Xenos 

Isabel 

Xenos

Mamma Mia!!! Pierce Brosnan...Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!

Isabel

I had no idea this was the last time that I would see Murphy and Bernice. I
liked them so much and was so disappointed when Season Two began and saw that they were no longer in the show. In fact, I kind of resented poor Mildred and it took me a while to warm up to her.

I liked the way this episode developed over a weekend. By the way, did anyone sleep during these two days? They didn't seem that tired at all. I don't remember other episodes making reference to the time as it was done on this one. I know that "Beg, Borrow or Steele" also developed over a couple of days.

The costars were so very good, especially Alfredo. I could almost feel his
desperation when his car was gone. I was glad that Murphy finally moved on
and found someone he liked. She certainly was not very good as a psychologist,
but that is besides the point since she could operate a crane.

Sure do like when both Laura and Remington are all dressed in black. How
many times do we see them dressed like this throughout the series? I bet someone has this listed somewhere.

It sure was easy getting into that federal government bank. I guess that the writers felt that by now fans would just not pay that much attention to such details.

Isabel 

Memorable Stuff

- John Doolittle just does an excellent job as Alfred. He's so totally believable as the nervous office geek who can't believe what's happening to him. (And he does have just *the* worst luck trying to kill himself!)
- Steele "assigning" Cutler (Codfish!) to keep watch over Alfred
- Love how Steele's mouth is just running a mile-a-minute when he's trying to explain to Laura why he's late and who Alfred is
- The hanging-out-the-limo-door-in-front-of-an-oncoming-semi stunt was really well done
- Steele desperately trying to collect anything in Murphy's condo that might allow Alfred to harm himself
- The looks on R&L's faces when Sherry comes down the stairs
- Love how Steph slips into a more nasal Midwestern accent when she's playing Alfred's cousin from Cleveland
- R&L in business suits at Lingerie - talk about fish out of water!
- Teamwork in action: the story R&L feed the gun seller - "Daddy got his favorite piece from you...and if Clark here hadn't lost it..." great fun. Love how they shake hands over a joint story told well.
- What else would you take to break into a Federal Bank but the limo?!
- The "fantasies" discussion in the money shredder along with the very tender kiss there.
- Love L jumping on to the security guard's back
- Poor Bernice, she feels so left out: Alfred & Angelica, Murphy & Sherry, Remington & Laura - plus she has no clue what they all went through over the weekend.
 

Character Development

- Once again we Steele's penchant for helping out the underdog - this time by preventing Alfred from jumping off the bridge. We also see how personally he takes it when Alfred runs off again.
- Murphy gets a life of his own!! Hurray for him! Patsy Pease's Sherry is a wonderful partner for Murph. You can see she and Laura share a lot of qualities. I love the fanfic that pairs the two of them up permanently.
- We learn about the angry young man Steele used to be
- Laura's not good with sheer drops
 

Favorite lines

Alfred: (near to tears) Now I've lost everything. The money, my job, Angelica. (suddenly dry-eyed) Do these windows open from the inside?
--------------
R: I've always wanted to roll about in millions of dollars with a beautiful woman. Curious how one's fantasies are fulfilled, eh?
L: Maybe it's time we started thinking about fulfilling some other fantasies.
R: Whose? Yours or mine?
L: Ours. It's always good to take things slow and not rush things between us, not get in too deep. But only because we both assume we'll both be around when the proper time comes.
R: I know. I almost lost you out there tonight. Suddenly I realized I'm not prepared for that at all.
 

Hair & Clothing

- Like Laura's suit & the white blouse. Think it's the same blouse from Steele Flying High?
- Murphy looks really cute and right at home in that maroon sweatshirt. No plaid! He does lose a few points for the Members Only jacket, but it *was* the 80s.
- Steele in a suit. Steele in black. It's all good.
- Why, oh why, does wardrobe insist on putting Laura in espadrilles for break-in? Wouldn't black sneakers be more sensible? But she looks great in her black burglar outfit.
 

Goofs, Headscratchers & Misc

- I think the parking lot of "the bank" is the same one they use for the twin towers lot.
- The window in the office does actually open - unlike in later episodes
- Sign of the times - Sherry told Murphy she's a "stewardess"
- Had never noticed the similarities between the "Alfred, you're alive" scene and the "Laura, you're alive" scene in Threads. In both cases he holds the "dead" person's head in his hands, brings it to his chest while he's repeating "you're alive". Then he stops, pushes them back a bit and says "Why are you alive?"
- They've been "rolling about in millions of (shredded) dollars" and have bits & pieces all over their clothes. Yet while searching Whitcomb's office, they barely have any bits on them at all. Later on they have even less.
- To see what Fred thought about all of this, check out Anne's "Steele Drivin' Man 10" : http://home.flash.net/~pace2000/steeledrivinman10.html
 

The last few scenes of this episode left me with such great hope that they'd finally "cross the line, turn the corner" etc. in Season Two. If only I'd known!
 

Thank you, I want you to know that I really appreciate your commitment to SOTW.

Isabel

I have always really liked this episode. Little did we know it would be the last time we saw Ms. Wolf and Murphy. I do feel for Bernice, she only got 1 scene! At least Murphy got a great girl. I can totally see Sherry and Murphy going off together and starting their own agency.

Ok, here we go:

In the opening scenes of them counting the money to be shredded did you notice that there was a $1 mingled in with those $100's? That's a BIG TIME NO NO!! And also, why were they only shredding $100's? They are the least used denomination in circulation and there would have been WAY more 1's, 5's, 10's and 20's being shredded than 100's. One more thing about the money and I'll move on.....I have seen well over 2 million in cash and even in 100's it would have been much bigger than the bag Alfred took. A block of $100,000.00 in 100's is about the size of a note book, times that by 23 and you would have a couple of those bags at least. Ok, I will stop being a banker now. LOL

I love the way Laura says "Mr. Steele" through gritted teeth. No one does that better than Stephanie!

How come the apartment manager never noticed Angelica in the apartment for 2 months, but she catches Laura, Remington, and Alfred in a matter of seconds? If she is that on the ball, you would have thought she would notice Angelica's comings and goings.

Poor Murphy....finaly gets a girl that's NOT Laura and their party gets crashed by Remington and Laura. I also loved them running through his place gathering up any possible death instruments, and the great line..."My six iron's slipping".

What a sweet "ode to Laura" Remington gives Alfred about how his life was in the crapper too until he met someone that turned it all around. If only Laura could have heard that!!!

Ok, I know I said I was done with the banking stuff, but one more. LOL Money straps don't just have the name of the institution they came from printed on them. It might have had "FRB", but it also would have had an amount on it. It doesn't do much good to put a strap on money if it doesn't say how much is in that strap. K, I promise....I'm done with the money stuff. LOL

OH!, the story at the gun shop was one of the best ever!!! Only a couple who were meant to be together forever could spin a tale that tall, that fast, and with such great detail!! My favorite part was Laura's...."but NOOOOO". Priceless!

It's already been said here, but both Laura and Murphy in "Members Only" jackets!!! A true sign of the 80's. Although our hero's BOTH looked great dressed in all black! But I'm with you Mickey on the shoes. LOL

Mickey already said EVERYTHING I was going to say about the shredder room, so I will not repeat it here.

One of the best parts of the episode IMO, was Remington dropping the bricks of money on Laura. The look on her face as each one fell on her was great, and she didn't yelp once! And trust me, those things would have HURT!

And finally, "We will be having tea." A wonderful ending to a great episode, and a fantasic 1st season. I will miss Murhphy and Bernice, but I LOVE Mildred so all will be well.

I'm oh so excited to start the "love season". Season 2 is, without a doubt, my favorite all around season.

Brenda

A couple of things,

I think it's funny that Angelica goes to a punk club in the middle of the night to get her mind off of her troubles. The outfit she's got on, black with the polka dots...makes her look like Minnie Mouse.

A PUNK version of "Gone with the Wind". LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

Patsy Pease as Sherry Webster. I'm totally soooo not sorry for Murphy any more when I see that he snagged our Miss Webster. Funny how she too like Laura has to pretend to be something she's NOT in order to function in 80's society.
 

DCZinger

"It takes two to bicker, Laura. A daddy-bickerer and a mummy-bickerer."

    where did you take RS 101

LOL! Many years of deep study. The series ended the year I graduated college and it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. So I basically set it aside for awhile as I was learning to live out in the "real world". I did run across my tapes (S2-5) when moving to my house about 10 years ago and popped them in and really enjoyed it. Happened to run across the DVDs about a year ago and have been re-hooked ever since.

I did tape S1 eps, but would just tape over the ep each week. The concept of keeping a tape was a bit foreign - heck, we didn't even have a VCR until sometime in the fall of '82! But when I kept playing "Circulation" over and over and over during the summer, I realized I needed to keep the eps from then on.

Fast talking Mr. Steele on the bridge (and later in the office)
 

    "Ah, you know Alfred, I've just had a thought. I mean, if you're
    so anxious to get to the pavement down there, I mean, why don't
    you let me drive you? I mean, my car's only over there and ah,
    I'll have Fred my chauffeur drive you wherever you like."

    "I don't think that will produce the same result."

Very clever and funny.

Steele's smile and laugh at "It was the smallest they had"

Windows open here but not in Elegy. Did they get them permanently closed?

That story Steele tells to Alfred is an ode to Daniel not Laura. Meeting her was a huge turning point in his life but she didn't save him from despair and anger and life that held no promise. That was Daniel when he was living on the streets as a kid -- as we find out in Sting and he was (understandably) filled with anger and rage. When he met Laura he was an experienced carefree cultured playboy 'artist" in striking distance of $2m in gems he could have easily snagged instead of coming back to be Steele.

Why is Laura so squished over in the limo -- is it to keep Alfred from moving an inch or to fit all three in the camera shot? The limo/truck scene is very well done -- no wonder they kept used it for the credits.

Why did Laura call up Mr Steele about the missing Koi when assured Murphy she could handle it by herself?

Steele looks so thrilled to see Sherry - as he should. ;)
 

    "Well, I see, tell me, ah, Sherry. Do you by any chance know how to
    brew a pot of tea?"

    "Tea? I guess I- Why?"

    "Because tea is such a *mature*, *civilised* drink, and in a few minutes
    I sense that we need to be as mature and as civilised as we can possibly
    be. My six iron is slipping, excuse me."

Sherry's shared smile with Steele over that last line -- too funny.

I always thought Sherry was more like Steele than Laura -- master of all those surprise unique skills, movie buff, proponent of getting lucky while using another identity, easy going -- and I found it highly amusing that Murphy would wind up with a kind of Steele female counterpart (though one on the straight and narrow). :D

"That's the bank -- all the numbers at the bank start with 555."

LOL! All the numbers in the show start with 555 -- (all the numbers in film and tv for that matter)

Where is Mr Steele's stubble? Did he have time to shave during the night? I can understand if he had time the next day after finding Alfred but he should be sporting some serious shadow by 3:45 am like he did in Beg Borrow & Steele.

Mr Steele is so upset and worried about Alfred that he doesn't even get excited when Sherry hits back with a film annotation. Now that's upset.

Laura and Steele's fast patter about daddy and his gun and the moose head and shaking hands. Fun and we can see why she doesn't need Murphy to come in -- she has a new partner.

    "Are you two really sisters?

    "Funny, most people can tell right off"
 

 
    "I'm not very good with sheer drops"

    "Yes, well then it's unanimous"

Hah. :D

    "I've always wanted to roll about in millions of dollars with a
    beautiful woman. Curious how one's fantasies are fulfilled, hey?"

    "Maybe it's time to start thinking about fulfilling some other
    fantasies."

    "Whose? Yours or mine?"

    "Ours. It's always good to take things slow, and not rush things
    between us. Not get in too deep. But only because we assume we'll
    both be around when the proper time comes."

    "I know. I almost lost you out there tonight. Suddenly, I realised
    I'm not prepared for that at all. Ah yes. I can't think of a
    conversation I'd like to continue more. But I'm afraid I haven't left
    any room for it in the schedule."

Murphy goes to get his performance analyzed again -- Steele goes off to have tea with Laura.
 

FASHION:

I really like Laura's beige pinstripe suit. Ditto Steele's lovely checked tweed. Good thing since they wear them so long. Unbelievable that both outfits still look so good after that continuous wear.

Laura wears those wedged shoes because they need to put SZ in some kind of heel. PB can only crouch so much for the camera.

Members Only jackets -- well thankfully at least Mr. Steele kept his head and didn't don one -- someone has to maintain sartorial standards. His black breaking in jacket with all the zippers is lovely -- but then he probably gets so much use out of it. :D 

    The outfit she's got on, black with the polka dots...makes her look like Minnie Mouse. 

And I must say I liked Patsy Pease here a lot more than I did as Kimberly Brady on DOOL. But it's probably because Sherry was a lot more fun and didn't have to deal with the weekly drama like Kimberly did!

I can see that most of the episode is write up by others so I will just say what I love in this one:

- Laura choosing Steele over Murphy to help with the case (even when it is the boring one)
- Alfred and his grey life
- Laura getting rough with a chain to help and Steele's face when he sees her
- Sherry - I agree that she is perfect second half for Murphy like Steele is a perfect second half for Laura
- Fulfilling 'yours and mine' fantasizes conversation initiated by Laura and ended by Steele(what the hell he was thinking)
- End of episode when three couples are leaving office - God what I will give to hear this pressing conversation between Laura and Remington
- 'Lingerie' scene when I thin both of them had their self-esteem improved
- Do you think Steele had any thoughts about red collar necklace?
 

Very sad that the writers didn't show how Murphy and Bernice left, as much as I love Mildred and wouldn't trait seasons 2-4 for anything I think those two deserve more then two line from R - don't you think?

As for fashion - love Laura grey suit she looks so sexy in it, R will look good in a potato sack so I won't count him, and Murphy in his underwear - ummmmmmm! (well rather to see R in his underwear but the writers gave us Murphy - ok with me as well)

Well for me a headscratcher was - the breaking in to the bank - I know that today's security is more tight but would anybody not notice the crane operating at night?

Nan - Sailing 

Nan, so true. I am sure Xenos will agree with you.

Isabel

Sorry about the late post. The best things about this episode have already been covered, so I'm afraid I won't have much to add. Interesting observation by Ace...

    I always thought Sherry was more like Steele than Laura -- master of all those surprise unique skills, movie buff, proponent of getting lucky while using another identity, easy going -- and I found it highly amusing that Murphy would wind up with a kind of Steele female counterpart (though one on the straight and narrow).

Never thought of it that way...But you're right!!!

I was listening to Pierce's commentary on "License to Steele" again yesterday and he was talking about "playing with pace" (like they did in the old Cary Grant movies) and how they would often times come up short because of it. I'm sure they came up VERY short on this episode. Pierce and Steph can REALLY machine-gun it, eh? First when Remington saves Alfred, then when he's trying to explain it to Laura, and then when Laura and "Clark" are spinning a tall tale about the gun in the moosehead! KUDOS to both!!!

The casting was superb..."Alfredo", Sherry, "Codfish" (a rip-off from Peter Pan...those with kids will recognize that), Angelica ("Mini Mouse" as Zinger so aptly called her) and even the "Frankly my dear, you STINK" guy! The only glaring exception -- the landlady. Couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. Wonder whose friend she was.

The clothing in this episode was very nice. Loved most all the outfits (except Mini Mouse). Laura's break-in outfit was particularly stunning with the purplish turtleneck. Remington in all black...GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! (Though I always wondered how they got so clean after rolling around in all that burned money! LOL!) Would have loved to see some stubble on him, though. Damn, he looks sexy with a day or two of stubble!

Other notable stuff:
* The "fantasy" scene!!! OMG, OMG, OMG!!! I remember seeing that scene as a kid and turning bright red! (Even at 13 I was having fantasies about Pierce! Some things NEVER change!)
* Remington and "the underdog". Such a wonderful aspect to his persona! As compelling as watching him with children. *sigh*
* Murphy in his boxers! Mmmmmmm!!! Not as good as seeing Mr. Steele in his tighty-whities, but I'm not complaining!!!
* Sherry's deception -- stewardess turned psychologist turned crane operator! HA! A "Jackie of all Trades"! (Oh, and Mick...I LOVED her as Kimberly on DOOL!)
* "Broken Promises" and "Lingerie"
* Poor Alfredo! Tries to help someone he loves and -- willy nilly -- doesn't it backfire on him! Haven't we ALL had an experience like that? Probably not on that large a scale, but...
* Remington's six iron slipping! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! No doubt, you know I'd be the first one to help him with it!
* Poor Bernice looking absolutely stunned as the couples come out of the offices. Hee-heeeeeeeee!

Overall, a wonderful episode. Sad that we never get to see Bernice or Murph again. *sigh*
 

Xenos

Mamma Mia!!! Pierce Brosnan...Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!