Post by niecie on Sept 9, 2013 13:05:30 GMT -5
LIke most episodes, this one has things I like and things I don't. As a first-generation Trekker, I'm thrilled to see William Campbell in it! And young Richard Henry with his quick-to-hand derringer and his need for a new thumb -- aw, he's so endearing!
One of the things I don't like shows up right away: a sniper drawing a bead on our guys through the window of the train. I'm still not entirely sure if he's aiming at Jim, Artie, or their guest -- but I don't like any of them being targetted, particularly by something that fires explosive bullets! But let's hear it for the engine crew, letting loose the warning whistle so that the guys duck and pull their guest out of range in the nick of time!
I'm not sure how Jim figures the bullet was meant for Señora Leon.
Ok, how many get ticked off with Jim declaring, 'From now on, it's man's work'? And yet the end of the episode will turn his pronouncement on its head!
I love the banter about Artie's disguise, how he wants to be a general, but Jim tells him to be modest, be a colonel -- and Artie's quip that he's not in the army ten seconds and he's busted already!
Now, whose idea was it to give Jim the alias of Robert Crandell? Cute how close that is to the actor's name! Jim uses disguises and fake names pretty often in the first season, but that more or less disappears later -- with TNOT Bottomless Pit being a noteworthy exception. (Well, disguises such as clothing other than his usual, with the occasional pair of glasses or cheesy moustache...)
Oh, there's Richard Henry! He kind of 'fangirls' over Mr West, worries over Mr Gordon, and is just so earnest and sincere, an up-and-coming young Secret Service agent! Pity he never turns up again, especially as Jim promised to take him along on a future assignment, one with pretty girls involved. Nice that Jim calls him Dick. But why does Jim say Artie gets fat on trouble? Why the association of Artie with fat (again!)?
There's the gate that reminded me of the prison entrance in TNOT Bars of Hell. Not sure who the actor playing the loud-mouth guard here is -- but bring on the fight scene!
Ouch! Jim gets clobbered with the stock end of a gun! And if William Campbell's character hadn't shown up just then, Loud-Mouth Guard would have shot Jim in the head!
Wow, Wolfe sure has a way of testing a man, doesn't he? Orders Sgt Bender (Wm Campbell) to shoot 'Crandell' sending Jim into instant action as he kicks the chair Bender's sitting in before the man can finish drawing his gun -- and this when Jim's gun has been taken from him. Jim has the chutzpah to shove the gun he confiscates from Bender right into Wolfe's belly too.
Bender keeps staring at Jim once they let him wander the post. Makes me wonder if Bender has decided to be Jim's instant enemy, or if there's something else going on.
That's a LOT of boxes marked US Federal Arsenal San Francisco. Someone helpfully lets Jim know they're the new repeating models, right off the assembly line.
Ah, and then Jim spots the prisoner, Capt Leon, the husband of the woman in the teaser.
And... here comes Colonel Hernando del Valle Santiago y Sandoval. How on earth does Artie remember some of those names he dubs himself with? I think Wolfe took offense when Artie tapped the back of his hand on Wolfe's belly. (And what's with both agents going after Wolfe's belly anyway, I wonder?)
Artie makes a point of letting his monocle drop from his eye. This becomes important later.
Good grief, Wolfe whacks a pointer on the lectern like a schoolmaster!
Jim as Crandell is just determined to needle Wolfe, and Wolfe is snarky when needled.
So does Artie really know Wolfe's plan, or is he just making it up, especially the part about who knows what they'll do after they control Baja?
Jim: What happens then?
Wolfe: You've got the imagination of a clam!
Jim asks a perfectly legitimate question about what Wolfe plans to do about the US Army, and Wolfe basically just blusters and insists the US Army won't interfere. What, because he says they won't? Now, he does have a point about the Mexicans not wanting gringos meddling in their business -- but Wolfe seems to have forgotten that he himself is a gringo and will be meddling in Mexican business!
More needling, Jim calling the gun cute and asking which eye of the weather vane Wolfe wants him to hit. (Oh, and he takes the head right off the weather vane.)
Artie indulges in the 'Let's Needle Wolfe' game too.
The Turtle: the Juggernaut's older cousin.
Oh hey! When did Jim get his gun back? (I checked. He didn't have it at the end of the meeting, but when Wolfe calls him over to fire the special gun, Jim has his revolver in his holster again.)
Now, I didn't recognize the guy who kept staring at Jim as the sniper until he glanced at Leon and remembered Jim from the railroad car.
That last box Jim helps lift is falling apart when they lift it.
It's just a good thing the sniper didn't recognize Artie as well.
I like it that even Leon was taken in by Artie and Jim had to let him know that's Artie. And then the scene between them, with Leon insulting Artie as a traitor, and Artie spouting aphorisms in return.
Artie sneaks something to Jim right under Bender's nose, then pulls that drop the monocle from the eye thing again, except that this time, the monocle isn't attached to him by a ribbon and falls to the floor.
Artie asks Bender the fate of both prisoners in their hearing so they can know how quickly they need to escape.
Artie tells Wolfe, 'I promise you action, my friend -- lots of it.' And he ain't kiddin'! It just not the type of action Wolfe expected.
I like Wolfe's line that he doesn't trust any man he can buy that easily.
Money to burn!
Whitey sighting! He's one of the members of the firing squad. And notice that another member is the guard who wanted to kill Jim earlier. I think maybe the character is named Egan.
And who should show up just in the nick of time? 'Ma' Gordon and the girls!
Wolfe's reasoning for letting the women with the liquor stay is a bit silly to me. The only reason I would think of for letting them stay is that the men might mutiny if the women were forced to take their liquor and leave.
Artie as a woman scares me.
That was a mighty long fuse, but the explosive goes off quickly!
And Artie gets the wagon of the women out of there immediately, waving them on while he stays behind to help.
That one dude doesn't seem to know what coming -- and then Jim appears out of the cloud of dust!
Is it really the best idea to use barrels from an arsenal as cover to shoot from behind?
The good guys have the Turtle!
If anyone would know where to shoot the Turtle, it would be the man who built it.
Aha! Jim shot Egan. And while Egan was among all those boxes of explosives too.
As exposed as Jim was both when he got into the Turtle and when he got out again, no one hit him.
The tag has some lovely banter, and the captain and his wife remind me just a touch of Ricky and Lucy.
The Grand Old Lady of the Secret Service...
One of the things I don't like shows up right away: a sniper drawing a bead on our guys through the window of the train. I'm still not entirely sure if he's aiming at Jim, Artie, or their guest -- but I don't like any of them being targetted, particularly by something that fires explosive bullets! But let's hear it for the engine crew, letting loose the warning whistle so that the guys duck and pull their guest out of range in the nick of time!
I'm not sure how Jim figures the bullet was meant for Señora Leon.
Ok, how many get ticked off with Jim declaring, 'From now on, it's man's work'? And yet the end of the episode will turn his pronouncement on its head!
I love the banter about Artie's disguise, how he wants to be a general, but Jim tells him to be modest, be a colonel -- and Artie's quip that he's not in the army ten seconds and he's busted already!
Now, whose idea was it to give Jim the alias of Robert Crandell? Cute how close that is to the actor's name! Jim uses disguises and fake names pretty often in the first season, but that more or less disappears later -- with TNOT Bottomless Pit being a noteworthy exception. (Well, disguises such as clothing other than his usual, with the occasional pair of glasses or cheesy moustache...)
Oh, there's Richard Henry! He kind of 'fangirls' over Mr West, worries over Mr Gordon, and is just so earnest and sincere, an up-and-coming young Secret Service agent! Pity he never turns up again, especially as Jim promised to take him along on a future assignment, one with pretty girls involved. Nice that Jim calls him Dick. But why does Jim say Artie gets fat on trouble? Why the association of Artie with fat (again!)?
There's the gate that reminded me of the prison entrance in TNOT Bars of Hell. Not sure who the actor playing the loud-mouth guard here is -- but bring on the fight scene!
Ouch! Jim gets clobbered with the stock end of a gun! And if William Campbell's character hadn't shown up just then, Loud-Mouth Guard would have shot Jim in the head!
Wow, Wolfe sure has a way of testing a man, doesn't he? Orders Sgt Bender (Wm Campbell) to shoot 'Crandell' sending Jim into instant action as he kicks the chair Bender's sitting in before the man can finish drawing his gun -- and this when Jim's gun has been taken from him. Jim has the chutzpah to shove the gun he confiscates from Bender right into Wolfe's belly too.
Bender keeps staring at Jim once they let him wander the post. Makes me wonder if Bender has decided to be Jim's instant enemy, or if there's something else going on.
That's a LOT of boxes marked US Federal Arsenal San Francisco. Someone helpfully lets Jim know they're the new repeating models, right off the assembly line.
Ah, and then Jim spots the prisoner, Capt Leon, the husband of the woman in the teaser.
And... here comes Colonel Hernando del Valle Santiago y Sandoval. How on earth does Artie remember some of those names he dubs himself with? I think Wolfe took offense when Artie tapped the back of his hand on Wolfe's belly. (And what's with both agents going after Wolfe's belly anyway, I wonder?)
Artie makes a point of letting his monocle drop from his eye. This becomes important later.
Good grief, Wolfe whacks a pointer on the lectern like a schoolmaster!
Jim as Crandell is just determined to needle Wolfe, and Wolfe is snarky when needled.
So does Artie really know Wolfe's plan, or is he just making it up, especially the part about who knows what they'll do after they control Baja?
Jim: What happens then?
Wolfe: You've got the imagination of a clam!
Jim asks a perfectly legitimate question about what Wolfe plans to do about the US Army, and Wolfe basically just blusters and insists the US Army won't interfere. What, because he says they won't? Now, he does have a point about the Mexicans not wanting gringos meddling in their business -- but Wolfe seems to have forgotten that he himself is a gringo and will be meddling in Mexican business!
More needling, Jim calling the gun cute and asking which eye of the weather vane Wolfe wants him to hit. (Oh, and he takes the head right off the weather vane.)
Artie indulges in the 'Let's Needle Wolfe' game too.
The Turtle: the Juggernaut's older cousin.
Oh hey! When did Jim get his gun back? (I checked. He didn't have it at the end of the meeting, but when Wolfe calls him over to fire the special gun, Jim has his revolver in his holster again.)
Now, I didn't recognize the guy who kept staring at Jim as the sniper until he glanced at Leon and remembered Jim from the railroad car.
That last box Jim helps lift is falling apart when they lift it.
It's just a good thing the sniper didn't recognize Artie as well.
I like it that even Leon was taken in by Artie and Jim had to let him know that's Artie. And then the scene between them, with Leon insulting Artie as a traitor, and Artie spouting aphorisms in return.
Artie sneaks something to Jim right under Bender's nose, then pulls that drop the monocle from the eye thing again, except that this time, the monocle isn't attached to him by a ribbon and falls to the floor.
Artie asks Bender the fate of both prisoners in their hearing so they can know how quickly they need to escape.
Artie tells Wolfe, 'I promise you action, my friend -- lots of it.' And he ain't kiddin'! It just not the type of action Wolfe expected.
I like Wolfe's line that he doesn't trust any man he can buy that easily.
Money to burn!
Whitey sighting! He's one of the members of the firing squad. And notice that another member is the guard who wanted to kill Jim earlier. I think maybe the character is named Egan.
And who should show up just in the nick of time? 'Ma' Gordon and the girls!
Wolfe's reasoning for letting the women with the liquor stay is a bit silly to me. The only reason I would think of for letting them stay is that the men might mutiny if the women were forced to take their liquor and leave.
Artie as a woman scares me.
That was a mighty long fuse, but the explosive goes off quickly!
And Artie gets the wagon of the women out of there immediately, waving them on while he stays behind to help.
That one dude doesn't seem to know what coming -- and then Jim appears out of the cloud of dust!
Is it really the best idea to use barrels from an arsenal as cover to shoot from behind?
The good guys have the Turtle!
If anyone would know where to shoot the Turtle, it would be the man who built it.
Aha! Jim shot Egan. And while Egan was among all those boxes of explosives too.
As exposed as Jim was both when he got into the Turtle and when he got out again, no one hit him.
The tag has some lovely banter, and the captain and his wife remind me just a touch of Ricky and Lucy.
The Grand Old Lady of the Secret Service...