The Uncut Impatient Partner

So I finally got Sampson into my Wild Wild West time-travel story. He hasn’t encountered his sadistic counterpart Pinto at all. Instead, he converses with a different counterpart, Coley Rodman, and one of his friends. Coley and Sampson have had several personality conflicts throughout the chapter, and it was a lot of fun comparing and contrasting them. It really brought home all the more what a wonderful actor H.M. Wynant is, to be able to portray such vastly different characters!

I’ve been watching the uncut Impatient Partner semi-frequently since getting my DVD set of the first half of season 5. And, after also seeing the cut version a couple more times, I discovered that my original evaluation of everything that was missing was wrong. Actually, The Impatient Partner is one of the most cut-up episodes there is.

First off, there is a very brief bit with Amory that was clipped, where he’s first informed of his wife calling him. He tells Vivian Ames that he doesn’t want to speak with his wife and hangs up. Then comes the scene that’s the same in both, where Paul storms in to confront Amory with news of his real identity.

The scene with Vivian and Burt is missing, as I originally noted. And with it gone goes a subplot fleshing out their characters more. They’re friends and apparently tried to be more, but Vivian wanted someone with more money than Burt had. She treats him very snidely in the scene. I really don’t like Vivian, and the way she acts with Burt is the main reason why. It suddenly occurs to me, too, that maybe the reason Burt decided to go along with Ned Thompson in selling the Martin project behind Amory’s back is that he was hoping to get enough money to satisfy Vivian. Ugh, she isn’t worth it.

The whole scene with Tragg, Perry, and Paul in Ned’s apartment is gone. There’s no reading of the note, which makes it extremely confusing in court when Perry asks questions about said note.

The first third or so of Frank’s conversation with Paul is missing. The cut version goes directly to him telling Paul that there isn’t anything between Ned and Edith. Gone is the part where they discuss the whereabouts of the siblings while Ned was being murdered, and where Paul queries if Edith has talked to Ned.

And then the whole sequence with Perry trying to find Vivian at her apartment and talking to Burt is gone. We learn a little more about him and Vivian here; he says they have a special knocking code so one will know the other is there.

All in all, there must be around six minutes of edits. Compare that with the more usual three or four.

I wonder what happened to Burt. Naturally he’d go to prison, but maybe just for a short while. I wonder if he and Vivian would get along any better after he got out, or if she’d still be obsessed with finding someone who has a lot of money. Maybe she’d already have someone. Or maybe she’d try someone and fail again. Maybe she’d finally think Burt was worth something and recognize what a loyal friend he is to her.

I also wonder what happened to Frank. In The Malevolent Mugging, Edith mentions him in a monologue and says he’s in prison. But I wasn’t sure if he really would be or if he’d be executed. Killing Ned was definitely premeditated by at least a few minutes.

Poor Edith, in a situation where she has to lose either a husband or a brother. She’s so subdued in the last scene, most likely both because of hurt over Amory’s past accusations and because of Frank being the murderer (and one who was willing to deliberately frame Amory for it, the weasel). I love that Amory apologizes to her for his groundless accusations.

Suddenly I remember that one plot thread I had considered for The Malevolent Mugging (which is alluded to in the trailer I made for it) was that someone was trying to get at Edith by going after Amory. I didn’t end up using that one and it would likely only clutter things up to try to experiment with it at this point in the story. But it could be an interesting idea for something else later. It would be a confusing surprise, for Edith to have an enemy like that.