Comments from The I Spy Forum continued
This shock arrived back on his face when he realizes that Scotty thinks he is the murderer. Complete disbelieve and helplessness is written in his features. Scotty indeed is matching this moment without giving Kelly any relief, without giving him any hint that he is only pretending to be convinced of him as Tonia's murderer.
This is of course very much in character but surely one of the most painful moments for Kelly. And again wonderfully performed by both actors.
Let me mention one more scene that struck me.... the moment when Kelly realizes that Scotty (as always) has read his thoughts :-) and was waiting for him on his hiding-place. First it was very obvious that Kelly was unsure how Scotty would react... and I think for a second he thought Scotty would really hand him over to the police. Nicely done again and a moment full of emotional tension.
As it was already mentioned... I also think that Zugmann wouldn't give Kelly the time for his speech, fully conscious of the possible consequences.
All in all a good episode... Scotty finally with a love interest and more acting time (and he can act as we all see in this episode) a strong (ok..with some weak spots :-) plot) about a very serious theme and wonderful actors who handled the subject excellently and very sensitively. And I think
they made their statement very clear in this episode after all the problems in season 1.
Like Kelly and Scotty can't be parted from each other (even if people try very hard to do so) no racial issues forced on them, politics or prejudices can seperate those two actors who portray them or hurt their friendship.
Maybe I am again interpreting too much into it, but that thought struck me the first time I watched this episode :-) (Yeah.... I am well known for my famous interpretations :-) )
Just my thoughts
Chris
with Leslie Uggams
July 21 2003 at 9:39 AM
From: Colonel Benkovski
You are right, this particular episode is the only one in which the race issue is discussed at any length. It pops up in a couple other episodes - I recall two episodes where the bad guy is an American and he calls Scotty "Boy", which in America has a racist meaning when used by a white man toward a black man. Race was a bit more at issue in So Long Patrick Henry, but Tonia is the only episode where it is truly a major part of the plot.
As for Rudi Zugmann, yes, a German name, presumably an East German agent, but I don't think the writers intended for him to be seen as a racist himself. What he was trying to do was to capitalize on the racial tensions in America in order to score propaganda points against America in the Cold War diplomatic chess game. And this is true to life, all during the 1950's and 1960's, the Soviets and their allies constantly kept addressing the point that in America, where we claimed to be the land of freedom and equality, there was a huge portion of our citizenry who were denied their full rights because of race. This was in fact a legitimate point, although I certainly disagree with the assertion that Communist societies were a utopia of equality and fair treatment of everyone concerned.
So in the plot of Tonia, I never saw it as Zugmann being a racist. I only saw
it as Zugmann wanting to exploit the racial tensions in America for the benefit of his own country's goals -- and to exact revenge on Kelly. Remember it was Kelly, not Scotty, who was the real object of Zugmann's hatred, because Zugmann blamed Kelly for luring his daughter away fromt the path of Communism and led her to defect to the west, not only robbing Zugmann of his relationship with his only family, but also ruining his career.
Anyway, that's just my thoughts, I never really felt like this episode was trying to pin a racist tag on German people in general.
July 21 2003 at 10:40 AM
From: desirae
I agree with the Colonel here...I also never thought of Zugmann as a racist. As the colonel said he was using the fact that there was racial issue in the US, where we claimed to all be free and equal.
He wanted to break them apart to show that we were not what we claimed to be.
The episode itself was very thought provoking. A glimpse into how the US was perceived by other countries. How propaganda was used against us in the cold war. A lot of people had a lot of very ill conceived notions about Americans...still do for that matter I guess.
Scotty and Kelly for that matter did a great job of showing Tonya that her generalities about Americans were not always correct. It was great to see her come around and actually be willing to listen.
It was sad to see her killed in the end.
I really didn't think Scotty would ever doubt Kelly, but he was very convincing when he had the emotional outburst, and then pointed the gun at his partner. Just for a second they had you wondering...
Good story. Ranks as one of the best.
desirae
July 21 2003 at 1:46 PM
From: SAM-THAN
I believe in the episode "Danny Was a Million Laughs", the character DANNY, (a nasty piece of work played wonderfully by Martin Landau) offers his shoes to Scotty, for cleaning. That is the only other reference to racism I can recall.
SAM
July 21 2003 at 4:38 PM
From: Jonathan Sheen
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