Lee & Amanda: Relationship Progression Notes (Pt1)

PART ONE – A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER

3^rd October 1983.  Two people, completely unknown to each other, are busy living their lives.  Lee Stetson – code-named Scarecrow (he looks nothing like one!!) – is a suave, charming and successful spy who lives a life filled with danger, excitement and more than enough women to fill his evenings while Amanda King, on the other hand, is a newly divorced housewife with a live-in mother, two children and a boyfriend who wants to marry her.

Lee and Amanda couldn’t be more different and it appears unlikely that they would ever have cause to meet, but that’s all about to change because fate has its own plans for this unlikely pair – well, fate and Amanda’s boyfriend, Dean, who unwittingly plays his part by getting Amanda to drop him at the train station on this particular October morning solely because he doesn’t want to leave his car out in the rain (and being a weatherman he has predicted that there is a chance of rain).

Having fended off both her mother earlier in the morning remarking about how good it will be when she gets married and Dean telling her, even though he knows she is looking for a job, that he only hires people who marry him (!!), Amanda blithely waves Dean on his way at the station.

Lee, also in the near vicinity, is in a bit of predicament. The night before he took possession of a very important package which ultimately got his co-agent killed and now he has two rather unsavoury characters on his tail, determined to get hold of him and the package.  He has now wound up at the station with a view to handing over the package to another agent, but things are getting desperate.

When he endeavours to push his way onto a train he finds that his fellow passengers are not too keen on him doing so and they block his way, preventing him from boarding. That, of course, leaves him in a real dilemma.  If he can’t get on the train, what can he do? After all, his mission depends on keeping the package safe.

As he stands there, frantically debating his next move, his attention is drawn towards the people walking along the platform towards him, one of them a pretty young woman.

She looks sensible, approachable…

Acting purely on the impulse of the moment, he moves towards her, grabs her and spins her about to walk back in the direction she’s just come.

As introductions go, it is pretty original (note that he doesn’t even bother to say hello first – something which will soon show itself to be a bit of a trait with him in the future lol), but it’s also not quite what Amanda is expecting.

She’s definitely not happy about finding herself being manhandled by a strange man (even if he is rather attractive) when she was merely minding her own business.  She tries to bolt, deciding that she really doesn’t want anything to do with him.

For Lee, maybe it is pure instinct that makes him go after her again and stop her in her tracks, knowing that maybe she is his last hope of off-loading the package before the bad guys catch up with him.

He has no choice but to try and persuade her to hear what he has to say, to plead with her if he has to. His gaze fixes desperately on her as though he is seeking to connect with her on a deeper level. He has to make her stay long enough to listen.

Amanda is really not sure what to think.  What was it about her that made him think that she might be able to do something for him? Why did he choose to pick her out of the numbers of people walking by?  She notices them pass, no doubt wishing she was one of them rather than staring into the eyes of this man who seems so anxious for her to help him.  His desperation is certainly compelling and palpable.

Her desire to run starts to waiver.  He’s certainly persuasive.  His entire focus is on her, his eyes transfixed to hers as he begs her.  In this moment they both unwittingly stand on the cusp of change, although neither of them, of course, realises what this will mean for their futures.

“All right,” she says, resigning herself to doing the decent thing and offering to help him.  “What is it that you want me to do?”

An expression akin to relief crosses Lee’s face with her disclosure, his lips curving into an all but brief smile.

There in that all too transient moment we catch a glimpse of the softness which lurks beneath his agent’s mask, even though it is very quickly eclipsed.

And so the dye of change is cast.  Here is where their lives collide and connect. Not that either of them have the time or the inclination to consider what this means as Lee hands Amanda the package and issues her with instructions concerning what to do with it.

“Just take this.  Get on the train.  It’s a matter of life and death,” he tells her. Having got her to agree to do this one thing for him, he is now back in full-on agent mode.  He has no inclination to make small-talk – after all, he knows that time is of the essence even if Amanda is completely unaware of it – and doesn’t allow the possibility to even rear it’s head.

While they are walking he has his arm draped across her back, keeping her close to him.  It’s almost as though she is both his metaphorical and physical lifeline. In fact, he’s barely let go of her since accosting her.

For Amanda the instructions Lee issues her with are clear and uncompromising. It also seems far-fetched and she can’t help but question it.  “Is this for real?”

Lee won’t be side-tracked, however.  He’s got to get through to her just how important her getting on the train and meeting his contact is.

He is aware of the bad guys getting closer and as they reach a door leading onto the train he leaves Amanda standing there staring in dismay after him, even as he waves emphatically at her to just board the train.  After all, he doesn’t want the bad guys knowing that he’s given the package to her and for them to go after her instead.

Amanda, now on board a train she had no intention of getting in the first place, is curious enough to peer out of the train window as it’s pulling away, searching the platform to see if she can spot Lee at all.  What she sees, however, is him being pursued and then caught up with by two rather burly men who then proceed to attack him!  His words now about it all being a matter of life and death appear not to be so far off the mark after all.

She cannot do anything to help Lee out of the situation he is in on the platform, but she knows that she can do what he has asked of her, namely to give the package to the man on the train.

There’s just one tiny little problem….there is more than one man in a red hat on the train!

So now what’s she supposed to do?

Favourite Near Miss Kiss Scene

I was going through some old files on my computer and I found some notes I made a couple of years ago concerning my favourite moments which I wrote for the SMK Yuku Board (they have recently revived the thread) and I thought that I would dust them off, redo the graphics where necessary and post them here in this little space.  When I repost my relationship notes for Lee and Amanda there will doubtlessly be some overlap, but hopefully not too much.

Anyway, to start.  I have decided to kick off with the near miss kiss from Utopia Now.  It is, hands down, my favourite of them all, not only because they did get oh-so-close but also for the prelude to it – the conversation between them.

The fact that they have been running from Sacker and his men has led them to taking sanctuary in a swamp for the night.  Even though Amanda has come through with her “one match” and made sure they have some semblance of a fire to try and keep warm by, it really is too low for them to gain much heat from.  It is cold and dark and Amanda, for one, is feeling the chill.

It doesn’t take long for Lee to realise this (even though she doesn’t try to hide how she’s feeling) and he very nobly invites her to huddle against him, telling her that their body heat can help them both keep warm.  The ease into which Amanda moves into the circle of his arms, snuggling against his chest, and the naturalness with which Lee accepts her closeness and literally embraces it shows how comfortable they have now become with the other, especially when at this point their very solid friendship is very tentatively blossoming into something deeper.

It is not the ideal situation – after all, a swamp in the bitter cold with a gang of undesirables trying to track you down is hardly the most romantic scenario and yet as they huddle together the world seems to slowly narrow down to just the two of them.  It starts with Amanda’s admittance that she’s scared – something that Lee understands but tries to placate as best he can, although not without some sense of guilt in having put her into the situation in the first place.  Not that Amanda’s having any of it – she, after all, knew what she was getting into at the train station that day.  She certainly won’t allow Lee to feel guilty about it, although her mind is on more pressing matters – like the fact that they may not actually make it out of there alive.  And if they don’t….

She may have backed off from telling Lee how she feels about him at the last moment, perhaps fearing that he isn’t ready to hear it or that she will end up on the receiving end of “the speech” again (which she does later), but her own admission, though not what she really wanted to say, sparks off one from Lee as he tells her how much she has influenced the way he not only views other people but also himself.  It is quite an admittance for him, showing that he is slowly beginning to let his defences down and let her even further in.  It also creates that sense of the two of them being completely content with each other in that moment, despite the reasons they are there.  So when Lee gets a cramp (did he fake it?) and finds himself face to face with Amanda, the air between them becomes pretty charged pretty quickly.

Their eyes meet and hold, Lee begins to tighten his arm around her and slowly they move towards the other ready to kiss….

Only they don’t get the chance to do more than barely touch the other’s lips as Sacker and his men suddenly intrude upon the moment, shattering it completely in a hail of gunfire aimed roughly in their direction, forcing them to dive for cover behind some rocks.

The moment is well and truly lost, the priority of just trying to keep out of sight and alive back to being their main focus.

Wallpapers – New

Welcome to Monday!  I thought that while posting my two most recent wallpapers that it might be fun to try and give you an idea of how they came into being.

Wallpaper One: Keeping Washington Safe

On Friday I sat down with the concept of Lee being a spy and how I could relate that in a wallpaper.  It didn’t take me long to decide that I wanted him against a backdrop of Washington so off I went through my caps and found the one I wanted (I particularly love the fact that there is a couple under an umbrella just visible in the foreground of this). Getting a cap of Lee that I was happy with was a bit tougher and I went through a few before hitting on this one.  As far as the text was concerned, I wanted it to have his name and then something simple to allude to him being a spy, thus the “Keeping Washington Safe”.

 

Wallpaper Two: Breaking Inside

I have always loved the episode, Night Crawler (then again, who doesn’t lol?) and it is one that draws me back time and time again on the graphics front.  This time I wanted to do a wallpaper using a couple of shots from the scene in Billy’s office.  I love the angst of it, Lee’s fear for Amanda and his need to find her and get her back no matter what it takes. He is, however, also reminded of the fact that his first loyalty is to his source – something which he doesn’t need to be told as he knows this only too well.  His personal, emotional world and his professional world are colliding and that  is what I aimed to capture here.

Sarah x

 

Let Her Go – Music Video

When I sat down to make this video late last year I really did have a feeling that maybe I was going a bit out on a limb, but I loved this version of the song and I had a storyline screaming in my head to be put into video clips so I just followed my instincts and went with it.

Although it is one of my storyline videos, it is also A/U.  It tells a What If… story of if Amanda had left the Agency to try again with Joe and Lee had realised, after she had gone, just what she meant to him.  It became a snapshot in time from Lee’s point of view.  The resulting video now stands as probably the one I am most proud of.

Sarah xx

 

 

About this Blog

Hello – and welcome to my SMK blog!

This is my little space on the internet where I share my love of the TV series, Scarecrow and Mrs King (first aired on 3 October 1983 and still loved by many) through the graphics and music videos I make.  I will also be sharing my notes following the progress of Lee and Amanda’s relationship through the episodes and scenes from my favourite moments. It is very much a work in progress, but I hope that you will enjoy the time you spend here.

Sarah x