Two Hundred A Day - Episode 89: Caledonia - It's Worth a Fortune!

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

Nathan and Eppy spend some time in the Firebird in S1E11 Caledonia - It's Worth a Fortune! Jim is hired by a woman who's imprisoned husband buried a treasure trove, and she wants to find it in order to help get him the medical help he needs. However, he only gave her part of the puzzle. After her old flame appears with the other half, Jim has to both deal himself in and somehow keep them working together to find the fortune. Directed by Stuart Margolin, this is a fun, concentrated romp chock-full of Rockfordishness! We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Matthew Lee, Kip Holley, Dael Norwood, Dave P, Dale Church and Dave Otterson! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show * Spoileralerts.org (http://spoileralerts.org) for the adding machine audio clip * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

It's John Jones. What'd you do to the hand, son? Three fractured knuckles. You hit somebody? Welcome to 200 A Day, the podcast where we talk about the 70s television detective show, The Rockford Files. I'm Nathan Paletta. And I'm Epidaeus Ravishaw. And we were just talking before the show about how we haven't recorded in a while. Yeah. We had a bit of an impromptu summer break. Yeah. We had a bit of an impromptu summer break. So apologies for any, I don't know, any roughness as we get back into how we do the show, because it took me a minute to remember how to start.

For the historians that will be listening to this, this is the summer of 2021. So it was when we thought the pandemic was coming to a close just before it ramped back up again. So we just tried to get as much living in as possible, which is probably why the pandemic is ramping up again. All right. Let's not talk about that. Let's go on. Let's go back to better days. Probably better days. And this one kind of feels like going way back because it has been a minute

since we've done a season one episode. And here we are at season one, episode 11, Caledonia. It's worth a fortune. So this was your pick. So here's the thing. I'm going to ask you why. But I also want to point out that we are past our halfway point. So we're running out of reasons why.

Right. I just want our listeners to understand that now we're just picking them up almost randomly. Or we could be. We're not necessarily. We could be. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's a mix, you know, depending on also we do take requests into account.

But no, this one was I wanted to do a season one because it's been a while and there is a chunk that we could do to get close to being done with season one, similar to how we recently finished season two. And this one seemed like a more fun romp end of an episode, while the last one we did had an unexpected non-romp aspect to it. So I was like, this time, this time it will be fun. And also this one is directed by stewart margolin which oh it's a fun little detail angel himself behind the camera yeah it feels very back to basics uh in in a way because as this episode the story credit is to john thomas j, which is the pen name of Roy Huggins, series co-creator. And the teleplay is by Juanita Bartlett. So it's kind of an OG kind of episode.

It's a Roy Huggins joint, which we pretty much only see in the first season because he, you know, I mean, he retained the credit as the creator, but he did leave the active production after the first season i believe i would have to double check so uh angel has actually done quite a bit of directing i'm sorry stewart margolin angel i mean angel's done some directing too i'm sure but like uh this is the first of two rockford files episodes that he directs the other one is dirty money black light which we haven't done yet no we did we did that one. Oh, we did? Yeah, we did do Dirty Money Blacklight.

I would have to look up the episode number, but it's the one where Rocky gets the mysterious money. Yeah, he gets the mysterious money in the mail, and it's like a laundering operation. Alright, so good. What we're doing here is we're

closing out our Stuart Margolin. The Stuart cycle. Yes. For the record, episode 39 of our show was Dirty Money Blacklight back in September of 2018. Oh, no wonder I forgot. That's the one with electric larry that might ring a bell the the uh the loan shark right yes all right yes anyhow sorry you remembered

something uh i don't know if you've been on the grams the instagrams uh i have i've i've made a dedicated departure from twitter for the most part, but I am still on the gram. Because I drew Angel and Rockford as Muppets or as Puppets and put it on Instagram. As Puppets, legally distinct from Muppets. Yes, yes. I think I missed that. Did you tag me? I can tag you.

How do you tag? I guess I can just go to your profile and I'll see it. No, no. There you go. Now I tagged you. It's the most recent one. Aha. I see it.

Right. Jim Sockfelt Puppy PI. Yes. That is one of the other settings for this comedy game I thought would be kind of fun. Now, I've discovered that drawing a sock puppet is very difficult. His angelic friend is a bit of a Grover kind of interpretation. He was so easy to draw. That's true.

I mean, that's angel. Yeah, I was stunned by it. And I remember when I drew it, I was like, I can't wait to talk to Nathan about this. So that's what you're getting. Okay, if you don't listen to plus expenses what you're getting right now is a little plus expenses preview of the kind of banter that we have on plus expenses uh which is only vaguely related to which may or may not convince you to want to listen to plus right all right but

importantly angel's not in this episode though there are some good goons oh yeah but uh yeah i mean i think we can we can get uh right into the preview montage um oh well quickly before we do that uh i think did stewart marglin direct one of the movies as well i guess that's just a look it up on imdb question oh yeah if it bleeds it leads which we haven't done yet i don't think so i don't think we've done either of them because he also did friends and foul play in 96 that might be the next one that we have to do oh rita moreno's in it i think that's our next one. And a TV movie called How the West Was Fun, which is a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie. What a storied career. Wow. I'd be willing to watch it.

Oh, what a time to be alive. All right. Well, speaking of times to be alive, we should get into our preview montage for this episode. Right. Which is short and sweet um the one bit that i wanted to point out was just this wonderful you're honest dependable and an ex-con that's what i need someone i can depend on right right and i don't actually remember that particular line showing up in the episode but there's a very similar one that shows up in

the episode i remember thinking was that that line right i think it might have been maybe they did multiple takes and just trimmed that out of a scene or something and then uh another a few jokes that are going to happen but also lots of violence and very clearly pointing out that this is going to deal with uh i actually expected more of jim's background in prison to come up due to this montage, but it's definitely dealing with ex-cons or cons. Right, or current cons. Current cons. More convicts than con men. Right.

Yeah, I have a note that's like lots of con background, but that's kind of mostly to tell us that Jim knows how these people operate. And it's not really about Jim's specific background. But it's his background that got him the job. Right, right, right. I then have a note for, as we get into it, that the, again, because we haven't done a season one episode in so long, that real poppy keyboard in the intro music. keyboard in the intro music. The music is very interesting in this episode. There's a couple other instances that I noted of fun

music stuff. Lots of banjo showing up a little bit later. We do like a good banjo. We're going to take a quick break to say thank you to our patrons over at patreon.com slash 200 a day. Thanks to you, we are a 100% listener-supported show. We extend special thanks to our Gumshoe patrons supporting this episode.

Chuck from whatyou'rereading.com, Paul Townend, who also recommends the podcast Fruit Loops, Serial Killers of Color, at fruitloopspod.com. Shane Liebling, check out his dice rolling app, Roll For Your Party, for all of your online gaming needs at rollforyour.party. Jay Adan, check out his amazing miniature painting skills over at jayadan.com. Dale Norwood, Dave P., Dale Church, Dave Otterson, Kip Hawley, and Matthew Lee. And finally, we can't thank our detective patrons enough for their generous support. Eric Antenor, at Antenor on Twitter. Brian Pereira, at Thermaware.

Bill Anderson, at BillAnd88. And of course, Richard Haddam, at Richard Haddam. We follow them too, at 200pod. Why become a patron for as little as $1 an episode? In addition to supporting the show and exclusive episode previews, our patrons get Plus Expenses, a bonus podcast where we casually chat about media we're enjoying and the things going on in our lives.

An episode of Plus Expenses comes out in advance of every episode of 200 a Day. Help out the show by leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts, tell a friend who you think would like it, and check out patreon.com slash 200 a Day to see if becoming a patron is right for you after the the fun season one era credits we start our episode at musgrove state prison hospital facility in the icu where we have our uh our our main guest lead of the episode, whose name we will find out is Jolene, is coming in to visit her in the prison hospital husband, Jerry, who is very weak and can barely talk.

But when she bends over him, he whispers to her, Caledonia, California, worth a fortune. california worth a fortune to reinforce the import of this there's a there's a cop in the background that's like hey if he's saying anything we need to hear it right yeah i assumed he was dying i mean i guess he is but not like right now i was like this is his like deathbed dying words but he's he doesn't die at this i mean he doesn't die it's well he does not die at this. I mean, he doesn't die. Spoilers, he does not die in this episode, I guess. This is the only time we see him just to give this message, but he's so weak that this is all he can say, and then the doctor makes his wife leave. The doctor who stands up to the cop as well,

so it's very, like, it puts on the scene an air of, like, this is a medical emergency that we're dealing with here. Right, right. As we learn, his heart is extremely extremely weak and he needs some specialist surgery or something. That's kind of beside the point other than to establish the premise of our episode, um,

that as the title tells us, and it flashes up over his face as we get our, our intro credits, Caledonia, it's worth a fortune. Yeah. Um, we followed Jolene as she uh goes back to her car

her style choices in this episode are on point um uh this is a good visual episode yeah i think i think that's why our listeners tune in right right she She's played by Shelley Fabers or Faberese. I don't know how to say her last name. Who was on a couple of soap operas and all over TV in the 70s like so many of our guest stars, including an episode of The Incredible Hulk. I saw that. And yeah, was on Coach. I say that as a a this is a show that i remember was popular but i don't know if people actually remember coach remember coach

i remember it but yeah i i feel the same about it um when she was christine armstrong on coach uh anyhow she's you know she's a very tv attractive woman she's at the moment putting on well throughout the whole episode she she um is the sort of fresh-faced naive yeah yeah thing going which is interesting because she's married to a convict and a grifter and and like more of the story unfolds about what her situation is um but you never feel that this is a put on you feel that she is genuinely who she is oh yeah she's she's maybe not even naive she's a little naive but she's kind of like she's kind of wholesome yeah but with this like what we saw in the opening montage like it's wholesome but like in in a in a slightly askance way right like

she's wholesome but she's also inherently trust rockford because he's an ex-con right right yeah she's wholesome but in a world that we aren't we don't think of as wholesome right sure yeah um well any in this intro scene she's wearing this wonderful floral print dress with these bubble gum pink high heels and uh it's like huh and then over the course of the episode pretty much all of her outfits have some floral element i started noticing um and they're all very flattering as she goes to her car we see two goons watching her um they have a bit of dialogue establishing that they know that Jerry knows something but you know she must have he must have told her we're gonna stay with the honey she'll know where he's got

it stashed and then I have in all caps hell of a pair of goons yeah so one guy. This guy is the heavy in every memorable bad movie from this era. He's shown up in Buck Rogers, which I mentioned earlier, a bunch of other things. But also horror film fans will recognize him from House of a Thousand Corps corpses and the devil's rejects and he's he's just got this amazing face for for that for he just he he's menacing he is incredibly menacing and then the other guy i assume is that wilson is that the other i guess so i'm trying to look at his picture to see, but there's no. So there's no picture on IMDb, so I'm not 100% sure. However, he looks like he's doing a Jack Nicholson impression.

Yeah, I can see that. Like he's doing like a Shining era Jack Nicholson kind of voice, which I think is, you know, just coincidence. Anyway, very, very goony, these two guys. Big lapels. Definitely not cops. Like, sometimes we see heavies and it's like, I wonder if these guys are cops. These guys, definitely not cops.

My notes in this are like, this guy looks like Sid Haig. Surprise. And then I'm like, seriously sinister goons yeah and then as the as the show went on i was like i bet you that's a young syd egg so yeah sure is well we get right into it as uh we cut uh from there to a nice long shot of the firebird oh this is a really interesting shot too because it's very very steady with it it just kind of going straight across the middle of the screen. I don't know. It's just not a shot that I'm used to seeing of the Firebird.

And I quite liked it, like on a ridge kind of. Well, this is the introduction of Rockford into this episode. We don't even go to the trailer or like, you know, we just start with the car. She's already convinced him to work for her. Right. And they're in the car a lot in this episode it's a very firebird heavy episode which is nice uh but yes jolene is in the car with jim they're going to caledonia to find it whatever this score is and she says that it's worth half a million dollars maybe maybe more maybe less

jim then spots that they're being tailed by these two goons and just a real beater of a big blue whale. Very obvious car. And he has a very simple but effective gambit to get rid of this tail where he speeds up to pass a like a double tractor semi or double trailer, I should say. Semi. So that's the two two trailers so he passes it pulls in front of it and then when the goons speed up to pass it he uses the fact that they can't see it to go over on the shoulder and just rolls off the shoulder into an orange grove and by the time they get in front of the semi he's got bird has just vanished so good yeah i felt like i'm like have we seen this before but i probably have just seen this And by the time they get in front of the semi, the firebird has just vanished. So good. Yeah.

I felt like, I'm like, have we seen this before? But I probably have just seen this episode before. But like, he's gone, he's driven into Orange Grove. So I'm sure. Oh, yeah. I'm sure we see him driving in Orange Grove before. But this particular maneuver is very good. There's another one later that's like one of those that I think we both remembered, but could not remember what episode it was in.

Right. So, yeah, this is a good one, again, for Firebird stuff. But we cut from him easily losing these goons to going over a bridge into this town of Caledonia and then immediately getting pulled over. This episode is extremely efficient with its cuts. Yeah, it's going straight to the next bit of action. We always get right to the meat of the next thing there's very little intro build-up kind of stuff so we go right from him getting pulled over to the sheriff's office in caledonia where we start with the sheriff and we establish his character by seeing that he's getting his picture taken by like i guess

for the local newspaper question mark yeah but he wants to see the negatives before they print anything because he wants to make sure that he's, you know, doesn't have his eyes closed. It's too easy to make hay of eyes closed to crime. He wants images that, that will scare the criminals, but not scare the voters.

And that's when Jim and Jillian are sitting down behind him as he's, uh, ushering out this photographer. There's a nice vanity to this. You get the feeling that this is a sheriff very full of himself. But it was also very interesting to me as a modern viewer, because he's literally asking for all the negatives. Meaning, once the picture has been taken if he owns those negatives then i guess nobody can make a photograph from them like the idea that you could own your image is so quaint to me nowadays yeah um but it's it's kind of great it's i think it's just something that like doesn't uh that may not land if you aren't aware of like what's actually happening there but it just he's he's incredibly controlling is what's happening he wants to be uh in charge of everything that you know right paranoid and controlling yes after getting the assurance that he will be able to get those negatives uh he turns his attention to jim and jol He wants to know why they're there to see him. And it's not just about this ticket.

That cost him $17.50. This is the $74. I'm just doing it because... To establish our scale. Yeah. This is a good... I hope you had your calculator out because this was a good accounting episode.

Yeah. All right. $19.74. Whoa. $96. All right. That's nothing to... That's not nothing. Yeah. All right. 1974. Whoa. Ninety six dollars. All right. That's not that's nothing to that's not nothing. Yeah. I wouldn't be happy about that. I'd be OK with the 1750. I wouldn't understand why they pulled me into the sheriff's office for 1750.

But yeah. Unlike many other Rockford Files episodes, they came to see him specifically. Oh, that's true. Yes true yes yeah it just so happened that they also have to pay this ticket yeah but um they want to see him this is so this is sheriff homer prouty which is a great name um he was the arresting officer of jerry jolene's husband four years ago and they'd like some details about what that was and there's some implication in the dialogue that this was like so jerry was arrested and went to jail for some kind of swindle situation and that's what he has been in jail for and now is sick but still in jail and so this guy uh sheriff homer as i will refer to him um is the one who actually arrested jerry? So we were hoping that you would give us some of the details of the arrest. Why?

This is Mrs. Highland. She'd like to know. Was you Mrs. Highland four years ago? Yes. Sure took you a long time to work up a curiosity, didn't it? And Jim shows his PI license and says he's working for Mrs. Highland. And they have a little more back and forth about, well, if I don't tell you anything, you're going to go digging in newspapers. So I'll just save you some time and all of us some hassle. And he says it was real simple.

He came blazing through Caledonia, 70, 75 miles an hour. I pulled him over, arrested him for speeding, and then saw that he had a warrant out from LAPD. They came out to get him, and then saw that he had a warrant out from lapd they came out to get him and that was that one of the things i like about this scene well there's two things that stand out with this scene to me was one he he obviously shows contempt for the uh the fact that jim's uh private eye right uh and it doesn't phase jim at all you know the guy's like you you'll probably dig through the library and jim's like yep that's what i'll do i think it's like, you'll probably dig through the library. And Jim's like, yep, that's what I'll do. I think it's like a real calculated risk on Jim's part, right? Because like so many times these small town sheriffs, as shown to us on the show,

their knee-jerk reaction to PIs is not good. And neither is this guy's. But he does kind of play it cool, I guess, just to get him off his back. And you could tell that Jim's sizing him up, which is kind of fun to watch. The other thing is that they have, there's a ceiling fan going during this whole sequence, which has this sort of effect on the lighting, especially when it's looking at Jim and Jolene.

You don't see the fan, you just keep seeing the shadow pass by them. I don't even know if it would have stood out to me except that i got up to turn my ceiling fan off to stop the effect oh really and then i was like whoa of course it wouldn't work this on the tv uh but i liked it it just had a it kind of gave it like a kind of a a sweltering feel to it you know like a little bit of a uh they're kind of sweating them. And then they do this,

you know, where Jim is like, you, you arrested him for speeding. That doesn't sound right. Um, and then they do this weird fade out on the, on the water cooler.

I don't know. There's just, it's not how I'm used to cuts on the show. So I, it just felt like it was imbued with some meaning that I, I didn't quite catch. Perhaps because of how I was taking notes, I did not notice the fade out. I may have to go back and see what I think about that. But what we go to is outside the sheriff's office where Jim is coming back from having obviously made a phone call or something.

And he says that the sheriff played that too cool. In a place like this, he should have sat us down and bored us to tears with every detail of that. It was probably the biggest bust he ever made in his life, right? But apparently he called a friend, who I can only assume is Dennis. Unfortunately not appearing in this episode. And that the computer records say that he was picked up for trespassing outside of town at a place called Albertson Farm. So not only did he play it too cool he also elided some important information so they go to albertson farm uh

whatever this stash was it must be buried there somewhere um we get a little more backstory about this arrest the warrant that he was uh that was out for for jerry was for this four million dollar score that he made details ungiven but jillian says uh but he made full restitution of that money he gave it all back so anything that's buried out here that that belongs to jerry they poke around a little bit and then just as i was expecting a wild sheriff Sheriff Homer appears asking them what they're doing out there. He casually strolls out of one of the buildings with a big cigar, which is a fun look. There's a nice exchange where you may have been expecting it, but Rockford said he didn't expect to see you out here. And he's like, yes, I bet you didn't.

But it is clear that everyone expected to see everyone. Yeah, but he wants to know what they're doing out there. Jim says they're on a sentimental journey, chasing Jerry's steps. And then we have a gag that I believe was in the preview montage where it says, all right, Sheriff, what do you want to know? How long will it take you to get out of Caledonia? How about 15 minutes?

Why don't you make it 10? He does confront the sheriff with the fact that he knows the sheriff lied about the arrest right and the sheriff just just totally so just like yeah skips it it's just like i'm the sheriff i'm asking the questions uh back in the firebird uh heading back to la we presume um jillian thinks jim should have done something right jim doesn't think he would have liked being in that sheriff's jail so we have that brief scene in the firebird and then we cut to to them at a like at a grocery store or like a small like a convenience store or something where jolene is is getting groceries and they're continuing their conversation i do like the idea that because at this point jim has probably decided he's done

with the job with this case yeah yeah uh and in fact in a moment we'll hear that but he's also like yeah no well i'll take you grocery shopping why not yeah we'll stop on your way home yeah yeah it's part of that real like naturalistic kind of like yeah of course this is just a thing that would happen in the course of a normal day um it has the classic bunch of greens sticking out of the top of the bag so we know it's groceries yes oh and i like the physical um the blocking and physical uh business here where it's like jolene is paying for the groceries and then jim immediately picks up the bag and like carries the bag for her as they're having their conversation which again seems like a very jim thing um so jolene says that she could have gotten run out of town all by herself she

didn't need jim for that and so jim offers to knock 25 off his bill and only charge for half the day but jolene doesn't want him to quit there's a fortune at that farm and jim explains that uh it's just too big they could be looking under artichokes for 10 years and never come up with anything. And he's right, as we learn. Yes. Jim drops off Jolene. She gives us a little bit more of her motivation. She really needs that money, not just for her, but with the money, she can get a good lawyer that's going to get Jerry out of that jail on parole. And then she can afford a heart specialist to see him and get him all fixed up. So far, she has not been played as like some kind of like greedy or as someone who's like really driven by the money itself. But now we're getting kind of more of her personality motivation of like

she wants this money because she can help jerry with it yeah her stance starting from maybe the previous scene and then going forward is that this is this is uh jerry's money right right and so uh it's all about things that that can be done with the money to help him in his situation. Right. And it's interesting because you feel like, well, should I doubt this? You don't. Or at least I didn't. The way the actress plays it, it feels authentic the whole time.

But because this is an episode of that sort of betrayal and whatnot, you're like, OK but i don't know about you but i'm like okay but is she putting this on is she doing a really good job of putting this on or is this uh a genuine take on what's going to happen i don't think the episode makes a whole lot of a lot out of that tension there but i feel like it's there yeah this episode so so far this episode has been very straightforward like yeah we're getting like here's a thing here's a thing here's a thing um she's not playing her role as duplicitous yeah jim isn't really acting like he thinks she's being duplicitous yeah either i agree that there's

like an undercurrent just because there's always kind of an open question for yeah the beginning of an episode like at some point things are going to pick up in which way are they going to go uh and this is the scene where they do um but yeah but but yeah so far it's kind of like all right we're establishing the things at least i'm kind of like all right when's the when's when's the twist yeah when's the thing yeah when's the next i don't know when is the first shoe to drop i'm not yet waiting for the second shoe i'm actually still waiting for the first shoe um but as i said it happens in this scene so uh jim apologizes he's like i'm not gonna he's basically like i have no reason to keep working on this i think this is a fool's errand i'm out sorry so she she gets out of the firebird uh he backs out of the parking lot and then we

cut from from seeing him definitively leave he is not hanging around uh to her opening her door in a very shadowy shot this is another very like noir-ish kind of framing here where she's fumbling with her keys and we see someone in the shadows waiting for her and i think it's supposed to be a question of like is that one of the goons right yeah it's very unclear uh but it is not um he does come out of the shadows and surprise her but she knows this guy his name is len he is played by richard shaw who i feel like is a name i recognize even though I, and his face I kind of recognized. Yeah. I don't know where I recognize him from,

but he's, he's certainly a face. I feel like the big surprise is his outfit when he comes out of the shadows. Yes. Speaking of lapels. Yes. And I was actually kind of wondering if it's meant to be because he he's been in prison for four years. So I was wondering if it's meant to be four years out of date or if that meant to be extravagant. The next scene will make me wonder even more. Right. I don't think at any point we get to read that he is fashionable. Yeah. Yeah.

But yes, he has just gotten out of out of jail himself. We get. So this scene builds and then releases some tension between the two of them. Yes. In a very effective but low key way, if that makes sense. It's set up to be a little threatening. And then he comes out of the shadows and she knows who it is. And so that's kind of diffused. But then he's like, let's go inside or you can give be a little threatening. And then he comes out of the shadows and she knows who it is. And so that's kind of diffused.

But then he's like, let's go inside or you can give me a real welcome. And it's like, yeah, OK. So do they like have something? He's definitely got a creep vibe. He definitely has a creep vibe. And she's definitely a little hesitant and uncomfortable. If for no other reason than she did not expect to see him. Yeah.

But she did know he was getting out of jail she asked how he how she knew that he was out and she says that she has a calendar so right she's been aware and kind of keeping track right um you know he said it's not his fault that jerry got two more years than he did for whatever this scam was yeah um and uh he he definitely makes some advances i don't remember the exact words of it but she puts up a like she sets her boundaries yes just with almost with just a look like but it's clear that like no yeah i guess that's what i was saying about like creating and then diffusing the tension like it's a lot of it's in the in the blocking but there's this moment where like he

gets really close to her and kind of touches her face and kind of touches her hair and and we have like a moment where it's like okay where is this going to go and then she gives him a look and he's just like okay i'll settle for dinner um so yeah so they go to a fancy uh fancy restaurant of some Uh, he wants to celebrate as he is now out of jail, of course. And he makes a joke that she ends up laughing at about, uh, uh, Joan's a terrible cook anyway. Um, cause she's like, I could have made you dinner or whatever. But yeah. And then they fill in a little backstory here while they, uh,

get their drinks and whatnot. So it's been four years. Um, it's kind of talked around but given given us to understand that they were uh that they were having an affair right while she was married to jerry um and then he has a line where it's like jerry even if he'd known he wouldn't have cared he only cared about the con like he didn't care about people so he's been waiting four years to pick it back up again and she's been spending four years thinking about it and trying to trying to explain to herself why she yeah that affair this

this uh sort of back and forth where she says that's an explanation not an excuse yeah and uh blah blah blah and then she goes well i'm just looking for to excuse myself like or something like that i can't remember the exact line but it was it was definitely like he thought, oh, we'll pick it right back up. And she was like, no. And she's like, that was a bad idea. And I've been trying to figure out why I made such a bad decision. Yeah, exactly. And I still haven't quite nailed it.

So there's another uncomfortable moment. But then we end the scene with a very strong... Like where he buried $746,000 in rare stamps. First of all, let's get the money out of the way. That's a little over $4 million today style. Right. If you can conceive of that. I cannot.

That is the same as $746,000 to me. But anyways, the point is $746,000 is a specific number for something like rare stamps. Which you would think would change in valuation. Right, yeah. Whatever. But it's very Rockford for it to be rare stamps, right? Or something like that. This is very Rockfordishness MacGuffin, right? Where it to be rare stamps, right? Or something like that. This is very Rockfordishness MacGuffin, right?

Where it's like, rare stamps, great. It's a specific number that is not like $750,000, right? Like, it's the specific non-even, or I guess it's whatever, non-easy number. So we've established that her husband,erry uh is a con artist and that this guy is also probably a con artist yeah they did like jobs together or they were partners or something like that so that number the 746 000 sticks like to me i'm like oh that's a con like like there's just something about this that makes me very suspicious about this money. This is not me complaining or anything like that.

But it surprised me just a little bit that Rockford wasn't completely suspicious of that from the get-go. But, yeah, it's a great delivery of the line. And it just puts us like, okay, this is the thing that we're looking for. It's worth a lot of money and it's a great delivery of the line and it just puts us like, okay, this is the thing that we're looking for. It's worth a lot of money and it's small. I'm just, I'm looking at a, uh, an article from 2020 entitled the 10 most valuable stamps in the world.

Oh, nice. And, uh, just to establish what we might be talking about. And this is a, or I guess this is in the dollars at which they were sold at auction. So the Tiflis stamp from 1857 was worth $700,000. Okay. So there you go. There's

one. The most valuable stamp thus far is the British Guiana one cent magenta from 1856, which sold for $9.48 million dollars nine wow i was just finding one that's kind of close i guess my point is this could be one stamp yeah this could be yeah this is i guess i'm not doubting well maybe i did doubt the value stamps being valued at that much um yeah what i was doubting was the the precision of the value rather than saying three quarters of a million dollars, which they do pretty much from there on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Feels more accurate because it doesn't have a false precision to it. But that false precision to me felt grifty that I thought was meant to be like, hey, Rockford, this is a grift.

But it wasn't. It just turned out not to be like hey rockford this is a grift but it wasn't it just turned out not to be that i mean it's not like they go we have already gone into it much more than yeah exactly but my headcanon for this would be whatever grift they ran to procure said stamps involved this number yeah that was what it was going for at auction or that's what it was valued by the insurance or something. Right. And so that's just like the number now. But all of that is too much because the next scene is what I really want to talk about.

Joanne has gone back to Jim in the trailer now that there's this new development. So there's a couple of things here. Number one, Jim is wearing a hell of a sweater. And I feel like this sweater has been worn in other episodes i'm not sure if it's cable knit my the video resolution isn't quite high enough to show but it's kind of this long saggy white grandpa sweater yeah which is extremely good um he spends this entire conversation digging around in couch cushions and looking under things uh which is just very this is a very rockfordishness scene all over the place but uh the content here is that len wants 50 percent

of you know this score but the stamps belong to jerry the thing is she has the town but jerry gave len the the specific directions to get to the spot where they are buried so he doesn't know where to start yeah yeah he doesn't know where to start without her and she doesn't know where to go without him um so jim advises her to take 50 of something rather than 100 of nothing which is always good advice but uh she doesn't trust lynn not to double cross her and so she wants jim to to come along you know on her behalf and he's like so you want protection yeah i guess so he says that he's willing to do that for five percent so this is uh roughly thirty eight thousand dollars uh it modern money that would be roughly $200,000, a little over $200,000. So I have a question for you. Yeah. Is that 5% from her half? Oh, that's a good question.

Because I wrote this down too. I used a calculator and got that same number. But later, he says that his 5% is out of her share. Yeah. And he negotiated her up. Yeah. But that number is not higher than 5% of the 100%. Right. So that'd be... So that's $18,650, assuming that it's 5% from her half of the score. I'm just saying otherwise his negotiating later actually takes money out of his own pocket, which does not sound like Jimim rockford to me yeah uh no that's true i'm sure in the end i mean you and i and probably everyone listening knows that this is academic but right right i'm sure in the end uh he would have fought over some quibbling about the five percent of water wherever one of the other things i wanted to point out about this

scene though with him going through the couch is that i'm pretty sure I mean, I'd have to go back and look at the tape, but I'm pretty sure he reached into the cushion and pulled out some tighty whities and then shoved them back in. He definitely shoved something back into the cushions. I wasn't quite sure what it was either. But yes, Jim, he says this all sounds fair. He'll take the job for five percent. But first, he has to find the keys to his car so that is what he's been spending this whole time looking for and this is this is lovely because uh you know you know i really enjoyed the way jim doesn't like to do work

and uh this is uh him distracted and being like sure yeah i'll do it like which is like five percent of a lot of money? Sure. Yeah. But I also like how there's a bit of plausible deniability of him being like, you know what? I can't take the job. I can't drive. I can't find my keys. Yeah, I don't have keys.

But he decides to go for it. Well, let's take a little break. We want to make sure that you know where you can follow all of our other projects and interests online. Epi, where can our listeners find you? You can Google Epidaia. I am the only one out there that I know of. You can go to dig1000holes.com. That's the number a thousand. Or you can go to worlds, plural, without master, singular, dot com,

and find my work there. How about you, Nathan? My internet home for all things NDP is at ndpdesign.com You can find all of the links and information for all of my various games, including the Worldwide Wrestling roleplaying game,

my zines, and podcast projects, of which perhaps there may be more than one. You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter at ndpeoleta. As always, if you want more information about the podcast, go to 200aday.fireside.fm. And now back to the continuing adventures of Jimbo Rockfish. Well, they go to the motel where Len is staying just in time to see an ambulance there. It passes them and they see Len in the back with blood on his face.

He's clearly been beaten up. Jim knows that talking to the cops isn't going to get them anywhere, but he's going to look for an indignant man with an authority complex because that'll be the hotel manager. So good. manager so good um and sure enough he finds said indignant man and combatively talks to him to keep challenging him about his worthiness as a hotel manager i i was i was having struggling in my notes to characterize what he's doing here because his character is almost got a jelly gully gee willikers to it you you know, like not quite. But he's like, oh, that wouldn't happen to Mineola. And, you know, the hotel manager is in Mineola, but it's not a dangerous place.

You know, just this back and forth. I can't precisely characterize it. it but what i really appreciate from it is that it's clear that jim's putting on something of an act yeah that he is surgically striking this manager's buttons like he just knows exactly what to say and yeah did the police catch them in huh did they catch them they almost did i called the cops but the sirens tipped them off they came running out of here just before that black and white pulled in it's just a little too late to help your tenant i mean he gets beaten senseless probably lost every penny in his pocket he picked up a couple of lousy bruises and didn't lose one lousy dime if you're so hot on miniola why don't you just uh go on back there oh not on your life

no you never get this kind of action, Mineola. And the info that he gets is that this guy got beat up by a couple of guys, but they didn't steal any money. And from that, they can infer that it was someone who also knows about the stash, that this wasn't a random robbery attempt or something. The one fun bit about the conversation is how Jim is playing up that this guy got beat up and the hotel manager keeps downplaying the severity of how badly he got beat up as if that would, like if I came to a hotel and there was somebody being pulled out of a stretcher and I was looking for a hotel room

and I've learned that it's because this guy, someone broke into his room and beat him up. But the hotel manager is like, it's just some bruises. It's not like, no, I'm still not staying at this hotel. Like that's.

Yeah, that's very good. So clearly someone else must know about the stash. And Jim would rather talk to Len than to the gorillas who worked him over. So they're going to wait for him to get out of the hospital. And he wants to put Jolene somewhere safe as well in the interim. We then cut to an overhead shot of the Firebird pulling up to a driving range with a voiceover of, well, he couldn't be hurt too bad if he's out here hitting golf balls.

So again, just the most ruthlessly efficient scene cutting where it's like right to the next thing. We don't need setup. We don't need to know how Jim found – like he found this out somehow. Who cares? We're at the driving range. That's what's important. The character of Len is interesting at this point because not only is he golfing, but that's his thing apparently. He likes golfing.

We see he took her out to eat at a very expensive restaurant and she comments on how expensive the restaurant is um and you know we talked a little bit about like what he was wearing and stuff but like you get the feeling that this is uh this guy is maybe a little lives is used to a lifestyle that he can't afford as an ex-con right like he's he's used to living large and this is not um yeah anyways i i just like that i like these details that are that are kind of coming out in this way we have a great gag where they get out of the car and jolene asks jim to do the talking and he's like leave it all to me don't worry and then as soon as i get to len every time jim tries to open his mouth jolene cuts him off. She just has to argue with Len. And it is extremely well done.

Yeah. okay, I'm going to go hit some golf balls until you want to deal me into this conversation. And he just leaves, which I think brings Jolene back to earth a little bit. And she ends her bit with, you negotiate with him or not at all. They both know they need each other to get this score. Neither of them is willing to trust the other one. And now Jolene is brought in the third party, right? Yeah. Jim starts off with a split that he thinks is fair. There's three of them.

So 33 and a third for each. And Jolene starts to protest. And he's like, no, that's the deal. So we see that she is not happy with where he has taken this. And I guess this is where we get her kind of the most naive part. I don't know. I'm sitting here and I'm like, Jim is getting her a bigger cut, right? Yeah, but we know Jim.

But we know Jim. This is a tactic, but she takes it as read. And I think her reaction probably sells it for Len also. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, the deal is they can all go together. They all get an even split. He asks about those two goons. Lin says the guys who worked him over.

He says they went to a lot of trouble for nothing. Didn't tell them anything. Or they were on the same cell block as Jerry, which is probably how they heard about the score in the first place. But they're not in. Three of them are in. Those two guys are not in. And then Lin, they set up like, okay, we'll meet tonight and go or whatever.

And then Len leaves and then Jolene storms away in a huff. Yeah. And this, I really like this. There's this great tracking shot where we follow her. She stalks back to the Firebird and she's walking behind all the people at the driving range who are doing their driving. and she's walking behind all the people at the driving range who are doing their driving. And there's this almost like syncopated rhythm of the sound of the golf balls being hit. I don't know if I'm using the syncopated correctly there,

but there's something about the rhythm of the golf ball thwacks with her pace. Good on Stuart Margolin. Right was it's a great shot she gets to the firebird and can't get in because the uh the doors are locked which i feel like is the first time on the rockford piles i can remember that jim locked the car doors after getting out yes that's gonna come up again later in this episode um and i i wondered about it back then, too. Anyways, go on. And she slumps down in defeat against the Firebird and he comes over. So I think this is the line that is essentially what was in the preview montage, but is not actually said. I hired you because of your prison record.

I thought you were a man I could trust. Yeah. Just negotiated me down to 33 and a third. But Jim says no. He negotiated her up to 66 and two-thirds minus his five percent yes so this is when i double checked with the earlier scene because now his kite has gone up from like 18 000 or whatever to 24 000 something and there's a uh nice little exchange after that where she apologizes, which is a thing.

She says, I'm sorry. I thought you were trying to double cross me. And he's like, don't feel bad about it. It crossed my mind. Yeah. She keeps apologizing for things where he's like,

he's essentially like, no, that's kind of what I wanted you to think. Right. Yeah. Like he does not hold any of her reactions against her because he knows what he's doing while she is yeah she keeps apologizing for things which gets explored more in the next scene um as we follow them as they leave the driving range and then we see the goons pick

them up and follow them yet again in the car jillian apologizes for behavior and jim says that she had every right to be mad and we uh get the apology gag from the preview montage here where you know he says that's your problem you're always apologizing and she says i'm sorry set up spike joke yeah but i've seen in a minute um it's delivered well though it works jim then notices are being tailed and then takes a hard turn to confirm such a hard turn like a really hard turn and so they really have to swerve to keep following him they must have followed len to the range in order to pick them up you know and and uh follow jolene so the goons already know

where len is so now they're following jolene because they know she knows something that len doesn't know and then this is great where he goes, here we go. And then very, I would say Fast and the Furious style downshifts and hits the gas to accelerate. And the score, which has been kind of rolling along, drops out into a classic. We do not need music in order to appreciate this car chase. This is a fun little chase with a wonderful ending uh yeah it had a nice narrative to it uh because they set it up and then you you feel like at some point in the chase there there's a on the side of the road there's a truck that's

used for transporting cars uh you you know the kind I'm talking about. I'm sure there's a name for it. A car truck. Yes, there is a car truck. There's a car truck. And they're taking a car off of the top of one of them, and it's backing down and then turning out into the street, which is becoming something of an obstacle.

And Rockford negotiates it, and the trailing vehicle manages to negotiate it as well. Kind of just barely. Kind of the drama here is that their car is so big and heavy that it's just fishtailing all over the place. Just barely able to keep up with Jim. Yeah. And then you get this feeling inside where you're like, well that's that's a shame that was a lost opportunity for a truck a car truck and jim just doubles but he just goes around the block and they chase him around the block and uh he comes back and just drives up onto that truck

and they both duck down and it does exactly what you want it so you had this moment of like oh if only they'd oh all right yeah of course just gotta see it and then we come up with right it doesn't have you can't know it's there and he's faster enough that he can make that turn and get up there before they make the turn to see what's around the corner right yeah yeah and then they've lost him yeah it's extremely good as soon as i saw the the car truck the car carrier i don't't know, car transporter, I was like, is this where this actually is? And sure enough, it was, including the moment that I also remembered, which is we then stick

with Jim as he very carefully backs down. Oh, yes. And then we go down to like a door mounted camera that's focused on the front wheel. So we see the wheel being kept like very straight and, you know, negotiating this thing. Because it could fall off this truck, right? Right. And then into the frame as it finally backs off onto the street, we see the feet and then legs and then body and then head of the cop standing there pulling out his uh his ticket book and uh yeah it's a great visual gag you just feel it as he's pulling down you're like

why are we watching this part now like what's the what's the button what's gonna happen and then when you hit you're like oh yeah that's good it's it's just right so we cut to that evening uh again in the firebird where jolene offers to pay for the ticket because it's it's her fault that they were in that situation but she feels sorry for the cop he had such a terrible time figuring out how to write the citation and jim says that uh it's not as terrible as i'm gonna have trying to explain it in court yeah so this is another moment where she apologizes for something. And Jim's like, I made that decision. I did that thing.

You don't need to apologize for it. She says that when she's involved, things just seem to go wrong. Jerry was a successful man until he married her. Jim's like, successful at swindling? She's like, well, yeah. Well, he's the one who broke the law and is in jail so that makes him the loser not her they are going to get len but then as they get to his hotel they see the two goons pulling len out by the arms out of dragging him out of

the door they got len yeah but they see it in time to back out before the goons can see them and then they follow the goons to wherever they are taking len so we get another crossfade here uh to them rolling into some remote spot where they hustle in into a shed and then jim tells jolene to lock the doors uh and he leaves the keys in the car just in case because he's going to go creep up on what's happening. I did think this was going to lead to something, but it in fact does not. No, that's exactly what I was thinking when I mentioned it earlier. It just it was a reasonable precaution, but it's not unlike Jim to make reasonable precautions. So it was within his character.

But it certainly felt like we need you to understand that these doors are locked and the keys are in it yeah it felt a little a little like it was the second of a of a three yeah yeah because it's like he couldn't find his keys then we had the locked doors earlier an accidental motif yeah yeah i don't think it's super intentional i think it's just like some gags yeah and since we have so much firebird in this one they end up overlapping the scene is also and this is partly because sid hagg is involved so i'm characterizing it like that but this is a horror movie scene it is it's very much a horror like they take him to a remote place where they're going to work him over which is

not unusual for the rockford files but the the precaution that we just described is locking the doors with the keys and it just is a little beyond what we normally get from rockford files there's also the pathetic weather thing going on where it's starting to rain and there's thunder in the background to just just go ahead and give you that feeling of like ominous yeah this is ominous we're gonna a murder is about to happen yeah and then a lot of it so so uh sid egg does most of the talking in most of the threatening and talking here and whenever we cut to him it's it's an it's an upshot it's yeah which is like a horror movie exactly angle right to really accentuate his like big head and his scary teeth and everything.

But then we get a pretty good joke to kind of break that. Yeah. Tension. So Jim, Jim peeks through the window and then we kind of just go in and watch this happen where they work at work land over a little bit. And then they're like, what? We don't believe you that you only have half of it. Why would Jerry only tell you half of it?

That doesn't make any sense. So finally, Len says, okay, okay, I'll talk. You're right. I do have all of it. I'm going to give you the directions. You have to start from the courthouse. So Sid Haig pulls out a notebook, and we cut to Jim pulling out a notebook. And then they're both starting to write really fast as Len is talking really fast.

He's like, you drive due north about 3.7 miles. Then you go west. It's a dirt road. Go west 2.8 miles. And you make a hard right. Wait a minute. You're going too fast. All right. Make a hard right. Wait a minute. You're going too fast. All right.

Make a hard right. Go three-tenths of a mile. And that'll take you to a billboard. It's buried underneath one of the supports. Northeast corner. Is that it? That's it. Okay, okay.

So we start at a courthouse. What courthouse? Where? I don't know. This is when things escalate. so sigheg takes out his belt and wraps it around his fist and he's like yeah you're gonna wish you told the truth the first time so while he's been doing this jim has crept out to their car where they had like the headlights on to illuminate the inside or whatever yeah and then he says because we're gonna bring you down

and that's when jim has jumped behind the wheel of their car and plows into the barn, hits this like hayloft support and sends this pile of stuff down on all three of them. But yes, so the three of them are all buried in hay. And then Jim digs around, pulls Len out, gets the gun away from the goons and ends up shoving them in the trunk of their car and then exit goons. Yes. That's a wrap on Sid Egg.

There's a great moment when, well, not great, but there's a funny moment when Jim pulls Len out from underneath it. He's like, what the, what are you doing here? He's like angry. He just saved him from a beating, but okay, that's fine. I mean, he clearly had that whole situation under control. Yeah, yeah. Well, he saved Lin, but then he says he's out.

He was listening at the window and he got the directions, so they don't need him anymore. And Lin laughs at him and says, well, you thought I gave them the right, the real directions? And Jim says, yeah, I do. So they have a bit of a back and forth where it's like, all right, I'm going to go do I'm going to go check it out. And one says, I'll be here when you get back. So we cut from there to daylight as voiceover as Jim and Julian are rolling into Caledonia over that same bridge.

So we know visually where we are. And Jillian's actually asking about the mechanics of the payment here. Yes. Could you explain to me again how I pay you? Do I pay you at the end of the day or the end of the week and then deduct that from the 5% or what? The 5% is a bonus. It has nothing to do with my regular fee. You mean $200 a day and expenses and 5% is a bonus. It has nothing to do with my regular fee. You mean $200 a day and expenses and 5%?

That's right. We then crossfade to them leaving Caledonia with a voiceover. Look at these blisters. Two hours of digging and for nothing. Yeah. So they knock on Len's door and he's back in. They're all in for 33 and a third and they'll all play it straight. So now they head back to Caledonia, perhaps, as we will see, with Len in the backseat. And we have a good kind of character scene here between Julian and Len.

Len asks if Julian has plans for her money because she can't spend it all on jerry and uh then accuses her says that she's going to spend it all on him because she feels guilty and she shoots back that well at least she feels yeah this gets her mad and she informs us that len he's basically just been riding jerry's coattails this whole time jerry was always the brains of the operation. Uh, Len blew, blew all his money.

And she's like, how much money do you have now? Yeah, that's right. None. Which again, exactly as you said, right? Like we've been set up to expect this and now it is confirmed.

Uh, but this is, this is Len's last free ride. And when this is all over, she never wants to see him again. He's the biggest mistake she ever made. There's a good lines like early in this len says it don't take three quarters of a million to die like referring to jerry doesn't need all that money uh and then when she's like i never want to see you again because that could be arranged she's like arrange it like i know that

that's a threat it doesn't matter matter. Yeah, it's very good. So they pull over and they're like, all right, we're here. And then we see a car pulling in behind them. And then a big old drink of water gets out of that car. Yes. And strolls up to Jim's window, asks if they need any help. And Len pulls a gun in the back seat i got all the help i need so it's a another double cross yes now now len so this is len's own muscle that followed

them out or whatever from la uh and now they're in the town so when you know doesn't need them anymore but jim says i thought something like this would happen and so he said that they they went to the wrong town. So they're not in the right place. And that he and Jolene will wait at that fruit stand till you two get back. Len doesn't believe him. And Jim doesn't blame him. So you get a good mirroring of the earlier bit.

My notes were like, there's no way Rockford took him to Caledonia. Not only is that the smart move for rockford but also it's fun watching these mirror back and forth and you're just like yeah okay there was a part of me that's kind of like i could see jim getting slightly too smart about it too yeah yeah yeah this is the season of the seasons in which that would happen to him right like i think this is the season where jim's kind of always the smartest guy right so you your reaction makes more sense where you're expecting jim to have already thought of this well i'm kind of like i don't know it

would be an interesting story right if he did get kind of the wool pulled over his eyes but then there is some other reason why they still need him or something, you know, why they can get out of it. But you are right. As we'll learn in a minute. But first we have Jim and Jolene eating some fruit while they wait. They have a bit of a heart to heart where Jolene says that Len was right,

that she does feel guilty about Jerry, that their marriage wasn't right in the first place. Jerry picked her out like a used car, just part of his image for all of his, you know, schemes and swindles. And she laughs as she says that she married him for security. Though it sounds like until he got caught, he was very successful, right? It's kind of the portrait that we get. But yeah, it was kind of a false premise for their partnership in the first place.

And then we have an angry Len and his and his big buddy Stroller. It's the wrong town. I was ready for another round of percentages and cuts and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. But Jim's like, all right, get rid of the gorilla and we'll go back to, you know, our split. But he's not in and there's a gag where len pays him 200 and he goes 200 but you said i know what i said go back to la so he is not as smart as jim i think it's what we get or he would have dealt himself in somehow um so jim handcuffs himself to len and uh says that if things go from here, he'll make sure there's a concealed weapon on him when the cops pick them both up, which will be a parole violation

and send them back to jail. Yeah. There's a neat bit just before that where he's like, get rid of Godzilla. And then as Godzilla is turning away, Rockford says, hold on, and then pulls Len's gun from Len's belt and hands it over to Godzilla. It's just like, we don't want this in the equation at all. So just take it with you. Yeah.

We then have what I call in my notes on a mission music. Yeah. A little more banjo. As they finally pull everything together and they start following Len's directions. We're at City Hall now, heading north. Okay, check your mileage. Turn right. We go exactly one-tenth of a mile.

They end up, shockingly, on Albertson's farm. So dramatically right, it makes sense. It works. The whole time, they kind of knew where they had to be. They just didn't know where they had to be. Yeah. But they have to follow the directions to the end, right? To make sure that they get it right.

And so they pull up and they're on the farm and Len says, this isn't it. And Jim turns to him. It's like, are you like, are you kidding me? Like, yeah. You know, I think he says, what do you enjoy pain? Right. Yeah.

Like if you did it again, but he's like, no, no, it's up there. Like this isn't it. The chicken shed. So they pull out shovels and head to the shed and we have like handheld shaky cam following them in. I was like, this is the second thing that feels like a horror movie, but like they would not handheld shaky cam in horror films. Not really been established at that point well yeah i think we have

like too many too much context like yeah yeah word word it's a horror movie thing but it's also like an action movie thing like yeah like a contemporary like action movie thing but it definitely it's an energy to this yeah to the the uh the the pirate's booty. It's definitely not something we see on the show very much. Yeah. So, yeah, it stood out. It was fun. It kind of feels like, I don't know,

there are a lot of little moments in this where it's kind of like, oh, yeah, it's Stuart Margolin. Sure, you want to shoot it this way? Yeah, why not? Like, why not? This will be fun. So they go into the chicken shed. They start digging. Jolene says that she has a good lawyer for Jerry.

As soon as she has the money, she can pay his retainer and he can get started. And then they dig up a little box and it's all very exciting. And Jim makes Len give it to Jolene, lady's prerogative or whatever. Yeah. She opens it and there's a single piece of paper. Dear Jolene and Len, there are no stamps. No stamps

there never were, but if you're reading this, you believe my story and that's all that matters because by now, you two hate each other and that is worth a fortune to me, Jerry. i suddenly have so much appreciation

for jerry uh and jim's like there goes my bonus well after joanne says there goes the lawyer and the heart specialist yes there goes my bonus but he does say that jerry must not have known her very well after all because like she's been like, her whole character this whole time has been revealed to us as this woman who, like, feels like she might have made some mistakes. Right. And feels obligated to fix those. And the way she can do that is to get Jerry the help he needs. And she genuinely wants him to be well. Yeah.

While Jerry, this whole thing, was... A vengeance trip. Yeah. Well, yeah. So there was the line earlier about like, even if Jerry knew, he only cared about the money. So like clearly Jerry did know and it did matter to him. Right.

And so he set this whole thing up. But at the end of the day, like, yeah. So Jim says, Jerry didn't know you very well after all. And it's like, right. Because Jerry has just shot himself in the foot with this. I mean, if there was any stamps in the first place, which there probably weren't.

Right. Right. And he didn't need to, because they hated each other from the get go. Yeah. Jolene's wholesomeness isn't the right word, even though we were talking about her being kind of wholesome, like her,

her kind of drive to make things right is something that neither Len nor Jerry seem to see or appreciate. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Anyhow, this is not the end of the episode quite yet. No. As they turn to leave and Sheriff Homer is there in the doorway with a shotgun. Yeah. Remember him? They hand over the empty box and then hand over the letter, which then is crumpled into a ball, which I appreciate.

There's no money? Never was. I'm like, it's the Rockford version of the astronaut meme. Yes. Exactly. I've been busting my back out here for four solid years, and there never was no money. Sneaking out after supper every night,

telling my wife I was going to check up on things, breaking sod like some jackass. This is great because this is the vengeance. This is not the vengeance Jerry was looking for, but it's the vengeance he got. Right, right, right, exactly. Yeah, he does, after all, end up getting his vengeance on the cop who arrested him.

But yeah, so he's going to arrest these, you know, he's going to arrest the three of them. Jim says, shouldn't you read us our rights? And the sheriff says, before you get your rights, you'll hear the charges. Trespassing, illegal entry, backtalking to an officer of the law. That's so good. And he looks around and goes, and illegal parking. And they all look over the firebird which is sitting in the middle of the field and then we freeze frame on jim and jillian's disbelieving faces

end of episode uh yes it was good i enjoyed the uh the twists and turns even though like either through vague memory or just an understanding of how rockford files episode works i was yeah they're pretty pretty easy to guess where it was going to go next it was more of a how do they handle it than uh uh you know what is the next thing great chase sequences yeah so much firebird i mean this kind of feels a little bit like an episode that might have been a like a budget episode like right most of the locations are outdoors they spend a lot of time in the firebird there aren't any of the other cat like the the main cast um you know which is something you do with this kind of show like every so often you

yeah conserve your budget on an episode but uh yeah it's very linear yeah the characters were good and well fleshed out um you you got exactly what you wanted out of the money like you don't want that to be money you don't want there to be money at the end there i mean like you you root for rockford but in the end yeah if he makes like 25 000 or whatever it's like and the rest of the season is moot because that's his annual income yeah i mean he ends up i mean i guess you imagine that he ends up uh billing joeen for the full amount unless he feels bad and yeah knocks that 25 off but he does have a couple a couple traffic tickets to cover um plus all that gas i don't know how far Caledonia is from LA, but a lot of driving.

Um, yeah, I think I said it's a very linear episode and that's not a criticism really. It's just more kind of, it kind of stands out a little bit because especially in the later seasons, we kind of have these more layered or circular or kind of like naughty mysteries. And this is very, especially until we kind of get to len i'm taking notes and i'm like this one feels a little thin like right stuff but it's kind of like this happens and this happens and then it does get more interesting once len shows up and we get more backstory and all that stuff um and i ended up taking kind of my average amount of notes

for an episode uh so you know there we go it has the like the those elements where it's more it's less of a mystery and more of a here are a bunch of people in desperate situations with a uh promised wad of cash right and like that's what you need rockford for is to help you not untangle the mystery, but untangle the relationships or to protect you from. Yeah, it's an interesting, it's kind of an interesting cast on like a motive, like the clash of motivations. I feel like this is something maybe we haven't talked about in a little while, but one of the strengths of the show is so often you get these characters that are motivated by things such that they're going to come into

conflict because of what they want and what they're willing to do to get it and not because they don't know things right right it's not a it's not a show that relies a lot on like if only they had heard that phone call or like if only they talked they could have solved this whole thing right yeah um it's much more about the motivations and how you solve the conflict and in this case you do have two characters who could solve this just by talking but they are not willing to do so they have a specific motivation not to share the information with each other and they need rockford to bridge that gap and so that's in that way, it's a very, uh, it kind of stands out as kind of a really slick take on the, if they'd only talked problem. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

It was fun. This episode might get my award for the most, the most non sequitur fun fact in the writeup from, uh, 30 years of the Rockford Files Profiles. I'm quoting here. We get a little bit about standards and practices and things in TV shows that aren't necessarily legal, right? As it happens, NBC's Standards and Practices Department, which monitored the content of every series episode and TV movie for accuracy and or questionable material, did object about the non-use of seatbelts in caledonia and stated its displeasure explicitly in a memo to roy huggins there is no reason why seatbelts should not have been in use please inform all concerned that this is a serious matter which

will continue to be reviewed we hope it will not become necessary to edit future scenes because they do not properly support our concern regarding the use of safety belts and harnesses. Wow. I honestly cannot recall them using seatbelts in any episode of the right profile. So now I'm going to keep an eye out for it. Like maybe we'll see if later season one episodes have it or something, but yeah, I guess because it's such a car centric episode, I guess they are in the car a lot.

Yeah. And they're, they're doing some pretty dangerous stuff from time to time. So yeah. We'll have to start keeping an eye out and see if that detail comes up. But I didn't know that standards of practices would have such a thing to say about seatbelt use. But yeah, this is a very, I'd say overall, this is a very like distilled episode. Yeah, it just gets going and it just keeps hitting the beats and moving along. Yeah, it's all good stuff. Yeah.

I guess Jim's going to need to take on another job to cover whatever he has to, whatever tickets he has to pay in Caledonia. He should have let her pay it. Well, do you have anything else to say about Caledonia? It's worth a fortune. No, it was a fun one. It was a good one to come back on. I feel like the pace helped us pull our pace back up. And we can jump forward into the second half of all of this.

All this wildness. Yes. I thought I had something more eloquent to say than that. But that's what I had. All right, well, I wouldn't want to force you to continue working on your eloquence, or myself, for that matter, as a tortured sentence, if ever I did say one.

So I think that means that we should go ahead and call it here, but we will be back next time to talk about another episode of The Rockford Files.