CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME

Picture courtesy of Anke Lantin

The Agency need to get into a invitational charity automobile event run by Jerry Perrine that’s being held at the Equadome. They have discovered that he, along with three powerful business commodities ‘prospectors’, Bruno Sarkissien, Bart Taggart and Ted Masterson, are going to be there to discuss some kind of deal.

While Billy, Francine and Lee are discussing the various ways they have failed to get an invite, Amanda appears and talks about a charity event she’s the refreshments director for that weekend, asking if the Agency would like to sponsor a spot on the page of the brochure. Billy agrees, then Amanda leaves.

Later that day outside the Equadome, Lee and Billy sit in a car by the stables while an Agency surveillance van is parked nearby checking on the vehicles that enter the complex. Lee is still angry over the fact they can’t ge tin knowing that the biggest speculators are going to be present and to put them away they need all the evidence they can get.

Inside the complex, Masterson tries to find out from Perrine what exactly he’s selling. Perrine refuses to say and tells him he’ll know at 2pm the following day.

Inside the surveillance van, the agent sees a station wagon pull up and asks Billy if he wants a licence check. Billy looks through his binoculars and tells the agent not to bother as he knows who it is. He hands Lee the glasses and Lee surprise matches Billy’s when he sees it’s Amanda.

That evening, Lee visits Amanda at her house and asks her to get him into the event the next day. Amanda isn’t sure she can but he eventually persuades her take him along as the new barman. The next day, Lee is bartending and sees another wealthy speculator called, Carling London, arrive and becomes frustrated at not being able to move away from the bar.

Out of the main show area, Masterson asks London if he wants to go into partnership but London refuses as he knows that Masterson is nearly broke. He then tells him that he’ll stop him from trying to make the same deal with anyone else so Masterson kills him and puts him in the trunk of Perrine’s classic car, an Excaliber.

Back at the bar, Lee spots Perrine and Taggart and decides to eavesdrop on their conversation. He overhears Perrine mention a formula then is spotted and told to go back to the bar. As Lee walks away, Perrine calls over a guard to keep and eye on him. Lee goes back and tells Amanda what he heard and asks her if she has any idea where the formula could be hidden. Amanda suggests Perrine’s car but Lee says it’s too obvious. Undeterred, Amanada slips away to check the Excaliber out while Lee is distracted by people asking for drinks. Unfortunately, instead of finding the formula, she finds London’s body. She rushes back and tells Lee who tells her that if they do anything then the killer we know they’re on to him. He then notices Perrine and his associates heading off for their meeting and follows them leaving Amanda in charge of the bar.

Lee follows them to an office and stands outside listening in through the window to Perrine’s explanation of the formula – it’s a catalyst that neutralises the nitrogen in the soil and so controls crop growth. As Lee listens, a dog comes up and starts barking at him, then grabs his trouser leg refusing to let go. Hearing the commotion, a guard appears and takes Lee to the kitchen and locks him in the freezer store.

Concerned that Lee hasn’t returned, Amanda goes in search of Billy at the stables where he’s keeping surveillance. Amanda expresses her fear for Lee as there’s a killer loose but Billy tells her he’s probably onto something and will be back in due time. On the way back to the bar, Amanda cuts through the house and overhears the guard talking about Lee on his radio and goes to investigate. Sneaking up on him, she whacks him on the head with a saucepan and knocks him out then releases Lee from the freezer.

As he’s so cold, Amanda vigorously rubs his arms and hands and he tells her what he’s found out explaining that the formula could cause famine for some one crop countries. He then changes into the guards clothes and tells Amanda to go back to the bar while he circulates.

Meanwhile, Perrine goes to his car and opens the trunk. He is shocked to see London’s body laying there but reaches past it to retrieve the formula from a compartment. He then tells his mechanic that he’s pulling his car from the show and walks back to the main show area and over to the bar where he places the formula underneath the checklist on Amanda’s clipboard. Moving away, he waits and sees Masterson walk over and steal the clipboard. Amanda also sees him and starts to give chase as does Perrine. Lee sees Amanda rushing after Masterson and also follows.

Perrine is the first to catch Masterson but after a brief tussle Masterson gets away and runs over to lee’s porsche and jumps in, driving off. Lee runs up just in time to see Masterson pull away in his car and jumps into the Excaliber with Amanda and races after him. As they speed by the stables, Billy, accompanied by another agent, set off after them in pursuit.

After a hair-raising chase along narrow roads, masterson eventually has to stop when he reaches the edge of a cliff, swinging the porsche around so that the back of it is dangerously near the edge. He jumps out and makes a run for it but Lee pulls up and gets out, catching him almost immediately. As they fight, Amanda runs over to the porsche and leans in to get her clipboard. As she does so, the car moves back slightly. Lee and Masterson continue to fight until Lee knocks him out for taking his car. As Masterson goes down, Lee looks up in time to see the porsche roll slowly over the edge of the cliff.

Lee and Amanda rush to edge and watch the car tumble down the cliff face and into the river at the bottom. Billy arrives and his agent runs over to cuff Masterson as Billy joins Lee and Amanda at the cliff’s edge. Lee tells him that Masterson’s the killer and the formula in on the clipboard and London’s body is in the Excaliber. Satisfied, Billy walks away as Lee and Amanda continue to gaze down at the wreck. Amanda suggest he salvage a few parts but as she says so, the car suddenly bursts into flames.

That evening, having seen the news, Dotty wants to know about what happened at the show but Amanda is vague and so her mother goes up to bed. Shortly after, Lee taps on the window and Amanda goes outside to talk to him. Grinning, he holds up a set of keys and Amanda guesses that he has his new car. He nods and says he was testing it out and happened to go past then awkwardly starts to ask if she wants to go for a spin with him. Amanda butts in saying that she hopes to go for a ride sometime and he agrees saying that as they’ll probably work on another case sometime, it’ll definitely happen.

SCENE’S TO WATCH OUT FOR:

Lee persuading Amanda to take him along to the charity event.

Any scene’s where Amanda is in charge of the bar and especially if she tries to make cocktails.

Lee trying to overhear Perrine’s meeting while fending off a small, but persistant dog that grabs hold of his trouser leg.

Amanda talking to Billy in the stable and a horse keeps nudging her from behind.

The porsche going over the cliff and Lee’s reaction.

Tag.

ROMANCE:

Not much romance in this episode, but the tag scene was very sweet. Excited about getting his new car, Lee goes straight to Amanda with the flimsy excuse that it was because she was there when he lost the Porsche. Nice try, but I think it shows how much their friendship is deepening that he wanted her to be the one to see it. A while back he wouldn’t have bothered. I also think it was cute the way he awkwardly tried to ask her if she wanted to go for a drive in his new car. It’s a shame she didn’t go but at least she got the promise of working on more assignments with him. So, although not much happening in this episode, romance-wise, it was still a nice ending to see.

QUOTES:

LEE: You’re our only hope, Amanda.

AMANDA: I’m your only hope.

LEE: This whole operation depends on you.

AMANDA: Whole operation depends on me.

LEE: I guess I ought to mention, this…

AMANDA: This could get dangerous.

LEE: Well, if they should find out who I am, which they won’t and if they should find out you got me in there, which they won’t…

AMANDA: Things could get awfully difficult.

LEE: Which they won’t.

LEE: Oh, this is not going to work, Amanda. I cannot stand here and pour drinks all day and wait for them to wander over here and drop everything in my lap.

AMANDA: I know, it is awkward isn’t it?

LEE: You have a real talent for understatement.

AMANDA: Lee, you are not listening to me. There is a dead body…

LEE: I was listening but there’s nothing I can do about it right now, Amanda.

AMANDA: Couldn’t we at least move the car out of the sun?

AMANDA: You do understand what I’m saying don’t you Mr. Melrose?

BILLY: I understand you nearly all the time Amanda, bothers me a little, but I do understand.

LEE: I’m so brittle I feel like something could break off.

LEE: That guy is in a lot of trouble, believe me, he is in a lot of trouble when I get a hold of him!

LEE: That is my car!

AMANDA: The poor thing.

LEE:I mean of all the cars in the parking lot, why did he have to pick my car?!

AMANDA: I know exactly how you feel.

LEE: That guy gets one dent in that car and he’ll……I’ll dent him!

AFTER SEEING THE WRECK THAT WAS ONCE LEE’S PORSCHE

BILLY: Well, you were due for a new one anyway.

AMANDA: I’m sorry I know how much you loved your car.

LEE: Oh Amanda, you don’t love a car; but you sure do get attached to one.

LEE HOLDS UP CAR KEYS GRINNING

AMANDA: Oh.

LEE: I picked it up today, pulls the road right up and corners like a track racer.

AMANDA: You got a new car.

LEE: Yeah, yeah and it’s great!

AMANDA: I’m really glad that you came over and told me about it and maybe, sometime, I’ll get to take a ride in it.

LEE: Oh, yeah, yeah, count on it. I mean, we will be working on another assignment.

AMANDA: Right. I’ll count on it.

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