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Post by Pentastar on Jul 31, 2006 10:47:51 GMT -5
My observations after watching Chinatown Memories again:
- Having watched the show again I'd say we did a pretty good job with the characters in our fanfiction "Fairer than Lillies". Our story meshes perfectly with this episode, with the one exception that Joe Chin doesn't take the Ivory Emporer home with him (oops, my fault!).
- This episode probably had the most going on as far as history and character development for Jesse. Overall it's probably my second favorite episode, first being "A Second Self"
- I have to give props to Rex Smith for his acting on this one. The look on his face when he first comes into his house and finds Lillie waiting there is hard to watch; he has so much pain, longing, and heartbreak in that look he gives her.
- I'm not sure it is the first time they mention him in the show, but I noticed Jesse drops the name of their contact in Washington, "Kirby".
- Joe Chin runs funny! Hehe ;D
- It's interesting to see how different Norman acts when Jesse talks about leaving Street Hawk. Before he didn't want Jesse for the project, by this time he treats him like an invaluable part of the project.
- I like how the writers had Jesse inadvertently attack FBI agents because of the lack of communication between departments. I also like Jesse's "I'm on my own out there" speech afterwards.
- What's up with the FBI agents at the end of the episode? They just left Loe and Lillie out to dry. I realize that Norman notified them that Street Hawk would be on the scene, but it's like they never even bothered to show up, they just let the Tong take over the entire pier.
- If the show had lasted longer, I think this would have been a pivotal episode because it really shows Jesse coming to the realization that he has become something greater than himself. We also see that he isn't just a playboy, he would be willing to commit to a relationship if it was the right woman.
Favorite Quotes:
- "Jesse, there's always going to be 'one more time.'"
- "Don't you get it, Norman? You are my friend." (my favorite Street Hawk quote of all time)
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Post by janice on Jul 31, 2006 12:20:06 GMT -5
My favorite line from this episode is Jesse to Lily the "morning after":
"You're going to have to lie to one of us."
Oooo. Direct hit. It's then you realize that Jesse and Lily will never make it. He realizes that she is not the woman he had immortalized (best word I can think of) to be.
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Post by Pentastar on Jul 31, 2006 12:50:16 GMT -5
It's then you realize that Jesse and Lily will never make it. He realizes that she is not the woman he had immortalized (best word I can think of) to be. You know, after seeing it again, I'm really torn (which goes to show how good Shelagh Mcleod played her part). I can't tell whether she just played Jesse to get what she wanted or if she sincerely was coming back to Jesse for good until she realized that he was Street Hawk. I do sense at the end of the episode right before she is going to get on the boat that she really doesn't love Joe Chin as much as he loves her. It could have been worse, she could have given Jesse that whole spiel about "just wanting to be friends."
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Post by janice on Jul 31, 2006 12:54:34 GMT -5
I think she really loved him, but she was still concerned with the danger in his work. The more times I have watched it, the more immature and flighty she seems to be. She cannot settle down and uses the danger as an excuse. There is one part where Auntie Pearl talks about Lily, her parents and her growing up. I think this scene gives a lot of insight.
Though she did use him. I don't think she saw it that way. She knew he loved her and would help her.
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Post by Pentastar on Jul 31, 2006 13:05:58 GMT -5
I think the scene where I realized she was going to dump him again was on the beach the day after. Joe Chin is waiting in the car up the hill and as Lillie walks away Jesse stops her and says "Lillie..." but before he can say anything she says, "I know, Jesse...I love you too." The way she says it sends shivers down my spine, she's so dismissive.
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Post by Stef on Jul 31, 2006 13:50:06 GMT -5
Yeah, I always thought of Lilly as cold and unemotional. I think Kirby is the guy Norman is talking to in the pilot. The guy who recommends Jesse as he has "The right stuff". Very cool (and moving) image of the unmasked Jesse astride Street Hawk as the camera pans away (the boat pulls away). For some reason, that's the only scene where I feel that the bike is like a faithful companion to Jesse as opposed to both of them being a unit. Jesse sits there all heartbroken as Lilly disappears while the bike idles respectfully underneath him. I got this thing about machines having personalities and it's like the bike is saying goodbye too.
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Post by Pentastar on Jul 31, 2006 15:03:11 GMT -5
Jesse sits there all heartbroken as Lilly disappears while the bike idles respectfully underneath him. After reading that, I thought to myself "What else is the bike going to do...drop itself into first gear and send Jesse flying onto his butt?" The mental image of that cracked me up! I got this thing about machines having personalities and it's like the bike is saying goodbye too. As a kid I always liked to think that the machines had a personality of their own. KITT definately did. As far as what the bike might have been saying at that moment, I'd say the bike wasn't saying goodbye to Lillie so much as just standing by Jesse's side like a true friend after his heart has been broken.
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Post by hernesson on Jul 31, 2006 15:54:10 GMT -5
Hehe, funny but I hear you! I don't know if that is what they could have/were going to work on in a future episode, the indication that the bike was more than the sum of its parts and *alive* truly a blend of man and machine... Probably not. Knight Rider is the obvious example of an inanimate vehicle with a sentient personality but that is what it was prrgrammed to have. I mean it didn't develop by accident. Elements of the personality did, thanks to Michael's (bad) influence.
Airwolf was also meant to be "alive" but not in the same way. She was refered fondly to as "the Lady" and would purr and exhale in her lair like she was a living thing. Infact, Moffett refered to her as a living machine, with a living memory of everything she had done. I can totally see that, and there's no reason to not assume Street Hawk may be "alive" in the same way. Didn't Jesse call the bike "sweetheart" or something like that in the pilot, much to Norm's annoyance. They should have continued with that now and again, Jesse winding Norm up by refering to the bike as being alive, maybe even talking to it.
Nothing here is scientific in the least, but all us car and bike owners like to think our vehicles are our "babies" don't we? You feed it (with fuel) and it goes (sometimes!) We spend a good amount of time caring, caressing ( eh wha?) washing & waxing ... Then there's those curves, something quite sexual there!
I'm gonna stop and take a cold shower! ;D
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Post by Pentastar on May 23, 2007 17:49:01 GMT -5
Nothing here is scientific in the least, but all us car and bike owners like to think our vehicles are our "babies" don't we? You feed it (with fuel) and it goes (sometimes!) We spend a good amount of time caring, caressing ( eh wha?) washing & waxing ... Then there's those curves, something quite sexual there! I'm gonna stop and take a cold shower! ;D When I met my wife she had a Dodge Neon that she'd talk to whenever she was lost or the car was running funny (on a Dodge Neon, that's quite fequently). When I'd mock her she'd get all serious and defensive that the car could actually hear her. I don't think she actually believed it, but she didn't want me mocking it either. Kind of like when you get old enough to know there's no Santa Clause, but you still don't want people to talk against him or say he isn't real because you like the idea of him being real. Wow, I'm responding to a post that's almost a year old. I wonder if that's some sort of record? (Knowing Dan, he'll take that as a challenge and try to find an even older thread to respond to!)
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telove
Junior Street Hawk Fan
Posts: 33
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Post by telove on Dec 18, 2007 21:13:14 GMT -5
You are bang on with your observations Pentastar. I too thought it was quite a special episode, and quite a turning point. I wasn't a big fan of Jessy because he annoys me in some ways. But like you said, this episode shows that he isn't just a playboy, but someone who can actually care and commit etc. I also really liked that it finally broke the ice between him and Norman a bit, in that he tells him he is his friend. There was tension between those two right from the start, and I didn't really like how Norman wasn't thrilled about Jessy being streethawk, and how they are always bickering, albeit in a buddy buddy kind of way. But this episode sets things straight a bit. It lets you know that Norman has grown to like him to the point that he thinks of him as Streethawk and he talks like without him, SH would be no more. And then Jessy tells Norman he is his friend too. I think that was important, and nice to see finally. I didn't particularly like the English actress. I don't think people where ever meant to question if she used Jessy or not. I think it was meant to be understood that she wanted to get back with him, but in the end it didn't work out because of her circumstances as well as Jessy's new circumstances too. But I don't think she (the actress) convinced us very well that she felt that way, and I think the script could have helped there too. It was ok though. Nice episode. Could have done with a bit more action maybe. I also find the shooting stuff a bit odd in Streethawk. He is a "nice guy" and following some kind of self imposed rule of not firing unless fired upon, and also some kind of personal rule about not wanting to kill people - which is fair enough but still... these are all really bad people The fact is, he gets shot at in nearly every episode, sometimes with machine guns, and yet he never gets hit. He is basically standing there in a cloth suit, so it would only take one bullet to hit him and he would be screwed. Its kind of a flaw in SH's concept imo. He is so exposed... So in each episode he waits to get shot at, and even then, rather than shooting the bad guys, he always seems to shoot the stuff *around* the bad guys, A-Team style, to make them dive out the way or whatever. I suppose thats all they could do to make pass as a show for all ages, but I would have loved to see it at as a bit more gruesome and realistic. p.s. Did anyone notice the little plastic window fall off the bike near the start? He jumps over some boxes when the girl is stealing back the idol. And when he lands, something must fall off or open, because you can see a hole inside the nose of SH. I think it is where the lazer goes.
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Post by stingray on Aug 31, 2008 11:46:06 GMT -5
This is one of my favourite episodes and gives Jesse depth. He found himself in a tight position, caught between that girl and the job, and it was refreshing IMHO to see the girl respect him for what he was, when others would have dismissed him as a whacko. Just imagine Rachel's response if she ever found out about his secret. I, too, was surprised seeing Jesse kill all the bad guys in the end, but at the same time, he saved his ex and her boyfriend which makes him a sort of a hero. That's what I liked about SH, it was more mature and darker than shows like Knight Rider.
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