Xenos

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

OK, so no romance except for the wonderful little bit at the end: "Hey, you guys, stop sparring. Go into a clinch." (God bless Maxie!!!) And then there's Laura's horrific lack of taste. Butch freakin' Beemis?!?! Oh, Laura!!! Laura, Laura, LAURA!!! I probably shouldn't like this episode...But I totally LOVE it!!! Guess they went out of their way to make up for the horrible cast last week because this cast was a hoot!!! Butch? Good Lord!!! Perfect!!! (Not like Pierce perfect...Sleazy perfect. You know...Auburn's type of guy!) Columbine Cooper? Heh-heh-heh!!! She pretty much said everything I'd want to say to Pierce: "You must pull me to your manly chest, stare deeply into my lambent eyes, and then probe me. And probe me. And probe me relentlessly." Oh-ho-ho, yeh-heh-hes!!! Maxie? So likable. "Handsome." (She's got great taste, too.) Not a bad seed in the whole bunch!

The mystery was really good. Kept me guessing. Especially when the money turned up. The wrap-up could've been handled better. If that tape had been loud enough for everyone to hear it upstairs, I suspect Mildred would be deaf. And how did she know when to play the tape? Could she really hear what Laura and Remington were saying while she was in that coffin? Way too icebox-ish for my taste. But the rest of the episode was so good that I'll forgive them.

The dialog was really snappy. Lots and lots of laughs. So many great lines, but here are some of my favorites (in addition to those listed above):
 

Laura (spying Butch opening his beer bottle with his teeth): What do you call that?!
Remington: Do it yourself orthodontia?
Laidlaw: That's Butch Beemis...The 'Chip Sledge' series?
Laura: Trash! Illiterate, chauvinist, trash. Degrading to women, degrading to the human race.
Laidlaw: Eighteen MILLION copies, worldwide.
Remington: That's a lot of degradation.
 

Grimm: Frankly, Miss Crabs, your agency...
Mildred: KREBS.
Grimm: Thank goodness...

(It's so stupid, but I laugh out loud every time!!!)
 

Butch (to Laura): If I let my private eye do what you're doing, my readers would barf.

(That Butch is all class, I tell you! Gary Graham is truly wonderful in this role!)
 

Remington: Laura, Have you just discovered you have hair?

(Gets me every time! HA!!! Such a great line...And so usable!)
 

After the lovely little exchange between Laura and Butch at her loft after he breaks in, Mr. Steele comes to the door...

Remington: Mr. Beemis.
Butch: Call me Butch.
Remington: Do I have to?
 

Butch: Gamble wasn't smart enough to find an elephant in an outhouse.
 

Laura: If we're gonna toss the joint...let's toss it!
Remington: What has that man done to your vocabulary?
 

Remington: I trust you and Gil Fox weren't...snared in rapturous tentacles of molten desire?
Columbine: Mr. Steele. What do you think I am? Easy?

(Oh, and Mr. Steele getting his finger caught in the book when Columbine exposes herself to him? Pure Brosnan brilliance!!! Hee-heeeeeee!!!)
 

Butch: Listen, why don't you slip into something a little more comfortable? Like your skin?
 

Butch: I didn't come over here to watch you make phone calls.
Laura: I'm WORKING.
Butch: My broads don't work on anything but me.
Laura: Really?
Butch: You don't understand. I'm BUTCH.
Laura: You don't understand. I'm Laura.

(THAT's my girl!!!)
 

Other Things Of Note:

LOVED how beautiful Mr. Steele was in this episode. (Like he's anything but!!!) It's just so striking, though, the difference in the length of his gorgeous hair for this episode and last week's. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! I love it longer like this!!! I wasn't nuts about the patterned jacket he wore, though. Made my TV go nuts. It kept fluttering.

Laura looked great in this episode. Wish I looked that great when I got out of the shower! Especially loved her simple red blouse with black pants. Classic. I went out and bought an outfit exactly like that after this episode aired the first time around.

HATED it when Laura confronted Nussman alone in his "cell". Did she learn NOTHING from Malta?!?!

LOVED the titles of the books. Especially "Kiss Me To A Pulp" and "Lust's Lovely Latitude". LOL!

Don't laugh, but I absolutely loved Laura falling for Butch. How stupid was she?!?! Especially when she has the perfect man standing right in front of her!!! *sigh* But we've all had insane moments of inexplicable lust, haven't we? The fact that she finally saw the light and put him in his place was sweet!!!

Remington with Maxie? How wonderful was that?!?! He's got such a beautiful heart, our Mr. Steele!!! *sigh*
 

Five stars!!! Great episode...Even without the romance.

Xenos

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

What does it say about an episode when its most memorable facet is a Neanderthal? I'm not sure if it's due to the actor or to the writing of the rest of the episode being so less-than-memorable. Upon re-watching, however, there are quite a lot of good exchanges here.

Memorable Stuff

- The scavenger hunt leading the way to "Mr. X". The dark overcoat & hat and his disappointment at not being recognized for his credit card commercials. (Someone remind me what that's a take-off on - was it AMEX?)
- Columbine Cooper! What a fun character who actually speaks the way some of those novels read. Had we but known....
- Love all the writers giving our duo advice on how best to solve the case
- Alf Nussman's redecoration of his apartment! Well, I guess it's better than committing a crime just to get back into prison. Love the graffiti with bad things to say about former agent Grimm.
- Columbine describing Gil Fox and then pausing - "Oh that's good. I must write that down."
 

Character Development

- Glad to see Mr. Steele backing away from Columbine. In earlier days he might have enjoyed her attention just a bit too much.
- On the other hand it's very hard to understand just WHY Laura has any attraction to Butch. To me he's only fascinating in a "traffic wreck" sort of way. Her attraction to him (much like The Rat later on) is baffling when she has Mr. Steele *right there*. Still, it's funny to see her playing with her hair after Butch suggests she needs to do something with it.
- After noticing how cold it was in Maxie's apartment, Mr. Steele's sixth-sense for the underdog comes out as he realizes her financial situation.
- Interesting to see how Mr. Steele can pretty well cover up his distaste at finding Butch in Laura's loft - though WE can see he doesn't like it. But he really doesn't like it when she refers to him as "work".
- On Laura's part it's interesting that when she comes out of the bathroom in her robe and finds Butch there, she's ticked off at him but confronts him without regard to her state of (un)dress. But when Mr. Steele enters, she immediately clutches the top of her robe together, obviously feeling uncomfortable at his finding her dressed as she is - and with Butch.
- Even when bickering in Gamble's office, R & L prove they still work so well together as a team.
 

Favorite lines

L (looking at Butch opening a bottle with his teeth): What do you call THAT?
R: Do-it-yourself orthodontia?
--------------
Columbine: You're going about this all wrong, Mr. Steele.
R: Oh really?
C: If you suspect me of nefarious deeds, I suggest you take a leaf from Rodney Van Dyke.
R: Rodney Van Dyke?
C: The dark, brooding, but beneath it all tender hero of my latest Gothic, "Lust's Lovely Lassitude". You must pull me to your manly chest, stare deeply into my lambent eyes and then probe me, and probe me and PROBE me relentlessly.
--------------
Pamela Johns: Myself and Gil Fox? Not that I can remember. And I do try to remember all my lovers.
R: Gives a bit more meaning to the experience, does it?
--------------
R: Reality can be a dreadful letdown.
--------------
Laidlaw: He's dead.
R: Dead? How?
L: Poisoned.
R: Wha? Why didn't you tell me?
L: And alarm you un-necessarily?
--------------
R: Mr. Bemis
B: Call me Butch.
R: Do I have to?
--------------
R (re: Butch): The man makes the Marquis de Sade look like Captain Kangaroo.
L (interested, in spite of herself): Really?
--------------
L: But we don't have any unaccounted corpses. Whose body?
R: Laura, I can only lead you so far.
--------------
L: Good Lord, there IS a body!
R: When will you learn to trust me Laura?
 
 

Hair & Clothing

- I love Laura's hair and her blue-striped sweater in the opening. In fact, her hair looks good throughout most of this episode.
- She also looks great in the red blouse and black pants
- They both look smashing in their break-in clothes
 

Goofs, Headscratchers & Misc

- Much of the "mystery music" used here is the same as in the Descoine episodes.
- Has Laura always had a doorbell/buzzer? I don't remember hearing it used before this episode.
- Mr. Steele wears gloves while breaking into the Guild - but Laura doesn't. What's up with that?
- Looks like the kiss (and the fist to the chin) at the end of the episode may have been ad libbed. It's not in the script and SZ looks surprised.
- Suejue's much needed continuation of this episode: http://krebsfiles.com/steeleplotscrap.html

Xenos

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

And I must say that while watching I was thinking of how Xenos would like to be in Columbine's shoes, er, skin - at least until she's revealed as the baddie!

Mick

XXXenos

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

1) Laura is nuts with serious taste issues in men

2) Beamis is a pig but he's not behaving much more self importantly here than a certain lady detective. I'm Butch. I'm Laura. That about sums it up.

3) Laura has hair and Steele delivers the best one liner in the episode because of it.

4) Steele is a complete sweetheart with Max. As usual he doesn't miss anything really important about people.

5) Columbine is a fruitcake but even she knows probing Mr Steele beats panting over Mr. Do It Yourself Orthodontia.

6) Mr. Steele is "work". Laura is nuts

7) The three word titles and the the three inch novels -- very funny Robert Ludlum joke.

8) Mr. Steele is not only gorgeous, witty, intelligent and kind (and all in this episode!) but he uses the word OUVRE. A great vocabulary is so sexy. How anyone could resist jumping him right then and there is beyond my ability to comprehend.

9) Mr Steele in black break in clothes.

10) Laura is nuts
 

I know most everyone has mentioned it so far but....I just loved the hair line also...I think it's so funny!! I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Just want to let everyone know how much I've enjoyed all of the posts for SOTW. Great job everyone!

Jilly 

Laura is nuts!!!

Hee-heeeeeeeeeeee!!!
 

Xenos

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