Eric: Hey. Welcome everybody to Steele watching, the podcast for Remington Steele fans. I am Eric, and I may be crazy, but I know exactly what I'm doing.

Sarah: You sure about that? Yeah. A 100% sure.

Eric: I read it. That that's what

Sarah: it said. And I am Sarah, and I feel a lot like Johnny Cooper in this episode, old and falling apart. Well, not actually, he's not old and falling apart.

Eric: He's doing pretty good.

Sarah: He's doing better than me. I my back is not great today. So He's doing better than me. Yeah. That's true, actually.

Eric: Hey. What's

Sarah: today? Is today the 20 second?

Eric: As we record this, this is February 22. Yes.

Sarah: Okay. So that's crazy because that's if you look at anyway, I'll let you do

Eric: that. Yeah. Yeah. Creepy. Bring out the spookies and the weirdness and the conspiracy theories.

Woo. Well, anyway, yes. This episode is season 4 episode 15, Steele Blue Yonder. And before we get into the details, there's a couple of things that we need to address. First of all, we have a new financial supporter.

Yeah. Just signed up yesterday, which would have been the February 21 this year. So you'll know who you are.

Sarah: Nice. That was very Canadian. That was good.

Eric: Now the other thing, and I want to redeem and defend myself. Uh-oh. You will remember that in Steele Spawning, I said, oh, come on. You want me to really believe that Laura knows about the movie The Macombra Affair? And you said, well, sure.

Sarah: I don't remember, but I'll take a word for it. Well, okay. Maybe you weren't quite that positive, but but you said, yeah.

Eric: I mean, it's possible. I think I found evidence that it's highly unlikely.

Sarah: I love how you go through this much trouble to prove that 1 thing I said was wrong. Like, that I appreciate that. That's dedication. Go ahead.

Eric: Well, hey. I mean, I've I've got to defend myself, you know, and it it's so easy to lose an argument here. The movie was copyrighted in 1947, but the copyright expired in 1974 and was not renewed and has never been commercially released. And the only way you've been able to see it for any period of time is, especially here the last few decades, through unofficial made on demand, burned on demand DVDs from questionable quality 16 millimeter sources. You can find some Spanish language region something or other region to PAL versions on Amazon.

But again, the source material, the source film probably of questionable value. But, yeah, it's was never commercially released. I and since it was in public domain at the time that Steele Spawning aired, I'm gonna say it probably would not have shown up in a theater for for Laura to see possibly a late night TV.

Sarah: I was gonna say it might have shown up on TV, but yeah.

Eric: Yeah. The the o dark 30, you know, theater show that where insomniacs come to watch stuff that nobody else will watch.

Sarah: Okay. So I will I'll give you that. You you're you're probably right.

Eric: Thank you.

Sarah: Thank you. However, now that you mentioned

Eric: it, that's always a hell

Sarah: of No. A No. This isn't this had nothing to do with that. I just you made me think of, with when you said about public domain. Mhmm.

It's a wonderful life. I'm this is just something I learned recently, and I thought was really interesting. The main reason that people think that It's a Wonderful Life had become so popular as a classic. I mean, it's it it's a great movie. Don't get me wrong.

Uh-huh. But it was because of a copyright mistake. It accidentally fell into public domain in 1974 because Republic Pictures failed to renew its 28 year copyright. This allowed television stations to air it for free, and, basically, they did. They aired it pretty much nonstop, like, on all these TV stations.

And so that's kinda how it became, like, the comedy or the the holiday classic that we we know because it was not reviewed very well when it came out. In fact, it was considered a flop. Mhmm. It's Frank Capra. So, you know, people sort of made fun of his movies and called them cheesy or or anti democratic because it was accused of being, you know, anti capitalist, communist propaganda during that McCarthy era purge of Hollywood.

And, yeah. So it was not a a well reviewed or even a really a well, successful It was considered to be kind of like a a flop. But then that copyright mistake happened, and it just ended up on TV all the time, and then people loved it. So it's kinda funny how, like, stuff like that can change a movie's like, you see these movies that are failures on, like, theatrically, but then they become popular in VHS or DVD release over time and word-of-mouth and whatever. That was 1 of those cases.

So yeah. That was kinda funny. When

Eric: I was looking up when I found this information about the Macombra affair and I did a little more research into it, there was I think it's the American Film Institute. I I should have saved the quote. Yeah. They considered this film kind of what was the term that they used? An abandoned classic.

They said it was 1 of the best adaptions of a Hemingway story. And and apparently, was very well received when it was released.

Sarah: Right.

Eric: Had some great reviews and, you know, big name actors in it. But, yeah, it just kind of has been left to rot, so to speak, which unfortunately is a literal truth for a lot of films. Yeah. You know? The the films are just shoved somewhere on a shelf and literally left to rot.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: But, anyway, now that all the ugly stuff is out of the way

Sarah: Oh, 1 other thing. 1 other thing. Because I had I had had well, no. No. 1 other thing because somebody had contacted me, and I'll won't say a name unless they want me to, but with regards to us talking about Steele on the air and the scene where you you know how, like, again, there's this subsection of the fandom that kind of has this belief that season 4, Laura and Steele are sleeping together, and it's just not talked about on screen.

Mhmm. Canonically, they say they aren't, so I kind of, like, reluctantly go with that route even though we have seen a lot of examples in this season of how they are closer, more like

Eric: There's an intimacy between the 2 of them that suggests that there's more than just

Sarah: Even the costuming. And I've noticed this in the last few episodes that we've talked about. There's they're matching them. They're dressing them to match each other. They're they're very much in sync in a way they haven't been before.

You're doing twinsies. Yeah. So but this person commented to me and said, I'm honestly surprised that both you and Eric, unless I missed it, skipped over in your latest episode the fact that at the beginning of Steele in the air, when Laura wakes up, she's reaching over expecting someone to be in the bed with her. This is also part of the part of why some of us think they were sleeping together secretly that season. And I basically said, I honestly just thought she was reaching for the alarm.

Eric: Yeah. Me too.

Sarah: The response was, watch again. The clock is on her right. She reached to the left to the other side of bed. So I did. And, like, to me, it looks like she's just stretching out of bed.

And I said that, and then the response was, but doesn't it seem like she's expecting someone to be there? And I'm like, well, maybe she was having a really hot dream. So that's that's the debate as to whether or not she's she's reaching for somebody or, like, looking over expecting someone to be there. And I I really don't think she would be actually expecting him to be there because she still arrives first at at the office and knows that she has a meeting with the People magazine guy. So if, like, if they were together, she would know that he'd probably leave early.

Like, I don't anyway. But it does kind of, like, get

Eric: the impression named Bob.

Sarah: You know what I mean?

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah: But maybe she like, it it could've could've been a dream. Could've been, like, a really good good dream.

Eric: Which is why she would be reaching for Bob. Yeah. Exactly.

Sarah: Anyway. Anyway. Yes.

Eric: Let's get on to the

Sarah: Thought I'd bring that up.

Eric: Let's get on to still blue yonder. First aired 02/22/1986. So we are literally

Sarah: day. We are recording.

Eric: Years to the day record that we're recording this. It won't release on this day, but it's 40 years to the day that

Sarah: we recorded this. Ever happened. I don't think we've ever had a recording on the same like, not obviously the same day, but, like, the same date.

Eric: Same calendar day. Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah: So that's kinda cool. Yeah.

Eric: Like I said, conspiracy theory.

Sarah: It

Eric: was written by Brad Kern and directed by Don Weiss. Don Weiss. Why did I say Weiss?

Sarah: It's an odd name because you're never sure if it's Weiss or Weiss because

Eric: Or or Weiss.

Sarah: Yeah. Or Weiss. Yeah. So I don't know if anyone out there knows.

Eric: It's spelled w e I s, but he pronounces it Jones. Anyway, I went with TV Guide listing, although I do want to make a comment on the original production synopsis. TV Guide listing. A woman hires Laura and Steelee to investigate her father's increasingly erratic behavior, but the sleuths discover there's a method to his madness. Pretty good.

Mhmm. The original production synopsis, and this is from Judith's book, and I take exception to the synopsis. It's not Judith's fault. All she did was reproduce what was there.

Sarah: Yeah. But We love you, Judith.

Eric: When retired World War 2 brigadier general Johnny Cooper suddenly gambles away a fortune and takes 3AM joy rides in his p 40 flying tiger what? P 40 flying no. No. No. No.

Which I find a tremendously infuriating mistake because Brad Kern obviously did a lot of research for this episode. And to make that kind of a mistake the p 40 is a is was called under various names, but in The US inventory, it was called the Warhawk. Flying Tigers was the popular name for the American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force, which was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China, and they operated from 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor and then through 1942. Yeah. The Flying Tiger was not the name of the p 40.

That was the name of the popular name of the flying tiger. So I take I take real exception to that, Bob or Brad.

Sarah: Do you wanna know what it looks like we called it in Canada? Because I just googled it because I was curious to see if we called it something different. Believe. No. Kitty Hawk.

Eric: Kitty Hawk. Okay.

Sarah: Kitty Hawk.

Eric: Okay. And then Tomahawk was probably the

Sarah: The

Eric: British. Designation. Yes.

Sarah: Yep. The British used the name Tomahawk. Kitty Hawk. Yeah. So cute.

Kitty. Kitty. Kitty. Kitty. Kitty.

It's kind of adorable.

Eric: Actually, you know what? I I I I just realized I did not want to go with the TV Guide listing. I wanted to go with the DVD liner notes version, so I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna change it midstream. Then I'm calling an Audible.

All you football folks should love this.

Sarah: Hop off that outlaw train before you land us all in jail.

Eric: Sorry. Okay. Laura and Remington are hired by the daughter of a World War 2 flying ace to investigate the man's increasingly bizarre reckless behavior. That 1, I think, I like a little bit better. Yeah.

Because it it hides the fact and keeps it as a surprise that there's really a method to his madness

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Which I believe also is the name of a biography of Jerry Lewis. Anyway And

Sarah: a quote from Shakespeare.

Eric: Well, that could be too.

Sarah: Mad, but there is method to it.

Eric: Okay. Well anyway, we start it's a night, and we're on this street, and we're in a neighborhood that appears to be like an older business section of a town. It's quiet as 1 would expect on a deserted business district street at o dark 30, and there's a street sweeper out driving around in the dark on a rain switch.

Sarah: Seen 1 of those in real life. Have you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've never seen 1.

Well Literally, I see them on TV, and I'm just like, I wish maybe our streets are just too clean.

Eric: Well, we I I've I'd seen them grow when I was growing up in various places, I think. I don't really recall. But certainly up here in Anchorage, we have them every year because we don't use salt or chemicals when we have ice. No. They use they call it sand, but really it's gravel, which is why the windshield replacement companies love Anchorage because replacing your windshield is an annual event.

Sarah: That's brutal. I just yeah. Because I'm just thinking about, like, the gravel that would come, like oh, yeah. Yeah.

Eric: And and gravel is is maybe an overly generous description. It it's I mean, it's it's rocks. Really? I mean, it's rocks.

Sarah: Why don't they use salt? Salt is

Eric: I don't know.

Sarah: That's weird.

Eric: I don't know. Salt is a corrosive on cars, so it's it's damaging that way. But because they use this so called sand and it's really just gravel, they pull out the sweepers every every spring.

Sarah: That makes sense.

Eric: What they'll usually do is they'll have, like, 3 or 4 of them staggered next to each other and behind each other. So it's it's like if you take your last 3 fingers, you know how they they get progressively shorter? Yeah. Yeah. And you do that, only there's 4 of them.

They're they're going down the street that way. Just the first 1 kicks it over the second 1, over the third 1, over the fourth 1, and then off to the side.

Sarah: If you're stuck behind them, you're really late for work is what you're saying.

Eric: Yeah. You can be.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: You really you really, really can be.

Sarah: Well, maybe someday I'll see 1. I think it would be cool. Anyway. Anyway,

Eric: as the camera follows the street sweeper down the far side of the street, we see that it passes a black sports car, which is on the near side of the street. The car appears to be a September Porsche, which at the time was 1 of the most expensive Porsches that you could buy, being conceived as a replacement for the venerable 9 11. The 9 28 series may have be the best car Porsche ever made. Wow. Anyway yeah.

So he put some money into that car. Yeah. Anyway, the camera pans up, and we see that the sports car is parked across the street from the offices of Flying Ace Air Freight as advertised by the big bright red and blue neon sign mounted atop the building. Suddenly, the sound of an alarm bell screams out. And underneath the sound, we hear the other sound, a high pitched sports car engine firing up.

Nearby, a police car patrolling the mean streets of the city pulls a U-turn, its lights and siren lighting up as it does. And we see the neon flying ACE air freight reflected in the glass of the driver's window of the car. Then we see the headlights of the sports car pop up from the recessed housings and light up. And I like the shot of the sign reflected in the window. I mean, it really wasn't particularly necessary, but it definitely lends some nice atmosphere, particularly It really does.

Yeah. The water droplets on the door beneath the glass. It's it's a nice shot. So congratulations to Don Weiss for that shot. Really nicely done.

Anyway, the police car screaming siren, screaming siren siren screaming and light strobing races down the street. And as it approaches the Flying Ace air freight building, the sports car peels out, prompting the police officers to throw their car into a spin and then tear out after the sports car. High speed chase begins.

Sarah: Heck of a, like, a chase right at the beginning of the episode. Oh, yeah. We're watching it, and I'm just like, every time there's a switch or the car gets away and then the police try to regroup it or corral it, I'm like, wow. This is really like, they pull out all the stops, and we haven't seen Steelee or Laura. We don't know what the case is.

We have no idea who this person is in the sports car or anything like that. We're just like, alright. I'm in. This is fun. And

Eric: it goes on for, like, 2 and a quarter minutes.

Sarah: Yeah. It's a good long chase. It's good.

Eric: Yeah. And no no dialogue or anything until they they finally get get the car stopped. So, yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely an action packed start. Yep. So anyway, the chase begins, the chase going back and forth along the surface streets and freeways with the driver of the sports car occasionally spinning around, almost playing chicken with the officers in their cars, and then zooming back past them, affecting yet another escape.

And so more and more police cars join as the driver in the sports car is displaying impressive driving skills and repeatedly eluding various blockades the police are trying to create. I mean, it's almost like something out of the Blues Brothers, quite frankly.

Sarah: I was I thought that actually because that's a good point.

Eric: Anyway, after a long pursuit, the driver of the sports car ultimately seems to be trapped in an underpass surrounded by 7 police cars.

Sarah: Yeah. He's really collected them. It's like Pokemon as he goes along.

Eric: Well, the officers all get out of their cars, guns drawn, and then 1 of the officers slowly approaches the sports car. And as he nears the driver's side window of the sports car lowers, and we see that the driver of the car, the person who has skillfully took the officers

Sarah: out of

Eric: Mary Chase, is a man in his sixties. As the window lowers, the man was

Sarah: older than sixties?

Eric: I think I did the math, and I think he would have been in his sixties. Or they reference him being in the sixties. I don't I don't I think they reference him being in the

Sarah: sixties. Eighties. It if this is 86 and he was in World War 2, that's 40 years ago.

Eric: If he went in in his twenties or or late teens from the forties to the eighties, yeah, he could be in his late sixties.

Sarah: I would have put him in his seventies or eighties. But

Eric: I would have too, but but the the math works. The math works. I mean, let's say let's say you went in when you were 18, which was the youngest that you could legally go in.

Sarah: Well, my grandfather got in younger.

Eric: Yes. Yes. There have been cases that were documented in World War 2 as young as I know 16, and I think there was maybe 1 or 2 cases low of a lower age than that. But but they were yeah. Let's say 18.

And the ABG started in '41, so he would have had to probably been 18 in 1940.

Sarah: Alright. You know what?

Eric: 46 years later,

Sarah: it's pushing math.

Eric: Mhmm. Would have be in probably seventies.

Sarah: Brace yourself. Brace yourself here. You're gonna enjoy this. Okay. You're right.

The actor was 63. I just did the

Eric: And what was his date of birth on that?

Sarah: 1923.

Eric: Okay. So he would've he would've been very young to be in the Flying Tigers. But

Sarah: I mean, if we're going by the actor the actor's age, the actor was

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: But, yeah, this the character could be in his late sixties. So we'll we'll we'll push it

Sarah: a little bit there. We'll go with that. Yeah.

Eric: Anyways, the

Sarah: driver 1. He's right. Yay. Finally, I won 1.

Eric: As the driver's window lowers, the the man looks out at the officer through his door window and smiles and then calmly and casually asks,

Sarah: is there a problem, officer? And

Eric: the officer who's really, really young, he doesn't respond. He just looks at him and his face is like, are you serious?

Sarah: Because they've just spent all this time chasing somebody who looks like he should've been driving for NASCAR, and, like, he's just he's he's he's an older man. Like, he's not, you know, some young thing who's out because you would assume, and statistically, rates and accident rates will bear this out, that most likely person behind to be behind that wheel would be at, like, somebody between the ages of, like, 18 and 25. You know? Such a kid who's out hot rotting. But no.

No. No. No. That's not it. That's

Eric: not it at all. Well, next, we're in Steelee's office. Steelee is at his desk asking in disbelief 90 miles an hour at 03:00 in the morning? You see that Steelee and Laura are interviewing a potential client, 1 miss Cooper. And, of course, we realize that they're talking about the man in the sports car.

As Laura picks up the coffee carafe and pours a cup of coffee, miss Cooper responds to Steelee's query saying that he told the police he thought it was an ambulance behind him, and

Sarah: he was just trying to get out of the way. Okay. I need to tell a story here, because there is a, like, I have a funny story for this. I just had to Google it too. 90 miles per hour is a 144 kilometers.

That is fast. Sorry.

Eric: Yeah.

Sarah: I okay. So I got pulled over once for not wearing my seat belt. Mhmm. I know. Everybody should wear their seat belt.

In my case, like, I wasn't wearing it, so I don't really have an excuse for that. But I was only going around the corner, and they were doing this, like, seat belt blitz. So they had, like, 4 cop cars sitting outside the plaza of the little diner that my parents used to own, and they were waiting for people. So they kinda, like, descended on me. And it's a 250 fine.

Okay? So at the time, I was just out of teacher's college. I didn't have a teaching job yet. I was working at the restaurant. I had no money.

I didn't have $250 in my bank account. So the options when you get a ticket like that are you either pay the ticket right away. You contest it, so you have to get a lawyer for that. Nobody's gonna do that for $250. Or No.

You plead guilty with an excuse and and try to get the fine, like, put down or give extra time because you're they give you 10 days to pay it. Mhmm. So in order to plead guilty with an excuse, which is what I did, you have to actually go to the courthouse, and it's because it's not by appointment. You're you're not hiring a lawyer. You basically have to go in in the morning and hope that you can get in.

There's like an hour where they see those cases before the actual appointment cases come in. Well, the judge was late. Okay? So I'm sitting there waiting with all these other people who had all different kinds of tickets for different things. And they came in, they said, look, the judge is late.

They're not gonna have time to do these morning appointments. You have 2 options. You can go home and try another day, or you can wait and see if they can squeeze you in if somebody doesn't show or there's something canceled. Well, I couldn't come back another day. So I was like, I'm gonna stay.

This other woman decided to stay too. She had a speeding ticket. So this is relevant because, like Okay. We're sitting there, and I'm watching these cases go by waiting for my turn, and she gets to go up before me. Okay?

She gets up there, and I'm noticing a pattern with this judge. Everybody that had gone up to try to plead a traffic violation or whatever it was had tried to make excuses for why they did whatever it was they did. And this judge had no patience for that. None whatsoever. He was being a real hard ass.

Like, I don't care what your reason is for doing this. You did it. You're gonna pay. This woman ahead of me, she goes up, and she had a speeding ticket. She was going 50 over the limit.

So this is stunt driving territory. Okay? Okay. She gets up there, and she's in front of the judge, and he's like, okay. You're pleading guilty with an excuse.

What's your excuse? And she's well, I was fire following a fire truck, and I was just going with the flow of traffic. And the judge just laughed at her. He's like, are you kidding me right now? That's what you're gonna tell me?

Like, you were in a residential area. No. So, he was like, can you pay the ticket? She says, yes. He's like, okay.

You're paying the ticket. Goodbye. Now in my case, I get up there next. I'm like, crap. He's not in a great mood.

I'm done. Right? I'm cooked. I'm finished here. So I get up in front of him, and he's like, you didn't weren't you were caught not wearing your seat belt.

What's your excuse? And I'm like, I I don't have the money. Like, I was just I just I blurted it out. I'm like, I I don't have any money. And I brought my bank statement and everything, and he's like, what it is what what do you do?

And I said, well, right now, I'm just working at a restaurant, but I and he said, well, did you go to school? And I said, yeah. I went to university for teaching. And and he said, do you have student debt? And I was like, oh, yeah.

I got $50,000 worth of student debt. He asked me all these questions about finances. And eventually, he was like, you know what? We need teachers. Teachers are great in our society.

It looks like you're you did the right thing. You're trying to pay the money down. You're you're blah blah blah. You did it. You did you weren't wearing your seat belt, so I can't, you know, do anything about the fine.

You're gonna have to pay something, but I'll make you only pay a 150. And how much time do you want for it? And I'm like, at this point, I'm like, I don't wanna push my luck. So I'm like, a month? And he's like, how about 4 months?

You want 4 months? And I'm like, sure. Like, just so I leave, and I'm like, okay. The moral of the story is just tell him you're broke and be honest about it. You know?

I didn't try to bullcrap him. I didn't say, well, I was only going around the corner, and there was a dog on my lap and what? Don't know. I'm just like, I'm broke. Please take pity on me.

So, yeah, that's I found this funny his excuse funny because I've seen someone try to give an excuse very similar to that, and it did not work out well for her.

Eric: Well, Steelee laughs at the story, calling it a commendable explanation, not to mention original. When Laura asks why the police were chasing him in the first place, miss Cooper answers that a burglar alarm went off in the neighborhood. They saw her dad speeding away and thought he was involved, adding that it turned out to be a false alarm. And Steelee understandably asks then what was he doing? And miss Cooper, not really answering the question, responds that he's been acting very strange lately.

And Laura asks if miss Cooper can remember when the strange behavior first began. Well, 6 months earlier, it was the day that his best friend Chuck Sertes died when his private plane crashed. And it was really quite a blow to her dad, and he hasn't been the same since. He's disappeared for days at a time. He's withdrawn all of his savings.

He bought that sports car. He's practically bankrupted himself. And Laura

Sarah: What kind of what kind of car was it again? It's a Porsche.

Eric: Porsche 9 28 s.

Sarah: I'm just curious as to how much it would have cost back then.

Eric: 09/28 to convert it to to $20.26 dollars.

Sarah: 19 eighties. Would've cost about 9 29,000 to 40,000 plus, and so, like, convert that to our money. Yeah. That would be a crazy car. Yeah.

Jeez. Holy cow. Because, like, that's how much, like, my Hyundai would cost now. So

Eric: Yeah. Now you get a a cheap little import car for $40,000. But Yeah. I mean, I've seen I used to work at a car dealership. I I was their shuttle driver for a while, and then I was processing the incoming new cars and taking care of all the computer work and managing all the the parts that the technicians put on as the dealer installed options.

And when I was working there, I saw cars that were selling for over selling. Oof. Not price. Selling for over a $100,000.

Sarah: Wow. Well, okay. So I just did the math here. Adjusted for inflation, that car would be roughly 118,209. Wow.

That's a lot of money for a car. Anyway, keep going.

Eric: Anyway, Laura, who's sitting on Steele's desk and showing off her legs sorry. She

Sarah: is, isn't she? What? I noticed that too. I

Eric: I don't know why I said that. Anyway, she asks if Ms. Cooper thinks that there might be a woman involved. And Steelee stands as he comments that it's not as if there aren't any gold diggers out there. And miss Cooper seems to accept that as a possible explanation, maybe likely explanation, because, I mean, after all, why else would he be doing this?

My problem would be if he's not a wealthy man, which she's kind of implying here, why would a gold digger I'll put that in sarcasm. Let's be after him. I mean, not you. Well,

Sarah: if he's appearing to be wealthy, though. Because, like, if if he's bought this car if if I saw something driving around in this car, I would assume they had money. Right? And and not I'm not a gold digger, so I wouldn't start dating them. But there is a, long standing tradition of young women that go after old rich guys hoping that they're gonna croak soon and get the money.

Right? So Yeah. But You know, if he's going out of his way to appear wealthy, then he'd maybe

Eric: You'd think that they would do a little more homework, but alright. Anyway, so Steelee comes around to the front of his desk joining Laura and sitting on the desk, and then he picks up a cup, pours himself coffee, offers that there could be another explanation. And hesitantly, he prefaces his comment by apologizing if he sounds insensitive, but, you know, a man of his advanced years, he, you know, he could be and he trails off, and miss Cooper finishes the sentence with the word senile.

Sarah: Yeah. And

Eric: excuse me. Mid sixties, advanced years?

Sarah: Yeah. I was I was this okay. So maybe this is why I thought he was older because they keep coming back to this idea that if he that his behavior is all down to senility or what you know? And and he's not that old for that. Like, there are cases where I mean, you can get things like Alzheimer's and dementia at the age of, you know, 65 and and up, but it's less common.

It's it's considered to be more rare if that happens. It's it's more common if you're seventies, eighties. So I think that's why I assume that's how old he was because I wouldn't automatically jump to that con if I saw somebody behaving erratically in their sixties, I'm not gonna automatically jump to the conclusion that they're senile. That would not be the conclusion I would jump to.

Eric: Right. And my my problem also is with the term advanced years.

Sarah: Sixties is not advanced years. I mean, I'm in my sixties. Majors. Yeah. So, yeah, it just it feels like

Eric: a Okay. Wait a second. Somebody might argue that I am crazy now, but but I I don't think I am in you know No. Well, you know what they say. People who who think people who are crazy don't think they're crazy.

They don't you know?

Sarah: But I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of them. That's right. But, yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't assume somebody in their sixties was, like, a hair's breath away from senility. Like, that would not be my my go to for for that behavior.

So I think that's why I thought he was older than he is.

Eric: Yeah. Well, anyway, when Steelee makes that suggestion, miss Cooper says that they've got no idea how difficult things would be for her if that were true. She confesses that she doesn't know what she could do other than, you know, put him in a home. And Laura asks, well, what is it that they can do to help her? And miss Cooper doesn't say or Laura doesn't say it, but the implication is that they really aren't equipped to make a medical assessment of his mental condition, which it kinda sounds like she's she's maybe been going for.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Anyway, miss Cooper says, follow him. Find out why he's doing these things. Find out if he's being taken by somebody. And, you know, if they could, just and then, of course, she flounders in frustration, but then concludes, just find out what's going on. And Laura and Steelee exchange glances.

Well, next, the scene is at an Oceanside Park. Yeah. Laura is doing the roller skating thing complete with the obligatory cutoff shorts and tight T shirts, long dangling earrings, and a scarf rolling her hair in a ponytail.

Sarah: Yeah. I have a criticism about this. She's got knee pads and elbow pads, but no helmet. I'm sorry. What?

Why would you go to the trouble You

Eric: fall on

Sarah: your knees

Eric: and elbows.

Sarah: You fall on your knees

Eric: and elbows. You do not fall on your head.

Sarah: You do if you go backwards. And I I have, like because this is what happened to my dad. That's how he broke his back the second time. He fell backwards on roller skates. And a few, couple months ago, that's how I reinjured my back.

I was on ice skates, and I I had a helmet. So, thankfully, I didn't crack my brain open, but you wear a

Eric: looking helmet, people. I don't think back in the eighties, helmets were particularly common used.

Sarah: They weren't. But it just drives me nuts because I'm like, head injuries are are so common, especially on roller skates. It is so easy just to to flip on your butt. Yeah. They're true.

Just to me, it's odd that she would go to the trouble of elbow pads and knee pads, but not the helmet.

Eric: Yeah. Well It

Sarah: would make more sense not to have her wearing either the elbow pads or knee pads and just have her just skating around.

Eric: Well, can I can I also comment that once again, she's in an outfit that is not doing her any favors? Anyway

Sarah: It's very So maybe this is a good place to bring up the like, there was a bit of discussion in the last episode on on the Facebook group on sort of the outfits in this in the fourth season and how they sort of lean more towards eighties.

Eric: Like Far more for the period. Yes.

Sarah: And I don't mind it. I don't I've had issues in the past seasons when they've had her in outfits that age her Mhmm. Because they were going for that classic look. They were going for that sort of timelessness, which is fine, but sometimes they'd have her in in gowns or dresses that were matronly or looked sort of way older than her her age, which was at the time, like, I think in the first season, she's supposed to be 26. So here, she'd just be hitting 30.

And, okay, the outfit where she's roller skating, that looks like something a 13 year old would wear. So, yeah, that's maybe a little young for her, but I don't mind some of the more eighties style outfits that she's got on in this season. I kinda like them in some respect, not the shoulder pads, of course, but some of the other outfits I find look really cute on her, and I'm I like that they were sort of leaning towards embracing that. But, yeah, there are some misses, and this is definitely 1 of them.

Eric: Yeah. Anyway, while she's out doing the skating thing, Steelee is lounging on a park bench, dressed as a bum in worn slacks and a long coat, dirty, torn, ratty, and a frayed vest over 2 worn out T shirts.

Sarah: At least they didn't douse him in fish the way they with Mildred. That's true.

Eric: And we see that they are watching 2 older men who are sitting at a picnic table playing checkers, 1 of whom is our subject, Johnny Cooper. And he's wearing a pair of casual slacks, casual dress shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, and a casual jacket. Laura skates over to the bench where Steelee is sitting, sits down next to him, and then begins to play with the laces on her skates. Steelee sarcastically comments that it's a fascinating assignment, and he doesn't know if he can stand much more excitement. And Laura admits that the job so far has been a little tedious.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: And Steelee recaps her day so far. A rip roaring Grey Panthers get together, followed by a bingo parlor, his midday nap, and now the Checkers Championship of Venice Beach concluding that their subject is a perfectly normal 70 year old retiree.

Sarah: 70. He says 70 here. See? This it's flopping all over the map, this guy's age. Right?

Eric: Now I on a on a related side, you mentioned earlier his age when he did this. Andrew Dugan died at age 64 just 2 years after this episode aired.

Sarah: So Ouch.

Eric: So he's definitely not in his seventies.

Sarah: Yeah. No. He he was 6 well, when I did the math, it said 63, but he I guess it depends on the month.

Eric: On where and the year.

Sarah: What is '62.

Eric: Yeah. So where were we? Yes. Concluding the checker game, Cooper gets up and heads out of the park. Laura gets up to follow him, but still attempts to quell her sense of urgency, assuming that there's no hurry.

I mean, after all, the man is in his seventies, which seems a bit presumptuous. I mean, because would he have said the same thing about Daniel?

Sarah: Right? I I thought the same thing. I thought, like, Daniel is probably the

Eric: same age. Same age.

Sarah: Yeah. And and is is nimble and quick and sharp as a tack. Like, there's no yeah. Like, it is funny to me that they're they're talking about this guy as if he's, like, 1 foot in the grave when he's clearly a very active human being. He can drive a car like nobody's business, and it is obviously you know?

I I get that they the daughter thinks he might be going senile, so they're operating under that assumption.

Eric: But And

Sarah: Steelee they've seen.

Eric: I think Steelee just isn't enthusiastic about the case. I think that's the overriding thing.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: That is really coloring his judgment and his attitude, and it's just like

Sarah: Well, he has to dress like a homeless man. He's not getting to walk around in all of his fancy suits and and do all the, like, cool stuff he usually gets to do.

Eric: Yep. Anyway, Laura disregards Steelee's lack of enthusiasm and immediately takes off to follow. Steelee slowly and reluctantly gets up to follow her. They get to the corner and look around to find Johnny Cooper only to discover that he's disappeared. And, Lord, you steal a disgusted look and sarcastically ask, you were saying?

But after a moment, they see Johnny across the street coming out of a dry cleaners dressed in a tuxedo. And Laura wonders Dun

Sarah: dun dun dun dun dun dun, like, coupon theme.

Eric: Well, just then a long white limo pulls up. Johnny steps over, opens the back door, and slides in, prompting Steelee to wonder, what's Johnny doing in a limo? Yeah. And Laura has the answer. He's getting away from them.

Sarah: Yep.

Eric: She takes off on her skates into the street and and straight it and straight into the path of an oncoming car, forcing the driver to slam on his brakes and honk their she has a habit of doing this.

Sarah: Running. No.

Eric: Running out in front of cars. Forget the helmet. Helmet doesn't matter at this point. Stop being stupid. Stop running out in traffic.

Didn't your mother ever tell you not to run out

Sarah: in traffic? In traffic. Yes. And she also told me to wear my helmet. I'm just saying if the car knocks her over helmet.

Anyway.

Eric: Anyway, Laura managed to manages to barely maneuver out of the way of the car, which then begins to drive away. But Steelee is chasing after her and apparently paying even less attention than Laura was because he should've seen the car. He should've seen Laura almost get hit by the car. But instead, he also runs in front of the car, forcing the driver to again slam on their brakes and honk the horn. Steelee gets out of the way, and the car finally drives off.

The 2 of them looked down the street at the back of the receding limo to read the license plate Bright7 and the license plate frame that reads StarBrightLimousine. And as the limo disappears around the corner, Laura, in reproach of his earlier comments, asks Steelee if is this now exciting enough for him? And he replies, oh, yes. Oh, yes. Next, we're in the office.

Mildred is there talking on the phone to Laura, who is still at the scene. And with a laugh, Mildred asks, you lost him, a 70 year old man? What did he do? Outrun you? Careful, Mildred.

Careful.

Sarah: Oh, Mildred. She will get her comeuppance later for sure.

Eric: You know, that's that's kinda like 1 of those what could possibly go wrong

Sarah: Yeah. Statements. Exactly. As long as nothing bad happens.

Eric: Or or 1 of those how could it get any worse statements. Yeah. You just don't tempt fate like that.

Sarah: Yeah. You don't you don't mess with that.

Eric: Ignoring the barb, Laura tells Mildred to never mind that. Just call up Star Bright Limousines and find out where the license number Bright7 was headed and have Fred meet them at Mr. Steele's in an hour. She hangs up the phone as Steelee stands behind her scratching himself through his ratty shirt. Yeah.

It's just, like, funny. It's it's a

Sarah: I gotta wonder where they got those clothes. Did they actually go to, like, a lost and found or something?

Eric: It kinda looks like it, but I'm sure it was from studio cost. I mean, and they were probably clean, just made to look like you're ready.

Sarah: I I mean, like, we're stealing Laura.

Eric: Oh, Steele. Oh, yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because, obviously, it wouldn't he would have something that Yeah. Like, he would not have those clothes in his closet.

Right? So did they go and fight like, raid a lost and found bin, in which case anything could be in those suddenly, he's got bedbugs, and he doesn't know why.

Eric: Please. Anyway, we have a time jump. It's dark, and we see Johnny's white limo parked in the driveway in front of a fancy building with a neon sign that reads Bedards.

Sarah: They love neon signs in the eighties. This is another because we've got 14 k ROT, and we've had we've seen so many, like that, the restaurant, the French restaurant. I can't remember the name of it, but it also had a neon sign out.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. I I like neon signs. I mean, neon signs have been around since, what, forties, I think.

Sarah: Oh, yeah. They're fun. They're it's just funny. It's a shame. So many buildings that used them in the eighties.

Eric: Yeah. It's a shame that that we've we've become so you know, it's funny because we we moved away from neon because it's it's so expensive. It takes so much electricity to run. And now we've got these big old signs on the sides of buildings as billboards that are literally giant TV screens running these images all the time. Excuse me.

Sarah: Oh, yeah.

Eric: I I thought that the problem was that neon signs used electricity. These use as much or more. So Oh, yeah. For sure. But I like neon.

I wish we'd bring it back. Anyway, as far as Bedard, I could not find a reference to an actual restaurant called Bedard's in the Los Angeles area.

Sarah: The impression it was like a casino because

Eric: Well, it's got a casino in the back. It's probably not a legal legal casino because I don't think gambling was legal in California around that time. But the only reference I found is for a hockey player named Connor Bedard.

Sarah: Oh, yeah. Connor Bedard is like yeah.

Eric: May maybe Brad Kern named that restaurant or somebody on the staff named the restaurant in his honor. I don't know.

Sarah: Could be. Doeful. He's a current player.

Eric: Oh, is

Sarah: He's not yeah. He's a he's like, I don't know. He's, like, 12. Well, he didn't I didn't check dates.

Eric: I'm sorry.

Sarah: He was born, actually, he has oh, he was born on my birthday. Yeah. He was born in 2005. He's 20. Yeah.

Okay.

Eric: Probably not gonna be there.

Sarah: But he should've he should've been on team Canada, and he wasn't for some reason. I'm not sure why. Anyway sorry.

Eric: Yeah. You're just grumbling because America won.

Sarah: You know what? Beat Canada. Yeah. Well, you can have this 1.

Eric: Didn't we also beat them in the women's hockey or something like that?

Sarah: You know what? Okay. I wasn't gonna do it, but I'm gonna do it now. Okay? Of all of the Winter Olympic Games, okay, our Canadian men have 9 golds.

I think it's, like, 8 silvers and 3 bronze or something like that. And the men overall have 3, including today's 8. No. We have 9 golds, 5 silver, and and 3 bronze, and you guys have, like, 3 golds, 8 silver, and 1 bronze.

Eric: So we got you a win over the Canadian team all that more impressive.

Sarah: And the women, okay, have never failed to get a medal. They've got 5 gold medals and 3 silvers, and you guys have 3 gold medals and 5 silvers. So there.

Eric: Which, again, makes our win more impressive. The underdog.

Sarah: Anyway Alright. Fine. Keep going.

Eric: The agency limo pulls up into the driveway, and then Laura and Steelee get out. Laura is dressed in a glamorous floor length white gown with a slit from the hem to her knees. It drapes in all the right places, fits snug in all the right places, and is bedazzled with sequins and silver chains.

Sarah: I didn't like the bedazzles. I thought this whole dress looked like she was auditioning to be in dynasty, and it like, speaking of eighties fashions at didn't age well, this dress does not work for me. Well, I like it

Eric: because it drapes in all the right places, and it fits snug in all the right places.

Sarah: I think if there was less, like, stuff going on, bedazzly stuff going on, I might have liked it little better. I regret that. I think it I liked it if it was a little simpler, but it's Yes. Like, there's a little too much. Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. The silver chains seemed a little bit over the top, definitely. If they'd had gotten rid of the silver chains, the sequence would have

Sarah: But she looks good in white. She always looks good in white, so I like that.

Eric: And Steelee is in his tuxedo 1 of the last times for the rest of his life that Pierce Brosnan can wear a tux.

Sarah: Well, he can wear it now that he's not Bond. He just couldn't wear it while he was.

Eric: Are you sure? Yeah. Thought I thought the prohibition was never again.

Sarah: I'm pretty sure. Let's see. Can a Bond actor wear a tux after he is no longer Bond? I thought it was, like, once you're no longer bond, you can't you you're you're fine. Yeah.

They can wear says now this is the AI overview, but there's links to actual sources. And it says, Bond actor can wear a tuxedo after they're no longer under contract to play James Bond. The restriction prohibiting Bond actors from wearing tuxedos in other films is a contractual clause applicable only during their tenure as double o 7 to protect the character's image. So When was,

Eric: Thomas Crown done then? Because

Sarah: Okay. So fun I

Eric: thought that was after Bond.

Sarah: It no. It was during Bond, but there's a mention of this because he had to avoid wearing a proper tuxedo in other films.

Eric: So And have it unbuttoned.

Sarah: He's unbuttoned in that 1. His bow tie is undone. So, technically, it kinda gets around that. But, yeah, you can't wear the full tux until you get a longer bond. So Daniel Craig can wear 1 again now too.

Eric: Okay. Alright. Yeah. Well, as they get out, Laura wonders what Johnny's doing in a swanky place like this. And Steelee suggests, well, gambling in all likelihood, adding that Bedard's is 1 of the few private clubs in town which offers a backroom casino for those in the know.

And he taps his nose on the side. Laura's shocked at the idea of a backroom casino and then without thinking begins to ask, how would he even know about that? But, of course, she catches herself and says, oh, never mind. Forget I even asked. I

Sarah: like this I I like the fact that this has happened more than once now where she's Mhmm. Encountered again, brushed up against something from his shadier side of the tracks knowledge base, and then just kind of been like, you know what? I don't wanna know. The curiosity's gone. The bloom's off the road.

She's like, just don't tell me. We're good.

Eric: Well, inside, are met by a hostess with a tray, passing out drinks, and Steelee takes 1 without even asking what it is

Sarah: and just

Eric: starts drinking it. I guess he's agnostic when it comes

Sarah: to his alcohol. Likes to live dangerously. Yeah.

Eric: Laura leans in and with a nod of the head tells Steelee over there, and they see that Johnny is at a table with 2 other men and a woman. And the men are players. The woman is the distraction. I'm sorry. Dealer.

Laura be Laura and Steelee begin to work their way toward the table, and then they separate, Laura moving to get another perspective on the action. Steelee stops next to a blonde in a low cut glittery blue dress and wearing a necklace Who

Sarah: finds the first blonde?

Eric: Wearing a necklace doesn't hang down quite far enough to do the job it was hired to do. She smiles at him and then gives a quick glance down, seemingly focusing for a moment on 1 particular location. Yep. After she raises her gaze and turns her head, Steelee takes a quick admiring glance down at her display. And then Steelee lifts his glass to his lips in preparation of taking a drink and then murmurs to the blonde that Johnny seems to be doing fairly well.

And if you're gonna talk, why would you put a glass a drink in front of your mouth to do it? I mean

Sarah: Yeah. Does that make your

Eric: what you're saying less conspicuous?

Sarah: Yeah. I think that was what he was going for, but it didn't really work.

Eric: No. No. It just it just yeah. Anyway, the woman is confused at the reference to the name Johnny, and she's, who? And she says, gray haired gentleman as he indicates Johnny.

Oh, you mean Jack Craig, the woman says. Steelee is silent for a moment, seemingly momentarily confused, and then repeats Jack Craig. And finally recovering, he says that he must have the man confused with someone else. Yeah. Is Steelee losing his touch, was he just blinded by the blonde?

Sarah: It's gotta be. Because

Eric: Normally, he would recover on something like that much more quickly.

Sarah: Well, not just that, but, I mean, you'd think he'd be putting the pieces together by now. Not necessarily about the like like, the theft, the, you know, whatever, but that what Johnny's doing is not just crazy old man stuff. Like, this is this is this has Daniel written all over it. This is exactly something that Daniel would do. And so to to see Johnny, you know, like, doing all these normal old man things and then suddenly showing up in a tux going to this backroom club.

He's playing poker or whatever it is. They're playing under a different name. Like, come on, dude. Like, you this is your this is your trade. You should recognize a con artist when he's doing his thing.

Eric: I'm just meaning from the from the standpoint of, a, he he refers to Johnny by by name, which probably was a mistake, but be because you don't give people information. You let them give you information.

Sarah: Yeah. You could say that's a good 1. Seems to be doing very well.

Eric: Yeah. And then when she says Jack Craig, if he was on his game, he would have just gone with it and said, oh, really? Okay. He just he would have immediately kind of said, oh, okay. My mistake, I I must have him confused with someone else.

But he's seems genuinely Yeah.

Sarah: He does get tripped up.

Eric: Frozen in place. It's it's like

Sarah: the the the data doesn't compute. Data doesn't compute. Data doesn't compute. Do something. Data doesn't compute.

Anyway,

Eric: at the table, the dealer is calling for bets, and Johnny says, well, what do you say? $3,000. And 1 of the gentlemen tosses down his cards declaring that it's too rich for his blood, and he stands and leaves. The third man who we will later learn is Jeffrey Wittlesley Wittlessey Wittlessey? Wittlessey.

Sarah: Wittlessey. Yeah. That's

Eric: Jeffrey. We'll call him Jeffrey. He asks Johnny slash Jack if he's got something cooking, and Johnny gives a kind of a noncommittal nod. And Jeffrey asks Johnny if you know, Jeffrey tells Johnny that he'll see Johnny's 3,000 and bump up 3 more. And the dealer tells Johnny, that's 3,000 to you.

And Johnny says, called, which I don't play poker, I'm not sure. He puts in chips and tosses down 2 cards, and it takes 2 new cards. And I'm not sure what called means in this context because I don't play poker, but my understanding was that you don't call until the end of a hand

Sarah: You're done.

Eric: When you're done.

Sarah: So I thought too.

Eric: So I'm not sure what this means. So somebody who knows how to play poker and understands what this reference is or Brad. Hey, Brad. Give us a shout. Let us know what's going on here.

Yeah.

Sarah: Because I thought it meant, like, if you call, it just means you're going to show your hand. Like, you're gonna Yeah. You're You you have to match the bet still, but you're you're yeah.

Eric: You're you're ending the betting at that point. Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. Anyway That's what I thought too.

Eric: Jeffrey also tosses down 2 cards and then takes 2 new cards. And as Laura is standing next to an older gentleman who is also watching the game, she asks if the distinguished gentleman on the right, see, she did it right, comes in

Sarah: her office. Exactly.

Eric: And Matt says, well, Jack and Jeffrey have been playing a high stakes poker game with each other for, you know, over a month now. Laura gives an impressed look, surmising that he must be loaded. So she's going to maybe play the the gold digger for this investigation. Might

Sarah: as well.

Eric: Yeah. Well, the man says, hey. He's worth millions easily. He dabbles in foreign investments or at least that's what he understands. Well, back at the table, Johnny suggests that they add 5,000 to the pot.

Jeffrey considers his cards for a moment. And as he's doing so, Laura moves directly behind him in a position to see his cards. Would they be allowed to do that? I guess. Maybe.

I don't know. I I don't know how poker tables will set up.

Sarah: I guess they would. As long as it doesn't look like they're signaling the players in any way, I don't see why people can't watch. Right?

Eric: Yeah. It's just watching to be able to see their cards. That that seems a little odd. Anyway

Sarah: Well, I guess if if you're stupid enough to let others see your cards, then you're I don't know. Like like, they're just sitting there. Like, you think they'd they'd look at their cards and put them face down again so that nobody else can see them. Yep. But

Eric: Anyway, Jeffrey suggests that they make it even more interesting. He grabs chips and starts tossing them on the table, says he matches Johnny's 5 and then adds 15 more. And Lord gives Steelee a slightly panicked look. And Steelee, who is standing behind Johnny and can read his cards, gives her a grin. Johnny grins, taunting Jeffrey that he must finally have a hand he's proud of.

And we see that Johnny has a 7 with 4 kings, and apparently, 4 of a kind is the third strongest hand you can have in poker, right behind straight flesh, number 2, and a royal flesh, number 1.

Sarah: I didn't know that.

Eric: I didn't either. I had to look it up. Anyway, Steelee again gives Laura a confident grin. Johnny, responding to Jeffrey's bet, says, well, you only live once. So he tosses in 15 to match Jeffrey, then calls, asking Jeffrey what he's got.

Jeffrey grins, puts down his cards announcing 3 deuces. Johnny gives a pained look and then groans. Looking back at his card, he tells Jeffrey, can't beat him. He wins. Johnny tosses his cards down, telling Jeffrey, congratulations.

Steelee's stunned and confused.

Sarah: This must have hurt Steelee to watch. Like, it just must kill them to watch him do this.

Eric: And Laura, you know, having seen him grin, obviously knew that he was trying to suggest that Johnny had this thing as a walk. I'm looks sure of still, you know, perplexed and still just kinda is you're right. He's he's stunned. And as the onlookers begin applauding, Jeffrey stands and directs the dealer to cash him in. Well, you have another time jump.

It's still night, but we are now outside in an apartment building. The window on the 2nd Floor is dark, but then all white comes on inside. Out on the street, Laura and Steelee are in the limo. Great car to use to stake out a Right.

Sarah: Apartment. They think you'd they usually use the Rabbit because the Rabbit is the least conspicuous of their vehicles. Obviously, the Auburn is a bad idea too, but, yeah, the limo, not a good choice. You know,

Eric: they ought to get a dark colored car,

Sarah: you know, especially for night. Car.

Eric: Yeah. Crime car. Yeah.

Sarah: They got crime clothes. Crime car. That's right.

Eric: Anyway, Steelee, bow tie off, shirt unbuttoned, is leaning on his hands, frowning. Laura, playing with an earring, is also frowning, saying that she still can't understand what Johnny was doing in the casino in the first place. And Steelee sounds disgusted as he says he can't understand why Johnny folded with 4 kings. Laura says that the choices are either that Johnny's gambling skills leave something greatly to be desired or he's playing a game all of his own. Yeah.

Steelee says it doesn't make any sense. For 1 thing, where did he get the money? Laura ponders for a moment then concludes that they can definitely rule out Social Security. Steelee wonders why he's pretending to be this Jack Craig character. Why the charade?

And somewhere, someone noted that early in the series, Brosnan had pronounced the word charade and that in a later episode, he pronounced it charade. And supposedly, it's because the director insisted on it. If that's this episode, Don Weiss, you just lost a little bit of my respect.

Sarah: That's interesting because as a as a British person, you would say charade is is it's kind of like the difference between schedule and schedule or, you know, the the Scott Aluminum and aluminium. Oh, we we argue about that 1. But, like, Scott has He pronounces things differently from me because of where he's from, so it wouldn't it wouldn't make any sense for him to

Eric: be Suddenly I don't know. Yeah. Speaking Canadian. Yeah.

Sarah: It would feel weird to hear him. Like, it it did feel weird. I I actually thought, okay. Charade? Interesting.

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: Anyway, Laura doesn't have an answer admitting that, well, maybe the daughter's right. Maybe he isn't playing with the full deck after all. The light in the upper room goes out, prompting Steelee to comment that Johnny has obviously turned in for the evening and that they should do the same thing so that they can get a fresh start in the morning. He leans back, resting his head against the back seat, and closes his eyes. Suddenly, Laura grabs his arm and says, look.

And we see Johnny coming down the front stairs of the apartment dressed in a military style flying coat with patches on the shoulder and breast and a long scarf wrapped around his neck. He walks out to the street and as he turns to get into the sports car, we see him in the opening or as as he turns to get into the sports car, we see him at the opening in the in at the opening. No. I know what I'm trying to say here. We he gets into the sports car that we saw him in at the opening with the car chase.

Thank you. Finally got it. I may be crazy, but I know maybe I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Anyway Can

Sarah: I just I I just wanna point out 1 more thing here?

Eric: Just that I can't talk?

Sarah: No. No. No. Nothing to do with that. Laura's comment about maybe he's senile after all.

Maybe his daughter's right. I I don't know. I think they have enough data here to kinda go against that hypothesis. Yeah. Because, yes, he's acting weirdly, but I had grandparents that had dementia and and Alzheimer's.

I've seen the what it does, and it doesn't cause you to go gallivanting around to casinos and lose poker games. Like, that's not signs is of

Eric: senile type behavior.

Sarah: No. It it causes memory loss. Yes. Confusion. Like, for example, my grandmother, when she was in the thick of it Mhmm.

There she'd store bags of bread. She'd buy bread, store it in weird places, forget she stored it, and buy more bread. And, like, at 1 point, she had a kitchen full of bread, and some of it was going moldy because she had just forgotten she put it there. Like, that's Yeah. You know, it's it's quieter.

It's not quite so loud. Right? Like, especially men, apparently have, like, different symptoms. And I so I looked them up, and men ex may may no. I can't talk.

Specific symptoms like profound social withdrawal, which he's definitely not withdrawing socially. Trouble with spatial awareness. That man can drive like nobody's business. Yep. Right?

So and like visual vivid dreams, hallucinations, sleep disturbances, increased agitation, irritability, or anger that seems out of character, losing interest in hobbies, disengaging from work, social activities. The only 1 that he maybe does fit the only box he maybe ticks here is making poor financial decisions. Mhmm. But, like, that's it. Like, the rest of it is not really fitting with with senility or or dementia.

Like, it Right. What he's

Eric: doing is behavior that is out of character, but it is not irrational behavior. No. And that's that's really kind of the defining aspect of dementia is that they're doing things that is irrational. It may seem rational to them, but to outside observers, it's irrational. But it's caught up got going here.

Sarah: Right? Getting lost in familiar places, misjudging distances, struggling with driving is listed on here. Mhmm. Forgetting recent events, names, asking the same questions repeatedly. My grandmother would ask us the same thing over and over again.

That's not what's going on here. He seems sharp as a tack. He's just doing weird stuff. So yeah. I don't know.

I I I guess Laura and Steelee don't really have a lot of familiarity with dementia because Laura comes to that conclusion herself, but it it seems to me that they could be they should be able to rule that out by this point.

Eric: Yeah. Anyway, as Johnny is getting into the sports car, we see on the back of his flight jacket a large painted marking on the back featuring a 19 forties US flag, a 19 forties blue sky white sun, and holy red earth Republic Of China flag across the top, a combined Chinese Sun, US stars and bars shield on the lower left, and Chinese words on the lower right portion. And this is the first visual clue that we have that this episode is referencing the famed World War 2 AVG, Flying Tigers. The markings on this jacket are not, from what I can find, an accurate representation of the jacket markings used by the Flying Tigers, but they're definitely meant to evoke them.

Sarah: I was gonna say they probably couldn't for, like, legal reasons.

Eric: When I say it's not accurate representation, I know what the the real 1 looks like. I don't find anything official that mimics this look. You can buy this look on jackets, but they're all Yeah. Modern modern productions. However, I will say that the star the sun stars and bar shield does appear to be consistent with the patch used by the flying tigers, but the the overall markings on the on the back don't.

On the back of the true flying tigers, which was called the bloodshed, it featured a large Chinese flag across the top. And below that, Chinese characters reading, this foreign person has come to China to help in the war effort. Soldiers and civilians, 1 and all, should rescue and protect him. And although it's difficult, almost impossible to read the characters on the chin or the back of the jackets in the episode here and elsewhere when some of the other characters are wearing them, from what little I can spot and kind of match, it does appear that it might be the actual lettering from the original bloodshed. So even though it's not an accurate reproduction of what the Flying Tigers wore, it does seem to at least the the text on the back Right.

Does seem to suggest there there's enough I can see there to suggest that it might be an accurate reproduction of that portion of it. Yeah. And then like I said, the the shield is is an accurate representation of the original. Anyway, as Johnny's getting in the cars and Steelee and Laura watching, Steelee asks Insomnia? And almost more to himself than Laura, he instructs the friend of the day not to lose him.

Yeah. They follow Johnny to the airport where there are

Sarah: Another reason why they shouldn't bring that limo is the, like, several point

Eric: turn that Fred

Sarah: has to do in order to follow him.

Eric: Well, they follow Johnny to an airport where there are at least 4 p 40 Warhawks vintage warplanes sitting there in an array of markings parked side by side, and Johnny is in 1 wearing a leather flight helmet and goggles and the propeller is turning. He lowers his goggles over his eyes, closes the canopy, and then taxis out. The agency limo pulls up. Steelee and Laura, still dressed to kill, get out and watch as the plane takes off into a slight continuity error. The shots of the plane taking off are either at late sunset or early sunrise, not in the middle of the night as the timeline of the episode has it.

Minor detail. Oh, well. You use what you've got. Anyway, as Steelee and Laura watch the plane recede into the distance, Laura says, well, that settles it. He's out of his mind.

I'm sorry. If you're out of your mind, you're probably not gonna be successfully flying a plane.

Sarah: Yeah. That's the thing. Like, cognitively, he wouldn't be able to Yeah. There are certain

Eric: there are certain things that you can you can do by rote when you're having, you know, mental health issues. Flying a plane, I don't think is 1 of them. Although, now that I've said that, I wanna pull back on that a little bit. Glenn Campbell had dementia in his his final years. And I guess in his day to day life, it was pretty apparent.

But once he got out on stage, he could he could still play that guitar and sing like nobody's business. Now he still had trouble Yeah. Sometimes remembering lyrics or repeating a song. But as far as as his guitar playing, the the the the the

Sarah: Muscle memory.

Eric: Muscle memory. Yeah. I mean, was all there. It was just it wasn't it was he he he was diminished simply by his age and his ability to move his fingers as quickly as he used to when he was younger, but but it was still all there. So

Sarah: I'm not saying you wouldn't like, because, again, we know with Alzheimer's and things like that that they have actually their short term memory declines, but their long term memory stays a little bit longer. Right? Because they can remember back to things. They just can't place where they are in that timeline, and they have difficulty with. So, like, he I'm not saying he wouldn't be able to fly, but he would have difficult because like it says in the thing that, like, you know, they have trouble with spatial awareness, and there's difficulty with distances.

And and it's a good chance that even if he remembered how to fly the plane, that

Eric: Mechanically, muscle memory.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. There'd be some issues with that. And, like, if you look at Bruce Willis, unfortunately, he is suffering from frontal temple frontal temporal dementia, and has had to retire from acting. And if you see some of the films that he did in the last few years prior to that happening, you can see it.

There there was 1 that we watched. It was a terrible movie just in general. I think it was called Breach. It was a really terrible sci fi movie, but he I was reading the trivia on it, it said that basically and you can see he's got an earpiece in his ear. They were just feeding him the lines because he couldn't like, and he didn't know where he was some of the time, and he didn't know what he was doing.

And so if, you know, he was just kind of like, and you can see he's kind of walking through the role, and it was really quite painful to watch because he's a good he was a good actor, you know? So, like, I don't think Johnny would be this adept at doing all this stuff. No. Yeah.

Eric: Anyway, back at the office the next day, their client, miss Cooper, is despondent but accepting. She says she's got no other choice. She's got to put him in a home. Laura suggests

Sarah: It's a weird conclusion to come to. Obviously, they've

Eric: had this long conversation about what they saw and what he's been doing. Yeah. And so her her conclusion seems to be based on what they have told her. But now Laura backtracks and says, well, you know, your father may not be as unstable as you think he is. And she says, well, how else do you explain his crazy behavior?

After all, they saw it themselves. He's cracked. There's no other possible explanation.

Sarah: This is another thing that bothers me because he's clearly able to still care for himself. You only put somebody in a home if they're no longer able to care for themselves, and you can't care for them for whatever reason. Right? There's no there's no shame in that. It's just like if they can't feed themselves, if they can't get upstairs, if they're having difficulty with certain appliances or remembering not to turn on turn the oven off or whatever, then yes, because it's a safety issue, but he's done nothing here to suggest that he's a danger to himself as other than spending his money stupidly.

But we you can do that at the age of 24. Like, that's

Eric: not Well, I was gonna say, and I'm gonna bring up 2 points. First of all, yes, you don't have to be old and senile to forget to leave the, to to leave

Sarah: That's a good point. My husband does some of the ones. Forgets to turn the burners off.

Eric: And and burn up a a pan. I I mean, I'm not gonna point any fingers, but I know somebody who did that.

Sarah: Yeah. I bet you do.

Eric: And I I can't go any farther with that because I I don't wanna sleep in the doghouse tonight. And and then the other thing is that from what I've seen, family is usually 1 of the last people to accept. That their aged relatives are incapable. Yeah. For sure.

Know, again, I don't wanna I I don't wanna have to sleep in the doghouse tonight, but my wife have constantly I mean, they've been really reluctant to acknowledge this the the the emotional and mental and physical condition of my father-in-law. And they were constantly he's, you know, he's he's doing better than well, he's doing better than they expected. Yes. But there was always this lag where I was saying, look, this is this is not good. No.

No. No. It's it's it's not that bad. It's not that bad. And then finally, you know, they finally get to the point where they, okay.

Yeah. I guess it is that bad. So Yeah. I I would say, historically, family is the last person to to believe it. So why is miss Cooper jumping to the conclusion here?

I don't know.

Sarah: Yeah. It was similar my grandfather.

Eric: Her head with stories, and so she's just accepted the stories rather than the the the actual evidence.

Sarah: She doesn't seem like the type of character that's e because you know how there's some characters that just in the

Eric: show that he's parents and they're

Sarah: gonna get rid of them. But this doesn't seem she seems genuinely worried about him, and she's just yeah. Because she's she's take she takes pride in like, later on when they are in his apartment, and she's quite proud of him. So it's not like she wants him to be. But and and it's weird because, you know, like I said, with my grandmother, my dad was having me go over there constantly to make sure that, like I said, she wasn't putting things like bread in the in the oven or doing things that were dangerous.

And and we were all like, oh, maybe she shouldn't be, like, maybe By herself anymore. You know? And she lost her license because at 80, I think it is 80 or something like that, you have to retest for your license. And she, had cataracts, and and so she had to get the surgery. And then after that, she had to redo the test, and that's a written test as well.

And I remember her studying for it and calling up my dad and saying, there's all these questions about the highway. I don't drive on the highway. And my dad was like, well, you still have to answer the question. She's like, well, can't there be a special test for people who don't drive on the highway? And my dad trying to, like, explain, no.

Thankfully, she failed the test because she really shouldn't have been behind the wheel, but that's, like, again, a sign. If you're not able to yeah. So I don't know.

Eric: Yeah. And and see, you know, I'm still dealing with that same sort of thing with my wife. The it they took it took them longer to take his driver's license away than it should have. He still is allowed to do certain woodshop things that I don't think he should be allowed to do. But he's not my dad, so I can't really push it too far.

Yeah. But I'm looking at it and saying, he shouldn't he shouldn't be doing that. And

Sarah: This guy's out there flying planes. Like, Yeah.

Eric: This guy this guy's out there flying planes, so not really the same thing. Yeah.

Sarah: No. No.

Eric: Anyway, back into the episode, Steelee hesitantly suggests to miss Cooper that they think that there may be a method to his madness. And, course, she doesn't understand what they're saying. Laura suggests that, well, you know, there may be a certain pattern to his actions. They just have to figure out what it is. The phone rings, Laura picks it up, and it's Mildred.

She's checking in reporting that he's leaving and she's on his tail, referring to Johnny. Laura

Sarah: tells Mildred. Her

Eric: Keep them posted. Yep. As Laura hangs up, miss Cooper expresses confusion. Well, first, they tell her about all the batty things her dad has done, and then they turn around and tell her that they think he may be perfectly normal. How is she supposed to know what's going on when, obviously, you don't know what's going on, and how is she supposed to know what he's up to?

And Steelee inappropriately puts his arm around her. Obviously, he's intending to as a comforting It's be charming. It's not appropriate. I'm sorry. Steelee, in response to her question, says that, you know, it might be helpful to them if she could let him into Johnny's flat.

Well, at Johnny's apartment, we see Laura admiring a medal as miss Cooper tells them. He's lived here for 10 years ever since mom died. Dad had devoted his entire life to the air force and became brigadier general before retiring. Laura, pointing at the medal in her hand, asks if this is really the distinguished flying cross. And miss Cooper confirms saying that Ike himself awarded that to my dad.

Well, his entire squadron got 1. Okay. I'm I'm gonna throw a flag on that play because first of all, as far as I know and have been able to find out, very few of the pilots from the AVG flying tigers flew in the European theater, which is where Dwight d Eisenhower operated as the commander of the allied forces. So if they were in the Pacific, Ike would have had nothing to do with that. Second, James h Howard is the only pilot from the AVG who I find referenced as having flown both China and European theater.

He was a double a, 6 kills in China, 6 in Europe, and he was awarded the distinguished flying cross, but I didn't find anything to indicate that Eisenhower personally awarded that to Howard. And as far as I've been able to find, no entire unit has ever been awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses. And quite frankly, I'd have been surprised if I had find any reference to it because that is an individual award, not a unit citation. So to say that the entire unit got 1, it's like, Brad, you didn't do your research on that 1, I don't think, putty. I mean, it sounds good, but

Sarah: I don't know how to tell you this, but this is fiction. So they they could just make this up. I'm just kidding. If you're but you have to keep it based in reality.

Eric: Know. I Nobody nobody can point to where somebody an entire unit got a DFC. I'm sorry. It just doesn't happen.

Sarah: As somebody who doesn't know the intricate history of it, I bought it, so I guess they're kind of banking on that.

Eric: I'm sorry. I'm just

Sarah: I get it. I get it. If you were you saw how I got angry about the convention episode, the Atomic Man convention episode. So I I I'm I get it. Just trying to interject some levity here.

Yeah.

Eric: What can I say? I I am I I have a special place in my heart for World War 2 and and World War 2 aviation combat. And and so I I I really yes. I take it seriously.

Sarah: I mean, me too. I love seeing Snoopy go after all the

Eric: you know? That was World War 1.

Sarah: 0, fine. Whatever.

Eric: Anyway, Laura respects respectfully calls Johnny a real hero. Miss Cooper chuckles saying that he'd never admit it. According to him, he was just doing his job, And that is very consistent with most of the pilots. Most most military people, you know, from World War 2 and such, they they may have come home with a lot of awards. But generally, when you talk to them about it, it's just you know, I just I I was just doing what I was supposed to do.

Sarah: Well, they come home with a lot of awards, but they also come home with a lot of trauma. So I Yeah. Maybe the word hero is 1 that might brush up against some of that trauma. Because I know for a fact my grandfather who fought in Korea never drove because he hit a a child over there. Oh.

Jumped in front of his car unintentionally because that was what a lot of them would do to try to, like, get a foot run over or something, get money from the military. But, yeah, he got medals. He had tons of medals, but he also didn't talk about it. So yeah.

Eric: And and in some cases, not talking about it being humble is their way of deflecting the conversation so they don't have to talk about it. But I think generally speaking, most of the people that got medals like this, they their attitude was genuinely look. I was just doing my job. You know?

Sarah: Well, because it I I think and, I've never been in this position, but you you're under you're given orders that essentially are are going to result in people's deaths. Yeah. You're being ordered to kill they're they're they're the enemy. They're that's what you're there for. So I don't know.

I think maybe they don't wanna romanticize that. It's a job. I was given a job. I did the job. I don't want I if I were them, I wouldn't wanna take pride in not take pride because, like, they're doing what they're doing for their country, and there is some pride in that.

But I don't know if I would wanna be calling myself a hero for it. I don't know. I just that's kind of where I would draw the distinction, and I think maybe that's where they do as well.

Eric: But I Yeah. Because they didn't feel like heroes when they were doing it.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. You probably don't I can't imagine you would. Right? You're you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, and and you you're doing it obviously because you feel it's necessary and it's worth it.

Eric: So A lot of times, you're just doing it almost on instinct. Yeah. I I I remember hearing a story once about a sailor, and he actually lost an award because somebody had fallen off the side of the ship. I don't remember the details, but somebody had fallen off the side of a ship or or something, and he jumped into the ocean to save this person because they unable to save themselves. And it came down to, did he think about what he was doing before he did Was he afraid to do it when he did it?

And he said, I just did it because Yeah. I saw it saw him go

Sarah: over it. So it happened. Exactly.

Eric: And so because he didn't confront the fear and the the possibility of his own death before he did it, he lost an award. And from what I recall, he was like, okay. I'm I'm fine with that because I just did what I had to do.

Sarah: Exactly.

Eric: Anyway, Laura puts the metal back on the mantle, then she spots a photograph. As this is going on, Steelee surreptitiously moves off into another room. Almiss Cooper is telling Laura about the photo. It's a photo of Johnny's old squadron, the men who are still left meet once a month and fly those beat up old planes as she labels them.

Sarah: They looked pretty not beat up to me. They looked like they were in pretty good shape.

Eric: Yeah. Well, yes. Unfortunately, a lot of those that are still in really good shape have a tendency to to crash as evidenced by some of the airshow disasters that have occurred over the decades. Anyway, she she says that it happens a little bit too often for her tastes, And she points to 1 of the men in the photo and identifies him as Chuck Surtas, dad's friend that she had told them about, the 1 that died in the plane crash, Larkinfirms. And I I wanna say here that the photo that they used here was a modified version of an original Flying Tiger's photo.

Oh, cool. They took out the the shark mouth and eyes marking off the sides of the

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Nose of the plane. And there was a slightly risque woman angel that was airbrushed out. It is a genuine photo from the flying tigers. So

Sarah: imagine they have to do that for legal reasons. It's because I know, for example, if you're filming a like, making a movie and you're using the military and you wanna use, like, military locations and stuff like that, you have to get permission as well. You know what I mean? So they probably had to get legal permission to if they wanted to have the full logo. But

Eric: I I appreciate the fact that they used an actual photo.

Sarah: So anyway That's kinda cool.

Eric: Laura points to 1 of the other men in the photo saying that that looks a little bit like a young, and miss Cooper finishes, Duncan Harlow. Astounded, Laura asks, that really is Duncan Harlow? How is she supposed to know who Duncan Harlow is? And, I mean, there's been nothing in the episode or the series up to this point which references him as a person of any importance, and I can't see that he would be anybody that Laura would know about.

Sarah: She seems to have an interest in military history, and maybe she had a a grandparent that was in the military or that fought in World War 2. Like, there we don't know what her background is with that, so she could you know, maybe she has

Eric: Yeah. I I I just I wish that when they do things like this, they would have something that they could point to in the past that sets it up rather than saying, oh, yeah. I've known this person for years. What? Like, my dad

Sarah: never mentioned about him or yeah. Something like that. But I don't know. I I I guess for me, I guess it's just 1 of those things where I figured if it was somebody that was local that was in the war that probably people just knew about it because it was part of local history, local knowledge. And we have that here with, like, the Newfoundlanders and, you know, a lot of our military.

So I don't know. That was just my assumption.

Eric: Well, anyway, miss Cooper says that Duncan got the idea for his air freight service from flying with Chuck and her father during the war. Flying Aces air freight, Laura says. And, again, we have a nod to reality here because former Flying Tigers pilot Robert Prescott and Robert Hedman founded the Flying Tiger line, which was the first scheduled cargo airline in America. Originally founded as National Skyways freight, they officially changed their name to Flying Tiger line in 1947. They carried air freight through on contract throughout The US.

And as the airline expanded, they carried supplies to US troops under general Douglas MacArthur during the occupation of Japan. And in the late forties or early fifties, the company began chartering passenger aircraft for group travels as well. They continued operation transitioning from piston to aircraft powered by jets, becoming known for carrying a number of unique cargoes, including thoroughbred racehorses and show animals from Stansted, England to the Melbourne Cup, milk supply breeding stock cattle for such nations as Japan and Thailand, Shamu, the SeaWorld killer whale, and the torch for the Statue Of Liberty. During the mid eighties, Flying Tiger operated a scheduled cargo service to 6 continents, served 58 countries, and surpassed Pan American World Airways as the world's largest air cargo carrier. After the airline deregulation stiff competition buffeted their profits and other financial challenges all began to take their toll with the airline sustaining losses in 1981.

Then CEO Stephen Wolf sold Flying Tigers to Federal Express in December 1988. And in 1989, Federal Express merged Flying Tigers into its operation. However, there is no evidence or even hint that Flying Tiger Line was ever involved in anything illegal or otherwise questionable, unlike the Flying Asus airfreight in this episode.

Sarah: Yeah. That's we we've got a lot of stuff going on here for sure.

Eric: Anyway, from the backroom, Steelee calls to Laura. Miss Cooper takes the photo from Laura and returns it to the mantle, except it's not the same photo.

Sarah: Oh, I didn't even notice that.

Eric: Photo she returns to the mantle is of a b 17 and its crew, which is a 4 engine bomber, not a single engine fighter. How could they screw that up?

Sarah: That's impressive. That is impressive.

Eric: What do you wanna be when you grow up? I I I don't wanna be a fighter anymore. I wanna be a foreign engine bomber. Yeah. Anyway, Laura walks into a room full of photo developing paraphernalia and prints hanging from a line.

Steelee is examining the photos as Laura asks what all this is. Steelee, continuing his close examination of the photos, says that he suspects that all this explains Johnny's impulsive jaunt into the wild blue yonder. He grabs some of the prints from the counter, hands them to her, and tells her that they are photographs of the J. Murphy Museum taken from every conceivable angle.

Sarah: Okay.

Eric: Why museum?

Sarah: I looked this place up because I wondered if it was real. I can't find any evidence that there is a Jay Murphy Museum anywhere in LA or anywhere else. I found

Eric: Not a surprise.

Sarah: A LT Michael p Murphy Navy Seal Museum, which is in West Sayville, New York on Long Island. Found Probably not

Eric: the same place.

Sarah: No. Of a, place called the Francis p Murphy Museum, which is apparently New Hampshire, but there is no j Murphy. Now here's the thing. I went and checked IMDB just now because I thought, well, maybe they have some because you know how sometimes they give the trivia? And I thought, you know what?

I should have checked here first, but maybe there's some reference to it or or try to because I it's interesting that this building has Jay Murphy Museum on it, and there's no person that I can find named Jay Murphy. So I wondered where they got that name from. So I was looking to see if the trivia had anything in here. And, apparently, James Stewart was originally scheduled to play the role of Johnny Cooper. So I I came across this looking for something else, but apparently, Stewart reportedly took ill at the last minute.

It was replaced by Andrew Duggan or Dugan. Johnny Cooper is a former World War 2 bomber pilot recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was also true of Stewart. In addition to a scene where Johnny takes Steele Secretary Mildred to to a movie, 2 posters outside the theater advertise the 1983 reissue of Stewart's movie, The Man Who Knew Too Much. So, yeah, apparently, it was supposed to be played by James Stewart, and that's why they yeah. Interesting.

Eric: Oh, you know, it would have been weird for for them to have him in the episode and then have the posters there. So I'm wondering have you have just read

Sarah: that Yeah. Just tell me there

Eric: were kind of a reference to the fact that Yeah. Hey. You know, Jimmy was supposed to do this, but we got him in the episode anyway.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, I can't I still can't find the Jay Murphy connection. I have no idea who Jay Murphy is supposed to be, but that is an interesting little tidbit that I dug up just now. Interesting.

It'd

Eric: be interesting to to find out what the actual physical location that they used is because, obviously, they changed the the the markings on the side of the building physically changed

Sarah: things completely. Say here, because there was something about a building down at the bottom, and I didn't read it because I wasn't nope. Never mind. It was about Bedard. So yeah.

No. I don't know what this building is supposed to be, and that was kinda what I was curious about because, usually, if they are going into a museum, they use a real museum, or at least they say the name of like, they might use the exterior and then film it somewhere else, but this is just a random Jay Murphy. Who's that? No idea.

Eric: Anyway, Laura asks, why a museum? Points to the photos that are still hanging drying on the line. And when Laura asks what they are, Steelee explains that they are aerial photographs taken with heat sensitive film at 5 minute intervals. Very sophisticated. He sighs and then, as an aside, ponders what he could have accomplished with half of this equipment.

Boggles the mind. And worth

Sarah: This is just 1 of those moments where he's like, oh, man. If I'd had this, how many heists could I have pulled off? It's just like 1 of those he's wistful. You know? He's Yeah.

Wistfully thinking of, like, all the crime he could've done. Yeah.

Eric: Oh, and, of course, Laura snaps her head around and gives him a look like, what?

Sarah: Yeah. No. No. Never mind. Never mind.

It wasn't. You know, it's just

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: Just kidding, Laura. Yeah.

Eric: Laura doesn't understand why Johnny would want the photos. And, I mean, seriously, she can't figure that out? Dude. Come on. You're a detective.

Sarah: Not only is she a detective, how long has she been working with Steelee? Mhmm. She should be able to recognize a heist.

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: Like like that. Like, it should be second nature to her.

Eric: Yes. Well, Steelee has to spell it out. He observes that the photos appear to be tracking the movements of the red blotches, security guards, he would guess. And Laura, still not getting it, asks, a museum, time photograph, security guards, and with a malicious green Steele tells her that Johnny is planning a heist.

Sarah: And here's where the admiration comes into. He's like, he's he's about this. He's just like, good for him. You know? Like, there's now it's not, oh, I guess he's senile.

Now it's like, oh, man. I want in on this. Like, that's good good for you, dude. Right? Way to go.

Eric: Yep. That's exactly it. It was like, oh, Johnny, if this was a few years back, buddy, I'd be right there with you.

Sarah: Yeah. We've seen him admire the craft. We saw, like, when they met Lupinard, and he was all, like, you know, in awe of the fox.

Eric: That's

Sarah: right. Now he's now he's seeing that Johnny is, let's say, in the trade as well and and quite admiring his, his skill and, like, what he's doing because this is actually quite smart. Yes. Taking these pictures, like heat sensitive aerial photos, that's really smart. And

Eric: and the way he's covered it too. Yeah. Cover story. Anyway, next, we see that Mildred has been following Johnny, but she hasn't been very discreet

Sarah: for 1 thing. Look at that dress. Come on, Mildred. I mean, here's the thing. I think Mildred looks fantastic this season.

They've got her in some really bold colors. I know she usually just wears these long dresses that are kind of, like, shapeless, but they're

Eric: Yeah. Brown.

Sarah: Yeah. Like, this time, we've got a nice big bright red dress, which is gorgeous, except when you're trying to follow somebody.

Eric: Yep. Yep. You don't wanna do that. No. But, I mean, beyond that, I mean, here she is walking parallel to him on the other side of the street and openly staring at him.

You might as well be carrying a sign that says, I'm following you.

Sarah: It's it's like very cartoonish, like something out of you know, like creeping along. You know? Mhmm.

Eric: Yeah. And, of course, Johnny has spotted her. Probably almost did immediately. As he walks along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street from Mildred, he stops in front of a store and seems to be looking through the large display window. But in reality, he is of course looking at the reflection of Mildred on the other side of the street staring directly at him.

So he turns back around, grins, looks her way, and then proceeds to cross the street in her direction. As he approaches, she panics, turns to the newsstand next to her, grabs the newspaper, holding it up too high in order to try to hide her face, then begins to pretend to read it. The only thing that would have made

Sarah: this more perfect is if it was upside down.

Eric: Anyway, as he reaches her, he says that he hates to see anybody ruin a perfectly beautiful day like today by following an old man all around town, and she tries to pretend that she doesn't know what he's talking about. Glancing around, she spots the movie theater and then tries to make the excuse that, oh, she just came to see the movie. Johnny says, well, isn't that a coincidence? So did he. So maybe they should go see it together, and he'll pay.

Sarah: She's only 2 years younger than him, like, the actor. Mhmm. She was born in 1925, and he was born in 1923. So I don't I I guess they're trying to make him older than he is in this episode because they've said he's 70. They've they've kind of been like, and Mildred has, I think, indicated she's supposed to be in her fifties.

Mhmm. But he's not really an old man relative to her. He's 2 years older than her. So it's Yeah.

Eric: Kinda fun. Yeah. That's that's Hollywood. They do that kind of thing. Yeah.

Sarah: Know? Mildred does seem a little more youthful than her actual physical age would suggest. Yeah. But still, it's kind of funny that they're that even she's calling him an old man when they're pretty much the same age.

Eric: Well, Mildred tries to make the excuse that, well, she couldn't possibly go to the movie. And then realizing what she just said and

Sarah: what she'd said just before that, she's, oh, no. Wait. I couldn't go see the movie

Eric: with a stranger. Johnny says, well, then let's let's get better acquainted. And he introduces himself. And Mildred introduces herself back, and he takes her to the ticket window, requests 2 tickets, and gotta say, doesn't seem like much of a theater if it only has 1 film showing.

Sarah: Well and also, it's kind of funny because we see these scenes all the time where people walk into a a movie, and the movie's already playing and clearly has been already playing for some time. And I think, what psychopath just walks into a movie that's already started? I don't know. I am the kind of person that, like, I have to get there, like, half an hour before the movie starts. I have to be in my seat.

I have to have all my stuff, all my snacks ready to go. I like to see the trailers. I like to see the stuff ahead of time. Mhmm. I don't like if I'm 5 minutes late and I'm gonna miss the actual movie, I don't even wanna go.

Like, I don't wanna be you know?

Eric: Now see, I hate the trailers. I absolutely detest them, but you're right. I don't I don't like walking in after it's already started.

Sarah: Yeah. So Yeah. I don't I I

Eric: yeah. I'm usually there 15 minutes early at least. Let me let me clarify. When I had gone to see movies in the past, I mean, it's been I I take I I went and saw I went and saw never never never give up, never surrender, which is

Sarah: the documentary the the documentaries for the Galaxy Quest. Yeah.

Eric: I saw that in the theater a couple years ago. Prior to that, my son-in-law and daughter took us to see 1 of the Spider Man movies. You know, this is like 5, 7 years ago.

Sarah: Oh, okay.

Eric: But, I mean, in the last probably 30 years, that's it. That I can remember. I haven't gone to see a movie, but when I did, I always had to be there early enough that I didn't miss the beginning. I hated the hated the trailers, but

Sarah: I love trailers. To be there.

Eric: Had to be there. Yeah. Couldn't I be like

Sarah: I gotcha. It's just weird to walk into a movie. It's already playing, and it looks like it's quite, like, in far into the movie. It's not even like they're just at the because even if she walked in and it was like the credits no. No.

That movie has started.

Eric: Yeah. Which which blows her whole story. But, anyway

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Inside at the snack bar, Mildred has a box of soda or has a box of soda has a box with a soda and a large tub of popcorn onto which she is shaking salt. Quite a bit of salt, would say.

Sarah: That's

Eric: Nothing wrong with salt. Contrary to popular belief, it does not cause high blood pressure.

Sarah: It's a crime against popcorn, though. You put butter on popcorn, you don't douse it with salt. Anyway

Eric: Popcorn is a crime unto itself. With with toffee, like the

Sarah: Not that candy Candy.

Eric: Not the Jack in the Box. Not the the Cracker Jack, but

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: To yeah. The the toffee covered. Yes. Those are those are fine, but other than that, popcorn's a crime. Anyway, where was I?

Yes. As she's as she's bathing the popcorn in salt, she's asking Johnny if, you know, hypothetically, if she had been following him. And she's not saying she was following him, but if she was, and that's a big if,

Sarah: what would have tipped him off?

Eric: He says, well, he's no expert, but if she's asking, maybe what she's wearing is a little too bright. You'd think you'd wanna blend in a little bit more. She admits, that's a good point, but it looks good on her, he compliments. Walk through

Sarah: the door The operator.

Eric: Yep. They walk through the doors into the darkened theater, and as she's walking down the aisle, she admits she hasn't been to a matinee in years. She stops at a row about halfway down and asks, how's this? Is this too close, Johnny? She turns to face him only to realize that there's no Johnny.

She's been talking to herself.

Sarah: Yep. She quickly goes bought her popcorn and all the snacks. True. Right? Like, he's a gentleman.

He's gonna

Eric: That's $25 right there just for the tub of popcorn and the soda.

Sarah: Exactly. And then his ticket, which he didn't even go and and see the movie. So he's he's he's always giving her something for her trouble. You know? Yeah.

Eric: It's nice. Well, she she goes quickly back up the aisle and exits, and outside, she looks around for Johnny. No Johnny. She spots a cab and runs over and gets into it. Behind her, as the cab pulls away, Johnny peers out from around the corner of the building.

And when the coast is clear, he runs over to the next cabin line, gets in in a rush, telling the driver, that's my daughter in that cab. I've been looking for her for 30 years. Let's not lose her now. Okay? Really a believable story.

Sarah: Know you drive, like, rideshare, and I'm curious. Has anyone ever got into your car and said something like, follow that car for any reason? Has have you ever had to, like, follow somebody?

Eric: Because that's not how rideshare works.

Sarah: I I have had people

Eric: I have had people get in and ask what I consider to be the dumbest question

Sarah: anybody using a rideshare app could ask. And that is, what

Eric: did I put down as my destination?

Sarah: Oh, no. Really?

Eric: Yeah. And they were not drunk. Was gonna say, were they drunk?

Sarah: That was gonna be the next question. No. No.

Eric: I mean Wow. People are so lazy and sloppy using these things. They put in the wrong address for their destination. They put in their wrong address for the pickup location.

Sarah: Wow. It's like okay. You

Eric: know? And you'd think you would at least know where you live.

Sarah: Or where you're going.

Eric: Well, a lot of times it's where they live is where they're going, and they

Sarah: still get it wrong. Fair enough.

Eric: Yeah. Anyway and what is it about movie theaters and and the Remington Steelee Investigation Agency? They have more trouble losing They really do. Yeah.

Sarah: I've been

Eric: Suspects in theaters.

Sarah: You're right. Actually, I didn't realize that, but Steelee lost that 1 woman in in Mhmm. Oh, with Murphy. Yeah. I can't remember the episode.

It's the title of this game.

Eric: The Yakuza episode. Yes.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. And then there's the the Orson Welles, his Ireland episode, and and Mhmm. Like yeah. They movie theaters.

It's their kryptonite.

Eric: Anyway, next, we see Laura and Steelee examining the pictures from Johnny's apartment. Steelee notes that it appears that Johnny is concentrating on 1 specific wing of the museum. Laura says that she can't believe that Johnny's planning to rob the J. Murphy museum. Steelee tells her, hey.

A picture is worth 1000 words. Telling her that the thousands of words that these pictures are speaking are synonymous with the word burglary.

Sarah: I I like that line. That's a good line.

Eric: What could be his motive, she asks? Going in style, George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg, Warner Brothers, 1979, 3 senior citizens bored with their golden years, plan to rob a bank purely for the excitement of it all. I believe this is the movie that George Burns stepped in and took over for Jack Benny because of his health. Anyway, I just say that because everything Jack Benny. That's what he needs to know.

Okay. The greatest funny man comedy comedian guy of all time, people have been imitating him and Jerry Lewis. People have modern comics have been imitating those 2 people for years. Johnny Carson stole Jack Benny. He he was a huge fan of Jack Benny growing up, and he admits or he admitted openly that his comedy style was inspired by Jack Benny.

Anyway, Laura asks if the going in style crew were successful robbing the bank. And Steelee says, well, yes and no. It's just robbing the bank, but 2

Sarah: of them eventually died of the excitement.

Eric: Laura hopes that for Johnny's sake, doesn't imitate art. Steelee suggests that they pay him a visit to the museum and check out what Johnny's after. Laura smiles and says that she's always in the mood for a little art appreciation. It's like

Sarah: Yeah. Well, don't know. Can I

Eric: take you back to my place and show you my etchings?

Sarah: Yeah. Well, going to a museum with Steele seems a little bit like taking an alcoholic to a bar. You know? There's always that rush There's in the always that too.

Eric: Anyway, so they head out of the office into the reception, and as they do, Mildred is coming in, and she doesn't look very happy. Steelee asks where Johnny is, and she shrugs her shoulders and frowns and then admits that she lost him. And Laura, somewhat understandably, but not necessarily appropriately sarcastically asks, what did he do? Outrun you?

Sarah: I don't know. This seems to me affectionate teasing, like, a little bit of ribbing because Mildred was kinda snarky earlier with her, so Laura's sort of getting 1 back. I like it.

Eric: Well, it's it's definitely it's definitely snarky.

Sarah: Yes. Yeah. It definitely But it doesn't seem to be malicious. I think she was just kind of like, you know how when you affectionately tease your friends. Right?

Eric: It kinda was a little bit.

Sarah: I don't know. Like, it to me, it felt I don't know. Like, they're family, and and Mildred was snarky, so Laura's getting snarky back, but I don't think it was I don't know. It felt funny and familiar to me, not mean. It was good.

I liked felt a little mean

Eric: to me. But okay. Anyway, Mildred points out to Laura. Touche, she says, and she shrugs and confesses that, well,

Sarah: he faked her out. And she says, I didn't think an old geezer like that would put the moves on me like he did.

Eric: I'm thinking, seriously, after all the guys that have hit on her in the past couple of years

Sarah: She's had

Eric: a good run. Yeah. And she's surprised that 1 of them would do that to distract her from her job.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: I mean Yeah. Like And the thing is it works because guys have been hitting on her. So why should she quit on it?

Sarah: She like, it's even young too because, I mean, you've got superman Steele with the the 3, like, Japanese men. You've got Steelee Inc.

Eric: The wrestling?

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. The wrestler? Yeah. Anyway She know

Eric: Steelee is understanding and forgiving, I think, far more than Laura, and he tells Mildred not to lose any sleep over it. After all, she's not the only 1 who estimated him or underestimated him. And then we see them leave office, and then the camera pans down the hall to the corner where we see Johnny peering around, leave watching them as they leave. And he steps out from behind the corner and a bush approaches the door, though without moving in front of it to where he might be seen by anyone inside. And he reads the lettering on the door.

Remington Steelee Investigations. Next, we see a payphone on the nearby street. Johnny drops a coin into the slot, punches a number into the keypad, waits for the person on the other end, and then speaks into the phone. Plans have changed. We're on tonight.

Lauren Steelee at the j p j p j p

Sarah: Murphy. JP Morgan? JP Murphy.

Eric: That's where I was going. I don't know why. I don't know why. They're at the J. Murphy museum, and they're standing in front of a placard that reads, the Jay Murphy Museum presents Duncan Harlow's private collection.

And Steelee murmurs that this case is getting more bizarre by the minute. Laura admits that she doesn't get it. Johnny and Duncan Harlow were old war buddies. Steelee concludes that the evidence seems to suggest that maybe their camaraderie is a tad tainted. Laura dismissively asks why he thinks Johnny's plans are stealing his old friends' paintings.

And as she's saying this though, they spot Johnny strolling through the wing that holds the collection and then headed out to a back doorway and a hallway toward an exit. And Steelee says, well, let's just go ask Johnny himself. Lauren Steelee followed Johnny outside just in time to see him pull away in his sports car. They run to the Auburn, which is parked nearby, and begin to follow. It's a good thing Johnny doesn't make it a chase because as we've seen before and discussed before, the Auburn, despite its pedigree and reputation Yeah.

Would likely fall significantly short of the Porsche in terms of performance, especially especially in the hills of Los Angeles.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's also not Johnny driving the Porsche as they find when they catch him.

Eric: Well, that's true too.

Sarah: It's

Eric: Yeah. But, of course, it isn't a it really isn't a chase. It's a game of follow the leader. They followed in fact, they followed Johnny for so long that eventually it turns dark and Johnny's frustrated or Steelee is frustrated saying it's getting ridiculous. And Laura agrees that it's curious and then adds that with Johnny, it seems par for the course.

Steelee complains that they must be nearly 200 miles from Los Angeles. Where's Johnny going? Fresno?

Sarah: So the I don't know. Again, this is 1 of those things that Steelee should catch. He knows that Johnny is planning a heist. He knows that Johnny is smart, that he's cunning, that he's doing all these things. He's tricking people.

He's he's clearly dealing with somebody as devious as he is. Okay? And And that episode with Keys, where Steelee distracted Keys by driving out into the desert and taking him on a merry little goose chase while Laura did what she needed to do

Eric: That's true.

Sarah: You would think Steelee would be maybe going, hey. Wait a minute. We've been driving for hours, and this guy hasn't stopped. Maybe maybe he's made us the way he made Mildred because they know that this guy is is

Eric: smart. Not senile. He is very Yeah.

Sarah: Maybe they should turn around because they're they're being taken on a little wild goose chase. They're chasing a wild goose in the form of that Porsche.

Eric: Well, not only that, but they've got a a more practical problem.

Sarah: Gas? Yeah. Yeah. I thought that too. It took me a while to find it,

Eric: but the fuel economy for a 1935 Auburn is about 17 and a half liters per 100 kilometers or about 13.8 miles per gallon US. The fuel tank held roughly 91 liters or 23 gallons, which means that with a generous real world calculation, taking into account the loss of fuel economy in the mountains and hills and assuming that they had a full tank when they started, they could go just over 300 miles on a full tank of gas. So, again, you know, assuming they had a full tank when they started. So if we take into account that if they went out 200 miles, they have to come back 200 miles. If their plan is to follow Johnny and not lose sight of him, they now got a very real logistics problem.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. They do. Yeah. That's a good point.

Eric: Because if Johnny doesn't stop, they have to. They lose him.

Sarah: Well, Johnny stops to

Eric: get gas, they have to go get gas. And they're right there with Johnny, or they do it somewhere else, and then they still lose him.

Sarah: And that car isn't exactly again, it's 1 of the worst cars you can try to follow somebody. It's really noticeable.

Eric: It's not exactly subtle. In fact, it's probably less subtle than the limo.

Sarah: Actually, you know what? I don't think have we seen the Auburn since it got stolen in in Steele blushing? Like, have we seen it in any of the episodes? Because I feel like we haven't. I feel like it's been pretty much absent this season.

Eric: You might be right.

Sarah: That's crazy. I think that's the longest stretch we've gone without seeing the album. Yeah. Anyway Anyway, sorry. Random.

Eric: Looking on the bright side, Laura is certain that as long as they're on Johnny's tail, he can't be breaking into the museum. And as you said, Steelee should have

Sarah: This is the Steelee. Come on. You're you're slipping Steelee because you should be cluing in here.

Eric: You know? I I mentioned before that he seems to be a little bit off kilter.

Sarah: Yeah. He's off his game because, like, you think that would ping in his brain, like, wait a minute. What would I do in this situation? I were planning to rob this museum and I you know, I know people have been following me because I caught this woman earlier today following me.

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: What would I do? I would do this.

Eric: Yes. Well, as we see, Laura's optimism is misplaced because we're now treated to the scene of a grappling hook being tossed up onto a tile roof. Then we see 2 men dressed in crime clothes working their way up the rope to the side of the building.

Sarah: Actually have

Eric: massive museum like that, the modern design of it have was Italian style clay rounded tiles on their ceiling?

Sarah: We can't even figure out what building it's supposed to be. So no.

Eric: It just seems inconsistent with what we see of the architecture of the building. But, anyway, it's there on film, so it must be true. Yeah. Just like it's

Sarah: on the Internet, so must be true. Over their face unlike Steele and Laura who wear black climb crows climb crime clothes, but keep their but keep their heads uncovered for some bizarre reason every time they break in somewhere.

Eric: Just as in their contract, their faces have to be seen. Yeah. That's true. Anyway, then we see 2 other men also dressed in crime clothes prying open a grate in the sidewalk. Then we returned to the first 2 men who were now cutting a hole in the glass of a rooftop skylight, then they removed the cut portion.

Then we cut to see a security guard walking the halls. Then we cut again to see the security monitors, which show black and white video feeds of the of the guard and 1 of the monitors. And then as the camera pulls out, we see a huge bank of monitors that are monitoring various locations throughout the museum.

Sarah: At the head guard, hard at work watching a basketball game.

Eric: Absolutely. Because that's what you do when you're sitting there watching a bunch of boring monitors. You watch a basketball game. Yeah. And occasionally, you glance up at the monitors.

But in, you know, in reality, that's kinda

Sarah: how it you would do. Because, like, I can't imagine a job more boring than sitting there and just staring at these monitors waiting for something to happen. And for the most part, it's never going to.

Eric: Yep. Yep.

Sarah: Like, that

Eric: would be And usually, when you're you're sitting there I I do have some experience with this. You're sitting there. You may not be paying attention to what's on the monitors, but it's in your peripheral. And so if something changes on that, you're gonna pick it up.

Sarah: Especially if you know what it should like, if it's the same room Mhmm. And it's empty, you're gonna not like, you're gonna assume nothing's gonna move unless it's a scheduled guard change. Right? Guard comes in, looks around, leaves. So if you see something move when it shouldn't You're gonna look out better.

Eric: You're gonna check it out. Yep. Yeah. Anyway, back outside, we see that the 2 groups of men have entered through their respective openings. And inside, 1 of the men from the sidewalk group pulls a panel from the front of an electrical box.

He pulls a set of wires from a case and then feeds them down through an air ventilation grate in the floor to the to a man below who connects the wires to a wiring panel. The first man holding an electronic box of some sort from which wires are protruding connects the second set of wires to the electrical box that he has open. And back out on the road, we see that Johnny is still leading Laura and Steelee on a tour of Southern California. Then we jump back again to the museum. 1 of the men from the roof is being lowered down into the museum on a rope.

The man at the top drops the other man down a level to the security camera mounted on the wall, and then they signal to stop. The hanging man pulls out a photo of the interior of the museum as taken from the position of the security camera. How would you manage to get that photo unless you had an inside man?

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point.

Eric: You know? Tough. Anyway, he attaches the photo to the end of a mount, then clamps the mount to the base of the camera, then bends the mount up to raise the photo in front of the camera lens, replacing the image that the camera actually sees from the live view with a view of the photo.

Sarah: It's clever. Give them that.

Eric: Yeah. But also, I know that those security cameras have a really wide depth of field, but I don't think that a photo placed that close to the lens would still be in focus. I mean, I think it would be blurry because that's outside of

Sarah: the Shush. Okay. Fine. We're just gonna Oh,

Eric: go away.

Sarah: Leave it. Leave it away. Leave it away. Oh, go away.

Eric: Anyway, the hanging man has succeeded in replacing the image without security guard at the desk noticing the switch. The hanging man places a pair of goggles on his face, giving him the ability to see laser beams off of the alarm system. Highly doubtful. I mean, we can't see light. We can only see its illuminating effect on objects.

Now if there's a moderate amount of dust in the air, yeah, I'm at it might be possible to see the beams of light as the lasers are striking those dust particles and reflecting off them, but I don't think a museum would be that dusty. I I would think it would be a rather dust free environment, but I know you're gonna tell me to hush again. Yes. Stop waving your hand at me like that. Anyway, there's a moment of danger as the security guard arrives at the door.

He shakes the knob, looks in through the window, but the moment passes and so does the guard. The hanging man checks his watch. The man at the electrical box checks his watch. The man at the electrical box flips the switch, and then we see the displays in the wing showing that all the laser beams have disappeared. The hanging man gives the signal, the top man lowers him to the floor.

And as the guard at the desk continues to see the photo in the monitor, hanging man and I guess the man from the electrical box downstairs run into the display wing and begin cutting paintings out of their frame. And as we've discussed before, this seems a really horrible way to steal a painting.

Sarah: 100%. I agree. Yeah. It's it it makes you cringe because you're watching them, like, just take a knife to the canvas. You're like, no.

Eric: Well, we're on the road again. Just can't wait to get up. Oh, Lauren Steelee are watching from a distance as an attendant at a gas station is filling Johnny's car with gas.

Sarah: Remember when people used to do that? They used to just come up and fill your car for you. I miss that. Wash your windows. Check your oil.

Oh, I gotta tell sorry. I know this is gonna be just a tangent, but I gotta tell this bizarre story. I don't know. Did I tell you the story about the guy and the push ups in the in the gas station? Okay.

Judging by her space, I have not. This was the weirdest story, and everybody has to hear it because it's flipping bizarre, and it was a gas station just clicked in my head. I went to Costco to get gas. Our Costco around the corner from our our apartment has a gas bar. K?

Okay. So I'm waiting behind this orange Jeep that has, like, camo all over it. Fine. Whatever. The guy gets out of the Jeep.

K? He's he's dressed oddly. He's in, like, a full suit, like, got suit and tie, suit jacket on, shiny black shoes, and a black cowboy hat, which is rare, like, odd for Southern Ontario. It's not something you'd normally see here. And what makes it even odder is that, like, it's the dead of February, and he's, like, you know, it's, like, minus whatever.

It's freezing out. This man has no coat anywhere to be seen. Right? He looks like he's going to a cowboy funeral or some sort of, like I don't know. He's a hitman.

So then he he gets he puts the hose in the in the car, lets go of it, like, walks it so that it's pumping the gas, comes around to the back of the Jeep, opens the back of the Jeep, and he takes off his hat. So he takes off his cowboy hat, takes off his suit jacket, puts them both in the back of the Jeep. And underneath the suit jacket, you can't see it because the jacket was covering it. He's got, like, this, it looks like an Under Armour blue shirt, like a workout shirt.

Eric: Okay.

Sarah: But it was covering the the tie. So, like, if you put the jacket back on, it looks like he's in formal wear. He climbs up onto the tailgate of the jeep, places his hands on the ground. So he's literally now suspended, Like, his feet are on the tailgate. His hands are on the ground, starts doing push ups, like, off the tailgate of his Jeep.

And I'm sitting there watching. What the heck is this man doing? Did he miss push up day at the gym, and he's getting him in now? Who knows? He he does his push ups all the way until his gas finishes pumping.

Okay? Climbs back down, puts his hat back on, puts his suit jacket back on, does it up, and then it gets weirder.

Eric: He That gets weirder?

Sarah: It gets weirder. He reaches into the back of his Jeep, pulls out 3 license plates. Now this Jeep had a license plate, so I'm not really sure where these other 3 came from, but he's got them. And then he pulls out his his scraper brush. You know, the brush he used to scrape your car off.

Right? Mhmm. He takes them both over to the garbage, tosses the plates in the garbage, and then he takes the brush and bends it in half with his bare flipping hands, like he's Superman or something, and tosses that in the garbage too. Comes around, shuts the gate, gets back in his car, drives away like he's stolen this jeep. Like, he just peels out of this parking lot.

And I pull into my spot. I get out to pump my gas, and I'm thinking this is weird. I look around. Everybody's staring at this man. They're all pumping their gas.

And the guy beside me, he's like, did you see that? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, what? What's going on? I have no idea.

The woman behind me is like, I filmed it on my phone. We have no idea what this man was doing, why he threw up the license plates, what was up with the push ups. Who knows? But it was just very bizarre situation. I was like, what is happening here?

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that, but I missed the days when they used to pump our gas for us because it's cold, and I don't wanna get out of my car. Yeah.

Eric: Anyway Well, you know, it used to be here not so much anymore because the crybabies have made a big deal out of it. But you used to be able to, when it was cold in the winter, get out, put the nozzle in your car, start the gas. Your car's still running. You get back in the car.

Sarah: Oh, yeah.

Eric: Car's running. Through that now. Inside the warm heater car, You know? But, no, you gotta turn your car off. It's it's dangerous.

No. It's not. It might have been if it was a Model T or a Model A, but, no, now it's not.

Sarah: Hey. I got a I had a guy tell me I had to put my phone away because my phone could cause my car to blow up. I'm not really sure how, but that was the logic. So No. Anyway Was he wearing foil hat tinfoil hat?

He might as well have been. Seemed a little out out there. Anyway,

Eric: as they're watching, Johnny's car get filled with gas, Steelee starts to recognize that something isn't right. Finally. They continue to watch as Johnny pulls out of the gas station and reverses course. Back to LA? An annoyed lawyer rhetorically asks in disbelief, and then not without an explanation, Steelee responds as he fires up the Auburn and turns to pursue.

Steelee races after

Sarah: guess that car would not be able to catch that Porsche.

Eric: No. I don't think so.

Sarah: Okay. No. I mean, he gets ahead of it, but yeah.

Eric: Yeah. He the guy wasn't trying very hard. Let's put it this way. No.

Sarah: No. Well, because why would he be? He's the distraction.

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: He's got him far enough out there. It doesn't matter if they catch him now. Yeah.

Eric: Well, Steelee races after the Johnny sports car, catches up to it, races past it, as you said, and then swerves and slides to a stop in front, forcing the sports car to stop. Steelee and Laura jump out of the up and and approach the smaller car, and Steelee indignantly asks, enough with the wild goose chase. Or he doesn't ask. He demands it. The driver's side window lowers to reveal, not Johnny.

Driver is an older gentleman. Yeah. But there's only the vaguest resemblance to Johnny. Yeah. But at the of course, at the distances Johnny and or Steelee and Laura could see him, it was close enough.

The band grins a nice big Cheshire cat grin and with the slightest hint of a smirk says, nice night for a drive, isn't it?

Sarah: He must have had a great time being that guy. Yeah. Your friend comes to you and says, do you wanna drive my 100,000 car just around for a little bit? Let some people follow you? Sure.

Why not? I'm your I'm your person. Give me the keys.

Eric: Well, Laura has a look of surprise, but Steelee's look is of anger. Controlled anger, but anger nonetheless. And, of course, back at the museum, the 4 burglars rush out to a van that they have parked nearby. The driver pulls off his mask, revealing that it is in fact Johnny who begins driving away. The next morning, Laura and Steelee are at the door to Johnny's apartment, and Laura is angry.

She is beating on that door, about ready to kick it down. She's grabbing at the knob, trying to turn it, trying to force her way in, and then beating on the door again. The door opens, and Johnny's standing there in his pajamas looking at them with a blank face. And then after a moment, he breaks into a huge grin and asks,

Sarah: is there a problem?

Eric: The Lord turns her head back to Steele, and the look on her face is like, can you believe this guy?

Sarah: She's is murder always a crime? Can we kill him now? Can we kill him?

Eric: Well, as we come back from a break, Johnny, who is now in a robe, is pouring tea, laughing, and exclaiming, well, that's quite a tale. Either of you care for a little lemon in your tea? Loor insists that he forget about the tea. They know he robbed the museum. And, well, assuming for the sake of argument that you're right, how would you go about proving it?

He asks as he sits down at his dining table. Stale says, Well, first we tell the police about your long standing relationship with Duncan Harlow, your obviously estranged friend. Johnny interrupts, Estranged? Duncan and I have been best buddies for more than 4 decades. Well, then Laura says, they'll just show the police his, let's say, unusual array of museum photographs.

Aerial photography, always been a hobby of his, he says. Partial to the heat sensitive variety? Steelee asks. I like the colors, Johnny excuses. Nevertheless, they could compile quite a curious list of coincidences for the authorities to examine, Steelee points out.

Finally, Lord delivers the coup de grace. She and Steelee felt that the quickest way to get to the heart of the matter would be to pay a visit to Duncan Harlow himself. And of course, Johnny stops drinking his tea. Steelee adds that they thought that the 3 of them might just get together and saunter over to Duncan's and see what he thinks of their little story. And Laura adds that mister Harle was undoubtedly not in the highest of spirits at the moment, but, you know, a visit from 1 of his old buddies just might cheer him up.

Interesting, Johnny. Recognizing that he's cornered, Johnny begins to chuckle. No. No. I'm sorry.

I can't do that. He puts down his cup and then seriously admits, Your kids are pretty good. Laura crosses her arms and flatly tells him, We're listening. He looks at Laura and then calmly says, All right, let me tell you a story. At the museum, Duncan Harlow is overseeing the police investigation to the robbery.

Jeffrey is with him, and Harlow is telling him that the robbery was a well planned, well executed operation. Jeffrey doesn't understand why it was only Harlow's collection that was stolen. Somebody's out to get him, Harlow says. No question about it. And that someone also knew that Harlow was desperate for cash and that those paintings represented his final source of capital.

Jeffrey suggests that Harlow simply take out a loan or 2 to keep the vultures away until they can recover the paintings. Harlow scoffs at Jeffrey's nativity.

Sarah: You should just loop this and let it run.

Eric: I know how to pronounce that word, but it's just not coming out. Anyway, Harlow says he needs millions, not thousands. Besides, the thefts have effectively placed him on the brink of financial ruin. Translation, in his current state, no bank would even talk to him now.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: So what do they do? Jeffrey asks. They reopen the operation. Jeffrey protests, but Harlow insists they reopen the operation. Where do they find the buyers in time to do them any good?

Jeffrey asks. Harlow thinks a minute and then says, well, what about that old guy you've been playing cards with? Jeffrey Grins saying Jack Craig's name and then suggests that he could probably arrange a meeting with Craig tonight. Do it right away, Harlow says. It'll buy him some time to find out who has him in their gun sights, and then he's gonna have to blow them out of the sky before they do the same to him.

Sarah: Somebody never left the war behind.

Eric: Yeah. Well, you know, you get a a a speaking pattern down, you stick with it.

Sarah: It works. At

Eric: the airport, Johnny, Laura, and Steelee are walking the flight line as Johnny tells a story. He says, you've never seen a better fighter pilot than Duncan Harlow. Saved my hide many a time during the war. After looking at some of your metals, Steelee says that he's probably saved his share of hides as well. And he says, well, no more than uncle Sam was paying me to do.

Chuck Sertes felt the same way about it, but no. Duncan was the only glory seeker in the squadron, and there was no denying that he was the best pilot of all of them. From what she understands, Laura says, he built up flying aces air freight largely off the publicity of his war exploits. You mean the squadrons, Johnny corrects. You see, once Duncan found out how profitable it was to be a hero, he just took the ball and ran with it.

And that's fine up to a point. But you see, Duncan's insatiable need for money completely corrupted his sense of morality. When Laura asks why he says that, Johnny unflinchingly replies, because he killed Chuck Sertis.

Sarah: And and this is kind of going back to what we were talking about with, like, people that are like, that sort of reject the label of hero versus people that I don't wanna I don't wanna say falsely claim it because he was there, and he did those things. But, like, exploit them, I guess, would be the word I'm using. Mhmm. Because somebody who did what they did should have the the reasons for it should be I did it for my country, or I did it for my fellow pilots. Like, I was I was there for my brothers or my country.

Like, it's not about taking and money and and yeah. Like, it's not about profiting off of it. Mhmm. When you come back, I mean, it's fine to to maybe do speaking engagements and things like that and and talk about what you did. But, like, at the same time, there's not a lot of soldiers that want to do that.

Most of them wanna come back and live a quiet life and don't really wanna live the glory days, so to speak, in the in that sense, because it reminds them of what they also had to do in order to you know? And those aren't always pleasant memories. Somebody like this reads reads like a sociopath to me because he doesn't seem to care who he had to hurt or what he had to do. It's it's all to him a way to get money, a way to get glory and riches and and fame.

Eric: Yeah. Usually, people who who do these kinds of things, they they you know, they talk about them, they use them for publicity or whatever. They got 2 motives. 1 being the self aggrandizement, the profit, that sort of thing. Mhmm.

And the other is that they are they are using it for a larger purpose. Yeah. For a larger good purpose. You know? And that purpose could just simply be to bring remembrance to the fallen brothers.

Yeah. That didn't make it back, you know, that people have forgotten about. Or, you you know, talking to people about the realities of these types of situations, the realities of war. Yes. There were there were heroic actions.

Yeah. You know, I did these things, but here's the part that doesn't really get talked about as much.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: So

Sarah: But that message of never again. This is what we you know, we did what we had to do because we had to do it, but we don't wanna have to do it again. So here's what we went through.

Eric: And if we do, don't go into it thinking it's a a fun fun and games time.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly.

Eric: Or you do it for the money as Duncan. Yeah. Duncan Harlow is doing. Yeah. Anyway, at at Johnny's very calm statement that Harlow killed Chuck Sertis, stealing Lork just kinda freeze.

I mean, they're they're shocked. Yeah. I I think they're as shocked at his certainty as much as they are his accusation because there's absolutely no Yeah. There's no question in his voice. It's not I think

Sarah: But he knows.

Eric: Yeah. It's it's absolute certainty. So, anyway, Johnny hasn't stopped walking. He enters the shack. Laura and Steelee follow and eventually catch up with him.

Johnny pulls down a photo, holds it out for them to see and continues that there aren't too many of the squadron boys left anymore, those who remain and are able try to have a little ceremony for those who moved on. And that tomorrow, they are going to pay tribute to Lowell. He was 76, battling a long illness. Trying to clarify, Laura asks if Johnny is saying that Chuck worked for Harlow's company. Yes.

Since the war had ended. They sit down at a table in the middle of the room and Johnny continues telling them that about 6 months ago, Johnny ran into Chuck. He told Johnny that he'd learned that Harlow had stolen medical supplies from the air force and sold them on the black market. Apparently, he's corrupted a young supply sergeant into setting it all up for him. And Laura's confounded saying, why would a man as wealthy as Harlow wanna get mixed up in something like that?

To save his business. Competition was fierce. He'd overextended himself, gotten careless, and he needed the cash. And Steelee realizes that owning an air freight company would undoubtedly make it easier for him to distribute the supplies. Yep.

Johnny says that Chuck was gonna expose the whole ball of wax, and then the next day, he crashed his p 40. The safety board said it was an accident, but Johnny knew better. It was Duncan. Laura asks Johnny why he didn't notify the authorities. And I says, I he didn't have any proof.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Besides, Harlow immediately closed down the operation. And Steelee, who's been pondering this, concludes that Johnny stole Harlow's paintings for revenge. Not quite, Johnny says. When the black market money disappeared, he had to rely on his own resources. But that well was drying up, so Johnny had to hurry it along a bit by stealing his art collection.

And not only that, Judy says, Chuck told Johnny about a secret stash of money that Harlow had, all his profits from the black market operation in a safe in his office.

Sarah: Which he can't tell the police about because

Eric: That's right.

Sarah: He he

Eric: has to account for it. So Laura says, well, that explains the race through the street near Duncan's building. Johnny admits that, yes, he was the decoy to lure the place away the police away from Neil. He was the decoy to lure the place the police. The

Sarah: to lure

Eric: the police away when the alarm went off. I don't know what is going on today. And, of course, Steelee realizes that that left his accomplices inside with all the time they needed to crack the safe. Yeah. Johnny grins, compliments Steelee on his perception, and then says, as you mentioned, Harlow wouldn't be able to report the money missing because he'd have to say where he got it in the first place.

Not only that, but he'd wind up having to explain it to the IRS as far as paying taxes on it too. Yep. And he didn't wanna do that. Anyway, Laura, did you know that it's actually there's a question on the or at least there used to be on The US tax form that asks if you've earned any money due to illegal criminal activities.

Sarah: No. But that's hilarious because because, I mean, like, it's similar to the visa application that my husband originally had to fill out to come to Canada where it was like, have you committed any acts of treason or terrorism? And it's like, well, I mean, if you have, you're not gonna be honest and be like, yeah. Yeah. I I stole some you know, I stole a bit of money here.

Stole a bit of money. Why would

Eric: you do that? Dealing drugs on the side, and here's all my profits from that.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly. Most people won't report their tips.

Eric: Yeah. Anyway, Laura looks at Johnny and then concludes that that would explain why he's been able to afford everything because he stole money from the money. Still doesn't yet quite understand all of it because he can't figure out how the casino fits in. And Johnny explains that Harlow's right hand man, Jeffrey, was a regular, so Johnny struck up a friendship with him, passed himself off as a shady millionaire named Jack Craig, and let it drop that he was very interested in acquiring an abundance of medical supplies. But he folded with 4 kings in his hand, Laura points out, and that was a $30,000 pot he passed on.

Yep. And Laura doesn't seem to understand how he could bask that money and neither does Steelee, which makes sense. I mean, given the expense of the scheme he's been running, he he she's apparently been calculating this in his mind her mind and saying, think you want

Sarah: that money for sure. Yeah.

Eric: And Johnny appreciates that she noticed it. He said, I had to let the poor devil win some of the time. Besides, it was good for my image to lose thousands of dollars without blinking an eye. True. Do when it's not your money.

Sarah: Yeah. And I I mean, it it it works on both of those levels because it means that Jeffrey will continue to play with him. Because let's face it. You're not gonna continue to play poker with somebody who's constantly beating you. Yeah.

Exactly. And it looks like he can afford to just throw money out the window.

Eric: So $30,000? What's the big deal? I mean, I can't do that at dinner. You know?

Sarah: Yeah. Right. Like yeah. Right.

Eric: Yeah. Was that saying? 1000000 here, 1000000 there. Sooner or later, it eventually adds up to some real money?

Sarah: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Eric: Was talking about somebody used that phrase when talking about government spending years years ago. Anyway, Johnny concludes that the whole purpose of of all that was to catch Duncan's hand in the cookie jar just as Chuck was planning to do. Yeah. Laurie will steal a grin, and steal is like a rabid fan at

Sarah: the most exciting baseball game they've ever Salivating at this point. Like He bangs his fist on

Eric: the table and with admiration joyously says, my hat's off to you, Johnny. A brilliant plan. Risky, but brilliant.

Sarah: I think it's funny because Laura is admiring him because he's a war hero, and Steelee is admiring him because he's a con man. He's just like, this is his new hero now. Yeah. It's quite funny.

Eric: Yeah. And the brilliance of the plan is he's using Harlow's own money against him. Yeah. Anyway, Johnny takes the admiration with his characteristic humility saying that, well, he doesn't know how brilliant the plan is, but it's the only chance he has of bringing Harlow to justice and to account for Chuck's death. And he looks at them without emotion and then asks, well, there's a whole 9 yards.

You gonna turn me in or let me go through with it? And of course, Laura and Steelee look at each other silently asking each other the same question. Johnny says, you know, I I could use some help. Laura, Steelee looked back at him and still just grinning.

Sarah: Yeah. I this is cute. This is basically, like, Steele looking up at Laura, like, can we? Can we? Please?

Can we? Can we? Like, mother, please? Like, can I have a cookie, mom? Can I?

This is his chance to do something technically that's, you know, on the on the shadier side, but it's for a good cause. Yeah. Laura usually gets sucked into those pretty easily. So she's Yep. She's like and she kinda like, yes, we can.

It's fun. She smiles. She likes the plan. She's in. Yeah.

Eric: We're back at Bedard's. Steelee is in his tux sitting at a bar drinking hand. Down the bar, Johnny is with Jeffrey talking. They shake hands, Jeffrey leaves, and Johnny slowly gets up and walks to the other end of the bar to stand next to Steelee. Steelee glances at Johnny commenting that Jeffrey seems rather chipper.

He should be chipper, Johnny says. He thinks he just made a $2,000,000 sale. Now that the hook is baited and the exchange scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10:00. But in the meantime, Johnny has something important to attend to. We're back at the flight shack at the airport, And Johnny, Harlow, and 3 other men are gathered.

The remaining flying aces all wearing their flight jackets. Johnny gives the toast. And so we say farewell to another member of our squadron who, like the ones that went before him, remains alive in our hearts and memories. Here's to you, Lowell, we'll miss you. Men raise their glasses, touch them together, down their drinks, and then set the empty glasses down on the table in a circle around the remaining glass.

Lowell's glass sitting in the center, filled and untouched. Harlow approaches Johnny, says, well said, Johnny. I'm sure Lowell would have been very pleased. And Johnny's just given Harlow a hard smile saying, good of you to come, Duncan. Must say, it was a little bit of a surprise.

And Harlow says, hey, we all went through hell and back together. We owe each other this much. Johnny casually comments that Harlan must have been out of town when Chuck Sertis died, a tacit admission or a tacit accusation about not having attended Chuck's memorial. And Harlan makes the excuse that there were extenuating circumstances.

Sarah: Yeah. Murdering him. Yeah. It's the extenuating circumstance. He killed him.

Eric: Yeah. And he needed a needed an excuse to not be there. Harlow steps away and then we see him outside walking to his limo. Once inside the limo, Jeffrey nods toward Johnny who's getting into the rabbit with Laura. He asks Harlow if he knows him.

Who? Johnny Cooper? As he points to Johnny who's, like I said, Gideon and Dolores rabbit, Jeffrey informs Harlow that that is Jack Craig. And Harlow suddenly puts all the pieces together.

Sarah: Yeah. And it's unfortunate that this is really the only place where Johnny screws up. Yep. And it's not even really a screw up. He just No.

Eric: Circumstances he had no expertise ability to control. Next morning, Steelee, Laura, and Johnny are at a warehouse. Johnny has a briefcase full of cash. Steele has a large portable recording system complete with long range boom mic, and Laura has a camera. Steele comments that there's nothing like a well planned sting.

And Johnny comments that Duncan would split in 2 if he knew his own money was being used to expose his whole operation. Laura comments that that adds a nice little touch of irony to it. Yep. Johnny says that he only wishes there was some way to prove he was a murderer, which is actually important. Yes.

I'll I'll I'll bring it up later in the episode at the appropriate time because there's there's some additional aspects to this kinda I don't think a lot of people think about.

Sarah: Anyway I like what she's wearing here as well. Like, I like how I I like them both in casual clothes. Mhmm. Her hair is I think if I recall correctly, her hair's in a ponytail, and she just she looks natural, and she looks really good.

Eric: Mhmm. Yeah. Anyway, they hear a car pull up outside, and they say it's time to get moving. Laura reassures Johnny that they'll be right above him. Johnny tells them not to worry about him.

He's not exactly an amateur. And as Lauren Steelee move off, he needlessly reminds them to make sure they stay out of sight. Lauren Steelee climb a ladder to the top of an office inside the warehouse, moving to hide behind some stack boxes. Jeffrey comes in and he and Jack greet each other. Johnny asks if they're in business and Jeffrey asks if Johnny brought the money.

Johnny counters asking if Jeffrey brought the goods. Jeffrey says they're in the truck, but he'd like to see the cash first. As they walk over to the briefcase with money, we see Steelee recording and Laura taking photos. Jeffrey opens the briefcase, looks at the money, and then turns his head back toward the door and in an unnaturally loud voice announces that, it's all there, Jack. And then, of course, several men, uniformed officers and plainclothes officer enter.

Johnny asks, hey. What gives? Well, what gives is that he's under arrest. Conspiracy to purchase black market goods. Federal offense.

Jeffrey looks at him and with a smirk says, sorry, Johnny. Yeah. And in the wasp, Laura makes a sudden move, obviously intending to jump to Johnny's defense, but Steelee stops her, telling her that it won't do Johnny much good if they get arrested as well.

Sarah: Yeah. He's right, but it's you can see Laura Mhmm. Just wanting to protect this man. She's really Yep. I mean, Steelee admires his ingenuity and his like, the fact that he's a con man, but you can see Laura has you know, there's more of, like, she understands what this man has gone through.

She understands what what this means to him to to catch the man who killed his best friend and to stop this operation. And and there's, like, I think more of a deeper meaning to it for Laura, and she just feels so bad and doesn't wanna see him hurt. Like, she wants to protect him. And so it's just sad to see her kind of, like, try to like, she moves to intervene. It's almost instinct, and Steal's the 1 that has to say, no.

No. No. It's not gonna be good if we get caught too.

Eric: So Yeah. So then we see Johnny being handcuffed, read his rights, and then walked out. Next, we're at the police station. Johnny's in his cell, and Harlow has come to visit. An officer lets Harlow into Johnny's cell, closes the door behind them, and then departs, leaving them alone.

Have you ever noticed that when someone on TV shows arrested, there's never anyone else in

Sarah: the unless other

Eric: they're there for comic relief.

Sarah: Yeah. Unless it's to, like, to be to show how intimidating it is or yeah. Exactly. You're right.

Eric: Anyway, Harlow asks, who would have thought 40 years ago when we were covering each other's butts over China that we'd be after each other's now? And Johnny retorts, well, who would have thought there would be such a damn good reason why? Carlos smiles and chuckles, Poor old Johnny. Still on his white horse trying to make the world good. I remember when you felt the same way, Johnny reminds him.

Long time ago, Johnny. Everything was black and white then. The world has changed, Johnny, leaving you and your ideals behind, he sneers, adding that right and wrong aren't so easily defined today. Murder's wrong in any world, Johnny accuses. Harlow excuses his behavior saying he's just trying to run a business.

The world is just 1 big marketplace now. Asked to Chuck, Johnny doesn't know that Harlow killed him. Oh, yes, I do. Johnny kills Harlow. And you know I do.

That's the 1 thing that puzzles me. Why you're letting me stay alive? If you knew I was setting you up, why am I still standing here? Funny you should ask, Carla says. Well, it should be obvious to Johnny unless he's deliberately playing dumb, which I think is a possibility.

Sarah: He is. But this scene is really this scene was really moving because it shows, like, the 2 the very different perspectives that these 2 men have in the sense that, like, Duncan Duncan accuses Johnny of being naive and of of, you know, oh, you're still seeing things in black and white, and those morals don't exist anymore. The world is so much more complicated. I'm gonna say no. That's a that's a load of bull.

The world was always complicated. The world was complicated back then. It's complicated now. There's I think the the people that wanna make that their excuse are people who know that what they're doing has he says, you know, at 1 point, you were there with me. Like, you believe the same things too.

And I don't know if that's true, but I would like to think it is. And that if Duncan has lost his way, he's trying to mitigate that by by using this excuse of, oh, well, you know, the world's not black and white anymore. It wasn't black and white back then. There were so many I mean, I think we can all agree Hitler was evil and and needed to be stopped, but there were so many things that happened during that war that were bad even from the good guys. There was no you know, it just feels like he's trying to put Johnny in this box of like, oh, you're still you're still back there.

You're you're you haven't evolved. And Johnny's like, no. No. No. I have actually stayed true to who I am.

I still know where my morals are. Murder is bad no matter what, dude. Like, that doesn't change. And this is a really good moment for Johnny because it shows us that this is a man of integrity. He has always been a man of integrity.

Mhmm. You wanna look at what a hero is? There's your definition.

Eric: Well, you know, the thing is people always say, well, it's not black and white anymore. There's all these shades of gray. I would like to point out that shades of gray are simply percentages of black and white.

Sarah: Yeah. Exactly.

Eric: So you can say, well, it's not all good. It's not all bad. Yeah. That's true. But at the core of it, there is still Yeah.

There is still a moral truth that all this other stuff, it's it's obscuring, but it's still there. And it doesn't change the fact that it's still there. And the other thing is that the things that Harlow and Johnny went through, anybody involved in in whether it be a war situation or or any kind of of other situation that is a stress situation, you know, a situation fraught with all these moral dilemma. I'm not sure it really changes people in the sense that we're seeing here where 1 guy stays true and the other guy veers off. I think what it does is it reveals the character that's really underneath.

The character that's been there all along. It may have been hidden, it may have been unrecognized, but it was there all along. And this just simply allowed that character to come to the fore because the opportunity presented itself that that person could could say, oh, yeah. Okay. Now I'm going to do this thing because now I have the opportunity to.

Sarah: I think it just

Eric: it just reveals what's underneath.

Sarah: Yeah. I think you're right because Harlow comes across as sociopathic and completely amoral. He doesn't care who he hurts. And anybody who is not sociopathic, you know, no matter what you did, no matter how justified it was in a war, I would think you'd suffer some kind of some kind of, like, I don't know if guilt is the right word, but you'd have difficulty with what happened over there. I think you I I think anybody would.

And there's there's something called moral injury, which is basically when somebody has to do something, and it's typically applied to soldiers, but this applies to anybody, really. Someone does something that basically violates their own deeply held moral beliefs and values. Mhmm. It could be actions that like, things you did or things you didn't do, like failing to prevent somebody from coming to harm or obeying orders that cause civilian casualties or, you know, anything like that. Right?

Right. Anybody that goes through that and I'm not saying Johnny did, but I'm I'm just saying, like, anybody with the capacity to feel moral injury has a moral center, a core value that they will not violate. And if they do, they're gonna feel horrible about it. Like, they're gonna they're gonna have things that they deal with. Whereas Duncan doesn't seem like the kind of person that does have that, like, that core moral center.

Like, it feels like if Duncan was told, you know, drop a bomb over here, and there are known civilian civilians there that Duncan would do it because, hey, power, glory, fame, all that is So, yeah, I think you're right. It just reveals rather than necessarily creates who you were in the first place. Duncan probably was the kind of person that went for fame and glory, and and I'm gonna be a war hero and come back and and whatever else. And don't know what Johnny's reasons were, but I'm guessing they were a little more altruistic.

Eric: And I don't think I I think your use of the word sociopath here for Harlow is probably wrong, because I don't think he's a sociopath. I think he's a person who he he is the center of his world.

Sarah: Narcissist then?

Eric: Maybe to a degree, but Yeah. Only from the standpoint that he considers himself a little more important than other people. And he's got this business, and he's I don't know if compartmentalizing is the correct word, but he's he's looking at he's looking at business as a war situation.

Sarah: Yes. Yeah. He hasn't

Eric: left. He's he's saying that I can justify people dying and my killing people or having them killed in order to do this with my business, to save my business, to to take this do this other thing. And so he's he's he's basically taken the human element out of it. Yep. Humans are involved, but they're just assets or things to be negotiated with and dealt with in the same way pencils are.

Sarah: Yeah. Okay.

Eric: So in in a sense, I guess that's sociopathic, but but I don't think he takes it to the full extreme of of a sociopath. But, yeah, he certainly his his morals are definitely such that he doesn't see a problem with having people killed or killing them in order to advance his own purposes.

Sarah: Especially somebody that he fought with and was supposedly close Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. Now as far as Johnny pretending that he doesn't know what Harlow wants yeah. I mean, it's obvious. He wants the paint paintings back.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: As he said earlier, they they were the 1 asset that he had left that he could convert to cash. And I'm guessing that he's probably thinking that he'll have them forged in solo forgeries.

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: But he'd need the originals back to do that. So Johnny has them stashed. Harlan doesn't know where to find them, and I'm guessing he's threatened Johnny's daughter in exchange for the location.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: So I think Johnny at this point, I think he's now looking at maybe trying to protect his daughter. Anyway, we have a small time jump. And as we see Lauren Steelee being brought in by an officer, they cross paths with Harlow, who's coming out of the cell as the officer opens the door to let Lawrence Steelee in.

Sarah: I gotta say that leather jacket that Steelee's wearing and the dress shirt under it, nice. Looks good. It's working for him. You

Eric: like him in a leather jacket, and I I I

Sarah: that is a nice jacket. Like, just the cut of it, the way it looks on him, the the shirt underneath, it looks good.

Eric: So shall we now say that, you have an interest in leather jacket porn?

Sarah: Jacket porn. Jacket porn? Yeah. Maybe. You've got your sweaters.

I've got my jackets.

Eric: There we go. Yep. Laura asks Johnny if he's alright, and Steelee wonders what Harlow was doing there. Laura assures Johnny that even though they don't know how he managed to turn the tables on him, don't worry, Harlow will never make it stick. And Steelee contributes his 2¢ saying that the battle's far from over.

And with a controlled sense of anger and defeat, Johnny wants to know, what's it with you 2? Are you blind? Face the facts. Duncan is 1. May not be right, but there you have it.

Okay? He sits down on the cot. And Laura, seemingly uncertain as how to respond at this sudden outburst because it seems totally out of character based on what she knows about him. Hesitantly says, okay. And with a apparent sense of despondency, Johnny says that it was a crazy idea to begin with.

He was in over his head and maybe his daughter was right. Maybe he is getting senile. Steelee sits on the cot next to Johnny and starts to try to get Johnny to take a pause and let them take another look at the situation and see what what they can do to sort it all out, but Johnny isn't having any of it. He yells, it's over. Don't you understand?

It's over. Just leave me alone. Steelee raises his hand in a symbolic surrender saying, alright, mate. Alright. And Laura, it's subtle, but there's a look of sad resignation on her face.

Sarah: Yeah. She doesn't wanna let it go. She wants to help him still.

Eric: Yeah. But it's it's 1 of those, how do you help somebody who doesn't want help? Yep. Back in Steelee's office, Steelee is on the couch, hands behind his head, feet up on the coffee table, and Laura is pacing.

Sarah: Speaking of jackets, very eighties. 1 that Laura's wearing. Oh. No. The 1 she's wearing in this in this scene, I think.

Fire I it's my it's in my notes. I'm trying to remember the jacket she was wearing. Oh, I think I liked it.

Eric: It's it's kind of a blouse jacket blouse blouse jacket. Yeah. Crisscross half this, half that thing, and does neither 1 of them work really well, in my opinion? I'm not impressed. But Fine.

Your standards are

Sarah: lower than mine. His or hers?

Eric: Hers.

Sarah: Are we talking about oh, okay. I like hers. I like hers. I don't. Okay.

Fine.

Eric: Alright. Laura's up on on her feet pacing. She's clearly angry, angry at Harlow for setting Johnny up, angry at the situation, which seems to be beyond her control, and angry at Johnny for obviously having given up without wanting to fight on further. And she says, well, we're certainly not gonna stand around while he walks in jail on some trumped up charges. And then with an almost inappropriate sense of lightness, Steelee answers that he doubts very seriously that Johnny's gonna do much rotting.

Now what's that supposed to mean? Laura asks. Still leaning back on the couch, Steelee says that somehow he's got the feeling that Johnny just folded with 4 kings again.

Sarah: Yep.

Eric: And Laura is indignant at his failure to understand the situation and to respond to it with the appropriate level of concern. The man is in jail, she reminds him. It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than an ace up his sleeve for him to get out. Steelee sits up trying to calm Laura and explain himself. He says, look, Laura, We're not talking about some senile old fool here.

We're talking about somebody who masterminded a sophisticated sting to near perfection. I guarantee he's not gonna go through all that to lose at the very last moment. No. And Laura huffs, are you saying he acted that way to drive us away and says, do you expect me to to buy your story? Tone in her voice.

Steelee calmly tells her that Johnny wants Duncan Harlow in the worst possible way, and he will do anything he has to to nail him to the proverbial wall.

Sarah: Yeah. Knows Steelee knows this guy now. Like, he it took him a little bit, but he's he's in his head, and he knows exactly what he would do in this situation, and this is what it is. Like, he wouldn't give up. He knows he wouldn't give up.

So Yeah.

Eric: He he he knows that Johnny has a plan. He doesn't know what it is, but he knows that Johnny has a plan.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Anyway, thoughtfully, Laura responds that Harlow will do anything he has to do to keep Johnny from succeeding. Now just then, miss Cooper bursts through the door followed by Mildred, who obviously tried to stop her. The stool stands. Miss Cooper is very unhappy. I hire you 2 to help out my father, and what happens?

He gets thrown in jail. And, of course, as she's ranting, Mildred is trying to apologize to Laura, but Laura is assuring her, it's alright. It's okay. Then she turns to miss Cooper and tries to begin to explain, but miss Cooper is on a roll. I couldn't even imagine my poor father being in jail, so I rushed down there to see how he was and what was going on.

And what do I find? I find he's been released. And in shocked unison, Lauren Steelee released, and the charges dropped, she adds, demanding to know what's going on here. What's where is her father? And Lauren Steelee are suddenly in the room by themselves, at least in their minds.

There's no miss Cooper. There's no Mildred. They're just Laura. But that's impossible, isn't it? Unless the man who had him arrested arranged for his release as well.

You mean Harlow? He would explain his presence at the jail. And miss Cooper tries to get Steelee's attention and interject herself into the conversation, but no one's paying attention to her. But why would he want Johnny out? What could he possibly want from him?

Laura asks. Miss Cooper again tries to insert herself into the proceedings, this time trying to get Laura's attention, She fares no better now than before. How about a room full of paintings? Steelee asks. Of course.

Find the paintings and you'll find Johnny, Steelee concludes. And they turn and rush out of the office, leaving miss Cooper confused and frustrated and Mildred open mouth. Miss Cooper looks at Mildred for an explanation, but Mildred raises her hands in an apologetic gesture and says, don't look at me. I just work here.

Sarah: I just work here. And I do I like this moment with Laura and Steelee because I I this is, again, 1 of those episodes where there's not really a lot of, like, their romantic subplot, but it has a lot of it shows how close they are because, literally, they like you said, it looks it feels like suddenly they're the only 2 in the room. They're speaking together. They know exactly what the other person's thinking, what their what their line of train of thought is, and then they kinda rush out together. And it's like, this is when they're at their best, this is this is it right here.

Eric: They're they're they're a a hive mind.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. It strikes me from this sequence, particularly at the last, that either Paris and Stephanie are much taller than I thought, or everybody else on the show is really, really short. Because if you look at them in comparison with Mildred and and the actress playing miss Cooper, they are quite a bit taller.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, I know that Pierce is, like, 6 foot 1 or 6 foot 2. He's he's Mhmm. Not short, but I don't know how sometimes they put female costars on a box.

Eric: Yeah. Except that you see Laura Stephanie Laura Stephanie walk out, and it she's not stepping off of a box.

Sarah: Well, you know they would cut, then they would have them, like, going out together like that. Except there's

Eric: not a cut. She's not just only 5 5 according to

Sarah: 5 5. Yeah. Wikipedia. So there there might be a there might be a box because I I know that they did this with on on Buffy the Vampire Slayer because she's only 5 foot, like, 3 or something like that, and her male co stars, like, her male love interests were always in the 6 foot something range. And so they would have her they had a box that they called the buffy box, where she'd stand on the box so that they could get them both in the frame.

Yeah. So they

Eric: But from what I can tell from this shot, they they didn't cut, and it doesn't look like she steps off of a box. It looks like she

Sarah: They could use things like depth perception and and ways of making it look like 1 person is is like, if Mildred is fur further away, then she might look shorter or, you know Yeah. Things like that. So Anyway. Yeah.

Eric: Next, we are at Johnny's apartment. Laura and Steelee are inside looking around, and someone Lauren Steelee perhaps or maybe Harlow and his people have thoroughly tossed the apartment. I can't believe it would've been Lauren Steelee, but I can't discount her.

Sarah: No. I don't think they've I think somebody I think Duncan would

Eric: have found it. Somebody got there first. But regardless who's responsible for the mess, Laura and Steelee are clearly looking for something, the paintings. Loris asks Steelee, if you were Johnny, where would you hide the paintings? Steelee gives a quick thought and responds that it would all depend on what he'd wanna do with them after he stole them.

Sarah: Good point.

Eric: Laura, thinking out loud, says, they know he didn't wanna sell them. All he wanted to do was get them away from Harlow, which implies he'd merely want to store the lot of them, Steelee suggests. Laura, now over at the kitchen counter, is looking through the photos of the museum that Johnny had taken and used to plan his heist. Then a thought strikes her. Remember when you stole the 5 nudes of Cairo?

And Steelee gets a mischievous grin on his face and asks, which time

Sarah: He glor like, this is like

Eric: her eyes in just annoyance and says, 4 years ago with me when you were being blackmailed, she reminds him, and Steelee, still grinning, answers flippantly, oh, yes. The good old days. Laura says, we were in the museum, and she's now starting to catch Steelee's attention. They caught me, but you got away and you hid the painting, and Steelee's eyes just light up as he completes Laura's thought. Inside the museum.

Never hide a needle in a haystack. Always hide it with other needles. Right? She reminds him. The last place anyone thinks of looking, he says with satisfaction, and the best place for us to start, she says.

Well, next we see Lauren Steelee driving up toward the museum in Auburn, and Steelee is saying that if they can somehow retrace how they broke in, they should be able to find the paintings. Questionable assumption, but I guess they have to start somewhere. Yeah. Anyway, Laura had a handful of Johnny's photos and is studying 1 of them. And based on what she's seen in it, she concludes that Johnny would have started by circumventing the alarm system at the monitoring station.

Steelee looks at the photo and then the building trying to orient the image in the photo in his mind, and then points off to the side suggesting that it would be over there somewhere. So they get out and start toward the museum. Meanwhile, inside, Johnny wearing his flight jacket is bent over removing the ventilation grate from a wall. As he sets the grate on the floor, we see the paintings inside rolled up. As he pulls them out, we hear Harlow saying that he's impressed.

He'd forgotten how innovative and creative Johnny always was. Standing and turning to face Harlow, paintings under his arm, Johnny assures Harlow that he hasn't seen anything yet. He drops most of the paintings at his feet as Harlow demands Johnny give him back the paintings, assuring him that afterwards they will simply go on their separate ways.

Sarah: Yeah. Right.

Eric: Yeah. Right. Exactly. Now Johnny is gripping 1 of the unrolled paintings in his hands by the edge, and he looks Harlow dead in the eye and then without breaking eye contact, rips the painting in 2. Harlow freaks That's worth over $1,000,000.

And he steps toward Johnny to stop him, but Johnny has another painting in his hands ready to do the same to the second painting as he did the first and orders Harlow to stop right where he is. Panic, mixed with anger in his voice, Harlow insists that Johnny doesn't know what he's doing, and he's crazy.

Sarah: Oh, he knows exactly what he's doing. That's

Eric: That's what Johnny says. He says, I may be crazy, but I know exactly what I'm doing. And Harlow whips out a gun, points it straight at Johnny, and intensely asks Johnny, are you sure? Well, Lauren Steelee are in the security office. How did they get in there?

And why is there no 1 there?

Sarah: I wondered that too.

Eric: Wondered you say dereliction of duty?

Sarah: Yeah. I mean, it's bad enough when

Eric: you leave the monitors unattended, but to walk out and not even bother to lock the door behind you so anybody can walk in. Excuse me? Shh.

Sarah: And we're just gonna hand wave that. Hand wave that. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. It's it's kinda silly.

Eric: Anyway, Steelee suggests that they start looking, and he moves over to the large filing cabinet that's there straight from in front of the door and adjacent to the desk. But then they hear voices sounding as if they're coming from a small television nearby. And we hear, why did you do it, Johnny? Don't be stupid, Johnny. No.

It's not from a TV. It's the audio feed from the monitors. No.

Sarah: I know. I know. Know.

Eric: Laura stage whispers to Steelee to look as she turns to face the monitors.

Sarah: Why did she need to whisper? There's nobody there. Right? I wondered that too. I and it's interesting because I think the audio is only for our benefit in the sense that because, technically, all it would take for Laura to do would be to look at the screen and see that there's a gun.

Mhmm. Right? So yeah.

Eric: Yeah. Well, see, the thing is it it comes up here in a minute or so where Laura steps over and turns up the volume. Video surveillance monitors don't have individual volume controls, and I don't think a security setup monitor setup like this 1 would even have an audio monitor. More sophisticated systems do, but not this setup. Yeah.

Anyway, as they're looking, they hear the conversation continue, and we hear Harlow say, don't make me do this. And, of course, then Laura steps over to turn up the volume so they can hear better. Laura and Steelee hear Johnny say, not much different from the way you killed Chuck. Hey, Duncan? You're gonna pay for it.

And he tears up another painting in 2 as he says, you're gonna pay for murder.

Sarah: Good for him.

Eric: In a panic confusion, Laura asks, what is he doing? He's gonna get himself killed. And Steelee calmly responds that that's exactly what he's planning on doing. So Laura is shocked, and Steelee says, Johnny set this whole thing up. He points to the video recorder underneath the monitors, which is in record mode, and tells Laura that Johnny is so determined to prove that Harlow is a murderer, he's willing to die for it on videotape.

Over my dead body, Laura declares as she turns and rushes out of the office. Back out in the gallery, Johnny, with yet another painting in his hands, challenges Harlow. I call your bluff, Duncan. Lawrence Steelee rush out into an upper walk upper balcony walkway that surrounds the gallery, kind of looking down, you know, type thing. I don't know what it's called.

Anyway, they they can look down and they can see what's going on down below. And as they're doing it, Johnny rips the another painting in half again, and Laura screams, Johnny, no. But without the slightest hesitation on hearing her voice, Harlow turns and fires at Laura and Steelee, who

Sarah: Yep.

Eric: Duck behind the half wall at the edge of the walkway. Steelee stands. How dumb can you get?

Sarah: I know. Well, they do this all the time. They do this all the time. They they stand right up after someone shot at them. I guess they're done now.

Eric: And they weren't even kissing.

Sarah: Yeah. Great.

Eric: He stands, points to the security cameras, and hollers at Harlow that it's no use because it's all on videotape. Harlow looks up at the camera then turns to run. Johnny follows Harlow, Laura and Steelee run to join the pursuit. Harlow runs out a side door and then up onto the roof. And as he's running, he is checking behind him instead of watching where he's going.

He trips on a pipe, pitches forward, and crashes through the plastic sheeting covered skylight frame high above the gallery. It's I guess they're replacing the glass in the skylight because he didn't break any glass.

Sarah: Yeah. But you'd have to because you I don't think you'd be able to find like, you you wouldn't be able to put a circle back in and then, like

Eric: Well, that's true.

Sarah: You'd probably have to replace the whole thing.

Eric: Right? Yeah. But, I mean, it shouldn't have taken him this long. I wouldn't have True. And and they wouldn't have had to taken out all the glass.

But, anyway Yeah. Handwave. Handwave. Harlow's hanging by his fingertips. Johnny rushes over, kneels down, and grabs Harlow, grunting at him to hold on he's got him.

Harlow looks up at him and in a shaky voice replies, sorry, Johnny. I fold. He releases his grip and falls to the floor, presumably dying on impact.

Sarah: Which, I mean, it didn't look like it was that high, but I guess if you hit your head, yeah, I could see it.

Eric: Yeah. If you do it right.

Sarah: Yeah. Well, I I mean, I don't mean I don't think he

Eric: was Well

Sarah: trying to well, maybe he was. Yeah.

Eric: At least 2 at least 2 floors onto Yeah.

Sarah: That's a good point.

Eric: Hard probably concrete underneath the tile. Even if it's carpeted, I mean, you're still basically landing on concrete. So yeah. I mean, it's you'd have to hit just right, but it's doable, I think.

Sarah: Yeah. Anyway,

Eric: Steelee rushes over next to Johnny, and then he looks down at the body of Duncan Harlow. And it's it's too bad they didn't get a full real confession because, first of all, there's no real sense of justice here. There's no true closure. Johnny hasn't really been proven correct. Harlow hasn't really been proven to be a murderer.

But also, it's too bad for Chuck Certa's survivors because they lose out on his life insurance.

Sarah: Absolutely. And it's it's, I think, sad as well for Johnny who hated Duncan, but there would probably be still a part of him that remembered the man who saved his life and remembered the person that he thought he knew and would not like, that's why he tries to save him. I mean, it it's partly because he also wants him to face justice, but I don't think he wanted him to die. Like, I it was more about avenging his friend and getting justice for his friends. So there's there's that that element too.

Like, he's it's it's probably that he's holding 2 feelings at once. The feeling of, like, now he's never gonna face justice. And so that anger, and then also that feeling of, he was my friend. At 1 point, this person saved my life, and I I I depended on him. And Yeah.

Where do you put those feelings? Sometimes there's nowhere to put that, so it's hard.

Eric: Yeah. As as far as Chuck Surtrice's survivors losing on his life insurance, I I I'm pretty sure that this was the case back then, and I think it probably still is. Insurance companies generally will not cover you if you die in an airplane crash.

Sarah: And

Eric: so if they can prove that it was murder

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: They at least have a chance of getting his life insurance paid off. But that's not gonna happen. Anyway, next we're at the flight shack back at the airport. Johnny has gathered with the 3 remaining members of the flying aces squadron. And again, each is wearing their flight jackets.

Each has a drink in their hand and 1 drink sits in solitude on the table, Duncan Harlow's drink. As Laura, Steelee, and Johnny's daughter stand by, looking on, Johnny gives the solemn eulogy. And this this really kinda addresses what you just got done saying. He says, we're not here to stand in judgment over the Duncan Harlow who died. We leave that to a higher authority.

We're here to salute the Duncan Harlow who lived and dared 40 years ago in the skies over a darkened world, our trusted friend and greatest warrior. And that's really kind of what you were saying. Because you can still you can have those kinds of mixed feelings about somebody. Absolutely.

Sarah: And it shows the integrity of Johnny to salute his friend even though he's been

Eric: For 1, he tried to kill him.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: 2, he killed his friend.

Sarah: To acknowledge what he did, to respect what he did, but also in that eulogy, he does say, like, we're not like, that's up to that's up to a higher authority. There's an implication there that he's gonna pay for his crimes 1 way or another, whether it's terrestrially or, you know, in the next life. But

Eric: And they're they're not there to salute the man who died here in the 19 80 sixes.

Sarah: Exactly.

Eric: They're saluting the man, as he says, that they flew with, who fought with them together, a man who even though he might have been a little bit on the shady side back then, he still put his butt on the line for everybody else. He might have had mixed motives even then, but he was still there, still doing it, still hanging it out, and risking it all.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: So after they're done, miss Cooper rushes over to her father and hugs him. Lauren Steelee come up slowly behind.

Sarah: And Laura Her dress, gorgeous. She looks beautiful in that dress. Like, the blue looks really nice. Steele has that horrible jacket on from Suburban Steele. Sorry.

I hate that jacket. But Laura looks real good here.

Eric: Yeah. It her her dress, it's got a pattern on it. It's it's kind of a big pattern, but it's subdued. It's it's dark blue on on probably close to black. Yeah.

And it's a a simple the the cut of the dress is fairly simple, and and I don't wanna say basic, but it's not it's not frou frou.

Sarah: And I like it.

Eric: Yeah. I that's what I I that's what I like. I you know, nice, simple presentation.

Sarah: I was gonna say I was say I was gonna

Eric: say easy to unwrap, but that that's probably not

Sarah: appropriate. Anyway Anyhoo.

Eric: I don't know where that came from. Loor commends Johnny's speech calling it very nice. Steelee agrees adding that he's just glad it was Johnny toasting Harlow and not the other way around. Johnny thanks them and reaches out his hand to shake Steele's hand and says, I'll never forget you. He pauses and then after a moment says that if they don't mind, he'd like to take a little stroll by himself.

And clearly, heartsick over what happened, he walks out of the shack and toward the flight line. Laura tells miss Cooper that her father is a courageous man. And with a quiet pride and I think a touch of sadness, missus Cooper agrees that, yeah, he certainly is.

Sarah: Yeah.

Eric: And in the background behind Laura and miss Cooper, Steelee has been standing looking out at Johnny. Laura joins him. They step outside looking on as Johnny slowly walks the flight line, lost in his memories as Taps begins to play and the camera pulls back, leaving us with an image of Johnny, small in the frame, dwarfed by the planes and the past, and we freeze.

Sarah: It's a that's a really beautiful tag to this episode. You said taps. I thought that was the last post that was being played.

Eric: No. Taps. Okay. May maybe you the Canadian military calls it something different, but that's

Sarah: So it's it's what we play at Remembrance Day. Right? Like, it's because I had Like Yeah. I had a had a thing up on it. Now maybe I'm maybe there's a different thing that I'm thinking of, but, like, every Remembrance Day, we play The Last Post and Revelry.

Mhmm. And I I brought up a a bit of a history on it because I I thought that's what this is, and I'm if I'm wrong, I'm whew. But Arthur Lane was a bugler in the British Army when he was captured by Japanese forces during the fall of Singapore in 1942, spent the remainder of World War 2 in a POW camp, but he had his bugle with him, and it was his task to sound the last post for each of his comrades who died during those years. And that's kind of like where that tradition began. He Mhmm.

The sound of a lone bugler playing the last post has become 1 of the most distinctive sounds in the world. Eerie and evocative, it exists beyond all the usual barriers of nation, religion, race, class, charged with memory of generations of the fallen. It was first published in the 17 nineties and just 1 of the dozen or so bugle calls surrounded by the British army camps. So I thought it was the same thing.

Eric: What I'm seeing seeing here for Taps is that it was composed during the civil war in 1862 by major general Daniel Butterfield. Serves as the final solemn salute of respect, and since 2013 is the official song of remembrance.

Sarah: Yeah. Okay.

Eric: I've got it in the steps.

Sarah: Alright. Well, somebody help us out because I don't I don't know enough to be certain about this, so I'm gonna go with, yeah. Either way, it's a beautiful shot. It is. It really is.

Like, very respectful to the to the story that's being told, to the history behind it, to you know, you can see how this would have been very moving with Jimmy Stewart in the role, but the actor that they've got here does a fantastic job with it as well. Yeah. And it's just yeah. This episode, I I said this to you in a message, but I it's 1 of those episodes where I don't it's not a I I I really like it. I just I don't know why I forget that it exists until I rewatch it, and then I'm like, no.

This is good. Like, why don't I remember how good this is? Yeah. And I don't know why that is. It's, you know, it's not 1 of the more, like I guess maybe it's just because the fandom doesn't bring it up a lot, so it's not 1 that sticks in my brain.

But when I rewatch it, I'm like, no. No. No. I like this episode. This is a really good character episode for Steelee and for Laura and for the story that's being told.

Like, the actual case is a really good 1. So

Eric: That's that's the word I was gonna pull up here when you were done, is it's a good character episode, and not just for Laura and Steelee. Yeah. But there's there's an underlying emotional arc, for lack of a better word, for a non primary character. I mean, because Yeah. This this is this is a a 1 off character, doesn't come back again.

He's not a regular, semi regular.

Sarah: Yep.

Eric: But the story that he has here is far more emotional and intense.

Sarah: And And it's done in 45 minutes. It's it's

Eric: more than it's more than pretty much any other character gets. I mean, we've had some with, you know, like, some of the Felicia episodes and such that that had some deep emotional connections to steal. And so there was there was some good emotional connection and emotional arc there, but it was because it was tied in directly to 1 of our primary characters. This wasn't. And Yeah.

It's just it's so it's just the whole thing and and the tie in to the flying tigers. This is I mean, I have to wonder what Brad Kern's what he what connection he has. I I I can't believe that he just decided, oh, we're just gonna write a story about as an homage to the flying tigers. I I'm wondering I'm I'm thinking he's gotta have some sort of familial history with the the group or something that brought this to him to to cause him to write this because it's it's not a theme that is commonly pulled up in in shows like this. And and it is.

It's it's respectful of of our main character. It's respectful of all the the people from that era of the history. And, yeah, that last shot, it's I mean, it's that last shot is just

Sarah: Yeah. It's a really beautiful shot.

Eric: Yeah. I mean and that's that's really the last emotional jerk you get on this thing, and it's it's a it's it's just yeah, I I love this episode. It's just it's it's great. And and again, part of it is simply because I'm I have such an interest and affection for that time period and the things that, you know, so many people went through during that.

Sarah: Yeah. So I I I was looking it up to see if there was maybe like you said, maybe we called it something different, and I found a website that interestingly has taps versus last post. It says of all the bugle signals sounded around the world, the 2 that stand out as music of remembrance are the American bugle call taps and its Commonwealth counterpart, last post. With the exception of a few, most bugle calls are only a few bars long and are not usually recognized by the general population. To be sure, there are calls like revelry, first call, heard at racetracks, charge, heard at baseball games, and almost recognizable calls for retreat to the, and to the color that are sounded to mark the end of the military duty day, but taps in the last post are among the most recognized melodies in the world.

Both calls share a similar function in that they both are sounded at the end of the day and for funerals and memorial services. 2 good books in history. It mentions 2 different books. It has the the sheet music for both of them. It says, last post is 1 of a number of bugle calls in British military tradition which mark the phrases of the day.

Where revelry signaled the start of the soldiers' day, the last post signaled its end. It is believed originally to have been part of a more elaborate routine known in the British Army as tattoo, which they still do, actually, in in The UK, and its origins in the seventeenth century. During the evening, a duty officer had to do the rounds of his unit's position, checking the sentry posts were manned and rounding up off duty soldiers and packing them off to their beds or billets. He would be accompanied by 1 or more musicians. The first post was sounded when the duty officers started, and the party proceeded from post to post.

Drum was beat. Drum beats told the off duty soldiers, etcetera. And then it was played at the end of the day, essentially, signaled the end of the day. And then, of course, the last post incorporated into funeral and memorial services by the late nineteenth century in England as a final farewell symbolizing the duty of the dead is over and that they can rest in peace. At funerals and memorial services, the last post is followed by the call or the revelry.

The idea of having a wake up call follow a somber sounding dates back to many years. And this is what we do at Remembrance Day ceremonies. We play the last post and then revelry right after it, which kinda gives that promise of, like, resurrection, essentially. So it's I might be mixing up the 2 because they're very similar. Mhmm.

Eric: Certainly, similar in function.

Sarah: Yeah. They have the same function. And as you pointed out, the TAPS civil war connection. I guess maybe I just assumed it was the last post, if I'm wrong about it, because of the World War 2 connection. Mhmm.

Eric: Well, because it's US military, essentially, even though the ABG were not officially Mhmm. Part of the US military, you know, kinda 1 of those under under the table type things, it would be taps that would be the the appropriate music for that.

Sarah: Anyway, I just I found that an interesting deep dive because it was yeah. But, yeah, it the the whole you're right. This whole character arc is really well done, and we don't usually get that for guest guest characters. And and Laura and Steelee are kinda just along for the ride.

Eric: So Yeah.

Sarah: The fact that they give that tag to Johnny is important because it's his story, really, that we're following. It's not necessarily Laura and Steelee. They're just kind of, like, peripheral to it. So yeah.

Eric: Yeah. They're they're they're the the thing that that connects us to the story, but it's not like you said, it's not their story. So

Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: So Well, I guess Good episode. That's all I've got. Yeah.

Sarah: Same here.

Eric: Well, if you wanna head to our website, Steelewatching.com, you can find show notes, Amazon link to going in style. That'll be both Amazon US and Amazon Canada. And I may post a document in the Steele Watchers group or somewhere and post a link to it. And I will have a bunch of for anybody who's interested in the AVG, the flying tigers, wants to learn a little bit more about them, if maybe you don't know, I'll have a a bunch of YouTube videos that I'll link to to give you something to look at and to maybe learn a little bit more about them if if you are not familiar with them.

Sarah: Cool.

Eric: And besides that, we have other resources on the show notes, including

Sarah: The Facebook fan page, the Instagram and Twitter pages, as well as the officially unofficial Steele watching Facebook group, which is not our group, but we are a part of it, and it's lots of fun. So people should come and join us there and have lots of debates and discussions and all kinds of fun stuff. So

Eric: And you also have the opportunity to become a financial supporter of the podcast, help us cover the costs, as we had somebody do yesterday.

Sarah: Thank

Eric: 1 you. Of the things that we do offer, and we've mentioned this before, but for anybody that's new, when you become a supporter financially, we give you links to the live video stream of our recording sessions so you can see all of our screw ups in person and live before I edit them out.

Sarah: All of Eric's. Yes.

Eric: Alright. Well, next episode is another good 1. I'm not your father.

Sarah: Have been waiting for this. Have been waiting for this. This is my this I love this episode.

Eric: It's it's got such a great confrontation scene between Steele and Laura.

Sarah: Moment. Like, the whole episode is sensitive Steele. It's coming. Oh, she's so excited. I am excited.

Shush.

Eric: Alright. Well, hey. Thanks everybody for joining us. We'll talk to you next time. Bye bye.

Sarah: Bye bye.