We open with Andy proudly telling George how he plans to propose to the love of his life this evening, and he has already bought a diamond engagement ring. There is a bit of humor as George tries to see the miniscule diamond, pulling out binoculars and finally seeing the tiny thing. From here on, this show was painful to watch.
Andy goes to his girlfriend's house, pops the question, she, Loretta, happily accepts, and calls for her family to come out from the other rooms-big burly brother along with her parents, and everyone seems happy. He phones "his best friend Amos" ( a reference that sharply contrasts his daily behavior in all the other episodes where clearly he spends ten times as much time with George than with Amos) and says he has big news, can he come over right now?
Amos says, "We have other company, but come on over, I'm eager to hear your news!" Andy arrives and is about to tell Amos and his wife (first time we ever saw Mrs. Amos or their home, I think) when they introduce him to their guest-a woman named Mary, who has just moved to New York from Chicago. Andy takes one look and immediately decides he has no interest in Loretta. He declines to answer Amos's question about the big news and the next scene starts with Andy telling George how he is in love, and then reveals he now plans to marry Mary.
A phone call from Loretta reminds him they were get their marriage license that day. Under threat of physical violence from her family, he goes with Loretta and gets a license. They are to wed in just over a week. His buddies give Andy the notion that if he is already married to Mary, Loretta will be out of luck (although unspoken is the lawsuit she could win if he did this, since he asked her first and she accepted.)
So he arranges for a wedding chapel the next day and stupidly (sorry, there is no reason in the world to trust Lightnin' to correctly handle a message) tells Lightnin' that if his (unnamed) fiancée comes by, to tell her about tomorrow's wedding date and place. With two fiancées, how could he not specify which one? Of course, Loretta calls and gets all excited that her fiancé has picked out the time and place for tomorrow and she no longer has a week to get ready, but just an afternoon. I'd think she'd be furious at his doing all this on his own.
Andy later calls Mary and gives her the same news. So with groom and best man George-sorry about that, "best friend" Amos-waiting with the justice-of-the-peace, both brides and their escorts start up the aisle together, kind of squeezing each other as they try to be just ahead, until Andy decides to run away, and we wind up hearing that both women have dropped Andy.
There is a tag ending where after disappearing for two days, Andy goes back for a third marriage license with the female cab driver that helped him escape his unique "double wedding" of two days earlier.
I thought, when one bride saw the other, the logical thing would be for them to get into an argument, not quietly try to squeeze past the other like they're thinking whoever gets there first gets to marry him.
When Loretta phoned Andy at the lodge hall to ask why he didn't come get her to get the license, she was so hostile you'd think she knew everything about what he'd been doing, when she hadn't. The way she yelled at him without knowing anything about why he didn't show up was the type of treatment that would make a lot of grooms-to-be want to call of the wedding.
But of course the dumbest part was that just after getting engaged and seeming really happy about it, Andy takes one look at a pretty girl and immediately decides this stranger is the one he really wants to marry. I could, to an extent, understand a man in the middle of a 9-month engagement, having just had another big disagreement with the woman, seeing a beautiful girl and thinking maybe he'd like to get to know her, that maybe he's made a mistake.
But Andy was in the middle of telling his friend the happiest news ever, with no reason to be unhappy with Loretta. Anyone who would drop a fiancée in that situation is not the sort of man any woman should marry-he'll drop her if he ever spots a woman he thinks is prettier. Totally unbelievable and unlikeable of Andy.
Of course, Mary wanting to marry someone she jut met says a lot about her character-maybe Andy would have been right for her after all. Loretta's bossiness sure makes her seem like a nightmare to be married to.
This was a rare episode that really wasn't about Kingfish at all. He was a side character here. Too bad the episode was not funny, just stupid. A 3, I guess, but don't ask me to explain why it's not a lower score.
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