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episode # (aired): episode # (filmed):47 apparent J/A intimacy: ******* compelling plot holes to be spackled or fixed: 0 reason to spackle the episode anyway: 0 shirtlessness: yup, starts w/ Jim coming out of the bedroom putting on his shirt. Artie is already dressed 'cause he always gets cleaned up first after they fuck, and he can dress faster 'cause of his years in the theater physical contact: ***** h/c potential: low angst potential: ***** Jim is verrrry upset by his friends' deaths, and Artie spends a lot of time soothing him (I think it's angst. It's not really h/c, is it?) Jim beauty: ***** Artie beauty: **** general bizarreness of episode/bad, strange scriptwriting: *** actually quite a stupid ep, so I remembered only how dumb the ep was, but once I started watching it, I realized that I had forgotten how sweet they are together in this ep. importance of having this ep on a pimping tape: * I think that you have to already be sold to really appreciate this ep. I realize that it was eps like this that I watched early that convinced me that they never quarrelled. silly me. apparent relationship status: Very happily married. Oh, they do bring chicks back to the train at the end, but they seem far more interested in each other than in the chicks. actually, the chicks are ucky southern belles that are at first frightened and then fascinated that they said that they are jewel thieves noteworthy highlights: I don't know why I liked it so much, but... Jim, grieving over his magician friend, leans against the mantel. Later, while he and Artie talk about what to do, he appears to play with a ring on his finger. I never saw the ring, but it's a favorite nervous gesture of mine. When one considers how stoic Jim was during the first season, it's interesting to see Conrad emoting like this. Restrained but honest grief. Oh, and later, after he watches the colonel get killed by the dueling pistols, he comes home and collapses on the couch and cover his eyes with his arms while Artie sits beside him and tries to soothe him. Highlight because of their intimacy, but even more because it answers the burning question of whether Jim lays on the couch with his boots on. Yes, he does. We don't actually see his boots on the couch, but when Artie says, "I'm going to the print shop? Are you coming with me?" Jim stands up, puts on his coat and walks out the door w/ Artie w/out pausing to put on his boots. Recap: Jim walks into the parlor where Artie is reading the newspaper, which has a report of the death of a magician-friend during his show. Only Jim and Artie were supposedly witnesses to the death, and the paper is dated with the next day's date. July 12, 1872. BTW, according to the tombstone in TNOT Terror Stalked the Town, Jim was born on July 2, 1842, so he's ten days past his thirtieth birthday. But he's not having any midlife crisis. Artie must have gotten him something very nice for his birthday. Did I mention that they are very happily married in this ep? Anyway, Jim tells Artie that the paper is nothing to worry about. They are on the way to Washington, so they won't be at their friend's show. Just then the train breaks down, so they decide to go to the show. They stand together in the wings, watching the show, and Jim is very jumpy and Artie reassures him, but then a bomb explodes and their friend is killed. Their friend was an older man, who is a magician and a comedian. I'm assuming that the guy was a friend of Artie's during his days in the theater, but he approved of Artie's boyfriend, so he and Jim became friends, too. Cut to the train where Jim is leaning against the mantel looking griefstricken while Artie is analyzing the paper on which the news was written, and then the paper bursts into flame. While they are absorbing this, another newspaper shows up, reporting the death of Jim's first company commander. And, yes, Jim was reportedly a witness to that death, too. Artie tries to dissuade Jim from going, that they are being treated like puppets, but Jim argues that he has to go to find out what it's all about. Kind of a cute scene with the colonel and Jim who tells the colonel that he was out walking is dog, and he happened to come by. When the colonel asks him about his dog, Jim says he knew he forgot something. Weird. The colonel is obviously fond of Jim, and he's glad to see him. No, I didn't see any Colonel/Jim in the scene. The colonel has a bottle of good Napoleon brandy, and he persuades Jim to have a glass since he can't drink any because of his gout. Jim is paralyzed by the brandy, and watches the man open up a package w/ dueling pistols and shoot himself (the pistol fired backwards when the man fired in the air...um, why was he shooting the pistol in the house? what an idiot!). Next scene is the one I mentioned above where Jim is draped over the couch having the vapors, and Artie is asking him about the paralysis. Anyway, after Artie talks to Jim long enough to calm him down, Artie invites Jim to come with him to the print shop (oh, yeah, the newspapers from the next day had the chop from the print shop, so they can follow that clue to find out who is sending them newspapers). When they get to the shop, the owner is dead, but they decide to look around for clues. Jim asks how the printing press works (and it seems to me he just did it, so Artie could show off his knowledge...or maybe to get Artie to do the dirty work...he didn't want to get ink on his own suit. I mean, Jim knows how to run a small printing press. He made the wanted posters in whatever ep that was). Anyway, they find their next clue in the presss. A poster of a pretty girl who reads tarot cards. Sort of cute when Jim says he'll go see the girl, and Artie says, "Why you?" And Jim patiently points out that it reads, "The mysteries of the East, explained to the West," and he gestures at himself to remind Artie that he's "the West." Artie good-naturedly says that he'll stick around and do the dirty work of talking to the police. In some eps, Artie grouses about doing the dirty work, but he's very sweet about it here. Anyway, Jim goes to see the tarot lady, and he ends up in the bad guy's lair. Turns out that the bad guy is trying to replace the President and all the world leaders with his own people, and the girl makes life masks of people in order to disguise people as someone else. it's all very dumb, so I won't go into a lot of detail. But one of the bad guy's assistants is wearing a life mask of Artie, but Jim knows right away that it isn't him, and he compliments the maker of the mask on the resemblance. He looks a little shaken up to see the bad guy wearing his boyfriend's face. But I don't really blame him, I guess. Meanwhile, Artie goes looking for Jim, and tracks him to the bad guy's lair. He runs into the guy wearing his life mask, and he tosses him a bomb, asking how he is at playing the outfield. I guess baseball was played back then. He peels off the guy's life mask, and says, "Eesh. I don't blame you. If I looked like that, I'd cover it up, too." Later, he pretends to be the bad guy's assistant (in the Artemus Gordon life mask), but the bad guy tells Jim that he suspects that Artemus might be around, and Jim says he's looking forward to seeing Artemus again. But then Braine (the bad guy) says he thinks that Artemus is already there, and he says that if the life mask won't come off, he'll kill them both. Artemus pulls off the life mask, but luckily, he thought to put a life mask of the other guy underneath, so he gets away w/ it temporarily, and Jim gets knocked out. Jim wakes up in the girl's workroom (she does the life masks as well as tarot) and he persuades her to help him fight Braine. The guy who had been wearing Artie's life mask shows up, and Jim is about to clout him, but he tears off his mask and reveals that he's Artie. "His old handsome self" he says something like that. Anyway, they try to escape, they run into Braine, but Jim succeeds at killing Braine, and. stupid tag with icky women and Jim and Artie dressed in tuxes and insisting that they're jewel thieves. Well, they look cute in their tuxes, and the girls were so icky that I don't believe that they did 'em. But they probably did. |