THE LEGEND OF DAS GEISTERSCHLOSS
Picture courtesy of Anke Lantin
British
agent, Emily Farnsworth, sits at a table outside a café in Salzburg sketching a
statue. A waitress called Marianna
walks up and admires her work. Emily
shows her a picture of a castle and tells her that’s where she’s going
next. Marianna warns her that the castle
is bad and asks her not to go but Emily does. When she gets there, she takes some photographs but then two men appear
and grab her, taking her away.
Two
days later, Amanda arrives in Salzburg to meet Lee. He asks if the cover worked with her family and she says it did
and that they think she’s on a location shoot for IFF. She asks why Lee sent for her and he tells
her that it wasn’t him but Emily Farnsworth.
Amanda is amazed by this especially when Lee goes on to inform her that Emily
is a British agent – MI6’s finest field operative in fact. When Amanda had shown Emily around
Washington the year before, she’d never guessed the older woman’s secret.
He
explains about Emily’s disappearance and that even British Intelligence have
lost contact. He tells her that Emily
left a message at her Hotel for them to get her things together and contact her
‘niece’ in America, Amanda King. Emily had
been searching for people running an electronic listening post that picks up top
secret information in Embassy’s and then they transmit it on behind the Iron
Curtain for a large sum of money. Lee
believes that Emily was trying to leave him a clue and is certain that what she
and Amanda did together when Emily visited has to have some importance.
Amanda
asks how long they have to find Emily and he says that the NATO deployment
sessions are due to start in two days and they
need to find Emily and the listening post before then as a lot of top secret
information will be on the airwaves and it’d result in five years hard work
down the drain.
Meanwhile, in the ghost castle, Emily refuses to tell her captors
anything even though they know she’s visited every country with a listening
post and she’s managed to find her way to their head quarters. They mention Amanda and say that she’s being
followed but Emily tells them that she’s just a tourist to which they reply
that’d she’d better be or else.
Back in Salzburg town centre, Amanda fills Lee in on what she and
Emily did around Washington…sightsee!
They stop by a puppet show and Amanda gets talking with an old gentleman
called, Dr. Edwin Hanover. He’s a font
of knowledge when it comes to Austria and he recommends she buy some postcards
for her sons. As he says this, Amanda
suddenly remembers that Emily was always sketching everything and she excitedly
tells Lee. He is pleased and they go
back to the hotel to see if they can find her sketchbook.
In a doorway, a man watches then leave.
The next day, Lee and Amanda sit outside same café Emily was at
and go through the female agents pad.
Lee becomes frustrated when, instead of clues, the drawings only appear
to be of tourist attractions. Amanda
suggests that it could be the paper of pencil she was talking about but Lee
dismisses this idea out of hand.
Seeing how upset he is, Amanda offers comfort and Lee tells her
that Emily Farnsworth was his first partner as a rookie and he’ll be forever
grateful that she taught him patience and control.
Just then, Lee notices the waitress and calls her over after
identifying her from one of Emily’s drawings.
Marianna denies all knowledge of Emily and Lee gets angry because he
knows she’s lying. Unable to do
anything more, Lee gets up to go and when Amanda tries to join him, she
suddenly comes face to face with Dr. Hanover.
She introduces him to Lee and after a few pleasantries, the doctor
offers to go with them around the sights.
He eventually leaves them and they study a drawing against the sketchpad. Amanda’s certain the clue is in the drawing
and is proved right when she sees the letter ‘T’ cleverly hidden in the picture. At that same time, Lee again notices the
Austrian from the day before and purposefully urges Amanda to walk on to the
next picture of a pretzel stand.
Once there, Amanda spots the letter ‘O’ in the drawing and Lee
points out the man who’s been following them.
They quickly walk off down a side street and hide until the man follows
them and then Lee steps out with a gun surprising him. The man then shows Lee his I.D. and Lee
stands down as the man is Colonel Metzger of Austrian Intelligence.
They go to a café and have a drink as they each tell the other
what they’ve found out. Metzger recognises
the castle in the sketch and arranges to meet them there with the police in
half an hour. Unfortunately, Lee and
Amanda arrive late and assume that metzger has gone on without them as he’s not
waited. Using a dinghy, they row over
to the castle and manage to sneak into the courtyard. It’s not long before Lee is set upon by two men and having beaten
them back he grabs Amanda’s hand and they jump off the wall into the lake
below.
Soaked through, they make it to shore and wring out their clothes
as they continue to discuss the case.
Amanda thinks the letters she’s found, T, H, O, S, S are going to spell
a word once rearranged. Lee then
realises that of all the sketches Emily did only one had a person in it and
that was Marianna. Determined to talk
to the woman again, they go to the café but it’s shut and so decide to return
the next morning.
In the castle, Emily has a cellmate in the form of Colonel
Metzger. One of the captors talks to
his partner who turns out to be Dr. Hanover and suggest they cut their losses
and move on. To do this hanover agrees
that Emily, Metzger, Lee and Amanda all have to die.
The next morning, Lee and Amanda go to the café where Amanda
suddnly finds the final letter, ‘G’ thus spelling the word ‘GHOSTS’. As the café isn’t open, Lee goes in and sees
Marianna lying on the floor groaning.
He rushes over and informs Amanda that she’s been shot. Amanda runs over and cradles the dying woman’s
head as she haltingly tells them that she told Emily not to go to the ghost
castle – geisterschloss.
Lee tells Amanda that he’ll call the police about the woman’s
death and then they leave. Outside,
they see Dr. Hanover buying some flowers and even though Lee doesn’t trust him
he agrees that if anyone knows where the castle is then it should be that
gentleman. Not this time, however. Dr. Hanover is conspicuous by his lack of
knowledge and when he drives away they follow him.
When they reach the castle, Lee wants Amanda to stay in the car
but she persuades him to let her come along as she doesn’t want to end up dead
like Marianna. He reluctantly agrees
but when they appraoch the castle doors the bad guys are waiting for them and
disarm Lee. The captives are then taken
down to the room where Emily and Metzger are tied up. Dr. Hanover and his partner tell them that they have the NATO
information and are probably going to shut down their operation as they’ll have
enough money to last.
They then suspend a bomb from the wooden beams explaining that
when it goes off the ceiling will cave in killing them all. As soon as they leave the room, Lee climbs
up and unties the rope holding the bomb as Amanda unties the other agents. Seeing it reads 90 seconds until detonation
Lee drops the down to Amanda and quickly climbs back down. As he looks over the bomb, Amanda comments
how they’ll never get through the wooden door unless they have dynamite and
Emily and Lee exchange knowing looks.
Ordering the three other people behind a large chest for
protection, Lee opens the bomb using Emily’s wire rimmed glasses and pulls out
two sticks of dynamite. He throws them
over to Metzger who throws them out of a window. Lee then ties some rope around the metal grid in the door window
and pulls it out. He puts the bomb
through the opening and ties the other end to the door handle then runs away
just as the bomb explodes shattering the door.
Outside, Dr. Hanover and his men hear the noise and think they’re
dead. Meanwhile, the agents cautiously
approach the courtyard where the unsuspecting baddies are putting together
their things. Lee takes to the rooftops
in a surprise attack from one side as Emily, Metzger and Amanda hold firm on
the other ensuring that the doctor and his men are soon caught.
Later, Emily, lee and Amanda share a schapps at a café and toast an
absent Metzger and the Austrian police for their help. Then Emily brings out her sketchpad and
shows them a picture she’s drawn of the couple with ‘Das Geisterschloss’ in the
background. They’re thrilled and
proceed to find the letters they think she’s hidden cleverly within the
drawing.
SCENE’S TO WATCH
OUT FOR:
Amanda telling a taxi driver who doesn’t understand English that
she’s seeing her very first castle.
Amanada trying to explain to Dr. Hanover that Lee and her aren’t
a couple but just friends…a couple of friends.
Lee’s face when Amanda leans over and opens his car door for him
from the inside.
Amanda trying to convince Lee to let her go with him into the
castle.
Lee retrieving the bomb and dropping it to be caught by an
extremely nervous Amanda who gingerly places it on the table only to have Lee
jump down right next to it!
ROMANCE:
A lot of nice moments throughout this episode that show their
growing friendship. Knowing that she
feels bad about lying to her family about why she’s in Salzburg, Lee does a
quick location shoot scout so that she doesn’t feel so bad – how sweet is that?
Another nice moment is when he reaches out and playfully touches
her chin when reminding her that she’s Emily’s ‘niece’ so it’s OK for them to
look through her things. I know he’s
turning on the charm for his benefit but he does do it in the cutest ways.
I thought Amanda’s attempt at trying to comfort him when he was
unhappy about Emily was very nice. She
just acted so naturally by taking his hand and he just gave her that ‘what the
hell are you doing’ look. Funny how it’s
OK for him to comfort her but not so OK for her to show some affection back – I
think he worries that she might be getting to close and at this point he just
wasn’t ready for anything like that – still in deep denial.
The moment after Marianna dies and he won’t let up until she
tells him she’s OK I think really shows how much he cares. He even asks her again when they get
outside. He knows how affected she is
and tries to help her.
So, still carrying on with the strengthening friendship theme
this early on in the season. It’s nice
to see because the basis for any good relationship is the fact that you like
and respect your partner – definitely can feel that happening as the show goes
on.
QUOTES:
AMANDA: This is like a fantasy land.
LEE: Sometimes, I think I’m living in one.
AMANDA: I think I’ve figured out what Mrs. Farnsworth was trying
to tell me. Oh, I mean tell you. Tell you through me.
LEE: Scares me to admit it but, I think I followed that.
LEE: I’ve been poring over these sketches all night, they’re just
pictures of tourist attractions in Salzburg.
AMANDA: Well, maybe it’s something in the paper or with the
pencil…
LEE: Amanda, I wish you would stop reading those spy novels, huh?
LEE: Emily used to tell me when you’ve looked and looked and you
can’t find anything, that’s the time to look again.
LEE: Come on! Just like
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
LEE:
He’s lying.
AMANDA:
Sure was. Pretty obvious wasn’t it?
LEE:
Oh, you noticed the nervous hand movement, the avoidance of eye contact, the
slightly higher pitched voice?
AMANDA:
No, I just noticed this is the first time he didn’t know every little thing
about Salzburg.
|
|
NEXT EPISODE |
