenting so much for avoiding the crowd. He gets to the orange truck and drives away. Steele and Mildred jump into Clifford's and follow. Laura pulls up to the shepherd place and rushes inside. We see the back of Mary's head on the couch. She tells her it's Laura Lou Holt, and the camera pans over to Mary's face. She's got a gag in her mouth and she's tied up. So she obviously can't answer Laura. And Laura, I think, kinda figures something's not right, but she approaches her cautiously.

Eric: 2:53:56

Yeah. You're tied to a chair. You gotta gag on your mouth.

Sarah: 2:53:59

I just mean before she sees that. Before she sees that. She approaches cautiously, sees something is wrong, and promises to have her out in no time. She starts to work on the knots, and the door to the closet behind her opens. Jessica advances from behind, and I didn't notice the gun at 1st, but she has it later on in the scene. So the look on Mary's face gives her away. Laura elbows her in the stomach, shoving her back into the closet before running out of the house. Jessica chases her as she runs into the barn. Meanwhile, Steele and Mildred are chasing Buck. Mildred got her hands on some of the file folders and she's shocked that Steele was right. She tells them that she was keeping double books. She would give a farmer the loan of 50,000, but put it in a 75 and pocket the difference.

Eric: 2:54:39

Now I got a problem at this point because the paperwork she submitted for the higher amount would have to have the customer's signature on it. Were the customers not paying attention or was she slipping in? Was she forging their signatures? How did that work? Because she either needed their signatures on the phony paperwork or conned them somehow into signing the paperwork.

Sarah: 2:55:11

Yeah. I'm guessing it was similar to the old, like, so Steele and forged who had a bunch of stuff shoved in his face, and he just signed it all. But if you think about it, like, anytime you sign a phone contract, you get shown all the pages. They're like, initial here, here, here, here, here. And you don't always don't always get a chance to really look over And I'm guessing the people in the town trusted her implicitly. So they probably didn't look too closely at what it actually said because here she is trying to help them out. She's the small town banker trying to do a solid for all the poor starving farmers. Like, yeah, she's

Eric: 2:55:47

Yeah. You're probably right.

Sarah: 2:55:49

Steele adds that Buck tortures a farmer's place. She tidies up the paperwork. Mildred adds that the bank is none the wiser. He sneezes again as Buck rounds the corner. He manages to get in front of his truck, cutting him off. Buck jumps out and Steele does too, telling Buck to make it easy on himself, but he pulls out a shotgun and fires at Steele who dives behind it, gets a big hill of dirt. I'm not really sure what that was supposed to be, but big hill of dirt. Steele tells Mildred to get the sheriff. She puts the trucking gear and drives off. Meanwhile Why? I guess because

Eric: 2:56:20

It's got a CB radio win in it.

Sarah: 2:56:23

That's a good point.

Eric: 2:56:24

You wanna tell me he doesn't have a CB radio in his office and even I at his

Sarah: 2:56:30

didn't think of that. And also she could have, like, run Buck over. She could have hit him with the Yeah. Well

Eric: 2:56:37

yeah.

Sarah: 2:56:38

I mean, not to kill him, but, like, little nudgey nudge. Yeah. Meanwhile, Jessica has gone into the barn with her gun. She slowly walks around looking for Laura. Around a hay bale, she sees a cow, but no Laura. Eventually, Laura swings down on a rope like Tarzan and knocks her over, disarming her. She grabs the gun and trains it on her as the cow moves. Laura says, my sentiments exactly. Steele, meanwhile, is chasing Buck whose gun is jammed up through a field. He approaches a barn and Buck drives through the door on a track is it he's he's on a tractor. Right? Mhmm. Okay. I don't know what these are that he lowers to the ground. I call them metal cutty things. Help me.

Eric: 2:57:20

Oh, that's a very accurate name. I I

Sarah: 2:57:23

think

Eric: 2:57:24

it's a disc tiller.

Sarah: 2:57:28

Okay. Because, like, I might

Eric: 2:57:30

I think that's kind of the the that may be more the function than the actual name, but it something like that. Yeah.

Sarah: 2:57:36

This is this is this is not the CB radio situation. I legitimately did not know the word for this. Like, I've seen them on tractors, but I don't know what they are. So I'm like, steed he lowers some metal gutty things. Metal gutty things. That was the best I had. I was like, that's why you did the metal, and it's got the shapes and the blades that cut stuff. I don't know. Tell tell me you don't live on a farm without telling me don't live on them. Right? Like, this is Steele trips and falls to the ground as the tractor goes over him. He grabs onto the bottom to keep himself from being sliced to bits and is dragged for a while until Buck stops, presumably because he assumes he's already done his damage, essentially. He looks behind him for a body, but seeing nothing, he starts looking around. Steele climbs up into the cab and kicks him out of the tractor to the ground. He jumps down, punches him, and he falls, landing in a heap of tomatoes. Is this a tomato field? Do they go?

Speaker 2: 2:58:34

I'm talking tomatoes.

Sarah: 2:58:34

Okay. See, I don't even know.

Eric: 2:58:37

What do you think they grow them in if not a field?

Sarah: 2:58:38

Well, I've seen tomato plants. I just didn't think they were I don't know. I don't know why I didn't think they were pictures.

Eric: 2:58:43

I don't know. This is of those people that say, why get your your milk from a farm in a cow? Get it same place everybody else does, the store. The store. Yeah. Where it comes from.

Sarah: 2:58:53

Well, to be fair, when it gets to the store, it's pasteurized. So I'm gonna I'm gonna get it there. But yeah. No. I get what you mean. It comes from a cow at 1st. Yeah. Steele says

Eric: 2:59:05

people that say that, don't don't kill animals for meat. Buy it from a store. Yeah.

Sarah: 2:59:11

Steele says, you say tomato, I say tomato before walking away. Not his best pun. Not his best pun.

Eric: 2:59:19

He could have stolen a line from home improvement that hadn't been written yet. You say tomato, I say stupid. It

Sarah: 2:59:29

would be better than tomato, tomato. But, yeah. At city hall, Mel leaves. He's now a free man. He's surprised it was Jessica and Buck and wonders why they killed Willard. Laura tells him that Jessica needed the bank to permanently fail in order to cover their embezzlement. Willard was taking measures to save the bank and she couldn't afford that. Mel wonders why Buck set fire to his own place. Steele says it gave him a legitimate reason to divorce Mary. I would argue that's not a legitimate reason to divorce Mary, but I get what he's trying to say. Yeah. Pretense. Like a pretense. Yeah. Because that's, like you said, kind of a crappy human being when the chips are down. So, he and Jessica were secretly going to link up somewhere and live in luxury for the rest of their lives. Mel is surprised that he thought it was Willard and AgriTek against them when in reality it was 2 of their own. He says that he might have been really wrong about them AgriTek folks. As he says this, Preston sees them and approaches with a big smile and a wave. He says, hi, gang. And Mel says, still don't mean I gotta like them. Which is a great response. He thanks them again and leaves as Preston yells, top of the morning, Mel. Mel ignores him. Yeah. And Preston says, I think I'm slowly winning them over.

Eric: 3:00:41

I've got a bridge for sale. Would you like to buy it?

Sarah: 3:00:43

Exactly right. Preston pulls out a check from his pocket and says to Laura to show that AgriTek has a heart. Here is a check for recovering the pigs. Laura starts to say it's not necessary, but Steele cuts her off, puts it in his pocket, and says, but much appreciated. Preston looks up and sees the sheriff. He says, howdy, Dwight? And when Clifford doesn't respond, Preston makes a quick exit. Yeah. Smart man. Mhmm. Dwight looks at Mildred sadly and asks if he can't convince her to stay. She shakes her head and and asks what's stopping him from visiting LA. He tells her he's not born to that life, and sadly, she's the 2nd woman he's lost to the city. He tells her to come back and see him sometime, and she promises to and they kiss. And this is a really sweet goodbye. I I liked this little storyline between her and the the sheriff. It's always nice when Mildred gets a love interest, and they don't turn out to be a bad guy. Yeah. It's it's a shame they never seem to last because she had that thing with, Lou Renard, and it seemed like they were getting cozy, and then

Eric: 3:01:40

Yeah.

Sarah: 3:01:40

We never saw him again. And it just you you kinda wish that Mildred had somebody too.

Eric: 3:01:46

Sound down, Mildred. I mean Yeah.

Sarah: 3:01:48

I mean, stop playing the field. Like, she's a little bit of a player. Just as they do, 1 of his deputies comes out and interrupts. He steps back and says, duty calls. He says goodbye, and Mildred says it back, and she's almost in tears Mhmm. Which Doris Roberts is so good. Like, she's she's just so incredible as an actress because she this is not a big showy scene. It's so subtle, but it's just really effective. She reaches Steele and Laura, and Laura puts a comforting hand on her shoulder and says, Tafa, and she says she just wants to get out of there. And, like, she's on the verge, you know? Yeah. Before they do, however, Clifford comes back out and tells Steele he has a phone call. Some guy named Marty in Los Angeles wants to know if he still wants that boat. Laura looks surprised, then accusingly at Steele, who looks deeply uncomfortable. She asks, what boat? He tries to answer, but he is saved by a sneeze. That's where it freezes. And I would like to know what happened with the boat because, obviously, he gave Marty a check.

Eric: 3:02:54

So Well, it's no good. So

Sarah: 3:02:56

Well, not at the moment, but once he once he deposits whatever AgriTek gave them, I'm guessing Laura probably got on the phone and chewed Marty out as well.

Eric: 3:03:04

Yeah. Say, no. Just tear it

Speaker 2: 3:03:06

up. Yeah.

Eric: 3:03:06

We're not yeah.

Sarah: 3:03:07

No. We're not doing that. Boat, and Steele is grounded. Any other thoughts on this 1?

Eric: 3:03:15

No. I mean, it was it was a fun episode. It's not without its flaws, but yeah.

Sarah: 3:03:22

It was good. It's a real the only flaw that I really or the only issue I really have with it is is Steel's attitude towards the the people in the town. But, I mean, that's a minor like, it's a fun episode. And like I said, the only reason I forget it exists is because it's sandwiched in between 2 really good episodes. So it kind of I think it it's just an unfortunate placing for this 1, because it it is a bit of a a bit of a filler episode, but it does have some fun moments and pig puns and everything else.

Speaker 2: 3:03:50

So,

Sarah: 3:03:52

yeah, if that's it, on the website, www.steelwatching.com, we've got show notes, links to Amazon US and Amazon Canada, which will have easy rider, North by Northwest, whatever. Witness, Billy Jack,

Eric: 3:04:05

North by Northwest, easy rider. Yep.

Sarah: 3:04:07

Yeah. As well as merch and ways you can support us. Buy us a coffee, become a monthly supporter, whatever you choose. If you wanna do that, it's there. And appreciate it. And we love you. Yes. There's also social media resources and links like?

Eric: 3:04:23

Well, links so that your friends can follow the podcast, or you can if you're not following it already. We've got links to the official Steele watching Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, and, of course, a link to the ever popular, but totally unofficial, but we love them as our own Steele watchers fan group.

Sarah: 3:04:41

Absolutely. Join us. Join us. And the next episode, as I said earlier, is 1 of my absolute favorites of of not just the season, but of the entire series, premium Steele. So Yes. I'm looking forward to that 1.

Eric: 3:04:55

Yep. Alrighty.

Sarah: 3:04:56

Alright. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.

Eric: 3:04:59

Bye bye, everyone. Well, I'm not gonna say anything. It's it's all up to you. I refuse. I refuse to participate in this fiasco, this farce, this joke of an episode.

Sarah: 3:05:11

He's cute when he doesn't have a choice. Steele watchers, the moment you have been waiting for.

Eric: 3:05:18

No. You haven't. You know it. You haven't been.

Sarah: 3:05:20

They have been. You haven't been, but they have been. Our top 5 Remington Steele episodes of all time because lord knows we're not doing a top 5 season 5 episode. That that just wouldn't work. So It just well, I

Eric: 3:05:35

mean, you could make it work, but it wouldn't work well.

Sarah: 3:05:38

No. It would not work well. So for the entire series, send us your top fives. Doesn't matter the season. Even if it's season 5, we might question your sanity,

Speaker 2: 3:05:48

but, hey, we give you.

Sarah: 3:05:52

Send them to us around the beginning of October ish. That's kinda what we're shooting for in terms of when we record this, and we are recording this. Sorry, Eric. It's happening. And, hey, maybe even like your

Eric: 3:06:05

head with a hammer.

Sarah: 3:06:07

Add in your favorite season as well, just in general. Tell us what your favorite season was and why, and we will have some fun with that. Eric will get drunk, and, you know, we will round off the entire the entire series in in a a fun way.

Eric: 3:06:23

So In my defense, when we did the season 4 top 5, I was on pain medication, so that might have affected my ability to speak.

Sarah: 3:06:30

Sure. Sure. Unlikely stories. It was. Anyway, send us your talk.

Eric: 3:06:36

Which further enhanced my inability to speak.

Sarah: 3:06:40

Send them to the email. Eric, would you like to tell them what the email is?

Eric: 3:06:44

Steelwatching@yahoo.com.

Sarah: 3:06:46

There we go.

Eric: 3:06:47

Make some comments. If you just wanna send your list, that's fine. But if you want to give us reasons why you chose these, both the episode and your top season, please do so. We will Yeah. We will read as much of it as we can. We I think it's proven that we don't Yeah. Although, I I have to admit, I I missed a a fan mail because it was buried the notice for it was buried in my junk mail for Steele watching, and, you know, we get all these emails. You wouldn't

Sarah: 3:07:18

believe some of

Eric: 3:07:19

the emails we get. But yes, send it in to Steele Watching and label it top 5 of all time or something like that so we we we can spot it. So there you go.

Sarah: 3:07:29

You. We're looking forward to

Eric: 3:07:30

it. Kicking and screaming.