Two Hundred A Day - Episode 60: Godfather Knows Best (Live!)

Episode Date: November 10, 2019

To celebrate our 60th episode, Nathan and Eppy are joined again by Emily Care Boss to talk about the fourth 90s Rockford Files Movie - Godfather Knows Best. But that's not all! We recorded this episode live as we watched the movie, all together in the same place! You can hear us hypothesize the twists and turns of this David Chase-penned script as Jim tries to help his godson, Becker's son Scott, out of trouble. We really had a great time, and came away feeling that this was the strongest of the movies so far. We hope you enjoy this change of pace for our show! We now have a second, patron-exclusive, podcast - Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files! Support the podcast by subscribing at patreon.com/twohundredaday. Big thanks to our Gumshoe patrons! Check them out: Richard Hatem Victor DiSanto Brian Perrera Eric Antener Bill Anderson Jim Crocker - keep an eye out for Jim selling our games east of the Mississippi, and follow him on twitter @jimlikesgames Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app Kevin Lovecraft and the Wednesday Evening Podcast Allstars Jay Adan's Miniature Painting And thank you to Dael Norwood, Dylan Winslow, Dave P, and Dale Church! Thanks to: fireside.fm for hosting us Audio Hijack for helping us record and capture clips from the show spoileralerts.org for the adding machine audio clip Freesound.org for other audio clips Two Hundred a Day is a podcast by game and narrative designers Nathan D. Paoletta and Epidiah Ravachol. In each episode we pick an episode of The Rockford Files, recap and review it as fans of the show, and tease out specific elements from that episode that hold lessons for writers, gamers and anyone else interested in making better narratives. Special Guest: Emily Care Boss.

here we go so uh welcome to 200 a day the normally nathan does these opens welcome we're in your house now we're being recorded uh welcome to 200 Day, the podcast about the 70s detective TV show, The Rockford Files. I am Epidaeus Rabichaud. And I'm Nathan Poletta. Yay. See, your job isn't so hard. Let's introduce, we should introduce our guest star, right? Or should we explain what we're doing? No, we should make sure that everybody knows that we have a very special guest. Hi, this is Emily Kierbos.

I get to talk about Rockford with these guys today. We've had you on the show before. A triumphant return. Yes. So anyways, Nathan has been traveling and wound up on our doorstep

for, I don't know for just spur of the moment. Just for fun. You didn't even, much like Angel knocking on Jim's door. Yeah, and so we've decided we're going to try and do. We've been deciding in real time how we're going to do this, but I think what we've decided is we, the three of us, are going to watch an episode. We're going to watch one of the movies. In fact, I'm going to go get the movies and I'll

tell you which episode I continue. Right, so we're going to watch the next TV movie that we haven't seen yet, so it'll be new to all of us. From the 90s, right? Yes. Because those aired on TV in a two-hour TV movie slot, there are

commercial breaks. And so I believe that Effie has stolen this idea from other podcasts. From Laser Discotheque. Shout out to Laser Discotheque fans of the show. So we're going to watch and then we're going to pause when there's an obvious

commercial break and come back and discuss and then go back to the show. So this is not a commentary track. Right. Yeah. We won't be doing it live. Right.

But what we'll do is when we pause it, we'll say the time code where we paused it at so that you can listen to this part, pause it, watch it up to that time code. Right? That makes sense, right? Yeah. I think that'll work. Let's do that. The movie is Godfather Knows Best, right? We haven't watched that time code. Right? That makes sense, right? Yeah. I think that'll work. Let's do that. The movie is Godfather Knows Best, right? We haven't watched that one yet. Is that the fourth

one? It is, yes. Then that's the next one on our list. Family Duty calls when Jim must come to the aid of his troubled godson, who is accused of murdering a high-profile fashion designer. That is not what I expected with Godfather Knows Best.

Perhaps it gets more complicated. Alright, so we're going to do just a real-time intro to this episode. Godfather Knows Best. We've got to look them up on the IMDBs. Right, of course.

Do what we normally do here. Okay, so here's the intro from, or here's the summary from IMDb, which I think rounds out that. Out for an evening of fun, Jim finds Dennis' son homeless on the street. After giving him some money, lining up an apartment, and getting him a job, Jim soon finds out, much to Dennis' dismay, that there's more wrong with Scotty than simply being on hard luck. So, Scotty, I'm checking right now. So this is, I mean, we have encountered Dennis' son, Scott, on the show before.

Who is? Who Jim was told was named after him, Jim Scott Rockford. But his name is not actually a reference to Jim. Dennis just told Jim that to make him feel good. Or guilty. Or guilty. So it does not appear that this actor, Damian Chapa, who plays Scotty in this, is the same actor who played Scotty on the Rockford Files.

Right. Which is probably the best. So I don't know how much of a role this person plays, but Jim O'Hare, who was Jerry slash Gary on Parks and Rec, seems to be among the cast. So he has been in one of the movies before. Oh, okay. He is the television repairman or the cable guy. So I'm wondering if he'll be the first character. Yeah.

I don't know. He's head chef here. Oh, maybe not. Unless our cable guy has really come up in the world. So they're still using their old techniques of reusing actors. Fear not, because there are at least two people credited here as Sicilian hitmen. Oh, good. I think we will be good on our references. And it looks

like Angel will be in it, as well as Dennis. That's lovely. And Peggy. Oh, good. I was just wondering about that. So this is directed by Tony Warmbie, who we have not encountered before, I believe.

He directs this one, and it looks like the next one. Oh, okay. Jack Garner is going to be in this, so that's good. Always welcome. This director did do a couple episodes of Magnum P.I., so at least he has some bonafideos. He's worked with Lance White. Coming in the door.

I've got a site here that shows locations where it was shot. RockfordFilesFilmingLocations.blogspot.com. Must be, yeah. One of our favorites. Santa Monica Place, Pacific Towing, and Wacky Wax Cart, whatever that is. This is a David Chase cart. Yeah. Which I think we haven't, he hasn't done any of the movies before this, I think.

So that's exciting. Yeah. Now that we've looked on IMDb for you. Yes. I'm just going to preemptively bring up, uh, my inflation calculator. Cause I use that every episode to remind everyone to 1996.

Yes. So it's not nearly as dramatic. Yeah, it isn't, but, uh, he's still asking 200 a day. So that maybe haven't there, wasn't there a joke in one of the movies about like, Yeah, it isn't. But he's still asking $200 a day. Maybe.

Wasn't there a joke in one of the movies about how much are you asking these days, but they've never actually said? Yeah. I feel like that's a thing. All right. So now the inflation is at about 63.5%. So $1 is $1.64. Okay. But let me put this in numbers that we can understand.

So a little more than one and a half times. $200 is $327. Great. Yeah, that's all. Okay. All right. We have a nice baseline. Yeah. Emily, have you been keeping up with the Rockford Files as we've been going through our journey?

Here and there. Not everyone. But I watched a whole bunch of them. How many seasons did we watch? I think we've seen all of them together. Oh. I mean, spoiler, Emily's my wife. So I've watched a lot of Rockford Files with her.

I thought we had X number of seasons that were available to us, and then they went off in whatever the street was. Oh, right. And then we have to circle back around because now we have all of them. Yeah, thanks to the show. So I haven't seen everything, but I remember I had seen a couple of Doreen Reno ones. But I have watched, I think, the first two of the movies.

I think so, yeah. I was particularly partial to the angel starts a cult the second one a blessing in disguise just looking at the this picture of angel in the chain link it's extremely good

I love seeing these old people. Right, so that one was a very fun one. I think that one was really great in particular because they captured the chemistry of all the actors.

Everyone just... I feel like we talk about this every time with the movies, but in case you're new and haven't heard us do a movie before, they were able to basically bring back not only the cast, but a lot of the crew for a lot of these movies. And so the production process, apparently, was very much like a warm, like everyone's coming back to the old family. Get together.

Yeah. Cause people get in the band back together. People took jobs that they had. They, they got out of, yeah, they got up in their careers and then they would come back and be like, yeah,

this is the director or like, yeah, be a grip or something like, you know, moonlighting from their like lighting technician director job or something. Um, yeah. And and the actors of course all are fantastic and just like slip right into all of those roles that we know and love so it sounds like this is going to be a very becker jim beckery yeah that's good kind of thing which is nice so so far, the first one was very much just Jim. Jim in L.A.

And L.A. was the other character. Oh, right. Because that was with the fires in the earthquake. Yeah. And the second one was definitely Jim and Angel. Yeah. And then the third one was where Beth came back after many, many years of hiatus because of the contractual stuff of the later seasons. The last of the studio stars.

Yeah. I don't know if it was really about Jim and Beth, but the fact that she was there moved the gravity to the emotional heart. She was very much involved with that. But that's also where we got the immortal line from Dennis Becker. Did you know that bees

die of loneliness? from Dennis Becker. Did you know that bees die of loneliness? It remains one of my favorite moments in all of television history. I don't know. It's just so out of nowhere. Well, they do.

Right. So that was the third one. That was at the frame fits. Yeah. Right. Right, so that was the third one. That was if the frame fits. Right, because he gets framed by the murder of the other PI, and then the CIA is involved. And that was a very classic Rockford plot. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so we'll see how this one goes down.

So you're not going to pause this now. You're going to pause this in a moment after we tell you at what point we paused the movie. I hear the jangle of our fourth participant tonight. If there's any excited barking happening, then my good boy O'Henry has decided to add his voice to the

recording. He's currently digging in the couch. He'll find something there. He loves Rockford Files. He watches with me when I take my notes. He'll find something there. He'll find a spot. Yeah, he loves Rockford Files. He watches with me when I take my notes. We'll go now and start it. Yeah.

And then we'll come back at the first break. Yeah, we'll come back at the first break. We'll say how long that was. Yeah. And then you'll pause it. And then you'll watch it.

And then you'll come back and listen to us talk about that very first part. Just our reactions. Obviously, we can't tell you about the entirety of it. Right. Because we have never seen it.

This is fresh eyes. We'll see how it goes. Yay! All right. So, 17 minutes. And you should pause. Hello, listeners. We really appreciate you being here.

And we want to make sure that you know that you can become a patron over at patreon.com slash 200aday. In addition to episode previews and access to the 200aday Rockford Files file spreadsheet, our patrons get plus expenses, a bonus podcast where we talk about movies we're watching, books we're reading, and games we're playing.

200aday will remain free to all for as long as we do it, but if you want to help support us and get access to the new plus expenses audio feed, you can become a patron for just $1 an episode. Each episode, we extend a special thanks to our Gumshoe-level patrons. This time, we say thank you to Jim Crocker. In addition to supporting the show,

he also sells our games at conventions east of the Mississippi. See where to find him at JimLikesGames on Twitter. Shane Liebling, if you play games online, you know you should check out his free dice-rolling app Roll For Your Party at Roll rollforyour.party. Kevin Lovecraft, hear him on the RPG Actual Play podcast, the Wednesday evening podcast all-stars, over at misdirectedmark.com. Jay Adan, check out his amazing miniature painting over at jayadan.com.

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and check out patreon.com slash 200 a day to see if becoming a patron is right for you. And now you're back. So, yeah, how do we handle this now? Normally we do a little, like, recap. Yeah, well, maybe we'll just uh, so the high, we'll just

do the high level and then maybe, uh, talk about the things that jumped out to each of us as interesting or remarkable things. What has happened in our first 17 minutes? We have an opening montage of homelessness in LA. That's the...

Sorry, I shouldn't say opening montage because that means something very specific to our show, but there is like... Under the opening credits. Yeah. The sequence that we saw established various people. Yeah. Right.

So... In a public place. Starting off at the Wacky Wax. Yeah. We got to see the Wacky Wax right off the bat. Okay. What... What is it?

What is a Wacky Wax? So the woman stuck her hand in the vat of wax. Like, for some reason it wasn't that hot. And I looked delighted. It was just like covering her arm. What are you doing with that? But the two of you reacted to that in a way like I wasn't really paying attention.

I only noticed because Em had called it out from the location. Oh, that's right, yes. It was like a real business or something from Santa Monica where they shot. Huh. Well, that's wacky. Now, okay. If any viewers out there are familiar with Wacky Wax, let us know.

Yeah. Let us know. I've poured like candle wax and did like molds of my palm or something like that where you could see like the little grooves, but I've never stuck my whole hand in melted wax. Or paid someone to stick your hand in melted wax. It seemed like a carnival stand of some kind. So I don't know, maybe you get a prize? It's wacky.

It sure was wacky. So far we've had a lot of very relevant to today themes. Oh, yeah. So far, we've had a lot of very relevant to today themes. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, we're starting off with this picture of the panhandling and homelessness in Santa Monica. And then Jim enters, because he's leaving a movie, a film version of the brief. Based on the book.

Right, based on Beth's book that, as we know from the last movie, he didn't like. Which I had completely forgotten about until I saw his face coming out of this, and I was like, oh, he didn't care for that movie. And then when I realized that, when it became evident that it was based on Beth's book, I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, I

remember. That was a scene. That was a whole thing. And then he has the one-liner at the barbecue where he says that the movie was better paced than the book yeah oh god what is going on but uh yeah so he leaves this movie theater runs into angel first yeah i love that of course when he Angel, he tries to get away with it. And then sees, who turns out to be Scotty, his godson, Dennis Becker's son, who is indeed panhandling and homeless. And Angel, that pillar of the community, makes some cutting remarks about people. He calls them like a vermin on the body. On the body politic.

Oh, goodness. Yikes. So this sets off our story thus far. Jim is trying to help out Scotty. So he gives him 100 bucks. 100 bucks, yes. They look like 100 bucks. Yeah, he comes back.

He gives him some money to start off with. And then when Angel says some stuff, he gives them change along with it, which was a little weird, but okay. And then he comes back with $100, which, again, we'll know that's $163, somewhere around there, and 50 cents. But anyways, but he's done more than that because he arranged a room. Yes. I mean, his... His thing is, you know, oh, you're

homeless. Oh, you don't have a job. I will help you with these things. And so he arranges for a short term rental at a sketchy motel where first we went, is that Angel? And then when he opened the door, it turns out, huh,

apparently Angel runs and or manages a hotel now. Yes. Or a motel specifically. And Jim also looks him up with a menial job at the restaurant in Paradise Cove. Across the parking lot from his trailer. From his trailer, yeah. Now, during that time when Scotty

really didn't work very much, he made a comment about engineers? Was he joking? I think he was joking with the guy. Did he go to school? No, no, no. Because they're working in the water. So he was just saying, look at us hydraulic engineers.

Right. Like he was just inventing it. The job that he's given isn't working in the restaurant. It's the guy needs someone to clear the like drainage ditch behind the restaurant that's full of trash and like human waste. Yeah. And he assigns this guy from El Salvador who doesn't speak very good English

and Scotty who then has a soliloquy about how the American dream died with our grandparents and this is what we have to you know to look forward to now it cuts to the bone hearing that from 1996 and also very specifically is

contrasting scott with this guy with this uh presumably an immigrant from el salvador who's saying for me this is a great job like i'm fine like this is better than my other options and scott is like this is like we're getting we're get E. coli. So there's some business going on here. Maybe this will become more clear. But there are meaningful looks between this guy and Scotty. And at first I thought, oh, Scotty knows him. But then this guy doesn't act like he knows Scotty except for that first look. But Scotty knows he's from El Salvador.

I think he, like, recognizes his accent. It could be. Yeah, there's some implication. There's something going on. I think there's something. Like, obviously... Yeah, both might have just been, they both realized they weren't going to be working in the restaurant. Or that's when Scotty realized,

oh, I'm not going to be waiting. Or I'm not washing dishes. The backstory as established for Scott, because Jim asks him what happened, and then Jim talks to Dennis, who is working a second job, working security at a concert venue, where he specifically references Hole. Yes, he does. And Courtney Love. And Courtney Love, yeah.

Which is amazing. And Courtney Love, yeah. Which is amazing. And the New Age concert. Yeah, with harps. Celtic harps. Which New Age with harps is something Celtic. So 90s. Was it Clannad? It could have been Clannad.

That's what I'm hoping. He didn't say it. They'll have to be right ahead, Kenneth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to pay off one of Scotty's debts, right? Yes. So Scott, so Scott, I guess it has had a string of failed business ventures.

And apparently the big one is some kind of kayak rental business where his part, and this was all from the conversation with Dennis. And I feel like this is the, the, the locus of maybe where the story is going to go. But he had a partner in this kayak rental business who's basically suing him for, or is threatening to sue for his half because the business went belly up and he blamed Scott.

And some equipment disappeared or something. Yeah, it probably got stolen. Right. Scotty says it got stolen, I think, but the partner claims that Scotty sold it. Yeah, and sold it. And so it seems like Dennis is paying off Scotty's debt to that partner. And so that's why he's working with some $9 an hour concert guard gig after hours. $9 an hour.

Oof. I don't need to tell you that. That that wage hasn't changed since 1996. Oof. Oh, boy. There was another business mentioned, not in this scene, but in another one. The Jack Kerouac Museum. The Jack Kerouac.

The Traveling Jack Kerouac Museum, which was an 18-foot trailer. That was one of the truck hitch things. There were two things that went wrong. One of them was the hitch didn't work, and the other was, oh, he forgot to get the rights from the estate. It's a classic Disney Sony Spider-Man trip. So, yeah, so Scott had problems with these business ventures and uh at no point though obviously dennis and peggy because we get to see peggy who is always a joy and is

exactly the same yeah as in no she's great yeah 70s like same sweater of her shoulder yeah um obviously they know that he's in financial trouble, but the fact that he's homeless, he's kept from them. So we ended our first segment with Jim after a nice barbecue dinner with his brother Jack, who's a police captain who was there for fun, telling them and Dennis being real mad. First, absolutely saying it couldn't be true. And then saying, why didn't you tell me? Yeah.

So, yeah. And we actually did see Scotty at the dinner. Yes. And there was an exchange of money and some heartfelt hugs. Yeah. Yeah. So Dennis is clearly paying Scotty some money for something. Probably not for what Scotty is telling him.

Says what it is. And this whole thing is also, and Scott has a room at their house. Like, Scott could be living there. Right, yeah. Some stuff that he said to Jim indicates that he's, you know, isn't very happy with his parents. He had a comment about, like, Jim was trying to reminisce about a fishing trip. Yeah. And he had a comment about, like, was myce about a fishing trip and he had a comment about was my dad even there or was he off chasing

the hillside strangler so it seems like obviously Scotty doesn't feel like his parents have always been there for him or support him there's a wedge there and this is like a classic tale of that era which is all we see

of Dennis is that he's always working. He's always working. Yeah. Uh, in order to pay off Scotty's debts in order to like support the family. And then of course the, the, the dilemma is,

is that Scotty, he's sort of blaming the fact that he didn't spend much time with his dad for where he's at and what's going on. Um, but yeah, uh, so far so good. I'm hooked. I mean, that he didn't spend much time with his dad for where he's at and what's going on. But yeah, so far so good. I'm hooked. I mean, they had me from the harmonica

at the very beginning. There's an interpolated harmonica and a different synth score than the previous synth scores. Yeah, there's also been some kind of interesting political references. a lot of references to republicans right yeah well and yeah so everyone is calling the person they don't

like a republican which is kind of fantastic from my perspective uh but yeah scott uh scott specifically is like when jim first runs into him it's like i don't need your like republican charity or something like that and because and jim's literally like you need to get a job so he is being like go like like hey you know you bum go get a job like he is doing that line but because we know jim yeah i read that more as take responsibility for yourself and less victim blaming in this yeah There's a, well, it's interesting. Like as Jim specifically says later on,

when the Kerouac museum comes up and he says, I had trouble getting the rights for to Jack Kerouac. And Jim said a Republican would have secured that before buying the trailer. And, uh, and he specifically says, I don't vote on any ticket. Don't call me a Republican.

I don't vote down the Republican ticket. Yeah. So it's interesting considering when this is, so this is 96. We were talking about this a little bit. This would have been Clinton, right? 96 Clinton.

So in the middle of Clinton, the middle of Clinton. Yeah. And probably during scandals, right? Like at that point, it would have been a little of Clinton. The middle of Clinton, yeah. And probably during scandals, right? Like at that point. It would have been a little pre- scandal. Oh, okay. But this is probably being written in 95. This is in the Contract with America

era. So this is Newt Gingrich bringing all the Republicans back into office against Clinton. And this might have been written even earlier because these didn't air in the same order they were produced. Right, right. So it could have been written even earlier because these didn't air in the same order they were produced. Right. Right. So it could have been written earlier in the nineties too.

But the Rockford files obviously goes back to the seventies and predates Reagan. Right. And that is a big shift in the Republican party. Uh, I am not the one to talk about this, especially two beers. But, uh,

I think that like, there's an interesting dialogue going on here that would be of a completely different context, but mere today's dialogue. Scotty needs a Twitter account. It's more a generational

divide than an actual point. He's using the term to feel... You're old. You are an old person judging me. Right. divide than an actual point. He's using the term to be like, you are an old person judging me. Right. And that's fair. But this is all basically family drama.

So far, we haven't really had a mystery or a crime. I think you're right about that business being sort of... I feel like that might be where that comes in. It felt like that too when he talked about it. Like the family drama, especially the scene in Dennis's backyard at the barbecue. I loved that scene.

The looks and tension that happened between Scotty and Jim were great. Yes. We don't know while that scene's going on that Scotty has since quit his job and stolen from his job. Right. Well, we stole a steak dinner. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, but Scotty says, I got to get going. There's people waiting. So that's ominous. Like people. Yeah. That was ominous.

And then, uh, like dad, can we talk about that thing we were going to talk about? And they went inside and there was a bunch of money. a bunch of money yeah and then the cut i love this cut isn't just to the argument everyone's gone and scotty's left yeah and dennis is like homeless and jim and peggy yeah yeah and watching jim peggy and dennis have this fight this argument this discussion uh i thought that was great.

I think that was very well done. I think we mentioned it's a David Chase script, and I think this is like it's doing that stuff. It's like we don't really care about linear time so much. We know where we are, but it's a little bit of a surprise. It's like, oh, that was a week ago. So there's some time lapses that get filled in, and that explains why there's such an emotional charge with Dennis,

when he's yelling at Jim. And all that gets revealed through the dialogue. Yeah. And it just clips right along, which is great. And the dynamics between everyone, because Peggy is concerned about her son, but Dennis completely gets unhinged mad at Jim immediately, because he can't be mad at his son, even though he is mad at her son, but Dennis completely gets unhinged mad at Jim immediately because he can't be mad at his son, even though he is mad at his son. But Peggy's like,

you've got to listen to him. He's trying to help him. So everybody has their own perspective in this conversation. That's something that I've always really appreciated about the Peggy character. Even though she's not in a whole ton of episodes, she really seems like

an individual person who has her own perspective on the other characters she's not just Dennis' wife an extension of Dennis she's like, she's Peggy she has her own, the people she likes and people she doesn't like

and her own emotional connections one of the moments when that really shined was in the first Rita episode where you just have this tension of like, what's going to happen? Like, why did you bring this woman into my house? Yeah. And then Peggy's like, oh, I see why she's a great person. It turns out that those two stick in the muds were the real problem. There was one other fun character moment that I really liked about Interplay and that was when Jim brought

Scotty to the room and we realized that Angel is the manager and Angel is like gloating over the fact that it's Dennis' son. Oh, yes. Okay, let's talk about Angel for just a moment. I mean, my favorite topic, but so far, he

is conveniently in it. Now, I understand for a little bit, because if you're going to do these movies and you want to bring back as much of the cast as you can for each one, because that's what the reunion's about, right? But he runs into Angel on the street. street and then there's it makes sense that if angel is managing a uh a motel that jim would use angel to get a deal on a room but it also doesn't need to be yeah it doesn't need to be angel and like does angel ever manage a hotel like well he's not well no yeah he had this interaction where there's another person who's staying at this facility and who's furious at him because he's doing nothing. Right, because his toilet doesn't work. He could just go down to the hardware

store and be like, no, it's not in order. The bar will be here. And this guy said something about his family coming and I feel like I'm hoping that that pays off in some way. We'll see. Should we get back to it? Alright. Oh no, we will be back but you don't need to pause until you hear how long until the next break.

So we'll come back and then tell you the number. Yep. Sounds good. So pause it at the 26th minute mark. Was it? About, yeah. Yeah, somewhere in there. You'll know.

The screen will go black and Epi will go, whoa, wait a minute. Is that a commercial break? So there's the plot. Yeah. For the plot. Yeah. For the vengeance. So one thing that we missed in the earlier one was discussing the couple that Scotty accosted on the street early on. Right. When he was.

With Jim. Yeah, panhandling and Jim first saw him, basically. They have come back with a vengeance yeah it's a guy with an english accent and a woman with an italian accent um this segment just ended with becker and jim trying to track down scott because he's not in the apartment that jim had rented him we'll talk about that in a second. But they track him down. He's playing bass on a street corner instead of going to Seattle with a band, like he told

Dennis. Now, was he getting his old band Homicide Dicks back together? Yeah, it was a tribute to Dennis. That's what he said. And so we have

more drama with Scotty Dennis. And so we have more drama with Scotty said that he was going to be doing gigs with this band but then it was a bummer and the guy just wanted to talk about old debts from seven years ago so he quit or something. Something about the costumes?

There was something about costumes. Before any of this comes to a resolution, this guy, this couple reappears. The guy shoots at Scott and just, like, jumps on him, tackles him. And we get a big scuffle. The base gets destroyed. Base gets destroyed. Jim gets punched in the face.

Oh, yeah. No, this is a good fight. Like, Dennis destroys the base by accident. He falls into it and can't get out of it. This is good stuff. Yeah, the guy goes to punch Scott. Jim is holding Scott's arms to keep them from fighting. Scott moves his head, so Jim gets punched in the face instead.

It's very good. And then the cops show up with a lieutenant, apparently. Yeah, I recognize that guy. So I'm going to go to the IMDB and I'm going to find that out. The couple has a story that even though they jumped him this time, he jumped them in an alleyway. Like 10 minutes ago. And hit him with a traffic cone? That's what he said.

And he's going to show the cops the bruise. And so Becker keeps on trying to be like, hey, Lieutenant, that's my son. I'm, you know, Lieutenant LAPD. Let's talk. And the other lieutenant has no time for it. And calls Scott Jamie or something. Jesse. Jesse.

When Becker's like, his name's Scotty. And then, oh, me and Scott go back a long way. So clearly there's more history there as that's all resolving Jim looks at the woman and it looks at a magazine rack because it's the 90s so there's magazine racks yes uh and she's the cover model for like a fashion magazine to which you remembered that apparently there's a fashion angle. Yes, in the description which we've just sort of forgotten because we're so wrapped up in the

Dennis' son situation. So the lieutenant, the reason why I recognize his name is Dan Loria, but he's the dad from Wonder Years. So that's what, yeah, that's we can now play Three Degrees to Columbo, right? Pure Princess Bride.

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so this appears to be our, yeah, our plot. Yes. There it is. Is kicking in. We should, okay, so let's rewind a little bit. We'll go to where we first got back. Right.

We get back from the commercial break and Jim is fixing his car. Right. And Dennis is coming up to him, hat in hand, metaphorically speaking, to apologize and to find out where his son is. I think it's a legitimate apology. I kind of wondered if this was a thing that

Peggy made him to do. A little bit, yeah. But it felt legitimate. And Jim is revving the engine on the car to ignore Dennis. This is another great scene. I really enjoyed

the chemistry between the two. Neither of them has slept all night. Yeah. Because they're upset about what happened. There's this thing going on where Dennis wants to ask Jim to come with him, but can't. Right. Because he's, you know. Because Jim's just being like, sure, fine, whatever.

Yeah. Rev, rev, rev. And then Jim's like, Dennis, do you need someone to come with you? And so they do. But the first thing I need to say here is that, yes, you couldn't just give that address to Dennis and not expect Angel to be murdered before the end of this episode, right? Yeah.

Like, I should come with you. Yeah. So they go to the motel, and it turns out that Scott has rented the room out to... Sublet. Sublet the room out to... I think Raymundo, I think is what his name is. Raymundo, yeah. We can check that.

Yeah. But the guy that he was assigned to work with... At the restaurant. At the restaurant. At the restaurant. Yes. Who is fixing up the whole place, sanding the windowsills. Yeah. He's painted.

He's Ray Mundo. Yes. Ray Mundo, yeah. He's, again, hitting this theme of the productive immigrant worker, right? Right. Yeah. And sort of the entitled kids you know younger generation here there's a contrast there

he's scamming him he's renting it to him for $225 where first of all he didn't pay anything but also it only cost $200 for that room as it turns out not only is he

doing that but he's doing all the handyman work for Angel. Four hours a day. Four hours a day. Jesus. In return for that, Angel is paying him in English lessons. Oh, Angel. And that line Jim had, when you look in a mirror, do you see yourself? Yes.

Yeah, do we even you see yourself? Yes. You even see your reflection. Yeah. And then the amazing finale of that scene where Dennis just wants to know where his son is, Angel says the last, what does he say? He says, funny thing, the last person I rented the room to, all I saw him ever working on was a 40 of Old English. And then. Which is malt liquor. Yeah, yeah. And then he hands the address to Dennis, and Dennis looks at it. As Dennis has his

lapel in his hand, like, gonna sock him. And he goes, that's my address. And Angel's response is like, well, there you go. Yeah, he like clucks. He's like Oh, man. So disappointed. I've seen Dennis and Angel at each other

but never like this is... An Angel even says, what if I tell you? Are you going to lose the paperwork next time I get hauled downtown on some popcorn charge? Like, what's in it for me? Yeah. So that's all leading up to them.

To Jim and Becker finding him and then this is all so now I guess we'll see what's going on with this story and why Jim was like Jim is the one who's like looking at her and looking at the magazine and being like

he's putting something together so I assume that he will he will tell someone and thus thus us, what's going on. I don't know why Scotty's mad at them. Yeah, that's all been totally off screen so far. I will say that there's a wonderful moment of Rockford-file-ishness. In that sense of who-ishness. Yes.

In Our Dear Departed, Terrence Dix expressed about always having to have a Doctor Who. There's the Rock who-ishness. Yes. In Our Chair Departed, Terrence Dix. Yes. Expressed about always having to have a Doctor Who. There's the Rockford-ishness. Yeah. And this is, there's the fight, right? The scuffle. And Dennis is trying to pull his son off of this stranger. And Jim is trying to pull the stranger off of Scotty. And the cops show up. During that whole

bit when the cops first show up, Dennis says that he's a lieutenant and that the cop played by Dan Luria isn't having any of it. He's like, is this your jurisdiction? Then no. Like, you know, blah blah.

Jim goes, I think I can explain. And he's like, who are you, Mr. Explainer? you know, like, blah, blah. Jim goes, I think I can explain. And he's like, who are you, Mr. Explainer? It's just like, like, like, Jim's like, listen, I am the reasonable voice in the room. And this guy's like, I don't care. Like, you're not in charge here. I don't know who you are. That was beautiful.

That was just. Yeah. I don't need to talk to you. Yeah, exactly. We don't need you here. Rockfordishness. Rockfordishness, yes. Or rockfishness. Yes, rockfishness.

There you go. We'll let you know the next... When to tune back in. Okay, so 40 minutes in. There we go. We skipped, I think, one commercial break there. We realized that this will be even longer than our usual episodes if we don't take them in slightly larger chunks. All right.

Let's travel back in time. Oh, God. This is what happens when you don't take notes. We've ended with the fight. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. so there was the fight his son got arrested yeah so

this guy gets arrested despite Becker's best attempts to make some kind of police deal you know just us officers the other lieutenants having none of it I like that Rockford kind of calls him out on it.

It was just like, yeah, that's not right anyways. So while Scott's in jail, Jim and Becker go to talk to the fashion... I think we said she's a fashion model. She's a fashion

designer and model. So she has her own house, house, house of pharma. Yes. House of pharma. Um, so she's the designer and,

uh, the, her husband like runs the business. And so they go to talk to them and because Becca wants to try and straighten things out. Their story essentially is that Scott panhandled from her a couple times. And she was very nice and generous.

Gave him what she could. Bought him food. But then he started demanding it as opposed to asking for it. And that apparently led to these altercations. And I brought this up when we were watching it, but this still feels not right.

Like they're telling a lie about something. And I wondered if that was a blackmail angle, right? Because we're still looking for the crime at this point. But, I mean, obviously now, now that we've seen this segment, that we know what the crime will be. So there was an interaction in there that I thought was, obviously now, now that we've seen this segment, that we know what the crime will be. So there was an interaction in there that I thought was, you know, that I think is clearly supposed to be like, when the husband starts talking for her. Oh, yeah. And then she's like, stop talking for me.

I hate it when you do that. And he kind of has like brushed off a little bit. And then he has someone bring him mineral water or whatever. There's a little bit of business with that person too. Yeah, I'm going to say not just someone. The murderous. That's where

I put my money right now. My money's on him. Okay. Well, it might be a duo. It might be a duo thing. He says, can I get you a mineral water? And they say no. And then he asks for water. And the woman that brings it, we see her a little bit earlier.

So we see her again. So this is twice now that we see her. And she's one of the designers. She's not like the secretary. And it's a thing. Elizabetta says, why are you playing waitress? You're one of the designers. She's not like the secretary. And it's a thing. Elisabetta says, why are you playing waitress? You're one of our designers. There's a look.

There's a look between him and her. And I didn't at that time think, ooh. But then when the murder happened, I was like, oh. But that's me playing detective based on how the film is. The biggest film. Yeah, what the screen, what the camera is showing us. Yeah, and not actually doing the Rockford work that Rockford's about to do. Also during this time, Jim gives his godfatherly advice that Becker needs to just cut Scott off.

You know, they kind of call out the, you know, I was never there for him. Jim gives his godfatherly advice that Becker needs to just cut Scott off. You know, they kind of call out the, you know, I was never there for him. And, you know, that's hard for a kid. And then Jim's reply is like, sure, but then you also overcompensated. And like, you've always supported him even when he's failing. Right. He's never, he's never had to. He's in college. Yeah.

Like he's never had to rely on himself right um and so becker agrees that he should cut off and it sounds like this is a thing that peggy's been telling him as well i mean he says that's what peggy said yeah i gotta say like becker as a character is great he is so in his own thing he's's so flawed. Yeah. Well, like, okay, so this thing that he has where he's trying to talk the other detective, Gene, I think his name is, into letting Scotty go. And he's like, you think it would account for something that we're both tops. It doesn't occur to him that that's corrupt, right? Because this is my son. Yeah.

One of you pointed out he has this blind spot about his son yeah it's so clear that dennis like he's making every excuse under the sun for his kid yeah all the lines that that his son fed rockford we hear again from dennis or a lot of them like the the faulty hitch yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. And it's just bad timing. That's the problem. Right, yeah. When the writing for the Rockford Files is good, you have these characters that have a view of the world that allows them to see this,

and they behave exactly as you would expect somebody who wasn't seeing any more than that picture. And I think we as viewers tend to get Jim's view of the world. Right. So we tend to get like, it feels to us the real view, which is the one that we're offered. Yeah.

And in this case, Jim's kind of like been doing what he can to help, but he also, as you know, as we know, he cares so much about self-reliance. Yeah. About people

being able to handle their own business. And so he's giving Scott a couple chances. And Scott's not taking advantage of them. And so you kind of get the sense that he's kind of saying, I'm not going to keep throwing my money and support down this hole if Scott can't

reciprocate or at least take hold of his own business uh then we get into like some real oh yeah dark so stuff it's a bit of a hard turn yeah it's no no bees can die of loneliness so they go they go to get Scott. I keep wanting to call him Jesse now because that's his alias. They go to get Scott out of jail. They do take him out. Yeah. He's being released.

Yeah. But it's his 30th birthday. We don't know that yet. What we do know is that as he's coming out, he's seen a man die. A man was in the cell next to him crying and his cellmate punched him. And then what did he say? He had a seizure. He had a seizure.

And that was it. Like, it's dark. And Scotty can't think of anything but this. He's traumatized. Yeah, completely. Like, he describes that the guy had blue gums. Right. And Peggy's like, it's your birthday, the big trio.

And it's just like. Well, it's like, so it's Dennis, Peggy, and Jim. And you can see that at least Dennis and Peggy have constructed the story of like, we're getting our son out of jail. It's his birthday. This is like the first day of the rest of his life yeah like he just hit hot rock bottom and now we're it's going to be upward from here and then he comes out and it's a rockier bottom he's got his drill ready to go deeper yeah and so we had this extremely sad birthday lunch where they're singing happy I mean this is a little it's so hard

it's a little thick like it's laid on a little thick for me like singing happy birthday and stuff but also they're like trying to keep hold of the narrative with both hands yeah I think it hits home but it's like it verges into melodrama

yeah yeah I think this hits home, but it's like, well, all right. It verges into melodrama. Yeah, yeah. I think this is a scene that absolutely would have worked if a younger, oh, my God, why am I blanking? Joe Santos was playing Scotty. Like, I do think there's a little bit that. A little bit of, like, reaction. Yeah. bit that a little bit though like reaction yeah like like i think somebody like i think part of it is just the guy playing scotty i'm trying really bad to say he's not a good actor right but like it's it's not that he's not a good it's kind of like he he goes a little far with this

emotional beat there's not a lot of i don, nuance or... There's something that feels a little artificial to it. It feels like he's acting traumatized as opposed to like he's gone through a trauma. I don't feel it as much. Part of it, I think, is also the fact that we are trying to figure out if he's acting traumatized.

Right, that's true. He's a little bit of a con artist. Speaking of con artists, he's a little bit of a con artist and so we're not entirely sure speaking of con artists they have this birthday party and he can't possibly participate he gets to this point

where he's just talking about the smoke coming off the candle that he just blew out and he says life's just smoke aren't we yeah life's an, life's just smoke, aren't we? Yeah, life's an illusion. Life's an illusion. When you're born, the next day you're dancing the tango on concrete.

Yeah. Very Rockford-like. Is happiness even possible? He starts asking his parents, are you happy? Can you be happy with your widescreen TV? Is Bill Gates happy? Yeah. Which he doesn't pull out of his back pocket. Dennis brought Bill Gates up.

It's like, sure, but he's kind of trying to make the point of like, sure, sometimes lives are bad, but sometimes you're Bill Gates. Yeah. It's like, oh, right. And he starts talking about his priest. His coach. I think it was his coach. Yeah, it was somebody, some father figure in his life.

I actually thought that was really kind of good because you could see Dennis frustrated that he was looking to a father figure that wasn't Dennis. And that was a really decent moment. So Scotty's having a nervous breakdown. Like there's just no two ways about it. An existential crisis. Yeah. breakdown. There's just no two ways about it. An existential crisis.

It's a little bit like, yes, this is a crisis you go through as a teenager at some point. It sucks that it took you until your 30th birthday to get here. That may be a fault of the parenting. I don't remember how that scene ends, but I

do know that he just leaves. Dennis just leaves. Yes. The three of them are still there. Yeah. After saying like, you're done, you're done,

you're cut off. And I say this with love and then he leaves and he's clearly choked up. Yeah. He's starting to cry. But then we, we break the tension with the waiter coming over to give the bill to Jim. So, I mean, like, obviously I've not been keeping track of the money

that Jim... They went to a nice place for lunch. Yeah, and he's been paying for all these bills for Scotty. Like, Jim's clearly not making money on this one. We can say that right now. I think we go from there to the knock at the door. Yes. So there's a knock at the door in Jim's trailer, which is

always bad news. Turns out it's the cops this time. Well, it's one cop. It's Dennis. Dennis is upset because he just heard that Elizabeth... That didn't happen yet. No, it didn't.

He's just looking for his son. That's right. Yeah, I'm sorry. He's looking for his son. They didn't let Scotty use the car, and that's when Jim realizes that Scotty knows where the spare key for the car is. So the Firebird's gone. The Firebird is gone. We haven't seen the Firebird on

the road yet. No, it's only been, like, worked on. Yeah. Or, like, in an impound lot. Has that been the case for all of the movies so far uh at least one of them it was being worked on yeah in the first one in the first one it was getting rebuilt i'm i'm trying to think if he's driven the the firebird at all in the movies yet yes in the last one because't they drive up to the graveyard to see Rocky's grave? Yes, I think

you're right. I think that's it. Yeah, okay. Alright. Little theory I had going. Never mind. Alright, so. I feel like he did drive it a little bit in this one. But I'm not sure. He's ridden with Dennis in a moment he's going to ride with Angel. Right.

Right. So we, yeah, we get from the dramatic, the firebird's gone to, yeah, I forget exactly how they get there, but to the murder, right? They end with the car being disappeared. That might have been the commercial break that we didn't go to. Yeah, definitely. And then either the next scene or soon thereafter, they're at Dennis's house and they're watching the news. So I don't know what happens in between the car being disappeared. They definitely were at the murder scene, though. They show up there because there's the whole bit where the reporter shows up and pushes past.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. You're right. They're just going to like his haunts, right? Because that's like the palisade or whatever that he panhandles on. so that's i guess that's just where they went they went there to see yeah yeah i feel like or there's a phone call or something yeah and i can't remember how that well it's not too much gets to that i mean it's not terribly important yeah because someone says that her body was found in a dumpster and then we go to the lights and the chalk outline and all that stuff.

Our unfriendly lieutenant. Jean? Lieutenant Genture. Then getting the news was the bumper for that commercial when we decided to keep going. Right, and so yes,

they're at the scene and there's a toothless Bob, Toothless? Toothless Bob. Toothless Bob is a friendly panhandler. Who's offering up, he's a witness to the situation. Jim has to translate Toothless Bob to Dennis, but the Lieutenant Gensher knows him or like he can understand. Talking to him or something. Toothless Bob puts the finger on Scotty.

Says that he saw him there a couple hours ago. He gave Toothless Bob $200. Which Jim is like, that was my $200. Not appreciate that. It's great. Okay, so again, this is what I was getting at. Like, everybody is in their own head about everything.

Dennis is like, that $200 didn't come from her. You just said that all she had was a credit card. And they're arguing back and forth. And Jim is like, that was my $200. And Toothless Bob is like, you can't prove that. To Toothless Bob, that is $200 now. That's great. It's just this thing where Toothless Bob doesn't have our point of view.

He doesn't know that we're trying to solve a mystery that involves Scotty or anything. He just got $200 and maybe somebody here is trying to take it away from him. Anyways, I really dug that. They have, yeah. So more back and forth with Dennis trying to kind of intervene and like do detective work. Yeah. This isn't your jurisdiction. Get out.

There's this great moment at the end where Jim is pulling him away and says, like, I'll go talk to the lieutenant. And Becker says something like, I can't talk to him right now. Yeah, I should tell him about the car and I can't. And I can't. And then he goes and then he pushes Jim anything. Yeah, I should tell him about the car and I can't. And I can't. And then he goes and then he pushes Jim back and goes to back to tell him. And then there's like the TV

reporters show up and we get a little bit of exposition from them questioning the lieutenant, which segues into everyone's at the Becker house watching TV. So they know that he was driving a Firebird and they found the Firebird. The Firebird has Scott's fingerprints in it.

They named Scott Dennis Becker, son of a police lieutenant, Dennis Becker. While this is happening, Jim gets a phone call at the Becker's saying that his car has been found. It's impounded. And Jim is trying to get someone

to give him a ride, but nobody wants to interrupt the broadcast. The broadcast just keeps laying it on. In all of cop television, there's never been a cop more willing to tell the reporters every

detail. This reporter has great sources. The car was owned by the homeless man's godfather. Of course, no one there is willing to give Jim a ride, so he has to turn to his friend of

last resort, Angel, who is now in full bloom as a... He's got a scam. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a broker for day laborers.

Yeah. Oh, Angel. With his broken down Mustang. Mm-hmm. That every time they stop, without comment, he has to open up the hood. Right. Yeah. And fidget around.

Do something. Wild Jim, like, with all the keys. And tricks in the back, so he's got his whole spiel. Right. Yeah. Fidget around. Like wild Jim, like, and tricks in the back. So he's got his whole spiel, the whole business. Like, okay. Again, these are the movies.

And obviously this is a crowd that's done it forever and ever, but like these two, just, they just do it. Yeah. Like there's just the back and forth about the boom box, just uncommented on is just done. And getting in and out of the carbox just uncommented on is just done and getting in and

out of the car to do that like again there's no comment it's just pure physical comedy like these two are just oh yeah yeah uh angel's talking about the real promise of america entrepreneurship jim can see the the purple Mountain's majesty as he's talking this made me remember I think maybe in the first movie how like Angel was weirdly racist about like immigrant Mexican immigrants taking all of their

jobs and stuff because he had a warehouse scam that like a couple guys muscled in on and kicked him out of so he started saying these things and then I think in that episode there was a moment where he like a couple of guys muscled in on and kicked him out of it. So he started seeing things. And then I think in that episode, there was a moment where he like changes his tune because someone helped him out or whatever. But I was just like,

yeah, it was making me think of, uh, yeah. How his angel has always been happy with whoever, whoever he can scam. He loves them. Yeah.

And then if you can't scan them anymore, then they're, they're the problem. Yeah. Hey, maybe you should run for president. So Angel is driving Rockford all around doing errands where he's taking these people to

do like gardening and clear off roadside debris and stuff. We eventually get to the impound lot. Yes. Where? We get this slow pull focus on Angel left in the car. Or maybe it's not a pull focus. It's a zoom in.

It's just a slow zoom in. And I'm thinking, why are we doing this until we zoom out and Angel's asleep? And I get it. Okay. They've been there for a while. Turns out it's going to cost $200. That amount just keeps showing up in this episode. Well, if he had the $200, that would have been just good.

Yeah, because it was parked illegally in front of a fire station. Yes. So that's why it was towed. I'm terrified for that Mustang because they just left that car in front of the same fire station. Oh, yeah. Yeah, our cliffhanger. Yeah. was towed. I'm terrified for that Mustang because they just left that car in front of the same fire station. Oh yeah, our cliffhanger, yeah. Fire station, turns out, is across the street from a Zen temple, I think. Yeah, yeah.

I think it's... Yeah, for Zendo. There's like the establishing shot I think says like Zen temple. Yeah. Yeah. Jim and Angel go in to investigate because, as Jim says, Scott was having a crisis looking for spiritual guidance. Perhaps this is where he ended up.

Asks for Scott Becker, and the guy who answers is like, come on in. Angel, of course, is not very considerate of his surroundings and takes an apple off of a little shrine area where it's clearly an arrangement with a couple other pieces of fruit or something. It's a thing. Munches on that as they go around. He tries to tell the monk that he can get better gardeners for him. As they come upon Scott, just slowly raking an area, you know, meditating, doing a movement meditation.

Head's shaved. He's had long hair this whole time. Yeah. And now his. Big robes. Yeah. So he's gone from long hair with the navy hat to the long hair, no hat. And now he has shaved his luscious locks and his

luscious mulleted locks mulleted locks so Jim confronts him he says yeah sorry about that I was having a I was trying to save my own sanity he's like are you going to press charges and Jim's like it's not just

the stolen car there's been a murder and it's clear to me that he doesn't know yeah he's very surprised yeah yeah the show the husband died too yeah which i think that i was like yeah the husband totally did it there's some tension there that i think scott probably knows about yeah uh and that's going to be part of the the narrative going you know the key going forward of why he's involved, because he knows something about their relationship. That's what I think.

No, I'm with you on that one. But, yeah, I think we ended with a little cliffhanger on telling him. It's a murder suspect. Yeah, that they think it was you or something like that. Wait, was that the cliffhanger? I'm trying to remember now. Oh, no. Or was it just jim's

face when he asks if that's why i thought it was significant because like did her husband die too and jim makes this like very concerned looking face yeah and i think that's where we cut because his reaction was like oh that is a significant question coming yeah yeah something something in that vein key moments i guess we just kind of hit them as we hit them there but uh i like how this is keeping up a bit of a theme of each of these episodes has some kind of like alternative lifestyle yeah it like there was like in the first one there was like they called bookstore yeah and then second one you know it's all about the like religious religious communities and stuff.

The P.I. with his obsession with bugs. Yeah, yeah. That was weird, yeah. And then it's like, oh, and here we're going to feature some Zen Buddhists. I think it's great. It's also very California. It makes a lot of sense, but it is

kind of part of this overall little trend in these movies of like, we're going to go off and do something you probably did not expect to see in an episode of The Rocker 5. Alright, so we'll pause here, but you won't pause until you hear what the time

tag, you know how this works by now. Alright, we'll see you in a little bit. One hour, 12 minutes, and 52 seconds. Okay, welcome back. I think we're now into it where I'm just kind of like, All right. We'll see you in a little bit. One hour, 12 minutes and 52 seconds. Okay. Welcome back. I think we're now into it where I'm just kind of like, all right, now I'm just watching the show. Yeah.

Yeah. That naturally happens when I'm taking notes too, but, but because we're not even taking notes, it's a little bit like, okay, yeah, now we're just. Yeah. So. We're just in it. This is our, this this is our i guess our apology to the listeners here yeah if we're if yeah if we're getting worse and worse this goes on it's because the movie is fun yeah and it's getting a little hard to remember exactly i think very specifically this stretch has been a lot. Very action-packed. Yeah. Very action-packed

and very played for laughs. There's a lot of moments in this one that's a little less about the craft and more like here's a funny beat. Yeah, there's more gags. Yeah. Oh boy. So Jim convinces

Scott to turn himself in from the Zen temple. And, oh, man. Wow. It feels like so much has happened since then. Did they get him? He go into prison and they get him out of prison? Yeah. And they took him back to the temple and he's showing them around the temple.

Right. But that's after Jim has that mysterious encounter at the restaurant. Oh, yes. Yeah. So this we should probably talk about. This is good. This is good. This is an important beat.

So and I think it's like it's like Scott goes goes back to jail. Jim is getting his morning coffee or whatever at the restaurant. And a mysterious man with a duffel bag and jim sees a holstered gun like under his jacket comes in sits down and then starts asking the uh so it's like the guy who runs the restaurant or whatever they're they're they're short-staffed uh this is the guy who hired scott another guy to do the cleaning uh So he has to do the waiting. Starts asking him if anyone around there has a 1978 gold Firebird. And I think we do know.

Because he's the president of the Fire Club. Yeah, so president of the Firebird Club. You heard about it in the club newsletter. So there's a wonderful back and forth here where Jim pretends to be upset that his coffee isn't filled up so that he can get this owner to come over and tell the owner not to give him away. And then the owner is all in for Jim's antics. Because Jim's like, the guy with the gun who's searching for the Firebird gets up to get cigarettes from the bar. Jim's like, I got to look at his luggage tag. You watch the bar and just throw a tray or something like that to just let me know if he's coming back. Jim starts looking at the tag.

Does his whole business trying to pull a pen that he doesn't have? Right, he doesn't have a pen. so he's trying to, like, yeah. So we see him, like, counting on his fingers to, like, remember the phone number. Yeah, yeah. Which is fantastic. I literally had the thought, why don't you just take a picture of it? Yeah. Not 96, not then.

There is some amazing technology, which we'll get to in a minute. Oh, yeah, yeah. This owner, the restaurant owner, manager, whatever, sees this guy coming back. He's got a tray in his hand. He goes to throw it over his shoulder. And just to show off how badass this hitman is, he catches it. So obviously Jim doesn't hear the clatter or anything like that. But I think it so works because that keeps his attention

on the owner and gives Jim enough time to put down the tag and kind of scoot before he turns around. And then the owner throws it on the floor after he turns around. Yeah. Oh, that's good. It's very good. Yeah, so I was thinking as you said that, that this

scene actually does such a great concise job of being like, oh yeah, this guy's a badass. Yeah. Like, that's the way the actor plays it, too. He's very, like, confident and smooth and, like, you know, kind of dangerous. And then, like, that little move of just, like, grabbing it out of nowhere. Yeah. It's like, oh, oh, no.

And I think, I mean, obviously, again, we're watching this for the first time. So what I'm going to do here is hypothesize. But I think that one of the reasons why they're doing this is that he's not part of the other group. I think so too. He's doing a good job of setting him apart. And so he's from Seattle. Right. And Seattle's come up a couple of times.

Uh, Scott, he was going to go to Seattle and he had an old partner and he's like, I can't play with it because he's been bringing up the debts from seven years ago. So like, that's what I'm thinking about that. Yeah.

Um, and also his, uh, his name is what? Pine tree. Yes. Right. And he has,

uh, and he has, he looks, uh, Pine Tree? Yes. Mercer Pine Tree. Right. And he looks Native American. Yeah. Yeah. And he has like a feather earring. Like he's coded as Native from Pacific Northwest. And the other guy is coded very differently. Yeah. How coded is he?

What is he coded as? He's a buzzard! You can get into that a little bit, too. Yeah. So Jim manages to slip out without Pine Tree figuring out who he is. And then I believe we get into... Getting Scotty out. Scotty gets out. And that was an interesting moment, too,

because Scotty thinks that his dad just pulled a string, and his dad says, no, it's because they didn't have enough evidence on you. Right. It was all circumstantial. Scotty doesn't seem to be taking it seriously. Right. And so he's still in his zen, like, or in, like, saffron robes. He has a line of, you know there's really no difference

between like i see now there's really no difference between prison and the temple you can meditate in either place he has a little bit of the like the zealousness of the convert right right yeah okay you're all hung up on the duality and like it's all about the oneness and i have this is a thing this is my thing now there's no sorrow no joy like it's all about the oneness and i have this is a thing this is my thing now there's no sorrow no joy like it's all one but then once they get back you know he's like wanting to show his mom his room yeah all excited about his work yeah which so far right now is really just meditating like you're describing you feel just like raking yeah yeah like moving rocks around but it seems like it's just another escape for him.

Well, I think you mentioned while I was doing that, like, oh, yeah, he really wants structure. Yeah, yeah. He desperately needs structure. He has no idea what to do with himself. Yeah. But he doesn't want to work hard for that structure, put it in that structure. Yeah. That's what I was getting from his comments to his parents.

How long do you think he was at this temple? It was like a day. Yeah, that's what it felt like. I think that's kind of a gag. Right. That's the thing. There's something kind of... It's sticky.

It's sticky, yeah. There's something that works about this character being like, oh, this is my thing now. Yeah. And that totally works, and it's moving things forward, and it's keeping things interesting. And that totally works, and it's moving things forward, and it's keeping things interesting. But the way that the show is kind of treating Zen as a practice is a little more shticky. At least his approach to it. I mean, we don't really get to hear it from anybody else. There are some critiques by Jim, but I don't think – I really take it that this kid is kind of just using this as one more way to hide from his responsibilities of being an adult.

There's one other 30 year old. There's one other beat in this, which we'll get to in a moment that feels like they're. Well, I don't I don't even know how to. We'll get into it, though. The other thing I wanted to just kind of point out before we get there, though is, uh, I think I may have talked about this on a plus expenses or something. So Emily and I've been watching a lot of Dr. Who and of the early classic, classic Dr.

Who. Yes. Uh, the John Pertwee, the Patrick Trouten era specifically, uh, we've been listening to some of the behind the scenes stuff and they've mentioned this thing that happens with Dr.

Who, where sometimes you'll have them captured by the bad guy, escape, run through these hallways that they'll film from different angles and then get captured again. And then just resume the dialogue between the doctor and the bad guy, because they have to fill a lot of airtime. I'm not saying that that's what happened,

but Scotty going in and out of prison is a little bit like that. It's like, he's in prison, next scene we're getting him out. He's in prison. The contrast is wonderful, though. The first time he came out of prison, he had the break happen.

He saw someone die. He isn't quite getting to the point of realizing that, oh, the world is real. In fact, there's the opposite direction. Like, oh, everything is smoke, everything's nothing. Yeah, yeah. And then he has this religious coming to himself and to truth. And so then when he goes into prison, he's on this more level. In some ways, it really does feel like finding some kind of truth is what he needs

because he is more together. He's more grounded in his second way through. But it's still, it's all just all escape. Yeah. So yeah, as a narrative device it is a little kind of like back and forth-y. But I think the character progression does make it differentiate

each of these moments. Yeah. So back at of these moments. Yeah. So back at the temple, he's showing everyone around. The assault on the temple. That was the goofiest moment. There's the ring of the gong, and oh, it's time for a zazen.

But no, it is in fact a mafia hitman banging a monk's head off of the gong, which seems extremely unnecessary. Yeah, yeah. This is the worst hitman I've ever seen. Definitely not to pine trees.

Yeah. He never made that mistake. This whole bit is... I mean, this is like Benny Hill. Yeah. It's a little bit like they're like, we've made this entire set now. Now let's throw Hitman in and just do the fun things. Do whatever fun thing you want to do.

So it's a bit of a chase scene. There's a gag where this guy's taking shots. And there's a monk meditating. And not reacting. And not reacting. And he's down low, cross-legged. I mean, it's fine. Yeah, it's fine. One of the good things that comes out of it is that you do have this moment where Dennis,

maybe for the first time, Scotty sees Dennis doing what Dennis does. Right. Because he's like, Dennis calls out, says that he's PD. Right. And he has a gun because he carries a gun. Yeah. And also the seriousness of all of this is maybe even more evident than it was when he first went to prison.

We don't know immediately that this guy is coming to kill Scotty, but I think everyone there is thinking that. Like, there's no... And then it ends with Rockford doing an end run and... I'm not even sure what the layout is. I'm not sure where he was. Yeah, it was a little confusing.

I kind of lost track exactly who was where. But he gets to another side of a gate or a railing just as this mafia with his monk hostage. Oh, right, yeah, because he's dragging this monk as a hostage. Yeah. Which he wouldn't need to do if he hadn't been banging his head off the top. Okay. Not the smartest.

Anyways, so Rockford shoves the railing into him, presumably knocking it apart or whatever. He tumbles down with this monk down a set of stairs, drops his gun, reaches out for the gun, and I think... It's the original monk that they met. Yeah, the master of the temple. To nobody's shock and surprise. He reaches out just with one sandaled foot.

Yeah. It's like, oh, you beat me. Yeah. Like, I've shown up. I've grabbed a monk and just banged his head into a gong, took a bunch of shots in public. I stumbled down these stairs, but because you put your foot on my hand, I guess you win. And I'll go to prison. Yep.

I don't mean to complain, uh, but all of that is a setup for this exchange between the head monk and Rockford. That's yeah. Well, it has a little, I think it's supposed to have a little extra resonance because right before

all the commotion, right. Jim kind of has a break where he's like, why are you humoring him? Yeah. Like Scott, this is like, this is ridiculous. They, all the commotion, Jim kind of has a break where he's like, why are you humoring him? Like, Scott, this is ridiculous. All these wants that you're rejecting, like your parents did so much to provide them for you. You need to appreciate that. This is the Jim from Quickie Nirvana lecturing Skye about how she has to take responsibility for her

own life kind of coming out where he just has no patience for, as you were saying, like the pushing away reality with these kind of like chapter and verse. Idealized. Yeah. Kind of idealized spiritual pursuits. So he's, so as part of that,

he's kind of ragging on Zen as a practice. So this final beat, although it feels very dated, it was clearly intended to show respect. So that final beat is the monk doing the prayer hands bow

to Jim and Jim doing it back and then winking. Alright. to Jim and Jim doing it back and then winking. So. All right. Oh, and also he wants his 200 bucks to pay the parking bill. He doesn't care who it's from, but it's going to be from one of them.

That was actually kind of heart-rending because Jim is getting to the end of his rope. It's putting pressure on his relationship with Dennis. Yeah, right. Which, you know, aside from his relationship with Rocky, who's now passed away, like is his closest friend. Yeah.

And the fact that all of these shenanigans with his godson are putting this wedge between him and his closest friends. Yeah. So to the point where he's just like asking them for money. There's a moment where Dennis says, I can pay you if you want to help. Actually, does that happen later? Yeah, that's a little bit later, but yeah, that's fine. That's one of the threads here,

is like the bond between Dennis and Jim being tested. Yeah. So I'm not sure exactly what's happening next. I think then it goes to the police station because Gambino or whatever is being booked, and he has a lawyer who's speaking Italian or something. And so Becker's like, oh, you know Italian. He's like, I'm part Italian.

And Becker's like, I'm part Italian. We're peasants. That works out for him. He's not quite buying it. No, no. In his never-ending effort to ingratiate himself with this other lieutenant. now in his never-ending effort to ingratiate himself with this other lieutenant. So I think the stuff

from here includes we get a great TV computer interface of the interstate criminal database or whatever. We find out Pintree's identity and background. A real Windows 95 interface.

It's good. It's top of the line. And we get some conversation about the so the the woman the the designer her family their sicilian royalty and that was a thing that came up earlier when jim was like reading about it in the magazine or whatever uh and the fashion industry in sicily is going to be integrated yes the mafia. That's just how it is. There's a great, where Jim's like, you know what I'm saying?

And, and the figure's like, yeah, that's racist. And the other one, yeah. Yeah. Implying that like, well,

you know, there's a soian. Yeah. That's racist. No, the mafia there. He's like, don't you watch CNN?

They're all from the fashion industry. It's like, okay. Have you, the mafia, they're, he's like, don't you watch CNN? They're involved in the fashion industry. He's like, okay. Have you, have you, have you never seen a David Chase? I know we're getting full chase. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. So the, the, the, the working theory I think that they developed for us is that because her family is probably involved with the mafia, this is probably some kind of

revenge hit kind of thing. But why are they bringing down backup from Seattle? They just like, look. There's loose ends. Yeah. And the lieutenant ends up losing his temper with Dennis. And so we get his full thing,

which is, your son did it. We're going to prove it. Yeah, we have means, motive. We just need to find the weapon, which we will. And they hadn't mentioned a weapon at all, which is actually, I wonder if that's going to be a thing. We know he did it. You need to accept that and get out of my

department. Never come back. Never come back. Yeah. Part of the evidence is that, you know, well,

these guys think, must think he did it too because otherwise why would they be sending him? Right. So this is a, kind of an emotional thing going.

Like, he's very angry and loud. And then the beat after that is just Dennis going, he kicked me out. He can't believe it.

And I think this is where we come across the scene that you were... Because Dennis is giving Jim a ride back because he still doesn't have the fireboard back. Dennis gets to the point where he literally says, I'm begging you, Jim. Jimbo.

Oh, right, he calls him Jimbo. And he says, I'm asking you, I'm begging you, Jim. Yeah. Jimbo. Oh, right. He calls him Jimbo. Yeah. And he says that, I'm asking you, I'm begging you. And that's where he offers to pay him. And that's the point where it's like, oh, oh, that's like twisting in the night when you like offer to pay your friend. And Jim has been asking for money, but it's like all these intersecting. Yeah.

There's a bunch of things. Like somebody owes Jim money. I mean, the person who does is Scotty, but somebody from that family owes Jim money. He's offering to pay him, but also we know, we all know he's not going to get paid. Right.

We've been here before. Yeah, like... So Jim does give in, as We've been here before. Yeah. Like, ugh. So Jim does give in, as we knew he would. There's going to be a funeral service at the house of some big shot producer. Yeah. And so he'll go and check things out. And then we get into the rock tradition.

Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. Time for tradecraft.ishness. Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. Time for Tradecraft. 1996 style. Okay, so picture three Rockford fans sitting in a room watching this for the first time. It's a close-up

on a 1995 laptop. With the giant serial cord, like the big black cord with the two little dials. This laptop is like two inches thick. Yeah. Like, I don't know what computer in your pocket you're listening to this on.

This thing can burn the genitals right off a person. But what's great is that this laptop is hooked up to a little printer. This is in Jim's car. In Jim's car. Just exactly the size you need to print out a business card. Because we are seeing, 20 years later, the amazing advancement in technology. Can I just say, like, this is, it's wonderful. We all loved it.

We all squealed. Once he started humping and pecking on the computer. But when you really think about it, his little printing press is probably better. Because this is what's going to be inkjet printed.

It would be. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Yeah. But anyways, the point is. It was great, though. It was great. Yeah, it was true. His little health inspector badge.

This is cyberpunk Jim Rockford. Jim Rockford. At some point, and this is in the Firebird, so at some point he managed to recover the Firebird. Oh, maybe Dennis paid him. Probably. One would imagine. Huh. All right.

Well. I guess we'll find out. I bet there'll be a reference. Yeah. So, yeah, he hatches a scheme after seeing a fish delivery van go into this place to be this health inspector. delivery van go into this place to be this health inspector. And there's been an outbreak of botulism in the shrimp. And the ones they've tested at the depot have been fine,

but they still need to check these ones out. When we were watching it, I was a little critical of the con. Thinking back on it, I actually liked it. It's not even that he's making it up on the spot. You see him make it up and then execute it. It's not like... Sometimes when shows do this, they're just like, look at this. He's improv-ing or free-forming or whatever. But like you said, he sees

the truck go in. He's like, okay, this is my angle. You see him do the kind of cold read like, did you get something from Frank's fish? And then he's like, shrimp, that's what I thought. You know, like he didn't say it like that specifically, but, you know, went that route. Oh, and also the chef that he's dealing with, this is the Jerry.

I don't remember the name. Oh, yeah. We talked about before. Yeah. Parks and Rec. So he's a comedic actor. Yeah. He's there to be flustered.

Jim O'Hare. Jim O'Hare. Yeah. And respond, you know, in a big way to this threat. he's there to be flustered Jim O'Hare and respond in a big way to this threat I guess it was not a fast talking con

it was a long I don't want to say long con because that's a different thing it's a slow it's kind of a technical con we watched him cut up some shrimp. We watched him cut up some... With a penknife, which I was like, are you sure that's your strongest move?

Yeah. Like, if you're supposed to be this inspector, like, as opposed to, like, I don't know, getting one of the chef's knives or something. But whatever. It's fine. And then there's cleaning fluid for his eyeglasses. Which was cleverly primed for us because we saw him cleaning his eyeglasses while he saw the princefish going in. So technically that was very...

Then he eats the shrimp that he just put cleaning solution on. All right. Okay. But that's to establish that there's a texture, so he's going to test the shrimp out on the... So he's trying to maneuver his way that there's a believable reason for him to be mingling with the funeral. And eating more shrimp. And eating more shrimp. Yeah, let's be clear. Because he did not get his breakfast at that diner because he left too soon.

So he did not get his scrambled eggs and side of bacon. See, that's why Nathan's on the show. He's got an eye out for Jim's gut. What's the sound you use for the food? Oh, it'll go in right now. So his gambit gets an in and he catches the end of someone's... Eulogy.

Eulogy, thank you. Yes. Right. Which is important, too. We hear a little bit of what she says and then she gets hustled off the stage by the... The murderess. By the assistant designer. The person of interest. Yes.

At least by our group. I'm going to see if she has a name. And then Jim very adroitly pumps her for information. Yeah, and that's like the real cold read. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because she's like, it's so... I can't believe that that was going on

yeah it was terrible wasn't it like what would you do in that situation so this is great because you can see jim says i really want to hear um what is it ian levin that like the husband's yeah and she goes what a load of bull or whatever. And he's like, she's embarrassed that she's, he goes, no, I know all about it. Yeah. Establishes trust.

Yeah. He's fallen into that trap where he says, I know all about it. So she assumes he does and is not offering up information that he needs. And so he's trying to find a way. So he's like, to get it, to get it out.

What would you do in that situation? She goes, why change my hair color and leave him. And you're just like, what the f*** is going on? I think it's heavily implied that everyone knows that they were having an affair, the dog and his assistant. I think that's the implication. But it is leaving us as an audience in kind of a state where we might be surprised by the real story

there's a lot of room which is nice there's a little element here where there's a guy in a cot with like a medical kind of gurney this is her dad they're from Sicily

from Sicily this is Farama's dad. Yeah. Yeah. So part of that is a little bit of like, I wonder if this is being established for later, or is this just for that godfather joke? Yeah.

So I thought it was a fun joke. It writes itself. Yeah. It was great. Or they're like, oh, the godfather. He goes,

yep, right there. Like just. Right. Cause the husband comes up and he's like, oh, cause the husband knows that he's the godfather of Scott. Yeah.

And so it's like, oh, the godfather. There he is. Waka waka. But they kick him out. They kick him out gently, I think. They surround him with people, though. They do, yeah. Several guys, like, hustling him out.

That's right. And the chef is beating him with his hat on the way out. That's good. That was good stuff. Which feels to me just like, yeah, we're just going to do, like, just doing that for fun. And they're like, oh, That's good. That was good stuff. Which feels to me just like a, yeah, we're just going to do, like, just doing that for fun, and they're like, oh, let's just keep that in. It did feel like a...

So he gets in the car, he pulls out a cell phone, and he calls Dennis. Now, I don't know if he actually had Dennis on the line or he... He calls Dennis and he says, yeah, and he's like, I think I'm starting to see the picture of what's going on with Scott. And then there is a ominous gun come in the open window of the Firebird.

And there is the sudden reappearance of Pine Tree. Who follows up on the business in the diner in the morning about him being the president of the fire department? Right. Nice car. Yes. Is it for sale? It's a classic. Just before that, he does another classic, which is we're going to hit Jim across the back of the head and put him out.

Just that reboot switch. Yeah. The back of Jim's head. That's such a convention of media. Yeah. Right. It's back of Jim's head. That's such a convention of media. Yeah. Just knock somebody out, bump. Just hit him in the back of the head. And then, yeah, it's a classic.

So, I mean, what I'm saying is I'd like to read that as a commentary both on the car and on the move to knock Jim out. Jim might have a little bit of like, how did he follow me? Or how did you follow me? Or something like that. Maybe we'll Jim out. Jim might have, he has a little bit of like, how did you, how did he follow me? Or how did you follow me? Or something like that.

Yeah. Maybe we'll find out. These people are pretty good at following. Like show up at the Zen Dome, show up at the funeral. Although the funeral is pretty obvious. Yeah. Let's get into the theories here because we're going to probably go till the end. Yeah.

We're going to watch the rest of it. But before we get into that, let's place our bets. Okay. Let's figure this out. I really think Pine Tree is independent of the main plot. I don't think Pine Tree has to do with the murder. Yeah. I think he's a ghost of Scott's past.

Yeah. I think that what has to do with that murder is probably the husband. He's just, I mean, we're talking coded. He's coded douchebag. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's got to be him and the assistant. The assistant who's probably there.

Oh, yeah. Also. He lost some money. Rockford. Oh, right. There's, yeah. New designs. There's a plot point about, yeah, how they lost a bunch of money last year.

Like $30 million on the youth line. Yeah. And Rockford, in this stretch that we watched, brought up the fact that she didn't look at him when she came into the room. Yeah, he brought up the thing that we talked about. This is in case we weren't paying attention. This was important. Yeah. So is the Italian hit to cover, like, if Scott is dead, then he can't defend himself against the murder?

I think maybe. Or is that also independent, where it's like her dad thinks that he did it, and so it's like a mafia. Oh, that might be it. mafia so yeah oh that might be simply again it also echoes the family drama going on in dennis and scott peggy's family too there's a silly family's trying to kill him but badly yeah or let's go deep here the husband and model hired a bad sicilian hitmanman to make it look like it was a, this is a mafia thing to let, to lend just that era. Yeah.

If they think that he did it, then he must've done it. That's what I was. I was, I think there is something to him being bad at his job. Yeah. I think that it can't just be for comedy. Yeah.

And so I'm wondering if it's something like that, if it turns out that he thought he would get a good graces or he's not enough of a character yet for that to be the case, but we still have, I don't think we're going to see him. I don't think we're going to see him again. I think he's a plot. Cause I think there's something active that,

that douchebag is doing that Jim is going to uncover. And that's the only widget that I see that makes sense. Right, because there's this piece of our puzzle here, which is the fact that Scotty has been harassing him. Right. And has that whole thing been a setup to

build to this point? We watched Scotty harass him at the very beginning, like run away from Jim to harass this guy. Also, he focused on the guy. The guy. Yeah, the guy. Whereas when they talked to the couple, the woman, Fama, talked about having given

him some money and then being like, oh, that's all we can do. So you'd think that Scott would have been mad at both of them. But he wasn't really. He was focusing on the guy. And he was wondering if the guy had died. So I think he's blackmailing the guy. I'm going to go back to that original... Why would he accost him in public?

Well, study's not subtle. Or has the guy been pushing his buttons intentionally to make him do stuff like that in public? To give him the copper. Right. That's a possibility.

I can see it making sense because if the husband was plotting to kill his wife, then he would want to have a patsy so that the Italian mafia wouldn't come for him. So if he can convince everybody that Scotty

had some reason to kill her. Surely there isn't any motivation. Yeah. Um, then he at least can sort of like step into the shoes of the business and not have to worry. Just take over the business. Yeah.

Yeah. I think I'm, I'm sold on that theory. All right. All right. So let's put it to the test. All right. Well,

reconvene in mere moments for you, dear listener. Yeah. And see how well we did. Feel free to watch it all put her to the test. We'll reconvene in mere moments for you, dear listener, and see how well we did. Feel free to watch it all the way to the end, or if you've just not been paying attention to our weird conceit, you can just let it play. All right, well. Well, that sure was the end of the show. That was. Okay, let's just do the tally real quick here. I was wrong about Pine Tree.

Yeah. Em was right that... Scotty was a patsy. Yeah, Scotty was a patsy. Not in the Jemig Jones sense. In the traditional. Yeah. And you were right that he just needed...

Structure. Structure. I think I was right that we would never see that mafia hitman again. He was gone. Okay. Where we last left Rockford, he had

been pistol whipped. But that wasn't a pistol whipping. Not compared to what's coming to him. Yes. Pine Tree has thrown Rockford in the back of a white van, is driving him out into a valley to threaten him. Pine Tree has this wonderful affectation where he gets faxed wrong all the time. Yeah, yeah.

I'm wondering if it's because he makes a point that he got his information from the Internet. I wonder if they're, like like casting shade on the internet. Henry's got something to say. In case the listeners at home wanted to know, there are no buttons in our couch. All right. Well, the Henry entertainment. Yeah, we'll leave that interlude. Okay.

So he doesn't get facts. He mixes up little details. Like Sean Decker instead of Becker instead of Scott. Yeah, and so he's your nephew, not the godson. Doesn't Jim get him started on getting it wrong? Because Jim's like, weren't you looking for Mrs. Levine, which is the husband's name, but not Fama? Or the other way around. But anyways.

And then Jim goes through and corrects him on three different things. Yeah. I think it culminates with him referring to Scott Becker as Beckford and then calling himself out for it. Which is good stuff. Really, since we came back from that commercial, it's kind of a one-long scene. But he takes them to the valley to threaten them.

To be in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, Rockford says... The body's being found a year later. Yeah, Rockford says... We find out that he's specifically... Jim says something like, you know, I have a little Cherokee in me, if that matters at all. And I think he says he's like Tlingit or something?

Yeah, yeah. It's a very specific Pacific Northwest tribal affiliation. And he's like, we have a different set of concerns. Rockford lures him back to his house. Right, he says that they're keeping Scott at his house. Yeah, and then they get in the house says that he's, there's, they're keeping Scott at his house. Yeah. And then they get in the house and Scott, he's not there.

And this is all just Jim playing for time, which we've seen, you know, as a traditional Jim maneuver, as long as I can extend the time before they actually. Yeah. Hold the trigger. There's still something I can make something happen.

Yeah. Yeah. And then Jim makes his play for the cookie jar. He's like, my low blood sugar, blah, blah, blah. Haven't eaten in 12 hours. But Pine Tree isn't having it. He's on top of that. Yep, he sees that there's the gun in the cookie jar.

We get some Pine Tree backstory that makes him hate P.I.s and want to take it out on Jim. Yeah, that was our theory, too, that this is a backdoor pilot for the... For this strangely overdeveloped character. We get all of this in about two minutes at the end of the episode. Right. And then, probably because the people involved here are thinking, wow, we really like Pine Tree. We're afraid that the audience is going to really like Pine Tree.

We're going to make him commit the cardinal sin, which is where Pine Tree. We're afraid that the audience is going to really like Pine Tree. We're going to make him commit the cardinal sin, which is where Pine Tree picks up a picture of Rocky and says, is this Scotty's real dad? She's like, okay. And Jim says, no, that's my dad. And he smashes it. And in our room audible gas yeah um so it's established in there that

pine tree is responding to like basically a bounty that's been put out on scott by the godfather by elizabeth's father and he got it through the internet. And so Jim says, what, there's a murderforhire.net? So I looked it up, and there is not, in fact, a website called murderforhire.net, which is probably good, but... Was it.net or.org? Well, I'll check both. I typed in.net, so I think that's what he said.

No, those both appear to be open. So if we need alternative URLs to redirect to the show, murderfriar.net and dot org are both available. Oh, that's good. I want to go there. Really, really, really don't think I want to go there. But, yeah, I love that there's internet jokes. Yeah. Yeah. They they're like the internet

exists so they collect so yeah so so pine tree sees a the flyer for right for the zen temple and so they go there and yeah and there's a joke in the cut because Jim says, what, do you think that he would just stay at a totally unprotected sanctuary for months? And then we just cut to Pine Tree with the gun in his hand, like approaching, like the serial killer camera, like approaching Scott as he's raking. So there it is. So then they both have their mouths taped and they're in the back of the van. And they're brought to, I'm going to get the name of this. Back to the house. Yeah.

Don Gattiano? Don Gattano. Where he's staying. Which we know is not his place, but somebody else's or something like that. Is that like producer's mansion or whatever? It's the same location as the funeral stuff. All right. So we have. So first of have... This is where I feel like we go into the Agatha Christie.

It becomes like a parlor. Everyone is brought together. So, okay, there's the Don. The Don has a nurse or two. The Don also has goons that are non-speaking roles,

but they ostensibly only know Italian. Right. Then we have Ian, who knows Italian and English, and a little French as we'll find out. That is the husband of the murdered woman. Yes. And then we have, oh yeah, I was wrong about who did the murder. Then we have,

this is why I ain't not a detective in a whodunit we have Pine Tree and Pine Tree is presenting the Jim and Scott to the Don and is basically saying

here I found the person that has killed your daughter just like you want it you want me to kill him here or I'll take him somewhere else. Whatever works for you. I'll take him somewhere else and video record it. Yeah, yeah.

He's a modern big man. Everything that's said has to be translated by Ian, who we all know is the murderer. Yeah, it's really great. I mean, translated by Ian. Right. Who we all know is the murderer. Yeah. It's,

it's really great. I mean, it's a lot of it's played for comedy. Yeah. Yeah. But it's actually like as a technique, it's like, it's really kind of dramatic and compelling because the power at play here,

like the Don is, is absolutely in charge, but he's dying. Yeah. Right. He is the weakest person in the room, but also... Literally wheeled in. Yeah.

And they have a bit of a gag where it takes a really long time to raise his head. So the person with power over life and death that everyone is appealing to is literally in his deathbed. to is literally in his deathbed. Ian, the murderer, who probably out of everyone here has the least amount of power except that he's doing the translation. Right. He is the locus through which all communication needs to go. Yeah. You have Pine Tree, who is, as we've said throughout the show, established as the threat.

Like, he is, like, well, maybe not the threat, he is like well maybe not the threat but like very competent he's he's he's the one who's going to be able to to do this and then you have uh jim and scotty and jim's in his element things are unstable yeah and that's where jim thrives there's this moment like i guess we won't give a play-by-play of what happens here, but there's this moment where it really does look like Scotty's going to get executed, and he starts to tear up, and he's talking to Jim, and Jim's like, don't do that.

Don't do that in front of these people. Like, and then puts, like, a reassuring hand on his, like, like, I'll get you through this. We got this. But, like, you gotta work with me. Yeah. Yeah, like, you can't show weakness like in this way and one of the things i love about this scene is we're all on the edge of our seat to find out what the don's gonna decide yeah and to find out if jim can can communicate to the

don without ian uh there is a point where j is like, tell him what I said. I just accused you of murder. And Ian's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Jim's like, what are you giving him? The soccer game? And eventually we have to bring in Katinka.

Katinka? Katinka. The Don eventually cuts out Ian. Yeah. He's getting enough of a conversation where he just points to Rockford and says, you talk. Yeah. Yeah. So as an audience member, there's the different, because it's not giving us subtitles and stuff, right?

Yeah. Like the point of this is to, is so that we are in a state of uncertainty about what the Don knows or understands. And there's pieces of the conversation that we're understanding. Like at one point before Ian gets the finger pointed at him, he actually says to the Don that Jim is completely innocent. And we understand those two words in Italian. Yeah. Completo, inocento, or whatever. So there's little pieces that we're understanding,

but it's sort of like from Jim's point of view. Yeah. We're understanding as much of the Italian as Jim might be. And this is also, this is like a motif of this movie communication barrier. And then people kind of just like winging it. It's like, it's like angels doing that with Spanish the whole time.

Like just kind of like throwing in one or two Spanish sounding words and just assuming that people would understand. And like Scott and Raymundo kind of like they have a conversation without being able to understand each other so and Dennis and Scott

right that just keeps coming back so they do bring in the assistant the other designer. And it's Pine Tree who has to go do all this. He's the one doing the light work. And there's this great moment where you feel like everyone's just sitting there in dead silence waiting for Pine Tree to come back.

And they're watching soccer. Oh, right. Yeah. Oh, it's so good. So, yeah, she comes in and then uh you know she was different than i expected yeah she wasn't like a cold stone cold bitch right right she was actually seemingly genuinely um sad about her boss dying and her role in whatever had happened. Yeah. So she seems like she had no knowledge of the murder. Yeah. So she

tearfully, she takes his hand and tearfully confesses to the affair. Right. Yeah. Right. And that's like the key, that's like what the Don wants to establish. And Ian's defense is you're European. You're European. You understand. Sure, you take a mistress

but that doesn't mean you don't love your wife. So it's all out there. This is, I think, the most brilliant moment where everyone's case has been made. It's all out there. We're ready for the Don's judgment. And we sit there. Pine Tree is saying, okay, which one do you want me to kill? Yeah.

He's in like four times. I mean, like he wants his money and he's like I just need to know what to do I'll do it and then we're done and we're staring at the Don and it is the lady or the tiger right like the Don has died

and will never know who he has decided to have killed this is good news for Scotty. Pine Tree is like, okay, all right. Is anybody here authorized to pay me? To pay me? Someone tell me.

Clearly, Pine Tree is not going to get any money off of this. I was trying to figure out, why did they introduce Pine Tree? Right? But they couldn't have this situation if they had an Italian killer yeah right yeah

having the killer the um the assassin that was hired by him be out of the picture creates this yeah

no this is great totally different dynamic than if you just had somebody who was just gonna kill Scotty because you know he was supposed to

who didn't wouldn't care or wouldn't have the communication break down. So it made that all possible. He's a great inclusion. And like I said, this whole scene leading up to Don's death is just this wonderful balance of everyone both having the upper hand and not.

It's good stuff. It ends with a little bit of action. Right. Well, because basically Jim calls out Ian, don't think this solves your problem. We all know you killed her now. Of all of Jim's moves,

that was not the smartest, right? Jim should just walk away and get the cops in. But then we don't get the comeuppance. Yes. And the Jim moment of guidance at the end of that. Right.

So Jim sets off that. Ian runs. Jim says, get him, Scotty. And this is the moment Scotty's been waiting for. He can actually take decisive action. And this is after he's had kind of this semi-tearful

confessional with Jim. Just kind of sitting there waiting for stuff to happen. Where he's had kind of this semi-tearful confessional with Jim. Oh, yeah. Just kind of sitting there waiting for stuff to happen. Yeah. Where he's like, yeah, this Zen thing isn't really working out so well. We're both like, yeah, Em, you were totally right. He's been smoking and, like, going to watch TV when he should be raking. Yeah.

So he tackles him and he starts beating on him. And just before you think he's going to beat him to death, Jim grabs his hand and smiles. Stops him. Yeah. Like that's what this kid needs. Yeah. Like he just doesn't know where the lines are. He doesn't know what he should do.

And then when he does things, he doesn't know how to do them. So I think that's part of what's happening. Jim grabs him by the hand and says, it looks like what you need is a job that will allow you to do violence for the state. But with the instructor. We're not going to blame Jim for that. There's a familial influence here.

So cut to one year later. One year later at police academy graduation. Yes. This is one of the most egregious examples of, and justice was served? Yeah. Question mark? Yes.

Like, we assume that this, you know, gets introduced. I mean, Scott becomes a cop, so obviously he doesn't go to jail for murder. Right. So one assumes that, as happens so frequently in the Rocket Files, justice is quietly served in the background. It feels like it's intended to be a happy ending. But we, as audience members, know that Scotty's main thing is that he's a ne'er-do-well. And ne'er-do-well joining the police force is bad news. Yeah.

But aside from that... But the vector seems to be happy saying, like, it was in front of us all along. Yeah. But, uh, aside from that, but Becker seems to be happy saying like it was in front of us all. Yes. Nobody saw this obvious solution to this problem. It's like, uh, uh, uh,

but yeah, that, that was a fun episode. Movie episode, movie, epi movie, epi movie. Um,

yeah, the, I feel like the, the final act was like a real swerve yeah like I guess

it's all heading there I mean you can see how it all comes oh yeah no it wasn't like yeah it wasn't a total like where did that come from

but all of our carefully constructed theories yeah well it's like well because it actually didn't go into the details of the

of the murder yeah we don't know anything about we still don't know go into the details of the murder. Yeah, we don't know anything about it. We still don't know how it happened. What was the murder weapon? We don't know. He says, like, Jim has one line where he says, like, you beat her to death or something. But that's still a little. Wait, so we haven't proved that she isn't the murderess.

I guess. That's the implication. I think that's the implication. Sure, people have implied a lot of things. Right. There's still a lot of room for headcanon about what exactly. She shows up and turns on the waterworks just to get him in trouble. Yeah.

Because she thinks her life is. I mean, she was taken from wherever she was, dragged with a. In like a nightgown. Yeah. She had time to put together her story, that's what you're saying? Yeah. But this episode is a family drama. So the beats

that we got are the ones that are reinforcing, you know, because at the end of the dawn, it's his love for his daughter. That's his motivation. While we were watching that last bit, I was actually thinking, it had been a while since we saw Dennis. Well, he kind of launches

Jim into the last third of the movie. The lieutenant says, you can't come back. I don't want you ever to be in this. I think your son did it. And that's the moment where Dennis begs Jim to do the rest. And. And you're right. We don't see him after that.

Yeah. I mean, that's basically it. It was interesting to me that it went that route. Well, because we did need to see, like, Jim doing Jim stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Yeah. I really dug that whole ending scene.

Like, that would, if you made a movie out of that. You could, like, you sit, like, wait. Agatha Christie. like that that would if you made a movie out of that yeah you could like you said like wait you sit at the agatha christie situation where it's like yeah just you just start with that premise and then like you let all of the backstory unfold yeah like everyone trying to communicate to the one like power yeah yeah and just see like yeah no it's a great setup no it's great the structure is really really fantastic i think some of the, it's a great setup. No, it's great. The structure is really, really fantastic. I think some of the content is a little campy for me, especially because it kind of didn't start out that campy

and it kind of camped up a little bit over the course of the movie. But, you know, the humor also kind of ratcheted up, so that was part of it. I can forgive it a lot of that because there was a lot of this compelling dramatic stuff underlying everything. Rockford's not grimdark. It was not a grimdark time. So having

levity of this type mixed into the existential angst made sense. Yeah, I feel like with these 90s movies, they struggle with that particular dynamic a little bit. Because in the 90s is when everything decides to do the gritty reboot.

Yeah, it starts tilting over to primer stuff. But what we had prior is things like, I'll be back. So it had to have the jokes that everybody would talk about. Yeah, yeah. Is it the first one or the second one that had the ball player that was part of a satanic? Oh, that's the first one. They tried to imply they were part of a satanic cult. Yeah. Like, it definitely felt like the Rockford Files.

Was like addressing issues. Yeah, or including things that were of the kind that you would have now I honestly really thought this one like I think some of the previous movies we've been like okay waiting for them to get good yeah and I think this one is just like yeah this is a

just a Rockford stride yeah for sure there's a little bit of I think extra content to get it to the movie length yeah that's the thing like I, I think, extra content to get it to the movie length. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, I think... I've been talking to a chef for a while. Right, and we're talking about how, like, Angel, like, well, it's super fun. I'm glad Angel's in this.

But there's also a lot of Angel business that is completely tangential to the plot. So it's kind of like, eh. But that's not really a criticism. It's more just an observation. It's embracing us with character notes and then having a bunch of stuff that's a little bit like red herring-ish.

Yeah, there are a lot of red herrings. And reflected the, like you were talking about how the language barriers, it reflected, like it felt like it fit into the motifs of things. Yeah, exactly. Even if it wasn into the motifs of things, even if it wasn't a plot part. Yeah, it's all just coherent. Yeah. Porch buddies, yeah. Coherency.

Look it up. So there's probably a good script at the heart of this. It was based on characters that are well-developed and well-played. You know, like, I think that's what we're seeing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That it's a well-crafted story. And then the weaker parts were sort of like era. Yeah, kind of like of the time.

Yeah. Kind of. Or I think kind of like we're having fun with this. Yeah. Like, just like Jim and Angel drive around for a while. Because why wouldn't we do that? Okay, I think the last thing I wanted to say is that this was, I'm glad that we did this approach. Oh, right.

Recording pattern for this episode, or this movie, because this was a kind of one-to-one Jim audience knowledge. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, like, we really only knew stuff as Jim knew stuff. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not like we couldn't do this with one where we have more knowledge than Jim does, but then that would be more talking about, like, dramatic irony and, you know, that kind of stuff.

And here, we legitimately, at each of the breaks, as you heard, kind of like, all right, here's where we think this is going to go. Yeah, what's happening? And then, like, no, we didn't get there because we're just not as smart as Jim. Which was fun. I specifically didn't get there because I was... You were too hung up on your theory. I was too overthinking.

Like, I was doing the, like, it can't be that straightforward. It's a television mystery whereas Jim's like it's almost always the yeah he literally says it it's gotta be him let's just find it out well I was way over analyzing the mechanics of the

motive I love that stuff where it's like we really can track A to B to see of like why everyone did what they did. Oh, right. Yeah. This episode did not care about that very much. He did it. Yeah. Let's just go from that premise.

It's like, great. Here we are. Excellent. Well, thank you for joining us, Emily. It was great to be here. It's fun to get to be in suspense and that was a fun watch and yeah thanks for

going in on this experiment yeah it was a lot of fun we live figured out what we were doing do you I mean do you feel that we've earned I feel like we've probably earned a 90s era $300

for this day for our three detectives here. All right. Sounds good. So I guess with that, we will, as always, or until we run out of episodes, be back next time to talk about another episode. Oh, wait. Did I jump it? Of The Rocker Files. Oh, no. Damn it. episode. Oh, wait. Did I jump it? Of the Rocker Files. Oh, no.

Damn it. Three, two, one.