This is another of my absolute favourite episodes and tags. I’m pretty sure it’s also the first time Lee comes by Amanda’s backyard in the evening to check on her.
Not that this is the first time he’s knocked on her window to get her attention – as she points out when she first comes outside to join him.
“You’re getting awful good at knocking on my kitchen window.” I love his little smile of acknowledgement and his answering “Yeah.”
Throughout this whole scene there is a charming awareness and awkwardness between them, moments when they look away from the other shyly, as if not quite knowing how to proceed.
“So what are you doing in my garden at seven thirty at night?” Amanda asks after one such pause.
Lee tells her that he’s come over to check she’s ok. He could have easily phoned her to do this, but as it is he probably didn’t think twice about heading his car in the direction of Maplewood Drive. She’s definitely pretty touched that he would even bother to check up on her. It shows he cares about her, even if he wouldn’t tell her so. There is a little pause before Lee looks at her, smiling thoughtfully, his thoughts turning to the case that’s just concluded.
Amanda shrugs and smiles wistfully, confessing that she probably will miss being Victoria a little bit. Again they fall silent, each one looking away and rather shy with the other. For Amanda, despite the danger she ended up in at the hand’s of Hollander, the chance to be Victoria undoubtedly allowed her to take a step away from being the housewife and mother she has for so long been and enter a world a million miles from her own. It’s probably not something she will forget in a hurry. As for Lee, it was definitely a case that shifted the way he feels about her. He certainly experienced some twinges of jealousy at seeing her not only in Delano’s company but also seeming to enjoy it too.
Amanda is the first to break the silence that has ensured between them, although Lee really isn’t expecting her to ask him whether he said something nice to her in the ambulance.
“Like what?” He did, of course, say something nice but he’s certainly not ready to admit it. In fact, he rather let his guard down in the ambulance thinking that she was unconscious and couldn’t hear him. To own up to it would lead him into territory he’s not even ready to admit in his own mind – that he cares about her rather more than he might have realised.
Amanda doesn’t pursue it further at seeing his rather wary and guarded look, but instead lets him off the hook by telling him that it was probably the sedatives playing tricks on her mind, which Lee, thrown this lifeline, more than willingly accepts and agrees with.
Again they fall silent, lost in their own thoughts, until Amanda makes a move to go inside the house again and although Lee seems a little reluctant to leave her he accepts his fate. Just when you think that they aren’t going to say anything else to each other, Amanda calls out to Lee, causing him to turn around. She’s not quite finished questioning him. “How did you get me out of there?”
He doesn’t even hedge this time, but rather tells her the truth.
With a final smile to her he’s gone, leaving Amanda with the biggest smile on her face and repeating his words to herself as though she can’t quite believe it.
You are left with the feeling that this particular case has definitely brought them a little closer than they were at its beginning.
Scarecrow & Mrs King - Getting to Know You 