Walter Schemes to Keep Hildy, Explained：kick the bucket

What's really going on

The lunch looks like a farewell, and Hildy plays it that way, but Walter is already treating it as a contest he can still win. He says the gracious thing — "I admit I wasn't much of a husband, but you can always count on me" — and then goes to the phone to order Duffy to get Sweeney out of town and to ask whether the 4 o'clock train can be stopped. The sentimental husband act and the backroom scheme are the same move: he wants Hildy back, and he'll use charm, guilt and logistics to get her. The other thread, the Earl Williams case, cuts against the mercenary mood. Hildy's idea — interview the prisoner, print the state expert's statement, run the two side by side — shows she is still a newspaperman first, which is exactly the hook Walter will use to catch her.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Walter's generosity is a cover for the phone call he is about to make.
• Bruce's insurance talk turns morbid without his noticing.
• Hildy's news sense is what Walter really wants back.
• The case mixes race, politics and a deadline into one gamble.

発音のポイント

• a lot to do — In American speech the t in lot can flap, sounding like a lodda.
• four o'clock — Stress four and clock, sliding quickly through o'clock.
• count on me — Count on links into one sound, with on reduced.