EVERYTHING ELSE YOU CAN STEAL

• Aren’t those two kids a little young to pass as Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry? They look around 18 and the wanted posters age our favorite outlaws in their late twenties. The only similarities I see between these two imposters and the real men is their hair color. I wonder if there was such a thing as a casting director in the 1970s.
• Gee, I hope they bury that horrible vest with Billy Black…
  
• Ah, a scene of our boys riding into a new town…only something seems amiss. The music, the speed of their walking horses, the gingerly way they dismount those horses…I think these men are exhausted. Trail dirty and worn…I’d say they could use a bath and a back rub. *sigh* I’d be happy to volunteer…
• Even though it is spoken exactly as written in the script, I think Peter made an error in modulation—and judgment—on his line: “I was hoping that you’d come up with a bright side to our situation.” He put the emphasis on the word hoping—giving the sense that what he was hoping for had been fulfilled. But it hadn’t. I think the inflection should have been on the word bright in order for the line to work, and the writer, “John Thomas James” miswrote the line.
• I love Kid putting his hat down over his eyes and leaning his head back in the sun, and Heyes, feeling some apparent back pain, sitting forward a bit with his legs outstretched as he picks up the newspaper…the image of both men on that bench is quite stunning really.

• This is the first episode in which Peter wears his ring. It makes me sad. I had a dream about Peter and his ring and since then I have formed a belief of what it meant to him inwardly. I have a hard time whenever I see the ring glisten in the sunlight, like now—or I notice Peter glance at it or adjust it on his finger. He seems very conscious of it in this and the episodes to come…as if he is trying to make sure it is seen, and also trying to remind himself what it means to him. Seeing it hurts my heart.
  
• Hey, are they exiting Wickenburg yet again??
  
• I chuckle as Peter parks Clay too close to the tree and has difficulty dismounting because Ben has brought his horse right up next to Clay. Peter has to push on the tree and get his foot untangled from the bedroll behind the saddle before he squeezes between the two horses to open space, while Ben remains completely oblivious to the whole thing. It is so like Peter to just continue on with the scene rather than insist it be done over until he achieves perfection. One of the things I adore the most about the series is the little missteps …the tiny moments where we see the real people involved and their very human nuances.

• I think Peter’s back was bothering him in this episode. When it did, he tended to jut his stomach forward and his butt back…it is a very pleasant posture on him, and a very common one for back pain sufferers. I wish he weren’t in pain, of course, but he sure looked good when he stood that way.
• I love the exchange about whether to get a drink or go see the sheriff with the prophetic last name first. The boys each share their opinions—but in the end Heyes wins as he takes Kid’s arm and says “Let’s go get a drink second. C’mon.” and that is the final word. It is the way most conflicts between them end, with Heyes the victor—but I don’t think it is necessarily that Heyes is right; it all really falls on the fact that the Kid is willing to acquiesce, and I don’t believe in most situations Heyes would be as willing.

• I guess I am dense (nobody say a word…) but I don’t get the joke Heyes makes after the sheriff derides the boys about their choice of being bounty hunters. Heyes replies with a grin and “oh we just didn’t have no choice, Sheriff, after we got done shooting all the buffalo.” What does that mean?? Just that bounty hunters are more vile than those who nearly obliterated the existence of buffalo? A history lesson, please, someone…
• Sometimes the voiceovers used stand out like a sore thumb. Here is an example when the Kid says “Oh, yeah, yeah, sure…” to Heyes’ suggestion there has to be something they can do. I’m not even sure it is Ben’s voice at all—it actually seems much too emotive to have come from Ben.
• Always the doomsayer, poor Kid is ready to pack it all in and move to South America. And giving in to Heyes’ idea to have a drink first he can’t resist the temptation to at least chide Heyes with “Oh, yeah, it’s probably like the sheriff’s office—the one saloon west of the Mississippi we can walk into like a pair of Texas Rangers.”
  
• Heyes reverts to his familiar boyish enthusiasm when he claps his hands at the sight of Jenny, then happily hugs and kisses her and laughs. He is an affectionate man, much more so than it first appears. It would be very easy not to notice how he continues to hold Jenny’s arm as she is hugged by the Kid—letting his touch linger there for the entire embrace—and gently gives her arm a loving squeeze.

• I love the aesthetics of the moment when Heyes leans in to Jenny and tells her he is Joshua Smith and the Kid is Thaddeus Jones. There is something about the cut of the camera angle, seeing only part of Heyes’ profile that is just delicious.

• I like Ann Sothern. I like her very contradictory sides…a combination of raunchy and feminine. She plays tough but gentle very well and I think she is perfect for this role.
• When did the Kid start wearing that strange tan jacket with dark lapel and cuffs? Did I fall asleep or something? It doesn’t seem his style to me.

• I would like some back story on who Jenny is to the boys, especially to Heyes. He seems to have a particular fondness for her and I wonder if she was a mother figure to him somewhere along the line. He seems to revere her in the way a son looks on his mother, and I suspect when he and the Kid first ran away from the Valparaiso School for Waywards, she may have given them shelter in some saloon backroom or something.
• I can honestly say I don’t criticize people based on their looks. No one can help how their genetic makeup designed them. I may pick apart the clothes they wear, or ridicule their fake fingernails, or style of hair—all things they can easily change; I may even go so far as to analyze the shape of their butt, but I don’t hold their natural looks against them, or mock them for it. But, my god, I do draw the line at this guy. Mr. Blodgett is so vastly unappetizing, I can’t help but comment. It IS his looks that bother me…it is the persistently protruding and wet lips, hanging there like slabs of warm, raw bacon; formulated in such a way as to expose every tooth and bit of drool. This man simply makes my stomach revolt. How he looks is not his fault—but this actor, Kermit Murdock, does everything in his power to make his mouth even more distasteful by exaggerating the flabby looseness of it—he could suck in his lips a bit, instead of projecting them further outward. I mean really. Ugh. And when this guy stands up, fleshy lips pushed forward, discolored bottom teeth wet and inescapably visible and says, “And what do you think of that?” I almost feel sick. Boy. That is one exceptionally unappealing man. He does fit the bill when it comes to his description in the script though, in all but one instance: “Henry Blodgett sits behind his desk. He is tall, thin, middle-aged, pompous and remarkably ugly.” Can’t argue with that. And here, for your viewing pleasure—two images of the unique Mr. Blodgett.

• Thank god our Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were there to lighten the unpleasantness of the scene…seeing two handsome men there to neutralize the distastefulness of the other is a very welcome sight indeed.
• I loved Jessica Walter in the wonderful 1971 Clint Eastwood movie Play Misty for Me. It is one of my top 50 movies of all time, probably. The movie came out about a month before this episode aired, so I imagine I was excited to see Miss Walter in the role of Louise, although I have no memory at all of even being aware of it.
  

• I am confused by what the Kid says about Louise: “She’s innocent. A girl who looks like that couldn’t be involved in anything worse than a bundling party.” I can’t find any reference anywhere as to what a bundling party is. Do any of you know?
• I love the exchange between Heyes and the kid about what their mothers thought of them. Heyes asks in all seriousness, “Kid, did your mother think you were perfect?” The Kid seems pleased by the question and assures Heyes that yes, his mother did think he was perfect, only to be shot down by Heyes’ wisecrack that she was wrong. I never quite understand where these little digs come from or why, but I tend to enjoy them quite a lot. I love Heyes as a smart ass. It fits him well, as long as the teasing isn’t mean spirited.
• I don’t quite understand what exactly Louise means by make love. When a drunk man you aren’t dating comes in and tries to “make love” to you—I would take that to mean, although the wording is misguided, that he attempted to rape you. But who would let a man in that frame of mind then walk you home, alone—away from public view—to clear his head? Maybe he tried to kiss her, maybe that’s what she meant by make love…but the looks Heyes and Curry exchange when she uses that term confuses me even further. The Kid seems bothered by the idea of what Caleb White tried to do to Louise, while Heyes appears slightly amused. I am at a loss. This is kind of poor writing in my opinion, not letting us in on the joke…
• DON'T FALL FOR A COIN FLIP, KID!!! Boy, when will you learn??

• I really enjoy the whole scene of the Kid up in the tree, keeping a close watch on Louise’s comings and goings. It is a testament to the character of Kid Curry—a powerless slave to his primal needs. If he is hungry this boy must eat and if his body says sleep, the Kid sleeps. It is as simple as that.

• How cute when two cats—slave to their own primal needs—do some caterwauling and startle poor Kid, who has been snoozing on the job, right out of the tree! It is a laugh out loud moment!
• Mmmm… *sigh* Why is it seeing Heyes do something as mundane as shave makes me catch my breath and watch it again and again? What is it about this man? ®®§
• What a lovely view of Peter’s forearms and hands...a very special treat for me. Like a decadent piece of rich chocolate found in a bowl of jelly beans…just a wonderful, unexpected pleasure.

• Kid, tired from watching Louise all night, falls asleep while drowsily telling Heyes what he has seen. Heyes, face still covered with shaving cream, gently takes Kid’s hat from his hands and tenderly covers his friend with a quilt. This moment ties with the care he gave the Kid when he fell ill in Night of the Red Dog as my favorite “couple’s moment” in the series. Absolutely beautiful.

• Ben does some of his best acting in scenes where he is falling asleep or waking up! It seems he is fully in character and he is a natural at it…
• I really like the shooting of this scene through the mirror…it is some of director Alex Singer’s best work on the series and features a ploy that he uses in several of the episodes he directs, that of having a primary character blocked from our sight until he is ready for us to see the whole picture. Here, there is the moment when Heyes’ out of focus elbow obstructs the view of the Kid reclining on the bed, reminding us that Heyes is still there shaving and we are watching through the mirror, and I find it to be really exceptional directing.

• It is not my favorite butt shot of Heyes however, which is regrettable, since there is certainly plenty of time here for ogling. His pants are pulled up way too high and from behind in this scene, he looks kind of like an old man! I am satisfied by my last few moments gazing on his forearms and hands, and the sentimentality of him lovingly covering his friend with the quilt, so I don’t feel too let down by a substandard butt shot—this once, anyway.

• Heyes sees Louise go into the bank, and following her, steps off the porch and walks to the bank. Posture erect, steps confident...Damn, baby, I do so enjoy watching you walk. A few moments later he emerges, walks a few steps, pauses, grins and turns to his left…have mercy! I think I will watch that again. And again. ® *sigh*

• The script describes Jenny as a “bountiful, flamboyant, once-beautiful woman in her late forties with an ample figure.” It tickles me to know that Ann Sothern was 62 when she played this role—she seems closer to the late forties, as the script speculates, to me. I love that she isn’t thin, and completely discredit the description of “once-beautiful”—she’s a great looking old broad… *grin*

• Heyes tells Jenny if they can’t get things worked out here, he and the Kid might go to South America. “You two can’t even speak South American!” she responds. Very clever.
• That is some of the most uncomfortable, discombobulated kissing I have ever witnessed between two actors. It is almost as if they are fighting each other. I wonder if Jessica Walter and Patrick O’Neal hated each other in real life or something.

• I absolutely adore the moment when Heyes leaves Jenny and as she ribs the cowboys she is rejoining at her card table with “If you can count to twenty-one you can take all I got—and I got plenty!” he pauses to listen and gets this amazing grin on his face, showing reverence and love for this bawdy woman. Again I am bound to wonder what their story is. It had to be more than the script describes simply as a woman “the boys knew warmly and well during their lamented days as Wyoming desperadoes”. I just feel like she has saved them, or protected them, or mothered them at some point passed. ®

• What could possibly be better than Heyes wandering around in long johns? I’ll tell you. Heyes wandering around in long johns WITHOUT extra underwear holding everything tight and confined under them. Still lovely, though. Just not as lovely as free range long johns might have been. *sigh*
  
• I do very much enjoy the shape of Heyes’ thigh as he reclines in his long johns. Mmmm…§

• I may be a fanatic. I may be obsessed. That’s nothing new. But I just freeze-framed the scene where you clearly see Heyes’ bare foot. I have seen a picture of that very foot, of a barefoot Peter sitting on the stairs to his Fuller Avenue apartment, in which his toes looked very strange and it was disturbing to me. [:Picturing Pete Duel, cover] I see now, though, that his foot looks very normal and even kind of cute and that he must have just had his toes curled under in the publicity photo.

• The whole middle of the night interaction between the two men is fun and amusing. Heyes is entirely self-absorbed, not concerned in the least that he has woken Kid from a deep sleep. We have seen it before—this need to connect when Kid is sleeping—and we have seen how the Kid doesn’t really mind when he realizes his partner needs to talk. It is a nice bond between the two men. They really do complete each other.

• I’m really kind of put off by all the scenes between Jessica Walter and Patrick O’Neal. I can’t explain why. They all just feel uncomfortable to me.
• A private moment of pride by Heyes for the Kid and a stroke to his own healthy ego as Kid informs Louise at the picnic that there is no way to open a Pierce and Hamilton ‘78 by manipulating the tumblers. He tells her authoritatively that Heyes tried it in Denver in ‘79 and again 10 weeks ago, and both times had to use nitro, and Heyes appreciatively smiles at the Kid’s knowledge. The look he shoots at the Kid just a moment later, when he oversteps and offers to show Louise Billy and Caleb’s graves, is quite the opposite in flavor though.
• There’s Shoshone! I have watched this episode at least a dozen times and this is the first time I have noticed her here…maybe because I tend to look away in scenes featuring Mr. Blodgett! She is always on the move, a real live action girl--making it exceedingly difficult to get a good vidcap of her!

• When I first rediscovered Alias Smith and Jones, I read a fan discussion about the scene in this episode where Louise tells the boys she doesn’t believe in killing, and that she would not help the territory of New Mexico kill Kenneth Blake. It was after reading this fan discussion—opining that no one was against the death penalty in those days and that made the episode unrealistic—that made me entirely stop reading other peoples’ opinions about the show. I found the idea that anyone could think that at any time in history no one opposed the death penalty so absurd…so wildly naïve…that I decided just to branch out on my own when it came to opinions about Alias Smith and Jones, and it was actually that fan discussion that propelled me to begin writing my notes.
• The fact that Louise is suddenly a strong woman, schooling Heyes and Curry on the fact that women have brains and frequently use them, is surprising to me. It is a pleasant surprise, but one I wish the build up of Louise’s character throughout the episode would have better supported.
  
• Why did Louise deserve the rude comment Heyes throws at her at the train station? It offends me and makes me want to take him by the ear and remind him of his manners. He’s no angel himself, after all. I am pleased that he realizes his words may have been meaner than he intended them and he apologizes. Good for him.

• The looks Jenny gives our stricken outlaws as she is escorted from the bank after shooting the man who cold-bloodedly murdered her son are heartbreaking. I read so much into them, it is almost a conversation, It’s ok boys…I’ll be all right…He killed my son…You know how I loved my Billy…Like I love you boys…
  

• I like the cute old guy with his trousers pulled up almost to his armpits. He adds a momentary light note to a horrible reality—that Jenny has just as cold-bloodedly murdered the man as the man cold-bloodedly murdered her own son.

• Oh, my god, have mercy…this image, this moment, just makes me swoon…how exquisitely beautiful… *appreciative sigh*

• Poor Louise seems so abandoned, so in need of friends, as our boys take their leave of the town. It feels slightly shameful to me that they don’t stay around to see to it in some way that Jenny is exonerated. I feel a certainty that they owe that woman for deeds passed.
• I suppose someone will want to throw a rotten tomato at me, but I just can’t stand the final scene or the poem—neither of which fit anything in the show for me. Why would either of these men give a rat’s ass whether Kenneth Blake has a headstone? How does that poem work anyway, in correlation to Kenneth Blake? What sense does any of this make? Here’s my suggestion. Get off the damned train, go back to your friends in need—Jenny and Louise—and use that $100 toward Jenny’s defense fund. THAT is poetic.

  

SHOOTOUT AT DIABLO STATION

• Aw, too bad our boys arrive in town by stage coach. I always savor their entries to some new environment on horseback as something special.
• What’s up with that weird three-bump-drum-sound as Kid walks into the telegraph office? It almost sounds like a TV station’s severe weather warning or something. It is so out of place and distracting, and I can’t for the life of me figure out its purpose. Especially since it seems so foreboding and the scene is actually a fairly playful one. Some logic just escapes me…
• I absolutely love the exchange between Kid and Heyes about Heyes’ telegraph! It is a classic dynamic between the two men. Kid teases Heyes a bit; Heyes feels he has to prove himself to the Kid but as usual falls the tiniest bit short; and in the end, Kid is respectful and appreciative of Heyes’ ability: “Poetry. Send it!” …followed by some masculine flirting. A delightful little couple’s moment. Perfect!

• Of course, for me, there is the immense joy of seeing Heyes saunter over to the telegrapher’s desk. Hey, give me a break! I have been gone a long time; pitiful me, sick and sad, not privy to any great butt shots in awhile. Just give me my moment of ogling bliss and move on…®§

*sigh*

• Ugh. Howard Duff. I never cared for him when I was young. As I think I have mentioned before, there have been several actors who have guested on Alias Smith and Jones that I really couldn’t stand as a kid, but somehow, as an adult, found appealing on this show—like Joan Hackett and Jack Cassidy. Not so with Howard Duff. First sight of him: Ugh. Last sight of him: UGH.
• I can’t quite follow why our boys have to act like strangers once they are aboard the stagecoach and throughout the station house captivity. Didn’t they agree they would be all right “unless that Sheriff sees us together”? I have to assume that once they leave the town they were in they are no longer under the watchful eye of the law.
• There’s the Kid Curry we know and love…always chivalrous; never afraid to step right into a conflict with some boorish lout who needs to be brought down a peg or two. I love how Heyes’ face always exhibits respect for the Kid in these situations. Heyes knows he doesn’t have to step in with brawn, because the Kid will—but then Heyes is more than willing to finish off the pushy windbag with the voice of reason. What a team!

• Yowsa!! I wonder if those false eyelashes were made of horse tails in the Old West!! They are certainly long enough. It is one real grievance I have with the show in general—the stretch from reality when it came to dressing and accessorizing the female guest stars. Fake eyelashes, fake fingernails, makeup, and dyed hair. C’mon. Those kinds of things jar me from the lovely time warp I am in as I watch, being one with the show and the era. They are always a giant slap in the face with the 20th Century—and the gaudy and overdone late 60s/early 70s at that.

• HEY!! I think that’s Heyes driving the stagecoach!! Look closely…dark hat, tan jacket, dark shirt, buff jeans…now look as the stagecoach pulls into the station…there’s the driver in white hat, tan jacket, light shirt and white jeans. Why, I do believe I will just mosey on back to The Legacy of Charlie O’Rourke to see if I am right...

• It always pleases me that if there is one around, Heyes picks up a book and reads. He seems to always be hungry for knowledge. Since the scene is framed differently in the script, with Heyes lying down with his arm over his eyes, I wonder if Peter had something to do with the change—knowing how much he loved to read, and learn…

• Now there’s a familiar face: Neville Brand! He is someone I remember clearly from my childhood, mainly because my older sister had a huge crush on him and I used to tease her about it! She loved the craggy, rough looking men; some one might even call ugly—Mr. Brand, Chuck Connors—while I loved the beautiful men like Peter Duel. *sigh*
• Even though I have no inkling why Chuck never responds to any comment the Kid makes, it tickles me nonetheless. Kid says, quite amicably, “My name is Jones. Thaddeus Jones. Can you tell us how long this is gonna take?” and Chuck just stands there and stares. The look on the Kid’s face, as he turns to Heyes in bewilderment is hysterical. I laugh out loud and rewind it every time, because I am every bit as confused as the Kid. Why won’t this nut case give our Kid Curry the time of day? I don’t get it, but I enjoy it!

• Aw. I love the old soldier, ready to lay down his life for the flag he has battled under and loves. Even in a silly show like this I am in awe at the incredible patriotism of those who have fought for this country. I sense that even Chuck, wielding a gun, has respect for the brave old man. The General reminds me of my dad…also a hard-as-nails, highly decorated veteran, valorous to the end.

• At first it surprises me that it isn’t the ever chivalrous Kid who steps right in to protect the women by identifying one of them as his wife. But when I think about it, it makes perfect sense that the thinker of the two, Heyes, would start the ball rolling and the Kid would pick up where he leaves off, especially since the Kid is tied up and his typically brawny way of handling mistreatment of women wouldn’t hold up here.
• It also tickles me which choice Heyes made as the woman he designated to be his wife. In my opinion, she is the harder of the two—and also the most cunning. She has a thinking mind, however misguided her future decisions might be, and I think the pairing, if it were real, would be the correct one. And the coupling of the Kid with the more naïve, less clever sister is a perfect fit also. I have to say, though, that if these two women were to become actual love interests of our boys, I would have to shoot them by the end of the episode because they both just grate on me like Mary's fake fingernails on a chalkboard.
• Ok, here we go…the ball-less wonder, weasel-extraordinaire, George Fendler stands right up to betray the others to save his own neck. Maybe it was the roles he played that always made me dislike Howard Duff. Maybe he played a spineless creep well enough to give me an idea it might be his nature in “real life”. I don’t know. But really, even after he has reformed and apologized by the end of this episode, I still can’t stand him.

• I just don’t get why the whiny sister, Ellen, turns on the boys when it’s revealed they aren’t really married. “Can’t you see we’re helpless by ourselves? Can’t you understand that?” Gee, it may just be me, but it seems to me stepping in to try to protect them by saying they were married to them WAS ‘understanding that’… Seems a tad bit ungrateful to me.

• How spectacular that the bad guy takes offense at George Fendler’s self-serving betrayal. It enrages him that Fendler ‘sold these young ladies out’. Chuck’s ability to fly from calmness to fury at the drop of a hat makes him seem crazy, all right, but underneath it all—if not for his craziness over his brother’s death—I get a sense he might have some tiny bit of honor in him.

• You know, when you look at it, Neville Brand has a very interesting face. Weathered and full of character. I like his face. Not in a handsome way, just in more artistic sense. I suppose I'd better call my sister and apologize for teasing her all those years ago. I'm standing my ground on the Chuck Connors ick factor though.

• Oh, good lord. Is the vest Bud is wearing so wonderful we need to see it in two episodes?? I can stand it here, because Bud is a weenie, but to later see our gorgeous Heyes in it--ugh.
• When Mary calls the bad guys ‘big hunks’, I am taken aback. I don’t know if such a word existed in that sense in the 1880s. In the script I have, she says, “The image of you big baqueros—trying to do women’s work…” That too perplexes me, because the only word I know of that is close to that is vaqueros—which I am certain they were meaning to use because it translates as, basically, a tough cowboy. I wonder if in rewrites, no one could come up with the actual word and had to throw out baqueros—rightly so—and replace it with a one-syllable-no-fail-simple-ass-word, like hunk!
• Well, Mary certainly does have chutzpah, as she hikes her leg up onto the table and removes her stocking…much to the chagrin of Ellen and the delight of our boys and the rest of the men. Man, oh, man! Feminine wiles really do work in a pinch!

• I love how Heyes looks around the others to say “Mind if I ask you a question?” only to be rebuked by Chuck’s reply of “You don’t always have to ask if I mind if you ask.” The exchange is cute, and when it culminates with Heyes saying, “Well, for one thing, I’d like to talk—or walk—or do something to take my mind off my backside, which is commencing to protest.” I chuckle aloud and usually say something to myself along the lines of “I can keep my mind on your backside for you—so you don’t have to…” No, I don’t get to see much of it in this episode, but it is never far from my thoughts!! *giggle*

• Love the chicken walk the General does to change seats.
• My favorite line in the whole episode, from our favorite smart ass, Heyes, of course: “This really sounds like this could be fun—you know we all sit around and think of places where nobody’s coming from!” Even the Kid showed the tiniest bit of amusement at the line. And Peter’s left dimple from that angle, as he looks up at Chuck while he chides him? To die for.

• There it is again!! God, I just love that Chuck totally ignores Kid when he speaks! I just can’t figure out a reason for his disregard though. The script lights on the subject just a bit: One side of Chuck’s mouth smiles and his eyes gleam—and his cronies know he is drifting toward another bout with his transient madness. But that doesn’t explain why it is always when the Kid says something that he has these fade-out moments.
• I wonder what a rotten roddlesnake whelp is…Ah, I see Mr. Brand didn’t enunciate as clearly as he should have—he was meaning to say a rotten rattlesnake’s whelp. Still, I wonder why Chuck considered the “murder” of his brother to have been perpetrated by a baby rattlesnake and not just a regular rattlesnake.
• For a moment there, I thought the Kid was thinking of the safety of his friend and benefactor, Lom Trevors, when he says to Heyes, “We gotta stop this lunatic…” but I thought too soon. In very typical Kid Curry self-preservation mode, he finishes his thought with, “if he kills Lom, our amnesty’s dead.” Wow. Not a concern in the world over the possibility of Lom losing his life. Gotta love a friend like that.
• You have to be kidding me. Those fingernails on Mary are absurd. Almost as long as the horse tails on her eyes. And opaque white fingernail polish, to boot. Give me a break.



• I may be stretching here, but it seems to me it might have been a good idea to have a plan before overpowering only two of the four bad guys, Mary.
• In an exceptional scene, by using his arm and shoulder to hold him back, Heyes—always a quick, instinctual thinker—stops the Kid from rushing to Mary’s rescue and thereby exposing the fact that he is no longer tied up, when Chuck hits her. The communication between the two continues as Heyes doesn’t lean away—instead keeping his body against the Kid’s, knowing his partner tends to hold longer to the anger and might yet lash out. They have to sit there, witnessing something I think they both find deplorable, as we hear Chuck strike Mary hard, four times. In the end, it seems only marginally satisfying as Heyes has the last word, knocking Chuck off his high horse when he reminds him it is actually he who should be happy to be alive since “she had the gun.” A very good scene, indeed.

• Ah, to be the woman attached to the shoulder one Mr. Joshua Smith has chosen to rest his weary head on… *sigh*

• Heyes feigning surprise at the missing Mr. Jones is very cute. He looks adorable as he pretends to have no knowledge of his partner’s whereabouts as the perplexed bad guys scurry about trying to find him.

• From way back in the Pilot, I have enjoyed the hammy overacting of Bill Fletcher, the actor playing Hank in this episode. His jerky movements, meant to signify machismo, it seems, just make me chuckle. Even in his relatively small roles it makes him stand out to me.
• Good job, George. It seems your testicles have finally dropped and you have, in the nick of time, become a man.

• The General. Now there’s a man who epitomizes the meaning of the word balls…take a lesson George, you still have a long way to go.

• For someone with claustrophobia, Ben did a great job being in the hidey-hole…maybe on the set there was no back to it to make him feel trapped.

• I love that everyone in the room, except Hayfoot and the Kid, believes Heyes is really so stupid he would make a tactical error as crucial as to expose what no flag would mean to the approaching sheriff…
• An apology to the two “saloon girls” from George. Too little, too late—I say.
• Eww—I can never watch a scene where someone gets a bandana tied into his mouth—especially close up—without first wanting to scream and run because it triggers a huge wave of claustrophobia in me, and second, without wondering where that bandana has been. Dirty men putting dirty bandanas in peoples’ mouths—very disturbing. *deep shudder*
• It’s a satisfying climax as our favorite outlaws, very experienced in removing gags from each other, save the day by warning Lom of the impending offensive from the supposedly unarmed gang.

• I feel a bit of Peter—of his actual real life frustration—as Lom tells the boys they still won’t get their amnesty. It feels like a real life prophecy to me that had to have been dismaying to someone who wanted the series to end so badly.

• Wow! I guess this is the first moment we have seen Anne Archer and Elizabeth Lane standing beside each other. I never thought of Anne Archer as being tall. Well, because I have no life, I just googled Anne Archer’s height and she is only 5’7”—tall but not exactly stately—so I must deduce that the other actress is simply petite.
• This episode had a lot of issues with things not making sense to me, but I just decided to enjoy it for pure entertainment’s sake. I must say there was really not enough involvement from our boys—and almost no physical expression, (like walking away butt shots *giggle*) to make it a favorite episode for me. But it was enjoyable in a minimalist way.