Xenos

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

Xenos

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

I actually really like this one. While it's not in my top ten, I do consider it a favorite. I like all the emotion we get to see from Laura during this episode. All of the emotion breaks me up.

Neeney

everybody knows that brunettes have more fun :)

I don't like the way he follows Anna like a puppydog and is so naive to fall for the trap, and has to have Laura save his butt. But then again, I havent see it in a while, so let me watch and then adjust my statement accordingly! lol

"You lived with a man who wears white belts? Am I disappointed"
BoaW 08/07

However, Pierce's current wife is a brunette.......

Will post on the show after a rewatch 

Pierce Brosnan didn't need blue mankini trunks to be Bond.

Both leads do an excellent job of displaying the confusion of emotions running through the characters.
 

Memorable Stuff

- Mr. Steele "testing" the security system.
- Nice job by PB of switching from the flattering Mr. Steele to the dumbstruck man Anna left behind when he sees her in the museum.
- I don't know where the Patton estate really is, but the grounds are gorgeous
- That Anna is a true snake in the grass, playing Mr. Steele and Raymond against each other.
- A payphone on the sidewalk in the Patton neighborhood? Yeah, right!
- Laura and Mildred's discussion in the reception area. Mildred is our voice urging Laura to fight for Mr. Steele. Love the little purse toss she does as she walks out the door.
- Mr. Steele slouched down in the Auburn, staking out Merleau's movements. Yeah, THAT's inconspicuous!
- Interesting that for once, the agency gun is in the first place Mr. Steele looks
- The "showdown" between Laura and Anna at the gallery. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! (and it wasn't even close)
- Interesting that Anna never calls him by one of his old names, only "Remington Steele"
- Merleau's a pretty sorry shot if he couldn't hit Mr. Steele with a wide open shot at close range
- I had never noticed that, in the tag scene, one Mr. Steele comes inside, SZ stands up on her tiptoes the whole time they're at the door. At least I assume that's what she's doing. As they walk away from the door, you can see the floor and there's no little box for her to stand on, unless they somehow kick it quietly out of the way.
- Love the ending. Sigh. The first time around it was just building up my hope that, before the season was out, they'd FINALLY be together! Little did I know...
 

Character Development

- Great job by SZ of portraying Laura's frustration at Mr. Steele's distraction with Anna.
- Love the scene at Laura's when Mr. Steele tells her about Anna. She vents her frustration in a calm manner and he responds with real honesty, for a change. The sweetness of the kiss at the end of the scene, combined with his late-night return to his apartment really made me wonder (the first time I saw it) whether or not they'd finally "crossed the line".
- I love that Laura follows Mr. Steele to the Patton estate and they have their little chat. I totally understand how he wants to get things straight in his own head before talking with her, but I love how she firmly reminds him that he's in a relationship now and needs to be included in the thought process.
- The not-so-buried rage of the street lad boiling to the surface at the pawn shop
- The disappointed ex-suitor who finally realizes what Anna is

Favorite lines

L: Mr. Steele has tested any number of systems around the world. Or would you say the western hemisphere?
R: Worldwide will do.
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L: Why should I care if he wants to see someone else? Why should I feel like I want to KILL HIM?
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L (to Anna): And as far as you and Mr. Steele are concerned, I wouldn't be too quick to celebrate victory. We haven't even put on the gloves yet. (you go girl!)
 

Hair & Clothing

- Love Laura's strapless dress she wears to dinner. And, of course, nobody looks better in a tux, though the bowtie does seem a bit large. It's actually sexier with the shirt unbuttoned when he goes to Laura's loft.
- I kept thinking Cassie was going to fall out of her formal dress. Poor thing, such 80s hair!
- I like Laura's red top with the black skirt
- I'm still not crazy about that dark dress with the criss-cross pattern that Laura wears. The turquoise jacket doesn't help, either.
 

Goofs, Headscratchers & Misc

- Is Raymond Merleau a tip of the hat to Raymond Chandler & Philip Marlowe?
- Christopher Stone's first appearance. In this episode he's the cowboy who picks up Anna. In Steele Hanging In There he's the boorish client who wants Laura to fetch his coffee.
- If Merleau's "invested too much to let either of you out of here", why does he run away once Mr. Steele disarms him?
- Laura escorts Anna out the door of the club. Why? Wouldn't it be better to keep her inside where they can both keep an eye on her until the police come?
 

Of course, you covered several things from my mental notes.

1. The inconspicuous Auburn. And, a few moments later, the white VW tailing Anna (with Laura dressed in bright turquoise.) Geez people! BLEND IN!

2. Steele finding the gun right away. However, it didn't show him finding the bullets. Wasn't he wearing the same suit the next morning when Laura found him at Mildred's desk? Maybe he spent the whole night looking for them.

3. Love Stephanie on tiptoes too. Ace posted that somewhere awhile ago and I've had a new appreciation for how well they work with the height difference ever since.

I loved this episode as a kid. I even remember recounting it in full detail to a fellow RS watcher at school the next day. I'm not so much of a fan of it as an adult, but perhaps part of that is due to the fact that, like Mickey, I expected a little more "brazen-ness" to follow in future episodes.

The fashion and the editing both bugged me through this watching. I think the only piece of fashion I liked were Anna's sunglasses at the saloon / inn. Steele's khaki pants, blue jacket, and red tie look great, but resemble too closely the school uniforms I'm having to buy my soon-to-be kindergartener. (He doesn't have to wear the tie, but the upper grades do.) Steele's clothes in the tag would be great without the jacket.

There were so many abrupt editing cuts that I stopped counting. The most frustrating, though, was during Mildred's talk with Laura right after she says "Oh, Honey." I so want to know what was cut. Every bit of that conversation was gold. I wanted more.

On that note, I do enjoy watching Laura fight a bit for Steele. Why can she only realize how much he means to her when she's in danger of losing him? The "gloves" talk with Anna was great, but it would have been interesting to watch what Laura would have done / said if Anna hadn't turned out to be such a bad girl and Steele had struggled a little longer with his choice.

A few other random thoughts:

I have the original version of this taped, so I realize they changed the music yet again, but that was not "blues" playing when Laura questions the cowboy.

They did some serious damage to the club with all of those gunshots and fist fighting. Who paid that bill?

The rare uninterrupted kiss was lovely. I've read at least one piece of fanfic that follows Mickey's idea that this is where they "crossed the line." Kuddos the the writer if you're out there.

Judith, thanks for the script to "Memories of Steele." Gotta agree with Ace. That would have made a better episode. Overall, though, it wasn't bad. The ending scores a 10 in my book. 

I've read at least one piece of fanfic that follows Mickey's idea that this is where they "crossed the line." Kuddos the the writer if you're out there.

-I too love the scene at Laura's apartment when he tells her about Anna. I only hope if they had "crossed the line" then he would have stayed put until the morning!!

-Poor Remington. He seems to have a lot of friends but almost all of the friends (or former lovers) we see try to get him to do something illegal and many of them wind up dead or in serious trouble. Monroe may be the only friend we see who is trying to stay on the straight and narrow.

-I think in the thread "What about Weekends" there was a little debate about whether Laura had friends. Maybe yes and maybe no but if I were Laura I may not want any friends if they were like Remington's!

-This is a matter of opinion of course but who is the "Woman of Steele" in the title-- Anna or Laura?

I think Steele is clueless for too long and his mood swing with Laura is so abrupt as to be inexplicable.  The parts where he sees Anna risen from the dead are written well - his confusion and ignoring Laura are very understandable human reactions even if they hurt Laura.  But then they have that great intimate talk and then the next day he is so terse and it comes out of nowhere.  Yes he saw Anna again later that night and you could see if the confusion returned in other ways but not in the way he brushed off Laura.  There seem to be a huge transition scene or some sizable dialogue tossed in the shredder.

But I also think Laura comes off self absorbed and pushy. She says she understands what Steele is going though but she really doesn't.  She doesn't want to give him time or space or to trust he'll take care of it.  She has a right to be concerned but she does not have the right to interfere when he asks her not to.  Now interfering is professionally what she does best and she's right and helpful to him in the end but she's not doing it for any selfless reasons.  [Any more than Steele went after Creighton Phillips for noble self sacrificing reasons]  She sees him slipping away and stakes claim to what she considers hers.  When she follows him to the estate after he's made it clear he wants his space she's out of line.  He has every right to ask what she's doing there.  And her declaration that she always knew he had his damn past over her is wrong headed.  Everyone has a past and it belongs to them -- even if their present was "created" by someone else.  Laura's past has certainly affected her and their relationship.

In the original script Steele's tunnel vision driving need to help Anna rings more true  because he's not only dealing with lost love but the guilt over her "death" and what happened after -- that his greed for another heist caused it.  His guilt explains more why he's willing to overlook so many dodgy elements of Anna's story and to disregard and even become upset over anything disparaging or suspicious Laura might have on her. [Anna is also less of a caricature so it also is more believable] He's also smarter in the original script when he takes Laura's hint and information. 

There's also more of a sense of both people struggling emotionally with this upheaval and not knowing how to handle it and worried about how it affects them individually and as a couple.  It also has my favorite exchange from the script -
 

Steele: Help Me.

Laura: I don't know how. (leaves)

Here, Steele is asking for emotional help but Laura is too overwhelmed.  But he is asking for help and the help she can give is investigating Anna.  This little exchange gave more insight and purpose to both their subsequent actions in the script than anything in the re-write.