Two Hundred A Day - Episode 141: No Fault Affair

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Nathan and Eppy get re-acquainted with national treasure Rita Moreno in S6S8 No Fault Affair. After Jim's friend Rita, a sex worker, gets beat up badly by her pimp, he nurses her back to health - and she falls for him in the process. He has to navigate her emotions while she's trying to get out of her current life, but of course it's not going to be quick or easy. This is the last "regular" episode of the show for us, and we're really glad it fell here. It gives us almost all of our favorite things in the Rockford Files, and we have a lot to talk about! 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

Oh, I thought this was Tyler's joke. I'm going to party and I need some icebreakers. But, uh, I guess that's that. Welcome to 200 a Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Poletta. And I'm Epidaire Rappachar. And here we are. Yeah. So, wow, my brain just went all over the place. Yeah. Hi, Eppy. Hey, how are you? I think I'm fine.

I think I might be a little thrown off because we didn't do we did not do Plus Expenses in advance of this episode due to kind of the publication schedule and wanting to make sure I had enough time to edit this to get it out when I want to. Plus we had some secrets. Um, secrets. Secrets. Secrets.

So I feel like for whatever reason I feel like we just started talking. Yeah. So I'm like more in a plus expenses brain. Right. But I'll get out of that because this is serious. It's a serious business this 200 a day. We are here to talk about season 6 episode 8 No fault affair. Mm-hmm. This is one of those episodes where I will never remember the title

I kind of get it I guess Yeah, but the original title per 30 years of the Rockford files was one heart in three quarter time, which also I'm not sure I really get, but is a more memorable phrase for associating it with this particular episode. Yeah. I mean, like No Fault Affair is 100% a Rockford Files episode title. That is what you would expect from the Rockford Files, but it doesn't indicate the content of the episode in a way that...

I mean, maybe, I don't know, we'll see. Maybe we'll just talk our way into it as we go along. Yeah. This is our final... Our final regular season in the sense of sports, right? Like, our regular season is the 70s episodes and then occasionally, I guess our, our, our finals will do our final season, maybe would be like movies and special episodes. for the very end of our podcast well in advance, right? Where we're going from here is we're going to watch the final movie and then the pilot and then the first episode, the Kirchhoff case, and then the final episode of The Rockford Files. Deadlock and Parma. Deadlock and Parma. And we were planning to do it, maybe not in that particular order,

but we were planning to do it Maybe not in that particular art, but we were planning to do that We're planning to do at least first and last for a while and then at some point is like and we should probably do the pilot And then it's like well, we didn't do the pilot at the beginning of the show So let's yeah, we'll treat that as kind of like now that we've done the show Let's see how the pilot was writing and then the first and last episodes just kind of as a fun like yeah summation And then the first and last episodes just kind of as a fun like, yeah, summation. I still have certainly not watched the last episode. I probably watched the first episode the first time I watched the Rockford Files because I just started with the first episode back in 2014, 15, when Epi said,

Hey, you know what show is really written? The Rockford Files on Twitter. Way backward on Twitter. Yeah, oh man, those are the days. So I guess there was a long way around saying, it's not that the order of our episodes have been random up to this point, but you might as well consider them random up to this point, right?

Like we've been picking them as we want to, what we're in the mood for, and then we kind of got to a part where we were like, well, we can't do that anymore because we're, we're coming to a close. For our own sanity, if nothing else, we needed to at least pace them out. So we weren't doing two partners back to back all the time. Right. And if we're going to pace them out at all, let's go ahead and make a schedule.

And so that's what we've been doing for the last, I don't know, six ish months, I guess. And all of that is to say, uh, I'm really happy that happy that this episode landed here and in this time and in this moment. Like, this is a fun... Well, no, fun is the wrong word. I'm going to go back on that. It is a good episode. It's great to see Rita again, both the actress and the character. It's great to see Jim again, both the actor and the character. It feels good at this point in our podcast to have this episode.

I'm not entirely sure why, but it just does. I think I feel that too. OK, so this episode, it is so it is the third in the Rita Capcovitch trilogy, of which there were two earlier episodes. If I was smart, I would have pulled up what they were. The Capcavitch Tripitch? Wait is that what that's called?

Triptych? Triptych? Triptych. I got them. So what are the other ones? The Paper Palace. Ah yes. Rosendahl and Gilderstern are dead.

Yes. And no fault affair. Okay. That's episode, season four, episode 16, season five, episode two, season six, episode eight. So yeah, one per year for the final half of the show. Paper Palace was our episode 52 back in July of 2019. Woof.

Rosendahl and Gilda Stern are dead, was our episode 59 in October 2019. So it's been a minute since we saw our friend Rita. So this is her last appearance on the show and then the final movie that we will be doing in our next episode is also a Rita movie. So we still have Rita to talk about. We still have Juanita Bartlett to talk about. This episode was written by Juanita Bartlett, so is the movie. All of the Rita episodes are also Juanita Bartlett written episodes, which

is great. I feel like that's good. So before getting into it, you may tell at least from my energy, I don't know about Epi, but I was mentioning before we started recording that I do feel like we're in a bit of 200 a day senioritis Yeah, we love the show. We enjoy talking about it We are doing our homework and we're showing up the class But because we do have this ending on the horizon, it is a little hard to focus Yeah on the horizon. It is a little hard to focus. And get into it maybe the way that we would have like a year ago. I think that's partly due to the fact that Nathan and I are also like, we got our eyes

on future projects, because when the Rockford Files ends, it'll be sad for all of us. But it doesn't mean that, I was going to call us the dynamic duo, but I don't think that works. Nose goes for Batman. No, but we've got things on our plate that we're excited about in the near future which is also in some way contributing to it. None of it reflects on the Rocker files. It's been an amazing show.

I didn't expect going into this that we would be here. Well, I didn't expect anything of this future right right Like none of this makes sense a lot of things about now We're very unforeseen back in 2016 when we started talking about doing the show very specifically 2016 and onwards I mean very unexpected something happened to the cosmos at that point, but yeah, so forgive us if we're a little all over the place on this one. We're in that this might be familiar to, I mean, probably most anyone, but especially people who have a succession of creative projects. When you start thinking about the next thing and it is all potential and has no reality yet,

it's like super exciting because it could be anything, as opposed to the thing that you're in that you need to finish and so it is no not no potential but like you know exactly the parameters of what you need to do to be done with it and so that like Energy of excitement of the unknown is all for the future And that's kind of where we are right now. Yeah, exactly. So I guess this is a long apology, I think. I don't know. I want to go that far. I guess I just wanted to talk about it because I

feel like it probably is audible. Yeah. But I mean, if you've been with us since the beginning, you're there. Well, first of all, if you've been with us since the beginning, you're the best. You're a mitzvah. If you're just starting now and you're like, oh, well, first of all, if you've been with us since the beginning, you're the best. You're a mitzvah. If you're just starting now and you're like, oh no, this podcast is over, you're just starting.

You can go mad. You can listen in any order. If you hit pause right now and wait just a few more months, you'll be able to listen to the whole podcast in the order of the air dates of the original episodes, which nobody in the history of the universe has been able to do yet. Like this is your moment. Hit pause now is what I'm saying. Don't miss out on that. Whatever that experience is, however that works. I have been making collections on the Patreon. Collections is a feature of collecting posts.

So every episode goes up on our website and that's where our RSS feed comes from in your podcast that you put in your podcast player or that you search for and subscribe to or whatever. Our Patreon also gets each episode as an individual post so it'll show up to our patrons bespoke feeds along with all their other podcasts so that they don't have to be subscribed to two different things if they don't want to be but what that Means is that all of our episodes have individual posts on patreon So I've been making collections of them in airing order over there. It is incomplete I have to do another roundup pretty soon to put our most recent ones in I think I haven't done season four yet

Or season six, but I am trying to get it there So that will at least be a list of season two, episode one, the 200 day episode, season two, episode two, the 200 day episode. So you can find those organized thusly if you're interested, I guess. Yeah, obviously you will have to wait for season one, episode one, because that is going to be not until the end and season six. Episode 11, I think, is the last episode.

Odds are if you start when we release season one, episode one, if you start then, we will have recorded and put out the final episode before you can put it out. If not... Yeah, you'll have like 143 episodes or whatever to get through before, of our show before. That all said, we should talk about this episode. 43 episodes or whatever to get through before of our show before That all said we should talk about this episode Talked about one you're a bar lit writer. We'll talk about her more We we were always big fans I feel like whatever one you know one pops up like ooh, let's see what she has for us this time. Yeah. Yeah

I think especially her treatment of female characters and women's issues is particularly deft and that goes hand in hand with the Rita character. If you have not listened to or seen those episodes, Rita Kapkowicz, played by Rita Moreno, who is a delight, she's a sex worker and so her episodes have been not about that per se but about issues in her life that come out of that reality. Yes. One of those things I think has been pretty consistent has been there's a lot of class stuff, a lot of tension around whether Rita, for lack of a better term, counts as like part of respectable society or not.

Right. And Jim's place as someone who bridges different classes, you know, can code switch and, you know, between different class structures and stuff. So that's certainly in this episode. And then this episode in particular is, and this is in like the synopsis in IMDB, is about Rita getting out. She's getting out of that life. and IMDB is about Rita getting out. She she's getting out of that life. But her she has a violent pimp who does not want her to get out. And so content warning, we do not see it on screen, but we see the aftermath. She does get pretty badly beaten up.

Yeah, it's pretty rough, particularly for the Rockford files. I think it's it's we I mean, we see Jim with, you know, bags of ice on the back of his head from time to time maybe like like you know like a bloody lip or something like that, but She definitely gets beat up and it's in a way that like we kind of rarely see on the rockford files It's usually if that happens. It's a little more off-screen But we next meet them in a hospital and they've got bandages over him. Yeah, and this is more has has more realism to it, I guess. Yeah. It's not the entire episode, right.

But that is pretty it is significant and has drive the action. Yeah. So that's why I. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. What else? What else? This one is directed by Corey Allen, who we have seen twice before. He directed the empty frame and the man who saw the alligators. Oh, okay.

Very good. There's actually a couple of bits in here where I was like, oh, that was a really nice camera movement. I don't always notice that stuff, but when I do, I like to note it. He's a real TV guy. He was a stage actor

and then a TV actor in the 50s and 60s and film. He was kind of plucked out of his stage career to be in Rebel Without a Cause. And he was a young ruffian in most of his acting turns. And then he kind of transitioned into, he was directing on stage and then transitioned into directing for TV. He did a bunch of pilots including the Next generation pilot encounter at Farpoint. Oh, he did a pilot for murder. She wrote Which I don't know if that's a great directorial effort, but no, but it's a difficult one. Yeah. Yeah, those are both cultural icons, right like I I recently watched and counter at PowerPoint.

And it's interesting. It is interesting. I probably watched it a couple of years ago. Most recently, I think my line on it is I mean, it's not great. It's not horrible. It is curious. Like it is a interesting curiosity in the context of let's do Star Trek again. And like that moment in time. I mean, that's definitely it. Like Star Trek, the next generation is such a's do Star Trek again and like that moment in time.

I mean that's definitely it like Star Trek the Next Generation is such a part of Star Trek now that when that pilot was being made nobody knew that that's how that would end up being right like it would it's a gamble it's a gamble and nobody's comfortable with their characters in that pilot the way that they because that show that show ends up coasting on how comfortable characters are. Yeah. After like the first couple of seasons. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly it.

That's it's why it's considered a comfort food. Why do you go back and becomes the reason to watch it for a lot of a lot of its run? Yeah. Yeah. That pilot is really. Yeah, it's just really full of curiosities, I think. I can't recall if I've ever seen the pilot for Murder, She Wrote. I'm sure it's great. Yeah, I don't know if I have either. OK, he won an Emmy for an episode of Hill Street Blues.

So great. Sorry, it sounds like I'm degrading the Emmys. That is laudable. Whatever. Uh, he has a credit for a soap called Capital and the credit reads 1234, which I was like, that's gotta be like a database error or something, right? But if you click through, there are well over 1300 episodes of this, uh, of, of soap operas, but I, I can't tell if that means that he has a credit because he was maybe involved in some way, or if he literally directed 1200 episodes seems unreasonable.

One thing that that's possible there is that, um, if it's a soap opera, those, those are always referring back. So I wonder if you get your director credit if like... Oh, if there's like a cut from an earlier... Previously on, yeah, yeah, or anything like that. Oh, maybe. That might be a way to... I don't know if it expands it that much, but...

I mean, if you look at some of these soap opera credits, they do have like staggering numbers under them. Yeah, I feel like there just has to be something about how soap operas work compared to how like regular TV works. That probably is has a different maybe some soap expert out there can let us know. But yeah, I was just but but that particular number 1234 I was like, yeah, yeah. They're like, like, I don't know. I don't know what a floating point error is, but maybe is there like a floating point error? I mean, it's like a defective number. Yeah, that feels like a number that somebody was like, okay, the maximum number of digits We can have in here is four. So here's an example of a one, two, three, four, and that's it

You know, he dragged in an episode of Otherworld Which I have not seen that episode yet, because we're only like about halfway through them. His episode is episode seven. So it's the second to last episode of all eight episodes of Otherworld. Looking forward to it, though. Otherworld, as we talked about on our previous plus expenses, which was previous to our last episode, which will still be the most recent one when this episode comes out, in case you're curious. OK, Okay that all said let's talk about our preview montage. The vast majority of my preview montage is just a list of the characters that we're going

to see in the episode because it's a it's a great list it's Rita it's Rocky it's Angel I know Peg's in it I can't remember if Dennis is in the actual preview montage I can't imagine he isn isn't I think he's in the Shot where Peggy is speaking. Yeah, so the the other two things I wrote down Because Rita I love Rita's language When she said I got graduated was that's exquisite and then also Peggy saying Rita's in love with Jim which is like, oh I think I don't know why, but that bit sold me on the,

I was sold on this episode, obviously, but I was like, oh, I wanna see what happens here. And knowing what we know, we're late in season six and we're not gonna see Beth, so we get more of Jim's, whatever is going on in Jim's love life. I think my only other note is is that Angel gets Jim jumped. Like our final, like our big action at the end is Jim reacting to Angel yelling. Yes, yelling. And he runs into a room and then someone jumps him.

Yeah. So we have that threat hanging over us as we watch the episode. 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 Suphel'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 FruitLoopspod.com. Shane Liebling has all of your online dice rolling needs covered at his website, RollForYour.Party. And check out Jay Adan's amazing miniature painting skills over at Jayadon.com. Thank you to Andrea Apignani, Tom Clancy, PumpkinJampaPeachPug, 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. Oh, I love this opening. It's a good opening. I think previously, previously on 200 a day, a couple episodes ago, we had the final appearance of LJ, the plumber friend, handyman and plumber of Rocky and by extension Jims. We were lamenting that he's not in more episodes, but thankfully his shadow looms large

Yeah, this is this is a good LJ episode lacking LJ As we start our episode with Jim wanting to call LJ because there's some problem with the trailer Rocky is Soaking wet covered in water. He's soaking wet and he's saying but LJ is a plumber and you know how much plumbers charge these days. Jim, yeah, because they know something we don't. But Rocky just needs to get a washer and he can fix it. So I love Rocky not willing to call his buddy LJ because he he'll charge too much. Yes, that's great. Rocky's going to go to the hardware store to get a washer.

And that's when Rita drives up in a good gag. She's in this beautiful convertible. She jumps out. This is a surprise encounter. Yeah, you know, they weren't planning to meet or anything like, look, what's different. What do you see? And Jim says, I see about $10,000 worth of car,

which is a car that you borrowed from someone, apparently. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, don't you notice something different about me? Uh, a new outfit. New woman, a whole entire new woman. Here, feast your eyes. See, that says, Ecole de Beauty. That's French for beauty school.

You've been going to beauty school. Not just going. I got graduated. I got a diploma. I got a license in the state of California. I can do anybody's hair. Jim and Rocky are very happy for her. They're talking about, oh, we'll have to get together and celebrate. Rocky leaves to go to get his washer. Jim talks to Rita about her plans. He's like, so you're going to start off working somewhere, work your way up, etc. And she's like, yeah, no, I'm going to work in Beverly Hills. That's where your money hair is.

Yes. Why start at the bottom when she doesn't have to? I am with Rita on this. I mean, who will find out why? But like I am with Rita on this at this point. She's starting off on a whole new life. So Jim asks her what made her decide so a lot of this is playing I think a little bit on us knowing who Rita is Yeah, Jim skeptical because of her background as a sex worker and just like it's not like he's talking to Angel

He's not that that level of skeptical He's acting like he can smell a larger story behind it and just wants to know what what's going on. And I think through her explaining, if you have not seen this character before, it becomes clear what the deal is. But basically, she says that she was talking to there's this new this new girl, this young girl, Lily, who's who started working. Rita says something about how she saw the life that Lily was getting into. And it's like, you don't have to do this. You're too smart. You're too talented. You don't have to be in this in this life.

And she's like, so I was trying to talk her out of it. And Jim, so you talked yourself out. She's like, yeah. Yeah. Which, again, very resonant. You know, sometimes you don't see something until you try to. Yeah. Get someone else to see it before you can, you know, have it reflected back onto you. So she she graduated from like Lamont Beauty Academy or whatever. Mr. Lamont told me that he knows people all over the city

and he will put in a personal recommendation for anywhere I want to work. So with my natural talent and Mr. Lamont backing me up, how could I miss? Right. And Jim. Right. And then we cut to a woman on the phone saying, you can't. So it's kind of a joke in the cut. She's but she's speaking to someone who's trying to make a same day appointment at this fancy salon and you can't.

We're all full. We're too busy. Rita comes in. She keeps getting cut off first by phone calls and then by these kind of older women just walking right in front of her. Yeah, I knew my hair done. I knew my nails did. The receptionist just being like, we can't fit you in. Maybe we can fit you in. Can you wait?

Giving the picture of a very high class in demand LA salon. There's a invisibility to Rita in this moment. She's being friendly with these people. She's not being offended by the fact that she's giving cutoff by these people or anything like that. Actually starting conversations with them about their nails and things, but they don't seem to see her. Yeah, this is immediately into like the class stuff, which becomes part of the text in a minute. But like her, not her

accent, but like her way of speaking her diction, I suppose. Yeah. And her manner is coded as not of this class. Before we get into any more about this, I just want to draw attention to those who are watching along with us, as if anybody does that. The painting behind it is a painting of a child, but it's like of that era of painting where if you want to paint a child, you just paint a smaller person, right? Like they're dressed up.

It's like it's meant to look like the kind of painting a wealthy person would have in their house, but like, old wealth. Yeah, this is like kind of old money. These aren't celebrities. This is more like, yeah, old money is the sense here. Yeah, I didn't notice the decor in particular. Mm, that's good.

Rita wants to talk to the manager. You know, obviously you're busy. You could use another hand. And the receptionist is like, you can't talk to the manager. You know, obviously you're busy. You could use another hand. And the receptionist is like, you can't talk to the manager. He's swamped. Well, that's what I want to talk to him about. And she ends up cornering him. So he has vocal mannerisms, posh, you know, gay couturier kind of thing.

I am of this class. It's a status thing going on. Yeah. Coriè kind of thing. I am of this class. It's a status thing going on. Yeah. Yeah. I gained status by being the one who provides this high end service of making beautiful hair for these women. Right. Yeah. She pulls out her certificate. She brought it with her.

Rolled up like a scroll. Yeah. Yeah. With a little like ribbon. The boat. Yeah. You're a Le Mans graduate. Yeah. A Le Mans graduate. I didn't know top of the class I bet oh not top of the class uh top 10 percent maybe you're too modest all of mr lamont's graduates are top of the class king of the beehive twice a year he gives out these cheesy certificates

hey wait a minute wait a minute what do you mean cheesy I'm sure it was a true yeah mozzarella tilamouk. What's the matter with you? I don't have enough on my hand. You've got to waste my time with something like this. Look, do us both a favor. Take that piece of paper and hit the bricks. Yeah. She's licensed by the state of California. California doesn't know that snoods and pompadours were out 30 years ago.

And neither does Mr. Lamont. And she storms out. Poor Rita. You know, obviously the brush off and you know, she is insulted. Yeah. But it's also we are seeing her hit, I guess that reality of like, oh, this was like a diploma mill. Yeah.

He says something about like, oh, I bet you were top of your class. And she says, among the top, but all of Lamont graduates are the top of their class. Yeah. Like you got the same song and dance that all these other women do. You're not special. And the fact that you thought you were special means you got caught. Yeah, you got taken. Yeah.

Like a diploma mill of some sort. Yeah. I don't think of the scene itself as particularly heartbreaking because we're all kind of expecting it. Like Jim is like skeptical of her going. you want to go right to Beverly Hills yeah yeah but even so there's a part of me maybe due to recent events it's just heartbroken over what happened to me like yeah just like she's so excited and that like I mean that's just the situation that we have in general. We're like, yeah, okay

No, you did it you you made this incredible accomplishment. You learned something. I learned a trade or you know, whatever But nobody's nobody's around to give you the next step. There's there's a there's a gap Also, we're seeing that what makes her such a compelling character. I think she's been around, she's been through the rare, she's had a hard life, but she still has this confidence, energy. Yeah, she has the confidence and energy, but it's also, I'd say maybe a certain sort of like willful innocence or naivety. Like, like there's a certain sense of like, she made the decision, she did the thing. At no point during that process did she go, I'm going through a thing a bunch of other people have gone through. I'm getting oriented to go like, you know, do beehives. I'm not getting oriented to go to the, you know, the glamour classes. Yeah. But that's not what I want. I want to move

on up and on. I don't know, there's I have this whole reading of her basically going through this whole process, believing every single thing that this Lamont guy has told her. Right. Yeah. And not having even though she lives in a world where she she has to be suspicious about everything that everyone says to her, because this is a way out of that world. She's not applying that filter. She wants to believe that she's gonna graduate and then go be a hairdresser and have all the great things that she knows she deserves or that she knows she can achieve. There's a, I think, a constructive contrast with like Angel, right?

She has a vision of a just world. Yes. And we as the audience share that vision, even if we don't believe it's possible in the context of the story or you know, whatever. And so like when she gets rejected like this, it's in just and we feel that injustice even though we know that at a practical level, of course this was going to happen. Yeah. When it's Angel, when he gets rejected, he feels that it that it's in just but we do not. Right. Like we're like, yeah, come on,

Angel. The only reason he would be going to, you know, trying to get a job at a high end hairdressers would be to con the clients or something. Right. Right. Yeah. He never learned how to do hairdressing. Right. Exactly. His motivations are impure. And thus, yeah, his him being rejected is justice. While her motivations are pure and thus when she gets rejected we feel wronged along with her. Yeah.

Well, Rita comes home to her very yellow apartment. Love a yellow apartment. Let's talk about this apartment for a moment here because, first of all, the knot in my stomach when we saw the door open. This is the Rockford files. Anytime you open the door to your home, there's a 25 percent chance you're going to get waylaid. Like I think somebody is there or somebody has just knocked the place over. A couple of things that I just want to point out about this apartment. Number one, her coffee table is amazing and so 70s.

Yeah, the decor in this place is amazing. It's a giant hunk of wood. Like, I think it's like a crosscut of a trunk of a giant tree at some point. Like, like it's huge And it's just natural wood. But I think the most stunning thing about it is the size and amount of stuffed animals in this apartment. She comes in, she sits down, she's obviously exhausted. She has a piece of paper with a bunch of like addresses on it that are all crossed out. So she's been all over town trying to get her foot in the door and clearly been rejected at everyone.

There's no music during this part. It's all very naturalistic as we watch her. She pulls that up and she takes out her diploma and she crumples it up and throws it on the ground. And I think this screenshot is right around from there. There we go. Yes. Yes. Yes. So this is just her sitting on her couch, taking stock of how the day has gone. Yeah, there's a very quiet moment where we really see on her face like, well, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. But then she goes and picks up her diploma and smooths it back out.

Yeah, I don't know. It's a it's it's a great moment. It's powerful. It's good. It's like she's not giving up. Yeah, she's been through worse Well speaking of worse there is then a knock at the door There's a voice she recognizes we see that she is not happy to hear this voice and it is Al Mm-hmm. I mean this becomes clear pretty quick, but it you know, I think we could read it into his mannerisms from the very beginning Yeah, Al is is her pimp or was her.

There's it's a bit of a complicated backstory, actually. But Al has had power over her in the past and wants to go for a ride. She says she's tired. She doesn't want to. He's like, come on, let's go. And I think we end the scene with her going, do I have a choice? As she sighs and puts her shoes on. We then have our credits come up over

watching a car driving in the dark and then it stops, music stops, and in a very dramatic moment the door flies open and Al shoves Rita out of the door of the car and she goes tumbling down the embankment. Side of the hill. Yeah. We can see from the beginning that she's beat up But then we have a couple shots where she's at the bottom of this hill Framed by bushes with just her head sticking out Yeah, like dead center and we can see she is really beat up black eyes Scrapes scratches it is clear that she has been pretty badly beaten

He shouts with barely restrained rage, I'll see you next Tuesday, as always. How am I gonna get home? Walk. And then he drives away. Davey- Drives off. Now, I have a note here that I'm just now realizing never comes true. I have a note here that says I cannot wait to see Jim clock this guy.

I mean, like, obviously obviously we know Rita from previous episodes But even the Rita we've gotten in like even if you've never seen another episode. Yeah, you're already like I mean like they could have started right here and we would have hated this guy But like we've already learned to either re fall in love or fall in love with Rita now and now it's yeah Yeah, we go to seeing a car pulling up in a parking lot and then the camera tracks back to show that Rita is in the phone booth and this woman in a red dress runs over to her.

So this is the girl, Lily, that Rita had been trying to talk out of sex work. She's horrified to see what's happened to Rita. And Rita says, I just wanted you to see. Get out now while you still can. Mm hmm. This is what happens. She's really hurt.

Something hurts on the inside. Lily does say I need to take you to the hospital. She's like, no, they'll call the police. I know where you can take me and has her take Rita to Jim's trailer. At some point, she said, I think Lily says, like, who did this? He's like, Al, he's a coked up creep. So Al is also Lily's pimp. Yeah.

It's not evident in this moment. Like, in this moment, it's not entirely clear. You have to assume that he is her pimp, because I don't think if he was just a client, he would know where she lived. That doesn't seem like a thing. Well, they're talking he's like it's Tuesday or whatever and she's like I'm not you know I'm not doing it anymore. Yeah. And then when he throws her out I'll see you next Tuesday as always. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The

power dynamic does. I mean also I read the episode description you know. Right. It says like Rita gets beat up by her pimp. So it was pretty easy to make for me to make that connection. But it becomes pretty clear. But yeah, we go to another very downbeat scene where Jim is coming home. It's all dark at the trailer. And then we just hear Rita's pain filled voice saying, Jimmy, from where she's lying on the asphalt outside the trailer. It's heartbreaking.

There is a great match cut here where he picks her up in his arms and kind of like spins as he turns to like go to the steps. And then that cuts to him completing the spin and putting her down on the couch in the trailer. Yeah, that's good. Just very elegant, I guess. So what it does, it kind of sets up the rest of the scene in a bit of a weird way because it's almost romantic Right this scene. Okay, so let's start off by saying the scene is uncomfortable Part of it is you know, Rita has been beat up and again, we're gonna get close up Rita Moreno

Does an amazing job? Yeah in this this scene so you can't look away She is framed in the foreground with her face as close to the viewer as possible Yeah, while Jim is doing stuff in the background. It is the focus when I say this scene is uncomfortable I mean for the most part. I think the scene is intentionally uncomfortable. We're not as the audience meant to, you know, you know, we're watching a detective story, a crime fiction, we're used to violence and things like that. And quite often, it's easy to just kind of like gloss over it or look away. And I feel like this scene is all about not letting you do that. Yeah. And there is, I think, some unintentional, uncomfortable that we'll get into in a moment. Jim obviously is very concerned, wants to know

what happened. Rita doesn't really tell him the truth. She says she got mugged. She's like, what? I can't get mugged? Everyone gets mugged. Yeah. But she insists it wasn't a trick, right? It wasn't a client, which I guess technically it wasn't. Yeah. But she also doesn't tell Jim what it was. He asks her how her... So this is all in context of him getting a towel and dabbing at the blood on her mouth and holding a compress on her bruises, but he's also kind of trying to distract her, so they're having more of a conversation. She says she got a very strong reaction from the place in Beverly Hills.

Jim's like, you said you were starting a whole new life. You know, it doesn't really believe her that it was just some hugging or whatever. And that's when Rita starts just bawling, just like ugly crying. It's not starting out too great, which is really affecting. Again, Rita Moreno. Perfect. She's perfect. She says something about he kept just beating her.

He thought he was going to kill her. Jim's she's like, it's OK now. You're here now. It's over. There's a moment where she says, I've never been nothing but trouble for you, Jimmy. And he says, that's a double negative. That means you've never been any trouble at all. Our ending here, I don't think is intended to read the way that it probably reads to us now. Yes.

But it is weird, to me at least. Yeah. She says that, oh, he's like, you can stay here till you're all better. It's over. You'll get healed up. She says she must look awful. And Jim says, you know, soothes her says no. And then I think, I think what is going on here in order to soothe her, in order to make her feel better when she says I must look awful.

Yeah. It's like, no, no, no. Give me a little kiss. You're beautiful. Nothing about you is making me not want to do what you would do with a beautiful woman, which is kiss her I think is like the intention, but the read it's just, I don't know, it just doesn't read right to me. Don't don't hit on women in this situation. Like, that's just like, I'm not going to give advice on when and when not to hit on people. Just this is not it. This is not the yeah.

And I like I don't think that's what he's like, I agree with you. I don't think that's what the intention is. That nothing about anything about any of this including the entire history of the show up to this point indicates that Jim's trying to Like take advantage of her in this moment. Yeah, yes, maybe something about the delivery. It's just a little I don't know It he's trying to comfort her he's trying to comfort her but it's a little bit like give us a little kiss like it Yeah, it just doesn't read right to me. And I think it either must have just seemed fine at the time, and maybe it's just how I'm reacting,

or maybe it was just they decided just to keep it, go with it, not do another take for some reason, or like whatever. Of the entire episode, this is like the, this is one like sour note that like really stuck out to me. And then I was worried there'd be more and there were not everything else is fine is just this one moment So I'm chalking it up just to you can't can't can't bad a thousand. Yeah. Yeah, exactly In fact, there's a lot in this episode about the relationship between these two that I think is amazing and really well done

And it's predicated on the fact that this event doesn't happen the way it appears to happen to our modern sensibility, so we can let that go. The other thing I wanna point out about this on a slightly lighter note is that he tells her something like, oh, you'll be safe here. And you know what? No. Yeah, like good try, Jim.

Six years of this, Jim. Six years. There is a little bit of a, we'll go ahead with this framing for the sake of this episode. If Jim was involved with any other case at this time, there would be thugs breaking in. So we could just assume that he's just not working right now? If it were any other case, the thugs would already be inside and just uncomfortably watching what was unfolding. Should we go?

Should we just go? Also, it's typical of Jim. It's important to this story that she stays here at the trailer, which we'll find out in a little bit. But it would be more typical of Jim to set her up at Rocky's place. Although, no, there's no reason for him to think anyone's coming for her at his place. Right, because she's like, I got mugged, but she doesn't. I think he is legitimately focused

on like, wow, you really need to like, rest and like, be somewhere safe. And I don't know if being at Rocky's is particularly restful. Yeah. Rocky, I feel like Rocky's the kind of person that would run you ragged, trying to make you comfortable. Yeah. Like every few minutes he'd try and move a pillow underneath you or something like that. He'd be like, come on, just let me go, boy. Yeah. Try to like do activities with you or something. And you're like, yeah, I really just want to sleep. The one thing that might be going on with Jim is that he, he is on to the fact that he's...

because there's a revelation later where he's like, oh, he's her pimp. So he doesn't know that yet. But he might be suspicious that this happened at her apartment, right? Like he might be a little afraid of... I think he has a good just general suspicion that this probably is to do with her work. Yeah. It's not just a random mugging. However, he's willing to go with what she's saying. Yeah.

That if that's how she wants to play it, that's how she wants to play it. Yeah. And that's fine with him. So we have a this is a good tone shift episode where we have some low lows. And then we go into some good rising kind of comedic stuff to bring us out of it. Jim is taking out the trash. Rocky pulls up with flowers. He's brought them for Rita.

Rita must be feeling better. She was up at six thirty cooking breakfast. Rocky says, I thought you like to sleep in on Sundays. Jim's like, yeah. So we learn through the course of this, it's been two weeks. She's all better. She seems really peppy. She has her kind of usual really upbeat energy.

Rocky says, you never know you were in a car accident, which I think is probably a good cover cover story for Rocky. Yeah. And also, if she doesn't want the police involved, yeah, that's what you have to tell Rocky. Yeah. So Jim couldn't find his jacket because Rita rearranged his closet to make it more convenient. Classic. She has a new outfit. They're all going out together.

It turns out, as we learned, they're going to a backyard barbecue. They're going they're all going out together. Turns out as we learned they're going to a backyard barbecue at Dennis's. Oh, it's so good. And then there's a good gag about what he's wearing. That's what you're wearing? What's wrong with it? Oh, no, nothing. I mean, whatever you're comfortable and I just thought maybe the brown jacket. With gray pants? Brown pants. And he's like, wear it to a barbecue? She's like, well, I look nice. You should look nice.

Rocky. Yeah, he's getting short. Well, then let's get going. Dennis said we eat at four o'clock and there ain't nothing worse than a cold steak. Jim and Rita exchange looks and Jim goes to change. Cut to the Becker barbecue. Yes, I have a couple of screenshots for this. I just sent you one because it is showing Becker, the chef in all of his glory. Yes, I will say the up close look of him flipping the steak.

I was like, kind of glad I'm vegan. look of him flipping the steak. I was like, kind of glad I'm vegan. Yeah, maybe it's just because it's like 70s TV show filtered. Not the most appetizing food that I've seen. But it's the his red, white, and blue, I think it's a Giants hat. Yeah. His red, white, and blue Giants trucker cap. His, it doesn't say kiss the cook, but there's something written on it that we see at some point. Yeah. Apron that has, I think, hot air balloons? Yeah, I don't... Are paintbrushes? I don't know what they're sorry.

I don't know. There's something... Some wild... Something's going on. He has a big oven mitt in one hand, with which he's holding his beer, and then he's flipping steaks with the other hand. With tongs, not with his bare hands. No, no. Oh, it's good. One of the jokes here is that Jim is overdressed. Why did you even wear a jacket? Which is good. But they finally sit. Becker's ready to serve out his steaks. This is where we get, you know, we see it, and then it is then put into the text

that Rita has really fallen for Jim in these two weeks. Yes, she's fussing over it. She wants to make sure he has enough leg room. Like, hey, can Jim sit over there? Jim doesn't want to be fussed over. Rita says, if you could have seen him the last two weeks, he's been incredible. All the ways that he's been taking care of her, etc. Rocky says,

I always said Jim would make a fine doctor when Rita's the best. Ben So there's an interesting thing, because I think in the previous scene, I don't know if I'm reading into it because of the opening montage, because the opening montage gives us some hint that Rocky thinks that Rita's moving in with Jim. And in the previous scene, Rocky is short because it's taking so long to get out of the trailer. And I feel like what I read into some of Rocky's behavior in that scene was that he's a little bit like, why is Rita still here?

Yeah. You know, doing fine. Uh, and, but it, I think that becomes evident in this. Yeah, yeah. I feel like it becomes evident and also Rocky's trying to smooth it over in some way or it's hard to tell. Yeah, I think Peggy says that like, I see that Rocky sees. Yeah. But yeah, I think you're you're right that maybe that there's some implication in the earlier scene that he's already like, I don't know about this. And then you see it really come out here. Jim goes to get some beer. Rita extols his virtues to the table.

Part of her story is that, you know, I threw up all over the trailer. Yes, cleaned it up and everyone's starting to put a fork full of food in their mouth. And then they all go like, she's talking about Jim cleaning up her messes. And she ends with he's such a big man, but he's so gentle Mm-hmm. Can you imagine what he'd be like with kids? Yeah That's what Peggy ding Rocky's been trying to kind of change this up like Rocky's been having interjections like oh, yeah He's great

But like trying to like and now let's talk about something else So rocky of all people doing that is like, huh? And then Rita's like I'm gonna go see what's taking Jim so long. And Rita leaves and Rocky just says, I'm gonna go too. And Rocky leaves. I just sent you another screenshot. This is after Jim has left the table.

Right. And so this is the, from the perspective of Rita as Rocky, Peggy and Dennis are all... They're not like, why are you talking like this? But it's more like this seems like an odd amount for someone to be talking about our mutual friend. OK, a couple of things I want to say about this picture here. The giant jar of pickles. Yes. OK, the giant jar of giant pickles.

Perfect. No doubts. And you see behind it the jar of olives. Yes. Yeah, picnic staples, obviously. But the three different looks of concern on these faces are just, like these are great actors. But I love Rocky's, he's worried, right? Peggy's look is a little more, well, it's a little

worrisome look or whatever, where Dennis's is just like, there's something irksome about this for Dennis. It's just like- Well, Dennis just wants to eat his steak. Whatever's evolving, I don't care. I just want to enjoy a meal with friends. Like, why are we doing it? I also, and I'm sure this is just like a probably just a TV thing. But so there's a full jar of pickles. Looks like it hasn't been opened. There's a full jar of olives. Looks like it hasn't been opened yet in the foreground.

I think there's a it's like a it's a bottle of some kind of sauce in this screenshot. I think it says it's hickory smoke something like a barbecue sauce or something. Yeah, that looks completely full. There are two bottles behind the potato salad that are also completely full. I'm going to guess one is Worcestershire sauce or a one steak sauce or something. And the stick of butter is untouched. Untouched. I'm sure again, is, you know, just like properties, just setting it up or whatever, why are you going to use half full bottles?

But the implication here to me is also they're having this backyard barbecue for five people and Peggy set out all of the like all of the unopened things for like a huge party, but no one actually needs or wants any of them. So they're just sitting on the table. Is this, is this a moment where Peggy's like dishing out salad? She says she has a new like a new salad recipe or a new salad dressing. Dennis is like, why are you trying a new recipe? I guess it which is great.

It's great. That is 100 percent domestic. I'm trying to think of the best work, not miscommunication, not squabble, just just difference. There's like like a clear difference it like it accords with what we know of Dennis and Peggy's Relationship, which is like I don't know there is tension there, but it's not it's not like toxic. It's just like yeah Yeah, they are two very different people that somehow found each other and We haven't seen Peggy in a while so it was really it was really nice to have her in this episode I think we've both been big Peggy fans over the course of the show and this is the thing that occurred to me while we

were watching this well I well yeah we were both watching the scene just not together I was like oh that's right Peggy knows yeah cuz Peggy's been in these episodes yeah in the first one Paper. That was what it was about. Because they're neighbors. Because they had like a dinner where like, Jim and Rita and probably Rocky were there, and their neighbors were there, and I think Bruce Kirby was their neighbor, because he's one of my favorites. He's a Colombo guy too.

And then part of the reveal was that like, he was like, a client. The big confrontation, or whatever, the big reveal at the end. There's some gangsters or something, I don't remember, but he was like a client the big confrontation or whatever the big reveal at the end There's some gangsters or something. I don't remember but he's like in Rita's apartment and he's like trying to hide in the closet So like Jim won't see him and Dennis won't see him Yeah So Peggy has gone through a you're gonna invite this woman into our house to like she says in this episode like I like Rita Yeah She says in this episode, like, I like Rita. Yeah. In Paper Palace, she has this great moment where she realizes being that way. And it doesn't take long. It's not the arc of the episode.

It's just in that scene. She just yeah. In one scene, she's like, wait, hold on. Why am I treating another human being this way? Yeah, she's another human being. And I like her. And that's putting me on the side of our jerk neighbors who, like, don't want us to build the Apartment over our garage. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, it's like I don't want to be those people

So I need to do so like oh I should acknowledge the humanity of this other person at my dinner table So and that's that's great for this scene, right? Like yeah, just like yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Pat Finley plays Peggy She's a joy. Mm-hmm. I like there's never a Peggy episode Yeah, I mean there's some Dennis episodes that are like about Dennis's personal life and we see more of her But like there's never a like Peggy get I mean unless it's in the last episode Yeah, but there's never like a Peggy gets kidnapped or something episode, but her Sporadic appearances have been extremely consistent. Yeah, she's great. She's a great, always a delight to see. And in particular, like, she's

a great, like we were just talking about Dennis and Becky, like right now. The thing about their relationship, which I love about the TV is that she's, she's actually a pretty strong character. Like, it's not that Dennis Dennis is getting rolled over by Jim all the time, but like, he's just such a gruff, hard human being to see Peggy just not taking it just like, no, like, you can't be this end of the scene is Peggy and Dennis, just the two of them. Yeah. And we get from the preview montage. Dennis, she's in love with him. Yeah. It's none of our business. None of our business. She was your snitch. Jim met her through you.

You want to ruin my dinner? OK, you're my girl. Dennis, well, what are we going to do? You changed the question. The question was, what is Jim going to do? I don't know. We're talking about two adults. No strings on either one of them. Strings? She's a hooker. Louder, Peg. We wouldn't want to keep this just between the two of us.

Dennis, listen to me. I'm very fond of Rita. She's an open, generous human being. And I hate myself for saying this, but she's wrong for Jim. Now somebody is going to get very hurt unless this thing is stopped. You're right. I would, I would even go so far as to say Jim is not right for her. Like in this moment. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, Jim, we might even go so far to say is that Jim's not right for anyone. Something that we've learned.

Yeah, he's not like a jerk about any of it, but it's clear that he just can't keep a relationship and that's it. And that's, yeah, we see that over and over even like in the like one off like dates he has and whatever but also with Beth Yeah, their whole thing but also with the episodes with Megan the psychologist, you know again extending into the movies Even when they have this real connection Jim just isn't he's he's not capable of being in a relationship in the way that Still lets him lead the life he wants to lead. Yeah.

Like a long term committed relationship by definition pushes him off of where he wants to be as a person. I think the lifestyle he wants to have, how he wants to arrange his affairs, all that stuff. So I mean, it's he's barely able to keep a relationship with with Rocky. able to keep a relationship with with Rocky. There's a good kind of joke to end where Dennis says he's taking her home after dinner and the whole thing will cool out. He says this as he's bringing just a big like plastic gallon of water over to the grill and throwing all of the water onto the hot grill so this huge cloud of hot steam shoots up between them and the camera. Uh, it's good. 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 Epidia on the Mastodon instance dice.camp or on cohost. Where can our listeners find you, Nathan? All of my games, zines, podcasts, projects, and other work are at NDPdesign.com. You can also find me at NDP on co-host and over on Instagram at NDPdesign.games. And of course, you can always find this show, 200 a day, a day dot fireside dot FM. And now we return to the continuing adventures of Jimmy Rocco. So we fade from the steam to Jim and Rocky dropping Rita.

I think I was saying Jim and Rita rocking droppy, which is not. That's nothing. That's nothing. Jim and Rocky dropping Rita at her apartment again for the first time in two weeks she's been at Jim's this whole time in the backseat of the firebird Rocky's like I'll come with you and then he can't get out of the backseat by himself and she was like this is good I'll know right where to find you and just closes the door on him it's so good Jim's like why is Rocky so up in my business? He's been noticing this

over the course of the dinner and then now I think we're also like oh Rocky's like I don't like where this is going like I need to intervene. I need to scotch this whatever this is. I don't know if Rocky's in on what's the deal with Rita. I can't imagine that's why Rocky's trying to know. I think and I think this becomes clear in the next scene but he's like I see Rita fault like I mean Peggy says she's in love with him. Yeah. I think Rocky at some point says or at least implies she's moving in on him. Yeah.

And he thinks that Jim needs protection, basically. And he's the only one who's there to give it. But it's not about Rita's job or her background or why she got beat up. It's not about that. It's not a sense of danger. It's a sense of, I want to preserve Jim from what I think will be bad for Jim. And by extension, probably bad for Rita, but let's be real, Rocky cares more about Jim. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

On the way to the apartment building, Rita says, I wasn't truthful with you. I wasn't mugged. But she says it was a guy that I used to date. He knows where I live. I'm not sure if I want to come back to this apartment. So I guess before Rita commits to going home, she's going to go talk to the manager and see if this guy's been hanging around. Yeah, she goes to this apartment. So I guess before Rita commits to going home, she's going to go talk to the manager and see if this guy's been hanging around.

She goes to the manager. The manager is a woman in a neck brace. This is okay. I love the Rockford Files. We used to fixate on this early on in our podcasts, podcasting way back when. Everyone's a character. That's a thing that's just wonderful about the Rockford Files. The fact that this woman has a neck brace on and the fact that she found it in like a...

She says in the garage. In the garage. And she's just trying to improve her posture. It's so Rockford Files. You just meet people in the middle of weird things and you're like, yeah, no, this is a Cuban being. I have a question about that actually. Yeah, no. Okay.

We're supposed to think she got beat up too. I think so. Yeah. Rita asks her, have you seen Al around? And he says, no, I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. And she's like, okay. They have a little bit of small talk about like, hey, are you going to keep the apartment? And she's like, well, I'm paid up to the end of the month. I'll let you know. And then ask, what are you gonna keep the apartment? And she's like, well, I'm paid up through the end of the month, I'll let you know. And then asks, what's up with the neck brace?

And the manager says, oh, I found this in the garage. I thought it might help with my posture. And then closes the door. And then Rita gets a thoughtful look on her face and then comes out to Jim and says, he's been here. He's been watching the apartment. My read was that the manager was like, so lying about the neck brace

There's two ways this could go right the thing that makes it all of it suspicious to me is She provides some other detail. Mm-hmm. She says like he's been here. He's been watching the apartment He's been parked across the street or something like that, which we don't get from anything that we've just witnessed. Yeah. So the two ways this goes is one, she sees the neck brace and thinks she beat her up. Yeah. And she needs a neck brace. So, uh, but there's like no other. Yeah. She's not like beat up and she doesn't act scared. She doesn't really have any tells where she's like, no, I'll have it in here. Like, and I think absolutely when we see the neck brace, we're supposed to think here's somebody else who's been victimized by this man.

Uh, and then like the question is, is that just like a little joke on us because she isn't, she's just doing this. But then the other thing that makes the, so the other read I see here is that Rita is just afraid to go back to her apartment and is so she tells Jim tells Jim that she heard that this guy's been waiting outside. You know what that probably makes more sense. I mean, it could go I think it can go either way. Neither way works. Like, but that was I was like, oh, what's going on here? And then I was like, oh, I think she's just trying to not get not that

she's falling in love with Jim and wants to spend a lot of time with him, although that's how Rocky's going to interpret it, but that she feels safe around Jim. I'm going to go home. And then she like gets into the building and goes, I don't want to go home. Yeah, exactly. And it's 100% understandable. Like, like, I can't imagine going home. I think that makes sense. I like the idea more that it is a Rita is leveraging a Understandable fear to stay with Jim longer and it so happens that this woman is wearing a neck brace to improve her posture That feels like you said that's super rock fruity

Yeah, I kind of like that a little more than like yeah, cuz she's not like beat up and that was one thing I thought it was odd. I was like, I feel like there'd be another like tell if Al had like beat her up or something. Yeah. And there wasn't. So yeah. I do also want to point out, I think before this moment, Rocky shows up, comes up to Jim and is like, I got out. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Rita's in there. Oh, it's so funny. Rita comes out and the two of them are there.

Yeah. One of them says, well, let's go to Dennis. And she's like, no, I don't want to go to Dennis. I could get him into trouble. What with my record and everything. Rocky's like, well, there's room in my place. I'm like, OK, let's dash Rita. Rocky's place. Cut to Rocky storming around Jim's trailer in his red bathrobe going up and Adam rise and shine Yes, waking up Rita and Jim because and this did come up in the very first scene

We're like, let's go celebrate you getting your beautician Yeah, your beauty show kit Jim's friend fan and is taking out his fishing boat. We should go fishing that'll be how we celebrate so this is the fishing day and Rocky is rousing them up because Fane is leaving on the tide. Yeah. Rita's on the couch. Jim comes out of his bedroom area in his PJs like he has like top and bottom PJs. Right. Rocky is in his red robe.

So Rocky and Jim have been sharing a bed. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's a thing there that, yeah, like I don't know what Rita and Jim's sleeping arrangement has been for these past two weeks. Like that's not addressed in any way whatsoever. But it feels like at this point, Rocky's like, I'm going to make sure I know what their sleeping arrangement is. There's a gag where Rocky tells Rita, I'm going to make sure I know what they're sleeping. Right, right. Yeah.

There's a gag where Rocky tells Rita, don't use the shower. Yes. It doesn't work. And then turns to Jim and says, maybe we should ask LJ to fix it. Yes. Oh, I love this show. Jim is sore. He didn't want to get woken up, obviously. And also he didn't sleep sleep while you snore. Rita goes back to change and Jim turns to Rocky. Hey, you want to tell me what this is all about Rocky. You want to tell me what changed you from an average fairly easy going father into my constant companion.

You're all over me. You're like a Bernouche. I don't know what you're talking about. You know, you always know. Ever since we left Becker's last night. I felt that hot breath on my neck Maybe it's Rita Rita Rita was invited sleeping over when was the last time you did that? Huh the last time we went out on balance boat. Yes Yes, you did have a reasonable reason for not going you know for sleeping in my trailer Which I love that.

It feels like open sparring, right? Like, yeah, there's just something about it. Like for it to be sparring the way it's sparring, they both have to know that that Rocky has ulterior motives. He's afraid that Jim doesn't see that Rita is falling in love with him and is taking more and more of his space. And Jim's like, what are you talking about. We go outside where Rita even though she is already fully dressed she wants to go pick up a new top so it'll just take her a few minutes and then she'll meet them on the pier.

She takes the firebird to run this errand we have Jim or with Rocky saying vanity thy name is woman and put a lid on it Rocky. Yeah, this is an all time great Jim shirt. Yeah, we get we get some good fashion. So we got our late 70s early, you know, heading into the 80s. Just like the little like it's a color. It's a blue collared shirt, but it has these little kind of nautical details on the breast pockets where they're almost like little yeah eggs with the button in the middle and it's got the What are those called?

Epaulettes kind of epaulettes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's like Pockets on the upper shoulders like cigarette pockets. Yeah, they have flaps with the... I mean, it's vaguely nautical. It's a good look. I mean, I want that shirt. Yeah, it's a great shirt. It's not a Nehru jacket, but I think it's back in fashion. Rocky, of course, is wearing suspenders, his floppy hat, and a just like vertical stripe shirt, looking very rocky. Very good. Okay, let's see. Rita comes out of the store where she's picking up her shirt directly into Al and my note is, oh no.

He says, I think this is in the preview montage, you know how many people I've had to pump to find you and it turns out you've been shacking up with a lousy PI. Mm-hmm. He says that Lily split. She went home to mama. She's gone. Relief for us, I suppose. Yeah. But she was worth a lot of money. And where does that leave Al?

Rita is going to have to take her place. Rita says no, she's out. Al threatens her. There's a client at this address noon. Be there if you're not. What I did a few weeks ago is going gonna look like a month in the country like the Threat yeah, he leaves and she lets out like a sob As he leaves, you know

She is not in fact out as she had hoped We go to Jim and Rocky on the pier as Rita comes running up out of the firebird Apologizes for taking so long but she says she ran into an old friend who got her an interview at a salon at noon. He'll be really hot if she blows it. So they should just go out without her. But it is, in fact, already too late. The ship has sailed literally fan and was going out with the tide. Jim says, I've caught the best yellowtail right here or yellow stripe

or whatever he says. I think he says yellow stripe. Some sort of fish. Like a rockfish of some sort. A rockfish, yeah. Caught the best rockfish right here off this pier. Rescheduled interview. Let's have a nice afternoon. We're just trying to celebrate. The whole point here was to celebrate Rita.

And then she's like, no, I have to go. I can't blow this off. Your decision, Rita. Oh no, it's not. Well, I'll see you later. I won't be home late. Home? Sounds like she owns the place. What she means is not her decision.

It's a good moment of like, there's something where she's like, oh, my friend got me an interview. And there's a there's something where Jim's like, I understand, Rita. Yeah. Like, I don't think he is convinced that she's like, totally out of it, right? But yeah, he is concerned with her phrasing there. Jim is worried about Rita. Rocky says that he should be worried about her moving in on him.

And this is, we have some good dialogue here. I know you think that you and Rita are friends. We are, we're good friends. Well you may be feeling friendly, but her, now that's something else. year. Rather she said I'd make a rotten father. You're a grown man You got a right to make your own mistake. Well gee dad could I? There's another good rocky line in there That's like I eat the kind of pattern that goes button into his son's business Yeah, you are you absolutely are Jim is coming back from from wherever he's been doing stuff with Rocky He has dry cleaning. He's bringing it into the trailer. He sees that the firebird is coming back from from wherever he's been doing stuff with Rocky. He has dry cleaning.

He's bringing it into the trailer. He sees that the firebird is already back and Rita is already home. She takes the clothes out of his hand. You'll just put them in the wrong place. He asked, how was the appointment? She says it was OK and wants to quickly change the subject. She's making tuna surprise. Oh, okay.

What's the surprise? I would like to describe this meal. Tuna, presumably from a can. Cream of mushroom soup, presumably from a can. Peas, we know they're from a can because we see her scooping them out of the can. And potato chips. This is the 70s. This is the most 70s meal I could imagine.

When it's cooked, you don't taste nothing like it sounds. Yes, yes. This this is the most 70 sounding meal that I have probably eaten in my life. Right. You know, the internet if you go on the internet and you're like, please give me things from 70s cookbooks. And they're like jello molds with baloney inside of it, you know, that kind of stuff. Those, I remember those cookbooks, I remember seeing them, but I've never organically come across those kinds of meals. But this kind of thing. Absolutely.

It's funny because it's like, so a lot of Rita is like, uh, New York coded, right? Like kind of, and I think that's her natural, like her natural cadence. And, and, but like a lot of her mannerisms and delivery are like a little, I don't know, a little Brooklyn or something like that. But this is a Midwestern casserole. Oh yeah.

This is a casserole from like Wisconsin, if you will, that is being made in California. I was reflecting on how in my tuna days an ingredient that I would like to do, because I wouldn't really have relish on hand usually, because I just don't put on lots of things, but for this I would like cut up pickles, do like little chunks of cut up pickle, or if I didn't have pickles, maybe black olive, because it's a more little briny thing. I'm like, okay, like I could can see I would probably like something with peas. Like I could see that.

And I and like the potato chip thing, I've heard of that before because it adds crunch and salt, but it doesn't really like change the taste and stuff. But also, like tuna is not particularly like that. You know, the whole thing is you have to put flavor in there with something. So I was like, OK, I'm on board with this casserole to be perfectly honest. But you're right, especially the cream of mushroom soup. It's like that is a 70s recipe.

When I went vegan, because I'm a Midwestern boy, when I went vegan, I legitimately missed cream of mushroom soup. I've never had cream of mushroom soup as a soup, but as an ingredient in anything that I did have. And I just went through this time where I was like, I just wish I could have like, if somebody would just make a vegan cream of mushroom soup, I could make casseroles again or whatever.

Like, you know, like, and I'm sure I can find a vegan cream of mushroom soup now and I would never, not never, but like I would have to like have a moment where I was like, oh, yeah Let me go and try and recreate some new to noodle thing. Well, yeah, I mean these days I'm a Chickpea. Yeah, you know chickpea tuna. Mm-hmm comes out good to be perfectly honest pretty easy to do and easy to do It's basically the same Put a bunch of flavor in there. It's great. It's an excuse to eat mayonnaise

Yeah, can't eat mayonnaise off a spoon, but if you mix it with something, yeah, you're good to go Maybe I'll do cream of mushroom soup next time I do my my Chickpea tuna see how it goes. I did send a screenshot where we do see Rita taking the peas out of the can with her fingers. Yes. But also Jim with a signature wigs of whole milk out of the carton. Yeah, this is this is good. This is domestic bliss.

Honestly, this is the life we were promised. This is what they took away from us. Yeah, yeah. I do want to make a note about Rita's outfit, which is great. Rita said pretty amazing. That's kind of part of her character also. But like this episode, she's very much like, yeah, lots of scarves. And yeah.

And but the thing about this outfit in particular is that it feels 80s to me. Yeah, like early 80s. It's 79. So it's 79, baby. This aired November 30th, 79. So she's just a little ahead of the curve, maybe. But yeah, comparing this to like some like season one screenshots. Yeah, this is the 80s.

We're on the edge of tomorrow. Yeah. All that aside, Rita has the 80s. We're on the edge of tomorrow. Yeah all that aside Rita has a whole plan So she got back earlier than kind of she made it sound like she's gonna come back. She has a whole plan She's making this casserole. She turns on the oven it cooks they go for a walk on the beach Mm-hmm, but Jim's like sorry to break it to you. He doesn't say that but kind of is that dude I have a date and Rita's like, what? Yes. Rita has not conceived at this point that there would be anything in Jim's life not Rita related. And I think that makes sense. Rita's entire life for the last two weeks has

been Jim related, but it is not reciprocal. He asks if he can have his car back. He's like, can I use my car? They would use hers, his dates, but Jim always feels more comfortable driving his own, which yeah, that tracks. You never know when he has to like make a getaway. Right, right. It's no one Rita knows. She's an assistant curator at a museum and their date's like now. Like she's coming over like right now. He looks out the window, sees that she's arrived, and he's like, you're not even going to ask her in. And just the look on her face here is like, I feel like within her

are so many swirling emotions. Yes. Jim feels like he has to. So he does, in fact, invite her in. Her name is Linda. He introduces Rita as his house guest, which good save. Like, I don't know what else, what else would you say? You know, I hope you're hungry. I was thinking about going to this restaurant down on the beach.

Come on, you're not going to no restaurant. Yes, Rita, that's where we're going. See, I made this casserole. It's got all of Jimmy's favorite things in it. Peas. Well, that's plenty enough for the three of us. Oh, hey, you two want to be alone, right? No. Look, I can heat it up tomorrow. I never tried it before. I don't even know if it'll be good.

Well, Jim, since Rita went to all the trouble. What trouble? Rita basically guilts Jim's date into saying, well, she went to all this trouble, why don't we just sit here? Hell of a power play. Yes, I just looked up Linda. Yes. Like I did kind of recognize her, but I don't know where from. We have seen her before.

Corinne Camacho. At the time, I think that's our name at the time she had had a different, she's credited with her maiden name, I think. This is her final appearance. She was in Exit Prentiss Carr as Janet Carr. So I think, I don't remember exactly, is that the daughter? You don't remember. Yeah. Anyway, so we saw her there. I forget exactly how big that role was. She's in a deadly maze. She's the woman who Jim is hired to track down that the professor claims is his wife, I think. Oh, yes Yes, and is actually a hired. I think she's also a sex worker in that episode

But yeah, she's she was also hired to be part of the experiment. That's who she is. Yeah Yeah So we saw her in that I did a pretty pretty decent, like, a lot of screen time. And then she's credited as the same character in Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, and Dogs, and I just don't remember that. That was too long ago. Yeah, oh, the same character as this one.

Yes, you're right. And that was earlier in this season. Right, that's the Lauren Bacall two Yeah. So this this might be the same character, might be like a just somebody he's been dating since that. Oh, you know what? Is is she who he goes on the date with at the beginning where he meets the princess? That might be that in like the first scene.

Yeah, I think that might be it. Yeah. So I guess Jim has apparently been dating her for some time. I'm having all these adventures on the side and we will see her again after all of this is done if we watch Marlo. She's in that great so we have that to look forward to. He's great.

I mean, it's a minor role, right? It's pretty good. This is a very fun sequence here because's great. I mean, it's a minor role, right? It's pretty good. This is a very fun sequence here, because as it starts, you know how it's going to play out, right? Like you're like, OK, Rita's going to try and mess up this date, or get involved in this date as much as she possibly can. Yeah. And there's a moment where this woman is like, OK, all right, let's, you know, like,

let's do this. Let's find out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's, you know, like, let's do this. Let's find out. Let's do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is it's let's go. It kind of makes more sense that we that we would have seen her before at some point because of the patience that she has. Yes. This is not a first date. Yeah. If this was like the first date, it'd be kind of like, well, I'm clearly intruding and she would leave. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But she's kind of like, well, Jim has lots of interesting friends.

Let's see how this plays out. So I'm sorry, I may have missed it, but you talk about the line where Rita, where she's selling the casserole and saying it's got all of Jim's favorite things. Oh, I did. Jim's like, these like Jim confirmed P hater. Yeah. Well, Jim, I think in an effort to get some kind of romance out of this as, okay, well, that's going to take a you know, that's awesome cook. Let's go for a walk. And Rita's like, yeah, great idea and invites herself along. We go outside the trailer where Rocky has just pulled up an LJ's truck. Oh, it's so great. It's good. LJ right on the side. And we're going for walk on the beach want to tag along

you know sarcastically and then Rocky very Straightforwardly, oh if I wouldn't be in the way Jim you we have this great shot we have Jim and Linda walking hand in hand on the beach and the Cameras tracking with them and they're smiling and enjoying each other's company. It's a commercial. Like, it's a Brechtman commercial or something.

It's just very, yeah. Then the camera stops. They walk towards the side of the frame and from the other side of the frame come Rita and Rocky walking behind them both with just looks, just looks on their faces. They just kind of slide in like I don't know like they're because they're both escorting them but for different reasons right? Yes. It's so good. Rita slips up in front of them, turns around, starts walking backwards and talking to Linda. You have great hair. And I say that as a professional.

Yes. Tells her to stay out of the sun. No fishing, nothing like that. None of the things that Jim is going to want to want you to do with him. Yeah. And then says, I'm like, oh, yeah. And you wear it loose. That's a good choice for you. Or something like that.

Just some shade. Yeah. Oh, man. How to describe this. OK. So. Oh, it. Oh man how to describe this. Okay, so Sorry, this is good So after saying this comment about her hair Rita takes Jim's arm and like replaces Linda Linda drops back and starts walking with Rocky and starts making small talk Looks like it's gonna be a clear night clear enough to see some other woman making off with your date. Now, go on. It is the most unexpected Rocky moment, and it's so good. I burst out laughing.

Like, I'm watching this, you know, I'm taking notes. It was a literal laugh out loud. I was, I was chuckling, guffawing even. It was so good. It's so funny. It's so out of character for Rocky, and it's so indicative of how frustrated he is with this situation that he would just be yelling at her. Oh, I had to pause it and just laugh for a while.

It was so good. So she walks up, takes Jim's other arm, and then I take a screenshot where the camera kind of moves enough to where we have Jim in the middle, Rita's on one arm, Linda's on the other arm and then between Rita and Jim's head is just Rocky's glaring face. So angry. Linda says, I was just talking to your dad, looks like it's going to be really, you know, really nice night tonight.

And he's like, yeah, looks like Rocky's They're all by himself.'" And Rita just says, "'Yeah.'" And then the camera pans to look at Rocky as he just watches the three of them and then frowns and then turns around and leaves. So good. He's officially fourth wheeled out of this, apparently. Oh, that was so funny. I love a good rocky just letting it all hang out. Mm-hmm This this this whole scene from the casserole onward It's a joy. So yeah, we I mean we talked about how like that early

Uncomfortableness that comes from like watching this not watching the final and subfold seeing the aftermath of the violence on Rita's face and just everything like that. The character of Rita cannot be diminished by that. And this whole episode just feels like this great way of just, like it's not that the menace is gone, it'll come back. We'll get to that in a moment But it just does a great job of bringing out both break like specifically about the character But also just the nature of the episode is just got a lot of fun Laughing bits and things like to just bring the joy of Rita back into the world But we also see that it's just creating so much pressure for Jim

Yeah, part of it is he doesn't even realize I I think, like consciously, I suppose. And part of it is like, he doesn't know what to do with this situation. Rocky has told him what's up, and he's kind of like, well, if I give her enough hints, she'll back off. But she knowingly or subconsciously is not taking any hints. So Jim's going to have to escalate in a way that he probably finds, you know, uncomfortable in order to change things. Around now is when I was like, I wonder how much longer this episode is. Because like, I feel like we've had a real satisfying chunk of TV.

But obviously this whole thing with Al is still hanging over everything. I think we're about two thirds ish through maybe. I definitely had the feeling of like, this is just really bopped along like yeah There was a lot of tension and drama in the beginning and then once we come out of that It's just like all cylinders great stuff boom boom boom you get that feeling where you're like, huh? I thought angel was gonna be in this episode, right? Right? I Know there's still a lot of stuff left to do in this episode. I also feel like I've been watching them for a long time and I'm not complaining.

Like, how much more time is there? Well, I feel like that's probably about right to start having that feeling. Yes. Yes, exactly. We're in the trailer. Rita is angrily washing dishes and we see that Rocky is hanging out on the couch. The two chaperones. Earlier Jim was like, oh, after dinner, how about me and you will go get a cup of coffee. But privately. Yes. How long does it take to drink a cup of coffee? I could have made it here.

Yeah. She hears someone coming up the steps and her manner where she just goes, he's here. Yeah. Oh, like little heartbreak. Like, Oh, Rita. Yeah. And she opens the door, but in fact it is Al. It's the curse of the trailer door. He's furious. He's shouting, where is he?

Rocky gets up to be like, Hey, and he just shoves him back down. Rita starts yelling, don't hurt him. Don't hurt him. and he just shoves him back down. Rita starts yelling, don't hurt him, don't hurt him. He lashes out and shatters the vase of flowers that Rocky had had brought for for Rita and says, tell him next time it's his head. And then grabs Rita and pulls her down the steps and throws her into his car. So they called it.

They refer to it as a studs the whole time. Is that a Studebaker? Maybe. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, no, we're in trouble now. I'm gonna say yeah. We're gonna go back to the curse of we are not car guys. I mean, it is an older style convertible. They describe it a couple times. It's extremely nice. They keep calling it a Studs. I assume that means it's a Studebaker. Maybe that's something else. Not car guys. Mm-hmm. And I can't believe we made it through all of the Rockford files and still remain not car guys.

Like that. We know what a firebird looks like. Yeah, yeah, we do. We did. We did. So there's something about Al's character here, and I want to like kind of point this out is that he's a bully. Yeah.

That goes without saying or whatever. But like, he will beat Rita up, but he's not going to beat up Rocky. And I think that that says something about his character I think that's deliberately written that way. I don't think it's necessarily I mean to some extent if you're gonna beat up Rocky that better be the whole episode Right like that better be the point of the episode. You know that kind of thing. Yeah, like narrative wise It's a little distracting to also put Rocky in like serious danger But it helps that this character,

there's another scene a little later on that I think really explains this, but this guy believes he owns Rita. Yeah, specifically Rita. Specifically Rita. And so he feels like he can get away with manhandling her. All the other stuff is, to some extent, posturing. He's not beating up Rocky, because if he beats up Rocky, the cops get called on him.

Right. Sure. There's things he knows he can get away with or things he thinks he can get away with. And he's not he's not stepping outside that boundary. So I'm just laying the groundwork because there's there's, I think, kind of a great moment later on where this kind of gets paid off. They shoot out. later on where this kind of gets paid off. They shoot out. They pass Jim and Linda coming back from coffee. As Jim pulls into the trailer, Rocky comes running out.

He's waving a piece of driftwood. There had been a line earlier about Rita, like liking flowers in the place. And like, I picked up that driftwood, like she brought in this rain. So that's paying that off. Yeah, that's worth. But he's all out of breath. And by the time he gives his breath back to explain to Jim what happened, the steward Baker's gone.

The presumed steward Baker. And he's like, he took her. He took her. Rocky does say she stood up to him. She kept him from parting my hair with a tire iron. That's good. Good line. Jim's like, if you told me I could have called him, but now it's too late. But it's like, sorry, Rocky, sorry. He's so emotions are running high, but there's nothing they can do in this moment.

And we end with what do we do now? Earlier, I was talking about the going from lows to highs. And then here we go from high to low. L takes Rita back to her apartment and they're arguing. He's obviously much larger. you know, is very threatening. At some point, I think he raises his fist and she says, don't start on me or I'll use my great set of lungs. And he's like, hey, I wouldn't want to damage the merchandise.

So one thing that I think comes through is like when he beat her up, that was basically punishment slash to stop her from trying to get Lily to quit. Right so that was about Lily. Subsequently Lily quits because she got beat up. Yeah right now he's bringing Rita back as an active part of his whatever you know his his operation. The other thing we come to understand is that so he set her up with a John right earlier that day. That's why she didn't go on the boat. Yeah. But that client complained because she apparently said she's coming down with stomach flu. She backed down. So I'll say I'll take today as a mistake. But Rita has made up her mind. I'm not changing

my mind. You can put me in the hospital but I'm money from hairdressing. Like you make a lot of money as a hairdresser I'll split it with you. It's about the money and he's like that's not the business I'm in Yeah, so we get to Rita Begging Al to leave Jim alone. She she says please over and over There's a beat and he says does does that mean we have an understanding? And she walks away from the door so he can leave. Get a good night's rest. You have a big day tomorrow. And then we have, you know, the score comes back in as he leaves.

After he leaves, she turns off the lights. We have some like piano score under this. Super sad. She turns off the lights. She lies back on her bed. And then you mentioned earlier that there's like stuff. She has lots of like stuffed animals in her apartment. She reaches out and she grabs this giant teddy bear. Oh, yeah. Over to to like hug it for comfort. And it's so sad. It does kind of end with a harmonica sting, which I guess is to like,

don't don't worry. We're on for fun. But yeah, this was a real emotional moment. Which I guess is to like don't worry. Don't worry Rockford files But yeah, this was a real emotional moment I'll put my body on the line. I end up abused either way So right, you know, you could beat me up, but I'm out but the threat on Jim Yes, what she's not willing to bear. It's it's it's heartbreaking We do come out of that low point into an upbeat bit at the employment office where we see, so there's two men talking to each other, standing in line, two men are talking to each

other over someone's head. The someone is holding a newspaper in front of their face, and you can kind of see the blazer underneath and I was like, that angel! And that's like, Jim walks up, takes the newspaper out of his hand and it's a big it's angel. Big reveal. Nathan, I think you'll find that here it's Evelyn. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Here it is, in fact, Evelyn.

Angel. Everything about Angel is top form. Jim found him because his landlady, Angel's landlady, sent Jim here. The landlady sent Angel here because she's worried that he's not going to make rent. Right. So he's at his employment office. He complains about his brother-in-law, Aaron, who runs the newspaper. It's a little unclear whether Aaron won't let him sell ads on the side or he sold ads on the side and got caught and didn't like it. It's one one or the other.

But Jim needs some help and he'll pay Angel for it. 50 bucks an angel. All I need to do is get the end of the line and convince them I'm breathing. And I get one hundred and four seventy five. Show me. So this whole thing is happening in between these other these two guys who are like trying to have a conversation and keep getting interrupted. I'm not entirely sure, but I think these two guys are actors. Yeah, like because they're like there's some conversation

about what's probably a headshot. Yeah. But it's about like the person that took the picture or gossiping about people who got other roles or working for some studio or something. Yeah. It's all just setting up a joke. I thought I was like, oh, this is going to be important, but it's not. It's just that it's all setting up a joke where Jim says, hey, Angel, we want to switch with him because like they're trying to talk and, you know. Yeah. And he's just like, I've been standing in line.

Like, I'm not going to take one spot back. Yeah. What he wants from Angel is he wants to know if he knows this guy, Al. And he starts spouting off Al's that he knows. He's like, no, no, no. He doesn't know the last name, but he describes the car and Angel recognizes the car. This is a peek into Angel's life that, you know, I I feel blessed that we're about but it's also cursed.

It's both. It's a little both. It is a little of both. He's recognized the car and then he's like, oh, so who's out? He's like, oh, I don't know the driver, but he recognizes the car because he's seen it hanging around Silky's. Just like Silky's. Oh, you don't know Silky's. Oh, you'll love it here, I'll run over with you. There's a couple of things I need to pick up.

And so we cut to an establishing shot of Silky's Sex Boutique. Yeah, here we go. Where I guess Silky is the proprietor. He's been holding Angel's order. He's such a good customer. It is something in a paper bag. It costs $32.50. and he does not let Jim look. What are you a voyeur?

Yeah, it's so good. Silky specifically refers to Angel as a regular. Yes. Yeah, there's just something about this whole scene and how it plays out where Angel is 100% upfront. Everyone here is treating it as the most casual thing. Jim doesn't even look all that uncomfortable, but he does. I feel like Jim's like, wait a minute, what did I step into?

Yeah, yeah. Jim's getting a little peek into a part of Angel's life that I think he heretofore had not been aware of, probably by choice. And there's this whole thing where Angel is playing that Jim is looking to buy a car, because that's the con, that's the angle to find out who owns this car. And it turns out it's another regular or whatever. But although this proprietor has this great line. He's looking for a new set of wheels, which is one of the reasons I brought him over here. I was hoping to find that good looking studs.

You know, the one that parked out here had a for sale sign in the window. The brown pearl. I thought it was yours. Mine. My car leaves every half hour. Called the bus. Yeah. Finally, yeah, it comes around to since you and he are both such good customers, guess

it won't hurt nothing to say. Al Hluska. You can find him at this hotel. He's there at all hours. He works out of the lobby and Jim goes, he's a pimp. I think he sees the pieces falling into place. Yeah. Right.

But it's it's funny that it took Jim this long. Right. Yeah. Given the situation. But it was fun. It's fun. I mean, I think there's a lot of options like it could be an old like it could literally be an old boyfriend or a recent client or something. So we cut to speaking of fun. Oh, my God. So I feel like Angel really steps up in this episode.

I mean, I think we kind of need to like also there's only a couple of minutes left in this episode. Yeah, we don't have a lot of time for faffing about with Angel, but we allied all the threats and bribes and Angel. You got to do this or, you know, whatever. Like we just see him doing the thing, which is always great. Amazing. It's amazing. Al is indeed sitting in this hotel lobby.

Angel comes in. He puts on kind of an accent. He plays it all really, really straight. He's like he's in from Philly on business. He's like, I'm in ball bearings or something. And Al says, and you're looking to make some friends. It's like, well, just one friend would be. It's all I really, you know,

all I really need anything in mind. Angel says he's easy to please. And there's like a pause and as long as I'm taller and angels not particularly tall and and younger. He says they're grateful. Like there's something about them being grateful adds to it. Yeah. And then and then he's like, oh, and a redhead. Yeah, he's dialing in to read it. Right. It's great. It's great. There's a little bit of like Angel turns on the you know, he's he inhabits the role. But there's also a little bit of like he knows how these negotiations go.

Yeah. Yeah. I have just the one go to room to 223. And I have a note here where I'm like, Angel plays it great. But then I guess on the stairs, he kind of overplays his hand. I guess yeah. Yeah, he says something. I think he's trying to show I don't normally need this and also I'm a rich man, right? I think he's kind of trying to like play up for the sake of it. Yeah, it's in character I have plenty of money to spread around But he like pats his pocket and he's like I spread around couple of G's or something and then he walks up and it's like that as it turns out, I was like,

oh, he's really like nailing the character. And then as it turns out, that's actually probably what tips over the situation. As we find out, we cut to Rita looking out the window, indeed in room 223, she's sighing and then there's a knock. Let's say Angel in and Angel just goes, need a phone. Where's the phone? The phone, the phone. What, you wanna do some kind of phone thing?

And then Angel just pauses. No, no, no, no, not enough time. I in fact have the screenshot of Angel pausing. And he's like, no, no, no, not enough time. Perfect. It's Angel. Okay, Angel's outfit is amazing. Oh, yeah. I missed that. Angel's outfit is amazing. Oh, yeah Miss that yeah a very patterned shirt with a ascot Which angel pulls off quite often and like the captain's jacket with like the buttons

Yeah, and he's just looking off into the distance like good stuff Some kind of phone thing Yes, cuz he is in fact calling Jim, who's waiting in a phone booth. He tries to hold Jim up for another 50 bucks. Jim's like, no. So he tells Angel to take Rita to the back stairs. Angel tries. She's like, who are you?

What do you want? I'm not going anywhere with you. Yeah, smart. Very smart. Finally gets that this is for Jim. Jim who? Jim who? Jim Rockford.

And so Rita's like, oh, no. Yeah. Tell him I'm doing what I do. He's out of it. I don't want him anywhere near here. And that's when Al comes in with a gun. Yeah. Yeah. Angel holds up. I think it's like the last money that Jim had given him. I think 20 will cover like it was like what I've already got, you know, like. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll snatches it out of his I've already got, you know, like. Yeah, yeah. And I'll snatch it out of his hand.

He's like, OK, 25. And then but Al, the reason he's here, you said you had thousands and he hits Angel. We go to the hallway. Jim hears Angel yelling. Yeah, crying out. Yeah. Crying out. Yeah. He runs in.

Unfortunately, that puts him in front of Al, who then hits Jim in the back of the head and grabs Rita. This was this this brief scuffle was in the preview montage where I was like, Angel gets Jim jumped. It's not really Angel's fault, I guess. But yeah, he was just in the stitch. Yeah. But then what is it? Al grabs Rita. Al grabs Rita.

They go running. It starts pulling her out. Yeah. Rita's like, you could have killed them. And they're like at the, you know, at the door to the stairs. And he goes, yeah. And then he like pauses and goes, yeah. And then he turns around to go back.

This is the bit that I was like leaning at before. Like he that's not his instinct right he he has a different relationship to Rita than he does a different relationship to to probably all the women that he pimp for than he does with the rest of the world like he was willing to steal from Angel when he thought Angel had money but he he wasn't thinking, oh, I'm gonna kill these people and this is almost an afterthought, but at this point he's like, oh, okay, that's how I solved this problem. He's also might be, I might be reading into it. Earlier Rita had said he's coked up and like there's a little

bit of he's like really manic here where when he was like talking to angel in the downstairs, he was very chill. So it's like just like doing business. So like there's that possibility maybe he, you know, like coked up and then came up to to the angel. A little powdered courage. Right. As they call it. But I think there also might be an element of from her reaction, she knows that that's the guy like that's Robert. Yeah, right Yeah, she's more concerned about whether he's dead or not And you know, there's a moment where Al's like, oh well, I could just kill him now and that that means Rita is

Locked to me forever. I just get him out. Yeah, he's not a factor and she has no choice She has to keep doing doing what she's doing. This guy's already tried one jailbreak, right? Like he'll try it again. He goes back in the room. We have a shot from the respective of Jim on the ground where I mean, he's like unconscious. So we're not we don't see Jim, but we're from the cameras on the ground. And we see the Al level level the gun.

Rita yells no and jumps in front of him as he fires and she takes the bullet. Yes. Tumbles onto Jim. Angel springs up out of nowhere with a bright yellow wooden chair, shoves it into Al while screaming and then just runs down the hallway where all these bystanders have gathered because at this point there's been all this- There's gunshots....shots and everything. And then we cut to a dramatic shot of Rita lying on top of Jim. Blood has pooled in the back of her shirt there, and yeah.

And it is a big question mark moment. Yeah. I'd read the entry about this in the Ted Robertson book, where it says, like, Rita takes a bullet in the shoulder for Jim and I was like, okay But in the moment it is I think there's a question of like I I had a question like I was sitting there wondering Oh, oh cuz I mean it's season six. I know we're done Season yeah, I had forgotten that the last movies about Rita the other bit Yeah, so I was definitely like, oh, and because I was like that,

I was torn because I absolutely love Angel being the accidental hero at the end here. Right. Like, but because I'm worried about Rita, I can't. I didn't enjoy it in the moment. Like it was like a little bit later where I was like, yeah, OK. We have another match, I guess guess is like a match fade. So the camera focuses on oh, yeah I didn't read it as blood but that makes sense. I was like, oh, there's like a detail on the back for dress That's very dark. Yes, that makes sense. It would be blood from a gunshot wound

the camera focuses on that and then crossfades to that same silhouette, which is a seagull flying over the beach and then pans out so that we see it flying around and then comes down to see Peggy. Yes. And then people standing behind Peggy on the pier, fishing lines over, and we immediately know everything's going to be okay because Peggy says so is this all you do you just hold a fishing rod? Yeah.

Oh so good. We fairly quickly discover that it is Peggy, Dennis, Angel and Rocky standing on the pier. Oh yeah obviously this is a photo moment. I can see you bringing it up. Having a little bit of conversation. Look at Angel. Something from this angle is on the IMDB page, but Angel's red and blue plaid and little, what kind of hat would you even I don't know it's

like it I think it's a woven hat with like a darker woven straw hat with darker but it says it has something written around it Bali Bali maybe maybe or it's part of a word it's oh I'm looking at the IMDB it does look like it's Bali it's's like I guess suppose yeah fatigue thing It's it's like angel dressed down He's he's like this is what rocky looks like if we're gonna do a rocky thing I'm gonna look like right and then Rocky's just wearing a soft baseball hat He's fucked up. Yeah, it's perched all the way up on his head while Dennis is wearing a trucker cap

Mm-hmm, and Peggy is wearing what looks like a wool like little boater kind of thing. It's good. And her red sweater tied around her neck. It's so good. Every frame of painting over here in the Rockford files. Peggy says that I just can't get over what Rita did and Angel says, what about what I did?

Jimmy's gonna owe me for this one. Nobody would have had any trouble if you did what you're supposed to do. Is that a fact? Yeah, you tell a pimp you're carrying a couple thousand dollars. What'd you expect? Congratulations. Well, Rocky says that he has a friend who runs a salon down in Santa Monica, and she's going to hold the space for Rita whenever she's ready to go and take the job. So we go from there to Jim and Rita walking on the beach. I love Rita describing Rocky's friend as salt of the earth, just the kind of person Rocky would know. I love that. It's exactly, exactly correct. That is the kind of person you expect Rocky to know. Um, her name is Mildred. Uh, she uh, fills in for Jim that she knew Al for a long

time. He, he just kind of took over, let her go. But then when she talked Lily into splitting, took it out on her instead. Jim says that attempted murder is a heavy rap so she shouldn't have to worry about him anymore. And then we get into our emotional heart here at the end of our episode. Come on, after what happened last time. I was pretty goofy about you. I don't know if you noticed. Rita. I love you. You know that. What kind of dumb thing is that to say? Of course you love me. We're friends, right? I love you.

Hey, what do you think? I'm gonna take a slug on my shoulder for a perfect stranger? I love you. Hey, what do you think? I'm going to take a slug on my shoulder for a perfect stranger. Come on. Let's go fishing. So he like stops and turns around and like, yeah, make sure he's like looking your full in the face when he's like, I love you, you know that there's a beat where she's looking at him and she pulls her hand out of his hand and turns around before being like, yeah, of course. I think there's a... Yeah, yeah. She's like...

She wants it to be otherwise. Yeah. Or at least part of her still is like, this could have gone a different way, but she has to put up her walls for what they are and reset to, we have a friendship where our love is as friends Yeah, and we end on a let's go fishing Freeze frame of the two of them smiling end of episode. Yeah, I was it was a great episode made by great people Like I know it you know in the beginning of this of our episode I was like hey This is this this occupies this weird space where it isn't part of a deliberate slot that we've done.

It just happened to sift down to this point, but it's great. It's a great one for this. Obviously, the Rockford Files, a lot of them could have fallen into the spot. But there's not many episodes of the Rockford Files that I would say, uh, uh, but there are a couple and that could have happened and it didn't and that was great. Or there's some episodes that are very like, I mean, you know, all Rockfords are good Rockfords.

They're all good Rockfords. But the procedural case kind of Rockford where it's like him and maybe Dennis and then like, you know, some mobsters and some goons. No, we get the whole almost the whole group. There's no Beth. There's no coup. There's no Beth. Yeah. Season six. But that kind of obviously we would have had fun with that episode. Those a lot of those are great episodes.

But I think as do the people doing this show where we've gone through all but two episodes now of the series. The characters, like with most TV, like you love the characters, right? Yeah. And having the returning Rita Rita Moreno again is a gift that we get to enjoy at least one more time, which is fantastic. Yeah. We had a long span of no angel. And then the last couple of episodes, we've had like great good angel angel angel Fantastic. We got domestic Becker, which is again a rare joy. We got Peggy, which I wasn't even thinking about

So that was a surprise Like oh, yeah I love Peggy and then of course we get to see Rocky and do his his his overprotective dad thing So it's a very satisfying collection of characters to kind of be our last regular Episode to talk about and most of it like there's the action driven plot But most of it is this this other plot characters the character. Yeah. Yeah, so the character stuff Yeah, like I think a good contrast would be like Quickie Nirvana, which is an amazing episode. But to end the Rockford Files on it.

It's about someone who we only see that one time. Yeah, exactly. And has kind of this bummer ending, right? It's not like that's a bad ending, but it a not a sucker punch ending. But no, this is great Yeah, I'm super happy that we got this in this moment in time It feels yeah, it's a very satisfying Drawing them our regular season to a close. Yeah without being like super Specific. Yeah, I had a good time

I was a little trepidatious because I guess the premise like Rita gets beat up and then falls in love with Jim. Yeah, like that stuff feels like it really could have gone somewhere that I wouldn't have appreciated. But, you know, why need a Bartlett is a master. And the story makes total sense. The actors all know their characters, obviously, and there's a couple of those like kind of weird notes that I think are a combination of time that has passed in

my personal, you know, read of how it's put on the screen. But those do not spoil the episode at all. They're just kind of like little speed bumps. And like that also is of a piece with a lot of our of the episodes where there's like, oh, there's a little narrative thing here that doesn't really make sense. But whatever or like this character doesn't really like this actor doesn't really do a great job with this character.

But, you know, the rest of the episode is fine. Like it's TV. There's a lot of episodes that are all going to be, you know, 100 percent. But they're all going to be like, you know, 98 percent. I'll take it. Yeah, I think we had perhaps a little more. We ended up with a little more to say about this one than I anticipated. So we're coming in, clocking in on the long end with this, but I think there's a little bit also of trying to take a little, take a little time with our last episode. We're savoring this stuff.

Yeah. Well then. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think we'll probably save, like, reflections and stuff for our final series here. But, yeah, we are marking a transition out of the 70s show. I think we talked about this at the very beginning. But if you skip all the beginning stuff and I wouldn't blame you.

Yeah, we're going to be doing the last TV movie, which will be doing our final view of Rita. So we'll see how that pairs with this, I think. Yeah, that'll be very interesting. Because I think like with with the one with Megan, it was like an interesting pair to see what decisions they made for the movie that were like, we don't need to care about continuity. So we'll see how that bears out.

So yeah, the movie, we will probably do our draft episode after that. So we'll be talking about elements of the show and drafting two episodes that never were out of our favorite elements from the Rockford Files. Be a little palette cleanser before we get into looking at the pilot backlash of the Hunter for the first time, which will be very interesting because there's been, there were some casting changes after it, but there's some stuff in it that like has continuity with stuff in the first season. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see how that all went down.

And then we'll watch the Kirkhof case and then we'll watch Deadlock and Parma. And that will be it. That will. Yes. And then who knows? Who knows? But yeah, that's that's the schedule. We have we have watched almost all of the Rockford Files. Yeah, together we did it. We did it. All right.

Well, we'll sit with that for a little bit. But for now, I still can say we will be back next time with the last TV movie of the Rockford Files. We're playing a game. We're going to be in there. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,