Two Hundred A Day - Episode 139: Forced Retirement

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Nathan and Eppy revisit the first of our "lost episodes" with S4E11 Forced Retirement. An old college friend of Beth's is involved with a secretive undersea submersible project, and after Beth surprises an intruder in her apartment, Jim offers to look into it. He calls in his Jimmy Joe Meeker persona to pose as an investor, kangaroo-skin boots and all; but when the inventor's plane blows up, Jim and Beth have to figure out what's going on before someone else dies. It's a good one! 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/) * Brian Cummins, Robert Lindsey, 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

Hi there. If you're interested in selling your product via computerized telephone sales, stay on the line and one of our representatives will speak with you. 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 EpidioReverso. And we are coming to you today with one of our legendary lost episodes. There are two episodes that we've recorded before but then due to technical issues we're not able to to put out and we have spent as long as possible to return to them

because redoing work we just did is never never a fun feeling. Yeah it's not fun and the grand scale of work doing this podcast is pretty pretty good. Right. Right. Like it's it's up there. But even then, you don't want to it just wouldn't have the right energy. It just it would feel like we were treading over things that we'd said already. And so, yeah, well, maybe we'll talk about a little bit about that in a moment, because I think I just I reminded me to look and I did discover my old notes which is kind of funny but we'll get to that in a minute. First I did want to bring up some listener feedback on a recent episode just because it was kind of a focus of our conversation when we were talking about This Case is right, which was our episode one

thirty seven, just a couple of episodes back. But that was a 90 minute episode that was split into two parts for syndication. And both of us watched the original long episode version. So we had a couple questions about how, you know, how it was split up and what they did in the syndicated. Yeah. So we had a couple of our patrons chimed in on that particular post. Oh, good. Yeah. We have a couple other pieces of feedback that have come in, but I think we're going to save those

for a more extensive answering machine in an upcoming episode. But these are a little more time sensitive, I suppose. So figured we'd bring them up now. Time sensitive for a television show that occurred. them up now. Times episode for a television show that occurred. For something that was multiple episodes ago and in our irregular publishing schedule of a podcast which you can listen to at any time. About a television show from roughly 50 years ago. Patron Robert says, I thought they packed a lot into the hour when I was watching the DVD. Didn't realize it was two parts. I watched the two-parter on Roku

So yeah, I so the the full version is like whatever it is an hour 15 or we talked about it. Yeah Yeah, so I watched the two-parter version on Roku They show how he gets out of the parking lot when he's followed by fish back or fish fish back And then the part two intro is ten minutes long Okay, yeah Yeah There's a scene outside the club with ambulances and police cars where they say the owner of the club is killed, which was not in our version. And also there are lots of scenes of computers doing computing things.

Oh, so maybe I'll have to go and get a Roku just to watch like old tiny computers doing things. So it sounds like Robert watched the the standard version and then also watched the syndicated version. So thank you for going to all that effort. Yeah. Appreciate the shout. And then we also had a comment from a friend of the show, Sam Anderson. They seem to have cut and added a lot of content. The two parted version clearly had a lot more shoe leather scenes, but also a considerably different resolution to the initial car

chase parking lot sequence involving spike strips, an opener to the second part with the stock footage of police cars and a Ecto one style ambulance showing the aftermath of the murder of Mark's murder. So sounds like that was, yeah, all added to make up that time. The gorilla like thug who we talked about appears to be played by Jude Faris, who I admit to being unfamiliar with, though I did indeed spot Jean LeBelle in some brief shots, generally in the passenger seat of one of the

many cars following Jim. And then I still don't understand the importance of the guy in the loud shirt in the party scene who IDs Jim. He is not explained even in the extended syndicated material. I think his role was literally just so that Susan, I think the character's name was, Yeah, yeah. would know that Jim's a PI. But yes, there's absolutely no context to why he in particular knows Jim's identity. My brain slotted him in the role of the guy that Jim was investigating at the time, which

doesn't make sense. Right, and was not the same actor. Yeah, yeah. But I just like, that's where I went and just left it at that. But yeah, no, that's good. As we said, we hoped someone else would do the legwork and they did. So thanks for that And I suppose some of those mysteries are solved. All right

So moving on to our consideration for this this recording this time this time on 200 season 4 Episode 11 forced retirement. Oh, oh did you not watch this one no I know I did watch I just I just had a moment where I tried to figure out why it had the title it did I think it like now I think I know why title it did but like I had a moment where I was like oh was this about Beth's journey turn it no no no it's about Chris. Yeah. This is journey. Yes. A little more grim. I think so. Yeah.

It is one of those where it's a generic enough title that it's hard for me to remember that this is this one. But it does have something to do with the plot. You know, I think again, it's a knock, knock on wood. But I think we've made it through our entire show without ever accidentally watching different episodes Yeah, like we're running out of episodes to do that with right, but I think we did I think it was Definitely was a moment where no it wasn't it wasn't different episodes

I think there was a moment where I thought we had repeated an episode. Yeah, there's a couple times We're like, yeah, we've done this one, but it was just like one of those where the plot was just so similar to a pastiche of other plots that. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, watching this one this time set all of those concerns to rest, you know, just in time for like the final six episodes. So I will say from looking at my old notes, we recorded for this one, the time stamp on this, my notes are on Google Docs, the time stamp on this is May 11th, 2018. So it has been over six years since we decided not to watch this one again because it would

be too much work. Right. So that's great because that explains. Before we started, I told Nathan that I went looking for my old notes. Unlike Nathan who keeps his in the cloud, mine are just on my computer and I have gone through three computers. I mean like so 2018, not really, but 2018 I had one computer and then I got a new computer in 2020, I think, because the old computer was dying. I redid that one in Linux and then I discovered that

I enjoyed that a lot. So I was using the old computer with Linux and then I took the new computer and switched it over to Linux. Boring story. The point is that original computer that now no longer works at all is what originally had the information on it and Had been written over already. So it didn't matter were these notes I even that you would have been taking on the big what that's called the little typing device that you yes. Yes the alpha smart neo Yes, yeah, so Yeah, that's where we're at.

There's a brief period. The first maybe six, seven episodes, I was taking my notes by hand. I have them in a notebook. And then at some point I was like, this is this is too much work. That is. Yeah. Oh, well. But anyway, here we are. It's kind of like how our first three episodes are not on the Patreon because we launched the Patreon after launching this the first three episodes history history We were on top of it. We're totally on top of it We definitely expected this to work and here we are Yeah, so that's a lot of a lot of buildup to talk about this which is a fun episode

Season four season four big episode in the arc of Beth's career We've talked about Dennis's career before but this is a a bet. We haven't had a bethisode in a while. We haven't had an angel appearance in a while. So both of those were like, yeah, drinks of cool water. Not that we've been in a desert, but the primary bullet points in my preview montage rights. It's just that it's like you've been outside on kind of a hot day and you don't realize how thirsty you are.

And then you get back to the house and you're like, I'm a little thirsty. And you have hot day and you don't realize how thirsty you are and then you get back To the house and you're like, I'm a little thirsty and you have some water and you're like, this is amazing This is the best thing I've ever had and you realize because you were actually very thirsty. Mm-hmm. It's that kind of experience exactly Yeah, uh, yeah. No, it's a it's a good I mean Beth is intrinsic intrinsic to the plot She's bringing a case to Jim. I really enjoy those episodes from that. And it's not just- It is a true Beth-isode in that way.

Yeah, it's not just like Beth bailing Jim out and telling him all the things he's doing wrong and then maybe showing up for the barbecue at the end or something like that. But yeah, this is a good one. I remembered it pretty, I guess I remembered the big pieces of it. I remembered the set pieces,

but not the plot that's in the middle of it, which is a very Rockford plot as well. It was fun to revisit and be like, oh good, I barely remember this one at all. So like to the same amount that I remember any of them. So yeah, fresh. This one is directed by Alexander Singer. His only Rockford files directorial effort.

I recognize the name mostly because it's in lots of Star Trek credits. I directed a lot of Star Trek, including six episodes of TNG, including Ship in a Bottle, one that might be worth covering on some kind of Star Trek podcast about Hall and X or something. Six episodes of DS9, 10 episodes of Voyager, plus tons of other TV around this time. He directed an episode of Friday 13th the series

Oh, that's one of your another one of your favorites. Yeah, I don't I don't particularly remember the episode But I assume it's a good one. I enjoyed most of that series. This one is written by William R Stratton, there's a bit of sleuthing here. So William R. Stratton has five credits on IMDB. Two of them are for Rockford Files episodes. This one and the other one is the Mayor's Committee from Dearly Falls, which was our episode 36 from June of twenty eighteen. Oh, OK. So that just feels like a long time ago. This is a wrap on our. So's a wrap along last and then there's a couple episodes of Harry

Oh and a show called sort of justice But this seemed weird to me and I don't remember if it this is just because I was Having the same like this doesn't seem right that I had before or if because I'd looked this up before. Right. I knew somewhere I should look it up again because looking at my old notes I have the same progression which is this doesn't seem right. I did some googling and I think this is the same person whose credit is usually Bill Stratton. Oh. Who wrote a bunch of Hawaii Five-O and like a bunch of other, he's a TV writer of the time, but he has a 2014 obituary

that lists the Rockford files amongst his other accolades. I remember this. And I have the same link for this 2014 obituary in my old notes and in these notes. So I'm like, aha, I've looked this up before. Sword of Justice. I was like, Oh, that's really familiar to me too. I've never seen it, but like the, the image on IMDB is like a spade from, you know, the card deck card suit and then sort of justice, maybe this has got a lot of crossover with the Rockford files. It doesn't. I mean, they have Larry, Larry Hagman is is is in an episode of Sword of Justice and is also in an episode of the Rockford files.

So I guess we probably looked at this had this entire journey in the past. But yeah so kind of again one one off creative team here are creators in the way that we talk about them and also our final season four episode. Also our final episode of the main series of the main series. Yes. Yeah, we've got a movie Come we have a movie that that she's in so she'll bite. Yes. This is our last viewing of her for The main line episodes and also it's not our last appearance in season four But season four is her last season and this episode plot wise is kind of her exit, which is. Yeah. Interesting. This is also also our last encounter with Jimmy Joe Meeker.

Right. Oklahoma. You love them. Oil and you'll love them. Folksiest folk. Ah, Jimmy Joe Meeker, which I think in somewhere I saw that this is his first appearance as a character. Like this is the first time they did, Jim did this character. Oh really? I feel like it can't be true because it feels like a real season 2, season 3 kind of gimmick. But we'd have to do the legwork which I did not do for the other Jimmy Joe Meeker appearances.

This episode does a good job of introducing Jimmy Joe Meeker. Yes. Because it's he's very in the forefront. He's fully formed. Yeah. He's he's this part of Rockford's con experience where Rockford's excitement about the con over steps his ability to pull it off, I think is what it is, or the appropriateness of it for the situation or whatever. This obviously takes me back to Chicken Little's Little Chicken and the- The shell game con.

The shell game at the end where Angel is like, I don't get it. I don't know what you're trying to do here. This one, it's more like he's like, yeah, Jimmy Joe Beaker, this is great. I get to use them. Watching them out of order like we did I would not have expected this to be the first one because it feels like Him making a comment about a character that has already been he's already played Yeah, and he's super excited to play him again But it makes sense now knowing that like as a way of introduced excuse me of introducing this character

It's great because because he's so excited about it. Well, you know our phrase, we'll get to it when we get to it. But yeah, wonderful. We'll figure it out. We'll make a collection on the Patreon of the Jimmy Joe Maker episodes. Speaking of Jimmy Joe Maker, we do see him in our preview montage. Yes, my preview montage notes are Jimmy Joe, Beth, Angel, Insurance scam. That's all I want. Pretty much. We're going to get a nautical theme. Oh, yeah. An airplane. An airplane. There's confidential projects for the oil business.

A lot of good elements here. But yeah, I basically have the same notes. Jimmy Joe, Angel, Beth insurance scam. Yeah, the mystery in this one, which, yeah, it is something of a mystery that needs a little unraveling, but like it is a good classic Rockford mystery where it's it's deep in some technical weeds. Right. Like it's it's going to be about oil rights and insurance and who owns what part of what company, you know, that kind of stuff. Which is good.

I love those in a rockford. Not so much in a, like, Miss Marple. I don't want Miss Marple to investigate these things. I want to see someone who's about to pull out Jimmy Joe Meeker to solve a problem investigating these. 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 Seufel's one-shot comic Sherlock Holmes and the Wonderland Conundrum is available at WhatchaReadadingpress.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 Asteep podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Paul Townand also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color, at Fruit Loops Pod dot com. Shane Liebling has all of your online dice rolling needs covered at his website, Roll for Your Dot Party. And check out Jay Adan's amazing miniature painting skills over at Jayadon.com. Thank you to Andrea Apignani, Tom Clancy,

Pumpkin Jamba Peach Pug, Dave P, Dave Otterson, Kip Holley, Dale Church, Colleen Kelly, David Nixon, Nathan Black, Robert Lindsay, Jay Thompson, and Brian Cummins. And finally, special appreciation for our detective little patrons. Joe Greathead, Michael Zalisco, Eric Antenner, Brian Pereira, Jordan Bockelman, not Brockleman, Bill Anderson, and of course, Richard Haddam. 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. Well, we start our episode in a dramatic fashion with our credits over someone sneaking around in a room, goes over to a phone, and then the lights come on, and we see that it is Beth's apartment,

and it is in fact Beth coming home. So, I just want to say, and I'm so proud of myself for this, the split second before the lights came on, I was like, this is Beth's apartment. Like the silhouettes of the plants and everything. Just I had Beth on my mind from the preview montage, obviously. But like, I was like, oh, wait, I know this apartment. This guy jumps into the, I guess, the kitchen into another room. Beth comes in, she hears a weird noise at her phone, goes over to it, and this guy, he's wearing this red windbreaker, and he pops out and is very threatening, and she immediately goes

like, you can take anything you want. Right, yeah. Assuming he's a burglar, of course. He tells her to be quiet. She says, I'm not going to scream. And then he does give her a big backhand, which is pretty egregious and runs out of her house. So we cut from that to Jim treating the bruise on her cheek with an ice pack, getting right into it.

She hopes it was a robber, like just a robber, but he didn't take anything. The phone was off the hook and he's going through her legal papers. This episode is one of those, we're dropped in midstream in the ongoing story and we kind of get the background of what's going on over our first couple of scenes. Yeah. Jim is being comforting, but also trying to kind of downplay how serious this might be in the way that he does sometimes where he's like, you know, oh, it's just a robber. He's like Rocky's neighbor got robbed three times. It's a

Rocky's neighbors being just a couple of guys. Yeah, he he says specifically like that's not something to contemplate at two in the morning, right? Yeah. We'll deal with this. Yeah, there's nothing we can do about it right now. Let's not work ourselves up right now. Yeah. And he says that he can take a more high profile tack on an investigation in the morning.

He kind of makes a joke about like, oh, maybe I'll bring in Jimmy Joe Meeker. Yes, Jimmy Joe Meeker. Oh, yeah, you love him. He's smoother and all on a blister. We know this is important because of the preview montage, because they talk about it. But you have no proof that this has anything to do with the Minerva project. Right. And do some voiceover over a video footage from this Minerva. It's a new submersible invention.

So this is a pretty meaty scene that introduces us to these characters that then we're going to be following through the rest of the episode. Chris is the inventor of the Minerva. He's excitedly explaining all his plans to improve it. He's kind of a I guess he's kind of a hick is kind of how he's he's played or a surfer dude, a California hick, a surfer dude. Yeah. Yeah, that's a better thing. He's played by Denny Miller, who is also in Dallas, which is relevant in a minute

and a couple and a lot of other TV just kind of one offs. But I have a note from my old notes where I apparently looked this up, which is that he was literally Tarzan in the 1959 Tarzan the ape man. Yeah. Which is apparently a terrible Tarzan movie made of cut-together footage from other Tarzan movies. In addition to that tickled me. And his picture on INDB is like a muscle, like a real like bodybuilder picture. So it's kind of funny. He's done the circuit of all the ones that I care about. He's been in Buck Rogers, Incredible Hulk.

Speaking of Dallas, our main antagonist here, Richard Lessing or Dick, as he's often called by various characters, is played by Larry Hagman, as noted earlier by Epi. Yes. Who played a primary character on Dallas, right? JR. He was JR on Dallas. Yeah. That's a character I know about, even though I've never seen Dallas. There's a mention in the Ed Robertson book that he used Jimmy Joe Meeker. He was inspired or he used bits that he observed from Garner's

doing Jimmy Joe Meeker to bring into JR on Dallas, which I think is Chef Kiss. Yeah. Is this pre-Dallas then? Is that? Yeah, I think so. I I think is Chef Kiss. Yeah. Is this pre-Dallas then? Is that? Yeah, I think so. I believe that is the case. 78 to 91, yeah. So it's just before it.

Yeah. Wow, that's weird, because I kind of thought of him as, we're gonna, you know, we'll have a big name on the show. In Ed Robertson's book, it says, one month after Forced Retirement aired, Larry Hagman traveled to Dallas, Texas to commence filming on the show. In Ed Robertson's book it says, one month after Forced Retirement aired, Larry Hagman traveled to Dallas, Texas to commence filming on the five-part pilot

that would eventually launch the long run of Dallas. The character he plays in this episode is one in a series of less than scrupulous roles Hagman played in films and on television in the four years leading up to Dallas that helped shape his portrayal of J.R. Ewing. All right, so this does not directly say that they were that it was inspired by Jimmy Joe Meeker, but I think it's implied by how that's phrased. So we have him, we have his buddy Virgil, who's a real a real goon. Yeah, seeing more of him. He's another that guy.

His picture also has him in a in a Stetson. He was in 41 episodes of Murder, She Wrote. So he was the sheriff. The sheriff. Yeah, that's the picture on the on IMDb. Yeah. So I think he's putting on a voice in this episode. It might be right, because I don't think that's his voice in Murder, She Wrote. Yeah, this is his only Rockford. OK, so we have Chris, he's the inventor,

Lessing and Virgil, they're our antagonists as we will soon learn, but Lessing is in, he's representing an investment group that is investing in this submersible project. And then we also have Susan, who is the, it's a little vague how this whole thing comes together but what we learn or how it came together but what we learn is that she's kind of the brains in the operation like Chris came up with the concept she's kind of the one who's making it actually happen she's an

engineer by training she's the vice president of the company and she's kind of the voice of reason in our first part of our episode, she's played by Margie Inpert, who is in lots of TV around this time, and was also in the movie The Howling, which I figured you probably would be familiar with. I mean, I don't specifically remember her from it. But yeah, and I believe this is her only. Yes, this is her only Rockford files as well. And she's good. I think her, there's a Susan Beth Jim triangle that is fun.

Right. It is. I would agree with that. But I like triangles. I'm big into trigonometry. What we're establishing here is that the submersible has the potential to be big for the oil industry because it could potentially connect underwater oil pipes directly to rigs which I guess you know is obviously very costly and difficult so it would be good

if they could do it remotely. Susan is saying that these improvements should be good news for Lessing's investment group. There's a gag where she puts her hand in Chris's gum because he always leaves it on the side of an ashtray. Like who's on the side of the ashtray? He doesn't put it in the ashtray. Yeah. She asked him, why does that? And he says, better than walking on it. Right. I mean, we often go through like how most characters

in the Rockford files are characters in some way. Like there's something I'm not quirky, but you know, this is definitely quirky. And I thought it was going to come up again. I was paying attention to other people chewing gum in the episode, trying to figure out. I think it's just kind of establishing their dynamic. I thought that they were maybe supposed to be brother and sister, honestly. Yeah, they're something that kind of vibe. They're not. But yeah, they're kind of establishing that he's

kind of a goofball and he's the one who needs to kind of keep him on track and focused. Yeah. So far, they've invested $200,000 on this. But, you know, the oil companies are going to be dropping one point five million per. So it's a good investment. Chris is planning to he needs to fly up to San Francisco to pick up some of these new parts. There's some banter about whether he's wired the people that he's supposed to be getting stuff from. And he's like, I think so. Did I like? Yeah.

Very absent minded. Mm hmm. She makes sure to lock up the plans at night and is safe. The prototype is just a shell until they install the new parts. So it's all they're keeping it up very locked down so that no one can find out, you know, what their development status is. And this all culminates with Chris wanting to talk to Rich about his what the thing he really cares about, which is kelp harvesting. Yes. We cut from there to Rich and Virgil leaving the building. Rich is saying any more of this Captain Nemo stuff, and I'm going to go out of my mind.

He is long suffering in dealing with Chris and his kelp obsession. But Virgil's into it. Virgil's like, I find it kind of interesting. Yeah. Virgil's one... Yeah, he's a character who's like slightly more dimensional than he has to be. One and a half dimension. Exactly.

Two and a half. Two and a half dimension, something like that. They see the guy in the red windbreaker that had been in Bess' apartment. So we know that they're bad guys. Yes. I mean, that they're bad guys. Yes. There are other visual cues. Sure, sure. There are going to be. But yeah, yeah.

He couldn't get the bug in her phone and she surprised him and he had to hit her. Lessing tells him to get out of town. Beth can't see him around the office. There's too much risk. So clearly they all know who Beth is. She's involved with this project in some way. Lessing doesn't want her to see this guy. So clearly they all know who Beth is. She's involved with this project in some way. Lessing doesn't want her to see this guy. So he has to get out of town.

And then he tells Virgil it's just another boring problem in a boring project. Yeah, she's putting a check on us. I can feel it Virgil. Why do we need Miss Davenport? The contracts are already drawn up, but it's a critical stage. Right. She can't stop what's going on. Yeah, and you don't need her expertise anymore.

Right. And Lessing's like, well, we don't want anything messing up what we have. And Virgil says, well, if you don't mind, why don't I just put her on a little sled and give her a push? And there's a significant silence. When he said, I wrote this note down down just another boring problem with a boring project I had a note next to it like is this a pun is it's right? Oh, no, I don't think so I don't think boring is involved. Yeah, it's too oblique to be a good pun of anything. But yeah, I like these two as villains Goodbye to redwood windbreaker. I know yeah, this is a wrap on the red windbreaker

he doesn't show up again, which is unfortunate because I Wanted to see him get punched. Yeah. He has a real punchable face I feel like if you hit bad Rocky gets to punch you I think those are the rules pretty sure this is Bill Hart who looks like he's a stuntman and was a uncredited Goon in lots of things. Yeah. This is the only Rockford Files appearance. He was in the If the Frame Fits movie.

Oh, yes. As an uncredited purse snatcher. Yeah, punchable face would have been nice. Yeah. There are so many people wearing Stetsons in the credit images for this one. I think for a non-Western pound for pound, the Rockford Files pulls down a lot of Stetsons in the IMB credits. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But what got here is just a restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was noticing.

Anyway, we go to Beth and Susan. They're having lunch. Clearly they know each other. Susan says that Chris is all oatmeal Above the ears above the ears. Yeah If she had never gone to work for him Minerva would still just be a bunch of drawings on a napkin And then she says also he's a man as like a kind of a laugh line. I found that curious This episode has a lot of thematic things around like Beth being, uh, men talking over Beth, right? Like her bosses, you know, and stuff like that. So there's a little bit of like, what's it like to be a woman in a man's world that the two of these share, right?

The valence of it in the moment, I was kind of like, is this nodding towards like, Susan isn't interested in men? Right. That's a little but then I think that is not followed up on at all. So it stuck out to me as kind of a, I don't know, may as little vestigial. She gets a little interested in Jimmy Joe Meeker at some point in this episode. But that's also kind of for work. So it's a little it's hard to tell. It's hard to tell. It's hard to tell. So as we learn, Beth and Susan, they had this kind of rivalry

going back to where they were at college together. They both went to Wellesley, which is an all women's college. And, you know, Beth went into law, Susan went into engineering. But there's like kind of these various little asides about how they each of them has felt that the other one looks down on her for some reason. Right. Yeah, there's like a competition between two. There's no particular reason given why that would be it's kind of just taken as like their dynamic. Beth did look into Virgil. He has a prison record. That's interesting. And she's

mainly concerned because her so Harcourt and Lowe, her the firm, the law firm she works for. So Mr. Harcourt in particular, has $35,000 invested in the project. So she's trying to do due diligence and she doesn't understand why everything's moving so fast. Susan saying, what's the problem? Lessing's group has over $200,000. If something goes wrong, they're the ones who are standing to lose the most. Yeah, they have a higher stake in it. 18 different companies are trying to come up with a method to connect deep sea pipes to oil rigs. We're moving fast because it's a competitive advantage to be the first one.

Beth isn't really buying it. Something just feels off to her and she says she'll send Susan the info about Virgil. Yeah, after Susan's like, no more, you know, business talk. Beth is like, one more business talk. Yeah. We cut to some blueprints and Chris and Jimmy Joe Meeker are talking about the kelp harvest. There's a lot of money to be made in kelp, Mr. Meeker. I keep telling them that but they won't listen. You make that Jimmy Joe, will you? Meeker was my daddy. He's a range rat. Died dead drunk under a dirt farm mortgage. Right.

Yeah, the thing that keeps wrapping me up in tin foil here is why does Mr. Lesson, he don't use your little invention here to harvest kelp? I mean, there's a real market there. Oh Okay, I Love that Jim is like, oh, okay. This guy cares about kelp. So that's what I doubt It's even like a research thing. I think you just started talking to him. Yes, I couldn't stop talking about kelp So Jimmy Joe's into the kelp. Mm-hmm. Chris is excited because the whole genesis of this submersible was for Kelp harvesting. There's a method to turn Kelp into methane gas, and that is what Chris cares about. There's some, I think, uh, Susie says, or Susan says later on that like, when he was a kid,

he read that in Boy's Life. Yes, yeah. And so he just became obsessed with it. Jimmy Joe Meeker is, yeah, encouraging this. He says he's also interested in kelp. The price of kelp has been jumping like a frog in shallow water. Susan comes in while he's dropping more folksy aphorisms. You know, as my old daddy used to say, he said, Jimmy Joe, if you get branded as a calf, it don't really matter much if you are a coyote.

They're gonna run you right up that ramp and chop you up for table meat anyway. Immediately is like, what are you doing? Put those plans away. Right. Yeah. Can't just be showing everyone who wanders in what we're working on. There's three oil companies who would kill to have those plans. Tells Jimmy he should leave. He's out of the oil business, but he's looking for something that he can invest in. He has an interest in methane gas, a wallet full of checks, and tax problems.

Yeah. He says he's staying at like the presidential suite at a fancy hotel, and Susan ends with a, do you have transportation? Or would you like us to call you a squad car? Yes. Oh, so good. Jim has returned to Beth's place, tells her her car needs a tune up, it's running rough. Beth's had a bad day. A lot of the stuff in Beth's apartment is this like, they're sitting at her

like bar or counter in the foreground and it's lit kind of from behind, kind of with like natural lighting, but they're kind of backlit so it's kind of shadowed. Everything is very dim and kind of pessimistic, I would say. A lot of Beth's apartment stuff is very down tempo. But yes, Beth's had a bad day. She argued with her bosses in a big meeting, and then she started up again with Susan later. We have the first look at our triangle where Jim says she's feisty, but nice. And Beth is saying something that cuts herself off. Nice? Well, she's well organized organized and she's not unattractive. Would you also say she was not on magnetic, on lovely?

Yes, there's a clear rivalry here. So the question, right? Jim and Beth, their whole thing. Yes. I have a note here in all caps. Jim and Beth, their whole thing. Yeah. But have a note here in all caps. Jim and Beth, their whole thing. Yeah. But I think this also does a great job of illustrating that that there is a thing between Susan and Beth, right? Like there's a there's a rivalry going on there because Jim's I'm not saying she

wouldn't have called Jim out on that statement. But it's more pointed here because she knows Susan. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I forget if she says it or if Jim's like, you don't think that this is all about. Yes, Jim says it. Susan bringing a big deal to best firm just to show up Beth, that can't possibly be the reasoning here. Like it's not personal.

And that's kind of like, it feels a little personal. But she has she basically has a bad vibe. Lessing made Chris, the president of this company that's potentially a multimillion dollar capitalization. It could be a huge company. Lessing made Chris the president. And she's like, you met Chris. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Beth wanted to bring a business consultant in on the deal, and that's what she argued with her bosses about.

Then they met without her later, and then she says that she ended up in Siberia drawing up incorporation papers for hamburger stands. She thinks that this is leading to them letting her go. Yeah. I'm just trying to stand on my principles here. I think this is weird. I want to do more due diligence. And they're telling me to get out of the way. And I'm making a stink about it. And I think they're going to fire me. Jim says she's a good lawyer. Hardcore and low needs you sometimes.

I wonder if you need them. And that's when he gives her the tender Jim and Beth, their whole thing kiss. Yes. And it says good night. And then they have another kiss. And then we cut to an ominous shot of Virgil in a big yellow truck. Beth is driving the Firebird as established. They've switched cars. And I think it's a good thing.

I mean, I guess her car is a sports car. So it would probably be about the same. But she is turning out of her building onto a main street. Virgil wearing these amazing yellow sunglasses in this big yellow truck shoots directly at her. She sees it at the last second. He ends up hitting the hind quarter of the firebird and scoots out of there. And we cut to Beth in a neck brace at the hospital.

So here's the question Uh-huh. Was that the plan or did it did did he mess up? Right like he's gonna put her on a little sled and give her a push right as a plan Let me just let me talk through as a plan Yeah, how it doesn't seem to be coming with a specific threat to back away, right? Oh, I've got a message on Skype. It says slightly earlier, but... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Establishing our villains.

Such good textures in these clothing. So, it doesn't come with a threat, right? So, he's not specifically telling her to back off or something worse will happen. It puts her in the hospital with a neck brace. Does that take her off the case? Was that what he was hoping? That to hurt her enough to just have to take time off from work and so she wouldn't be around? That's a possibility. Or was he trying to murder her? Right. Yeah. I just, Virgil's plan is a little, it's fine if Virgil is not good

at these kinds of plans. Well, as we learn later, he's clearly willing to murder people. And Jim says something about how he's like, would you have a mechanic like Virgil, whatever, on the case? Yeah. So there's that. Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean, because, like, what's the counterfactual? If he kills her, there's probably more scrutiny? Yeah. Or, I mean, like, it just looks like a hit-and-run and this looks like a run and they don't invest

Yeah, I kind of feel like it's a whatever happens happens is in his favor from his perspective Obviously because Jim is involved. This is not gonna know anything because that's the show we're watching But yeah one could reasonably assume that if a person is hospitalized, they will not be coming to work. And therefore your hush hush plan that relies on things happening very quickly will proceed. Great exchange here. Yes. Sorry about your car.

Don't worry about it. But I do. That car is the closest thing you have to a mistress. So good. They don't have anything on the driver They got a partial on the license plate But the plate was had mud on it both plates in the middle of a drought seem suspicious This whole thing is really starting to stink But the only way that Jim sees to find out what's really going on is for Jimmy Joe Meeker to buy into the deal. So he's going to need some money.

He's going to need some money. And some kangaroo skin boots. Yeah, he goes over all the things he's going to need to make this look legit. Beth says that she does. Her father does have holdings in Oklahoma, so they can use those to back up his claims. I mean, one of Beth's things is her parents are wealthy. So like, yeah, yeah, I think that that comes out. Her last name is Davenport.

That's a rich name. Yeah. Yeah. It's like she doesn't love the idea, but she also is like, well, if you think it's the only thing that's going to work, I guess we'll do it. But she kind of gives him rips him about how as long as she's known him, he's wanted kangaroo skin boots. He says they're really neat kangaroo skin boots. They're really neat. There's a good, good bit of acting going on here because Jim legitimately looks like he's excited about these boots and then realizes that he's taking advantage of Beth,

Beth's situation. She's in the hospital with a like whiplash or whatever. Like and so he does look a little like he's ashamed. He's been caught with his hand in the cooking jar or just feeling low about what he was doing. And then we go to Jimmy Joe, Joe Jimmy. We start our scene with Lessing talking to Virgil about the castle that he's put in offer what he was doing. And then we go to Jimmy Joe, Joe Jimmy. We start our scene with Lessing talking to Virgil about the castle that he's put an offer in on. You can just imagine sitting on this patio, not ever having to think about diving bells ever again.

Jimmy Joe Meeker in full regalia, I'm sure kangaroos can boots and all. Yeah. Comes rolling in to their office, I guess. And my note is immediately starts beefing with Virgil. Yeah, it's great. He just clocks them as the muscle and is, is, is just like, I'm going to make sure that I status drop this guy, which is very funny because he says, let's, you've got one hellacious punch son. I wouldn't go smart and off to somebody as bigger than you are and grew up in oil fields collecting vets.

And then Virgil gets up and he's as tall as Jim. Yes. He has a line, another folksy aphorism that involves being to a picnic and there's a beat and then Lesson goes, well, I've never been to a picnic. There's a door over there. I suggest you use it. So funny. He he is really good at just being totally cool and calm in the face of this ridiculousness. Yes. Yeah.

I suggest you take it before Virgil helps you off with your hat. But Jim's strategy here is that he's threatening a patent infringement suit. He knows a guy who was working on something similar and he can, you know, has documents to bring it into court. So he's he's he's using that threat as leverage because he wants to invest. Now, what I'm proposing is you let me have part of this company, maybe half in return. I'll pick up some of the high interest financing and then we can write off most of the losses against

my share. He says, I got a tax problem. Lessing doesn't believe him. He's like, I don't believe you. He's all bluster and just acting confident that he belongs there. His final his final play is I'm going to be your new partner. I'll see what this has run tomorrow. And he leaves. He says a couple of things that his dad's my daddy said.

And then Lessig is like, I'm beginning to tire of your daddy. Yeah, good. It's great. The play works for me. He's kind of coming in. He knows that he's going to get checked out. Right. Like he knows this guy isn't going to believe him. That's why he has to establish all this background so that he does check out. And then I think the thing of like, here's my plan.

And the plan isn't to make a bunch of money on this great investment. The plan is I see an opportunity to help get my tax problems under control. And like that feels like something that another business guy would be like, OK, I get it. You know, I see that angle. So there's just that kernel of like that might be legitimate. And then he has this whole fake identity right to be shored up. And of course, after he leaves, leaves, Leslie wants him checked out.

Our next day, they have to scrub this. The tests that they were going to run because they don't have some part that I think Chris was supposed to get, but then he didn't call them to check and so they didn't have it or whatever. Lessing says that he had him checked out. Impressive portfolio down there in Oklahoma. And he has these other wonderful investments that could use a partner, but this one is closed. And Jimmy Joe's like, no, no, this is the one I want to buy into. Yeah.

Chris wants to show Lessing some blueprints about his kelp harvesting. So that leaves Jimmy Joe and Susan alone for a few minutes. Susan wants to know, you know, what's the big deal about kelp, right? She's still kind of not really buying his schtick. He would love to explain it to her, but this office makes him seasick. Dinner? And she smiles. Tonight? And he smiles. You don't like to put things off, do you? Jimmy Joe's got himself a date.

I guess so. So, yeah, so I guess I'm reading this as like Susan wants to find out what his deal is. Yeah. Not like Susan is falling, you know, falling head over heels for the kangaroos can boots. Yeah, they're both feeling each other out. Yeah, she never really feels like she's fallen for the Jimmy Joe thing. Right. At least the charm. I think he's kind of seeing how far like what can he learn?

Right. Yeah, with this particular avenue. This whole business is, you know, it's the swell spoon thing. He's just stirring things up to see, like, how people act and what they're going to do. Oh, yeah. This is also the first instance of Lessing keeps calling him Joe Jimmy to, like, get under his skin. Which is very good. All right. So we go to a long, long awaited reappearance of Angel in our show. Now, I remember this seat.

This seat is exquisite. This could be in any episode, and it is. Yes. We start off with a close up of silverfish in a little test tube, and then we pan up to see that it's Angel and he's tipping them into his salad. Cut to Jim and Susan sitting at a booth at the same restaurant. Uh, I love it. It's not Chekhov's gun, it's Angel's silverfish.

Uh, sitting there creating tension. Susan, I think she said something like, before I get too agreeable, I want to talk about Chris. Don't get it twisted. We're talking, we have business to talk about. This is where she says that the Kelp thing has been a fantasy of his since he read about it in boys life when he Was 13 and Jim or Jimmy Joe is like well to tell you the truth I'm not that fired up about kelp gold and black coral from the deep seas near Hawaii

The submersible could really you know could be key to harvesting that and it's apparently Worth the price of diamonds. I didn't look it up here. In my old notes, I did look it up. Apparently this is a legit valuable commodity. Oh, wow. Black and gold coral are very rare. Black coral was found off of Hawaii in 1958 and gold in 1971. It is harvested by hand by deep-sea divers and is very strictly regulated as a commodity. At least as of 2018 when I looked at that. Look that up. After learning about black and gold coral, Angel goes into action. Starts banging on the table.

Deplorable! Outrageous! Nasty! Trouble, sir? Are you serious? Some trouble is you're serving Evelyn Martin-Volkshota the third silverfish in his salad. In fact, there's something else moving in here, too. Oh, wonderful! Marvelous! Now, you mean to tell me this is part of the recipe right there? You mean to tell me that this is La Salade Silverfish au Gratin?

We are extremely sorry about this, sir. Please accept our apologies and a dinner with our companies and please accept a bottle of our wine you got it I'd like something light and dry and not under $20 so angel there's a there's a pause there he asks angel to please accept you know that they'll pay for his meal or whatever. And then angels pause that brings on the wine. Oh, yeah, it's great. Like, it's just like, and and so Jim, of course, sees this happen. And you can see going through his mind.

Oh, no, Angel's going to blow up my spot. Yes. He gets up and goes over. He's like, hey, Jimmy Joe Meeker, you remember me from the Super Bowl, right? The Super Bowl. Like, don't say my name. Just very funny. And kind of hustles Angel off to the side to tell him not to mess up his plan. Angel, of course, is so proud of himself for his scam. Yes, he was going to do cockroaches, but they're too big.

Silverfish are there. And just like subtle? Yes. The old fly in your soup routine at whatever this place is called, Tous Sards or whatever. It's a really high end French restaurant, is the gag. Angel, who's the ice goddess with the stiff upper lip and the car salesman smile? Here you are in this garlic palace dressed like one of the sons of the pioneers. What's happening?

I've missed Angel so much. So good, Angel. Jim says it's a jewelry recovery thing. He's really close. Look, I won't get into your business if you stay out of mine. And Angel's like, deal, deal. Angel leaves. The matriarch, he grabs Jim, asks him, Are you an acquaintance of the bearded gentleman? Because the manager is considering calling the police.

So while Jim is dealing with that, Angel goes over to the table and immediately blows up his spot. Oh my God. So good. It's so good. I really love the, I guess, choreography of this scene. Angel's got a thing going on in the background. Jim has to get up and approach Angel and draw Angel away. I guess choreography of this scene. Angel's got a thing going on in the background. Jim has to get up and approach Angel and draw Angel away. And then he's pulled away and Angel gets to come in.

And then this bit. It's a delicate dance. Angel makes it just incredibly clear without saying it that he's gonna tell her everything she needs to know about Jim if she's got enough money. Exactly. And I thought, why is he all dressed up like some West Texas sunrise? He's from Oklahoma.

He's in the oil business. He, uh, he buys and sells it. He buys oil at the gas station, just like everybody else. He tells her about how sick his mama is and, uh, she's going to need some money. She's going to need some money for her operation mm-hmm now how much 50 cheap operation gives him 50 he tells her about Jim takes a sip of Jim's wine while he's doing it yes James Rockford he's not from Oklahoma etc etc the button on this is we cut from there to Jim covering for Angel. Yes.

Saying that he works as an investigative reporter. His brother-in-law runs the newspaper, which is true. So like you can check with him, but it's like, oh, he does some investigative reporting. He says it's like in consumer goods, like as if if you don't do as Angel wants, you could have like a big PR disaster. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. He is covering for Angel while Angel is throwing him directly under the bus, and it's perfect. 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 1000 the number. Or you can find me as Epidaia on the Macedon instance Dice dot camp or on co-host where can our listeners find you Nathan all of my games zines podcast projects and other work are at

NDP design dot com you can also find me at NDP on co-host and over on Instagram at find me at NDP on co-host and over on Instagram at NDP design dot games and of course you can always find this show 200 a day at 200 a day dot fireside dot FM and now we return to the continuing adventures of Jimmy Rocco so we go from there to Susan talking to Lessing explaining that there's a PI looking into their activities. That doesn't seem too crazy. One of their 18 competitors might want to know what they're up to. Susan is worried that Jim might know something. He's cultivating Chris. And Lessing says that we'll go along with his little act. Keep him away from Chris and feed him maybe feed him information that we want other, you know, feed him false information, right? Virgil will keep an eye on him.

Lessing's very good at being like seeming very straightforward, like seeming very on the level. Yeah, it's a good villain. And like he's not none of this is like arch or like, hey, hey, hey. Like it's all very, oh, you brought me information. Well, here's what we'll do about it. And so it's part of part of his villainous charm, I suppose. By the end of the episode, once the sort of the plot is unraveled, you kind of have a moment of like, do I believe that of this guy? And then he's like, yeah, you believe it of this guy.

Jim is Jimmy Joe is at an airfield looking for Chris, like a little, you know, private plane strip. Importantly, he asks someone where he can find Chris and gets pointed to the blue and yellow plane, which really stands out against all the kind of normal like silver and gray planes. The blue and yellow single engine. Yeah. By the end of the scene, I think it's made clear that this is actually what happened. This is not Jim trying to talk to him. Chris's secretary told Jim that Chris wanted to meet him at the airfield. And then Chris does not remember saying that.

As far as I can tell, there's three ways this scene happens, right? The first is that Jimmy Joe is in fact trying to get Chris alone so he can talk to him. The second and most likely is that Chris is a little absent-minded. So like he sent some advice through his secretary or some word through his secretary Jimmy Joe and Jimmy Joe, someone in that chain that that telephone game said, oh he'll be at the airport and that's where you should meet him. The third that I was kind of suspicious about is he being set up because of what's about to happen is Lessing or Virgil did they

make this happen so that he might be in the plane? There's one line later in the episode that makes me think that might actually be what happened. Yeah. In the moment. And what I think we're supposed to get is because there's like womp womp music like after. Yeah. So Chris is going to Oregon to pick something up or whatever. And he's like, oh, come with me. We'll talk in the plane. And and Jim is very, very wise about this.

I don't think I need to do that. He's like, we'll get lunch when you get back. And so Chris, like, starts like driving the plane, like away down the airstrip. Riding. You ride the plane. Right. That's what you ride the plane. And yeah, there's real like, womp, womp. As we watch Jim, we're like, oh, is that all? Yeah. I think literally scratching his head, maybe like really like puzzled.

So I think the read is like, oh, Chris is absent minded. But there's a mention later of a frame. And I think that would make sense where like, yeah, you know, less things like, hey, Chris wanted to talk to Jimmy Joe. Can you tell him he's at the airfield or something? Right. Yeah. Maybe to get them both on the plane or maybe it just worked out this way. Anyway, we go to watching the plane flying like kind of an overhead shot, watching this plane flying.

It goes a little lower than we go into the cockpit and see here, like sputtering engine and he's hitting buttons and stuff. Clearly something is wrong with the plane. It slowly lands in the water and then it explodes. I was thrilled by this because they showed us a plane. It was a very distinct plane. They showed us this very distinct plane flying and then they showed us this very distinct plane landing in the water and we're about to see clearly debris from this very distinct plane. And I don't know what like it's not that the Rockefeller profiles isn't up to that, you

know, that that very low bar of getting it right. But like, it could have gone non distinct and had footage of something, you know, like it didn't it didn't have to be like, yeah, we flew a plane into the water. But I don't think they they blew that plane up. It does not feel like, yeah. I wonder if they had the prop debris was all different kinds of planes and they had to take it to match.

So they made it all like this distinctive one or something. Anyway, I don't know how production self works, but it's very it's it's good. Yeah. Yes, because we go immediately from here to the wreckage investigation. There's an insurance investigation and they brought in the FAA because they haven't recovered the body yet. The cockpit section is still missing. Iglesung and Susan are talking to the insurance investigator. 95% of crashes are pilot error, but since he was working for something for the oil

business, he doesn't want to leave anything to chance. And that's why I brought in the FAA for a stringent investigation. This episode does this kind of has a good sense of like, you know, something is wrong. Like, we all know that something is crooked here. Yeah. But every, every time we're kind of like, oh, is this it? It's like, oh, no, this seems legit. Yeah. The insurance investigator is like something like he was doing confidential oil business work. So I called him the FAA.

Something could be fishy here unless he's like, oh, OK, yeah, that makes sense. Good move. Oh, OK. So it's not that. What do you think it is? And he's like, at, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Good move. Like, okay, so it's not that. What do you think it is? And he's like, at this stage, I don't do any thinking. I just wait for the FAA. Like, yeah. Yeah. So it's like, what is the angle here? Like it takes a while to build up to it, which is nice. We go to Jim and our good friend, Dennis Becker, who gets a appear in this one as well.

Didn't expect him. wasn't in the preview montage. Surprise Dennis. Surprise Dennis. They finally made the truck with the muddy plates. It belonged to a carpenter at a job site. It could have easily been taken and replaced. Now no help there. Jim has a prospectus wrapped in a piece of cloth because it has Lessing's fingerprints on it. So maybe when they're run, they'll turn something up. And Dennis has a wonderful. I note the tricky construction of the sentence

when they're run, sliding over. Who might do the running? Well, I have to leave something to the imagination. I don't want you to get bored. This is a running thing with our show but like Dennis's face when he knows that Jim's got work for him is great it's just beautiful every single time but Dennis you know basically is gonna do it for Jim he does say that if you keep poking into this you're gonna

run into an insurance snoop to see if there's foul play since they had a insurance policy on him. And there is a good bit. Again, the specter of Chapman hangs over this episode as well, where he's like, you guys don't seem to be doing anything about this. And Dennis says, well, Lieutenant Chapman wants to hear what the FAA has to say before we start neglecting our other cases. All right. So, Lessing and Susan are talking to Harcourt of Harcourt and Lowe. His first name is Sumner. Sumner Harcourt, which is a hell of a lawyer name. This is Bet's boss, right? Fun trivia fact, this is our second appearance of the actor.

We don't see Mr. Harcourtourt anything else, but William Joyce also played Dr. Rosendahl in Rosendahl and Gilda Stern I would like to say I recognize them also an appearance in Knight Rider mm-hmm and Scarecrow mrs. King ah another of our favorite Mrs. King. Another of our favorite. Yes, we learned in a like in a line later that Low of Hardcourt and Low died like last year or something. So this is the boss. Yeah.

Lessing is saying that he doesn't think his investment group is willing to put more money into the project after Chris died. Chris was the project. Susan is saying, look, I actually designed it. I'm the one who actually made it a thing. I can keep running the project. We have the mention here, Harcourt says, well, of course, you had the standard insurance on Chris. And in my notes, aha, which covered the initial investments,

including Harcourt's $35,000 investment. And Lessing has a line like, oh, no one's going to bleed on this. Right. Like, yes, we have the insurance. It'll cover all those initial investments. Susan keeps arguing for keeping the project going. And that is when Beth arrives in a neck brace. Yes. I have been derelict in my screen screenshots. Oh, my God. Get a bunch in a row here.

Well, we're going to get this one, which is from the hospital because it's Jim and Beth, but Beth in the big neck brace. Oh, there it is. Yeah. That is an aggressive. It's yeah, she's in a slightly smaller one for the while she's up and about. But that one is very big. And then I was spoiled for choice for trying To get a good Jimmy Joe meeker

But this one ended up being one of my faves. Oh, yeah This is a close-up of Jim with the big hat frowning and pointing It does not capture you can see it behind his finger It does not capture the panoply of Bolo ties that he wears yeah yeah yeah he has a different Bolo tie in every appearance which is fantastic I've said it before but watch the episode yeah but maybe like watch the episode two or three times and each time like just just pay attention to what Jimmy Joe is where just pay attention to

Angel scenes, I feel like one I didn't end up getting any of angel in his in his big suit Because he's wearing a big lapel suit like he does in this big seed This episode is a has a good meditation on Brown theme like there's lots of Browns Yeah, and Beiges, but I think what differentiates this is a midseason, right? But I think what differentiates this is a mid season, right? So mid 70s from our early 70s is there's lots of pattern like it's not all solid block colors Like everything has like some little stripes or some little cross hatching or something earth tone plaid Yeah, but like like our two villains that I say you have two different plaids. Yeah, yeah two different dot pattern ties. Yes. One's wearing a yellow shirt, one's wearing a white shirt in front of a house with dark

brown tile and a beige car. Like it's it's good stuff. Reminder that you can find all these screenshots at the Patreon if you are interested in what we're calling out here. It's a world of colors. A world of six colors. A world of brown. here. It's a world of colors, a world of a world of brown. Yeah. It's funny because it doesn't seem like it's that limited of a palette when you're watching it. But when I look so in Skype, when I bring up the window to send you the things, it has a little series of thumbnails across the bottom of the window of all the screenshots I've ever sent you.

And it's just a tidal wave of brown. Yeah. All right. So this is a pretty big scene. Beth in a neck brace. She arrives. Her secretary got wind of this and thinks she should be present since she was the initial contact for the firm. Hardcore kind of stammers around as like, well, in your medical condition, I didn't think you'd be working. But she takes her place at the table. Susan wants to use the insurance money to get the

Minerva into production. She says it can be done in a few days and Susan can be the one to pilot it, to actually take it down for the tests. Hardcourt thinks that he can provide interim financing until the, because there's going to be a process for the insurance investigation to wrap up and everything, but Hardcourt offers to do the interim financing to get them to that stage. Beth doesn't understand why there's such a rush. Yeah. What happens if we wait a week or two weeks? The ocean floor isn't going to be crawling with competitors submersibles.

Why is this all moving so quickly? Susan, all we hear from you is no, stop, wait. Beth says that she was hired to give advice. That's what she's doing and that this is a troubled project. Susan thinks that is personal. Beth can't stand to see Susan bringing business to the firm. It's not enough that I succeed. My friends must fail. Yeah, a hell of a way to live.

Hardcore tells him not to have a cat fight. Beth reacts appropriately. Cat fight. And then he, I had to rewind this because I couldn't quite hear the words that he was saying, but he says, now let's not get semantic, which is a hell of a way to try and deflect from the horribly sexist thing you just said. He wants to run the test. Susan agrees.

It's settled. Question. Other than because it keeps the plot going for our episode, why is there such a rush? She definitely wants to be the first to the market. Yes. So, okay, I think there's two reasons for the rush. Reason one is that Susan is driven to be the one who makes this happen. Yes. Right? Like that's, there's a personal investment that she has in, she doesn't want to be the one who makes this happen. Yes. Right. Like that's there's a personal investment that she has in.

She doesn't want to be the second submersible that can do this. And probably that's exploitable by Lessing. I feel like in this scene Lessing's like, well, the job is done. I think that's what's interesting about this scene is I think the initial plan was so we're going to learn in a couple scenes after a wonderful investigation sequence that involving a library. The scam here is that Lessing took out a huge insurance policy for key man insurance, which is what you take out on this kind of operation, but took out a vastly

overvalued insurance policy for the investment that he's put into the firm. It's a life insurance policy on Chris, because he's the key man. If he passes away, the project is dead. And so his scam is complete. Yeah, he's done. Susan is the one who's saying, no, I want to keep going. And then hardcore someone like, well, I'll give you more money because he's also invested, I guess, like, like literally, like, I think that this has potential.

And so Lessing is kind of like, well, I guess if you want to, he's already getting his money, but since she's kind of the motive force to keep it going, which then gives him the opportunity to take out the insurance on her which is the next phase of but I don't think that was the plan all along necessarily yeah I think he wants out there's for instance like I have no idea there's an insurance investigation going on mm-hmm I don't know if this insurance investigation involves it would go this way, but like if they took out key man insurance on someone, that person died and it didn't matter at all.

Were they the key? Yeah. That's a good question. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if that's a thing that the insurance company would be like, oh, then we don't owe you any money. You didn't lose anything.

Yeah. So there's that. So maybe he has to be in it because they didn't, you know, like if it's still plausible. He has to keep the story going. He can't just be like, well, I'm taking my best friend and walking because like he doesn't have the insurance money yet. Yeah. But what it is going to lead to is double dipping. Right, right.

And that's going to be sloppy. I think the opportunity he's willing to take, yeah. Yeah. All right. So Beth and Jim are going to the Minerva office to see Susan. She called Beth and wanted to talk to her. Outside there's an ominous shot of a couple men sitting in a car. One of which is chewing gum. One of which means nothing. Jim and Beth go in. Susan reveals that she has Jim's number. When I get lied to, I get about as angry as a hive of bees under an Amarillo front porch. Which don't mean nothing, but it sure sounds like it does. See? Rural wisdom don't take no special talent at all.

And that she doesn't appreciate prying. He's prying into her business. That's when our guys from outside come in. Surprise, they are in fact cops. They're with the mechanic that Jim asked the directions from, who identifies him. And they ask, you know, by what name do you know this man? Yeah. Jimmy Joe Meeker. He is arrested.

And Susan... Yeah, she's a little like, Jimmy Joe Meeker. Like, she's not like, yes, you got him. It's more like... Yeah, she's a little like Jimmy Joe Meeker. Like she's she's not like, yes, you've got him. It's more like, right. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, well, since you're asking. Yeah. I do know him under false pretentious. Like she knows what the deal is. But yeah, I remember it being something specific. And then I did not write it down in my notes. And now I was just trying to... It's more her. Like she says Jimmy Joe Meeker, but it's her. Yeah. Del delivery is like delivery

Yeah, of course Beth being the good lawyer has gotten Jim out So we cut to them walking out of the courthouse the next day with the gym is a good line One meal in there and you're ready to go straight Yes, like why do you have to bail me out? Because Lessing's frame didn't hold is what she says So I think maybe that gets back to what you're saying like sending him to the airfield so that someone would see him Yeah, like if that was the frame. Yeah. Yeah, and the DA dropped the murder charge But he might try to get Jim on fraud for important impersonating

You know an investor under or whatever and Beth could get dragged in as a sponsor since it was kind of on her behalf That he did it it might not get her dis as a sponsor since it was kind of on her behalf that he did it It might not get her disbarred, but it probably would get her fired Yeah, and Jim's like like legitimately like oh no Yeah, they can't do that to you. There's Been several threats on Beth throughout this episode and for some reason this one hits him the hardest Yeah, and I know I'm not trying to read anything into that or anything like that. It was just kind of funny to me that like a guy broke into her apartment and

knocked her unconscious. Somebody slammed a car, a truck into her. Yeah, sent her to the hospital with a neck brace and Jim's like, yeah, you know, joking and like, you're going to be fine and everything. And then like disbarred, but you're too good an attorney. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like that's just not fair. Beth talked to Dennis. Lessing turns out does have another name, Paul Grisham. We got work to do. Where?

Library. Yes. Ha ha ha. Beautiful. I thought of you. Mm-hmm. It's all in books. It's all in the books.

To the library, to the microfiche. Oh, yes Oh, it's such a good photo This is probably my favorite one for our listeners. Yeah, so we have Jim In a yellow shirt and a tan jacket tan With gray or blacks checkers. Yeah, it's plaid, but they're equal distant stripes. So they look, it's like checkerboard kind of. But like a very yellow shirt. Almost matching the yellow of the microfiche boxes

strewn on the table before them. The microfiche boxes just in the foreground with the dates on them, which is great. They're both looking at microfiche machines and Beth is sitting next to a blue blouse and a slightly smaller neck brace than what we saw in the previous image you sent me. Good extras in the background also going through the records at the library. It's great. Libraries are great. This is good stuff. It's all in the books. Jim's holding a number two pencil. He has a yellow pad of legal paper.

Jim's holding a number two pencil. He has a yellow pad of legal paper. This episode, there's a thing going on with Jim in this episode where this whole investigation, he gets to do his favorite things. Right? Like he gets to be Jimmy Joe Meeker. He gets his kangaroo skin boots. He gets to spend time in the microfiche room of the library. Right? Like, yeah. Oh, that's so good. All right. So, Beth has been looking at the activities of this Grisham fellow while Jim has been looking at insurance journals. Grisham started has started four companies. Two

of them went bankrupt. Two of them were sold at a loss. The last one was a marine engineering company making an underwater metal detector where the inventor was the president and he died testing the machine. Jim's looking at insurance journals. He says there's something about key man insurance that appeals to my sense of greed. Yeah, I wrote that one down too. It's perfect. Beth says that's a routine thing for these kinds of deals. He asked how big the insurance policy was on Chris. Beth doesn't know because that was handled by Lessing's office. But Jim is suspicious.

So he's going to have to go ask. And we have a banter here. Are they going to tell you anything? Of course, as long as nobody's there. Yeah. So Jim and Angel. Jim needs backup. Yeah.

Another perfect Jim plan. Another perfect gym plan. Another perfect gym plan. Jim will never learn. Basically, because Angel got him in this mess, he was recruiting Angel for his to be his lookout man while he goes up to this office to poke around. He got Angel there by telling him it was a printing scam of some kind. Angel was like, Oh, I know all about those

He did an Andy Warhol scheme where he photocopied pictures of soup cans a dollar forty investment made forty bucks. I Love how small small scale angels Angels ambitions are but yeah, Jim is that got him there to perform a service He wouldn't be in this situation without Angel selling him out. So you can call this number if you see any guys, you know, coming up, who are going to come up the elevators. And if you don't do it, you know, I'm going to tell the major D at Toussaint's all about your silverfish and Angel.

You're a hard man, Jimmy. Yes. A hard man. Oh, my God. OK. Yeah. Yeah. He just like you're going to snitch on me? Oh, you can bet on it. This picture that you sent me again for the listening audience. This is angel leaning against the wall. If there's nobody else in this building, angels leaning against the wall and you know, doing the suspicious look over his over his right shoulder. While Jim stands in front of the elevator waiting, like a normal person wait for the elevator. There's something. Yeah.

I kind of was like, well, I'm not going to back it up to take a picture of Angel. Take a screenshot of Angel at the restaurant. So I better get one now. And this just, the focus is on Angel. So Jim's out of focus in the background and it's like, yeah really dramatic I don't know. It just tickled me. I thought it was funny I wrote in my notes like there's this exchange of looks between them after the after they're like you're gonna see me Oh, you bet. And he's like are a hard man Jimmy hard

Yeah, and there's this back and forth between them that is just like like are you really doing this to me? Right? It's good It's very good. And this is only the beginning of the very good stuff yes the gym goes upstairs to the Normandy investments is the company as he picks the lock to go in we go to a phone ringing it is at I guess where Vincent lives or yeah some other office Virgil I mean we're yeah, it's where Virgil maybe his eyes are closed But he's like not asleep or he's not like him like like he's in his you know normal like his everyday clothes Mm-hmm. Oh, and he has like a an almost full glass of something. That's what it was So so whatever hour of the night it, he's like has this full drink.

He's sitting there kind of almost just waiting for the phone to ring because I think part of his job, right, to be on top of these kinds of things. So again, this is part of he's slightly more dimensional, like this guy just like sitting in a room drinking, waiting for something or like waiting for something to happen so he can go like commit violence on somebody. He is. So the phone rings. It's the automated alarm like a company being like, there is an alarm at this address and stand by for an important message. Yeah.

That's when he hangs up. He gets out his gun. He makes another phone call. We go to Jim looking through files in a filing cabinet. We go downstairs to Angel. He sees a car pull up exactly what Jim warned him about. And Angel just leaves. He just walks past them out the door.

And there's this great exchange. You work here? Yeah, no, but I did. It's my last day. I quit. No future. And like throws his hands up again and unnecessary, but very fun detail where Lessing's like, why do you always do that? And Virgil says, you have to check everybody out. Yeah, it's so good. This is dynamic, right? Like, you don't have to have a dynamic between the muscle and the...

Like the boss. The boss, yeah. But they do. They have a dynamic here, right? And they've had to throw out the whole show the very early scene where he's like, I'm so sick of, you know, Blueprints and or I'm so sick of like this a Captain Nemo stuff or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, and he's like, oh, it's kind of interesting We hear a car horn and I'm like, ah, so that's what angels because angel has like the phone number of like the office I guess he's supposed to call up and he doesn't do that. Hear the car horn. I'm like, oh, he went out and honked the guy's horn.

Very smart angel. And then Jim looks over to the window and we see that car horn is honking because angels running across the street and a car almost hits him and honks at him. Yes. And we hear Angel yelling, hey, you're trying to kill me. So that is Jim's tip off to sneaking out. And there's another very well choreographed scene or a shot where he leaves, goes over to the elevators, sees that the elevator is about to open and ducks into the stairwell just in time for Lessing and Virgil to come out.

And they go over and see that the door is open to their office and get their guns as Jim like peeks and then disappears. Yeah, that's good stuff. Before moving on, I feel like Jim's like, all right, that paid off, like bringing Angel paid off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He didn't do what I wanted him to do, but he did what I needed him to do. The job got done despite Angel's best efforts. Right, yeah. But yes, Jim is showing Beth the insurance document. One million dollars. Pretty good return on a two hundred thousand dollar investment. And more interestingly, there's one on Susan and the effective date is today. And Susan has been making a play to be

like, I'm going to be the one who goes down and does the first test. Yes, a little sloppy on Lessing's part, but they can still make it plausible. Well, apparently, because Beth, so there's a good bit of business where Beth takes off the neck brace. She's like, oh, this thing's killing me. Yeah. She's like, I'm sick of wearing this, which is I don't know. I don't know why I think that is so like, well, it's very naturalistic. Yeah. At a certain point, like, does she need to be wearing a neck brace the entire episode? Like, probably not.

But yeah, so Beth says that doesn't make any sense. Why would the insurance company go along with it? It's too obvious. And Jim says, ah, different insurance company. Yes. And that says that don't. But they share information with each other. And Jim says, oh, no, no, no. With the new privacy laws, they don't need to do that anymore.

And I was like, huh, let's bring those back. And the rest of the scene is basically like there's enough here that without finding the bodies or other evidence, yeah, they can't prove murder. So it seems plausible that it could work, even if it looks obvious to us, because we know what's going on. Yeah, so it's like the privacy laws. So this is something I feel like I've looked up before. So I'm not sure how these apply to the insurance industry. This might just be aligned to make it make sense for the you know, because it's kind of like in the air at that time, because there's the Privacy Act of 1974, which we talked about in our episode on the house on Willis Avenue, which was our episode 78 from back in December 2020, which is the one that has the title card at the end about like electronic surveillance and the government is collecting your data and you have no recourse. So that's kind of in response to this movement about consumer privacy that's happening at this time.

There was also something called the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970 that standardized credit reporting and made it so that you know how like you're supposed to be able to look at your credit report for free every year. This made that happen before then, like they never had to show you what was in your credit report.

I did a little bit of digging to see if either of these did anything for the insurance world, because the Privacy Act is about government data, like the government keeping data on you. But I was unable to find anything in particular in the time I allotted to it. Every so often, the show has a little like rip from the headlines, you know. Yeah, stuff. And this is just a little like, oh, I bet this is just a talking point at the time about like data privacy and stuff like that. However, any of that being that insurance companies can't talk to each other does seem not great. But also, maybe that's how it is. I have no idea. I suppose you could maybe as a client,

maybe there's something where you can be like Authorized yeah, yeah, I don't know. I've never had to take out key man insurance. No, though I guess if you would I know if you went down in a plane, I would not be able to continue the podcast. So We do not approve of insurance scams six six podcasts from the end you collect your one million dollars and We do not approve of insurance scams. Six, six podcasts from the end. You collect your one million dollars and well, adjusted for inflation. Five million. Right. Obviously. Well, I'm playing the long game. It's seven years of investment. So yeah, yeah. At 200 a day is.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. He tried to call Susan. She didn't pick up. It's like two in the morning, I guess. But for four, I think is there's something yet. But Susan was sleeping on the boat because she wanted to get early start. Never sleep on a boat. Never sleep on a boat. Cut to Susan in a wetsuit, checking out the submersible. Virgil is on the scene again, being like really like chatty and and like friendly,

which part of the thing is like offers to get her coffee. You know, I checked your air tank. I left it in the shed. Go get it. Okay. Just being very like personable. Yeah, which is a funny. I don't know. It's a fun little twist. Lessing shows up. He's checking in with her. And then I say that he ominously disappears, but he just like leans against a wall to like unscrew his thermos to get some coffee or something. So he's in the perfect position to overhear

as Jim comes up to find Susan and tell her, they're planning to bring you home in a net. Mm-hmm, that's a good line. You know, you're in danger, we have to get you out of here. You know, there's some back and forth about what's going on. Are you saying, Dick Lessing, are you saying that he killed Chris? And then we cut to him and he's holding a rifle.

So he had a rifle somewhere in the on the boat, I guess. If you're going to do some diving, you're going to need a rifle. Jim wants her to put up the project for just one hour. Read these papers. You know, you'll see what I'm talking about. And then Lessing gets the drop on them with his rifle. I love watching him kind of creep into the frame behind while they're having the conversation.

It's like, it's right there. It's coming. It's coming. There he is. Jim puts his hands up, but keeps up some good pattern, like kind of talking out the thought process of the scam to Lessing. Yeah. While we see him significantly looking at lines and ropes and nets and seeing something near his foot. Lessing had had like this line that was like, you're becoming as tiresome as your daddy, which is great. Nice callback to that. And then I think Jim's pattern here is like about how he and

Lessing were never going to get along or never see eye to eye about something. Something like that. Yeah. And I couldn't tell if it's like if he's still trying to keep up the Jimmy Joe meeker. It doesn't matter. Like this is just buying time so that he can play with the rigging on this ship. I just watched the Columbo where he's on a on a boat And he keeps calling it a boat and they keep correcting him to ship Anyway, yes

It buys him time so that he can unhook the the line off of the cleat by his foot and that releases a net That has stuff in it that falls down directly at Lessing. So his shot goes wild Mm-hmm Jim and Susan run. He says the police are supposed to be here. We got a stall. Virgil joins the chase with his gun. You're finished, Rockford. You and the girl won't get off this boat alive.

Jim baits Lessing into looking over the side like they're kind of up on the next level of this boat. Yeah, Lessing's climbing a ladder and he pokes his head over And that's when Jim gives him a good uppercut Punch and he does the full the full fall back to the back into the water, which is extremely good Yeah, it's a it's a nice nice fun stunt You just get to use get the fall back into the water. Virtual gets the drop, he draws down on the two of them, but then the cops do in fact arrive and then nick of time start yelling at him to drop his weapon. He reluctantly drops the gun and the day is saved.

There's two things about this, the cops arriving thing. Number one, I totally thought that was Chapman in the lead but he's not in the credits anywhere so probably is and they would have made something of it right like you would have something to say number two there's a little timing thing where it just feels like the cops are here and then everyone waits yeah it's like well they all kind of like quietly get out of their cars so that I guess Virgil won't hear them so that he still comes after who he's coming after. The choreography is a little weird there, but you know. It's not horrible.

It's not horrible. I do appreciate how the two of them are like, Jim's got our number, time to just murder these two with guns. Is that really what you want to be doing? But clearly, as I have not taken out key man insurance on you, I'm not a criminal mastermind. So I have a screenshot from this episode from the first time that we watched it. Then I did some. I found one. Yes. OK. I made some memes with on on Instagram and they're not on my phone,

but I did just find them on there on on Instagram and they're not on my phone but I did just find them on they're on my Instagram from 2018 and these are from I taking a picture of watching this on my television oh yeah classic you know the old way yes I remember these so good mail put these in a separate post on the patreon yeah and make it so that people can meme them make their own memes with it if they want. Yeah, it's good. It's so good It's just so funny cuz it's like the framing of it is lessing in the back with the gun Yeah, Jim is talking to Susan Susan's back is to lessing Jim Yeah, clearly see lessing but he hasn't reacted yet because he's still delivering his lines. Yes.

So it just looks like he can't like he's an invisible specter or something that he can't see. So good. Susan is me. Jim is the things I put off doing over the weekend. Lessing with a gun is my inbox, etc. OK, that is all neither here nor there. Okay, that is all neither here nor there. Justice is presumably served on these two and we go to our final scene with Susan, Jim, and Beth in Jim's trailer. We get to my final screenshot.

I think I know what this will be. In an unusual celebratory move, they've ordered pizza. My notes, I pointed out, I was like, I think this is a rare appearance on the rock. I don't think we see pizza on the rock files. He's driven the pizza delivery VW bug in one. Like, yeah, it or something in one episode. I'm sure they've gotten pizza more than once, but not so recently that I can remember. Yeah, other occasion.

But it's good. Beth says that Harcourt was profuse in his apologies and offered her all these perks for kind of, you know, to make up for it. Including? Including the, was it including the office of Loewe who died last year? Yeah, yeah. I think. Yes, the dead man's office.

Yes, but she didn't accept. She made her own little announcement. It came in two paragraphs. First paragraph, I quit. Second paragraph, stuff it. Big office and everything. And then I kind of got hysterical, so I don't want to repeat the rest.

It's great. Jim is the most overjoyed I've ever seen him at the news that Beth is going out on her own and opening up her own and opening up her own law practice, which is wonderful. Jim is happy for people when good things happen. Right. I don't know. This is part of Jim and Beth, their whole thing, right? It's like he is so invested in her kind of having a handle on her own destiny, I guess. Yeah, I think so.

If we want to read too much into it. And we do. And we do. Jim is sole proprietor of a investigation agency that is him. And I think Jim thinks that Beth is enough like him that she won't be happy until she has a similar situation going right like, you know, you wouldn't recommend to someone to be an independent tabletop role playing game designer. But, but you love to see it.

You love to see it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's great. It's a great like emotional moment. Feels very, very honest. Beth is of course worried about getting clients. She doesn't want to raid her old firm, know that isn't that isn't done Jim you always have me and Beth I meant paying clients Thank you, I was talking about paying clients

She wants to ask Susan a favor Susan knows what she was gonna ask someone needs to handle all the legal unwindings of the situation with the Minerva project. And of course, there's no one she would rather have do it than Beth Davenport. And then they get into sparring immediately. Of course, you'll respect by legal expertise. Well, I don't know if points of law matter as much as good common sense and good solid engineering principles or something like that. And Jim just goes, Beth Davenport, attorney at law. That's when Angel arrives.

Yay, Angel. He needs help. He got busted for holding for holding. Yeah. Just like holding what? You're still on probation from the cockfighting charge. OK, Angel, he's in trouble. He couldn't get the child-proof cap of his silverfish tube off. The out a minute there's some guy in the kitchen comes out he wants a piece of me you know he's trying to hit me with one of those walks the look as people set their pizza away from themselves as he's talking about the silverfish popping out of his beers it's just exquisite and you're wondering where your clients are going to come from and that is when we have the freeze frame

on best horrified face yeah it's so good end. End of episode. Oh, lots of good stuff. Lots of good stuff. We technically have a couple more Beth appearances. One of them might be a voice only. And she's in the Queen of Peru briefly, but this is this is our last Beth episode and our our last appearance of Beth as an attorney at law, I believe, until I guess she's not attorney anymore, but our last view of her as an active force in Jim's life until the second movie, second or third movie,

that she- Yeah, she's not in the first one or two, I can't remember, but yeah. After which she's had her legal career, retired, wrote a best-selling book. Yes. Et cetera, so, you know, it works out for her. Yeah. But yeah, this is effectively I mean, it was our last viewing of her until

her last appearance in the last movie. Right. So less Beth focused episode is the whole normal run of the show. Yes. Yeah. So a good one. Yeah, it's a good one. This is a fun episode. Yeah, it was a lot of fun I am I am I have to say I am a little surprised that Larry Hagman was not JR before this episode Cuz I I totally thought that they were just like riffing kinda

Yeah, they're riffing on JR or something, you know like that apparently he built this was part of his one of the arrows in his quiver You know like that apparently he built this was part of his one of the arrows in his quiver Leading up to that portrayal I guess so yeah good good pacing good Definitely good pacing the mystery bit like I said you're not in it so much for the mystery bit as you are Well, maybe you are but I was like just the joy of watching these characters work with each other and Yeah, it was good. It was a good one. It's good. It definitely has the you know, we've talked recently because we did so many season one episodes of like the season one vibe.

Yeah, there's some sharp differences in vibe where it's like, you know, Jim's not really doing P.I. stuff really. Like he's playing a character Which is bigger than you know larger than life character Which is more of a more of a disguise than like really tradecraft or anything He isn't getting paid Yeah, I mean I guess maybe you know he probably is because, if he's working for a bath, like yeah Maybe maybe it's unclear like they don't make a meal of like yeah, you owe me 200 a day

Oh, you owe me for legal, you know, like often earlier though. That's part of the gag He probably got boots out of it though. He did probably get boots. That's true she definitely funds a couple days of lifestyle that he would not otherwise need. Maybe, I don't know, maybe rented the boots, may have to return them. Yep, that seems very, very feasible. The insurance scam is great. It's good. Yeah. I like our low key villains who are actually kind of like real horrible. Yes. Like we'll just flip that switch and just murder they're made all the more horrible by how like just normal and personable they are yeah not only can they on the drop

of a dime switch but they're plotting to kill Chris right yeah they're spending all this time looking at Chris's kelp farming. Yeah. Blueprints. And they're like, yeah, I'm going to kill you and I'm going to make a lot of money off of it. That is some good stuff, you know, for this for the show. Not good stuff generally, but for the show. Yeah. You know, trip to the library. You love to see it. Yes. Beth Angel and Dennis Chef Kiss. That might be our because our next episode is a season six episode and it's the one with

I forget her name, but the woman who did all the commercials to the Polaroid commercials with James Wright is in Paradise Cove. And then there's a Rita episode. So I don't know if we're going to get I'm sure we'll get Rocky and probably Dennis. I don't know if we'll get any more angel. I'm not going to look it up. Not looking it up. We'll be surprised. We'll be surprised. But yeah, and that's the end of season four.

We've done all the season four episodes, which is a good season. Yeah, it's a good season. It's the Emmy winning season. Not one of those bad seasons. Yeah, right. If we're going to do a season power ranking, season four would definitely be It's a good season. It's the Emmy-winning season. Not one of those bad seasons. Yeah, right. If we're going to do a season power ranking, season four would definitely be in the top six seasons of the show. Yeah, somewhere in there.

Yeah. And hello and goodbye to Jimmy Joe Meeker. Yes. You loomed large in our imagination. Large in our imagination, large in our hearts. One of my favorite fictional fictional characters. All right. Well, I think we've we've we've done enough kelp harvesting ourselves for one episode. RIP to a real one.

Chris the Chris the kelp farmer and we barrel headlong. I feel like I don't know are we dwelling too much on it. It just strikes me every time I look at our list of like how few things we have left Yeah, talk about I will say we we are planning a non episode episode where we're gonna do a Rockford files draft where we each draft elements from the show to construct a fictional Rockford files episode that that never was as kind of our fun our fun thing before our finalizing our coverage of the show that will be coming down the line and we'll be soliciting

some thoughts and elements that you'd like to hear us talk about it's going to be a way for us to kind of you know talk about our favorite things about the show while giving us a little structure for doing something fun with it. So you can toss us, there'll be a post about it on Patreon up, I think I can probably say up by the time this episode comes out. That would be a responsible thing for me to do. But I started to chat about it on the Patreon in the chat section because that exists. You can also email us or contact us through the website at 200aday.fireside.fm if you

have thoughts about that or things you'd like us to keep in mind when we talk about our favorite things about the show. So yeah, so that'll be in a couple weeks. But before we get to that, we will be back next time to talk about another episode of The Rock Profiles.