sandbaggers: A Feasible Solution

A Feasible Solution

p.nussman@genie.geis.com
Thu, 11 Aug 94 03:01:00 UTC

On Weds 10 Aug 94 kyost@nomvs.lsumc.edu (Karen) wrote:

>I do want your opinions on something that has been puzzling me for
>a while. In the episode a Feasible Solution, why did Neil react
>so abruptly with Willie when Willie returned from Cyprus? Was
>Neil really angry that Willie wasted an opportunity in giving
>Jill false information (I don't know the correct term when you
>give an known plant false information). It seemed to me that Neil
>was jealous even though he was in Cyprus and couldn't have known
>what had transpired. And just what did happen? Did Willie admire
>Jill (seems to me that he did) as a fellow agent or did he harbor
>some romantic feelings for her even though he knew her for such a
>short time?

I think we're seeing some Neil-projection here. Neil realizes he's being
slightly unprofessional in courting one of his own subordinates, but he's
doing it anyway...he projects this onto Willie, whom he accuses of being
more than slightly unprofessional in courting a KGB officer. The parallels
in this episode are carefully constructed, as in the overlapping dinner
sequences, and I think are meant to convey the similarities between the two
men being in love affairs that are doomed to failure.

As for Willie having romantic feelings toward Jill...I'd say yes, that's
precisely what was intended. I'm going to cheat here and quote from
Macintosh's novelization. I know that novelizations are not considered
canonical, but this is Macintosh's adaptation of his own script, so (when it
doesn't contradict aired facts), I think it helps focus the author's
intentions. After the dinner scene with Jill, Willie is in bed smoking and
thinks:

"Only a wall away, was the most wonderful girl that he had ever encountered;
and yet, they were a million miles apart, across that gulf of ideology that
could never be bridged. For a moment, over dinner, he had wondered,
wondered if one day, times might change and she might be permitted--if he
could persuade her--to come to live in England." (p 129)

There's another paragraph to that same tune, but I think that conveys the
gist of it. Re them only being together a short time, this is rather
typical Macintosh. As his other (non-SB) novels make clear, the guy really
was an utter romantic and believed in love at first sight. So Willie
falling instantly for Jill is no big problem, as far as Ian was concerned.

Pat