Two Hundred A Day - Episode 85: Joey Blue Eyes

Episode Date: June 13, 2021

Nathan and Eppy cover the penultimate episode (for us) of Season 2, Ep17 Joey Blue Eyes. Beth has an ex-con friend who's running into trouble with their straight restaurant business, and despite initial friction, Jim finally agrees to help out. Between loan sharks, Beth, Angel, quick cons and sparkling dialogue, this episode just exudes Rockfordishness. It's also the first appearance of James Luisi on the show, as villain Burt Stryker, and he's just as entertaining as his later recurring role as Lt. Chapman. This is a good one, folks! Nathan mentions this obituary (https://www.independent.com/obits/2014/04/01/walter-charles-dallenbach/) of the writer of this episode, Walter Dallenbach. 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 (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who 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) * Matthew Lee, Kip Holley, Dael Norwood, Dave P, Dale Church and Dave Otterson! 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 * Spoileralerts.org (http://spoileralerts.org) for the adding machine audio clip * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

Sorry, Jim. This is for Rocky. Hey, Rock, Stan, got that redhead in his sister, 1030 Macy's Grill. Welcome to 200 A Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective, the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Palletta. And I'm Epidaeus Ravishaw. And we continue our quest to finish season two with season two, episode 17, Joey Blue Eyes. This is our Xenos quest. Every time we get closer to the end of season two, there's another episode.

Yes, this is a correction to the end of our last episode where I said we have one more episode to do. to the end of our last episode where I said we have one more episode to do, when we did our behind-the-scenes rundown of the remaining episodes in Season 2, because of a similarity in title, I had missed that we had not yet done

Episode 7, The Real Easy Red Dog, as in my mind, the episode that we did, Tall Woman in Red Wagon, occupied that mental slot. So, this now is our second to last episode to do of season two which we'll be finishing in our next episode when we finally take on the real easy red dog thus finishing season two of the rockford files yay we regret the error yeah for everyone who i'm sure was was yelling at their

yelling at their podcast device about how how wrong we were so i i envisioned this person having like hash marks on the wall behind them as they're like one for each season as its own line of hash marks and they're like you didn't you didn't as they point to the wall. So, yes. Now that we have explored one of our many, many failings, we can move on to talk about this episode, which is a pretty good one. This one really stood out to me, actually. Yeah, this was a lot of fun. For a couple of reasons, which we'll get into. Yes, as we said, Joey Blue uh in the back half of season two directed by lawrence doney i feel like i'll have to really track down some interesting things to say about

about him other than he directed a lot of episodes of the rockford files whenever we get through the rest of his but this one in particular had some really i i felt like some of the visual staging was very like i'm just gonna have fun with this one in this episode um in a couple scenes in particular which is always nice i don't know how much the director gets uh credit for this but there there were also a lot of good glances and looks going on in this particularly between jim and bet. But like, it was a good episode for, it was a bad episode for looking down at your notes, is what I'm saying. Yeah.

There's also a lot of good status reflected by blocking in this one as well. So a lot of our highlights. Plus, as you say, Beth and Angel. Oh, Angel, yes. Yeah, which I had completely forgotten about that he was in this episode. So always a pleasure. But yeah, speaking of who's in this episode, the writer for this one is Walter Dahlenbach.

I assume that is how you pronounce the last name. So he wrote two Rockford Files scripts. This is the first. We have not done the other one he did yet. And he has a number of credits of TV of the era and some TV movies, etc. on the old IMDb. stuff about him was from unfortunately his obituary uh he passed away in february of 2014 um but uh he sounds like a really interesting guy so i'm not gonna i'll put a link in the show notes um this is written in a very uh kind of light-hearted style and um goes through many specific things that he did before Before he got into screenwriting, he was apparently an economics professor for a while,

then was in public relations, which led to being the Southern California press secretary for Eugene McCarthy's 68 presidential campaign. All right, yeah. I'm actually, at this point surprised he hasn't written more Rockford Files episodes. All of this sounds like good grist for the mill. Yeah, this is just picking up

kind of in the middle of this long exploration of various interesting sounding career moves. He did another press secretary gig for a congressional campaign. And then the magical wonder of writing for movies and television was getting more and more vivid. And in a clever and succinct move, he accepted an offer at Paragon Films in Hollywood,

where from 1970 to 1973, he would condense and write the movie trailers for over 30 feature motion pictures. Wow. And I feel like that must be an interesting gig. Actually, yeah, that would be a very fun gig, actually. Well, I guess it depends. Like, that's a fun thing to do for movies that you enjoy.

It's probably an interesting challenge to tackle, even if you don't enjoy it. What years? So that was 70 to 73. Oh, all right i guess for paragon films which i don't know where paragon fits in the yeah in the movie landscape of the early 70s but this is so these are the film trailers that uh like there's eras of film trailers like currently we're in the uh specific scenes that state the the the danger that's going to be in the movie and then like some remake or just an old nostalgic tune and then like slowed down and put in a minor key yeah yeah uh and then the blombs but like we used to have the in the

world but like the 70s was it was really interesting because those were the ones that had like this narrator come over and just tell you everything. I wish I could just do it. I'm not I'm not a mimic, so I can't do them all. But like look up some 70s trailers because they are they're interesting in how they feel over explaining to us now i think or they they're like they make a case it's as if they're like this narrator is actually trying to tell you like all trailers are making a case for it but like rather than it not like a uh it doesn't feel so much like an ad and so more like a pitch to the audience sure sure um so yeah and then in 73 uh he sold a script for adam 12 and then was on his way into uh network television so there's a

list of credits etc etc um and then starting in the 90s, and for 20 years, he taught screenwriting at Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. And I found a couple other little things where people mentioned how great it was to get into his screenwriting course. Like, that was apparently a thing. I don't know how accurate that is. This is from a couple things I found on someone's blog on the internet. But yeah, so just the credits on IMDb is kind of like, oh, he did some shows,

but based on this obituary it sounds like he led a full and interesting life and then ended up influencing perhaps a number of screenwriters with his craft. And based solely on this episode, I would say probably a good guy to get some tips from.

I feel like there's some good chops on display in this episode. I would definitely sit through a semester from the person that made this, that wrote this. Exactly what you said. The reason people tune into our show is to hear all of our disagreement and everything that comes out of our arguing. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I'll try to remember to put this link

in the show notes, but I like to feel like I've learned something, and I felt like I learned something. Yeah, the more you know. But yeah, that all said uh i feel like perhaps we learn a couple fun things from our preview montage yeah what i got out of this montage well first of all angel anytime i see angel i'm like yeah and then the phrase con to con and i in the montage misinterpret that uh in a way that did preview that we were going to have a con running but he was talking about convict to convict uh lots of language in the opening

montage that made it sound like people were going to get whacked yeah like there was going to be a lot of murder uh and then this great quote from rockford that it's I'm a spur of the moment kind of guy. I don't wait in alleys. Of course, the big feature here is that we're going to be seeing the first appearance of James Luisi on the show. Yes, but not as Lieutenant Chapman. His first role here is as. is as um so i assumed again based on my half you know my vague memory of this episode and on the preview montage i was like oh he's like the main mob guy yeah actually the montage is a little it gives you a little head fake i think yeah yeah because i was thinking the same thing there's

definitely having watched the montage and then watched the episode, which I didn't remember that much of, I was expecting one thing, got another. It's perfect. That's not a complaint at all. I was pleasantly surprised by all the different things that were happening. And there was, I just had this thing, I think, coming out of the montage where I didn't know who or what. Like, by the end uh because he he's not the mob burt striker is actually a just a ruthless businessman yeah he's just i mean just yeah he's in some kind of vaguely defined business it's like a lawyer or something

and there's a big deal that he has some unsavory means to make happen, but it's not nothing. It has nothing to do with organized crime. Right. I think that's it. Like every moment of that preview montage made me think that everyone was the mob. Right. Right.

Joey blue eyes himself does not. He, he puts off a Rockford files mob vibe. Well, cause, and he's X mob. Yeah, he's X mob,

but it turns out like the only hoodlums are, they are organized crime, but they're just loan sharks. Anyways, so it was kind of interesting to watch it all kind of fall into a pattern that I didn't expect, right? But a very Rockford Files crime. Yes. This is an incredibly Rockford Files crime. This episode exudes Rockfordishness.

Yes, it does. As soon as I finished it, I was like, this might be a, I mean, not to spoil my takeaway, but like this might be a like top episode list entry. Yeah. Also, before we get into all of it, just to put it contextually this aired after uh portrait of elizabeth it was the next episode which actually kind of feels about right based on what we see of jim and beth their whole thing yes in this episode that that's what i was going to say like this is a very good jim and beth and their thing episode i just i'm just trying to envision having watched portrait of elizabeth and then came back and watched this episode i just i'm just trying to envision having watched portrait of elizabeth

and then came back and watched this episode and just the high you would be on in the 70s thinking i have found the greatest television well it's just they're both really good and they're both like yeah absolutely uh before we get into it, just one content, uh, note, content warning. The episode does start with some off camera, I guess it's not domestic abuse, but it is, uh, fairly, fairly brutally staged beating up of a woman. Yeah. Um, it is quick and she's okay, but yeah, we will, you know, talk about it a little bit.

And then again, before we get into it, I do want to call out another good phone call gag. Oh, specifically along the lines of continuing to explore the secret life of Rocky. Yes, because this would also be in the same season, but later from Gear Jammers. gear jammers right and before where's houston which we just talked about and also you know we talked about the secret life of rocky in that episode a little bit where he seems to have this whole life that jim has no awareness of and in this case it is a buddy of his setting him up on a double date apparently yes uh unfortunately no rocky in this episode but i appreciate the nod to the his secret his secret life right. So all of that said, it's time to get into it. Hello, listeners. This is a quick break before we get into the episode

to say thank you to our patrons over at patreon.com slash 200 a day. This show is free to all, but the financial support from patrons really means a lot to us. And we extend a special thanks to our gumshoes. This time, we say thank you to Chuck from WhatYou'reEating.com, Paul Townend, who also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops Serial Killers of Color at FruitLoopsPod.com,

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Help out the show by leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts, tell a friend who you think would like it, and check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. We do start our episode at night, and we have two goons, clearly goons, getting out of a car. They get out. You only see them in profile at first,

but I was like, that's a recurring Rockford goon. Right. The guy who's chewing gum as his character trait. We see him with some kind of candy at every point. We learn fairly soon that his name is, he goes by Sweet Tooth. Yes. And he's played by an actor named Eddie Fontaine, who has been in other episodes we've done. Honestly, I have to tell you, they must have named him Sweet Tooth.

That must have been a script change, because I bet you his character's name was Eddie Fontaine. I love how also he has no headshot on imdb um yes which is very funny to me because he has a very distinctive 70s goon face i was just looking at his imdb he's actually he was one of the uh guerrilla sergeants in uh the planet of the apes television series um yeah he's you would recognize him he's been a he's been a featured like a featured mob guy in other episodes we've done yeah yeah uh so anyway there's sweet tooth who's chewing gum and then there's a sideburns goon who i don't know if we ever get his name my my notes for this was just like this is a goon approach just the way they walk up to the house, you're just like, yeah,

they're very physically threatening on camera in kind of a, not a subtle way, but just like, it's a well done way. There's a knock on the door. A woman kind of cracks the door open. They're asking for Joey. And then as soon as the door is unlatched, they bust into the house. We have some banter back and forth.

So these guys are looking for Joey. This woman is basically being like, you're making a big mistake. You know that this isn't going to go well for you. And including the line, you don't have to find him. He'll find you yeah and then sweet tooth explodes into violence throws a vase to break this like backdrop that's stuck on the wall and then he and the woman struggle into another room and then we hear the fairly punched up sounds of uh of her getting getting getting smacked around sweet tooth also he's got this smile

that uh is just it just gives you the willies like he's he's clearly a goon who enjoys his work in a way that yeah maybe slightly deranged um so we go directly from that very chaotic and uh kind of scary scene to jim and beth dressed up going to dinner yes so a nice abrupt tonal shift to bring us to our to our uh our heroes here um so they're going to this restaurant which oh it just happens to turn out that it is owned by a friend a friend of beth he goes by joey blue eyes and he needs some help. Jim doesn't like the sound of this from the jump. He's a reformed hood like Jim, which is why she thinks that he can maybe be of service. But Jim doesn't want to talk to, quote, a charity case.

Right. We're coming into a situation where Jim just wants to have dinner with Beth. Yes. And now that he's learning that she's like oh I have ulterior motives for having dinner with you at this specific place his knee jerk reaction is to just deny

just to not want anything to do with says that he's a selfish guy that way and then we have a nice cut here where she's like let me tell you his problem and then we cut away from the exposition which we'll get later yeah uh it's this is a great jim beth back and forth and you could just you just feel the the the wind come out of jim's sails like like oh we're gonna have a lovely dinner that it's just

oh yeah all right yeah this is yeah this is This is cover for getting something out of me. Yeah. So we do cut to them in their booth. This is clearly after they've had dinner. So we don't get to see what they had. I'd like to imagine that Jim probably got a, oh God, what was his thing? Steak? Steak and fries? I mean, I feel like he said something. He says they had a nice meal, I think. Right, yeah, that's it. But they are joined by Joey Blue Eyes, and he is a character.

Yes, he is. Yeah, so Michael Ansara, he's been in a lot of things. The Rambo television show, which I didn't know there was. Or maybe there was a Rambo cartoon at some point, maybe. Uh, but he was, I believe in Buck Rogers.

He was a villain in Buck Rogers named Cain. I remember Cain only vaguely, but like the face is so memorable. Anyways, none of this is interesting radio. Uh, he has one of those IMDBs that just puts him in everything. Specifically for our crossover interests, he was in both Star Trek, the original series,

and also DS9 and an episode of Voyager. And he plays a Klingon in all of them. I would have to do the legwork to see whether this is supposed to be the same character, but he plays a character named Kang in multiple series. Yes. Anyhow. He voiced a wizard on

Thundar the Barbarian, which is important. Right. So clearly, yeah, definitely hits a Venn diagram of all of our interests. Yes. But no, he's great here. This is a big, a big character. Yes, he's a certain type of mafia.

Like he's wearing a, what does he wear? He's just fancy. And sunglasses indoors. And he just looks like he should have a mic in his hand and be like a lounge singer but also he looks like he could break your legs at any moment and he comes on very aggressively um he knows beth and beth has clearly told joey that oh i'm gonna bring my friend jim he can help you out yes when joey's like oh you're gonna help me out and jim jim jim says that he's semi retired right now um and that he isn't interested in corporate problems uh because the explanation

that he got in the cut was that there's some kind of uh contractual issue that right that joey's having with his restaurant i feel like this is a mixture of jim like throwing some resistance to beth just because she sprung this on him right right but also that that self-preservation thing that jim has where he's like this isn't what it seems because beth probably hasn't you know laid out the whole business with loan sharks and everything else so jim knows that this is going to be nasty i think you get the sense that as soon as he sees Joey, he's like, yeah,

I don't want to deal with this guy. And I think, I believe he in fact says that multiple times. Like, I just don't like him. Yeah. And I don't have to work for anyone. I don't want to.

Right. They have great tough guy banter back and forth. What Beth tells me, you've got heavy corporate problems, maybe even a nice juicy fraud case. Well, to tell you the truth, con to con, I'd just be lost in a deal like that. I don't even balance my checkbook too well. So I think we ought to get our check and just mosey right along.

This chicken-hearted creep is the honest John you said could help me? Well, now, be nice, Joey, just because I don't want to get messed up. Drift, mister. Get out of my joint. Now, wait a minute. You heard me. Well want to get messed up. Drift, mister. Get out of my joint. Now wait a minute. You heard me. Well, I'd like it better if you said please. You're going to rot waiting for that. This whole escalation is cut short by a phone call for Joey from the hospital.

And so he goes to answer it. And this is where he tells Jim to wait in the alley. And we get the quote from the preview montage of... I'm a spur of the moment guy i don't wait alleys i don't wait in alleys outside the restaurant beth is clearly mad at jim says that uh she'll take a taxi she doesn't want him to take her home he says that's ridiculous um but uh specifically you know says like i just don't like the looks of the guy he's 250 pounds of gristle wrapped up like fred astaire i had that written in my nose i'm like i tried to describe this guy

five minutes earlier when i could have just waited for jim to do it because jim nailed it so beth doesn't like that jim was rude and jim is like well he was rude right she tells jim to tell joey that he's sorry and then gives him this look and he reluctantly says okay fine i will but then as he goes back turns to go back in joey comes running out of the restaurant shoves his way past jim and jumps into his own car which then roars out of the parking lot first of all there's wonderful lingering on Beth giving Jim the puppy dog eyes. Like you could hear Jim's heart melting. But then the other bit was this lingering on the cars leaving that made me think that Jim was going to chase after him.

Yeah. I was like, wait, what's going to happen? But you did not. No. him yeah i was like wait what's gonna happen but you did not no um we have our credits over some night shots of la and then uh we come back to jim and beth and voice over before going back into the firebird jim is explaining that uh he and joey they're not going to be best buddies like yeah you can't expect that um beth is still mad. Why don't you just come right out and say you don't care about anybody but yourself? I don't care about anybody but myself. That's a rotten thing to say.

We finish our transition through the credits with Jim stopping the car by the side of the road. He's like, OK, fine. You're mad. I'm mad. Let's talk this out. Yeah. of the road he's like okay fine you're mad i'm mad let's talk this out yeah so now we get uh some of the uh exposition of our background here uh joey was a mob enforcer he went to jail he got out of jail and then beth says that she's never seen anyone try to go straight as hard as he has

yeah he got into the restaurant business. His restaurant's doing really well. He wants to expand. So he brings in this partner, this guy named Striker, and Joey's lawyer named Larry Mitchell sets up the contracts. But then it turns out that Larry Mitchell was being paid on the DL by Striker to make these contracts unfavorable to Joey. to make these contracts unfavorable to Joey. So now the situation is Joey has 49% of the restaurant and full ownership of this supply company

that are also part of this franchise. And there's a deal for him to buy out his partner at a fixed price, and that's coming up in two days. But it turns out that the other companies are all in debt to the restaurant because it's all been kind of arranged this way, kind of behind his back. So he can't just sell those companies because the restaurant that he does not currently have the majority interest in will foreclose, wants to foreclose on them, which keeps him from raising any capital. Yes.

Which means he can't raise the capital to buy out the business. yes which means he can't raise the capital to buy out the business so i think they sum it up with you know he has to buy it back with money that he is being that he's been cheated out of by his by his partners this is a delightfully rockford files plot and it's all legal right that's that's right yeah that's but yeah he's in a lot of trouble he's about to lose his dream and that's like all right if you won't talk to him talk to his his daughter. Her name's Paulette. She's a friend of mine from school. And Tim's like, oh, okay, fine. You want to help out Paulette. Well,

in that case, I'm happy to talk to you. Yeah. He finds the little relief valve that allows him to justify doing what he knows is the right thing, right? And again, the looks that he gets from Beth and this

throughout the episode there's lots of great looks even when they're not the center of what's happening between the two of them it's good it's worth watching we then go to our first appearance of Burt Stryker aka

Lieutenant Chapman in a previous life. I think we could headcanon part of, part of his progress if we really wanted to, but we'll talk about that later. So he's, he's on the phone with this lawyer, Mitchell. The takeaway here is that,

you know, they're really close to having this deal go through. They couldn't have done it without Mitchellitchell's you know underhandedness and he wants another thousand dollars a month added to his retainer striker says uh i think he just hangs up on him yeah and then says to himself i'll take care of you larry you can depend on it he makes a good villain both of us are primed not to like him anyways but right right uh he does that that that speaking menacingly to himself well now that doesn't become a thing ever again in this episode no i was just checking we don't actually see mitchell again this and he was actually lit with backlight we never really saw his face yeah yeah i think this is kind of part of the head fake almost of the preview montage.

Yeah. Striker sounds like, again, I'm primed to think. And then this adds to that thought that this is like a mob thing. Yeah. But I think this is mostly just to establish there's a lot of money involved and that Striker is not a nice guy. Yeah, exactly. It might also exist to just allow us to not worry about the lawyer part of the plan anymore oh that's true yeah like the lawyer this lawyer that did all this dirty work we don't need to worry about him he's dead it doesn't say that he's dead but like like he's not an angle that

rockford can follow up on or or anything like that he's essentially written out of the plot so we don't need to worry about him between this and also, uh, something that, that Beth says later, um, about his company. So,

Oh, right. Yeah. So that's it. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that, but yeah, because there is like,

this story could potentially have another stakeholder and another direction. And then this is just like, you know what? We set it up. This guy was involved with the setup and then we don't need to worry about him anymore. We have enough going on. Joey's driving around questioning people on the street he wants to talk to sweet tooth and then he uh evidently gets the information he's looking for um he he echoes the

original uh shot where he knocks on the door and then rushes it in when they kind of open it a crack um and sure enough sweet tooth and his buddy are just kind of hanging out around a card table in a generic apartment like like uh loan sharks do like loan sharks do uh joey takes them both down immediately it's pretty great actually it's a meaty fight. There's meaty thunks. Yeah. Which ends up with him pulling a gun on Sweet Tooth. Protesting is like, this is all a mistake.

It wasn't me. It was an accident. And Joey says, so is this. And then just pistol whips him across the face. He is obviously incensed because the woman they beat up was his daughter, Paulette, as I believe we all were putting together, uh,

over the last couple of scenes. And I think that line, like, I don't remember the exact line. That was one of the ones I didn't write down. There's so many to write down though. Um, was it was like,

you know, you come from me, you're in trouble, but you've come from my daughter, you're dead, whatever, like obviously written trouble. But you've come for my daughter, you're dead. Right. Whatever. Obviously written better. But I think that was also in the opening montage.

I was already aware that she was his daughter from the get-go. Yeah. Like, I knew that he was heading to the hospital for her. I had made that assumption. Yes. And then we go to the hospital because now we follow beth and jim as they are at paulette's bedside um she is all bruised up but she says she's okay and that she was telling joey what happened and then when she said the name sweet tooth he stormed off but she doesn't

know who that is they uh explain a little bit more about the the contractual issues the point comes up of well if mitchell was your lawyer but he also set up but he's also on striker's payroll isn't that a conflict of interest and says that she brought that up to him but it turns out that his contract he's getting paid 36 000 a year by striker's company but it's his company has the contract not him personally yeah so she can't take him to the to the california bar over it where otherwise she could if if it was a personal deal i guess um so this is where jim says that uh they need a cpa not a pi this leads into uh one of beth's biggest power plays I've ever seen her do, where she's like, she tells Paulette,

Jim doesn't want to help Paulette. Paulette's like, why? He doesn't like your father. It's so good. Wow. Yeah, yeah. They established the timeline here too. So they're like, even though this is all built on contracts

and maybe the contracts could be invalidated by the courts or whatever, the amount of time that would take. Oh, yeah, yeah. They can't do it in the next two days, and that's the deadline for this option. So if he doesn't do the option in the next two days, the option goes away, etc., etc. So even if legally they can fix it, they can't fix it in time. Yeah, yeah.

I think Paulette says something like, so what are you going to do? And this is where oh my god yeah it is one of the strongest plays it is brutal it's almost as brutal as when Joey beat down Sweet Tooth well I was trying to remember I was like someone did this to Jim recently in an episode we did recently I was trying to remember it's it's it is even more brutal than when richie brockleman is telling rocky that jim doesn't have time to help him yes and he'll have to figure it out on his own and jim's just in the background being like uh that was harsh that was a power move on richie's part clearly he learned from watching beth yeah. Oh my god. I was wincing.

Do you have any ideas, Mr. Rockford? Jim doesn't want to help Paulette. Why? He doesn't like your father. Oh, Beth. I didn't say that. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was it. I'm sorry. That is exactly

what you said to me. And she is in the right she is not lying everything she says is true it is it is wonderful this is one of the best bits about beth's character is that like you you got these moments where she feels like like she's all sweet and delicate and stuff like that. But like she's like obviously a killer lawyer. Like that's part of why. Right. Usually we see this when something legal is on the line and she's just. In fact, later on in this episode, there's a moment where she just lays out the law and is like, I will, you know.

And this was just that same attitude, just nailing Jim. And it's just so, so good. Jim put himself in that position. Yeah, yeah. I mean, clearly we're waiting for whatever is going to get Jim to be like, okay, fine, I'll help. Right? Like, that's the show. But this particular moment is, yeah, we're on Beth's side here, I would say.

This is worthy of reaction gifs yes yeah oh so good and then this is uh given extra importance by a phone call to paulette that she answers and um looks like they're gonna have to come up with something because joey is back in jail uh watch jail. Watch Jim when this news is revealed. Because he's been doing a lot of losing in this scene. And when he hears that Joey's in jail, that's a little bit of a win for him. He has a nice grin on his face. Not a grin.

It's a little smile where he's like, OK, but I was right there. Yeah, that's kind of the thing is he's not wrong about Joey. Joey is a tough person to like. Right. Though he gets more charming over the course of the show of the, of this episode, which again is a testament to Michael and Sarah. All right.

So we have Beth and Jim with Joey in a jail holding cell. So there's a harmonica like riff that's in the transition and then it just extends into the scene and i noted it i'm like oh there's a harmonica score and then i don't know if you saw this but in the shot there's two cells like in the background like across the little hallway this one of the guys is just playing the harmonica it's it's diegetic it's in the sea so this has that going for it yeah so i already appreciate it and uh i also want to talk about the staging so the the content of the scene is this um joey clearly he was arrested after beating up sweet tooth um how is he supposed to keep his cool after they beat up on Paulette?

Sure. We understand your motivation. Thank you. So it turns out that as we've been saying, but as we just discover now in the plot, Sweet Tooth is a loan shark. And Joey borrowed $50,000 from said loan shark as part of the money to pay off Striker. thousand dollars from said loan shark as part of the money to pay off striker um you know beth didn't know where that money came from right because joey kept that from her uh jim has some choice uh choice notes to say about his methods and then they come around to saying that yes he is going to help but he's only going to do it if they do things his way and that means that joey

has to put his brass knuckles away and uh stop chasing off after everyone every time he gets mad this is kind of the moment where they they come to an understanding because there's even a moment where jim's like beth tries to to keep jim from going overboard he's like no let me talk and then he lays it out straight for joey joey uh respects that jim is willing to talk to him like that. No one's talked to him like that for a long time. And they agree to do it Jim's way, which is going to, of course, cost him $200 a day plus expenses starting last night. And then the scene ends with it turns out that Sweet Tooth is not pressing charges and they're going to let, you know, so they let them go.

So that's all fine. Now, what's great about this scene. Yes. Is the blocking and the status stuff conveyed by the physical movement. There's a whole bit with Jim's pacing at the beginning. Joey is like, you got to do that. And Jim's like, old old habits because they're both ex-con right like neither one's uncomfortable in this situation here but like is familiar with it

didn't yeah i i really this was a good scene uh lots of great lines in the yeah lots of great lines so specifically what's great so there's you know so so they're all in a shot where Beth's on the left sitting down. Joey's on the right sitting down. There's a little table. And then Jim is pacing back and forth between them. And then in the background is a guy playing the harmonica. Yeah. So after Joey gets annoyed at Jim for pacing and gets up to yell at him,

Jim then takes his seat and then joey starts pacing back and forth and this is all before there's any cuts any like going to close ups or anything so we just see this transition of beth and joey with jim having the energy and then the confrontation and then jim taking over jo's seat and, you know, Joey having the nervous energy and the transition. The transition of who's kind of in charge is made manifest by that blocking. It's good stuff. We then have another strong contrast in tone as we cut from the jail cell to a carnival ride. It's still night and we're at some kind

of street carnival. Sweet Tooth is talking to his mustache buddy holding a little thing of candy as Joey and Jim come up behind them in the darkness. The fact that this is staged at a carnival is interesting. Like, I've got

nothing to say about it other than it's fun it's just like one of those things where it's like okay like it's just yeah an interesting way to do it um it kind of stands out uh yeah it's not precisely the ice rink exchange which is still one of my all-time favorite moments it has that energy it has that kind of energy though where it's like yeah it does i guess this is part of like i was saying there's lots of rock furnishness this is a very rock furnishness moment where it's like sure let's do this at a carnival like it could be anywhere this isn't a setup for a big chase sequence it's not like uh like the carnival doesn't play into anything else uh we are clearly spending too much time on the podcast talking

about it but i mean it's just tying into this guy sweet tooth because he likes candy yeah so he's at a carnival like that's pretty much all all of the logic that's there uh jim wants to talk to him privately and so he he tells the other guy to you know keep an eye on joey which i think is funny uh he does say that he's jim taggart which i always appreciate yes Good old Jim just covering his bases just in case. He says I'm Joey's lawyer. And then we cut to a laughing mannequin

from a carnival display. And then we cut to the two of them in a Ferris wheel seat. Shoved together looking very uncomfortable with this upshot. Like the camera is kind of below them and is fixed with them.

So as there's clearly a practical, like they're on a Ferris wheel. And so the camera keeps with them as the Ferris wheel is going around. So we're seeing the background move around behind them. It's wild. Yeah. There's so much going on for something that is just a conversation that It's wild. Yeah. There's so much going on for something that is just a conversation

that could be anywhere. Yeah. But what Jim lays out as Joey's lawyer is that he wants Sweet Tooth to loan Joey another $200,000 because he needs $250,000 to pay off, to exercise his option,

buy his restaurant. Yeah. If he doesn't get the restaurant, he will never be250 to pay off, to exercise his option, buy his restaurant. If he doesn't get the restaurant, he will never be able to pay off that $50,000 he already borrowed. Sweet Tooth isn't really buying it. I don't back horses with hard conditions, pal. Yeah, when he goes broke, you're left with a short end of nothing. Huh, not me. The people I gotta answer to, they don't like shakedowns unless they're shaking yeah it's a sunk cost fallacy right like yeah it's it's good money after bad and uh and tell joey

that if he doesn't have the money by friday joey's done and his daughter yeah there's a another threat there i think one of my favorite things about this episode is that Jim has a plan. And this is his first attempt at it. And he'll make three attempts at it throughout the whole. And it'll all be the same plan, just with different ways of doing it. Which is just to get the money to pay it off from the people who he owes money to. And it sounds more complex when I say it out loud. It's not that complex.

But when you're watching it, it feels intricate, right? But it's the same thing. He's just going to do the same thing. Each time he's just going to make a different attempt at getting this $200,000 or $250,000. Something that came up in the earlier exposition is that there's this whole like franchising of the restaurant. That's part of the deal with millions.

Yeah. And that's worth a lot of money. So if Joey can just buy his whole restaurant back, then he is going to have the access to all of this other money and he'll build a payback alone, et cetera, et cetera. But if he doesn't,

then he's out. Right. So it's a, it's a do or die thing. And that's kind of the crux of all of these these these gambits that that Jim is exercising. Sweet Tooth doesn't go for it. And so that ends up being the end of that effort. Like, we don't see Sweet Tooth again.

I mean, we don't see that Sweet Tooth again. Yeah. Yeah. Again, kind of this sub theme of like, here's someone that could be complicating the story further, but now we're done with him. Yeah, well, there's like, there's a time pressure and you kind of get the feel of like, it's like, okay, that didn't work. Okay, let's move on to the next one. Right, right, right. Let's just move through them until we get to it.

But yeah, I guess there's something about how something of the craft of this particular episode is like, none of those feel like loose ends. They do feel like, I mean, I wasn't thinking about it in the moment. It's just like, we move on to the next thing and it's compelling enough that you just don't even think about. I wonder if there's anything else that's going to happen with that guy. Right, exactly. Yeah. Of course, what keeps our attention next is that we cut to Jim driving with Angel. Angel! This was interesting to me.

And I feel like this might be a very second season kind of thing. So our initial banter, which is always good with Angel, is all about Jim is always coming to Angel and asking him for favors and acting like Jim saved his life in a foxhole. Yeah. But the only danger that Angel gets in is when Jim pushes him into it by asking him these favors. Yes. Which I totally get, totally makes sense, but is also the opposite of our lived experience with Angel throughout the course of the show.

Yeah. Where it's like, this is very Pot Calling the Kettle Black from my perspective but i think perhaps in the linear timeline you know jim and angel are still back and forth with this kind of stuff as opposed to the point we eventually get where like angel is always the one coming to jim and pulling jim into trouble right uh there's another thing too the scene kind of plays into which is angel well angel's buttering jim up at some point in the scene and calls him like the champion of cons yeah yeah yeah the conning champion or whatever and that's another

thing that's like like we like to talk about jim's little cons here and there and and whatnot and they're clearly great episodes where jim is just trying to orchestrate a con. But it just feels like a little like they're trying to establish with the audience that that Jim may be. He's close enough to the criminal element here that it's not as this episode plays out. element here that it's not uh as this episode plays out what we're going to get into a con is doing things and already starting to do things in a quasi-legal way and this is the the the sort of descent to it yeah this is this is laying the groundwork for something that we don't even really know is a con yet yeah yeah jim does say that this is wall street not main street so the worst that can happen is that angel's gonna to get stabbed with a pen.

Yes. So clearly Angel has this, you know, he's been given this story. And Jim is sending him in to talk to Stryker. Right. And he does specifically say to not mention his name. Well, let's take a little break. We want to make sure that you know where you can follow all of our other projects and interests online. Epi, where can our listeners find you?

You can Google Epidaia. I am the only one out there that I know of. You can go to dig1000holes.com. That's the number 1000. Or you can go to worlds, plural, without master, singular, dot com, and find my work there. How about you, Nathan? My internet home for all things NDP is at ndpdesign.com. You can find all of the links and information for all of my various games, including the Worldwide Wrestling role-playing game, my zines, and

podcast projects, of which perhaps there may be more than one. You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter at ndpeoletta. As always, if you want more information about the podcast, go to 200aday.fireside.fm And now back to the continuing adventures

of Jimbo Rockfish. And we go into an establishing shot of Striker Industries. Angel is introduced here as Mr. London. And throughout the scene, he's like unwrapping candies and stuff. Yeah. I thought that was a little weird. And then I realized later that I was supposed to pick up on the fact that he is, in fact, impersonating Sweet Tooth. Right.

Whose full name is Sweet Tooth London. So, you know, that comes together in a later scene, but that is why he is unwrapping candies from his pockets. There's even a moment where Jim's like, keep chewing that. Yeah. Like he's force feeding him candy for the role or something. But Mr. London goes in to talk to Burt Stryker. In the world of plaid in the

world there's so much plaid uh and there's also a guy who's kind of like a lawyer or accountant or something named uh ed i believe or is that fred might be fred might be fred i wrote down ed at some point but perhaps it is fred anyway he's kind of like he's the guy who signs things yes he's pretty much with striker the whole the whole episode anyway uh angel's thing he claims he's the shark that joey owes 50 000 to his line is i'm a banker 20 per week all right so here's the here's the offer joey has come to him asking for another two hundred thousand dollars so that he can buy his interest in the company and as part of that conversation he told angel sweet tooth that there's eight million dollars tied up in the franchise yeah and so angel's pitching that

basically he'd rather deal with the guy who already has the money. And if Striker gives him $200,000, he'll vanish, which means that Joey will never be able to pay back the loan or will never be able to exercise his option. And then what's $200,000 compared to the $8 million that's on the line here? I guess with the threat of, or I'll loan him the $200,000, he buys his interest and you're going to get nothing yeah we get a good pregnant pause before uh striker gives him the counter offer of zero zero and he throws angel out i wasn't sure if this was more complicated than i thought it was

or if i was making it more complicated than it actually is in the way that I was writing it down. This is definitely one where upon reflection after the episode, I have a better understanding of what they were trying to do in this scene. But I knew that $200,000 was a necessary amount of money. So the fact that it kept coming up, I was like, okay. And the guy Fred rephrases it for us also where he's's like, you know, so they throw they throw Angel out. Angel has just kind of casually taking a cigar in the intro. Yeah, that was very funny.

But they throw Angel out and he's like, Bird, I don't like this. If they lend Joey the money, he'll pay us off and we're out. It's a bluff. There are too many ifs. If they were that smart, if they even had it to begin with. It's a wonder he didn't ask me to validate his parking ticket. Still, it doesn't hurt to make sure.

Right. So my attention to detail brain was assuaged. I was like, okay, I get it now. I had this thing when I was watching it where I was trying to figure out, because I had misunderstood Angel's play. Because I had misunderstood Angel's play. And I thought he was telling him that if Stryker lent them the $200, he would give the $200,000 to Joey, who would then buy it out. And I was like, why would Stryker do that? And then I was like, oh, right.

No, he's not. That aspect. I know that that's what Angel's going to do. But Stryker doesn't. But one of the things about Stryker, which will show up a few times, is he just isn't biting. He just isn't biting. He's like, someone's trying to scam me. He's like, but I do want to make sure. So he sends Ganon to go follow Angel out to deal with him.

follow Angel out to deal with him. Now, our listeners may remember Ganon from the Legend of Zelda video game. He's the main villain in that. No, sorry. This is a very corporate goon. Yeah.

This is of the same mold as what's his name? Robert Mitchell. His character in Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job. How he has that has um what's his name robert mitchell his character his character in uh never send a boy king to do a man's job how he has that guy like his fixer gannon's a guy yes yes exactly we go outside and we see this is a great sequence where we just see this all from jim's perspective with no dialogue where where this guy Gannon follows Angel, grabs his shoulder, and then we see his hand in his pocket,

and he's clearly, you know, has a gun in his pocket, and he starts hustling Angel over to his car, which happens to be parked behind Rockford. And so Jim slams the Firebird into reverse, backs into the car as they're trying to get into it, which sends everyone flying angel stumbles away jumps in the firebird and the chase is on yeah this is okay before we get into it this

is a good chase this is this has got lots of good classic rockford things but also it just it takes up uh quite a bit of uh screen time i feel like it's just like solid just very solid through it's interesting because it keeps on it keeps on getting to moments where i think it's going to be over right like you think oh this is the clever thing that rockford's going to do to end it and uh and it just isn't enough so specifically the whole and this one has a good like narrative to it specifically it's all about the superior agility of the Firebird. Like it's all about Jim being able to corner tighter corners and make tighter circles. And every time he does something that involves him cutting a corner, cutting through a parking lot, pulling a U-turn, he's gaining just a little bit of distance on the

pursuit this other car is a yacht yeah like it is it is big he pulls a u-turn he goes into a parking lot and where i thought it was going to be the classic pull in and park and stop but uh the guy's still too close so they pull up the other side The specific moment that I thought was going to be the end is he pulls into this really tight alley and then makes a sharp turn where there's another tight alley. And we see how tight it is for the Firebird. And then we follow the, the, the, the pursuing car and it bumps. Like it tries to take the turn and it can't quite make it. And he has to make like, like a, like a five point turn to get into it yeah but he does make it eventually i thought that that was just going to be him being stuck yeah i thought we were going to have a scene of him like

even trying to open the door to get out to be angry and not able to do it right like just so frustrated with it but no he gets out yeah and then it does end with Jim pulling into like a, I think with some luck, right? He pulls into like a construction yard right as they're closing up. And so he pulls in, kicks up all this dust, and then this guy in a hard hat just starts closing the gate behind him. The pursuing car comes by and like a predator just kind of slows down and realizes it can't get at you know whatever right there's something about the interior shots of at this point when jim talks to angel after this that makes me think that jim pulled into a cargo container or something i think he's behind a dumpster okay that might be it yeah i think we see him turn around and then we

see a dumpster in kind of the foreground as we're watching the guy close the gate. And then, yeah, they're in like shadow in the interior shots. So I think he's behind a big construction dumpster. So, yeah, so that breaks off the pursuit. They can't get through this fence and also possibly can't see the car. Yeah. And also the front of it's all mangled because part of it was also jim comes shooting out of the narrow alley takes a sharp turn oh yeah that that swerves into the oncoming

traffic lane of this of a the cross street yeah and this car swerves to avoid him and then the pursuing car comes shooting out makes a wider turn because it can't make the narrow turn, and just slams its corner into that car that it already swerved. Yeah. So it's all busted up in front, also. Yeah, it's making some awful noises. Yeah, yeah, which is also great, and again, I thought that was going to be the end

of the, like, Jim Sucker didn't be hitting another car, but the determination was strong for Gannon. There's a great angel line there's a lot of good angel lines obviously but like those guys are looking to dust me and i'm telling you i don't want to be dusted i'd hate to die just yet really hate i'll look into it yeah i'd appreciate it now let's get out of here all right then we go to Jim, Joey and Paulette. Paulette is doing paperwork for the restaurant.

This is to establish that she kind of runs the details, like keeps the place going. She's like, I can't believe you gave that guy another raise. And she's like, he just got married. Yeah. So you get the sense that like maybe he, you know, she's kind of the brains of the operation essentially and you also kind of get a little bit of joey being a good guy yeah yeah right like he's just been a heavy as far as we've noticed and now it's like oh no he takes care of his employees uh this is a scene that has a lot more character work than like plot importance um what this revolves around is that

Joey wants results. Jim doesn't seem to be doing anything with this $200 a day that he's paying him. Jim doesn't have a lot to go on. Maybe if Joey could give him some more to go on he could get some results. They start yelling at each other. Well, the only reason he's in trouble

was because I made the mistake of picking up on your case. Well, tell him to wrap it. And you two. Well, all right. You just point me to the right hole. You were the expert. Now I'll crock for you. Do it! My God, go ahead, do it!

Kill each other! And then Paulette can't stand it. She throws down her stuff and explodes. And that gets through to them, brings the energy back down. Joey apologizes. First, he apologizes to paulette and then he does apologize to jim yeah uh which i think is an important moment and he has a little bit of a soliloquy here that never is enough they break your back they tell you you should try harder

you should walk straight with a broken. I never asked for anything special. I made mistakes. I paid for my county shoes. Total nine years ever since I was 14. Pretty dumb, right? It's all dumb. Playing by the rules that don't mean what they say. It feels very appropriate to the present day.

Yes. Not only is Paulette sort of functionally running it but also she officially is right like we learned that uh this is the uh how they get around the fact that he's an ex-con it's in her name yeah and so jim thinks maybe they're going about it wrong maybe we should look at these technical details of the contracts because that's all these people understand um the the revelation that everything is technically in paulette's name gives him an idea yeah and we end the scene with him saying that uh he's got to get striker out of his office and into the street poke him hard enough to get him to hit back it might not be on the up and up but it might just get the restaurant we go to a

golf course where i have a note that nothing good ever happens on golf courses. But we start off with a striker clearly finished a round of golf with a with a an older gentleman. They're laughing and laughing. And Stryker is saying that, well, now that he has that restaurant, you know, now that he has the full ownership of the restaurant business, he'll be able to pay off those loans. Yes. And then he'll have a lot more business to give to this other guy well one thing i like about this is that this is the legal version of the exact same shakedown that angel or no no sorry that um rockford was offering uh sweet tooth right like he's he's

thanking the bank for sticking with him because now he can make, he's got enough money now that he can make enough money to pay the bank back or whatever. That's exactly what. Yep. Yep. And it's giving us that nod to the pressure on striker where it's not just that he's a jerk. He also has,

he's also gotten himself into a situation where he needs this. And maybe this was the plan all along. Maybe this is a new development because he knew this was coming but like yes he is a he is a terrible person but he also has a motivation that's not just being a villain in a tv series yeah yeah jim rolls in to talk to him again jim taggart uh he wants to talk to striker about his company um you already met my associate sweet tooth Tooth London. I'm like, oh, okay.

Now that you've given me the text, I get it now. He knows that the banks are breathing down Stryker's neck. Stryker doesn't care about Jim's business. So Jim is posing as another loan shark or kind of like Angel's boss, essentially. Yeah, yeah. Jim's line here is the following. Joey's into them for $50,000. They want to collect their money.

They see this opportunity to get another $200,000 in order to make this all happen. Now they've kidnapped Paulette because she has the power of attorney for all of the paperwork. And they know that Stryker's going to be in a lot of trouble with those banks if he can't produce Paulette to sign over the contracts yes um because you know it's all it's all under her name and then sure you'll probably be able to get

them through the legal process you know that's going to take a long time yeah and what are you going to use to pay back those those loans in the meantime taking the condition that is creating problems for joey and turning the problems for striker that was a very big pie to slice all we're interested in is our 50 000 investment plus interest 250 000 i thought it was 200 000 well time is money 250 000 by midnight i can reach you to your office good good i appreciate that and then jim peaces out so now the deal has gone from give us two hundred thousand dollars to disappear and you get to do what you wanted to do in the first place to give us two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to give you paulette back

so that she can make the thing you want to happen happen right yes the we stay with striker as jim leaves and uh his his his guy fred is there fred's like what are we gonna do and striker basically is correct he's like this is this is a con like it's gotta be a con again he's just not followed for it yeah if those guys took paulette uh have gannon follow him they'll lead us to her we'll get her back everything will be fine so it's funny he's he's right about everything except for accepting the initial identity of of of jim yeah um and clearly at this point this is what jim is expecting right yeah he's he he knows that angel's shakedown didn't work uh So he figures that, yeah. I'm going to play like I'm an increasingly desperate

loan shark just trying to get my money and trying to play it cool. But I know he doesn't believe that. Right. Yeah. Or even if he does, he doesn't care. It's not that he doesn't believe that they're loan sharks. He doesn't believe that they've kidnapped anyone. Yeah, he's kind of like if they have, then following

them will lead us to her if they haven't it doesn't matter yeah yeah so it's not that he doesn't believe they're alone sharks it's that he doesn't believe that they're gonna do any like yeah yeah or at least maybe in the first place he didn't believe he was a lone shark but now that jim has backed that up with this second appearance it doesn't matter too much it's just that like there's a layer there of jim anticipating at what level striker is going to not believe what he's saying uh so now we watch a a new car this one's red the last one was blue follow jim and again i i guess this is another motif it's not really a motif but this is another aspect of this episode that i'm just realizing now as we're talking about it

or giving me indications that something's going to happen that doesn't. Like, there's chase music during this sequence, but it's not a chase because Jim's intentionally being followed. But we have all these little moments that are like, oh, Jim's going to get away right here. Like, he pulls behind a bigger truck and you can't see the Firebird. Then he pulls out again and you do see the Firebird. It's like, oh, okay, no, this is all on purpose. We get we get this shot as largely from the pursuers point of view, too, which is interesting. Like we don't normally we get Jim trying to lose the tail.

But here we have the tail trying not to attract Jim's attention, I think. Or we have like the final shot of Jim kind of like looking in his rear view and then just continuing to drive. It's like, oh, this is all going according to plan. We cut to a bar where Joey is arm wrestling a guy in a hard hat. Oh, jeez. It's just... It's good. It's good.

It's less so once you see his full face, but this guy looks like legendary professional wrestler Rick Rude to me. Like if Rick Rude wore a hard hat and then turns out he had a slightly skinnier face. It was very funny to me. Anyway, so this guy is old buddies with Joey, and Joey is working this construction job, and Joey needs some blueprints and he needs them tomorrow. And the guy's like, all right, I'll do what I can. I completely forgot about the scene until we came back to it just now.

But I guess it is establishing the that they. Yeah. What the what their plan is. Yeah. This is explaining the very end of the con. Once we get. So this is this is why we have this podcast because my brain when i watch this i'm like oh okay that that'll be important then the that that

they've they're getting these blueprints whatever these blueprints are and then i forget it and then like it does enough to satisfy my brain to know that it's important. And then, but obviously the way this plays out, you can see why it's important, what they need to know. I feel like this episode is kind of like, it's interesting in contrast with the last one we did, where's Houston,

where there were so many little things in that one that were like, this is going to be important later. And then it wasn't. And this one, there's all these little things that are important, but I completely forgot had been established by the time why they're important comes back up. I don't know if that's good.

Like this episode didn't need to have this scene in it. I don't know if we need the explanation. Hold on, hold on. This scene does have the line, yours ain't exactly peanut butter, you know. I think in reference to his arm.'s still champ joey blue eyes they could use that thing as a jackhammer ah yours ain't exactly peanut butter you know like yeah yeah it sounds good okay so this scene needs to be in this episode but yeah this explanation of the reveal at the end doesn't need like.

Yeah. Yeah. I never would have missed a setup for what happens at the end. Yeah. But I'm glad it's here. Yeah. I know what you're saying. And I agree.

Like, it's interesting because a lot of times you feel these things done in voiceover after the fact. Like, maybe somebody has been watching it and they're like oh we really should explain why they knew how to do that yeah all right we'll just have something what's a good thing you ran into your buddy yeah or joey being like i know a guy who can get us those blueprints yeah yeah yeah uh but instead they gave us the scene yeah it's just part of the fabric of the episode yeah well we've now talked about the scene for longer than it runs. Yes. We now go to another good one. All right.

So now we cut back to Gannon as he is calling in to report that he's parked outside a restaurant where Jim Taggart has gone in. He's just waiting for him to come out. They're like, keep on watching him. He's going to lead us to Paulette eventually. waiting for him to come out they're like keep on watching him he's going to lead us to paulette eventually we from gannon's perspective see joey pull up outside this restaurant charge into the front there's a pause some other people come out and then jim and joey both come out yelling at each other and then joey has a gun and he's like yelling where's paulette and jim's like yelling, where's Paulette? And Jim's like, you know, doing the like, come on, we can talk about this. And then we watch Joey shoot Jim twice in the chest.

And that's a wrap on 200 a day. We have completed the Rockford Files series. It's a shame that it ended there in the second season. So then Gannon calls Stryker and and tells him i just saw this happen yes and striker's like uh oh i guess this was all legit like this convinces striker that the story was real i guess we're gonna need to get the 250 000 together again it's like who are you gonna deal with well there's still that guy sweet tooth right now if taggart's dead then sweet tooth's gonna take over we then cut to the trailer where j saying, well, that's a good shirt and a good coat on the expense account.

As they had, you know, prepped it with some prop blood. Joey, Angel, I think everyone's there. Joey, Angel, Paulette. I don't think Beth is. Beth's not there. And he compliments Joey on doing a good job you get the sense that joey didn't have to act that much yeah but they're all smiles they're all like i feel like this is like a bonding experience for for jim and and joey uh angel

is now up to make the call and he's clearly nervous i don't know jimmy i think we ought to sweat him a couple more hours. Come on, Angel. You're not going to get hurt. I know that. I just think it's a little early yet. Hey, Angel, you punking out? Me? Me punking out?

What are you kidding? Well, good. I'm actually looking forward to this. All right. Come on. Let's get on the phone. I don't have the number, Jimmy. It's right here.

Yeah. Any little weasel room. Yeah, but he does make the call, and he plays his role well. He asks if Striker arranged the hit, which is a nice touch. Yes. They set up the deal, $250,000, drop it in a litter box, which I guess is a period term for a trash can. Yeah. in a litter box which i guess is a period term for a trash can yeah uh in a park once they have the money they'll drop the girl at joey's restaurant and everything's copacetic is it

great i think it's when angel accuses him of or asks if he set up the the hit where i don't know if this is exactly but there's this moment where he goes what do you think i am anyway and angel is like well i don't want to get into that right now striker also says you know you want us to leave the money before you right give us the girl and angel says supply and demand that's how these things work um then he hangs up and uh says that striker bought it and and Jim says alright, they'll make the drop and then try to kill us when we make the pickup. Alright, so

that's all great. So this specific con of killing someone in order to convince the mark that everything is real, I cannot I'd have to go find my book, which I don't know where it is. This is a specific con that's talked about in the big con book that we've talked about before.

And it's not the blow-off, because that's a more general term. So if you remember what this is now, you're yelling at your podcast device. But I just love how it's employed here really well and in kind of a fun way. This is also featured in the sting it's yeah and it's it's like you you had just described afterwards the sort of bonding experience that like so it's a good setup for a good con um but part of the craft of this episode and i think why it comes together so well is that this is again this is the third time that jim is attempting pretty much the exact same thing just three different ways and so like we don't have to some of the groundwork for all of

what's happening has already been laid so we're like okay okay then now they're doing now they're doing this way uh but then the other thing is that it plays into the antagonism that has existed between jim and joey that kind of goes in and out throughout the whole thing and like it like it runs that motif it mirrors when paulette was like why don't you kill each other already like that's the answer and like that's in the scene where jim puts together the pieces for this con right like so it's really tightly wound in in kind of a nice way here yeah yeah i i thought it was really well done yeah it's really good the i guess the the thing that i wanted to tease out was that like this move like the way that it that it was used

most often in those classic cons was you'd get the mark like you would set things up such that the mark thought that they were responsible for the death oh yeah it depends on the circumstances but like you give them a gun and it's gonna be like and and it's set up such that they think that it's not loaded or something but then like it is or oh yeah yeah or they you know or someone runs away from them and then gets like shot in an alley by someone else but they're the first one on the scene or something like that yeah so that then they're implicated in like a more serious crime than the fraud that they're being defrauded by through the through the con so they're never going to take it to the police because then they're going to be implicated in a more serious crime, which is fake. The murder is fake. So using it here is, I don't

know, it's a fun twist because it's like, it's raising the stakes for the mark so that the mark finally buys into the false reality. Right. Which is, yeah, it is well done. Well constructed as you say. Uh, all right. So we get into our finale sequence here where this is the plan. They're going to make the drop and then wait for them to pick it up. Gannon gives striker a gun. Ed doesn't want violence, but it's too late for that. Striker says they have to give them a show of force.

You don't understand how these people work. so this is a nice scene cause it's kind of like these guys aren't mob they're not i mean gannon probably has killed people i think is the implication but yeah they're not organized crime they're not career criminals they're just bad people who are in a circumstance where they're like yeah this is worth killing over yeah yeah um. But I think that's an important nuance. And then Ed's kind of the voice of reason. And Stryker's like, too late for that. They managed to generate the $250,000 in cash by raiding the employee tax reserve.

It needs to be back by Monday. So digging themselves in deeper if this doesn't go well for them. I like the business where the bank is like that i need to be here when you count it so you can fill out this receipt and he just opens it up and he's like yeah it's 250 000 yeah he's feeling the time pressure yeah yeah he's like yeah that looks like 250 000 that's good yeah and then and then fred goes to count it and he's like don't bother with that we don't have time yeah um all right so we are now staking out the litter box or trash can if you will in the park uh we watch fred nervously drop in this suitcase full of

money we then cut to the firebird rolling up um i think it is shot such that it feels like they're in a different location they're not right at the front of the park with everyone. There's a comment about that too. It's like, I can't remember exactly what it was, but there is something about how do you get there from here or something like that. Yeah, they roll up and I think Paulette says like, oh, it's awfully far. And Jim says it's the most direct route. Yeah. We then have a nice little sequence where, you know, there's a little bit of tension.

Nothing seems to be happening. And then a guy comes stumbling into the scene. sequence where you know there's a little bit of tension nothing seems to be happening and then a guy comes stumbling into the into the scene he is as i say later a wino he sees the trash can and goes over to to rummage looking for empties gannon's like i don't think this is it and striker just can't can't stand the tension i think yeah is how i read this this and he's like let's go this is it so they rough up this guy he doesn't know anything um fred comes back and he's like we just got a call they dropped off the girl and striker doesn't get it they never picked up the money and he goes and he kicks the can in frustration and it falls over and it was over an open manhole cover he stood there with waiting arms don't you understand

you threw our money down the sewer come on let's go and we cut to the restaurant where everyone is celebrating yay yay um beth is there uh she asked where the money came from like joey starts telling the actual story and then then Jim's like, We convinced Stryker to make a donation to Joey. You conned him? Yeah, kinda. Yeah, somebody was like, We set up Stryker with the kidnapping and sold him with a phony murder.

It was just like, alright. Stryker and his goons come in. They are clearly confused as Jim is is there not or janet's like i saw him shoot you they're like we don't know what you're talking about beth has a check and a signed option for them to sign uh as they have the you know the check for 250 000 to pay off the option and i think you said earlier she lays out some legalese i believe this is where she hits them oh yay we have drawn up a check for 250 000 and this is the signed option if you will initial the places i have checked and endorse this notarization i think that will conclude our

transaction except we'll need all of the accounting records and tax files please you think i'm gonna sign over this place you're crazy we don't have, Bert. Unless you'd like us to sue you for your entire net worth. Yeah. Stryker snatches the check. They leave in a huff. Joey tells Jim that he has style. Paulette wants a victory dance, so she goes and dances with Joey, while Beth leans over to Jim and says,

Yeah, he's got style, but you still need a shower. And they, they share a kiss as angel grabs a drink in the background. That was my last note to freeze frame on the kiss as angel helps himself to a free drink. Um, this last scene has this great line. I'm not through with you.

You know, Hey slick. Maybe I'm not through with you. Do you ever think of that? Which is another thing that keeps showing up in this episode, which is like, yeah, Joey's someone to be afraid of. Why are these people antagonizing him? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's great. Good ending. Feels good. Solid, solid episode. Yeah. So I guess the blueprint thing was to like so they had a blueprint of like the sewers under the park i guess yeah they knew they knew where to get in so they could get to that particular yeah manual cover and put a can over it or whatever which again i feel like i

didn't i'm not i don't know i'm not hung up on this it's just because we were talking about it i'm like yeah i don't know if I needed that explanation. Like, it seemed fairly straightforward that between Jim and Angel, they could figure out how to get into a sewer. If they were going that far, they maybe could have explained the mechanics of how they presented it as a litter box that somebody would put something in. And that a wino would then come to later and dig through while still being able to like i don't understand how the the suitcase went in and got removed from the bottom but there was still trash enough in there for this guy to dig through well maybe putting his arms and trying to find bottles and there's nothing in there that could be i don't think it needs to be overthought like yeah it's fine that that's there it was i was just like again because i completely forgotten about that scene oh that's

why that's there um anyhow yeah great episode i really liked this one this one really really felt solid to me if if we had to end season two on this one that would have been right right two thumbs up that would have been perfect but as turns out, we still have one left. We do still have one left. I think I mentioned at the beginning there's a bit of a headcanon one could have here, which is that Burt Stryker, disgraced businessman, loses his company as a result of all of these shenanigans, decides to change careers, changes his name,

rises through the ranks of LAPd quickly due to his pre-existing contacts and everything and then we have lieutenant chapman who then he and jim just pretend like his previous life never happened because it's the user of their advantage to bring it up however no wonder chapman yeah does not like Jim Rockford. I wonder, like, do you know, do you have the inside gossip on this? They just enjoyed him, so they decided to bring him on as the Chapman? I think so. I mean, there isn't really a comment on it in this episode write-up, other than just he would join the cast in the third season.

Um, other than just, he would join the cast in the third season. Cause that is, uh, in, in the British eighties television show, Robin of Sherwood. All right. Uh, the first episode they had, uh, it was the first episode I think was a two parter and in it there was this, I don't remember the name, a count or a duke that was worshiping the devil and had in his employ a Saracen that Robin had to fight at some point. And they just happened to like the actor so much that by the time they got done with the second episode, they wrote a scene where the Saracen just shows up and joins the Merrymen, right? Like joins the Robin's gang. Joins the Merrymen, right? Like joins the Robins gang.

I mean, like I know that happens with television shows, but it's like that was one where they made the character himself canon and not just brought the character, the actor back to do something different. And it changed Robin Hood canon forever. That's why Morgan Freeman was in Prince of Thieves. It's why a lot of people think that that's a long-standing tradition of that character in Robin's stories. But it begins there in the early 80s, shortly after the Rockford Files. Based on this episode's performance, I would hire him again. Right, yeah, exactly. I was anticipating having to counter my mental picture of Chapman in order to, like,

in order to kind of get into this particular episode. But it wasn't that hard at all. It wasn't hard at all. Yeah. He's, I mean, he's obviously a completely different character, but he's also like, I guess Chapman is played with such, like, not not it's not that he's played with incompetence but he's kind of played in a manner where he's always trying to do something that's not quite in his grasp right for one reason or another while this this character striker is like supremely confident everything he's doing is something he is you know feels is is possible and no one is ever telling him you know

he doesn't have any pressures on him from the people he's interacting with day to day he has this right larger pressure on him but um you know he's kind of like the king of his own little little kingdom um in this situation he set up for himself even though it's crumbling around him in a larger sense while chapman is kind of like detritus on on on a on a quickly moving river of everything that's happening in the police department um he's just getting kind of banged around all the time um so it's not even because he still like has kind of a similar line delivery like the way that he speaks and everything isn't particularly different but just yeah the context for the character is so different i had i had no at no point was i like stop thinking about chapman this is a different character like i didn't have to do that a single time only during

the opening montage sure right where we see that he's in it and i'm like oh right this is the one where he's not chapman no yeah definitely a good one it's got a good con. It's got great Jim, Beth, their whole deal. It's got some great angel moments. It's got a wonderful chase scene in the middle. It's got great dialogue. Just solid. Solid all the way through. And yeah, and just a really deft handling of here's something that's kind of important,

either for backstory or to like get things going yeah but it's not going to be important later so we can just kind of move you know so those characters just kind of move off screen and right as i said earlier they're not loose ends they're just not part of the the story moving forward and so it feels like a very coherent narrative even though there's a lot of characters overall. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot going on. There's some there's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. There's several interested parties. But as as they are checked off the list, they disappear. And that's good.

And I think this is the thing that that was that was a really strong takeaway for me. I wanted to make sure I got in here was that this is an episode that doesn't actually have any murders in it other than a fake murder. Yes. I was thinking the same thing. Yeah. And it's really satisfying. There's some real, really, really hateful villains. And there is some, some, you know, slightly gendered violence. But again, I feel like we talked last time about how like, sometimes it feels like there's murderers and they're kind of part of the plot mechanic. Right.

You don't really think about them as having impact on the characters. And that was in the context of In Where's Houston, exploring how it had an impact on some characters. And then I just felt like this was such a refreshing story because it didn't have murder in it, but it still felt important. Menacing. There's still danger, but yeah,

it was just like a great example of like your dramatic show doesn't have to have murders in it to have stakes that matter. Exactly. Yeah. And I would agree with that. Jim gets paid as far as we know. Yes. It seems the,

the, I mean, Jim gets paid, as far as we know. Yes, it seems. The guy now owns a multi-million dollar franchise. If he doesn't pay Jim, then I kind of want to know how he wiggled out of that one. You feel like in this case, Beth would actually make sure to make that happen, if need be. Yeah, so good episode. Indeed. All right. Well, I know I said this last time,

but join us next time for the last episode of The Rockford Files from season two that we will be addressing on this show, unless I yet again have miscounted the episodes, in which case we will discover that between now and our next recording yes my thoughts exactly