Sarah: Welcome to steel watching, which is a podcast for Remington steel fans. My name is Sarah, and the hands of time have never dimmed my loveliness.

Eric: Okay. No.

Sarah: It's from the episode. Come on.

Eric: Well, I'll I'll I'll let you claim it this time. Thanks. I'm I'm yeah. I'm Eric, and I'm sorry. I do not know how people can drink those drinks that have the floaty things in them.

I Oh,

Sarah: the boba tea?

Eric: Whatever it is. Yeah. I mean, if I get something in my mouth that isn't liquid when I'm taking a drink of liquid, it's you better not be standing in front of me.

Sarah: That's that's really random.

Eric: No. Actually, I I've been fighting a cold for the last couple of weeks, and I'm still not entirely over it as you might be able to hear from my voice. Yeah. And also the the gunky that nest in the throat. I I took a swig of some DayQuil like stuff, you know, it was house brand.

And there was floaties in it and it's like all over.

Sarah: Oh. That's gross. Okay.

Eric: And and I looked at the bottom of the bottle and it it's got it had to have been some sort of component that was crystallized in the bottom, but, yeah, there were a bunch of floaties and no. I'm sorry.

Sarah: I can't No.

Eric: I can't handle floaties in my drinks. I'll just say that.

Sarah: I'm not even good with pulp in my orange juice. So

Eric: I'm not a big fan of that either, but yeah.

Sarah: Alrighty. Well, and on that note On that note. Oh, I wanted to kind of before we get into this week's episode, just circle back to what we were talking back about with the last episode because you were the 1 that searched up the we're in suburban steel when we were talking about the punch buggy. Mhmm. And I posited the theory that that might have been who dropped Laura off in steel spawning.

Mhmm. You seem to have located the answers for that. So

Eric: Well, kind of. I I looked I went back to I went back to spawning and looked at it, and I compared the station wagon in that 1 to the station wagon we have in what was it? That was the 1 we did last time.

Sarah: Suburban steel.

Eric: Suburban steel. That is. Thank you. It is the same make and model and the same color and same wood grain siding. It appears to be the same model year.

I could not read license plates enough to compare of course, you know, studio vehicles, could have switched the place. But by all indications, it appears to be the same vehicle. Now the woman inside driving it in steel spawning kind of maybe could have been Frances. It's hard to tell because we didn't have a really good shot of that person driving it. Obviously, it wouldn't have been Yeah.

The actress for just, you know, a 5 second shot, but

Sarah: Not even a cameo because you can't see her face.

Eric: So Right. But, I mean, they could have gotten somebody to drive it that kind of vaguely resembled Francis for that purpose.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, because we know that they prepare scripts ahead. So if they knew that they were going to have Francis in the next episode that was upcoming, then and they needed Laura to get there somehow.

Eric: Right.

Sarah: You know? So, yeah, that was it was an interesting way to figure that out because I was like, well, who is dropping her off in a punch buggy? Like, where did this person come from? And then I'm gonna keep saying punch buggy because I know what bugs are.

Eric: Yeah. I know. I know. And I'm about ready to punch the screen here.

Sarah: But then we see the station wagon in Suburban Steel, and it kind of like, oh, maybe she got a ride from Francis. That's kinda interesting is, you know, just because we don't usually get that kind of continuity. Yeah. So, yeah, that's fun.

Eric: Francis wasn't working. She didn't have the kids. They were at school.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: So it could have been. She could have been available.

Sarah: And and speaking of continuity, this episode, we're gonna be talking about season 4 episode 14, Santa Claus is coming to steal. So this 1 is a direct continuation. Well, not direct, but, like, it features a bad guy from we don't get this very often. I think the only other time we've really gotten this was with Elegy and, Steel Framed with the major. And in this case, we've got Anthony Delghetti, your dancer, returning to try to dissuade people from testifying at this trial.

So

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: This 1, first aired on 02/18/1986, and it was written by Michael Gleason and directed by Seymour Robby. Seymour. Seymour. But what's worth noting, if I remember correctly, Dancer Donner and Steel had a writer that we didn't recognize, but also Michael Gleason's name was on the script. And Mhmm.

I theorized that there this was a new writer that probably had Gleason punch it up. And this is worth keeping in mind because I noticed something that I had never noticed before. When we get there, I'll point it out because I was like, oh, this makes so much more sense because it was something I'd always wondered about. And it was something that didn't make it into the Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steel script or into the finished episode, but is referenced here. And I'm like, oh, well, this makes sense.

If Michael Gleason was connected to both scripts, then yeah. So I'll I'll point it out when we get there, but I just thought that was really cool. Yeah. This is Don Gordon's final appearance. We've seen him before as Nash as well as dancer and in dancer Prince of Donner and Steel and then this 1.

So, yeah, we've got recurring actors, which is cool. Any other thoughts before I go into the synopsis?

Eric: No. No.

Sarah: That's Okay. I wasn't sure if there was anything else we needed to talk about before we

Eric: Not that I can think

Sarah: Okay. So the TV Guide synopsis, 1 of the fake that's what I went with. 1 of the fake Santas who held the sleuths and their party goers hostage on Christmas Eve is out on bail and eager to persuade, and that's in quotes, witnesses not to testify. So

Eric: Now I do take exception to the original production synopsis and the DVD liner notes because both of those use the term killer Santa. And he he didn't actually kill anybody, at least not in the episode. He fragged his lieutenant. We find

Sarah: out

Eric: he fragged his lieutenant, but he didn't actually kill anybody in the episode as Santa.

Sarah: So Well, the TV Guide synopsis just says fake Santa's who held them Right. Hostage. It doesn't actually say killer Santa, so it must just be the DVD liner notes. But, yeah, I agree. He's not

Eric: And the production synopsis. Yeah.

Sarah: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's partly why I went with that, but also because I liked the persuade in air quotes. Well, not air quotes, but quotes quotes.

Eric: Sarcasm quotes.

Sarah: Sarcasm quotes. Yeah.

Eric: Yes. Now I I do wanna make a cast note here. Michael Horton, who plays Brainfart What's his name? Not not Wally.

Sarah: Wally. Okay. Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. He I I knew him from Murder, She Wrote because in that, he played Grady Fletcher.

Sarah: Oh, okay.

Eric: Angela or not Angela Fletcher. Jessica Fletcher. Jessica Fletcher's nephew.

Sarah: Yeah. Man. That guy pops up everywhere because I was watching, 21 Jump Street, the the detective series with Johnny Deppenet, and he played a teacher in that in in that show. He was in 1 of the episodes. And and it was funny because it was just recently that I rewatched the episode, and I was like, oh, it's creepy Wally.

Like, he pops up. There are so many movies I find myself watching and or shows and Wally jumpscare, you know, because there he is. And so he I don't

Eric: think he's ever had a lead character role continuing in a series, but he does he yeah. He does make himself quite apparent in the Yeah. The Murder, She Wrote series. I looked at it and I think I didn't note it, but I think they said he only appeared like 14 times or not even maybe that many. But Wow.

He he was I mean, he's a character that even though he never appeared with huge regularity, you you remember him.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, he's got that kind of face too. He's 1 of those actors where I I he's 1 of those, hey. It's hey. It's that guy actors where you see them, and you're like, hey.

It's that guy. I've seen that guy before. And you might not immediately know their name, but you know their face. And you know yeah. You have to go to IMDB and look up all their credits to find what was the first thing you saw them in that made you, you know, he's that he's he does.

Eric: It's that guy.

Sarah: He's that guy. Yeah. But he's good. He's very good, and he's especially good in this episode because he does anyway, we'll get

Eric: Playing the befuddled type character. Yes.

Sarah: Yeah. So we get we open on this shot, the skyline shot of LA, and then we transition to the outside of the office. Inside, I like this dress Mildred's wearing. We don't often talk about Mildred's wardrobe. They mainly have her on this in these long dresses.

They don't often have her in pants, I've noticed. In fact, I can't even think of a time I've seen her in pants. She's usually in these sort of long I don't wanna call them moo moos, but they're they're usually not the most shapely, which is fine. She's, you know, not required to wear anything shapely, but this

Eric: Right.

Sarah: Color really looks nice on her with the polka dots. So, yeah, I like what she's wearing. She looks good. And she's sort of happily working, you know, walking towards her desk. She's saying, who can ask for anything more?

And then and I like that they've sort of established this kind of, like, cozy moment for Mildred in the office because then when Delgetty walks in, it really gives that sharp shift that we that we can see that sort of like, this is 1 of the few episodes that actually the blood is real. And I don't mean literally, we don't see a lot of blood, but like it it kind of gives us consequences that we don't usually see. Usually, it's like, oh, they find the murderer. The murderer confesses, and then the murderer goes away, and we never hear from them again. But in this case, they survive something truly terrifying, and he walks right into their their office.

Like Mhmm. You know, we hear this this voice asking for Remington Steele. She turns. She sees him standing there. She smiles.

And at first, she doesn't recognize him. She says he's not in yet. He asked about Laura Holt. And then something in his voice, you can see the look. And Doris Roberts is just she's so funny, but she's also really, really good at at dramatic.

Like, her dramatic turn in this episode is is fantastic because, like, you could just see the fear on her face as she realizes all in 1 second, she's alone. She knows that voice, and it's it's scary. Yeah.

Eric: Sorry. She goes from happy go lucky, you know, cordial to cautious to suspicious to Yeah. Why don't we have an a a security alert panic button in this office Yeah. And and and, you know, really, really, why don't they have a panic button in the office as many times as they've had problems? Should have something.

Sarah: They had to have the windows redone ever since, you know, What's His Face tried to jump out. They could put a panic button in there too. But in in all in all seriousness, there's a there's a quick flashback here. Mhmm. I'm convinced the flashback is only for the audience because I don't think it's actually needed, in terms of the story.

The look on Doris Roberts

Eric: face It illustrates that Mildred, you know, in her mind, she's seen and making the connection.

Sarah: Yeah. But I I think I think she does that on her own without it. I just think that it's here because some people may not have seen that previous episode or might not remember it because, of course, this was at a time where if you missed an episode and you didn't have a VCR

Eric: Too bad.

Sarah: So that could record it. You missed the episode. So I think it's literally there for exposition purposes. I'm not saying it doesn't work. It's fine.

It it certainly, like you said, is a visual shorthand for the audience that, oh, yeah. She's made the connection. She knows who this guy is. I just think her acting is enough to sell it without it. Like, if they didn't have to do that, they could have gotten away with it because she's just you can see the look on her face, and she's thinking the flashback shows us she's thinking of dancer threatening to use her for target practice.

Mhmm. Same guy, though. This time, of course, no Santa suit. And he this actor is perfect because he just has these cold

Eric: Menacing.

Sarah: Creepy looking eyes.

Eric: You know? He's Yes.

Sarah: He's he's scary.

Eric: He does menacing well.

Sarah: He really does. Right? And she just looks very scared. She tells him in a shaking voice that she's not here either. And that, again, you can hear it in her voice when she says this.

She's realizing she's alone, and she's unprotected.

Eric: Yep. And No panic button.

Sarah: Once again, they don't know where the agency got his Yeah. So she asked who wants to see him or see them. Sorry. And he gives her this cold grin and says, the spirit of Christmas passed. She just chills.

Right? She goes over the phone as he walks out, and she watches terrified as he goes, and then she grabs it. She dials the number, and she speaks to a lieutenant Benjamin. And again, I wish kind of well, maybe I don't wish that they brought Jarvis in on this because Benjamin is so completely unlikable that it would probably destroy Jarvis for me. Oh, yeah.

But, yeah. She she calls

Eric: Plus plus plus Jarvis's homicide. This technically isn't a homicide case. That's true.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. So she asked to speak to lieutenant Benjamin. And every time I see the word lieutenant, I wanna say lieutenant because that's what we say in Canada. So I'm can I if I make that mistake

Eric: You you add letters in there that aren't there?

Sarah: Excuse me?

Eric: There is no f.

Sarah: We're taking our our spellings from the actual British the English language, the source. Okay?

Eric: There is no f in lieutenant.

Sarah: Anyway, she tells him, so she yeah. Mildred Krebs calling from Remington Steel investigations and then says the nut who held them hostage on Christmas Eve just strolled into their office. She pauses, and then she looks even more terrified as she's told he's out on bail. Another pause, and she tells the lieutenant, no, he didn't threaten her. Another pause.

You can hear the anger creep into her voice, and she says, yeah, you do that. You look into it. If there is another time, I hope I'm alive to call you. And she hangs up. Now, I don't know much about the justice system in The US, but would somebody like this be be allowed on a like, because I know sometimes they deny bail based on, like, if they're a flight risk or if they're particularly a violent offender or something like that.

Like, wouldn't he and and I know that he does have conditions placed on his his bail because he violates them. But, like, what what are the odds that somebody like this would be granted bail? I don't actually know. I I just

Eric: I'm not an attorney, but I play 1 on TV.

Sarah: Fair enough. Okay. I I I

Eric: don't know.

Sarah: Because, like, he apparently has a history of violence, not just with this, but with the the lieutenant and, other witnesses going missing and not testifying. Like, you would think that

Eric: Right.

Sarah: That alone would be enough to deny bail.

Eric: You would think, but

Sarah: Or put like a little did they have ankle monitors at the time?

Eric: I don't know if they did or not. I don't think so. But, know, not to to bring modern politics into it, but these days, you can get away with I mean, literally get away with murder and get released on bail with minimal or no bail in some cases. In the 19 eighties, it was probably a little more stringent, but, you know, you had these really great defense attorneys that could give you a bag of horse dung and tell you that it was the most amazing thing in the world and you would have judges that would buy it. And so, you know, stuff like that's always happened.

It's just I don't think it was

Sarah: Right.

Eric: The kind of thing where I would have let this person go given his documented history. Of course, the other thing is how much of that documented history could the prosecuting attorney bring to the judge in arguing against bail? There's a lot of conditions on what kind of past history could be brought out in And these types of so I don't know.

Sarah: Yeah. Fair enough. I mean, I realized we wouldn't have an episode if they didn't didn't let him out on bail. So it just feels and then when she says, no, he didn't threaten me, it's like I thought to myself, well, theoretically, he would not be allowed to contact any of the witnesses, period. Whether he threatened them So or I would think this would be a parole violation or bail violation or whatever you wanna call it.

Like Mhmm. This theoretically should have jerked him back behind the bars anyway.

Eric: You would have thought. Thought.

Sarah: Here we are. Anyway, she hangs up, and we see the elevator doors open in the hallway. Steele gets off. His dancer gets on. They bump into 1 another, and he smiles at Steele in a way that kind of makes him pause, but he's not really sure why.

And so he he's kind of still thinking about it when he walks into the office, and Mildred tells him that dancer, the loony tune who held him hostage on Christmas Eve was just there. That's where steel makes the connection, and he has also has a flashback to dancer pointing his gun at him. And, when so when they were in the standoff, and, he said to steel, go ahead, pretty boy. Take your best shot. So he's kinda lost in his thoughts long enough that Mildred has to bring him back to Earth.

Yep. He apologizes and says the man has made an indelible impression on him. Mildred agrees saying, you don't see me laughing. And both of them are taking this very, very seriously. Steele asked what he wanted.

She tells him that he asked for him and then Ms. Holt, and then he left. So Steele obviously is worried. He says to Mildred to alert Ms. Holt straight away.

In her loft, we see her practicing ballet. Now, we haven't seen her do this before, but it tracks. We know she's a runner. We know she is athletic. She's got the the right body type for it.

I like the outfit.

Eric: Okay. I'm gonna say a couple things about that since you brought it up before I did. First of all, just in the context of the scene, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. You you don't dress like that when you got a handyman in your house working on it. I'm I'm sorry.

You you use a little bit of discretion here.

Sarah: To be fair, she might have already been in that outfit when he showed up. Like, she might not have known he was coming that morning.

Eric: You could still put something on. But the other thing is I'm sorry. Those kinds of outfits don't look great on somebody with her body type. I I know there's a lot of people out there that's gonna disagree with me and say, oh, it looks fantastic and, you know, whatever. I like it.

I I don't think it looks good. I do not think it looks good. It it, yes, it shows off her her figure, her her body curves such as they are, but I don't think it does it in a good way. I think it I think it heightens the fact that she is very petite and it just I don't think it does her any favors, but that's just me.

Sarah: See What

Eric: do I know?

Sarah: I like it. I like the color. When I was a kid, I wanted I wanted those outfits, the, like, gymnastics outfits with the slouchy socks and the whatever else because, like, that was cool. So maybe that's just my my, you know, 6 year old self going, I wanted that outfit. But I I do think that it's important actually to have her in that outfit practicing ballet while Wally is there because it establishes that she feels safe with Wally around, that she doesn't see him as a threat, and therefore, we shouldn't see him as a threat either because she's comfortable with him there.

She's she's just doing her thing. He's fixing her Whatever. Faucet. Narratively, I think it has a purpose. I do agree that I probably wouldn't answer my door and and let my building manager in while I'm wearing spandex, but Yeah.

Eric: Pussy me. Some people do. Some some people don't see a problem with it. But But

Sarah: it's not. Like, it's not an outfit that's I mean, I realize it's skin tight, but it's not I don't know. I don't think it's sexualized. I think it's just it's a workout outfit for her. So Well,

Eric: I'll say that's in the eye of the beholder, and there's a lot of beholders that would behold that as being highly sexualized

Sarah: Fair enough.

Eric: In a bad way.

Sarah: Like, Wally is. Well, I mean, Wally I mean, I I don't he he could have been wearing a burlap sack. And this is be fair. Wally's not playing with a full deck. He has a 3.

He's he's not all there. No.

Eric: He's he's playing with UNO cards.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. He thinks he's playing poker, but he's got an UNO deck. That's that's where Wally's at. So, I don't think he counts, frankly.

But he yeah. So she's and and I think it's like that bar that goes along her wall, obviously, is not was not their intention really to be for ballet practice, but it works because that's how you practice certain ballet moves using a little bar thingy. I don't know much about ballet, but I know that. So, yeah. So we hear a male voice in the background say, damn it.

And this this also answers the question of why isn't she at the office before Steele? Because most of the time, she's there first, and he wanders in whenever he pleases. But, obviously, she stays stayed home because there was something that she needed fixed.

Eric: Yeah. Her hair. She needs to fix her hair. I'm sorry. The should have said this before.

That hair doesn't do anything for her. But okay. I'm done.

Sarah: Side ponytails were also cool, sir.

Eric: I've never been a fan

Sarah: of cool. Everything that she's like, it's all trendy for per the time. I'm not saying for against it, but it's all trendy for the time. Yeah. Either way, that's why she's not at work.

She's she's obviously there because she had a sink malfunction. Right? So we hear a male voice say, damn it, and then apologize. Laura tells the man who we know is Wally that it's alright. She's familiar with the expression and the feeling.

He tells her the wrench slipped. She asked how it's going, and he says that if he can get the coupling on, they ought to be in business. So he hopes it's not inconveniencing her too much. She says no. She appreciates it.

The last building manager never wanted to do anything. And we we I we met that building manager, did we not, in Lofty Steel, or did we just get the tenants?

Eric: That was just the tenants. But when no. No. No. We did because he was the guy with all the robots.

And That's right. Went to find out who owned the building. Yeah. She went to the management company and, oh, we've heard about you. You're a troublemaker.

Sarah: She's the troublemaker. That's right.

Eric: So all I asked for was a plunger.

Sarah: Yeah. So this is a bit of a callback to the fact that she's asked for help before and not received it. So I think this is partly maybe why she's so grateful for Wally. He's happy to come in and do that. And to be fair, I mean, again, I don't know about, like, landlord laws, and it might probably vary by state to state, place to place, whatever.

But, here, at least in Ontario, the landlord is responsible, the building manager, whoever is responsible for any repairs that need to be done. Right. Like something breaks, they need to fix it. If it's like, obviously not, you know, obviously not if something like like your computer breaks, but if your your stove or your sink or whatever, they're legally required. Yes, you know, so if the that other building manager was terrible in many ways, but he was not doing his job if he wasn't fixing the sink when the sink needed to be fixed.

So, yeah. She, Wally says he enjoys it, and he likes working with his hands, adding that his last situation was a real brain drain. Think. Think. Think.

He adds that if he hadn't left, he would have gone nuts.

Eric: We'll find out later. No. That wouldn't have been a trip. That you were already there.

Sarah: And it's it's interesting to see these little narrative hints at Mhmm. Where like, what happened to him because yeah. So just on the phone rings, she goes over and answers it and here's Mildred's still nervous voice telling her that mister Steele wanted to call her. She adds that Dancer just paid them a visit. At first, Laura says, who?

And this, I mean, again, in real life, I don't think she would've had to say who, but narratively, we need the exposition. So, Mildred has that chance to give the audience the for for anyone who didn't see the episode, you know, guy who yeah. The guy who threatened to blow up the building unless he was paid $200?

Eric: Horovoid. $200?

Sarah: $200. Wow. $2,000,000. I don't know where

Eric: that was a cheap building. It was a cheap job.

Sarah: That makes me think of, I I know I showed you this the song, but the the Barenaked lady song, if I had 1000000 dollars back when that song first came out, you know, it's if I had 1000000 dollars, I would buy you a house, and then they sing about all the things that they would buy if they had 1000000 dollars. In the nineties, 1000000 dollars was a lot of money. Yeah. Think they need to update this song for inflation because now it'd be like, if I had 1000000 dollars, I'd buy you a house. That's That's the end of the song.

There's nothing else you could buy. You're done.

Eric: Well well, at $200 for the, for the extortion, that that could also be something that frugal Luther from Kim Possible would do. He he held the world Internet hostage and demanded everybody mail him a dollar.

Sarah: Or and I and I know you haven't seen Austin Powers yet, but when doctor evil is unfrozen from the sixties and he attempts to hold the world hostage initially, he says, $1,000,000. And then his like, henchman. He's like, sir, our corporation, our legitimate corporation makes more than that in a month. Like, you need to upgrade. So he's like, $1,000,000,000.

And he's like, there you go. So my bad, $2,000,000, not $200. Laura voices her surprise that he came into the office and Mildred says that she knows she should she knows she should be an old pro at this, but she's still shaking. Laura asks if he did anything or made any threats, but Mildred says just being on the same planet with that creep is threat enough. She adds that the boss wanted to warn her to be on her toes.

Laura says she will be, and she thanks Mildred. Just as she hangs up the phone, the buzzer rings. This is not good timing for the poor guy

Eric: on the No.

Sarah: No. And what's interesting is that she grabs the rent. She doesn't even tell Wally. Like and I know Wally's a nut bar too, but as far as she's aware at this point, she's got a dude in the apartment that could maybe help out if needed. Like, I I maybe she doesn't wanna put him at risk, but she grabs the wrench.

She goes

Eric: Laura no. Laura's a a gung ho. I can do it myself. I don't I don't need a man type. And and so she's she's gonna take care of it herself.

Sarah: To be fair, if she had opened the door and brained him, he wouldn't have had much of a chance to do much. So

Eric: Right. But, I mean, she's not the kind of person that would just let somebody else take care of something that she could take care of unless it was steel and she were trying to get back at him for something he did. Yes. And use him as

Sarah: bait. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, she grabs Wally's wrench. He protests, but she shushes him and walks over to the door.

She rolls it open, lifts the wrench, the poor delivery man on the other end crouches in fear saying, don't hit me. I'm bonded. Now I'm not entirely sure what that means. Is that like insurance?

Eric: Yeah. Okay. There's a lot of professions in The US that require that the person be bonded as kind of a security insurance security so that if something happens, somebody can lay claim and and they get paid for whatever. But yeah.

Sarah: Laura, realizing she's made a mistake, asks him to forgive her saying she thought he was the plumber. Poor plumber. She has that she's been waiting for him all week, and it got so bad. She had to try to fix the faucet herself. This guy, he's a little jumpy because he's like, ma'am, I have been bitten by dogs, attacked by monkeys, and mugged by little old ladies, but you're the first person to try to take out my lights because of a leaky faucet.

She assures him it wasn't intentional. It takes a step towards somebody flinches back in fear. He's great. He's only in this on this 1 for like 2 minutes, but he's really quite funny. Yeah.

He hands her a pad of paper, asks if she's Laura Holt. When she tells him, yes, he asked her to sign there. So she does. Hands back hands her a package in exchange for the pad. He tries to leave, but she says, just a minute.

He asked what for? And she says, the tip. He shakes his head and says, that's okay. I live simply.

Eric: Can can I make note of something here in this scene? Sure. On the wall behind him across from Laura's door, I I've never seen these before. I don't know if we've had a shot quite like this that we would have seen them. But on the back are these framed players' cigarettes cards sets.

Sarah: Oh, I didn't

Eric: even use. And I saw those and it's like, that's interesting. So I did a little research on them and cigarette trading cards, know, like bubblegum cards Right. In cigarette packs. They were collectible cards that were included in cigarette packs from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

As a marketing tool, they were issued in sets with the earliest known set from being around the 18 eighties, featured a wide range of subjects, including sports figures, actresses, military leaders, and landscapes. Cards were so popular, they became a hobby for many people who collected them and traded them with others, kinda like baseball cards. In the 19 thirties, albums were produced for collectors to store and display their sets. The John Player Company, as we see in this this these displays here, is most closely associated with the advertising medium because of the or and and theirs began with a picturesque historical series entitled Castles and Abbeys. The initial motivation perhaps being that the firm was originally named the Castle Tobacco Company.

And the cards which various British tobacco companies produced tended to emphasize both popular sports such as cricket and aspects of the empire such as military regiments and kings and queens. John Player's initial set of 25 characters from the Dickens books in 1910 proved so popular that it added another 25 cards into that series around 1912, which was the centenary centenary centenary of the author's birth. After the First World War, the theme remained sufficiently popular that they reissued the set of 50. Again, retaining the series or order with the the artful dodger as card number 1. Eventually, they issued over 200 different sets of cards, usually in runs of 25 or 50.

And then beginning in the thirties, they included things such as technological and transportation objects, cars, civil aircraft and such. Cards were discontinued in the forties and the sets in the episode actually represent some of the various card displays I found online that you can get. And it seems like the price for those sets in in a frame like that are somewhere between 200 and 500 or between 20 and 50 I got your lips today. From between 20 to $500, although I did find a listing for a $18.97 50 card set of actresses listed at over $1,700.

Sarah: That's crazy.

Eric: So there's money in them, their cards

Sarah: I guess.

Eric: Just like in baseball cards. So

Sarah: Oh, I just wanted to I I realized I'd forgotten to mention this as well because I really liked the script description of Wally. Mhmm. And we were already talking about the actor. So I'm just gonna go back a little bit and just read how he's described when he kinda pops up from behind the sink. He's described as a fresh faced young man in his late twenties with the kind of acceptably short hair that makes the older folk cluck with approval.

So I just thought that was cute. But also, it it it adds to that deceptiveness of Wally because he does Mhmm. Feel very disarming and sweet and and sort of harmless and kind of goofy, but like, not the kind of person you'd immediately be on your guard around. So

Eric: Right.

Sarah: They they really cast him well. Anyway, she closes the door. She's got the package. This poor guy has beep. Like, he just started running.

I live simply, and then he's gone.

Eric: Closes the gone to go change his pants and then suddenly but anyway.

Sarah: Yeah. And, hands Wally back the wrench who asks if she always answers the door like that. She smiles and says only on Tuesdays. She sits down and opens the package, finding a nice gold watch inside. Wally looks impressed, she reads the card that went with it.

It says, may the hands of time never dim your loveliness. She reads it out loud, smiling with pleasure. Wally says, bit corny, but Laura smiles and says she kinda likes it. He asked if it's her boyfriend, and she tells him it's a secret admirer. Wally says, that's some admiration.

She asked him how the sink is. Obviously, trying to redirect his attention. He says it's all finished. She says good, telling him she has to get dressed. He lingers a bit asking, do you really like it?

The hands of time, etcetera. And she stands up and pushes him back, telling him to have a nice day. So this is showing that she kinda has some boundaries where Wally's concerned. Like, she doesn't wanna get too far into the weeds with her personal life, but she also feels comfortable enough with him not to be totally secret

Eric: about it.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. So she walks him to the door, telling him she'll call if she has any problems and she appreciates everything he did. She says goodbye and shuts the door to the loft. She then stands against the door and stares at the watch.

In the office, Mildred brings Steel some papers and tells him it's as much as she can find on that hair bag. She's got some wonderfully choice words for for Anthony throughout this episode.

Eric: Oh, yes.

Sarah: She and still he asked her where she gets all these expressions and she says television, I guess. Still says, I thought you only watch PBS. So, yes, there's some interesting programming on PBS. I thought it was just like mister Rogers, but she tells him that his name is Anthony Delghetti. Steel looks at the folder and reads that he served in the armed forces, but never paid made it past corporal, and there's no mention of the Silver Star that he claimed to get.

Mildred tells Steele that he spent most of his time in the stockade, and he was even accused of fragging his own lieutenant, which he already said. He he admitted to that in the episode. She adds that he blew him to pieces and get this, another dog face who saw the whole thing suddenly couldn't remember who threw the grenade. So that's right there. His kind of MO.

Mhmm. She says, since then, he's been in and out of prison mostly for aggravated assault and commission of a felony. Steele observes that he seems to be following an established pattern. The chief witness mysteriously reneges, and the little cor corporal slithers out from underneath the murder charge. Steele wonders if he thinks Delgitte is trying to keep them from testifying.

Steele points out that he goes to trial in a week, and they were all witnesses to kidnapping, extortion, assault with a deadly weapon. He might spend the next 20 years making license plates. However, and this is the big, however, if he can frighten the professionals like Ms. Holton himself.

Eric: Want some water,

Sarah: Mildred? Yeah. She asked him what he was saying, and he goes back to saying the professionals like Ms. Holton himself. She coughs again.

Something stuck in her throat. And, oh, come on. You don't think you, you know, she and good for Mildred because in the past, I don't think she would've said anything. No. I think she would've taken it at face value that miss Holt and mister Steele are the professionals, and and she does what she does, but she's not on par with

Eric: with that. But that would have been before she had gone out and was actually working cases, which I mean, now she's been active in in a number of investigations. Yeah. And Yeah. So yeah.

I mean, she's not doing the same types of things that Steele and Laura are doing, but she is still a professional in the Yeah. In the sense that she is an active participant in these investigations, just in the same way that, Murphy was. Could he knock off your reports?

Sarah: I just mean that she's sticking up for herself in a way that I don't know that she would have, even without, like, that aspect of it. Right? She would have just kinda so she says, don't you consider me a professional as well? And then still kind of insincerely kind of just says, oh, yeah, of course. Sorry.

An oversight. Kisses her. Here you go, darling. Kisses her cheek. Mildred then says, okay.

So you think he's trying to frighten Us professionals from testifying? Steele agrees saying that if he succeeds, the other witnesses might just fall in line. Mildred is outraged, exclaiming, and he walks away clean? Steele tells her considering the alternative, it's worth the risk. She asks how they stopped the slime ball, pointing out that Alistair Cook says that a lot.

Eric: I don't think he does. But anyway Yeah.

Sarah: Steele tells Mildred to call the other witnesses and try not to scare them, but warn them that he might be paying them a visit. In the meantime, he picks up the phone intending to call the authorities and see if the great Remington Steele can pull a few strings and jerk them back behind the bars. To be fair, that already should have been happening. But

Eric: Yeah. Can I can I, jumping back to Yeah? Yeah. Steel's comment to Mildred about, you know, oh, sorry, oversight, you know, of course you're a professional. I think he is falling victim of what I've seen in a lot of businesses where somebody gets hired at a particular position, particular level, and as they move up in the company, people's perception of them does not move up.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: You were hired as a secretary. Okay. Now you're a division manager, but yeah. Okay. You were kinda hired as a secretary, so yeah.

And their pay often reflects that. So if you go into a company and you work your way up to a certain level, you're not gonna get paid as well for that job as somebody that they hire as an outside hire

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Coming in and doing that exact same job. Because, I mean, after all, you're not at the same level that says this person is. Well, yeah, I am because I'm doing the same job at the same corporate level position. Well, okay. But, yeah, you know, it's different.

So I I think he's fallen victim to that.

Sarah: So Yeah. We do know that she does have a raise, that she's gotten a raise since she threatened quit. But, yeah, I I I agree with on that because he's he probably still sees her as and to be fair, we have seen her grow by leaps and bounds because, like, if you think about Dancer Prancer, Donner and Steele, she's the 1 she she held her own when she was face to face with Delgetti, not knowing the gun wasn't loaded. She was the 1 that threw the the coffee in his face. She got the gun the second time.

Like, she was not a shrinking wallflower. Like, she was right there with them Mhmm. The whole time. And and and she's been there with them doing all kinds of stuff in helping the agency. So she's definitely, like, going undercover at the, radio station and all the other stuff that she's been doing this season has kind of proven that she is working her way up Mhmm.

To being a private investigator. So, yeah, I agree. We see a scene change and Laura's Loft. I don't like her outfit. I wish I did, but this whole episode takes place in a single day, so she never changes.

She's in this episode, the whole or this outfit, the whole episode.

Eric: Jacket just doesn't do it.

Sarah: It's the jacket. It's the jacket. And and whatever that gold thing is at the collar of her, shirt.

Eric: I don't know. Whatever it is.

Sarah: Yeah. It looks it it doesn't look I I think the reason why they have her in this blouse because they've they've had her in a lot in red a couple of times this season, and I don't mind it. But I think the reason they they have her in this particular blouse is kind of like a callback, almost visual callback to dancer Prince or Donner and Steel, where she was dressed in Christmas colors then too. Mhmm. She had the eye or the spring of Holly in her hair, and she looked really nice.

Just this jacket. If if if the the workout outfit was too revealing, this 1 is just swallowing her up.

Eric: Yeah. It's it looks like it's probably wool. It's heavy. It's bulky. It it almost looks oversized on her.

Like, it's it's a size and a half too large.

Sarah: It looks like she's put on her dad's suit jacket, and she you know, it doesn't fit her. It's too big. But she's she's smiling. She's admiring the watch. She walks over to the door of the loft and opens it, but steps back in shock as Delgitte is standing there on the other side.

He says, hello, pretty face, and that creepy, creepy way of his, and we get her flashback to dancer on the floor with the gun saying he would like to splatter that pretty face all over the room. And I really do like the way she handles this because you can see, like, and I mean, Stephanie as well when I'm Mhmm. Saying this because you can see the fear on Stephanie's face. Like, she looks scared, but she also looks strong. Like, she's not backing down.

She's not cowering in front of him.

Eric: She's not letting her her response be dictated by the fear.

Sarah: Exactly. It's a very fine line to walk, and most actors wouldn't be able to pull that off. They lean too heavily 1 way or the other, but she has that perfect sort of balance. She's got a slight tremor in her voice, but she's calm or she seems calm. Right?

She says, what do you want? In a leering tone, he touches her face and says, anything you have to offer? She slaps his hand away, and that, like, that takes some some brass to to do that because she's obviously I think it was just instinct. Right? Like, comes towards you.

You're like, no. Yeah. Tells her she looks all frazzled and in a very cold and dangerous voice tells her that what she needs is a vacation, a very long vacation far away from there. And Laura, not losing her cool tells him, I can't take a vacation right now. I have to testify at your trial.

Boom. Like, not even, like, just full on here. Yeah. No. You're not gonna scare.

You're not gonna intimidate me. You're not gonna scare me off. And by the way, I'm still gonna testify. So

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: Yeah. He says, do you? She doesn't back down responding with absolutely. He asked her if she's ever heard the expression back from the grave when Lord and then come on, dude. Like, that is not the most original threat.

Well I just mean, like

Eric: I I don't think anybody's gonna accuse him of being original.

Sarah: I just mean, who hasn't heard the expression back from the grave? Right? But then, of course, when she doesn't respond, he says, that's the only way you're gonna testify, and he calls her pretty face. Creepy. So creepy.

Yep. Yeah. We switched back to inside the office and Steele staring at the company gun, which is sitting on his desk. I wonder how long how long do you think it took him to find that?

Eric: Who knows? May may you know, what what I think he'd do is get 1 of those Apple AirTags and put on it.

Sarah: Yeah. Like, those existed. Well Yeah. No. I know what you mean, though.

Like, a little a little bell or something on it. Find

Eric: it. With a little, you know, like the the little flag on the back of a a kid's bike with the long pole hanging up in the air.

Sarah: Just where's

Eric: the gun? I don't know. Look for the flag sticking up in the yeah.

Sarah: So this next line is interesting because 2 and these are 2 things that were cut from the original script that are referenced here that would be different if they weren't cut from the original script. This is the first 1. In the original script for Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steel, at the end, Scabbard says he's he's not opening that second branch in Encino. He's closing it. He's not gonna open it.

Yep. But they cut that bit out. So when when Mildred comes in and says that she got in touch with all of the other witnesses except doctor Wilson Scabbard, still remembers him as the podiatrist of the stars and Mildred says he was on his way to his branch office in Encino and Steeler just sort of keep trying. So, obviously, because they cut that bit from the previous episode, they were able to have that reference to the Wait a minute. Branch in Encino.

Eric: Are you sure?

Sarah: Yeah. Dancer Prancer Donner and Seal at the very end. There's a a bit that was cut where he's basically saying he's not gonna open the branch or whatever it was. I can't remember exactly what his words were, but he he talks about

Eric: not doing it. I I thought that was still in the episode. Okay.

Sarah: No. No. No. That he's he's wheeled out on the stretcher. He doesn't say anything.

It's Allison that says she's gonna quit her job that they kept in there, that she's not gonna sell, what is it? Like Yeah. Hygiene products for women who don't need them or whatever it is.

Eric: Yeah. I I just thought I remembered him saying that he was gonna close the office in the episode, but you're right. It it was probably in the script, and I'm just remembering the script.

Sarah: It's yeah. That's the Mandela effect. You know, where you think you remember something because it yeah. Was No. It definitely isn't in there because then this would make no sense.

But because of that, they're able to make that comment. And that's why they can't reach him because he's supposed to be at his branch officer. At least they think that's why they can't reach him. Obviously, we find out later that it's for a different reason. Poor poor Scabbard.

Like, he is the 1 that got shot in the foot in the original episode. And now Yeah. That poor guy. So we we see Laura, come through the door, and she's got, like, sort of a frantic energy. She says that hair bag, that slime ball.

You watch PBS too. Laura tells him that he had the nerve, the audacity, the unmitigated gall to show up at her door and threaten her. This is where you see the like, Steel, obviously, has been trying to pull strings or what have you with the police, but just the look on his face goes from not not, like, casual, but, like, less concerned to furious. Like, he just picks up the phone. He's mad.

And he goes to call the police, but Laura tells him that she already did that. Angrily, she tells him that Dancer's story was that he was looking for a loft, saw there was 1 available, and had no idea she lived there. Yeah. Just Right.

Eric: Purest of coincidences.

Sarah: Uh-huh. Yeah. She concludes that the police warned him to stay away from her and the other witnesses. Wouldn't twice in the same day constitute a pattern? Like, are the LA police this inept?

Eric: I'm gonna say yes, but I don't know. It it it may be that that's not sufficiently alarming that they're going to dedicate a lot of resources to that.

Sarah: Well, he legitimately threatened to kill her though. Like, he said

Eric: that she would only test you, and and it's his word against hers. And all he has to do is make the argument that that she's just trying to create trouble for him. All he was doing was coming to see an empty loft, and she saw him, and this is her way of trying to keep him out of the building.

Sarah: Even if that were true about the loft, going into steel Remington Steel investigations was not an accident. He knows what what that place is.

Eric: Yeah. But, again, like I said, a good lawyer just it's it's all coincidence. It's it's just people are making a bigger deal out of it than it really is, and so it shouldn't be held against him. Just because other people can't handle a situation, Don't blame him. Don't don't punish him

Sarah: for it. I I realize you're you're you're playing the part of the inept, constabulary. It's making me mad just hearing it because it's like, no. That's that's we know this.

Eric: I get I get the same way,

Sarah: but I mean Freaking psycho.

Eric: But that's that's the legal system. It's it's it's hardly a judicial system anymore because judicial has to do with adjudicating and justice. It's definitely not a justice system. It's just a legal system.

Sarah: It's it's

Eric: how you play the rules to your

Sarah: advantage. Still kinda points that out because Mildred is incensed. She's like, that's it? And still reminds her that the foundation of American jurisprudence is that a man is innocent until proven guilty.

Eric: Presumed innocent until proven guilty. Yes.

Sarah: And then Mildred tells him that dirty Harry is starting to look better and better. She says she's gonna give the doctor another call and she leaves. Steele sits down and says quite a morning. Hey. Laura makes a big show of looking at her watch and comments that it isn't even half over yet.

Steele notices and asks her, new watch? She says yes and adds that it was very expensive. I wonder how she well, I guess if it's a specific brand, that's how

Eric: she would know that. Mhmm.

Sarah: Steele tells her that she's entitled to splurge on herself every now and then, and after all, she's worth it.

Eric: Also, the price tag may have still been on it.

Sarah: True. Her

Eric: face falls. Times I've gotten gifts from somebody, and they've left the price tag on it.

Sarah: You know, I I I I I don't know. I'm 1 of those people that doesn't care if the like, I've had people, like, my mom, for example, will give me something and I'll open it. She'll be like, oh, I left the price tag on it. She'll be all upset. I'm like, don't care.

I don't care if you spent $20 or $200. Like, I don't I don't care if it's I will care if it's way too expensive for like something that doesn't need to be expensive. Like Mhmm. I might be like, you didn't have to spend this much money. But overall, I don't I'm not gonna look at something and be like, oh, you only spent $20?

Guess you don't love me.

Eric: But it see, what happens is, yeah. There are people who who leave them on by accident, and it's it's a genuine mistake. But then there's other people who leave it on because they want you to see how much they spent on you. Yeah. They want you to be oppressed.

Sarah: Yeah. That reminds me that's like that. Again, you haven't seen it, but Die Hard. There's a scene where when John first shows up at the office party before the terrorists show up and take everybody hostage. Mhmm.

His wife, who he's kind of estranged from, is showing him around the office and runs into a coworker who clearly is hot for her and says, show him the watch. And her husband looks a little confused, and he's like, just a little gift from those of us at the office to, you know, for the great job she's doing. It's a Rolex. And he's like, waiting for him to be impressed by that. So, yeah, that that I get what you're saying that that's what I thought of.

But in this case, it steals like, yeah, you're entitled to splurge on yourself every now and then. After all, you're worth it. Her face falls because it's obvious she thought he was responsible and that he would fess up, but he hasn't. Mhmm. Laura laughs and asks him, what makes you think I bought this for myself?

He says nothing. He just assumed. She walks over to him casually commenting that as he she remembers, he was on his way to buy a Christmas present for her when Dancer and his group showed up. Steel has completely forgotten this, but Laura hasn't and this is the part that I'm talking about. Okay?

Because, there's another bit in the script that was cut out of the original aired episode. Mhmm. Okay. I remember. You recall in the episode, the he, like, what was aired?

We just saw Mildred chiding him about how he hadn't done his Christmas shopping, and then he basically said he was gonna leave and left and went and told the plant lady he couldn't stay long. Mhmm. But in the script, he actually calls Saks department store and asks them to put on hold a gold watch with little diamonds around the face. So that's what he was going to pick up. However, prior to reading the script, I didn't

Eric: know this kinda got detained at But the

Sarah: I didn't know this when I first saw the episode. So this next exchange kind of confused me because she says you were like I said, she says, were on your way to buy a Christmas present when Dancer and his group showed up. And he pretends to have forgotten about this, or maybe he did forget about this. She asks him what he was planning to buy steel. And he says, it's a dim memory now, but it was a watch of sorts.

And without knowing that that was originally in the script, I had always taken this to mean that he was basically, like, sort of trying to take secondary credit for this gift that she's gotten from the secret admirer, like or just or just that he couldn't think of a present off the top of his head. He didn't know what he was gonna go buy her, so he was just like, yeah. It was a watch. Right? Because that was the first thing that popped into his head.

That was how I had always read that part of the exchange. But now, like, having read that bit of the script that was cut, that's actually what he was planning to buy her. So it's kind of funny. Yep. She's frustrated, and she says a watch.

And he goes into the bathroom, and she can hear him saying that Sax had a really nice collection. And like I said, initially, I thought he was making it up, but literally that bit worth diamonds on the face, and she and that's what Wally seems to have gotten her because she asked him if it was in any style in particular. And then he tells her gold band with tiny little diamonds. She goes in and shows him the watch saying like this. And he says, yes.

And she tells him it arrived this morning with a note that said, may the hands of time never did me your loveliness. So this is obviously why she's partly this and partly, of course, that in a previous episode, he had done this whole secret admirer bit Mhmm. Before. You really can't blame Laura for jumping to this conclusion.

Eric: Well, except that, first of all, as she mentions here in just a moment, the notes that reference Steele are not very flattering. And that's not the kind of thing that I would think that Steele would have included if he was doing this himself. He probably wouldn't have mentioned himself at all in any context. So the fact that he is mentioned and they're not flattering references should have been a clue to Laura that it probably wasn't him. Also, as Steele points out later to Mildred, Laura should know that he doesn't doesn't reuse his tricks on her, especially when you consider that the first time it blew up so spectacularly.

You know? If something failed the first time, don't try it again.

Sarah: Okay. I'll give you that. But the first bit, I I I actually disagree on because I think even he recognizes it's something he would do because when he explains it to Mildred later on, he says, because Mildred mentions the the not nice things that the notes say, and he's like, she's like, well, why would she why would she assume you'd write that about yourself? And he's like, well, no doubt so that I would so that she could jump to my defense or, you know, whatever. Like, it's or sorry.

It's Laura that says that, but I don't know. I just think that's very much a steel thing. I think he would do that personally. I could see like maybe Laura not clueing into the fact that you're right. He doesn't usually repeat the same.

I don't know con whatever you want to call it twice, but all but but at the same time, I I I don't think that Laura's There's no other guys on the horizon that she's aware of. And given the fact that this is a guy that invented an entire case just to get her to San Francisco. I don't think she I think she's just sort of assuming that nothing is off the table where he's concerned.

Eric: Well, I mean, you know, again, I mean, he he's done other things, but he's never repeated himself.

Sarah: Yeah. I just think that the the for Laura, there's so much of the relationship that has been game playing and and him sort of indirectly trying to tell her how he feels without actually just coming out and saying it that she's she's not even thinking about that. She's just thinking, oh, here he goes again with another 1 of his games. I do think, though, that they've gotten far enough into the season without him pulling something some sort of nonsense like that, that it that should have given her pause maybe because there's been a lot of parts of this season where they've had genuine, like, intimate moments that were not sexually charged, but that were, like, really getting to know 1 another. The scene in in premium when they're in the hotel room, the scene outside of the courtroom in or the courthouse in forged steel.

Literally, scene in dancer, prancer, Donner and steel where he asked her that incident with a gun. It didn't lower your estimation of me. Did it? Like, there's been a lot of really good moments between them in the season so far where they've let their guard down and let their walls down and been vulnerable with each other. So I could see that being the thing that would make Laura go, what?

Is this another game? But I don't know. There's just been a lot of game playing on his part. So I think that's just where she's where her mind's going to because I don't know about you, but just secret admirers, that's childish, isn't it? Like, just in general, Isn't that something that you would do in grade school and and, like, not as an adult?

Eric: No comment.

Sarah: Why did you do it as an adult? Ouch. Sorry. No. Just mean

Eric: Not as an adult.

Sarah: Like, it's it's I think it's perfectly appropriate if you're younger because Mhmm. Younger people are still learning how to directly tell somebody how they feel and, like, all that stuff. I can see that being something that you would do in high school or grade school or what have you, but I don't know. It just feels like they're in their thirties at this point. Mhmm.

If I were Laura, I wouldn't assume that an actual aside from it being steel doing his little games, I would not assume an actual grown ass man was was sending me presents from a secret admirer. Now, granted

Eric: That's true. It's true.

Sarah: We've established that Wally's, a few flowers short of a a bouquet, but know?

Eric: Wally can't even find the vase for the flowers.

Sarah: Yeah. It just feels like a grown man wouldn't do that without it. I don't know. Yeah. Gimmick.

So, anyway. Alright. She's she's, so she's kinda confronting him about this. She says, he says it's a bit corny, and she says it was signed from your secret admirer. Still walks out of the bathroom, says, having we haven't we done this before?

And Laura crosses her arms and says, yes. It started with flowers, a different bouquet every week, and candy, the kind that cost $25 a pound. Still humorous her, but clearly has no idea what she's getting at. Well, he I mean, he knows what she's getting at,

Eric: but Right.

Sarah: He's not the 1 doing it. He tells her she's lucky. She has a sweet tooth, and she tells him that a few of his notes even mentioned him and not in a very flattering light. She adds that some hinted that she had to make a choice, them or steal. And again, like, if this this is real, but and I get I know I know Wally's not not all there, but who would honestly think that you could demand an ultimatum when you haven't even shown the person who you are.

You know? Like, you could be Yeah. Wally. Extremely old. You could be way too young.

You could be, you know, you could be anybody, frankly, and it it just I don't know. Anyway, Wally, you could be a serial killer. So, yeah, she says, them or steel. She sits down on his desk, and he fixes his tie. She he laughs and says, dear me.

Where do they come from? And deadly serious Laura says, who where does who come from? Mhmm. Should it be whom? Or I don't know.

It doesn't matter.

Eric: I don't know. I'm not a an an English made Jew.

Sarah: Steele tells her that those poor those poor demented souls out there, ouch. That's kind of an insult towards Laura, is it not? But the only people that are gonna send her flowers and gifts are poor demented.

Eric: Well, he could be referring to the secret admirer a bit. He could be referring to the

Sarah: Oh, okay. Yeah.

Eric: Idea that he is something less than acceptable. You know?

Sarah: I mean, well, yeah.

Eric: After all, he's Remington Steele. Well,

Sarah: I just mean anybody who isn't is is gonna do, like, I don't know, a campaign of gifts like that without revealing who they are.

Eric: And that's what he sees. He I think that's what he's talking about is is where where are these nutballs coming from that think they can, you know, woo a woman, get her to drop a relationship that she's kind of got with somebody else for them, and they don't even you know, they haven't even revealed who they are.

Sarah: Well, I mean, he obviously thinks it's her, but so that's kind of a it's both a dig and Mhmm. Like yeah. If there really was a person, which there is. First dancer, now her closet Casanova. She leans forward asking, any idea who it might be?

And still says, probably someone who cares deeply for her and possibly even loves her, but can't bring himself to express those feelings directly. So he knows he isn't the secret admirer. But since he thinks that she is, is this him attempting to covertly tell him tell her how he feels? Like because he's not legitimately guessing at a secret identity. He thinks she's the secret admirer.

Eric: I it could could just be that he's he's he knows it's not him. And, obviously, we think he thinks that it's it's Laura doing it to herself. And it could just be that he's kind of teasing her and playing into her charade and saying, well, you know, anybody who would do this is obviously this kind of a person. And they're they're a nutball, and and maybe they've got feelings, but they just can't express them. And he's he's just kind of tweaking her nose a little bit with it.

Plus, maybe maybe he's suggesting that that is her. She is the 1 who can't express how she feels about him, and so she's using the shroud to to kind of present it as

Sarah: Except she's been pretty clear about how she feels with him. It's it's him that's been kind of withholding on that. Yeah. Right? Like, she Yeah.

Eric: He's he's definitely not meaning to portray himself through this, though, I don't think. I think he's just trying to trying to tweak her a little bit.

Sarah: Now that you've said that, I think it might be a little bit of column a and a little bit of column b. I think you're right. He is he is teasing her. He's tweaking her because he knows that she's trying to provoke a response from him, a specific response, And he believes that she's behind the gifts and the card or whatever. So he's I do think he's teasing, but I I I think also this is in line with who he is as a person.

Like, he's he has real difficulty with verbalizing his feelings. This is an easy way for him to say these things with plausible deniability. Right? Yeah. He can actually say those things and have it be both him teasing her And also, I actually feel these things, but I'm

Eric: not gonna say it.

Sarah: Yeah. So it's it's yeah. It's Laura says that she wishes he would stop beating around the bush, and there's some serious flirting going here because she leans forward

Eric: and I oh, I'm sorry.

Sarah: I'm sorry.

Eric: Just when you said that, it just

Sarah: Right down into the gutter. Here we go. That's right. Laura lays down on the desk and looks right into his eyes, and she says, when? And Steele says, when the time is right, no doubt.

So, again, I think this is the subtext becoming text, because even though he's teasing her, I think this is also his way of, like, hinting that at some point, they're gonna this is gonna be a conversation they have. Laura tells him he better watch out. She might just get tired of waiting. Steele grins and says, his loss? My gain.

Steel says or Laura says, don't be so sure. She might just get tired of waiting for everyone. She gets up and she walks toward the door and this is where he like, I don't know, has a death wish. About the watch, she turns around and smiles clearly expecting a confession. And instead, what time is it?

And you just see the the smile drop. Her whole face just kinda goes angry, and then she just leaves. She is not impressed. But he sits back looking pretty pleased with himself. So Yep.

Yeah. In the main office, she storms over to Mildred and tells her that he ought to be drawn and quartered, tarred and feathered, diced and sliced. Mildred says, hanging is too good for dancer. And Laura says, not dancer him. And I just wanted to say a little bit about both drawing and quartering and tarring and feathering because they're they're they're fun, medieval torture methods, I and I enjoy medieval torture methods.

So, I mean, I I have a history degree. I should preface this. And I enjoyed learning about things like this. I don't know. Just because it's kinda gruesome.

History majors are weird people. Okay? Like, I just we're we have some macaws.

Eric: When you're studying this, did did they have demonstrations?

Sarah: No. But I took a course on witchcraft, like the Salem witch trials. And the textbook, no word of a lie, was bright yellow, and it was called servants of Satan. Like, that was on big bold letters on the front of the textbook. I'm carrying this around as I go to class.

This book called servants of Satan. And I was like, okay. This is awkward. But it was legitimately on, like, the whole witch trials and, you know, the the real hysteria that occurred. So anyway, yeah, we're a little weird.

But drawing and quartering is, part of a grizzly penalty, that was ordained in England around December for the crime of treason. The full punishment for a traitor could include several steps. First, he was drawn that is tied to a horse and dragged to the gallows. A so called hurdle or sledge is sometimes mentioned in this context. Although such advice may not may have been a means of mercy since it was more likely to deliver like a a live body.

It was more likely a way to deliver a live body to the hangman. The remainder of the punishment might include hanging usually not to the death because you can hang somebody without killing them. If it's done properly, just break the neck, leave them in a lot of pain, but they're not actually dead. Fun. Fun.

Fun. Then usually live disemboweling. Oh. Burning in the entrails, beheading, and then quartering, which was literally just drawing a line, tying each of the 4 limbs to a different horse, and spurring them in different directions. So, literally, like, 4 horses, 4 limbs.

You get the idea.

Eric: Fun games in medieval times.

Sarah: Yeah. The above mentioned source sites an incident in December, which a man attempted to assassinate, who attempted to assassinate the king was drawn, hanged, beheaded, and quartered. So the first He was dead. Yeah. Pretty much.

But then they take, like, once they've, like, had the limbs all ripped off, they usually, like, put them in different places to kind of remind people, like, this is what will happen. And this is actually, 1 of the most infamous cases of this was William Wallace, the, you know, freedom fighter Scottish freedom fighter who died in 13 o 5. So according to the same early source Wallace was drawn for treason, hanged for robbery and homicide disemboweled for sacrilege beheaded as an outlaw and quartered for, divers depredations. In 18 o 3, Edward Marcus Disparted and his 6 accomplices were drawn hanging quarters. So this is a common thing.

But, like, when they drawn and when they drew and quartered Wallace, they took his head, and they stuck it on a pike, and they put it, like, so people could see it Mhmm. Basically. As a means of, like, reminding people, like, this is what happens to traders. So fun times. Laura apparently wishing this on mister Steele.

I I showed my daughter Braveheart, the movie, which Mhmm. Historically is not accurate in any way, shape, or form. Like, it's complete fiction in terms

Eric: of William Ken Burns documentary.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, it's it's it's funny because I took a course on on William Wallace, and the first thing the professor said was like, yeah. If you've seen the movie, prepare to be disappointed because none of that happened. But the film was more more based on a poem that was written by a poet named Blind Harry about 800 years after the fact, and it was sort of

Eric: written how did he write it?

Sarah: I don't know. It was written it was written a bit, like, as propaganda to the current king at the time. So it was like his life was embellished, and and that's what they based the film on. The only part they did get right was how he died. And I forgot to mention to my daughter because usually I'll tell her ahead of time, like, this person dies or whatever.

And we get to the end where he's, like, on the slab, and they don't actually show him being drawn in quarter. They just show his face. Right? He screams and whatnot. And you see his friends watching.

Right? And she leans over to me, and she says, well, they're gonna rescue him any minute. Right? And I'm like, no. Actually, this is yeah.

This is not a Robin Hood film. This is not he's the look on her face was pretty funny. So so that's drawing

Eric: The way we torture our kids.

Sarah: Tarring and feathering sounds a little milder. However, it can also be quite painful because tarring feathering. Yeah. Yeah. Tarring and feathering closely associated with the vigilante justice of the American Revolution.

So it actually originated in the twelfth century, but it was practiced throughout various points in history. And it's mostly known for, like, again, I think it was, 1774, a crowd of angry Bostonians gathered around John Malcolm, a 50 year old customs agent and loyalist to the British Crown. They stripped him, poured hot tar and feathers over him and paraded him through the town, forcing him to drink tea until he vomited. So that's 1 of the most infamous moments of someone being tarred and feathered in the days leading up to the American revolution, but it was hardly unique. More than 70 loyalists suffered a similar fate.

Loyalists, by the way, are also Canadians.

Eric: And your point.

Sarah: I'm just saying. That said, the history of tarring and feathering, like I said, is hundreds of years old, even though it's most closely associated with that. It goes way back, to the twelfth century. Richard, the lion heart made the first documented reference to tar and feathering in an November proclamation about how to punish Marauders discovered at sea. He declared he shall first be shaved, then boiling pitch shall be poured upon his head, and a cushion of feathers shook over it so that he may be publicly known as the first land where the ships put in.

He shall be cast onshore. So, yeah, it makes bunch of sporadic appearances in historical record. A group of drunken friars and nuns retardant feathered in 1623. In 1696, an angry mob in London Tardant feathered a bailiff as he attempted to arrest a debtor. So, yeah, fun times.

So, yeah, she wants him to be tardant feathered and drawn and cornered.

Eric: So the next time you're throwing a party and you need ideas for party games, we have the answer for you.

Sarah: Well, yeah, apparently. Mildred saying that hanging is too good for dancer. Guess Mildred's not aware that hanging is part of the drawing and the quartering, but Laura is

Eric: Or she was or she was just meaning that just the hanging is not

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. Just the hanging. That's right. Yeah.

We gotta do the whole bit. Laura says, not dancer, him, and she points at Steele's office. Mildred stands up shocked that she means the boss. And it's interesting that she's gone back to calling him the boss because she never calls Laura the boss.

Eric: Yeah. So I mean

Sarah: Yeah. I don't I think maybe just have it.

Eric: Protocol.

Sarah: Laura Laura shoves the watch in Mildred's face and asks if she sees it. Mildred's like, oh, I have trouble up so close, and Laura interrupts and reminds her that he did this once before. He sent flowers every day for weeks on end, buckets and bushels with smutty little love poems signed your secret admirer. And Mildred, it's funny because Laura's on this little rant. I completely forgotten that Mildred is even standing the room because Mildred's like, yeah.

I was there. Remember?

Eric: Again Well, I'm not sure that she'd forgotten that Mildred was in the room as much as she just forgot that Mildred was in the room when it happened.

Sarah: Well yeah. And I and, again, this is and I I'm not pointing this out as a way of saying, like, this is bad writing. I think this is fantastic writing in the sense that, again, it's referencing a prior episode, but in such a way that it doesn't feel like the exposition is being given specifically for the audience.

Eric: Right.

Sarah: It's it but it is. Like, that's the point of that of this bit is to is for Laura to remind anybody who missed that episode Mhmm. What happened in that episode. But Mildred comically saying, yeah, I was there. Remember is is kind of how it avoids feeling like unnecessary exposition.

It just looks more like Laura on an angry rant. She says, I was there. Remember? Then she continues ranting saying, he did it so he could become jealous of his competition and fight for me and realize what she meant what I meant to him. And Mildred again, futilely tries to remind her she was there.

Laura continues saying that, he hoped that I would be so grateful I would fall into his arms, not to mention his bed. Perfect way for that that and Mildred supplies the word dirtbag. And Laura just, like, snaps her fingers, like points as if to say, yep. Yep. You got it.

That's it. To have his cake and eat it too. Is is this the phrasing we wanna be using, Laura? Just putting it out there.

Eric: Don't know. She she yeah. Never I don't know. Go there.

Sarah: Well, Mildred apparently, is on board with this because she's closes her eyes, sits down in her chair, and tells her it sounds delicious. I guess Mildred is maybe maybe Mildred should have gone out with bumpers a few times. I think maybe she is experiencing some withdrawals here. Laura isn't paying attention. She reminds her that the last time he tried this, he charged everything to the agency.

She decides to beat him at his own game and asked Mildred to cut off his credit everywhere and report his card stolen. Wouldn't it make more sense to just look into whether or not anything has been charged to the agency?

Eric: Well, she didn't say cut off his agency cards. She wants everything that he has cut off, even his own personal accounts.

Sarah: Can can she do that? I mean, would think that.

Eric: Well, I mean, if Mildred is the secretary, she would probably have the required information to do that. Whether she could get away with it or not is up for argument.

Sarah: Ethics?

Eric: You know, that's that's like so many businesses, retail businesses, customer service, customer service. And it's like, I do not think you know what that means. No. Yeah. A slogan.

It's a slogan, but they don't really know what it means. And I think ethics is probably just a slogan for the agency, and they don't really know what that means.

Sarah: Don't get me started on credit cards and banks because at the moment, I am in a fight with my bank and Amazon, and I am not impressed with either 1 of them. In December Mhmm. My Visa stopped working on Amazon. Not on anything else. I could use it everywhere else except Amazon.

And it's a it's a bank Visa. It's through my bank. Mhmm. So initially, I thought this was an issue with Amazon. It kept saying anytime I tried to purchase anything, it kept saying that my card was expired.

My card doesn't expire.

Eric: I have the same problem with a certain card on Amazon.

Sarah: Okay. So this is okay. Let me finish because

Eric: it's other places too.

Sarah: But I know. I know. I found it on Reddit. This is a thing. It's been going on since 2024, and it kept telling me, and I kept, like, re adding the card, re adding the card.

It didn't work. Mhmm. So I tried getting in touch with Amazon customer service, which is basically like, you know, trying

Eric: to because they don't have customer service. You're not entitled to customer service when you order online. Do you know that? I actually had an I actually had an Amazon person, a customer service manager, tell me that, that you're not entitled to customer service when you buy stuff online.

Sarah: They're awful. Because I I got in touch with them, and they were basically like, it's your bank. So I'm like, okay. I don't I at first, I didn't think it could be the bank because why would it only work or why would it only not work at 1 retailer? Right?

Mhmm. So I'm like, fine. I'll call the bank just to say I've covered all my bases. They actually this is in December, right before Christmas. They actually admitted it was a known glitch.

And I'm like, cool. Okay. So they're opening a case file. They're gonna fix it. Wait 5 business days.

Well, Christmas happened, and I just didn't have a chance to I just put my other card on my Amazon account and said, I'll deal with this in the New Year. So January, I called them and they were like, oh, there was a note on your file for us to call you. Did someone call you? And I said, no, nobody called me. They were supposed to call me and tell me to remove the card for 5 days and put it back on and see what happens.

So I'm like, fine. I'll do that. So I removed the card, put it back on, and it looked like it was working. I would make purchases and I looked down and it to be fair, I was doing this on my phone. So I probably wasn't seeing the whole thing, but I would look down and it would say Visa and the last 4 digits of the card.

So I thought, okay. Cool. I went to check my statement yesterday or the day before, something like that, and noticed that none of the Amazon purchases were on my Visa. They were all on

Eric: my Visa. Rolled onto the other card.

Sarah: Yes.

Eric: So Yep.

Sarah: I took off the Mastercard, tried to make a purchase with the Visa, and lo and behold, it didn't work. So I called the Visa people back, and they're like, well, we can send you another card, which would mean I would have to, like, you know, any subscriptions that come off that card changed it all. So I'm like, if you're if that's gonna be the case, I'm just gonna cancel it because I had found, as you said, I went online and found Reddit thread upon Reddit thread of people with this exact same problem going back to 2024 with this bank. And everybody everybody in the thread saying, I just gave up. They sent me a new card.

Eric: Well, I've had a problem with a particular card from 1 particular bank. I've had it with Amazon, and I had it with 1 of our local utility companies. My theory is that it's it is a computer issue, but it's Yeah. In the communication between the computer for the vendor, the Amazon or the utility company, and the bank. Somehow, as the information is getting transmitted from 1 to the other, 1 of them is either mangling it or it's being sent in a different format than the other 1 expects, and so it's re reading the information incorrectly or processing it incorrectly.

And that is it it's an incompatibility between a couple of computer systems because, yeah, I've had the same problem.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, the bank has blamed it on Amazon. Amazon's blaming it on the bank, and I'm ready to just cancel both and say, like, I'm done. Like, is

Eric: interesting is that when I had the problem with the utility company, when I tried to do it online, it failed with that same message expiring. Yeah. Yeah. But when I called them and had them put it into their computer using the same card, it went through fine.

Sarah: And weirdly enough with Amazon, I have a subscription to Amazon Kids. That comes off automatically. That has not been affected.

Eric: On the same card.

Sarah: Yeah. That has not been affected. It's just when I physically tried anyway. Sorry, everyone. Running of rabbit hole.

I will keep people updated, though, because this is 2 months ongoing, and I'm just so at the wit's end. You know? Like, I'm just

Eric: But, yeah, in this case, Laura is is wanting everything that he has, all the credit that he has cut off. And

Sarah: That's I mean, I think that's a bit extreme. I I agree with Mildred here. That's a bit severe. Like, I I would I would be on board with checking to see if he's charged anything to the agency because that would answer some questions that at least he's not using agency funds if she really thinks he's doing this to to do it, but to try

Eric: to keep off all of his credit everywhere, including his personal

Sarah: He's not gonna be able to pay his bills.

Eric: Well, that's beside the point. Laura's not talking about thinking about that right now. What she's thinking is if I cut him off, he's got no credit for anything. He can't keep playing this game because she's assuming

Sarah: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Eric: That it's him playing this game. Yeah. And so it's not just a matter of, well, he's using agency funds. It's a matter of I'm gonna shut this down, and I'm gonna prove to him that I know it's him. I know that you know that I know.

Yeah. She said You know that I know that you know that I know.

Sarah: Yeah. Because she says she's gonna teach him graphically and irrevocably that she doesn't like game playing, which she kind of does a little bit at least. Yeah. The this this this relationship would not have gone on as long as it has if there wasn't some push and pull to their to the games that they play with 1 another, especially with, like, Steel trying, where he's confessing that he invented this case to get her to San Francisco, and she he expects her to, you know, brain him. And instead, she's like, that's the most romantic thing.

There's there's some degree of game playing that she's a fan of. So I'm just gonna push a little bit there and say

Eric: I'm gonna refrain from saying something about role playing. But, anyway

Sarah: I just think that she's obviously frustrated thinking he's gone back to the same shtick.

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: And that

Eric: That didn't work the first time.

Sarah: Yeah. And that they've come far enough in their relationship that these tricks or what have you are not really necessary anymore, so I get why she's, you know, frustrated. Yeah. She says he doesn't need to go through all these elaborate ruses. She leans over onto Mildred's desk and wishfully says that all she needs is a little honesty, a little verbal commitment, a gentle touch, a soft caress, and then her voice interrupts.

And it's a rather large man standing in the doorway saying, stop it, lady. You're turning me on. This guy is a horrible cop. He's a bad cop. Like, he's rude.

He's he's he I don't like him. I don't like him. I just don't like him. He saunters in, and Laura stands up telling Mildred, remind her to put a bell on that door. Why haven't they at this point?

Like

Eric: 1 1 of those electronic pads, you know, on the floor, you step on it, and goes

Sarah: They have had all manner of people enter this office, and not all of them have had like, they've been kidnapped from this office multiple times. Yeah. A little bell would not be amiss. Mildred sarcastically tells the man who she calls Lieutenant Benjamin how nice of him to show up hours after Dancer came calling. Oh, that kinda tracks with the police, though.

You know? They're never there when you need them. Yeah. Benjamin informs him that they weren't the only ones on his itinerary. He says that doctor Scabbard was crushed under an X-ray machine and is again, poor doctor Scabbard.

Shot. He gets crushed under an X-ray machine. He's in intensive care as of an hour ago. He adds that he's stable. Obviously, having heard Steele comes out of the office and asks about Dancer.

Benjamin tells him that Delghetti was staying with his sister who took off in the middle of the night, and she hasn't heard from him since. So, obviously, now finally, the cops are on board with the whole he's dangerous and needs to be back in jail. Laura asks if there's any leads on where he might be. Benjamin says not yet, but they will find a little weasel. Mildred says, hopefully, before he gets us.

And Benjamin points to the police officers behind him and says that's what they're for. The the others consented to police protection, so they're here to keep them safe. Laura tells him she appreciates the offer, but no sale. Benjamin tells him that Delgetti is a certified psycho who's trying to scare them into instant amnesia. He adds that since the others heard about doctor Scabbard, they aren't too gung ho and testifying.

If he's that dangerous, why let him out? Sorry. But, also, why do you think Laura doesn't want like, Steele thinks she's being stupidly macho? Mhmm. I don't know if I I I don't know if I necessarily

Eric: Well, I think it's the same the same logic that Scabbard used about being shot. How's it gonna look to my patients if I got a problem with my feet? How's it gonna look to the clients if a detective agency has to allow the cops to protect them. It it's all PR, which he he references in just a a couple of lines.

Sarah: Yeah. I mean, that's what that's what Laura says. I think, though, that part of this is more about and I I don't know if I would call it stupidly macho. Maybe it is. I don't know.

But I think it's also about her own refusal to give into fear. I think in her mind, if she has police protection outside the office that she's admitting that the situation like, they've had people come after them in the past. They had the major come after them. They've had other people threaten to kill them. They've been into dangerous situations like this.

I think in her mind, if she acknowledges that this one's different somehow, and it is, then she's allowing herself to be afraid. And I think that there's a part of her that worries that if she allows herself to be afraid in this instance, that maybe in other instances that will happen, and she won't be able to effectively do her job?

Eric: Well, I I think it's like I said earlier with the wrench and the delivery man, she doesn't want to let anybody else do anything if she thinks she can handle it on her own, and she doesn't want to see a situation that she can't handle on her own. No matter what situation it is, she's convinced she can take care of it.

Sarah: Well, I I mean, I I don't know if it's entirely that she has to do it all on her own because Steele is there with her and and and Mildred too. And and they all sort of like, if she was convinced that she has to do it entirely on her own, she wouldn't have them all come over to her loft so that they can be together and, like

Eric: But she's making the decisions. She is the 1 in charge. So in that sense, she is doing it all on her own.

Sarah: I think I think it's less about I have to solve this on my own and more about I don't wanna be scared into submission. Because if 1 person can scare me, anyone can scare me. And if anyone can scare me, then I'm not

Eric: Then it's all about image. No. Image is everything.

Sarah: I think it's more about I won't be able to do my job. If I'm if I'm scared every time someone comes after me, then I can't. I I might like, you know what I mean? Like, if you crumble once, you'll crumble every time.

Eric: Again, then we're back to what I said. She she thinks she can handle every situation. She doesn't need any help, and she's not gonna see a situation where she can't handle it even though she is in a situation that she can't handle on her own.

Sarah: Well, I think she's she would accept help from, like, Steele and the rest of the, like, Mildred and and things like that. But outside sources, yes. Because if outside sources have to help her, then, you know, that she's maybe not gonna be able to do her job in the future. I don't think it's so much about pride as it is about fear. If she gives into fear, then she might give into fear again and again and again.

And she's like No.

Eric: I I think she's mad at, dancer, and she

Sarah: Oh, There's definitely

Eric: She's gonna she's going to take charge. She's gonna deal with it. She's gonna get her you know, she's gonna she's gonna be the 1 to draw and quarter him, not somebody else. And no. It's it's it has absolutely nothing to do with fear at this point.

Sarah: Want the police to get him. They're not they're not saying that they need to be the 1 to stop him. They want the police doing their job and putting him back behind the bars. Like, she's on board with that part. She just doesn't

Eric: But it's not fear. It's not fear. Not at this point.

Sarah: Weigh in, people, because I think I think it's fear. Eric thinks it's not fear. This is entirely interpretation. So Pride

Eric: Pride image are basically just different versions of the same thing. But

Sarah: Email us. Let us know.

Eric: Yes. Tell Sarah that she is wrong.

Sarah: Tell Eric that he is wrong. But yeah. So she she comes around to stand in front of lieutenant Benjamin and ask him how it looks to potential clients if 1 man, no matter how psychotic he is, is able to frighten them into hiding behind the police. Benjamin tells her that she has to be alive to have clients in order for her to forget the PR and be sensible. He looks at Steele who reluctantly backs Laura up by saying that he she is echoing a tenant that he sat down when he founded the agency.

And I will give credit to Steele here because even though I don't necessarily agree with Laura's decision

Eric: Mhmm.

Sarah: This is 1 of the few times where he doesn't play the grandiose Mr. Steele and override her simply to just get on her nerves. I think because he knows that whatever her reasons for her decision here, overriding her is not going to make him any safer or or or, like

Eric: It's not gonna make him any safer.

Sarah: I think it just in terms of, like, the 3 of them being on 1 page, like, they're they're all thinking as a unit in this episode. Not 1 of them is, like you know what I mean? Like, they're they're very

Eric: doesn't wanna tick her off.

Sarah: You're right. He doesn't wanna piss her off, but, like, he's he doesn't usually have an issue with doing that in the past. Right? He he tends to to poke the bear when he thinks that it's appropriate to do so. But I think in this case, he realizes that if they're going to stick together, they're not gonna do that if she's furious with him.

So, yeah. He's got her back here, and he says that. And then he looks over at Mildred, who hesitates for a moment because she's obviously torn. She wants the police protection, but she also doesn't wanna break ranks, I guess. And so she she kinda tips her chin up, and she says, let the creep come.

So, I mean, they're they're united here, the 3 of them. Even if it's the wrong choice, they're they're on on the same wavelength. Benjamin threatens to lock them up as material witnesses to which Laura says they'd be out before he could finish the paperwork. He gives up and says, have it your way, telling the cops that the wild bunch doesn't need them. So there's our 1 of our film references.

Mhmm. He leaves, and Laura turns to Steele saying that she will go find the other witnesses and tell them that they aren't backing down. Didn't they already call them?

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Mildred Mildred called them. So it Mhmm. Seems kind of an odd

Eric: Maybe maybe just maybe they she feels that they need to call them again because when they called the first time, Scabbard hadn't been discovered to have been injured, you know, by a falling X-ray machine. I wish people would just stop dropping those out of airplanes.

Sarah: Yeah. Right.

Eric: And so now what they're doing is coming back and saying, you know what? Yes. We know that this happened, but that hasn't changed our position. Yeah. We are still doing this.

Sarah: I think the only I think the only part where that kinda, like, seems maybe not the best writing decision is that Mildred already called them once. She could just pick up the phone and call them all again. That this is obviously a way of getting them separate so that the stuff can happen to Laura separate from Steele. I I wish they had a different reason that she needed to go and do something. You know?

Steele suggests regrouping at her place, setting a sudden urge for togetherness. Mildred agrees, and Laura tells him she should be home around 6. And, again, why wouldn't Steele go with her if this is what she's doing? Right? Like, it just feels like they didn't know how else to narratively separate them.

So he hands her the gun, tells her just in case she bumps into any straight X-ray machines. Alright. Because, you know, that happens all the time.

Eric: Yes. All the time.

Sarah: She takes the gun and walks out the door. Still watches her go commenting that she's a feisty piece of baggage. Mildred says she's a little too feisty for her blood. Still points out that she has a point to prove Mildred. She asked what that is, and still says that a woman with intelligence, determination, and a certain amount of training can be as stupidly macho as any man.

I do like that statement and then Mildred is shocked. They are playing clay pigeons so that she can win the battle of the sexes.

Eric: Well, you know, in this context, this this exchange here between Steele and Mildred and Steele's lying about stupidly machos any man and and Mildred's comment about battle of the sexes, It's the irony of it where people often become or do the things that they're critical of in others. Yeah. And for a long time, women have complained about, in the past, complained about the stupid macho attitude of men, as Steele puts it, which is currently working under the label of toxic masculinity. And then they emulate that same attitude as a way of combating it, thinking that, well, we're fighting fire with fire. But, you know, other people just see that as you're a hypocrite.

You said it was wrong when they did it. You can't use that as an excuse to do it yourself and say, well, you did it first. And so yeah. I I I I do like Steele's line here because it does point out

Sarah: It's interesting, though, because Steele is not he doesn't have that macho element to his character, and he never really has. He's more of a

Eric: But there there's that attitude, it was there in the first episode of me, man. You, woman. You you, secretary.

Sarah: Yeah. Like, me. Definitely had I just mean in terms of, like, what we normally think of as as toxically macho is, like, the the Butch Bemis character or the, you know, the character that is is crude and vulgar and and

Eric: Well, that's that's the most

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Apparent display of it, but it's it's also when a man just takes charge, he didn't ask us, you know, that's that's that's that same attitude at a much lower temperature. But people still look at it and say, well, that's toxic. You you know, because you assume that because you're a man that you're in charge. Well, you know, maybe it's because that's my job or something. I'm the boss or, you know, I'm in charge of this thing or that thing, and that's my responsibility is to make these decisions and be in charge.

But people look at that and say, well, you assume that because you're a man, you're in charge.

Sarah: Well, I

Eric: think it

Sarah: it really depends on, obviously, the situation, but I think in terms of, like, Steele, like, the the littler moments that we've seen come from him, for assuming that Laura was the secretary. I don't know that I would attribute that necessarily to toxic masculinity so much as I would attribute that to societal norms. And might there be a little bit of bias in there, a little bit of, like, inherent bias that assumes woman equals secretary? Sure. But there's enough around him to suggest that that, you know, that that's 1 of those, like, mistakes that people can make, like, kind of assuming that the mistake that people sometimes make, if you mention your doctor and they assume the doctor is male.

You know, because of societally, that's largely been a male dominated profession. Whereas I think when you get to things like when Steele ordered food for everybody at the table, I would call that like a display of, like, being, like, macho and kind of arrogant because Mhmm. He assumed that he just sort of had the authority or the, you know, like, that that other people didn't

Eric: want to order their own

Sarah: because of the man.

Eric: But that's the that's the attitude I'm talking about is is even that, at that level, is deemed as macho from the standpoint of macho is always associated with men assuming that they are in charge, they're superior, that the women can't do it for themselves, you know, that men have to lower the toilet seat because women are incapable of doing it for themselves. Sorry. Just had to sneak that 1

Sarah: in. To be fair, you try going into the bathroom at 3AM and not knowing that it's you fall in. Okay? You fall in. I Just saying.

Eric: Saw I saw something that somebody posted on Facebook or something where it was a a photo of a sign that was in a a shared, you know, a shared restroom. It was a single personal occupancy restroom, so it was used by both males and females. The sign was something about, man, please be polite and lower the seat for the women. And somebody else put a note underneath it that says, you're a strong woman. You don't need a man.

You can do this yourself. You've got this woman.

Sarah: I will say that I don't know that the I mean, he uses the word macho, so obviously, that's the word that's being used in this particular context. But in terms of, like, masculinity, think people forget that a lot of the time that the word masculinity isn't the thing that people have an issue with. Like, health healthy masculinity is great. It's you know, when you have a a character like mister Steele, I think in many ways, like, yeah, he has his moments where he's kind of a jerk. But, like, most of the time, he's embodying that healthy masculinity.

I respects Laura. He he takes when Laura says no to him, like, they've been together for 4 years. Oh. 0, hello. Hello.

I'm here. Hello?

Eric: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You you you froze.

Sarah: That's weird. Okay. Are we are we good?

Eric: I'm I'm I'm good. I'm good. Play I'm I'm adequate.

Sarah: They've been together for 4 years and have not made their relationship fully physical. And if he were your typical toxic masculine jerk, that wouldn't happen. He would have either just left or, if he were a really horrible person, done something illegal. Right? He's respected Yeah.

The He's respected the boundaries, even if they've had arguments over it. It's never been about, like, you owe me this. It's more just about how they're not on the same page or Mhmm. What the issues with our relationship are. He he's respectful of respectful of her pretty much all the time even when they fight.

Like, I don't see him as a example of of toxic masculinity. I see him as an example of healthy masculinity. He's not afraid to be a man and to express himself as a man, but at the same time, he doesn't walk around swinging his chest out like Butch Bemis. He's not Yeah. Having to prove his manliness at all times.

I think that's where it gets into that realm of, like

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Gross, whatever you wanna call it. You could call it that or you could call it anything else. But you're right. I do think he is pointing out here that sometimes you get that swing in the other way where and I'm not saying this is the case for all feminists either, but certainly, there are some who feel that the only way, as you said, to be a feminist is to fight fire with fire, and and that doesn't really advance or help the cause in in in the way that they're thinking it does. No.

So I don't think that Steele necessarily believes that's entirely what she's trying to do, but it's part of it maybe or in his mind. Because he does say it's the only battle worth fighting. And Mildred says

Eric: Your your your comment there just a minute ago about feminists using it to fight fire with fire, behaving the same as men, it reminds me I I don't remember how the line goes exactly. Something about why would women want to lower themselves to be equal with men or something.

Sarah: There was a so we used to have these, like, little 60 second long I don't know if you'd call them public service announcements. They were like history lessons. They were called heritage minutes.

Eric: Okay.

Sarah: And it would they'd, like, take a moment of our history and show a little story that kind of explains it in 60 seconds. Mhmm. And it would be, like, in between commercial breaks and whatnot. And there was 1 heritage minute devoted to, women gaining the right to vote in, I think it was Manitoba, because it went sort of province by province. And the

Eric: They haven't changed the name to Persentoba?

Sarah: The little minute long story, which showed, men having these rallies against women voting and and the argument behind it, the politician, the premier at the time, arguing that nice women don't want the vote. And then in contrast, you see Emily I can't remember her name. The woman that the Heritage Minute's about whose name is blanking in my head. Her holding a similar rally, but turning it on its head and yelling about how nice men don't want the vote. And like, if and and she's kind of like turning it, like, flipping it around, like, men can't be trusted to do this.

They're too emotional. They're too this. And, like, all of the things lobbied at women. Right? And eventually, at the end of the minute, you see that she's when she got the right to vote, she goes in to check the box or whatever.

She comes out and the premier standing there and they are asked to take a picture together. And she says to him, what? You don't want you to have your photo taken with a woman who isn't nice, do you? Like, the picture's taken. So, yeah, it just made me think of that.

But, anyways, Mildred tells Steele that he's lost this round. She's onto him. And he says, what what context? And Mildred says, the secret admirer stuff. She knows it's you.

And Steele kinda grins, and he's like, does she now? And Mildred reminds him just like before. And Steele, as you said, says that even to Mildred that she's known him long enough now to realize he never repeats himself. Makes him too predictable. And Mildred says, are you really telling me that you're not the 1 sending all those gifts?

And he says, not a 1, but instructs Mildred not to tell her that. Mildred's like, I'm lost. There's a nuance here that escapes me. And Steele, he says that she's the 1 sending the gifts. And Mildred says to herself, And Steele replies, exactly.

Mildred says, why? And Steele says, it's obvious. And Mildred points out that in her day, if a guy got you something, he would make damn sure you knew about it so that he could collect. Oof. But, again, that just goes around to that same point that Steele has not done any of that.

Like, he's never implied that

Eric: It's you owe me not necessarily that. It could be, well, you owe me a dinner date or an evening out dancing or something like that. I mean True. It doesn't have to be, you know, the I

Sarah: mean, I I do think Mildred is is hinting at that, but she's also hint she she's also hinting at a transactional element to dating that I I think exists for some people. Yeah. I personally don't agree with any of it. And when I was dating, if if somebody asked me out to dinner or something like that, I would always pay my share of the bill regardless of how much they offered to to pay or what have you whatever, because I wouldn't wanna be in the situation where and to be fair, that, happens rarely.

Eric: That just shows that you were dating the wrong kind of men if you thought that they were going to expect something from you.

Sarah: No. It's not even that. It's it's I feel indebted. If somebody if somebody

Eric: Well, that's your problem.

Sarah: No. I just mean, like, if somebody that I don't know well enough like, if Scott buys me dinner I mean, we're married. He sure. Go for it. We do have our

Eric: He doesn't have to worry about who he's gonna have as his date on New Year's Eve.

Sarah: I just mean, like, I don't feel as indebted to somebody that I know and have known for a long time

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: As I would necessarily to a stranger. And and I might end up breaking boundaries of my own that just because I'd you know, I I don't wanna feel like that. I don't wanna feel like I owe anything to anybody, or don't I wanna put myself in a position where somebody feels like I owe them something. So, I have always, like, paid my way, or, you know, but if you get to know somebody, and you start dating them, and you're in an established relationship, then I feel like it turns into whoever asks pays. Like, if I ask you, I pay the bill.

If you ask me, you pay the bill. Like,

Eric: that's Yeah. You know,

Sarah: how it goes. So, I mean, but Mildred's kinda referencing that whole, like, you know, if I'm taking you out and I'm paying, I at least get a kiss at the end of the night or whatever. Steele tells Mildred that she wants to make him think that there's someone else to force him into declaring his eternal undying devotion to her. And here's where I think Steele should know better because this is not how Laura operates. He's thinking of how he would do it.

Mhmm. You know? Like, he's literally

Eric: Accusing other people of what you would do in that same situation. Yeah. Never heard that before.

Sarah: You know? It's like when a partner accuses the other person cheating when it's them that are cheating. Like, this is this is Laura's never done any of this nonsense. She doesn't play these games. Like, this isn't her.

And if he stopped for 3 seconds, he would realize that. Kinda how, like, later on, they realize it isn't him, you know, with the tension.

Eric: He's overthinking it. You know? It's it's like I'll go back to Kim Possible. It's a trap. Yeah.

I know it's a trap. Well, you know it's a trap. Well, it's a trap trap because they want you to know it's a trap, but the trap is that

Sarah: Well, or or or serenity, like the firefly movie where, you see that the scene where Mal and and Nora have that conversation, and they're being really polite to 1 another. And then afterwards, he walks into the the bridge of the ship, and everybody's sitting around. And I think Kaylee's like, so, you know, you that was in our end. He's like, yeah. And then, Zoe's like, so trap?

And he's like, yeah. Trap. And then Kaylee's like, how do you know it's a trap? She could just wanna talk to you. Some people have feelings.

And then he's like, you guys were watching? Yeah. Did you see us fight? No. Trap.

So, yeah. That's that's kinda how yeah. So, Steele, you should know better. This isn't how Laura operates. He tells her he's not ruffled by the secret admirer.

He plans to wait her out, driving her sufficiently bananas until she fesses up. I like that he's enjoying this. That this is something that he's he's this is where his game playing and

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: Kinda kicks in. Because, like, for him, this is almost like foreplay to him. Laura playing games with him, trying to, like, mess with his head.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. So Mildred laughs and says, you too do love these little games, don't you? And still says it adds spice to the relationship. He starts to leave, and Mildred asks where he's going. He tells her to buy a new gun for the agency.

Mildred says, make it too. And while he's at it throwing a bazooka.

Eric: I I don't think you can get those very easily. So that might be that might be on on that long shot list.

Sarah: Well, it's funny because, this actually came up on another podcast that I listened to, a Buffy podcast, because there is an episode where, there's a a demon that's brought back from, like, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and the lore is that no weapon forged can kill him. And, eventually, they steal a rocket launcher from the military base nearby. And when they confront the demon, he's like, no weapon forged can kill me. She's like, that was then. This is now.

She shoots him with a rocket launcher and blows him to pieces.

Eric: Technically, it wasn't a forged weapon.

Sarah: But they got into a discussion as to whether or not a bazooka and a rocket launcher were the same thing. And so they basically said on the podcast that they are, but a bazooka was, like, the first sort of early type of rocket launcher. It was developed in 1942, and it was, like, the brand name, which was, I guess, based on a musical instrument used by Bob Burns. So that's I like

Eric: think a bazooka is actually more like a grenade launcher.

Sarah: According to this, it's a specific type of shoulder fired anti tank rocket launcher developed for the army during World War 2. Okay. But yeah. So then, like, they were talking about how it's kind of like how we call tissues Kleenex, but not all. Like, all Kleenex

Eric: are tissues, but all

Sarah: tissues are Kleenex. So yeah. Nobody wants a bazooka.

Eric: All Xerox machines are Xerox machines, but not all Xerox machines are Xerox machines.

Sarah: Exactly. Yeah. You you got what I'm saying. So, yeah, we we switch over to Laura's loft, and we see the gun on the kitchen counter as she's cooking something. Why?

I knew you were gonna get an issue with this.

Eric: It it it doesn't do you any good if it's 25 feet away from you. You got to have it on your person so you But knock down your pants. That's right.

Sarah: Knock down your pants. Yeah.

Eric: Put down your pants.

Sarah: I would like to point out that it doesn't look like she's that bad at cooking here. Granted, this isn't her special spaghetti, but, like, she seems to be pretty, competent here. Like, I don't know what she's making. But Water? Yeah.

It's it's funny because on TV, anytime you want you wanna show that they're cooking something, it's always like a bunch of pots bubbling on the stove, and you're like, how many things do you need to bubble? Like

Eric: You know, the microwave is a legitimate way of cooking. I'm sorry. Frozen dinner in there, 5 and a half minutes. Bam. You're done.

That's cooking.

Sarah: I honestly, I think the only thing I use my microwave for is to heat up my tea when it goes cold. It it does not get used much at all. But that's just us. I just I'm not a not a fan of, I don't know. I feel like it tastes different when it's in the microwave.

Like, even soup, I'll pour into I'll even my soup, I'll pour into a pot and put it on the burner before I'll put it in the microwave. Yeah.

Eric: I won't Coffee reheated is not the same.

Sarah: Yeah. No. I won't I won't heat coffee in the microwave. Tea, I can heat in the microwave coffee. No.

Eric: I I know somebody who will make a glass of tea, let it get cold, heat it up, let it get cold.

Sarah: No. No.

Eric: Put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow.

Sarah: No. No. No. See, I just forget. It's not it's not intentional.

I just forget

Eric: that It's not intentional with this person either. It's just you know? And and, of course, half of the time it's sitting, getting cold, it's sitting in the microwave with the microwave going, bing.

Sarah: Bing. I've Bing. I can't say that I've had it go bing, bing, bing, but I have put it in the microwave intending to heat it up and then forgotten it was there. Although my husband has done that too because there was a couple times where I've gone to heat my tea, and I found an old cup of coffee in there. And I'm like, were you drinking coffee earlier?

Oh, yeah. That's where that went. So, yeah, we she's cooking something, and the phone rings. So she picks it up. Assuming it's still her Mildred, she starts to tell them dinner's almost ready, but she's cut off by dancer slowly saying, ho

Eric: ho. Okay. Why? Why? Why?

First of all, with all the problems that they've had, and especially with all the times that Mildred has handed out their phone numbers and their addresses, they should have changed their phone number, but they should have also had them taken out of the phone directory. I mean, as Yeah. There's no reason for them to, a, have a phone number that anybody knows

Sarah: True.

Eric: And, b, publish it in a phone book.

Sarah: True. I mean, the agency phone book or phone number obviously has to be listed, but they're personal. Not their personal. No. Yeah.

No. I agree with you. So, yeah, he she becomes angry, and she says, now listen, you slimy, but he hangs up. She turns 1 of the burners on the oven off, and he hears a noise outside her kitchen. And I like this bit because it shows how genuinely frightened she is.

Right? She looks out the window. She closes it. She's looking around at the process. Why her window was open in the first place?

I have no idea. But, hey. She goes over to

Eric: a lamp, turns

Sarah: it in.

Eric: The breeze.

Sarah: And then turns the rest of the lights off in the apartment in the apartment. So she's, like, literally cowering in her loft. Right? Mhmm. Meanwhile, in the office, we see and I like that they're showing these moments of vulnerability and fear with all of the characters, not just the women, but Mhmm.

Steel is is quite unnerved with the situation too. You see that when he falls down the elevator, he's so frazzled about what's going on that he's not thinking. Mhmm. And all of them are in their own personal sort of moments where they're they're scared. They're scared for for their safety.

They're scared for this. It kinda shows us how different this is to them. I guess, probably because they walked right through the front door as Laura says later on in the episode, but we see Mildred turning the lights off. She goes back over to her desk, and she gives a gasp of fear as she just imagines him coming through the door, but it's not him. It's just her imagination playing tricks on her.

It's Ralph, the security guard. He asked her if everything's alright. She says it is. He tells her good night. She asked him to wait, grabs her things, and says she'll ride down with him.

She says she has to meet Mr. Steele in the lobby. So this is Mildred doing the smart thing by getting somebody to come with her. Mhmm. Good for you, Mildred.

Nice job. Meanwhile, Mr. Steele has just left his apartment. He goes over, presses the elevator button only to hear his phone ring. He starts to go back, besides against it.

You can see that indecision on his face. He's not really paying attention though. So when the elevator door opens, sans elevator, he doesn't realize he's stepping into an empty shaft. How? How does this work?

How would you, how did you remove an elevator and put it back again?

Eric: I don't know.

Sarah: I realize we're not supposed to think too closely about this, but like

Eric: The only thing I can think of

Sarah: a big job.

Eric: Is if you somehow rewired the elevator to make it think that you it was at a certain floor, but it triggered the doors for that the correct floor, I I don't I don't know. I don't know enough about elevators to to answer that. But, yeah, it seems implausible.

Sarah: Do we know what floor he's on? I I feel like they've said it in the past, but

Eric: I

Sarah: Like, the 3rd Floor or something?

Eric: I don't remember.

Sarah: I don't know how high up he is, but I would think that the if he was high enough, the fall would kill him.

Eric: Well, not necessarily. If the car is just down 1 floor, he would land on top of the car.

Sarah: That's true. So then we go back to Laura's loft. We hear a phone ring. The scene reveals that it's her building, but not her loft. And we can see Wally come in.

He's in his in his loft. And he answers the phone revealing that it's his place, not Laura's. And it's Laura on the other end. And this is where I think that it shows that she's not entirely working on just pride and I can do it myself. Because if she really thought that she wouldn't call Wally.

She wouldn't call somebody to have up there with her. Like, she's calling Wally because she's scared. She wants somebody to be there in case Dancer shows up. And she can't get ahold of Steele, and she can't get ahold of Mildred, and she doesn't know who else to phone. And as we've said before, Wally feels safe.

And so that's why she calls him to come up. Like, this is her I don't know that there's this is where I say I don't think it's entirely pride because if it was entirely pride, she wouldn't call Wally. She would she would maintain the whole, I can do it myself. I'll grab a wrench. I'll wait at the door.

But she's genuinely frightened enough that she's called Wally, and and you can see the fear in her eyes as she's talking to him on the phone. Right? She

Eric: Well, just because it was pride before doesn't necessarily mean it's still pride now. I mean, her her motivations, her feelings could have changed. I mean, it was pride before because she was being confronted by somebody's somebody basically telling her, you can't cut it. You're not good enough. You need protection, little lady, because, you know, you just can't handle a bad guy on your own.

I mean, look at you. You're 120 pounds at most. And that's where it was the pride. Now that situation has gone. Now she's living through this every little noise that she hears is is ratcheting up to fear.

So now now it is fear. But before it was, you can't handle it, little lady. Let let the men take care of it for you.

Sarah: He did call her, and he knows where she lives. So, like, that's Mhmm. That's gotta be terrifying. Right? And and and, again, I find it interesting that they put this subplot with Wally in here because you didn't necessarily have to have it here, But I think it's also meant to show that the monsters are also at our door.

They're not just these psychopaths that come at you in these crazy situations being held hostage on Christmas Eve. They're the people that you know and the people you think are safe. And for a lot of women, that's usually where the violence comes from. It's not always the the stranger danger. It's the person that you talk to every day and think is a safe person.

Right?

Eric: The people that are obviously dangerous, I mean, you can spot them. That's why they're obviously dangerous.

Sarah: Why they're obviously yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Eric: It's the people who aren't obviously dangerous but are. You know? It's like everybody, he was such a fine boy. He never had any problem. He was so helpful.

Sarah: Right? He was so polite. He was like all these serial killers that we that are described as being charming and handsome and and people trusted them. And and if you talk to, like, sexual you assault survivors or abuse survivors, it's usually somebody that's a friend of the family or somebody that's trusted or somebody that is even sometimes a family member, father, mother, in some cases. It's not always men.

But, like, these this is where the bulk of the violence and abuse that people experience comes from. It comes from people you know and people you trust. It doesn't could be a teacher or a, you know, a religious figure or somebody that a coach. Right? It's it's the people that are in our lives, and Laura trusts Molly.

He's been in her house.

Eric: A constant theme throughout all those kinds of situations is everybody thought this person was so wonderful.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. And and Laura has had no reason up till now not to think that Wally is not someone she can trust. She's she's he's

Eric: We're getting there, though.

Sarah: Well, yeah, we're gonna get there for sure.

Eric: But, like Really soon?

Sarah: So far, he's been polite. He's been helpful. He's responded to all of her requests to fix stuff. He's he seems he had seemed up until this point like a sweet guy. Right?

She says she hopes he's not she's not disturbing him, and he tells her he just got in. She asks him if he's busy, and he wonders if her sink has backed up again. She says, no. She just wondered if he'd like to come up for a drink, and you can see his whole face. And, again, this this actor is so great.

He's just like it I think the script describes if I can find it here in the script, we see okay. So the script actually describes more than what we actually see in the episode too. So that's worth noting because when it shows his apartment, I guess, in the script because it says he hangs up in seventh heaven, smiling at his uncommon good fortune. Shrugging out of the jacket, he begins whistling Laura. Tossing the jacket over the back of his chair, he yanks the metal door closed and flicks on the lights.

And we do see his, like, wall of crazy, right, in the episode. He pulls the curtain back, and he stares at it. It's covered with pictures of Laura, some clip from newspapers, others candid snapshots. Camera moves in slowly panning the display of distorted of a distorted version of, Laura plays under. Some of the snapshots have obviously been taken with a telephoto lens.

Laura in her loft at the ballet bar, emerging from the bathroom wrapped only in a towel, undressing her bed. Wally, mesmerized by the lovingly assembled collection, he reaches out reverently touches 1 of the more revealing snapshots, gently running his fingers across Laura's face and body as though it were the real thing, his fingers fairly tingling. Snapping himself out of his fantasy, he steps around the bed to a large gift wrapped package topped with a bow. He smiles at it proudly then pulls a gift card from beneath the bow, removes the pen from his pocket. And I think this part we didn't actually see because I think it probably they thought it was better revealed later, which I kind of agree with, but he signs it your secret admirer, etcetera.

So she yeah. His face, seventh heaven is how it's described in the script, and that's pretty accurate. He enthusiastically sorry. Yes. He says, now, and she says as long as he's not busy.

He says, no. I just got in. She says she'll be there. She still sounds pretty scared. He tells her that he will be right up, hangs up, looks absolutely thrilled.

Laura, meanwhile, picks up the phone and calls the police. She asks if Lieutenant Benjamin is in, but he isn't. She asks if the person on the other end knows where he went. When she doesn't get the satisfying answers that she wants, she asked if they know whether it had anything to do with Delgetti case. She tells the person she's speaking to that she is trying to get ahold of her associate Remington Steele, but she hasn't been able to reach him at his apartment.

She tells them that she wonders if Lieutenant Benjamin may have spoken to them. And then she gives them her name and that tells them that she's very anxious to hear from him. Gives her number, hangs up, paces nervously again, and phones Steele's apartment. Getting no answer, she hangs up saying, where are you? The laugh buzzer goes, and she looks at the door frightened.

And it's interesting because she just called Wally, but it's almost like she's forgotten that she has. Well Which I get.

Eric: That or she's thinking, you know, dancer just called me. Yeah. Is Yeah. Is this him? I mean, was he just around corner calling from a payphone?

Know? So

Sarah: She's being oh, no. I it wasn't a criticism. It it would

Eric: be I'm

Sarah: just prudent.

Eric: I'm just saying it's not necessarily that she forgot that Wally was coming up. It's just her fear that it might be somebody else other than Wally at this point.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. And she goes over to the door. She asks who it is. Wally tells her, Wally Donovan.

So she opens the door. On the other side, we see Wally standing there holding a huge wooden, like, gift box bigger than he is. Yeah. Laura Laura asks what that is, and he tells her that someone left it outside her door that morning. He didn't want anyone to steal it, so he took it to his place.

Perf again, a perfectly plausible explanation. Mhmm. Because at this point, we still don't see anything off about Wally, except that he well, she doesn't see anything. We, as the audience, know that he's, you know, crazier than a sack of hammers, if that's a that's not even a really expression. But you know what I mean?

Like, we've seen

Eric: his balls. Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. Whereas she she's still seeing this nice part of him. Mhmm. He sets the box down, looks around, commenting, and how spooky it is in there because it's still pitch dark.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: She laughs and pretends she hadn't noticed how late it was. She turns the lights on and asks him what he'd like to drink. He tells her club soda, adding that he doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. And he still has that kind of, like, sweet boyishness to himself. Like, I don't I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs.

Like, he still seems kinda cute. If we hadn't seen his crazy wall, we would

Eric: not Except we didn't we didn't really see it. That was in the script.

Sarah: Oh, I thought they didn't show it. I thought they This showed is my Mandela's. No. Not not that part.

Eric: Not here.

Sarah: Yeah. So he says, you won't think less of me if I have a drink, will you? It's been a rough day. Or sorry. She says that.

Yeah. He smiles and tells her there's nothing wrong with a drink every now and then. Laura agrees saying she will drink to that as she pours the wine. Wally confides he used to be heavily into drugs, every controlled substance known to man and a few that haven't been invented yet. He tells her it was a crutch and that when everything started move things started moving in, he would just take a trip to Happyland.

He says he missed a whole decade that way. Laura looks at her wine glass and hesitates. Wally adds it when it got the better of him, he had

Eric: to quit.

Sarah: So she throws her wine down the sink and tells Wally he's right. They mustn't let things get the better of them. Phone rings again, and she answers hopefully only to have the person hang up. Do we think that was Dancer?

Eric: Oh, yeah.

Sarah: Okay. It's interesting, though, because he's headed over to Steel's place. He's not headed to her house. So it it's kinda odd that he just called again and hung up. I guess maybe just trying to terrify her.

But

Eric: What? He's not headed over to Steel's place at this point, I don't think, because that's that's quite a bit later.

Sarah: But he never he never shows up at her place. He he only goes to Steele's.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah, I don't think he's headed over to to Steele's place at this point, and he he could just be doing it, you know, in rotation. Okay. I'm spend an hour harassing Laura with phone calls. I'm going to hassle Mildred for an hour, then I'll be steel, you know.

He's got a little

Sarah: checklist. Yeah.

Eric: He's got a schedule. It's rotation, you know.

Sarah: Wally asks if she when she puts it down, she's visibly shaken and he asks if there's something wrong, and she says it's just a creep. Nothing for him to worry about. Wally admits to her that he never dreamed he'd be up here like this sharing a drink. Okay.

Eric: The that and then a line coming up later. But keep that line in

Sarah: in mind. I and and I yeah. I was gonna I'll let you say it when we get there, but, he then notices the place settings on the table and asks if she's expecting company. She's surprised and tells him just some people from the office. He sort of, like, his eyes kinda go cold, and he says, your boss?

And it's obvious this is something that bothers him. And Laura, distracted, says she doesn't know what's keeping him. Wally, now visibly upset, asks if that's why he asked her up there, to kill time before he before he got there. Laura looks at him in surprise and assures him that she just wanted to thank him for all the nice things he's done since he became manager. And, I mean, to be fair, Wally is correct.

That's why she called him. But Laura, you know, I think Laura's just trying to, like, reassure him that she's not using him.

Eric: Mhmm.

Sarah: And I in a way, she kind of is, but

Eric: Yeah. She yeah. She is. But it the the thank you is something that she knows she's she should probably do. Yeah.

So she's gonna use that as the cover. So she kill 2 birds with 1 stone

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: So to speak. So I

Sarah: think she's genuinely grateful for Wally's help, and so she's honest when she says that she wanted to thank him.

Eric: Yeah. But also, she's scared. At this particular time, it's just I'm also using you.

Sarah: Yeah. So, yeah, she just wanted to thank him, all the nice things. She tells him she really appreciates it. He says there isn't anyone that he would rather do things for.

Eric: That's the 1. So between I never dreamed we'd be here like this, and there isn't anybody in this building that I'd rather do things more than you. It's like, okay, That combined with the the thing that she missed about him not reacting well to the fact that Steele was coming over. But just just those 2 things alone, her creep factor should be starting to beep a little bit here.

Sarah: I think it would be if it weren't for for Del Geddy and and the outside threat that she's aware of and Mhmm. Like, on hyper alert about because that's where her mind her mind is entirely in fight or flight.

Eric: Right.

Sarah: And it's not it's not the person in the room with her. It's the guy that she knows is coming after her who's been threatening her. So, like, in her mind, even if she is kind of, like, pinging on that on what Wally's saying, it might just register as, oh, he has a little crush, but he's harmless. And to be fair, he hasn't said anything directly threatening at this point. It's just, you know, oh, shoot.

He might have a thing for me. Oh, crap. Now I'm gonna this is gonna be awkward. Like, that might be where she's at. If she noticed it, she's I don't think she does notice it, but if she does

Eric: definitely doesn't notice it.

Sarah: It would be more along the lines of, oh, crap. I'm gonna have to dissuade this poor guy. E. Whereas, yeah.

Eric: And you froze again. Hippie. Oh. You're frozen.

Sarah: I'm still here. I promise. You know I'm still here.

Eric: You froze with that look on your face. Yeah. Well, your mom your momma warned you that not to make that face. You're gonna freeze.

Sarah: I'm still here. I swear. So, yeah, she's he he's obviously tipping his his hand here, but Laura's not noticing it because she's so focused on dancing. Yeah. He calls her miss Holt, and she tells him to call her Laura.

And he does, and he takes that as a sign of intimacy. Mhmm. Laura tells him she doesn't wanna take this is a weird statement. She doesn't want him to take this as a put down, but wonders how he ended up managing a building. I would not have immediately took that as a put down.

I would just take it as polite conversation. Like, how did you end up in this job? Mhmm. I guess if you said it like, well, how did you end up in a crappy job like this? Then it would come off as a put down put.

Eric: I think there may have been something implied here that they've had conversations in the past about other jobs that he's done. Was it earlier, he talks about sitting in a room with a windowless room, being an analyst?

Sarah: No. He hasn't said that yet. Okay. Hasn't said that yet.

Eric: Yeah. But even though he hasn't said that particular thing at this point, something else may have been said about other jobs he's had in the past and, you know, this this being kind of a come down from from those other things that he's he's either talked about or alluded to.

Sarah: He he all he said was my other situation was a real, like, brain drain thing thing. So, like, he's hinted that his other job was more Intellectual. Cerebral. Yeah. So he tells her it's just temporary, saying that he needed a place to to mellow out after his last situation.

So, again, his last situation, He hasn't actually even said job. He's just calling it a situation. He says those were the worst 8 months of his life. And then he, like, he says, Holt corrects to Laura, and that's where he says he was locked up all day in a room with no windows. She starts to look worried at this statement.

She does start to ping a little bit here, but then he self corrects, and he says he was an analyst. He had to separate material, determine its essential features, and he senses she's not interesting and kinda trails off. Then he says, sometimes the more you use your mind, the more confused you get. Laura agrees, again, still focused on the outside situation, saying the mind can play terrible tricks if you let it. She goes back over to the pot and stirs it.

He goes looks over at the big box and asks her if she's going to open her present. He says he doesn't know about her, but it's been driving him crazy. He admits that when he was a kid, he couldn't wait to see what he got for Christmas or his birthday, that he always used to sneak into his mother's closet and open the presents, but he did so really carefully so that she didn't know he did it. I think Laura senses here that he wants her to open it. So she walks over to the gift.

Wally is still telling her how he

Eric: Yeah. Okay. Listen.

Sarah: Go ahead. Go ahead.

Eric: No. I was gonna say, I'm I'm at a loss to explain how somebody could slip the Scotch tape off and put it back and it not be noticeable because I don't know about you, but I cannot get tape to pull off a piece of paper of any kind without leaving a mark.

Sarah: Well, someone actually some of the Scotch tape is is, like, got a film on it. And if the wrapping paper is thick enough, you can actually, but I couldn't I don't know how you get the whole present. I don't know how you get enough wrapping like, enough of the tape removed to see what's inside. That because, like, even if you could get 1 undone Mhmm. I don't know how you do the whole present, personally.

I've never Well attempted it.

Eric: Hey. Maybe that's what the foot doctor was doing. He was X raying his his presence to see what was inside of him.

Sarah: Could be. Like, I've never actually attempted to look at my presence ahead of time, so I don't Yeah. Know exactly how you do it. But so, yeah, he claims that he was able to put it back the same way he found it, acting surprised when he opened it up in front of her. He says she never did catch on.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say she probably did. Yeah. Laura says, here goes. She takes off the lid of the box, and the sides just fall away, and we can see it's a giant teddy bear. Laura is thrilled.

I wonder what she does with the teddy bear after this episode is all said and done. Like, just tosses it in the dumpster or, like

Eric: Yeah. She probably wouldn't wanna have it around after what happens later. Yeah.

Sarah: No. I'd be afraid there'd be a camera in there given what we know about his surveillance. True too. Like yeah. So Wally, she she looks thrilled, and he asked her who it's from.

She says, 1 guess. He guesses your secret admirer, and she says, give the man a silver dollar. Wally says, wow. He sure he sure he sure knows what you like as she lifts up the bear. She carries it to her bedroom as Wally comments that whoever it is seems to know an awful lot about her.

Laura tells him that cards and gifts are 1 thing, but she wishes the guy would get off the dime and say something. Wally says that maybe he can't because he's afraid she would laugh at him. Laura says that's the last thing she would do is she sets the bear down, and they're having 2 different conversations, obviously.

Eric: Oh, yes.

Sarah: Because Laura is imagining that it's steel. Mhmm. And Wally is, again, crazy, but at least being honest about why he hasn't come forward as himself. To be fair, I don't think she would've if if putting aside the the whole Wally's nuts part of things, if he was just a guy with a crush, I don't think she would have laughed in his face, but she would have let him down gently. So Yeah.

That's yeah. She's not the type to look at somebody who who has a thing for her and laugh at them, I don't think. No. But Wally asked what kind of guy that she thinks he is. And Laura, again, obviously thinking about Mr.

Steele, warm, gentle, very loving, although I know he'd deny it. Wally tells her that he hopes it doesn't frighten her, that he can't come out and tell her how much he loves her. He sets the bear down and or she sets the bear down, sorry, and tells it to sit, which is really cute. I like that. Commenting on how sweet it is for him to be so concerned about her.

And again,

Eric: creep alert.

Sarah: Yeah. But extenuating circumstances.

Eric: I'll grant you, but I mean, still.

Sarah: Yeah. He walks up behind her telling her that she deserves it and that there isn't anything he wouldn't do for her if she asked him. She seems unaware of how intense he's getting. He tells her he would be happy to spend the rest of his life with her, but the last part of that sentence is drowned out by the phone. So she doesn't hear that bit.

She goes over to answer it saying, now listen, you. While she's doing that, Wally is lost. He's in his own Mhmm. He's on his own little planet here. He is lost in his feelings, and he's taking care of you, loving you.

Laura pauses because she's on the phone. The look on her face tells her that the news on the other end of the phone is not good. Mhmm. So she says what? Just as Wally says loving you.

Yeah. She doesn't hear a word he's saying right now. She's focused on what's on the phone. She tells the person on the other end that she'll be right there and hangs up. She tells Wally she has to go and thanks him for keeping her company.

He's surprised that she's leaving, and she tells him mister Steele's been hurt. He says, you can't go now. She barely hears him telling him to lock up when he leaves. Wally says, please, we were just getting to know each other, and there's an edge of desperation in his voice. She goes out the door.

And honestly, Wally, you did that. So, like, what you think was gonna happen there, dude? Anyway, yeah. So It's true. He's yeah.

His face goes cold as she does so, and we see him look over to the counter where she has left the gun. Laura left the gun sitting out like a responsible gun owner.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. That's why you keep

Eric: it on you or within a a foot or 2 from you at all times.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, at mister Steele's apartment, there's a cop outside the door. Laura exits the elevator, which apparently is now working again Yeah. Announces who she is and goes into the apartment to find Mildred tending to his facial wounds, and he's in a wheelchair with a broken leg. He got a cast pretty quick.

Eric: Yeah. Probably just went down to the corner drugstore, bought 1 of those 1 size fits all casts, slapped that sucker on.

Sarah: We're obviously playing fast and loose with the timeline here because all this is happening in 1 day. Yeah. And somehow he got medical care and a and a cast, and, you know, he's back in his apartment. Yeah. And it's been like

Eric: If he had gone to the real emergency room, he'd still be in the waiting room waiting to

Sarah: be insane. 40 years later, he'd still be there. Yeah. Laura asks what happened, and Benjamin says that someone rigged the elevator. Mildred asks what he means by somebody pointing out that he knows damn well who did it, and it's kinda hilarious that they're wrong here.

She says he's lucky to be alive, and Steele says his leg broke the fall. And, this is another 1 of those really interesting callbacks to a previous episode. Mhmm. This 1 didn't even really need a callback, but I guess because this is Michael Gleason, he's trying to, like, you know, do as many as possible because she says Mhmm. It's the same leg he broke when that guy who was killing all those bachelors ran him down.

So poor guy's broken broken a leg that same leg twice. Yep. And and he's also had it in traction in the was it cast and steel when they Yep. Yeah. So Mhmm.

He's probably got so many scars now in his X rays. Pins in his leg or whatever.

Eric: Can't walk through an airport without setting off a metal detector.

Sarah: Exactly. Yeah. He says that now he knows how Jimmy Stewart felt in the rear window and complains that the cast is starting to itch already. Laura asks, what about dancer? Benjamin, seemingly unconcerned, says he probably thinks he finished steel off and doubts he'll be back.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Laura says, well, I don't mean that. What are you doing to find him? And he unhelpfully says, we're looking.

Eric: Cool. What is what is she expecting to do? Give him a give her a complete moment by moment breakdown of their investigation? I mean, they're looking. What else I mean, that covers But

Sarah: Benjamin sorta comes across in the way I think it's more the way he says it as opposed to what he says because he obviously, there's that I told you so smugness in his voice. Well And he's

Eric: He did.

Sarah: Yeah. But he's more interested in being right than reassuring them that they're actually trying to catch this guy. Like, at the end of the day, as a police officer, his job is to serve and protect regardless of how, like, unhelpful your your people are that they're you're serving and protecting. There's a there's a bedside manner. Right?

Like and I don't know. It just feels like he's he's not wanting them to feel safe because they irritated him. He could be the bigger person here, but he's he's not.

Eric: Oh, he is.

Sarah: I he's just being a jerk.

Eric: Yeah. Well but, I mean, she kinda deserves it. I mean, she he's he's right. I mean

Sarah: Except the dancer didn't even do avoided.

Eric: Well

Sarah: No. He couldn't have in this case.

Eric: Well, from from from from all of their perspectives, it could have been if she had taken the police protection.

Sarah: I'm just saying. I just think I think he could have said it in a way that is he could've he was a jerk from the second he walked through the door, and I don't think that she would've like, I I think if he had been less of an asshat at the beginning, this wouldn't come across the way it's coming across. I don't know. He just, like, from a minute he walks in, stop it, lady. You're turning me on.

And then just like, that arrogance, you know? I don't know. Anyway, Mildred tells mister Steele, it's time to tuck him in. This is adorable. She's tucking him in.

And Steele angrily says he doesn't wanna be tucked in. He wants to get his get his hands on that that he can't come up with a suitable insult. So Mildred supplies the word greaseball. Laura says that in light of mister Steele's condition, she would be willing to accept police protection for him. Again okay.

So here's my question. Why? If Dancer did this and Mhmm. And and we we know he didn't, but if he did and Benjamin is correct about saying, like, he's not gonna be back, why would he need the police protection?

Eric: Well, Laura hasn't taken his word on anything else up to this point, so maybe she's not taking his word on it that Dancer thinks that he's done stealing and taking she's not gonna take his word on the idea that he won't be back.

Sarah: I mean, To be fair, it's not Dancer. But

Eric: Right. But I mean, she's she's not going to she's not gonna give him credit for being right in this case on the with his presumption that it's not gonna you know, that it's gonna continue. But yeah.

Sarah: Of course, he doesn't miss an opportunity. He says he doesn't wanna say all this could be avoided, and she pointedly says thanks for not saying it. Laura goes into that.

Eric: Say I told you so. But

Sarah: Yeah. Right? I mean, Dot dot dot. Yeah. That's like when somebody says, I'm not racist, but or I'm not, like I'm sorry.

If you have to preface what you're about to say with, I'm not racist, but or I'm not sexist, but or I'm not whatever, but you're about to say something.

Eric: You have this fascination with butts, don't you?

Sarah: Yeah. I like butts. I like big butts, and I cannot lie. Sorry. Anyway, Laura goes into the bedroom to find Mildred fussing over getting his pillow right and Steel complaining.

Laura sends her out to get some coffee, and Steel tells her he hates feeling like this. It makes him feel bloody useless. Laura admits that it was probably her fault. She had taken Benjamin's order for offer for police protection. It might not have happened.

Steele mutters the word stupid, and Laura surprisingly doesn't argue with him. She says, yes, she was stupid, and she apologizes. Like, this is Benjamin's 1 thing, but in the privacy of the room between just the 2 of them, she has no issue saying, yeah. I was an idiot. I'm sorry.

Like, in any other circumstance, like, he wasn't calling her stupid. He's calling himself stupid, but she doesn't know that. She thinks that he's calling her stupid. And rather than get her hackles up, she agrees with him.

Eric: I I'm I'm gonna say that she doesn't think he was calling her stupid. Or that what she did was was stupid.

Sarah: But either way, and I think in any other circumstance, she would have gotten irritated by that statement. But Mhmm. She knows enough here to admit that that decision was not the right 1, and she she doesn't challenge him on it. She's just like, you're right. It was stupid.

I'm sorry. And but he says, no. No. No. Not you.

Me. Embarrassed, he tells her the phone was ringing. He thought it was her calling to find out what was keeping him, and he was so busy trying to decide whether to answer the phone or get to the loft. He wasn't watching, and he uses his hand to kind of motion him falling down the elevator shaft. Laura smiles and sits down on the bed and tells him if it's any consolation, his teddy bear was a big hit.

And he says, what teddy bear? Laura says, haven't we sufficiently exhausted the secret admirer thing? Steele agrees that they have. And Laura says, then you admit it. Steele says, I admit.

I know who's sending you gifts. Laura says, care to share the startling revelation? And he grins smugly and says, a beautiful young woman who has picked up some of my talents with style and originality, but has failed to master that. She interrupts, shocked that he's applying her. And she says, do you think I'm sending those gifts to myself?

And he counters with what better way to arouse my jealousy? Yeah. Arouse my curiosity. Arouses jealousy. Yep.

Okay. Choice words there noted. Yeah. She pulls out. She says, you wanna be aroused?

Listen to this. She pulls out the note and reads, forget that callous, egotistical show off Remington Steele and choose a real man. He grabs the note, looks at it, and now seems a bit hurt. He says, really? Is that what you think of me?

She insists she didn't write it. Steele says, I didn't write it either, wondering why he would write something like this about himself. And Laura says, no doubt. So, I would come to your defense. Steele tries a new tactic saying, Laura, do you really think I'm the sort of man who would give a woman a teddy bear?

Ben? I love that this is the thing. I love that. This is the moment where Laura's like, oh, yeah. Because honestly, no.

He's not the sort of person that would give a woman a teddy bear. And to be fair, I love teddy bears. Anyone wants to give me a teddy bear feel free. You know? But steel is not that kind of guy.

Steel is the the watch with the tiny diamonds around the face or the fancy jewelry or the candy or chocolate. He's a traditional sort of, like, romantic gifts kind of person.

Eric: So

Sarah: are you the kind of person that would buy a woman a teddy bear? Have you done so? Have you teddy bared?

Eric: I no. I don't think I have. I don't think I am. No. I I tend to to buy other things.

Sarah: Fair enough. Yeah. Like, my my husband bought me a Freddy Krueger hand for 1 of my Christmas presents. So, like, that's that's our love language right there. It's not teddy bears.

So, yeah, she that's where she's like, oh, when you put it that way. And then still comes to the same realization that there really is a secret admirer roaming around

Eric: somewhere, and Laura

Sarah: wonders who it is. Right? And so there's yeah. A thought pops into her head. She tells him she's gonna go see what's keeping Mildred with the coffee.

She this is, I think, where she's realizing, oh, crap. I left the gun on the counter. She gets up and leaves and goes into the living room. She tells Mildred she has to go out for a bit. Mildred says, why?

And she tells her not to tell mister Steele, but she left the gun on the kitchen counter. She tells Mildred to keep an eye on him, and Mildred says nothing. Nothing gets past Krebs, and then she walks into his bedroom, I hope. Poor Mildred. Yeah.

Eric: And and all fairness, they've gotten past her before. They'll get past her again.

Sarah: They've even got police out front that still doesn't keep don't get out. So No. Yeah. We see Laura go back to the loft, turn on the lights, and walk over to the counter only to see the gun is gone. She gasps, and we switch back over to Steele's apartment where Mildred is bringing a cup of coffee out to the police officer outside the apartment.

Only he's not there. She comes back inside rattled and hears Steele asking where Laura is.

Eric: She didn't even bother to lock it.

Sarah: Yeah. Right? Yeah. Well, I have a couple of issues with this whole scenario, but we'll get there. Because yeah.

So she she says that she had to go up for a while and steal ask where, where she is as Mildred checks the kitchen. She calls back and she says, she'll be back. Cool it chief. She rummages around the drawer and grabs a knife, then goes back over to the phone and picks it up. As she dials, we see a shadow approach her from behind.

She turns with a knife in her hand and almost stabs poor Steele who has made it out with his crutches. Scared, he asks if she plans on doing a bit of carving, and she tells him the cop outside isn't. Steele suggests he might have gone to relieve himself, but Mildred points out they have facilities in here. They hear a knock at the door, which scares both of them. They ask who it is, and they hear a voice say officer Hanley.

They open the door and find the cop standing there only to fall down dead from what looks to be a wound to the neck. Did he calmly say his name outside the front door before falling down dead?

Eric: Yeah. Sounds like it

Sarah: to me. Sounded real casual. Like, it's officer Hanley. Open. Like, that seems a little weird.

Like, you'd think if you had just been stabbed and were on death story, you'd be like, help. Help. Or something.

Eric: But not in the world of very steel.

Sarah: No. Clearly not. But then here's what's bizarre to me. The door is wide open, and he killed this guy. So why does he burp like, smash his way through the window?

The door's wide open. He could walk in.

Eric: And maybe he wasn't counting on them being so foolish as to leave the door open.

Sarah: Well, what do you mean if like, he could've kicked it in? Like, it

Eric: he he likes the scare factor better this way.

Sarah: To be fair, that is there is a theatricality to him that you're right. It's just weird that the cop knocked on the door Mhmm. After he's been stabbed in the neck, said his name real calmly. They open the door. He falls, and then he smashes his way through the window.

Yeah. Did he stab him and then run around the building? Or how

Eric: do really fast, and he climbed up the side of the building really fast. Right? Like Spider Man? Rope that he had prepositioned there. And nobody nobody looked at it, saw the rope, thought this is weird.

Maybe we ought to take this down. No. They just left it there for him.

Sarah: You see why I'm asking questions? It just seems like a lot of trouble when they could when he could have, like, stuck up behind officer Hanley, held a knife to his neck and got him to knock on the door, and then when they open it, slit his throat, come right on in. Like, anyway Yeah. He's killed a cop now. So he's Mhmm.

You know, there's murder involved. So still tells Mildred to shut the door, which she does, but it doesn't matter because for some reason, like I said, he chooses to smash a chair through the balcony window. He has a gun in hand and tells them that he hopes they don't mind him barging in, but he just dropped in to say he hopes everyone has a belated Merry Christmas. He's really in on this whole Christmas thing, which is Yeah. Which is kind of fun.

Somehow, despite being all the way on the other side of the room, he has Mildred's knife. He asked if it's a little too late for Thanksgiving. Calls Mildred

Eric: There there was a cut there. So

Sarah: we can

Eric: presume that he told her to bring it to him or he he walked over and took it from her

Sarah: and then

Eric: stepped back or something like that.

Sarah: Because a knife you can't bring a knife to a gunfight, as I say. Like, it wouldn't have done Mildred any good holding onto a knife halfway across the room.

Eric: Well, if she's experienced with it. If she was experienced with it, she might have had the upper hand because within 20, 25 feet, person with a knife is gonna be more dangerous than person with a gun.

Sarah: But he, calls her Brunhilde again, asks if she was thinking about sticking a different kind of bird. He tells them both to park it. So Steele and Mildred sit down, and Steele puts his foot up on the coffee table. Del Getty asked what happened. If he tripped over his mirror, he just I love the fact that he can't let go of the pretty boy comments, like, the the comments about his appearance.

Like, he just can't help himself. You know?

Eric: He he's obviously got body issues, body image issues.

Sarah: You know? He does. So did you trip over your mirror and still says it's the same thing that happened to doctor Scabbard? And Doug Eddy says that was a terrible accident. I almost got hurt myself.

Those X-ray machines are heavy. Mildred says, why? Wasn't there an elevator in his building? Delgitte he's genuinely confused. He doesn't know what he means, and Steele wonders why he's being so coy, referring to him as dancer.

Delgitte corrects him saying it's Anthony. Still apologizes saying he thought he would be proud of his handiwork and asks whether he's disappointed he's still relatively in 1 piece. Delghetti asked what he's talking about. Mildred demands to know if he's trying to tell them that he didn't rig the elevator in that building. Delghetti says if he had, they would still be scraping him up.

Although, he didn't kill Scabbard either. So Well,

Eric: not well, yeah. But not from like a trying.

Sarah: True. I guess maybe the implication is that he would the the violence would be more pronounced if he had been responsible. Mhmm. Horrified, Mildred wonders if he didn't, who did? Steele starts to realize as Delghetti tries to tell him the drill, but Steele interrupts, almost having forgotten that he's there.

Steele suggests the kind of person who would hide behind anonymous notes and gifts. He'll just realizes it's Laura's secret admirer, and he's getting even more frustrated like, hey. I'm the 1 with the gun. Will someone pay attention to me?

Eric: Must be terrible to be I know. Right? You think you're in charge because I got a gun pointed at you, but nobody cares.

Sarah: They've totally forgotten him. Still points out he considers him a rival. He might just be unbalanced enough to want him out of the picture permanently. Mildred jumps up again, both of them having forgotten that they're in danger themselves, saying, we have to warn miss Holt. Delghetti tells her that they're going to use the phone, but not for that.

Mildred says, oh, please. She might be in great danger.

Eric: And he loves it. Yes.

Sarah: Oh, I know. He he cheers up. He's like, really?

Eric: That's terrific.

Sarah: Another 1 taken care of, and I don't have to lift a finger. This thing is going good. He hands the hands the phone to Steele and tells him that he's gonna call all the other witnesses and convince them not to testify. Steele asks what will happen after he places those calls, and Delgetti says they'll take a little drive out in the country someplace. Mildred asks how many will come back, and he tells her he has a really small car.

At Wally's loft, we see the lights are out as Laura knocks on the door. She opens it and calls for Wally, letting him know that she's there.

Eric: Okay. She so not only can she just walk into Wally's apartment because it's not locked. Yeah. She does. Know.

We're not even thinking about it as if maybe this isn't, you know, the socially acceptable thing to do just to walk into somebody's apartment. No. I mean, does anybody in this show know what locks are for?

Sarah: No. No. They don't. But, like, yeah, she obviously she obviously suspects that he has the gun, and she I she may have made the connection about the secret admirer, but I don't know that she's gotten to the point where she sees him as dangerous yet. Mhmm.

In fact, she might be thinking, oh, he's taken the gun to protect me. Like, maybe she's she's worried that he might do something to

Eric: Or he took it because it it shouldn't be left laying around.

Sarah: Sure. He cares about gun safety. This kind of guy Wally is.

Eric: That's right. I mean, he's he's so thoughtful.

Sarah: Yeah. So

Eric: considerate. Such a nice boy.

Sarah: Yeah. She turns she goes up the steps to the bedroom and is horrified to see the wall. That's where we see the whole shebang. Not just in her public life, like like it said in the script inside her loft. He's seen her coming out of the shower.

She's at the bar. Like, some of the pictures have her in nothing but

Eric: it There's 1 that's the 1 with her taking the shoulder strap of her slip off.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: That's a that that that's the best photograph of Ollie.

Sarah: Well, it's creepy as hell.

Eric: Well, I'm just from from a from a the standpoint of glamour, I guess, I would say. That that 1 is that 1 is 1 is 1 that you yeah. You would yeah. That's 1 you would.

Sarah: I was sure he'd have a great career in photography if he wasn't a freaking psycho. But I think the the like, Delghetti is is framed as the really terrifying presence in this episode. Mhmm. And then this episode flips the script here because Mhmm. All of a sudden, it's it's not like, yes.

She's still I mean, Delghetti's still out there, and he's still terrifying, and he's still dangerous, but this is somebody she's led into her life. She's led him into her home, and he has violated her privacy in ways that are beyond disturbing. And and she never knew. Like, that realization there must be more terrifying than anything Del Getty could do because Del Getty all of his his threats have

Eric: been Direct.

Sarah: Direct. And and but this is this is yeah. This is so like, she didn't know that this guy was stalking her.

Eric: Mhmm. 1 of those photographs taken from outs from an outside view through a window

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Shows her lying on the bed reading.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: And what's behind her?

Sarah: I didn't I didn't I didn't see what or if I if I oh, yeah. The lamp. Yeah. She must have 1 at home as well as at the office. Yeah.

Eric: Which we also see coming up in another shot.

Sarah: I did you know what? I did notice that, and I completely forgot about it. But, yeah, the lamp.

Eric: Yeah. But there's a 1 of the photos on the wall, her lying on the bed in a Yep. A blue robe. Nice legs.

Sarah: You should not be admiring Wally's handiwork. Okay? Behind her on the nightstand

Eric: behind her on the nightstand is that lamp.

Sarah: Say it with me. We do not compliment sociopaths. We do not compliment sociopaths.

Eric: I'm complimenting the photo, and I'm complimenting the subject.

Sarah: Anyway yeah. So and and then, of course, we've got the 1 with Steele's face scratched out, which yeah.

Eric: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So That's a that's a classic psycho move. Yep.

Sarah: And then from behind her, Wally says he should be very angry with her. She turns around and approaches him trying to sound curious, but not threatening. And again, like, there's fear. You can see the fear. She's trying to to not alert him to that fact, but she is scared.

She asks why he has those pictures of her, and he tells her that so he could have her with him always. Every night before he goes to sleep, he could touch her. Oh.

Eric: Yeah. Creep alert. Full full full bore.

Sarah: This just this makes your skin crawl because, like, Del Delghetti just wants to kill them. Like and I don't mean to downplay that because that's obviously terrifying as well. But the what he wants to do is is more violating in a lot of ways in the sense that, like, if you're killed, you don't know about it after the fact. You're you're gone. But this has been ongoing.

And this he wants, like he wants her, but he's not concerned about whether she wants him. He's he's just

Eric: It's all about him.

Sarah: Yeah. And he begins to advance towards her saying he doesn't need them anymore because now he has her. She starts to tell him she's flattered, but not interested. But he cuts her off saying that she was right about the kind of person he is, warm, gentle, very loving. I'm sure he believes that.

He gets closer to her, and he says he's glad she likes the watch. He spent weeks picking up the right 1. And and, obviously, he knows what she likes because he's been watching her for so long. Mhmm. He would know the the the jewelry that she would appreciate and the the candy and the chocolates because he's he's duh.

He's been a he's just been creeping her for so long. Yep. Carefully, she thanks him for cleaning out her her, her loft and asked that and adds that it was very thoughtful. He eagerly tells her he likes doing things for her, and that this is only the beginning. Laura asks if he found the gun on the kitchen counter, and she's trying to be very tactful.

Wally tells her that she ran out so fast, she forgot it. Laura says it was very careless of me and assures her that it and he assures her it's in a safe place. And and he's kind of, like, clutching her hands, like, really tightly at this point. And you can see, like, the revulsion and how she wants to be anywhere but near him. And yet yeah.

It's just such a claustrophobic scene because, like, she can't move. And she's sort of, like, walking this tightrope of trying to get the gun back, trying to convince Wally that she's playing along with his delusions and not trip him up because he's obviously not okay in the head. Yeah.

Eric: I mean, this is the kind of situation where she obviously wants to leave, but she can't just leave because that will evoke

Sarah: An emotional

Eric: response. Reaction.

Sarah: Yeah. And she knows now that this guy is is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Like, he's not all there. Mhmm. Yeah.

And he he looks up, and he asks how her boss is. And Laura, that's where it clicks that he's responsible for that too. And she does some really good facial acting here because, like, she you can see the horror and then how she covers it up really quickly and how she sort of pretends not to care enough, at least, that Wally buys it because she says he broke his leg. And Wally looks upset and angry as he realizes Steel is alive. And he says, that's is that all?

And he's clutching her hands even tighter, and she says he's hurting her as he squeezes. Mhmm. And then he says, well, his mother taught him if at first you don't succeed, he trails off there. Given what happens to mom Yeah. Yeah.

Back at Steele's apartment, we see him on the phone with 1 of the witnesses who he's obviously convinced not to testify. We learn it's Jack as he hangs up. He says, just it's the better part of valor. There's no sense risking one's life to keep 1 more slug off the streets, and you can see Doug getting it visibly annoyed at the insult.

Eric: But he can't really do anything about it right now. And Nope. When he is in a position to do anything about it, it's really not gonna change the result and and how it comes about. So, yeah, might as well get your shots in now. You know?

Sarah: Exactly. Right? Steele then says he's taking an extended holiday. He looks up at Del Geddy and winces and says very extended. Yeah.

When he says goodbye, we learned that he was indeed talking to Jack. Once he hangs up, Delgitte asks him if he went for it. Steele resigned, says that he has a heart condition that will force him into the hospital right when he's scheduled to testify. Now here's a question. Mhmm.

Even if a witness refuses to testify, can they not call them anyway as a hostile witness?

Eric: I think so. But if you can't get to them either because they've disappeared or they are medically Fair.

Sarah: Yeah. Unable I get that.

Eric: That would that would complicate it. But, yeah, I mean, I think they can they would subpoena them. And unless you're the Clintons, you have to respond to a subpoena. I'm sorry. So, you know, if if they subpoenaed them and they don't show up, they can go out and arrest them and drag them into court.

And then at that point, yeah, they might be deemed a hostile witness, which would be kind of detrimental to the prosecution case, I would think, because you've got a person that's supposedly a prosecution witness, but they're being treated as a hostile witness. The the only way it might be turned around to be used to the prosecution's benefit is if they were able to bring out during the course of the testimony. The reason they didn't really want to show up and and testify was because they were in fear of their life from the guy. Yeah.

Sarah: So sorry. There's something flying around my face here. Delghetti hands him the phone number of the next person, Allison Green, still begins to dial, but he doesn't dial. He kinda distracts Delghetti. He says he had a chance to peruse his service records.

He looks at Mildred, who looks a bit worried about where this is going. He tells him he couldn't find any reference to that Silver Star he won. And Mildred picks up what Steel's putting down Mhmm. And says, what Silver Star? He spent most of his time in the stockade.

Goes on to suggest he was too chicken to fight. And, obviously, this ticks off Del Getty, who isn't really watching Steele now, who says who is dealing, or dialing a different number. Steele says, no. No. Don't be harsh, adding that he's sure there are mitigating circumstances in Anthony's case.

Delghetti asked what that means and still brushes it away as the phone rings, and we see the phone in question and realize he's not calling Allison Green. He's calling Laura's Loft. When there's no answer, he puts the phone down and tells Mildred there's no answer from the young lady's Loft, adding emphasis to that word. Mhmm. And then Mildred pointedly says, keep going, chief.

It's important. Steele does until Getty begins to pace, no longer watching what Steele is doing. He says he doesn't care what the records say here in that Silver Star. They were gonna give it to him too until that big mouth lieutenant said he disobeyed orders, went off on his own, and got the platoon ripped up. I mean, yeah, that does tend to bar your military record, though, wouldn't it?

Well yeah. Getting a bunch of people killed. Like

Eric: Well, that yeah. That would be. But the disobeying orders part, not necessarily. I I'm trying to I think we I mentioned this before, and I I never bothered to look it up. There was somebody who was both court martialed and awarded an award for the same

Sarah: same amount. Well, yeah. But, I mean, in in this case, it sounds like he he got his whole

Eric: team killed.

Sarah: Yeah. So, like, Mildred disgustedly says, so he rolled a grenade under his bunk. Delgitte grins and says, that's the fortunes of Warburg, Hilda. He has guys were picking bits and pieces out of of him out of their bunk for weeks, and then they could've shipped him home in a matchbox. And, I mean, there we have 2 very different types of psychos here.

Eric: We have Yes. 2 very different kinds.

Sarah: Like, we've got Delghetti who is openly violent and delights in cruelty.

Eric: Oh, yes. He enjoys it.

Sarah: He's to announce Hey. I mean, if you

Eric: if you're gonna do something, you might as well enjoy it.

Sarah: But he also, like, has these like, he he's lashing out violently because he's deeply insecure about himself. Like, clearly, that's and then you've got Wally. I I I've struggled to make a diagnosis there, but I I'm I mean, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I'm leaning towards either full on psychopath or schizophrenic or a mixture of both because he's he's he's more of this methodical, like, I'm going to stalk you. And you get the impression that it wouldn't have mattered how enthusiastic Laura was back, that eventually she would do something that he would see as a cardinal sin, and she would end up just like his mother. Like, that's how his mind would work because he's pedestalized her to a point where, I mean, anybody that pedestalizes a person, nobody can live up to that.

But in Wally's case, if you don't live up to it, you die. Yes. Horribly. So yeah. Yikes.

Steele suggests that Mildred get antique and drink as a man can get thirsty telling all these war stories. I love this back and forth between them. I love how he's telling her exactly what he wants her to do. She knows. She doesn't need him to elaborate.

She picks it up immediately. She doesn't hesitate. Like, this is really good back and forth between the 2 of them. Delgitte says he never drinks when he's driving, and they have a long drive ahead of Mildred stands up and offers to make coffee.

Eric: She knows exactly what what

Sarah: that was. And this just pisses him off. The last time she threw a pot of coffee in his face, and she says, I'll make instant. But he tells her to shut up and sit down. She sits down and jostles a vase on the table, which Steele again says with heavy emphasis, don't knock the vase over.

Impatiently, Delghetti says, Steele may be trying the wrong number. So he hands over the phone and suggests he try. He takes it, begins to dial, and as he does, Steele gives Mildred the look that signifies what he wants her to do. She deliberately shoves the vase off the table, distracting him long enough for Steele to grab his crutches and hit him over the head. He reaches for a gun his gun, but Mildred steps on his hand with her heel.

Eric: Oh, yes. That's Ow. I'm sorry. I That that's oh, that hurts just to even think about.

Sarah: It hurt to watch it. I realized that it wasn't actually happening, but I was, like, cringing as I I watched it because, like, That would really hurt. That would really, really hurt. Oh, so, yeah. He that that does the job.

He screams in pain. She holds the gun on him, telling him she has a new hero, dirty Harry, and they all know what his favorite expression is. And I love the fact that she gets to be the hero twice.

Eric: Yep.

Sarah: Both Dancer Prancer, Don or Steele in this episode, it's Mildred that grabs the gun. Mildred that holds it on him. Like, he needs to watch Mildred at this point. Yeah. She's the 1 he needs to worry about.

Yeah. Steel continues to dial, and he's still getting no answer. At Wally's Loft, we see he's listening to the busy signal on the phone because he's obviously called to see if Steel is home. He says it's a good sign. He thinks he's home.

He obviously wants to finish the job. He asks Laura if she's sure that all he got was a broken leg. She decides to play into Wally's delusions and says, I'm afraid so. Wally observes that she sounds almost disappointed, and Laura pretends to admit she never liked the man. She knows she can confide in him and tells him that she was glad when he had the accident.

And the thing is, Wally's not stupid, but he's he's also hopeful enough that this works for a little bit.

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: It it doesn't work completely. He eventually clues in, but there's that part of his delusion that activates here, and he just his whole face just

Eric: It actually worked. She licks me.

Sarah: She licks me. You almost feel sorry for him if he wasn't so freaking crazy. He happily tells her that he was afraid she would be mad for what he did. And she says, you mean the elevator in mister Steele's building? And she clearly wants him to say it out loud because, obviously, then that's a confession.

He says he thought for sure they'd seen the last of him. He goes over to a bag and pulls out her gun, and she kind of visibly flinches because he's holding onto it, but he doesn't see because he's turned away from her. Mhmm. She says, better not use the gun. After all, it's hers.

And that's logical. He agrees, but he's still holding it at her. And she starts asking him

Eric: to give her the smart enough to know not to give her the gun.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, so she she starts to ask, and he says, no. No. No.

I'll keep it. I like the feel of it. He walks towards her, caught up in his own excitement with the gun still pointed at her. She backs away as he talks, telling her that he thinks what she does is fascinating and that he wouldn't be 1 of those husbands who wouldn't let their wives work. He says he would help her with it.

Laura still only got her eyes on a gun, and she comments on what a generous offer that is. He tells her he wouldn't hog the spotlight that like, that show off boss does. He continues telling her he knows how hard she works and that and this is it's funny because this is all things that you would want somebody to say Mhmm. Like, as a partner, but maybe not at gunpoint. Yeah.

Like

Eric: And maybe not when they're psycho.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly.

Eric: Because the chances are they don't mean it the way you think they the way it's intended to be taken.

Sarah: Because I honestly don't I don't believe anything Wally says. I think that he initially would think that he was fine with that, but the more she she goes out into the world, the more jealous or paranoid he would get.

Eric: She's eventually independent.

Sarah: Exactly. So, like, I I really think that that would be he says he knows how hard she works. He watches her every night in her loft, pouring over papers into the wee small hours. And that's where she crosses her arms over herself protectively. She's physically, and her physical acting again, and this is brilliant because, like, that's her sort of unnerved at the thought and kind of, like, protecting herself.

He says that would be another reason they'd be good together. He can't sleep at night either. We hear sounds of sirens in the background that cause him to turn sharply, and she tries to mollify him saying, it's just fire engines, but doesn't sound very convincing.

Eric: Mm-mm.

Sarah: She attempts to distract him by telling him that he's an excellent photographer. His pictures are very good. She asked if he studied photography, and he tells her that's the only thing they would let him do while he answered all those questions. He okay. And he tells her the only thing that kept him sane those 8 months was her, I don't think it worked.

Eric: No. Well and, also, in order for something to keep you sane, you had to be sane to begin with.

Sarah: True. True. Yeah. Laura is shocked. She says didn't even know each other then.

He tells her that he knew her. He saw her picture in the newspaper standing behind that peacock. It figures the 1 time she only gets noticed, like, gets noticed and it's by a complete loony tune. You know? She's always unnamed woman.

It's only been, like, this guy notices her, but he's you know? Yeah. He moves closer again and says that was the first time he fell in love with her, adding that she had the most beautiful face he'd ever seen in his entire life. And she says, what a sweet compliment.

Eric: Well, he said also that

Sarah: it reminded him of her mother. Of his mother. That's right. I for some reason, I didn't write that down, and I'm like, wait. I missed something.

And she says it's a sweet compliment now, so she's gonna get to meet her. Wally's face becomes distraught, and he recoils saying that she can't because someone cut her up into little pieces and gift wrapped her and sent her to his uncle Arnold. Yeah. I can't the comment the the the comment that I have on my notes here in italics, I can't say because it's got swear words, but that that revelation's gotta be real. That that's a real yeah.

And

Eric: there there's this common I don't know if it's a misconception or myth or or if there's actual any truth to it, but, you know, they say that men want a woman like their mothers and women want a man like their fathers. And if that's the case, then if Laura wasn't concerned about what her life would be with Wally at this point

Sarah: She should be now. Yeah.

Eric: At this point, she's definitely, oh, so I I remind you of your mother, and you chopped her up into little pieces and mailed her to your

Sarah: To your uncle.

Eric: Your uncle. It's like, no. Thanks for playing. No. I think

Sarah: I do think I think there's some psychological basis behind that theory of, like, men want a woman like their mother or a man like their father. And I don't both ways. Like, even, like, when they have a bad father. I I I don't think it's necessarily that you are consciously thinking, oh, I want a guy just like my dad, or some people might. But I think more on a subconscious level, if that is your first and and and to be like, it's if you've got 2 parents in the home, it's the first impression that you have of male and female role models in a, like, couple.

And Mhmm. That's what they're modeling for you as either healthy or unhealthy relationships. And if it's when that's your first and only example, even as you get out in the world, that becomes a founding sort of core part of yourself. So if you have an emotionally unavailable father, as Laura did, then you tend to go for emotionally unavailable situations or because that's all you know. That's what you've seen.

So I don't necessarily think it's I want someone just like this person. I think it's this is what I saw as a kid, and this is what I've internalized. And some people can break those patterns and some people can't. But, well, it's just straight up cuckoo.

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: I would be worried too. Because then he adds, see, he likes to get presents too, but not that 1. He called the police. Oh, Laura gasps, and he adds, like, she's having trouble holding it together now because, obviously, this is just getting too horrific. He adds that when they released him, he found out where she lived and applied for the manager's position.

Who's screening these applicants? Because the first guy with the robots and then this guy, like, somebody at that building is asleep at the wheel.

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: Yikes. They don't care that there's a certified psychopath on the job. They're just like, yeah. Cool. You'll fix the sink?

Great.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Oy. He tells her it was so he could be close to her. Yeah. He says that was pretty smart. And she winces and nods, and the sirens get louder.

He goes to the window. He looks out, and he sees the police. And this is where

Eric: He loses it.

Sarah: Yep. He turns on her. Mhmm. He angrily accuses her of lying. He says she doesn't love him.

She lied. She's just like his mother. He, like, she lifts up his camera, takes a photo. The flash distracts him, and she and he fires the gun, but she ducks, and it misses her. She doesn't waste any time.

Eric: She swings She she wasn't doing it to take a photo. She was doing it to flash the flash and white.

Sarah: Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

But then she swings the camera at him, and she just nails him.

Eric: Yes.

Sarah: So good for good for you, Laura.

Eric: Try doing that with your phone.

Sarah: True. Yeah. She runs over and grabs the gun just as the police begin to pound on the door, sarcastically, says, great timing.

Eric: Yeah. Why not?

Sarah: I mean,

Eric: get your shots Yeah. In while you

Sarah: Back at Steel's apartment, he's back in bed with Mildred checking his temperature and

Eric: blood pressure

Sarah: for some reason. Yeah. I I've got that in question marks too. Like, I don't really know why.

Eric: He's got a broken leg. I don't think unless there's some danger of infection, like, because of the the skin being severely breached during the fall. Broken leg and temperature don't go together. I'm sorry.

Sarah: It's weird for her to be doing. I agree. And then Laura comes in with Wally's files and tells them that he was in a mental institution for 8 months after he hacked up his mother. I would ask why they let him out, but I I can answer that. I've told you before about the, man that cut off a person's head on a bus in Canada.

Told you that story.

Eric: I don't recall it at the moment, but, yeah, I may have.

Sarah: So in I mean, I've got the article in front of me, but Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Wang I I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation. Lee, killed 22 year old Tim McLean after hearing what he thought was the voice of God. He was deemed not criminally responsible and received mental health treatment. He had schizophrenia. A review board in Manitoba ordered his discharge without monitoring, saying he did not pose a significant threat.

So this guy's out there. Basically, the attack took place in front of horrified passengers as the intercity Greyhound bus traveled past, Portage La Prairie about 70 kilometers west of Winnipeg.

Eric: What do you have to do to be considered a credible threat after

Sarah: Right?

Eric: Chopping somebody's head off? I mean

Sarah: Mister Baker, a former church custodian and computer programmer who emigrated from China to Canada in 2001 repeatedly stabbed mister McLean who was sitting next to him before cutting off his head and removing internal organs. The attack began with a warning. Alerted by screams from the victim, the driver stopped the bus fled with the passengers as Mr. Baker continued his attack. In 2009, he was found not criminally responsible for the killing.

He was he then spent 7 years in treatment in a secure wing of a psychiatric hospital. In an interview with the Schizophrenia Society in 2012, he said he heard what he believed was the voice of God. The voice told me that I was third in the third was the third story of the Bible that I was like the second coming of Jesus, and I was to save people from a space alien attack. He also said he was really sorry for what he did. Mister Baker go.

Was allowed last year to live in his own apartment in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but was still subject to monitoring to ensure he took his medication. But his doctors told Manitoba's criminal code review board that he understood that he needed to take his medication and that he would continue with his treatment if released. And this is like, I'm sorry, but and and I will preface this by saying not everybody with schizophrenia is dangerous. Mhmm. But those who are, like, if the only thing that is stopping you from cutting somebody's head off is going off your meds, and you're just like, yeah, honest, I'll keep taking them.

That to me is not enough to constitute no longer a danger to society.

Eric: Hello. Are you a criminal? No. I'm not a criminal. Oh, okay.

Great. Fantastic.

Sarah: You just proved me. Even like it's it's like, like, I do I do believe that in the definition of our criminal code, intent being the important thing that you can say, not criminally responsible, if you have a diagnosed psychiatric condition, that doesn't necessarily mean you should be out in the public, though. If if the only thing stopping you from committing that crime again is going off your meds, that's not a risk, in my opinion, worth taking, especially if you've already done something that horrific. Like, that's that was in 2012 he was released, so he's he's out there.

Eric: Had a roommate and I replaced a guy. So 2 guys, you know, sharing an apartment, splitting the costs. 1 guy moved out. I moved in, took his place. Well, the guy that had moved out came back 6, 9 months later because he had moved out of town.

He came back and was visiting, and he dropped by the apartment, we were talking, and things started to get a little strange. Okay. And he started talking about how the radio was giving him messages and all these weird things and, you know, the songs had messages specifically for him about things. And my my roommate and I started realizing there's something wrong with this picture. And so we we Yeah.

Started to make the kinds of motions that you make when you're starting to, like, get ready for work, to leave,

Sarah: Yeah. And that's just Where we gotta go? And,

Eric: no, he couldn't let us leave because if we left his presence, we would die. Oh, And it got it got a little bit crazy. And I don't remember what we did. I think I think we had a chance to talk and Yeah. And I suggested, look, let's just all go.

Oh, let's let's let's tell him we're gonna take him, you know, somewhere. He wanted to go to the store or something. And I said, we'll we'll make like we're going to go with him, and then when we get down to the bottom of the stairs, because it was a 2nd Floor apartment, I said, you go 1 way, I'll go the other way. He can't follow us both. And if we're lucky, he he won't follow either 1 of us.

Yeah. And that's what we did. And then I think it was, like, later that day, maybe the next morning, we found out he'd been arrested at the University of Portland or Portland State University. I don't remember which 1.

Sarah: Yikes.

Eric: Because he'd caused a disturbance. And he was prescribed medication to to help just like this guy you're talking about to to keep him sane and and sober. And I found out later that he was he had gotten a job at a McDonald's and all I could think of was San Ysidro. And it's just like Yeah.

Sarah: Why can't

Eric: we gonna have another another 1 of those? Because I mean, again, like you say, it's the person's sanity, and I'll use that word kind of inappropriately or inaccurately, but their sanity is dependent upon them taking those medications. And what happens when people start taking medications and they start feeling good?

Sarah: And they think they don't need money.

Eric: I don't need to keep taking my medications

Sarah: Exactly.

Eric: Because I'm feeling fine. I've licked it.

Sarah: Yeah. And it's just yeah.

Eric: It's not a good thing. You no.

Sarah: So that's, I think, what happened here with Wally. They just they said, oh, yeah. He's cured. We'll just let him out.

Eric: And he knew all the right answers too.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. He could play the game. Yeah.

Eric: Mhmm.

Sarah: Mildred comments that they sure had their share of sickos this trip, and Laura adds that the scary thing is they came right to their doorstep. Steel Riley comments, there's nothing better than bringing one's work home. Mildred tells them that

Eric: They don't do a very good job of keeping their private life private. And, of course, with Mildred, anybody asks for their home phone number, their address? Yeah. Sure. Not a problem.

I mean, it's it's a wonder they they haven't had more problems than they have.

Sarah: No kidding. Mildred well, to be fair, it's Wally Wally was a a different situation. But yeah. Mildred tells him that he has to stay in bed 1 more day, and she's gonna make sure he doesn't cheat. Again, why?

Okay. Yeah.

Eric: I mean, you got a cast on it. You're you can be perfectly fine mobile. I mean

Sarah: In your wheelchair or whatever, your crutches. Yeah. Like, as long as you're using your mobile aids, you should be fine. Mhmm. Mildred leaves and Laura hands him the file.

As he peruses it, he tells her that they've been so busy defining their personal relationship that they have begun to take their professional 1 for granted. She sits down next to him on the bed and says he says, it's not until something like this comes along that forces, 1 to reevaluate. Laura says, what are we reevaluating? And this is I know this tag is a a thorn in a lot of steel watchers' sides. It's 1 that particularly bothers me as well because it feels like it comes out of left field, especially for steel.

He asks it okay. So I'll I'll preface this by saying the first part are fair questions until the So second the first part says he he asks her if she intends to pursue this line of work for the rest of her life. She thinks about it for a second and admits she hadn't given it much thought. And he says, suppose that she had children, would you intend to continue working? Now I I don't see an issue with him asking that question because if it it shows that he's thinking about a future together.

Mhmm. And the way he words it here doesn't necessarily sound judgmental. He's just asking her, what would you do? What would you want to do? Would you intend to

Eric: The thing is it's not a question about, well, you're my wife. What? You think you're gonna have a job? It's Yeah. Like it's even though that that's how it's written is just do you intend to continue working with no parameters, it's clear that the context that he's intending, whether it comes across to her this way or not, he's intending the context to be, would you continue working in this profession?

Sarah: The first part. The second part, he just shits the bed. Pardon my language. He craps the bed. Because, like, again, these are fair questions.

If you are planning a life together with somebody and you're literally thinking about the future, this this would be something that you would want to to know about the person. Like, is this what you would wanna do? Would you wanna keep working if we had kids? If you know, that shows that marriage is on his mind. Children are on his mind.

Mhmm. But then he says, or would you feed the little tykes breakfast in the morning and rush off to a nice juicy murder? That has an has judgment in it. Like, that line there

Eric: I is can I can I can see how it could be taken that way, but I think what he's trying to do is make a point that especially when he follows up with the next question, would you call them at school and apologize because you couldn't pick them up because you were being held hostage? What he's talking about here is there is a fundamental clash between the things that are happening to us in this profession and what 1 might call a normal home life and a normal parent child relationship. And it's about, you know, at what point do you draw the line and say, this profession isn't good for my family, or is my job gonna be my priority or is my family gonna be my priority when those 2 things come into conflict? Okay. I'm not not intended to be judgmental.

I don't say.

Sarah: I'm gonna argue I'm gonna argue 2 things.

Eric: Of course. Number 1

Sarah: number 1 no. But, sir, think about it for a second. Number 1, is he offering to stay home with the kids? Because it doesn't sound like it. Nobody ever, it's always, are you gonna stay home?

He's not saying, is 1 of us going to stay home? He's saying, are you going to stay home? Are you gonna continue working? That implies that in his mind, she's the 1 that has to make that choice. He can go on working all he pleases, but she's the 1 that has to make that sacrifice if 1 of them does.

The other thing is that police officers, detectives that get married to each other, they do these things all the time and find a balance. It's possible. Other people have jobs just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, and they find a balance. So he's not asking, how are we going to balance our work life and home life? He's not saying it that way.

He's not saying, is 1 of us gonna take time off? Are we going to, like, maybe have, say, 1 month where 1 of us works and the other stays home and and switch? Because they can do that. She owns the business. It's not like someone else is is telling them when their shifts have to be.

He literally just says to her, do you plan to continue working? Are you gonna be rushing off to a nice juicy murder? Are you gonna apologize? You can't pick your like, it's that mother guilt that he's heaping on her, that same guilt that she and and Francis talked about. Because, like, if you think about it, you hear about, like, you know, you get called out because you gotta go pick up your son or your kid, how often does that happen for men?

It's usually the mother that has to go and pick up their kid if their kid is sick or whatever. Like, it's just that assumption that she's the 1 that has to make that decision, not him.

Eric: I I see what you're saying, but I don't necessarily think that's I don't necessarily think he's presuming that he has he hasn't had to make or he he isn't gonna have to make that same decision. I think he's just simply phrasing it badly. And and maybe in his mind, he he doesn't even continue with the agency. They hand it over to Mildred or get Murphy back here. I I I don't think he's excluding himself from this decision.

I think he's just wording it badly.

Sarah: Oh, it's it's worded very badly because the way it's worded sounds like he's freaking Ward Cleaver here. And I just I don't it it bothers me because it feels very out of character. If I don't disagree that these are conversations that should be had.

Eric: I think it sounds out of character because this is the first time he's ever gotten this close to the subject of a long term future. Yeah. But he is not a person who has a background in handling or in seeing this sort of thing up close and personal and directly, and he's probably approaching it the only way he knows how, primarily based on movies. But he's yeah. He's approaching it badly only because he doesn't have a good background on how to approach it, but he's he's looking long term future, and that's why it seems weird and out of context and and and why even he's not doing a good job at presenting it.

Sarah: He's doing a terrible like, I don't know. It just feels like if he knows Laura well enough, he should know that she probably is gonna keep working. I don't think Laura would would would stop working. I think it's reasonable to talk about how you would balance that and to say that, okay, 1 of us drops their son or daughter off in the morning and doesn't come in until the afternoon, or 1 of them has to leave early, or that they trade off on who picks the kid up from school if there's a sickness or if there's a particularly dangerous, like, The you

Eric: other thing here, though, is that he does not include himself in this and and you're gonna you're gonna misinterpret what I'm gonna say here. He's not including this himself in this conversation because he's not presuming necessarily that he's talking about a future with him, Laura, and children. He's talking about a future of Laura and somebody maybe with children, but not necessarily him. He's just putting it out there in general general sense. If you got married, if you had kids, regardless of who it is, whether it's me, somebody else, whatnot, how are you going to handle these situations?

And so I think that's the reason why he's not necessarily including himself in these questions is because he might be thinking that would be presumptuous of me at this point, but this is something that she needs to consider, especially if I do want to be part of a long term relationship with her, and and this is to occur, she at least needs to have settled somewhat in her mind how she's gonna handle these types of situations.

Sarah: But he wouldn't be asked that. That's not something that would ever be asked of

Eric: him. Why?

Sarah: Well, I mean Why wouldn't it be? Because men aren't usually asked, what are you going to do when you have kids? Are you like, they're not usually asked, are you going to keep working, or are you gonna stay home with the kids? That's not a question that's generally asked of of men, at least not in the eighties, even now. Like, what what Scott and I did was relatively unique in the sense that in Canada, we have federally, covered family leave that you can take for either a year or a year and a half if you wanna stretch it out.

You get paid up to 50% of your salary or up to a certain amount, depending on how much you make from the government. It comes out of your EI, the, basically, the unemployment insurance that you pay into. And if you take 12 months, you get 55%. Or if you take 18 months, it's only 33%. But you can split it.

It's not like, there's 17 weeks that are for the birthing parent only and 5 weeks that are for the other parent only. And the rest of it, you can split however the heck you like.

Eric: Mhmm.

Sarah: So with Scott and I, I took 7 months, and he took 5. And people were kinda shocked by that because, like, they they were

Eric: If I had

Sarah: that as

Eric: an option when we had our kids, I'd have done it.

Sarah: Because but that's, like, most people, it's just automatically assumed that the mother does it. And I'm not saying, like, you think that way. I'm just saying, like, societally thinks that's how people think usually. And so when I mentioned that, like, we did it that way because I wanted to go back to work at at the September. I took February to like, I didn't wanna go back midway through a semester, and I wanted him to be able to, you know, bond and bottle feed and do all the the baby stuff.

So Well You know?

Eric: Historically and and biologically, there's there's some basis for that presumption simply because

Sarah: Sure.

Eric: For a long

Sarah: time breastfeeding. Nursing. Yeah.

Eric: Exactly. I mean, they didn't have bottles. And and even today, there are people who, for whatever reason, choose not to bottle feed.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, I I mean, I

Eric: can't believe So in those types of

Sarah: a

Eric: situation, it is you know, if if somebody's going to work and somebody's not going to work in that family relationship, it's more likely going to be the man working, the the woman not working simply from the point of practicality.

Sarah: Well, true. But I'm like, he's making it he's not asking the question of, like, would you take a year off? He's saying, would you stop working entirely? And it it just the way he frames it, like, at first, it sounds fine. Like I said, the first part of it sounds fine.

Do you intend to continue working? That's a fair question. But then the rushing off to a nice juicy murder and then, like, apologizing that you can't pick them up from school because you're being held hostage is really passive aggressive and not it it it comes off very judgmental, like a bad parent

Eric: off. Again, I don't think he's intending it to come off that way. I think he's just doing a very poor job because of his lack of background of saying, look, this is a, you know, this is a legitimate question that needs to be settled in your mind at some point. You know, how are you going to balance this? Is you know, where are you gonna draw the line and which are you know, which is gonna become your priority?

Are you going to sacrifice the job in order to, you know, and not not not sacrifice working, sacrifice this job in order to make the kids your priority,

Sarah: or are

Eric: you gonna give up the kids as the priority in order to continue doing this job?

Sarah: This is this is the thing, though. It's her agency. She can make changes to how she does the job and that like, she's the boss. Right? So it's not really like

Eric: She can, but she won't because

Sarah: Well, he doesn't know that.

Eric: Laura, it's about I'm in charge. I run things. Why would I hand that off to somebody else? No. I don't absolutely have to.

I mean, that's I don't

Sarah: think that would be the case. I think that they they have kids together.

Eric: Plenty of think we've seen plenty of evidence that Laura does not like to give up control to anybody for any reason unless she's absolutely forced to. And I think that's really the heart of what he's trying to say here is that something's gonna have to give if, you know, if if you have kids at some point in the future and you intend to keep working on this kind of job, how are you gonna draw that line? Where are you gonna split it? What are you gonna make the priority?

Sarah: Unless And he's

Eric: what are you willing to give up?

Sarah: Here's the thing, though. Unless he's unless he is assuming he's the partner in this, that's none of his business. Right? Like, unless he is assuming that he's the other half in this equation right? So if we assume that he is putting himself in that situation and that he's assuming that this is a future that they are gonna discuss, then

Eric: Yes and no. Because if they've got a a if they are even if they never wind up together, even if he doesn't see them as likely to be a couple in the long term future, they have a close personal relationship. And these are the kinds of things that people who have close personal relationships talk about from time to time. I mean, they don't make it a normal course of conversation, but these kinds of things come up and they come up as circumstances, you know, lead them down the road to that conversation. And so I don't think it's necessarily out of line for him to ask this even if he doesn't think or know that he would be the 1 in the future.

He's probably hoping and he's probably maybe trying to plant a seed here and maybe trying to admit something that he doesn't want to come right out and say. And so in his mind, you know, I see this happening, and so we need to talk about this, but I don't wanna come right out and say, this is my plan for us for the future. But, I mean, I I I don't see a problem with it.

Sarah: I think they they work as partners enough to the point where if this were something that happened between them, that that they would balance it out, that they would either reduce hours in certain ways or that I don't think she would have an issue with saying, like, okay, I'm gonna do the morning drive this this week, and and you'll go into the office, and then we'll switch off. Like, I don't I think that would be something that they would work out. I don't think she would stop working. I don't I would hope he wouldn't expect her to because that would be expecting her to give up the thing that she's worked for her entire life. And, you know, like, that's that's a bit a bit of a a bit of an ask, especially when stuff like that you can balance.

It's not either or. I think that's the problem is that it's always talked about as if it's either or. You have to do 1 or you have to do the other. There's you're right. Sacrifices do have to be made, but you can make them and still

Eric: see the job. Don't think the question is, is this either or? I I don't think he's he's intending to present it as that.

Sarah: It definitely comes off that way.

Eric: I I I I will admit. It kinda comes off that way, but like I said, it's because he doesn't have any experience in this this area and he doesn't have any good role models to to learn from or to have learned from. And so he's doing a really, really bad job of it, but I I don't think he's seeing it as an either or. The the bigger problem I have is when Laura immediately jumps to the unwarranted conclusion that he's saying that a woman's place is in the home. He never said anything about quitting working.

He never said anything about, well, you're the little woman, and you go take care of the food and clean the house and, you know, go shopping with the kids and I make the money. No. It's he was simply asking a practical and reasonable question about this particular line of work and how it would work while raising kids and how to do that

Sarah: balance. Yeah.

Eric: But she took it to this this wild, how dare you?

Sarah: Would take it the exact same way. Not the first again, not the first half. The second half. When he says rushing off to a nice juicy murder and then calling to apologize that you can't pick them up because you're being held hostage, Especially that last line. Because that last line implies that your job is dangerous and that your job will endanger yourself or your child.

And if you choose to continue doing it, you're irresponsible. That's the implication of that statement. And so if I were Laura, I would take it exactly the same way that he's implying somebody inferring something from a statement, not the person you that's like could make that statement without saying it like that. He could say, do you do you intend

Eric: He doesn't have any experience in this. He doesn't have any role models to guide him. He's doing the best he he can with no tools at his disposal.

Sarah: Sure. But she's not a mind reader as well. Right? So when you make a statement like that, that definitely sounds like a judgment. You're gonna take it as a judgment.

I would take it as a judgment. If he had simply said, do you intend to continue working if you have kids? And left it there. And then Laura responded with, are you saying a woman's place is in the home? I would agree with that that's a knee jerk reaction to that statement.

But he goes on to make the other 2 statements that are crappy. And

Eric: Again.

Sarah: You put those together. It's and and then you add in what happened with Suburban Steel, with him not helping out and saying, oh, we don't wanna confuse the role models. Like, there's clearly a pattern that's being established here. And and I put a pin in that, and I'll put a pin in this because season 5, I'm gonna have some thoughts. But this is a really it feels out of left field.

This tag feels out of left field, and I don't like it, and I know that I'm not alone. Okay? Because I'm gonna get backed up on this 1 here. But, because she says, are you saying a woman's place is in the home? And then he grabs her and pulls her close and then makes the sexual innuendo.

I was thinking of a more specific area, which Yes. Gross. Normally, I'm all on board. I think he's, you know, cheeky and funny and charming this time around, though, after everything she's been through with Wally and, like, the the invasiveness what Wally did, else. This is coming off way more creepy than it should.

Eric: Yeah. Probably not the best.

Sarah: And I don't disagree with you that he's that he's handling it badly probably because he doesn't have any experience to draw from, but that Laura's reaction, I think, is is fair considering what he says. So Okay. Anyway, I and the thing is, I love this episode. I love this episode, which I think is why the tag bothers me so much, because the rest of the episode, like, he's never implied anywhere in the series that he doesn't trust her or that he doesn't believe she can take care of herself. He backs her up with with Lieutenant Benjamin.

He you know, he's they have each other's backs. They're partners. So, yeah. I don't know. Maybe this was operating out of fear.

Maybe that's where he's coming from. This was a place of fear where he saw somebody get too close to her. He couldn't get to her. He couldn't help her. And he's thinking if they can just walk into our homes, if they can get in this close, you know, what it could be that too.

Eric: Yeah. It could be.

Sarah: But, yeah, it's not a not a great look at the end. Anyway, any other thoughts? No. No. Okay.

On the website, we've www.steelwatching.com. We've got show notes, links to Amazon US and Amazon Canada, as well as, like, merch you can purchase or buy us a coffee or support us in other you know, any way you want because we love you. Thank you. And other social media resources.

Eric: Such as the links to follow the podcast. If you're listening to this, you're probably already following, but maybe for some friends who haven't found us yet. Be sure and share us with them. Yes. You can also find links to the official Steel Watching Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages as well as links to the Steel Watchers fan group, which is an unofficial group as far as it's not official with us, but it's an official Steel fans group.

So, yeah. Yeah. It's there.

Sarah: And the next episode will be Steel Blue Yonder.

Eric: So Let's us now. I'll

Sarah: have some

Eric: some information on that.

Sarah: I bet I bet you will. Alright.

Eric: Alright. Well,

Sarah: that's That's

Eric: it. Thanks for listening.

Sarah: Bye bye.