Citizen-Spy

92 Parody and the Limits of Agency
expressions and syntax aren’t enough, the primary set piece in the shop is a
stage used for fashion shows and product demonstrations. Behind the stage
rests a large backlit screen, unmistakably patterned in six-pointed stars. Similarly
exaggerated (and played for laughs) is Illya’s cover character, that of a Japanese
fashion buyer. Harry and Harry are skeptical at first, but are convinced
by Illya’s prolific bows and heavily accented speech that he will help them break
into the Asian fashion market with the dress, their new “hot number.” It is
difficult to pin down just what is distinctly “national” at all in such instances;
such moments reduce the national to the interplay of crude stereotypes in a
mad scramble to the international market.
The U.N.C.L.E. agents cross paths with T.H.R.U.S.H. several times throughout
the episode, as all are searching for the dress. It is nowhere to be found,
since Ramona is unsure where she left it. After several chase sequences—punctuated
by Illya and Solo unsuccessfully trying to convince the garment dealers
that they are legitimate government agents—the dress finally turns up at
Ramona’s apartment in a package from a dry cleaning shop. Ecstatic, Harry and
Harry rush home, elated at their success at recovering the dress, which has
prompted calls from fashion buyers across the country. T.H.R.U.S.H., of course,
arrives immediately behind them and prepares to torture them to turn over the
dress. Bound on a table in their cutting room, one Harry says to the other,
“Harry, like shish-kabob we’re going.” The final showdown is a slapstick brawl
in the cutting room, set to a kazoo version of a Sonny and Cher song on the
soundtrack, as Ramona watches and laughs. The U.N.C.L.E. agents are victorious,
and the dress is recovered.
In the episode’s final scene, Harry and Harry still don’t recognize that they’ve
been involved in what could easily have become an international incident, and
they proposition the U.N.C.L.E. team to join them. Waverly arrives on the scene,
declaring, “Well, it appears T.H.R.U.S.H. has been stymied after all once again,
gentlemen. We’ve sent samples of the coded dress to U.N.C.L.E. offices throughout
the world.”
Eagerly, one of the dealers jumps in, “Did they like the samples?”
“As a matter of fact,” Waverly says, “we’ve just received reports from our
headquarters in Copenhagen and New Delhi. They’re being besieged with
buyers.”