Two Hundred A Day - Episode 132: Rattlers' Class of '63

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

Nathan and Eppy make a trip to the dump in S3E8 Rattlers' Class of '63. Angel is getting married! Jim is surprised but supportive - until he learns that it's Angel's way of ducking the fallout from a "Red Barn" con gone wrong. His new brothers-in-law are trying to sell a landfill, but once one of them is found dead, Angel and Jim look good for the murder. They need to find the real killer before Chapman can build a case, which sends Jim on a search for the deadly secret buried under the trash. Our last episode written by David Chase, it's a good one even before getting to a top-five finale scene! Show Notes: The book Nathan was trying to remember is Considering David Chase: Essays on The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure and The Sopranos (https://bookshop.org/p/books/considering-david-chase-essays-on-the-rockford-files-northern-exposure-and-the-sopranos-thomas-fahy/11085111?ean=9780786432844&ref=&source=IndieBound&title=Considering+David+Chase%3A+Essays+on+The+Rockford+Files%2C+Northern+Exposure+and+The+Sopranos) We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem * Bill Anderson * Brian Perrera * Eric Antener * Jordan Bockelman * Michael Zalisco * Joe Greathead * Mitch Hampton's Journey of an Aesthete Podcast (https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com) * Dael Norwood wrote a book! Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html) * Chuck Suffel's comic Sherlock Holmes & the Wonderland Conundrum (http://whatchareadingpress.com) * Paul Townend recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Brian Bernsen's Facebook page of Rockford Files filming locations (https://www.facebook.com/brianrockfordfiles/) * Robert Lindsay, Nathan Black, Jay Thompson, David Nixon, Colleen Kelly, Tom Clancy, Andre Appignani, Pumpkin Jabba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley and Dale Church! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show

Gene's 24-hour emergency plumbing. Your water heater's blown. We'll have somebody out there Tuesday, Thursday at the latest. Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Palletta. And I'm Epidia Ravishaw. Epidia Ravishaw. I've just recently, somebody was like, how do you pronounce your last name? I just jam it all together. That's all I that's all I do. Revashaw. Revashaw. All right. I apologize.

Or Ravo as we like to call you. Yeah, Ravo. All my friends call me Ravo. Me and Ravo, Peppy Ravo are hanging out ready to talk about the Rockford files. And we have a dare I say a good one to talk about here, with season three episode eight, Rattler's Class of 63. As all of these are, this was a predetermined choice by our Traps through our remaining episodes, which we have ordered in a way such that we are finishing out directors, writers, actors,

in roughly chronological order of the episodes that we have yet to do, jumping to the 90s aside. So, this particular episode is our last appearance of a David Chase script. Yeah. Our last chase, if you will. We're going to miss that David Chase. I hope he goes on to do something like noteworthy. He certainly has some chops, though it'd be a shame if this was the last we heard of him.

Now, of course, he's continuing on as a producer, an executive producer. I'm pretty sure he did not, yeah, he didn't write any of the remaining movies, or I would not have said that this was our last David Chase. But yeah, I don't know, what to say about David Chase? That is the title for autobiography. What to say about David Chase? I have a book about David Chase that I, it's in a box. I forget, I don't remember exactly what it's called, but, you know, try and look it up and put it in the show notes. I'm Nathan, I'm fancy, I keep my books in boxes.

It's in a box because it never got unpacked. And it's mostly about the Sopranos, right? Like, who cares about anything else? But I read the first two thirds of it until it was all about the Sopranos, right? Like who cares about anything else? But I read the first two-thirds of it until it was all about the Sopranos. I was like, I need to watch the Sopranos before I read the rest of this. Yeah. But he also did Northern Exposure. Right.

I remember seeing Northern Exposure just like as a show that was on TV during a block of shows on a weekend or something like in the late 90s. And I think it ran in the early 90s. So those were probably reruns. Probably. I don't really have a lot of context for what the show is actually about. But from reading this book, it sounds like it kind of had that quality of like getting into the neuroses of the characters and like balancing humor and drama,

like all that good stuff. So maybe in our follow-up, we'll find some key Northern exposure episodes to see if there's anything in there to talk about. I remember it being a show where sort of the reason to watch it is because you got to love the characters so much. Much like the Sopranos. Yeah, much like the Sopranos. I'm told. But yeah, I mean, we often talk about a script being chase in with a couple of qualities to them.

If I was to list them off the top of my head, the neurotic foil character, so not Rockford, but whoever either either the villain or like the person who's bringing Rockford into the story, like they have some kind of weird psychological hang-up that becomes evident through the course of the story. I feel like that's a very Chasian moment. All the mob stuff. I mean, obviously lots of Rockford files stuff has mob stuff, but like especially as the series goes on a lot of the real mobby mob Like like going back to the East Coast, New Jersey, etc. A lot of that is Chase, but also just like really good Efficient writing

Candle scripts have more turns of phrase Barlet scripts have a little more pathos, a little more emotional through line. And then the chase scripts give us memorable characters and tight stories, like really tight stories. This one has, I would say, a Bartlettian emotional through line as well. Yeah, this one actually is a little less typical of Chase. Other than it being around a certain neurotic character. Sure. Yeah. We've all come to know and love. Right. But yeah, you know, there's a little bit of a write-up in

Bad Robertson book about about Chase. He joins the show, you know, between season two and season three. So this is the season that he's he's he's writing and producing. Yeah, he joins the show between season two and season three. So this is the season that he's writing and producing. Yeah, he wrote 17 episodes. And Robertson notes memorable characters. Megan Doherty, the blind technologist, that's a Chase character. Anthony Boy, you know, those were all Chase episodes. Just a couple of guys. So memorable that it's as if they appeared twice and you couldn't remember if they were connected or not. I'm just going to quote here from the book. The addition of David Chase to the production staff completely reinvigorated Rockford.

Besides sharing producer responsibilities with Charles Floyd Johnson, Chase joined Stephen Cannell and Juanita Bartlett as one of the three primary writers on the show, bringing along fresh ideas, and an entirely new approach to Jim Rockford that would change the course of the series. And then there's a quote from Chase from a 2004 interview, we were free to write about anything. Writing for the Rockford files taught me the value of story. You love to hear it. He has credits before the Rockford Files and here and there in between, but his career is really bookend. It goes like a couple of things. Rockford Files, a couple of things. Northern exposure.

Almost nothing. The Sopranos. If you looking through the through credits, I'm not passing judgment on any of the quality of the product projects in between, but just by quantity. I don't know. As I said, you love to hear it. Yeah. If we thought ahead, it probably would have been maybe we'll do towards the end of our series, maybe we'll do some power rankings of our main. The big three. The big three, yeah. I don't think we're prepared to do it for this episode.

No. This one is directed by meta Rosenberg, who you may recognize from the opening credits of every Rockford file. So it's executive producer of the Rockford files. So I was like, Oh, directed by meta Rosenberg. So she directed six episodes and I was like, what really? Cause I just in my head, I just hadn't, I'm like, we surely will. We would have noticed this. Almost all of the other ones she directed were from the first couple seasons. So there were early episodes that we did because we

were limiting ourselves to the first couple seasons and they were while we were doing more of the breaking down how it works. Yeah. And less about production stuff and whatever. Basically, before I decided I needed to pay more attention to production stuff to fill out the show in the way that I wanted. Every one of them bangers. I'm sorry, I'm just looking through this. Yeah, go on, go on. Yeah. Portrait of Elizabeth. And then in this season, this one, and then there's one in every port. Next season, Quikki Nirvana, which was also David Chase's script, Juan the Shown Emmy, Queen of Peru, one of our all time faves. And then season five, Local Man Eating by Newspaper, which I guess if I had to rank

all these would be on the bottom. It was still a good episode. We just did it so long ago. I don't really remember too much about it. Meta Rosenberg, since we are finishing out this third creative contribution, I guess the deal is she was James Garner's agent, and she was a big time agent in the 60s. She ended up becoming Garner's partner in Cherokee Productions, his production company. Okay. So they did Nichols together.

So going back to Nichols. Yep. That was when she was kind of transitioning into more of this role. But as an agent, she represented Robert Redford, Alan Arkin, Ben Gazara, some heavy hitters before becoming this partner. This is all pulled from that Robertson book. She did show packaging. I guess that's a specific portfolio of producer where you help a client put together a series and find a partner to actually air it, but you're not working on the show necessarily. But she was the executive producer of Nichols, which meant that she did not have a good reputation

going into the Rockford files because that show did not do well. But James Garner had promised Metta Rosenberg that she would executive produce any project he did. And so, having her executive produce the Rockford Files was a condition for Garner to do the show. Yeah. Yeah. This was no problem with Roy Huggins because, and I quote from the book, I told Jim that she wouldn't actually be the executive producer.

I would be running the show. Jim said, that'll be all right as long as I can give Meta executive producer credit. I don't know what producers do really, honestly. My understanding is a lot of the time a producer or executive producer credit is you gave us money to make this and not necessarily anything to do with creative, you know, direction or anything like that. So I'm not trying to say she didn't deserve to produce it or anything. She clearly was part of the show the entire time. And she directed these six episodes and as you said, they're all bangers. So thumbs up from me. I'm sure I'd read that before because I've read the book.

I did not recall the path by which the credit was gained. That's a man who rewards loyalty. Garner, yeah. Yeah. We hear nothing but good things about him and this is one of them. Do you have anything else before we get into our preview montage? Well, we can get into the preview montage because I got things to say about that preview montage. Very strong Chapman open on the preview. It's good. It's good to see if they settled into a formula for the preview montage, just having the lieutenant of the week yelling at Rockford at the top of each one is a good. That's a good hook for me, right? Like that's the the list

of charges is a good. Yeah, a good way to get into it. This is what Rockford will be charged with in this. In fact, if I were to go back in time and be like, dear baby Nathan and baby Epi, you're about to embark on a podcast here. Just at the top of every episode, just list all the charges that Rockford faces. That would be a cute gimmick and you may at some point in like within the next eight years regret not having done that for however many hundreds of episodes you've done. Anyways, so that was great. Then we cut to you may kiss the bride and it's angel standing there at the altar. I'm in like I can turn the TV off right there.

I like my excitement level for this episode is just over the top. And then finally we end with like there's some, you know, talk about murder, you know, death threats or whatever. And then we get what the hint the slightest hint of a car chase over a landfill, which mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm into it. I'm in. Yep. Agreed on all counts. There are a lot of things about this episode that were like, uh, like felt like coming home. Yeah. And one of them is that we have the full we have the full cast. We have Jim, obviously,

Angel, Dennis, Rocky and Beth. Yeah. All of our favorites. So I'm looking forward to seeing how they all interact in this. 200 a Day is a 100% listener-supported show, thanks to our patrons. In addition to our gratitude and editing access to the 200 Files Files spreadsheet, patrons receive exclusive episode previews every month, and plus expenses, our bonus podcast where we talk about media, work, and our lives. In addition, every episode, we say thank you to our gumshoe patrons. Brian Bernsen has a Facebook page where he drives

his Rockford tribute car to shooting locations from the show. Facebook.com slash Brian Rockford Files. Chuck Sufell's one-shot comic, Sherlock Holmes and the Wonderland Conundrum is available at whatureadingpress.com. Find Dale Norwood's book, Trading Freedom, How Trade with China Defined Early America, Wherever Good Books Are Sold. It's about fast ships, cheap drugs, and American political economy published by the University of Chicago Press. Join Mitch Hampton to examine all matters aesthetic and what it means to be human at the journey of

an Esteepe podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Paul Townand also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color at FruitLoopsPod.com. Shane Liebling has all of your online dice rolling needs covered at his website, roll4yore.party. And check out Jay Adon's amazing miniature painting skills over at Jayadon.com. Thank you to Andrea Apignani, Tom Clancy, Pumpkin Japa Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Hawley, Dale Church, Colleen Kelly, David Nixon, Nathan Black, Robert Lindsay, and Jay Thompson. And finally, special appreciation for our detective little patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenner, Brian Pereira, Jordan Backelman,

Nop Backelman, Bill Anderson, and of course, Richard Hadham. If you're interested in keeping us going for as little as $1 an episode, check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. And we start our episode right off with Jim driving Rocky up to the chapel. All right, I, after I finished my notes, so I take my notes in like a Google doc, I finish my notes, scroll back up to the top, and that's when I kind of see my page count. Usually most episodes is like four, maybe I get on to page five, depending. I have like a full six pages of notes on this one. I was like, why did I write so much? So I'm not going to try and hit every single beat. I don't think I'm going too much out on the limb if I say this is a highly recommend. You should watch this episode episode for sure.

That also means there's lots of little fun things. So, you know, if I skip over something, feel free to call out anything you want to make sure our listeners are aware of. But this first scene setting up all of our action is indeed angels wedding. Yeah, they get right to it. They are right to it. In fact, Rocky and I are in accordance here because Rocky's first line and it's like a voice over line

as they're pulling in is I can't believe this, Sonny. It's so sudden. I'm like, wait, it's happening. The day has come. Yeah, there's a sign outside that says the it's the boyage in Martin wedding Yes, Jim has been called in as angels best man Mm-hmm, so he goes in to see angel before a ceremony. They you know have this whole scene here

It's one and a half hours notice He's lucky Jim had a clean suit and angels in typical angel fashion. I can't believe you're late What are you doing to me? Right? Jim well, you only gave me an hour and a half notice. But he's like, I'm regretting making you my best man. Jim says he can't wait to meet his bride to be what kind of woman is she? And Angel says, medium height. Yeah. So good. We then have a real sleazeball sidle his way in. We can tell because of his plaid coat and comb over

because Angel needs a ring. And so he's gotten in touch with this guy. It's clearly like a fan cert or someone. They haggle over rings. He's trying to sell Angel one for 80 bucks. And Angel's like, you know, my budget. Yeah. I don't have anything for $10. He's got for 10 bucks. You can't buy the ring in a bathtub. Which is great. That's good line. This episode is filled with good lines, I think. Yeah.

He's holding a 20, I believe, and he's trying to haggle. And then when he hears the strains of music, here comes the, you know, the bridal march, whatever. Music coming from the chapel, his face. He panics. He freezes. And the guy just takes a 20 out of his hand. So this whole time, right, this is again, squarely in the category of, I remember a lot of these scenes,

but I do not remember anything about the actual plot of the episode. So this whole time, right, it's the, all right, what scam is this? Right, yeah, what's Angel trying to do? But he seems terrified. So, you know, we go into the chapel, Rocky is the only guest on the groom's side of the, and this is just

like a little, like it's all like wood. It's just like a little small. Yeah, it's a tiny, you know, local kind of thing. This is not any kind of big grand thing. The bride's name is Regine. Regine is played by Elaine Helville, who played Angie in the reincarnation of Angie. That's why I recognize her. Yeah. I was like, oh, she seems familiar. That's because she was in another good episode where she was like the main character. So we saw a lot of her. And I remember thinking during this first part, like, it's a shame that she's not in more of this episode because she's so good. And then kind of at the end, we get this. Yeah, we get that made up for.

There's a wonderful detail where there's a woman who's playing the music and at first it looks like she's playing an organ or a piano or something. And then in another shot, it's slightly wider and we see that she's hitting buttons on a record, like some kind of, you know, recorded music thing. But the way she's doing it is as if she's playing an organ. Yes, it's good. That's a good bit My note here is that angel hustles regime about the ring

for that. The ceremony completes. Jim has to nudge Angeline to say his vows. Like that was a good moment as well. Yeah, and he's very hesitatingly going in to kiss the bride when Regine's brother Bobby breaks in, you know, runs down the aisle and starts yelling, are you crazy? What are you doing marrying this creep? Why did your brothers have to hear about this from your landlord?

Angel tries to save the situation. Oh, you must not have gotten my invitation. I sent them out. You're all welcome to come to the reception. That's all the wine and linguine you can put in your face. That's when Bobby punches Angel straight in his face. Jim intervenes, oh, pulls them apart. Bobby yells at Angel. You're not even Armenian.

Jim handles him like that. Like that was the intervention there was like, we know that Jim can hold his own in a fight especially a meaty fight like if it's you know but like he really like had control of him during this fight which I enjoyed. There's a little moment where yeah Bobby takes a like a like a roundhouse swing at Jim. Yeah. He just blocks it and then with the same hand that he blocks it, slaps him in the face. Yeah. It's demeaning, right?

Yeah. Yeah. It really establishes mastery, like right there. So he scrambles out. He says he's going to tell all his brothers about this because an angel is dead meat and he points at Jim and you're next in the meat grinder, mister. After this is when Regine clearly shaken rallies, apologizes to the guest. There's a bunch of guests on her side, presumably her family, her other family.

Although one of them looks like he could be Rocky's brother. Yes. But I'm like that. Maybe it's her landlord's family. Oh, could be. Everyone is welcome to the reception where there's, and she echoes Angel, all the wine and linguine you can put in your face. Yes.

She calls Angel Ev, which is great. Yeah, it's great because Jim always calls him Angel and then she calls him Ev and it's a good, it's good when they're talking about him. I think it is probably appropriate to mention at this point, just because we have been on this, you know, this particular thing lately, I'm pretty sure none of the Armenian characters are played by Armenian actors. Marshalls Yeah. Though they are not, though in this case, as with a lot of the kind of ethnic hood kind of typologies of this era, they're not really presented as like other, like they're not

like from Armenia. Yeah, yeah. They're not a foreign extraction, but they are ethnically homogenous and they are literally a family. So Angel got married. Yeah. And the vagrancy hood, he must be happy? Of course not. We go to it is night, it is Jim's trailer and he has woken up by Angel hammering on the door saying that Regine left him. It

is clearly the same night he's wearing his same coat and everything. They had shrimp cocktail. It was great. He's referring to her in the past everything. They had shrimp cocktail. It was great. He's referring to her in the past tense. She loved shrimp cocktail. One thing led to another. She started crying, and then she was gone. Jim does his best to comfort him, offers him a beer in response. You don't put a bandaid on a situation like this. I want my wife back." And he wants Jim to talk to her. There's a good joke in the cut where he, of course, does not handle domestic disputes. That's just asking for trouble. And then?

He cut to Jim talking to Regina and her maid of honor, I suppose, who's saying, tell him about the shrimp cocktail. Yes. So this, you know, slightly complicates matters. Angel appears to not whatever this whatever whatever grift Angel is on, it apparently is not leave a woman at the altar. Yeah. Yeah. He is genuinely upset.

So we get it later on, but like I try to remember exactly how they play it out in the scene, but I think they're trying to tell Jim. No, I think they say it out. They say it out loud. The angel wouldn't sleep with her. Yes. Yeah. On the wedding night. He keeps ordering shrimp cocktail and it feels like a stalling mechanism. Yeah, she says like, I like shrimp cocktail fine, but six. He just kept squirting lemon juice into tiny ketchup. He just kept squirting, squirting lemon juice into tiny catchups. He wanted to watch TV and he had to soak his, he had his soak his back in the bathtub.

And I think Hermit of Honor says, let's face it, he wasn't interested in making love to her. Yes. Yeah. Jim has a string of saying, well, Angel is unique. Unique. But he has a lot of good qualities. One note I had here was that this is the women's apartment set that we often see for Beth this season with all the green and yellow implants, which I always appreciate seeing. The pillow that she's holding on to during this whole scene steals the scene a little bit.

But that's, yeah. But yeah, Jim is, you know, doing his best. I think he's in that awkward place where he's like, I know, I know how he is. Like, I don't even really blame you, but I am trying to stick up for him. So he says, it's just the first night. Well, you talk to him and regime says, well, my brother set me straight. And he's not even who he says he is. And there's a great series of gym facials

as he processes like, okay, this was a con. What did you, Angel, what did you do? Yes. So I think there's a commercial break on that. And we come back to seeing her brothers. So it's a set of three. Bobby, who we already met. Ozzie, who is big curly haired and mustachioed

It's a very captain luel bannos. He does have okay, so I think he's he's a vaudeville guy So he's played by Avery Schreiber Who was a part who was a comedy partner with Jack Burns if that means anything to anyone This mustache I guess is a trademark look for him He was a TV variety show guys. I didn't say Bob. He's a variety show guy. Yeah, and a comedian He's a good heavy in this. He is a good heavy in this. Oh and He was in he was the tax assessor in Robin Hood men and tights. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm just looking through. Just this is the only Rockford files.

But yeah, I mean, I remember either him or someone meant to be him. He does a voice in Thundar the Barbarian. Yeah, he ended up doing a bunch of voice work later in his career. You got a couple, a few loveboat credits. He was in Dracula dead and loving it. Anyway, he's great.

And then they have another brother, I guess, is Ed, who has almost no life. Who's just the third brother. Yeah, a warm body. Anyway, so we cut to the parking lot. Her three brothers are emerging from a car. We see the firebird. We see Angel peek up, see them, duck back down. And I was like, the car's gonna be gone. We back in the apartment, she explains to Jim that last year she was dating a guy who

was sweet. I actually liked him, but he wasn't rich or smart enough for her brothers or are meaning enough, which is the real flaw. And they chased him out of town. This guy, this is Donnie Angles. Yes, Donnie Angles. We never meet Donnie Angles, but given his name, I can only assume she has a type. But now she married Ev and see what happened. Maybe her brothers are right.

She can't manage her own life. And Jim is a little nonplussed, but wants to get back to what she said. What do you mean by Angel not being who he said he is? And that's when the brothers come in. Bobby recognizes Jim. Hey, this is the guy who pounded me at the church. It's kind of funny.

It's a nice move. They come in and he immediately gets really casual. He leans back and lights a cigarette. He smokes a lot of cigarettes in this episode. Early days. Early days. But they ask who he is. He's like, my name's Jim Rockford.

Rockford, that's the man Martin said was a supervisor at his home office. They checked up on Angel, turns out that the maple leaf brewery in Quebec never heard of a Dr. Evelyn Martin and never planned on buying land out here. Jim's like, Doctor, wait a minute, I should have seen this thing coming. Ozzy punches him in the stomach, doubles over,. Doubles over the other brothers grab his arms. $5,000 down the toilet for a cheap con game. Another commercial. This has a lot of like commercial break.

Feel it. Yeah. Yeah. So like the scene, you know, this is still kind of the same scene where they marched him outside. He's like angels in the car. You can talk to him. But of course, the car is gone. Right. And then it's a commercial break We come back from commercial you're in deep trouble mr. Brue Meister

Ozzy winds up a punch and Jim takes the opportunity to Shift his weight throwing one of the other brothers into him throwing him off balance and Jim gets a gut punch in on the other One and starts running. This is a good little chase. A lot of it I'm going, oh, Jim's knees. Yeah, yeah, you can see it. You can see him limping through the, through part of the chase. I remember thinking, what season is this? Yeah. There's one shot where I'm like, oh, that must be his stunt double because it's like, it's like, like we see him running down a straightaway and then it cuts before we see his face. Yeah. But it's fun. It's got a lot of like opening and closing things into people and but the the capper, the capper, it's a strong, a strong moment to finish off this chase where

Jim's got a little distance. Ozzy's following him. He starts creeping slowly to, you know, try and suss out where Jim is. They're next to an outdoor pool because it's in like the back of like an apartment complex. So they've been going through backyards for a little ways. Yeah. So there's a pool. So Jim jumps out from around a corner and punches Ozzy right into the pool. Yeah. And it's great. We love a good punch into a pool.

It's just fun because you can watch him duck around the corner and then you're like, oh, it's gonna, it's got that, that feel of like you think, oh, it's gonna happen and then it happens, right? Like it's just right when you're, you're like, yes, I want to see this happen. And then it did. Yeah. You anticipate it and then you get exactly what you wanted. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaking of exactly what you want, we're going to go to Angel's apartment. I have a lot of screenshots from this episode. Yes. Ha ha ha ha ha. We cut to Angel's apartment where he's stuffing a bag, clearly in a panic. The signature for Angel's apartment is the big fringe Texas flag

Yes Always love to see that So I do have a screenshot here just cuz it's just it's so good There's a couple things that are particularly great one is the stack of television boxes in the corner Where it's like, huh, I wonder where those are from.

And he has underwear hanging off of a chandelier. My favorite bit in this is as he's stuffing things into the bag, he tears what is probably like a picture of a woman cut out from a magazine off the wall and shoves it into his bag. Yeah, he has some pinups on the wall and that's when the last thing he grabs after Jim starts knocking on his door.

Right, like it's not that he's doing it while he's stuffing the bag. It's Jim starts knocking on the door, and he's like, I got to finish stuffing things in his bag. I have to grab this pinup. This particular one, yeah. Oh, it's explicit. He goes for the window.

We know it's Jim, because Jim is saying, it's Jim. I know you're in there. Yeah. And Jim manages to bust the door open before Angel can go out the window. He found his car downstairs. He wants his keys. Boy, of all the names to toss out in your little scam, you got to go and pit my. But Jimmy, you got an important name, Solid Rockford. Don't that sound good? They think I'm part of the action. Now, what was it this time, Angel? The red barn con or what? Yeah, Jimmy, it's a good guess.

It's a variation of the red barn. Pursuit to our plus expenses. This episode is not about this con, but we do get a lot of details about how this con works, which is really kind of fun. Yeah, that's fun. But yeah, so Jim says that he's in it all the way now, so he wants to know every detail. Like you brought me into this, I need to know what you were running. The deal is the Boyajins, these brothers, they own a dump that they filled and are trying

to sell and they've been trying to sell it for years. It's called a sanitary landfill. They dump topsoil over it and then someone can potentially develop it. Oh yeah. And then Jim's like, oh, and here comes the Canadian beer mogul. And he asked who set the hook. Yeah. Oh, well, that was Eddie Groger. He was the VP in charge of development. So he comes in, offers the boyagins 150 grand and to hire their crew to get everything up to code. And then Jim says, all right. And so you were the stall Of course

Angel was he was the VP of human factor development. So he comes in he says, oh, I've we found a better piece of land up the coast I'm overruling this guy. We're gonna do a deal on this other piece of land You jerk them around until they start offering bribes. And it sounds like they split the... They got 5k out of them as the payoff. So Jim's like, okay, I know the con, but what did you do ending up married to the Mark's sister? Yeah, that's a great... The question we all want to know. It was his only hope. They tumbled the game, they sent some goons, and he says, sent some goons. And I'm like, yes, I don't I don't recall if there was a particular time that anyone said goons. And that's why we started or if we just right. That's just how we refer to

them. And now it's just our thing. But Angel calls them goons. He's hip to the lingo. A lot heavies or gorillas or, you know, yeah, yeah a couple of elephants or like whatever. Goons. They sent some goons who found Eddie and Eddie is dead. Angel found Eddie before he died and Eddie said that they were also looking for Angel but he didn't give him up and then he's like, and I would have done the same for him. He's like, uh-huh. He's like, well, what else do you want me to do? They're going to kill me. I did make an anonymous phone call to the police. That's his good deed for the day. It's the best deed that an angel can do. Jim's like, why don't you get out of town? I just like this little detail where he's

like, I couldn't do that. I mean, you know what happens if I break my parole. But he said the Armenians are close knit. Once he's in the family, he's gold. Once we'd have been on our honeymoon, well then I would have fasted up to Regina about this window when we got back to you to take in my sides against her brother. Crazy about me. Yeah. And once the flap with her brothers died down, you'd have been gone like a cool breeze. Well, maybe, but in the meantime, I'd have been bringing the girl true joy.

So Jim breaks the news. The the boy agents didn't kill Eddie. They only found out about the con a few hours ago. You got married for nothing. But someone's still looking for Angel. Someone killed Eddie is looking for Angel and he doesn't know who to run from, which is a core angel. That's so good. Jim call the police.

I'm out of it for keeps and drives away. Cut to cops, including Becker and Billings, pulling a body out of a ditch. Billings gets to read the ID from the wallet. Names Robert Boyage and Sarge. Bobby has a roll of hundreds in his sock in addition to everything else. So things escalate quickly. Time to go to Chapman's office where we get our exciting moment from the preview montage. Oh yeah. Beth is there with Jim and Angel. Bobby's brothers told Chapman what happened in the chapel. So you do are looking good for this. Jim explains that Bobby started it. There were a bunch of witnesses. Regine told Chapman that Angel called her and tried to arrange a meeting with her brothers to sort something out. And Angel's like, she's my wife. She can't testify against me.

And Chapman says, she hung up on you. Becker is there as well. Bobby was shot point blank, point like in the face. Someone who could walk right up to him, someone he wouldn't suspect. And yeah, so there's some details here that are important where Chapman's like, you know, you walked right up to him and gave him a face full of buckshot. Becker corrects him. It was birdshot and not buckshot. Yeah. Beth jumps up. This is all speculation. You have possible motive, maybe opportunity, but do you have anything at all solid to charge, you know, to charge my client with?

There's some silence. Jim says that he doesn't think the DA will file on these loose charges, and he goes to get up. Hello, Rufford. What for? You can't file a charge. Not on the homicide, not yet. But I've got you on fraud grand theft. Complaint signed by the boyage in brothers. Sergeant, get somebody from the Bunko Squad up here. Book these guys on the Red Barn Con.

Love it. And then he reaches out and he takes their badges like because they're wearing visitor badges and he takes their visitor badges. It's so good. It's a good move. We cut from there to outside the precinct where clearly they've been, you know, they've been bailed out. We start our shot with focus on Angel and someone in the suit who's, I mean, his lawyer or maybe the bail bondsman. They're in front

of a sign that says like 24 hour bail service, bail bond service. But Angel is demonstrably flailing is how I put it. I guess he's like reenacting like a fight or something. It does not matter, but it is very funny. Jim and Beth come up to him, Angel greets Jim and gets a death glare. What are you teasing me about? I got you off the Bunko Rap. Angel, you get too close to me

and I'll pull your beard out hair by hair Angels beard is magnificent throughout this episode. I mean he's always on point with his his facial hair game It's very full. Yeah, and we first see him He's kind of grooming it for the wedding and then we get this comment about it and then a little bit later on There's a whole like tender moment between him and Regine about where she reaches up and kind of strokes his beard or something. It's just something that draws attention to Angel's beard throughout this episode. So I mean, like it should have an IMDB credit for this episode.

What does Jim have to worry about? Angels, when someone's someone's coming after with a lead pipe, this is when Ozzy and his other brother up here What are you doing on the street? Beth tells Jim to just keep walking, but they do face off Jim does a good job not responding as Ozzy tries to provoke. Yeah They're getting Bobby's belongings guess we'll have to give him the goodwill because he doesn't need them

He doesn't have a face anymore. He's clearly upset. So, you know, I think that's something, you know, we're kind of filing away details of like, okay, what's actually going on. Right. Who knows what? Who's who's what are the motivations here? At this point, clearly there's a third party.

Yeah. We know that the angel and Jim didn't kill this guy. And we're reasonably sure that these guys didn't kill the other Khan. So yeah, something is going on. They know where to find Jim and Angel. Like his brother keeps saying like, not here, not now, come on. You know, he's like, well, we know where to find you. Beth doesn't have all she just has these two scenes But she gets to go full lawyer mode in both of them, which is nice We know where to find both of you. I'm mr. Rockford's attorney. Should I interpret that as a threat? Yes The other brother pulls Ozzie away

Beth tells them to lay low until the cops find whoever killed Bobby an angel says that's not gonna happen while they're trying to pin it on The two of them and he turns to Jim and says, you're going to have to find the real killer. That says no way, but Jim with a great facial expression of regret, unfortunately, agrees with Angel. We need to find whoever killed Bobby, or else we join the Melon Rines in the back of a garbage truck. Cut to the back of a garbage truck. Yes. Good joke in the cut. Same joke in the cut that they used in the preview montage, if I remember correctly. Seems about right. Just a different shot of the it's a different garbage truck moment. But yeah. All right. So Jim is

he's doing some some investigating. He's coming in with a with a con. Yeah. Like or gripped or whatever, which I was like, OK, but these people have just been calm. That plays out how you would expect it to play out, which I like. Well, he's also not coming to talk to the brothers. He's going to talk to like the workers who I guess it's still an active dump, right? Yeah. Like in the meantime, until someone buys it. So there's like earth movers and garbage trucks and whatnot.

Well, because they're taking a break. So Jim comes up to these guys who are taking a break, goes to talk to one of them. He introduces himself as Leo Kale. Jim's line here is that he's from the county health board and he has some questions. He's trying to talk to people who knew Robert and he keeps demonstrably mispronouncing the name. So it's like, Robert Boyajin. Yeah, him. He wants to talk to people who knew him on the job. He's trying to get a full picture of his movements recently because his autopsy showed signs of incipient encephalitis, which can become an outbreak.

So he's trying to try to figure out where we might have contracted it. You know, how have you been to work? Like how has he been the last few weeks? And Leo Kale, last few weeks, I have trouble remembering what I did this morning. So as he showed up, worked most days, he was we had some yucks. Didn't he didn't deserve a snoot full of birdshot. If you want to know more about him, you should talk to his family. Jim has a line about not wanting to interrupt their grief. Leo gets kind of like weirdly intense. It's like grief. Bobby had no use for that family and they had no use for him. The kid was a free spirit. That's when we see that the brothers are in That's when we see that the brothers are in their blue sedan rolling across the dump and they sight Jim as Jim is trying to get out of there.

Ah, he has jumped out of the car. Stop that creep. He's one of the guys who killed Bobby. So there is a brief but frenetic chase here. My main note is that there's a lot of tire screeching fully for two cars that are on soft ground. Yes. Like I usually don't really care, but for this particular moment, it was very

egregious just because there's no asphalt to be seen. Yeah, there's nothing to screech on. But yeah, how do we know it's a chase if there's not tire screeching? Exactly. It's not a terribly long chase. Like I got excited. OK. It's probably been a while since we've seen a Rockford chase. Just by random chance, we get a lot of like small ones like this or things that just like somebody gets in a car

and immediately has to get out or something like that. I think the last one I remember is when Dennis is told to tail Jim and he loses him by taking a turn that forces Dennis to go over some tire spikes or something like that, but I don't even remember the episode. Anyways, in this one, I was anticipating, I was like, it's early, it's written by Chase.

I mean, I don't remember if Chase actually puts a lot of car chases in his, but like that'd be nice if he did. But it does have a nice ending to it, which is the Jim kind of plays chicken with a bulldozer and swerves just in time to send the other car straight into it. Right. Yeah. The bulldozer has a big pile of dirt in the dozing, like

dozing chamber. And so, yeah, Jim swerves. The technical term for it, the dozing chamber. Right before hitting it. And so, yeah, the following car just plows directly into the big pile of dirt being pushed by the bulldozer, which is very satisfying. Jim takes off and we end our scene with Leo asking Ozzie who that was. And Ozzie very specifically gives him Jim and Angel's full names. It's like, oh, that's Jim Rockford. Him and Angel Martin are the creeps that the cops arrested, but then they sprung them loose.

He has a couple other choice things to say about them. And then the camera lingers on Leo nodding thoughtfully. Yeah. And I was like, okay, so this guy, what's up with this guy? That's when I went back and made sure I noted his name because earlier I'd said, Jim talks to a guy. Yes. Then I went back. Oh, this is a character. His name is Leo Kale. I also had a moment and this doesn't happen to me often,

but I caught the clue when the clue flew. Which we get in the next scene, but yeah, go ahead. Well, it's just like when he mentions birdshot, I was like, huh, hmm, is that common knowledge? Right, yeah. I didn't really notice it in that moment, but it again, it's explained in this next scene, which features a lot of great things. It's time for us to take our traditional intermission as we all need a little break to head out to the lobby take a little stretch

get a snack a drink reflect on what's come before and anticipate what's to come in this episode of the Rockford Files. We also like to take this time to remind you of where else you can find us on the internet. Epi, where can our listeners find you? Well, you can find me at my website dig1000holes.com. That's 1000th the number. Or you can find me as EpiDia on the Mastodon instance dice.camp or on cohost. Where can our listeners find you, Nathan? All of my games, zines, podcast projects, and other work are at NDPdesign.com. You can also find me at NDP on co-host and over on Instagram at NDPdesign.games. And of course, you can always find this show, 200 a day at 200 a day dot fireside FM and now we return to the continuing adventures of Jimmy Rocco

Jim is at Rockies Rocky is serving milk and sandwiches And this whole conversation is held while Rocky holds a half a sandwich. Per the screenshot, I just sang you. Yes. So good. Noah Berry Jr. No. I'm an exquisite physical actor.

Rocky saying, you have a thin lead. This is not much. But Jim explains, look, you would assume that you'd use buck buck shot to kill someone with a shotgun Even Chapman assumed that Dennis had to correct him. How did Leo Kale know that it was birdshot? Yeah, this is just to tell Rocky this so that we hear that so we get that clue as well This this next scene starts with Jim pulling up to a car dealership and the camera stays on the dealer whose name is Gene. Mostly he is referred to by his last name, which is Chechek. Chechek? Chechek?

Chechek. So Gene Chechek. Remember, folks, Gene's universal motors in the friendly city of Artesia. I don't know for certain, but this feels like this comes straight off of a commercial break. I don't know. I don't know for certain, but this feels like this comes straight off of a commercial break. I think it does. I quite like that they're filming a commercial immediately following the commercial break like that's. It's a fun little bit.

It's a yeah, it's a nice touch. So like that he's co-promoting with a big barrel of this butter crunch candies. Candies. I really would love to have some Smith's butter crunch candies right about now. Good. This is when we see Leo Leo Kale come up to Gene while he's mid commercial and then he cuts the commercial. He's like, we'll pick this up

later and they walk away. Yeah. Jim has been tailing. So this is kind of again an example that like tight storytelling that uses both the script and the screen, right? Like at no point does Jim like, I, tight storytelling that uses both the script and the screen, right? Like, at no point does Jim like, I'm going to go follow him or we see him following or whatever. We get to pick up from the context that that's, you know, that's our connective tissue. That's why Jim is here. We cut to Jim literally kicking some tires outside the dealership, waiting for for Chetchik to come out. Talks up how he looks taller on TV, but he's come down here to get another car. He wants something that looks conservative but has some zots under the hood.

But the point here is that Leo Kale's a drinking buddy of his and told him to talk to Gene personally. And that's when we see Gene clam up. I don't know anyone named Leo Kale. I have to go talk to my mechanic. If you're interested in the car, you know, talk to my salesman who was already talking to you. I don't want to cut into his commission and like walks away.

Jim knows that something is going on. Yeah. This is one of those good examples of like, when Jim runs one of his little cons, I don't even... Griff, what are we going to call these? When he does his fast talk? It's fast talk. Yeah, we're eight years into this. We should have a word for it. When Jim does his fast talk, he's got a whole thing, right? Like he's got a character that he's playing,

and he's got an angle that he's taking. But he learned something no matter how that plays out, right? Like if somebody's onto him right away That doesn't matter that just tells him that they're waiting for someone to come looking That's the beauty of these things is that he can he can do them and then it doesn't matter how they react He learned something from how they react and this one in particular like it goes so cold that Jim's like oh, okay So there is a connection. There's no way he's rebuffing me like that.

Well, there's obviously a connection. He saw them talking to him, but now he wants him to, now he knows that this guy doesn't want anyone to know there's a connection. And yeah. I mean, that even extends to sometimes he runs, you know, he runs a line and there's no reaction, right? Like there's like, they just take, you know,

they just take it at face value. And then sometimes that tells them, okay, maybe this is this person is not involved or this isn't what I thought it was. Like, yeah, there is this aspect of no kind of no matter what, he does learn something. Yeah. We cut to see a shotgun being wrapped in plastic and hidden in the tank of a toilet. And then we pan up to see the the suspicious face of Leo Kale. What I've I have put in my notes is ominous toilet scene. Yes, ominous toilet scene. And then we go to Jim talking to Regine. He needs to get some more info. She says that she knows that Jim didn't have anything to do with Bobby's death. But what about your friend?

What's his rock bottom? Yes, it's like a good line and good point. I think by the end of this episode, we see that obviously there was a bit of a learning curve, but Regine as has perfectly clocked Angel. Yeah. After like a couple of days. You mentioned this at the top of the episode when we talked about her playing Angie. Yeah Angie. But she's great and this is the moment in this scene. This scene is the moment when I

noticed that in my notes. Right. I'm like I'm just really digging how she's delivering all this. Like she's really handling this character that could have just been a joke. Right? Like she's a mark. Like who falls for Angel? Right. And we get a character where that's plausible.

Like it's very plausible and it's, I think it's handled quite well. For the record, the reincarnation of Angie was our episode 53 back in July of 2019, so. Well, there was a 2019. It's notable that she stuck with both of us from one day that long ago. Jim asked her about Leo Kale.

Isn't he a trip to the zoo? They basically, you know, they talk about Bobby. Jim wants to know a little bit more. She shares some things. Ozzie thought that Bobby was a cross to bear for the family, but now that he's gone, he feels guilty. And so that's why, you know, one reason he's acting out so, so, so broadly. Bobby was always the fun one growing up. And then Azi threw him out of the house. Cut off his money, claimed it would make him a man. Just drove him closer to people like Leo. And gradually, Bobby wasn't fun anymore.

He was just me. And drunk and perpetually broke. Wedding in a funeral in three days. The Missing people must really love us. Well, he wasn't broke when he died. Any idea where he got $1,000? I guess that is how much was in his sock when they pulled him out of the water? She does not. He's like, do you think Leo Kale might... I forget exactly what the phrase is, but he's like, could Leo Kale have been involved? He doesn't know what it means, but he's just basically, he's getting bad vibes. Anythings that Leo might have murdered Bobby and she reacts and then goes, I don't know why I should be surprised. Leo was a

long beach rattler. Ah, here we go. And I go, oh right. The title of the episode. Yeah, yeah. Same here. Up to this point, the title of the episode is Rattler's Class of 63. So I still was thinking there's some sort of high school connection. So I guess, well done. Well done title of the episode. Yeah, we cut to Becker. Yeah, I remember the Rattlers, the Sphinx, the Pyramid, King Tut. That's all ancient history. So at first I was like, oh, there was like this whole, like, are these all the gangs? And I think I'm realizing, no, he's just saying, just

like the Sphinx, the Pyramid and King Tut, the Rattlers are ancient history. Yeah. It's not in 63, there was a gang war between the Rattlers, this Finks and the pyramid. And then King Tut came along, which I feel like that would be a fun game to play. Oh, that would be. But yeah, the Rattlers were an outlaw by gang. Jim is drawing some connections. Leo Kale went to work for the Boyajins in 63, which is when they covered their dump in topsoil and put it up for sale.

Earlier it had been mentioned that it's been on the market for 10 years. So, you know, I guess it's just to roughly where we're at. Jim says that Leo drove the bulldozer that did the work. And now 13 years later, Eddie and Angel come up with their con and Eddie and Bobby are both dead. He doesn't know if Gene is involved, but he'll put that shotgun in Leo's hands any day of the week. We cut to another frantic knocking

this time at Rockies where Jim snoozing on the couch and it's Angel in a Panic. If they act quick, they can get to Central Mexico. Word on the street is that the cops found a shotgun in Angel's bathroom. Jim calls Dennis. It's the middle of the night. This is a great just little moment of humanity, right? Where Becker answers the phone. He's like, I can't talk here. And then he apologizes to Peggy. I mean, we don't see Peggy, but one presumes. As viewers of the show, he apologizes to Peggy. I mean, we don't see Peggy, but like one presumes as viewers of the show. He apologizes to Peggy. He's like, sorry, I have to get like, you know, in a very naturalistic way. I just apologizes to the key grip who has to lie in bed next to him. Yeah. So it goes down to the kitchen in his night shirt. And while talking to Jim makes himself a sandwich. Might as well. I mean, he's like, I'm not getting back to sleep.

Right now, I mean, I'm loving this whole cast, but, you know, it's it's a bit of a shame that Jim doesn't already know. Coop. Yeah. Just for the for the bike wrangles. Like again. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God.

Go back and see if the see if the Rattlers are involved in the curse of the black shadow or return of the black shadow. I hadn't even really taken that scene in. I'm glad you took that picture because he's it's a whole production. Like he brings out the bread, the big jar man is the cheese and the meat. And the table is set like Like it's set for dinner. Like it looks like in the Becker household, when they're done with the meal,

they just set it up for the next one. Just in case he has to get up overnight. Yeah, which makes sense. I mean, like he might have to get up early in the morning or whatever, but yeah, good stuff. So Becker turned up that in 1963, Kale, Jean and a a now-deceased third rattler, so they were both guys were both rattlers, were arrested for the murder of two rival gang

members, but the police at that time never found the bodies, they had corpus-delective problems, couldn't make the charges stick. You're thinking what I'm thinking, aren't you, Dennis? That angel, and Eddie Groger, were making phony offers on a secret graveyard. You know all you need is a good set of dental records to mail them. I mean Chechek and Cale couldn't know the land purchase was a phony. They gotta think that the bodies were gonna be exhumed. Dennis says that's the sheriff's jurisdiction.

Have you ever heard of probable cause? Bobby's murder is in Dennis's jurisdiction and Jim and Angel are wanted in connection with that. So you should come in. Jim says that the shotgun plant is so obvious you ought to water it. Oh, it's such a good line. It's not just wanting to talk to you anymore. Like the beef on you now is conspiracy to commit and Becker hangs up. I think it's kind of like, as a friend. This is a warning. Yeah. I'm not on duty this particular moment as I'm making my sandwich, but I'm hanging up the phone now. We go to just a sousong of

another con that we get explained a little more in subsequent scenes Jim's in a suit. He's talking to a real estate agent at the entrance to the landfill He wants to buy the property his engineers will rip the two payoff to see if it's buildable They're gonna in addition to the motorhomes. They're gonna build an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a fieldstone clubhouse And then we'll see what the development opportunities are after that the real estate agent is you know reminding him that it's a Sanitary landfill they're gonna have to you know pack the soil etc and Jim says he's willing to take the risk. He'll buy the option in case you know, it can't be built on or something like that

His character hears that he's sweating and he keeps dabbing his neck with his hand. It's a good bold choice. But yeah, the whole hustle here is that he's eager to buy. So, you know, I think reading between the lines, right? He's like, following up on my theory. Everyone who wants to buy this is dead. Yeah. Someone else who is involved in some way, we're still not quite sure how is also dead. So, you know, I'm going to poke that bear and see what happens, right? We go to Gene and Leo. Gene's saying, I told you not to come out here like this.

So why do you answer my calls? There's another buyer who wants to rip up the landfill. And we follow them to their conversation at said landfill in the background or a bunch of kids playing like pick up football or Frizzby or something. Yeah. You know, on the landfill while they talk. So it's a nice little dramatic contrast there with the topic of their conversation. So we learned that that is indeed what happened. They did bury those those guys 13 years ago. Jean says they should just dig up the bodies. Then it won't be a problem anymore.

Leo, what? I should come up with a dozer and dig through eight feet of garbage? So do it at night. I was only 25 when we had that rumble with these bums. It was an accident. I was drunk. How long am I gonna have to keep paying for it?

Tell you buy this property and pay it all over like I told you to. Gene says, you know, you're always running your mouth. Yeah. I think you wanted Bobby to blackmail me. You've always resented me. And we'll come back to that in a second. This is a scene that I totally thought that they were setting the audience up for when these two kill each other. You could read it that way for sure. Every, they both knew that each other was like on the edge of talking or doing something that they shouldn't have done or something like that. And they have this

dark secret. So one of them has to die. He. So Leo wants Jean to find out about this buyer from his real estate contact. You know, there's just like, you know, you know, the real estate people or something. And you'll do the thing. What thing? Oh, the killing. You and me and a partners. Your hands are going to stay as dirty as mine

And when we snuff wakely You're gonna buy this land And me and you ain't never gonna see each other again. That's Leo's plan. Um, yeah, I think so I didn't necessarily make that read in the moment I think that I I see it like mm-hmm. They clearly hate each other Yeah, yeah, they hate each other and there's bound together by this secret. Dark secret. Yeah. So I guess the question and I don't think this is really addressed later so might as well talk about it now. So is the implication here that Bobby, whether because Leo wanted into or not, found out about the bodies and went to blackmail Jean, because he always needed

money, and then Jean killed him, or that he went to blackmail Jean, that was too far and Leo killed him. That's a good question. I ended the episode thinking Leo had killed him, and now I don't know why. Yeah, I guess there's an extra step if Leo killed him. Leo does have the shotgun, so I guess that would imply that he did kill Bobby. And the reason he has the money is because he got it right, that $1,000 was a payoff for Gene. It's the other connection we're supposed to draw here. There's a thing in this scene where it sounds like Leo has been doing the dirty work. Yes. Yeah, and

It's time for Jean to step up. But yeah, it's a little it's a little bottled in my head Yeah, it doesn't matter the action keeps going. That's just pushing us forward. Yeah It doesn't particularly matter in any functional way other than it's a little like there's a there's a there's clarity of like someone wants to buy the dump and then they get killed but then Bobby gets killed and it's like well it's not that he wanted to buy the dump but right I guess he found out about the secret right and I guess there's just that extra step of he revealed that he knew the secret and thus he had to die yeah we cut to Jim Rocky an angel cards. There's a good visual bit where Jim pulls Angel's hand down to see the cards he actually has.

That's good. Rocky answers the phone and he clearly has been coached for this moment as he says, so there's whatever the false name that Jim gave for his real estate developer. Yes, it's his residence. no, he's not here. No, he went fishing for the weekend, not the whole weekend. Yep, he went all alone up to Flint Head Lake. He's all alone up there with no phone.

No, he won't be hard to find. He's in a white camper with green trim. Giving our marks exactly the information we want them to have to execute on this con. I just want to point out that during this phone call, the physical interaction between Jim and Angel is Jim trying to keep Angel from running away. Yeah. It's just what it feels like.

It's good. It's good stuff. All right. So, Jim and Angel are in a camper. Jim's kind of up in like the over cab. Yeah. The mother's attic of a U-Haul if you are familiar with that branding. He's forcing Angel to lie in the bunk like one would if one was asleep

and pretend to be asleep. Jim saying there's going to be no problem as soon as they come through the door, I'm going to come down on him. You're not even going to have to use that Georgia toothpick, which is a baseball bat that he gives to Angel. Angels. I love this little detail. Angel saying, why don't we just make up the bed like there's someone in it? And he starts explaining.

Yeah. He's like, and he's like, back in the Navy and Jim cuts him off. Oh, yeah. There is like a couple of things here and there of like, you know, the angel serving, you know, having some service time. Would Jim of Wrist borrowing this camber from Rocky's neighbor and damaging it if he thought something nasty was going to go down? And it was a great look from Angel like, uh-huh. We cut back and forth from the rest of this conversation to the approaching car with our former rattlers getting some, you know, some, some tent, some building tension. Angel's supposed to be on his honeymoon right now.

Yeah, such a great life. I had a good woman and look what I did. There's a moment in here. I didn't take this screenshot because I'd taken those screenshots, but there's a moment in here where I'd paused it to make notes. I looked up and the staging is Jim is draped over like this kind of like a box thing that he's kind of hiding behind. His arm is over it as he talks to Angel and he's holding his gun. Jim is expecting trouble. He does say that he's going to make him freeze or something like that. So he is clearly indicating that he's going to pull a gun on someone. I could have been with her to that...

holding that warm, sweet body instead of this fungal bat. Save the Hank Williams when y'all left my fiddle at home. What? I ain't entitled to have regrets. The only thing you're upset about is the spot you're in. What about the spot you're in at Regina? I had to stay alive. You are alive. Be happy. That's good stuff. We go outside and we see other stick on letters of the like alias that James has been using to make it very clear which camper it is. They hear noises. Jim

whispers to Angel, be easy. We want them to come inside. The whole idea here is we're going to give the cops probable cause because they're going to come in and it's attempted murder. Outside we see Leo messing with the gas cap of the camper. We go inside. Did you lock the cap to the tank like I told you to, Angel? I forgot. And they run out of the camper. My notes are, we're getting explosion. Yep. And you are correct as they dive out We we cut to a wide shot and we see the camper explode Jeans in the car sees them run out. It's that guy Rockford Leo

Has a gun he jumps in the side in the passenger Seat exchange shots with Jim they try to drive away and we have a good Jim taking a very steady aim. Yeah. He takes a shot. It's a little unclear if it like hits their tire or just makes him swerve, but either way, they swerve into a rock, stopping them in their tracks. The horn is blaring. Another camper comes, you know, comes over to the exact thing. Yeah, a guy comes running out. Yeah. Jim's like, call the police. And then he keeps his gun on our two. Would-be-assassins, former Rattlers. And he tells Jean, hope you're as good at selling stories as you are at used cars.

Justice is presumably served. And we go to our final scene with Angel in Jim's trailer. Jim is in a foul mood and the last thing he wants to see is Angel. All right, so Angel has like a like a like a liquor box with records in it. Yeah, he wants to hide them at Jim's because the divorce has been finalized. Reginaine is gonna get them in the settlement if he doesn't hide them. This is a, it's good business, it's fun. It's also a lovely detail. I mean, we'll get a little bit more of it in a moment,

but I guess the thing I just really love about it is that it starts off as a, I don't know, like a divorce joke. I don't know if that makes sense, but like, oh no, she's gonna take me for everything. But it actually, like, we get this filtered view of the romance between Angel and Regine. And she clearly has sentimental attachment to these records, like that's going to be a thing and that's a nice humanizing thing, right? Like an angel is also attached to it. So like there's common ground there somewhere, right? Like that exists of all the things that

Angel is worried about. It's the records. Yeah. Yeah, which gives us a little like, you know, he does care about something. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that they're particularly valuable. I mean, he runs through a couple titles. Yeah. It's not like they're ill gotten gains and he needs them to like flip. They're not TVs and boxes stacked in his own apartment. Well, Jim is in no mood. So now we get the outline of everything that Jim has done offscreen.

Yes. Jim was just talking to someone at the bank. He had to refinance his trailer to get the $2,000 that he had to use for his deposit when he was posing as the real estate guy to get the option on the property to convince everyone that someone was gonna buy it. Plus he's on the hook for renting a bulldozer,

which I feel like there's something earlier where I was like, oh, that was the bulldozer, which I feel like there's something earlier where I was like, oh, that was the bulldozer. But yeah, I don't remember other than to make it look like he was legit about digging through it. And Rocky won't even talk to me because his friend's camper did a patty melt. Yeah. There. Yeah. It wasn't just fast talk to get to that point. He did have to actually put up some money to make it look legit enough for everything to go down the way he wanted. So again, the con, the goal of the con was not to make money. The goal was to get these guys for, you know, attempted murder, which was successful, but

there was a cost. Or very specifically to get Angel and Jim out of the line of fire with that. Yeah, this is, I mean, you know, we've seen Jim out of pocket in a lot of episodes, but I think this is like pretty out of pocket. Yeah. Yeah. This is like top top five. It's not stated or implied that he's supposed to replace the blown up trailer. Just that Rocky's mad at him about it. But you wonder that might be part of it as well. Yeah. This is when Regine knocks. Angel wants to know what she's doing there. Jim said that, oh, you know, she asked me to help her with something.

Angel has this moment was like, oh, what was I forget the guy's name. Donnie Angle. Yeah. Jim implies that it's like a, yeah, a missing persons case. And Angel's like, oh, that guy was a Jimmy angle. Donnie angle. Donnie angle. Yeah.

And he was like, oh, that guy Donnie angle. And he was like jealous, which is very funny. So Jim lets her in. Angel still holding the records and he's like crouched in the kitchen behind the little divider, like hoping he won't be seen. But it is clear that he's there. Jim says like, let's talk at the restaurant. I'll go get us a table. Little little extricating himself. Well done, Jim.

We have the most unexpectedly touching scene I can recall from the Rockford files once Jim leaves the trailer. Yes, this is so good. I'm kind of expecting some business about like the divorce or, you know, whatever but there's immediate Tension like new them knows what to say Obviously regime is not vindictive, right? Mm-hmm. She sees what he's holding those are the records aren't they and Angel starts off with Jimmy was helping me create them and then we're gonna mail them to you, you know get everything sorted There's a moment where they're looking at each other and then Angel just goes, I'm lying to you.

I'm lying. Boy, boy. The shock just comes out of my mouth like the fumes out of a city bus. I was going to hide the damn records here. I'm sorry. I think is this the only time we've seen Angel not performing? Right. It's certainly the most vulnerable we've ever seen him that I can think of.

And aside from like obviously when he makes himself look pathetic to try and get Jim to help. Yeah, yeah. The moment where he's like, because we're friends, like that moment, like that is another one that's vulnerable and pretty real. But there's something and this is a testament to Stuart Margolin, right? Yeah. There's something here where he's still 100% angel still 100% this character, but this character is

for once Not performing for the person he's talking to in the moment. Yes. Yeah, or like like distracted cuz that's his other mode He says he doesn't know what else he could have done they he thought that they're going to kill him right at the brothers he doesn't know what else he could have done, he thought that they were going to kill him, right, the brothers. I know that, but I could have helped you. He just never asked. He didn't give me a chance.

You lied to me when you asked me to marry you and you just, you made me feel like I didn't exist at the motel. Why couldn't you talk to me? Because I was so uptight. I mean, all night long, all I could see was this lead pipe hit me on the head. Fact is, I didn't see you at all. I don't know. This conversation was very touching. Yeah. You know, he has this line

where he's like, I like you. There's nothing phony there. And you believe it. Like you absolutely believe it. Yeah, he's not like I love you or like whatever. It's like that very real like, I like you. I feel regret for how I've treated you. Right, how I hurt you. But at the time I couldn't do anything else. Yeah, he's like, I was scared. I was terrified.

And then she just has this great thing where she's like, you were just scared. Yeah. You're always scared, aren't you? I mean, both of them are doing just an amazing job. And they're both being like incredibly honest too. Like she also has that great line about like, I even wish that they'd hurt you like once or twice.

Yeah, she's glad that he didn't get hurt even though she wished that he would have once or twice. Yeah. And he goes, I dig. Yeah. I get it. That makes sense. This final scene is worth the episode.

And the episode itself is an absolute delight as well. But then for my money, the final scene is like an amazing capper to the episode. And then the final frame is an amazing capper to this scene. So we get to the end here where she's going to talk to Jim. Angel stops her and he kind of makes like a last kind of you know kind of a like let's start fresh. Yeah. Sally, right? Like he's like what but he's really he's really hesitant and mumbling, could we try let's go out to dinner. My schedule is free. Yeah, yeah. And she's like no, he said, well, what if we stay here we can drink Jimmy's beer and use his record player. Jimmy's beer and uses record player. But again, great. And she says no, she offers him her hand for a handshake. He shakes it. And then there's another moment. And then I think this is where

you you mentioned she reaches up and kind of like touches his beard, starts closing in as if for a kiss, and then stops. And then like with a trembling, tear filled voice, you take it easy now. Okay. And that's when she leaves. She goes outside. Jim is waiting, asks if she's okay. She says yes. And then with no, you know, no music, no score. Oh, you got it. Yeah, I got it. Of course you got it. I mean, and this is the freeze frame for the end of the episode. And we just in the foreground have Jim with his arm, comfortingly around Regine. She's smiling with a, I'm getting myself together, smile.

And in the background, Angel has come out of the trailer and is just standing there looking at them with one hand on the open door. It's so good. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. It's he's watching his best chance walk away. Yeah. Yeah.

Best chance. I don't know. Happiness at a connection with someone that's on a more fundamental level. Like whatever. He's just he's watching walk away. He knows there's nothing he can do. Mm hmm. For the rest of the series, we're just going to get the angel we know. I don't know if Jim's his closest friend, right? But let's assume he is.

I think for the sake of it, for the purposes of the show. Yeah. And like this scene starts with Jim, like just explaining to him, all the money angels cost him. This whole episode is about Angel messing up Jim's life, but it's also all about Angel messing up Regine's life. So yeah, it's just great. It's just this great thing where he doesn't know he can't help himself. And then and then he has to like look upon the fruits of his labor set the very end. I loved it. Yeah, good stuff. It is extremely good. That is the end of the episode in the write up in that Robertson book. It says that this was reportedly Stuart Margulin's favorite episode. And yeah, I

believe it. I believe it too. It's a good one. It's a good one. No music, just an angel staring out at the wreckage of his life. There was a line in the book about like David Chase brought a new, you know, brought, breathe new life into the character of Brockford. I feel like there's some elements of breathing life into some of the other characters, like an angel. Yeah. This is arguably, again, the only time that we see the... I see a human side of Angel where he's not trying to scam and he's not trying to run.

Yeah, yeah. Actually, I think that's the main thing because when we have that other moment with Jim, he's desperate for help. And in this particular case, there's nothing Angel needs. Maybe is maybe what I'm saying, but there's nothing he's angling for. He just knows he's hurt her and he's trying to do the right thing to correct that in any way he possibly can.

Well, not any way you possibly can, but he's trying to do the right thing and by letting himself out there, which is great, It was good stuff. It was good stuff. And she was amazing playing opposite of him in this. Yeah, she's great. That is a role that could have been phoned in and like the episode would have been fine,

but the fact that she did it and just nailed it just elevates the episode. It's a scene where like, sure, like obviously if we know the context, it hits harder, but like, it's almost like a, like, like an audition scene. Yeah. You could have just the conversation of the two of them, just with the lines that they have, and like, you know, see how deeply an actor can inhabit that moment to get that emotional connection. I feel like it would

be a challenge. The fact that they both do it is really good. That scene really touched me and I'm not quite sure why. I mean, I kind of know why, but I'm not quite sure how to put into words what about it exactly was so impactful? Part of it, I think, is that we spent so much time with Angel. Yeah. So kind of like seeing the real Angel. It was just such a, both a surprise, like a surprise of delight, but a sad one. Yeah. We only see it because we know that it's transitory and that he's lost this chance.

There's a thing about Angel, like we see Angel's apartment, right? And it's not like we talked about it. It's it's it's a mess. In fact, we probably could do a whole episode on what we see of Dennis's house, what we see of Angels and what we see of, you know, bets or that kind of thing. Yeah. But, you know, and it's obviously both like his in universe situation is evident in it, but also like it's a reflection of him. He's got these bear walls. There's, you know, well, no, it doesn't have bear walls. He has three. Oh, yeah. He has a couple of pinups. He has a Texas flag Texas flag. Yeah. And underwear hanging on a chandelier. Yes. Yes. And a water heater that Jim can back him into at some point.

And yes, that's great. That's all well and good. And it all informs us about the character. But this scene just really, really puts it out there, right? Like, I don't know how to otherwise say it, but like, yeah, I think you're right when you talked about how great it is, you know, to watch this character who has always got an act going, drop that act, and still have this character there at the center. That's great. And unexpectedly so.

You know, the plot is over. We've wrapped up, you know, our villains. Like, we know what was going on. We've answered all the questions. And then we get this all-time great scene from the series. Like a top 10, if not top five individual scene. Yeah. Just coming in, just hot off the,

like hot off the back of a good episode. Yes, exactly. Yeah, the episode didn't need it, but it got it and that was great. Yeah. So I think at the beginning we said some, or at least I said, I don't remember if you agreed with me, but that this isn't necessarily the most chasing of episodes kind of in the in total,

but I'm glad that it's the one we ended on because yeah as an episode it's so memorable. Yeah, for us as deep divers into the show. This is kind of like an instant instant classic just for that last scene alone. Yeah. And then we get all the other stuff with the different groups with different motivations, all clashing with Jim having to run some cons. All the lovely con business. Yeah. All the con business, which isn't, it's not a con game episode. We're not watching the cons unfold, but we get a great texture from just the explanation of the cons, which again resonates

with some of the stuff I've been reading and watching recently. So that's, you know, that was good for me. Bonus. It's extra bonus. A fun surprise in the sense of now that we have a specific progression, it's just going to be like, well, let's see what this one has to say. You know, what does this episode have to offer? Yeah, that's that was great. Yeah, I don't think I have anything else to say about this episode. I think we've done it. Goodbye, David Chase. Goodbye, Mettarozenberg. I mean, they're still they're still producing. We will seal the credits, but we will be moving on to some of our other

longtime writers mostly and some directors as we continue chasing down the end of the Rockford files. But we are not there yet. We still have many more fun surprises to discover, I think. Yes. So we will be back next time to talk about another episode of the Rockford files.